Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.
From the record
“The Bryant Cottage State Historic Site is a simple four-room house located in Bement, Illinois in the U.S. state of Illinois. It was built in 1856 and is preserved by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources as an example of Piatt County, Illinois pioneer architecture and as a key historic site in the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.”
Wikipedia article Bryant Cottage State Historic Site, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 6 National Register listings published here for Piatt County · listed in 2017 · category: Building.
Two railroads pass through this township. The Wabash road strikes the eastern boundary line about one mile from the northern boundary line, runs southwest through the township, crossing the western boundary line about three and one-half miles from the northwestern corner of the township. This road was the first one built in the county, and it has assisted greatly in the growth of the same. A road formerly known as the Chicago & Paducah railroad crosses the township nearly two miles from and runs parallel with the western boundary line of the township. This road now belongs to the great Wabash system. These roads cross at Bement.
Early settlements. - From all accounts we consider that the first settlement in Bement township was made by "William Bailey, not long previous to 1854, in section 5. Another early settler was John Hughes, who lived near the head of Lake Fork timber. The first election in the township was held in his log house. There were not more than six voters in the entire township, and Jos. Moore was one of the judges. Mr. Smith Quick bought out Jno. Hughes, and Mr. Joseph Moore bought land of Mr. Bailey. Both Mr. Moore and Mr. Quick are yet living in the township.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Francis E. Bryant House
in 2009, burning about 30 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
2
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Bement, the town this property stands in, in 21 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 14 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 1 tornado, 1 flood.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
As a severe thunderstorm moved southeast across southern Piatt county, it blew down numerous power lines, trees, and tree limbs. Also, the winds damaged several storage sheds and barns. No injuries were reported.
A supercell developed over northern Piatt County and moved to the south southeast . In Bement, one inch hail fell. As the storm approached the Milmine area, the hail grew in size. Four inch hail was reported in this area. Several vehicles in this area received hail damage. No injuries were reported.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
Listed places nearby
5 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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