William Jennings Bryan Boyhood Home

The city of Salem, county seat of Marion county, is within a mile or less from the geographic center of the county, that is, the northeast corner of the city is within less than a mile of the northeast corner of the township, which is at the exact center of the county. The original town was an exact square around which was an alley, twentyfeet wide. The city inside of this alley was divided into four squares by two principal streets at right angles to each other and crossing each other at what is known as the bank corner. Each square was again divided into four equal square blocks by streets fifty feet wide, the two principal streets, Broadway, running north and south and Main street, running east and west, being one hundred feet wide. The blocks in turn were divided into eight lots each fifty-six by one hundred and twelve feet. Block three in square one was reserved as a county square and is still, and forever must be by the terms of the gift, the court-house square. The land within the twenty foot bordering alley, was donated to the county in accordance with the act of the Legislature creating the county, by James Roberts, who was the owner by right of squatter sovereignty and entry in 1819. Although he did not deed the land, but left that to his successors in title, Rufus Ricker and Mark Tully, who confirmed the gift by deed dated June 6, 1826. The Commissioners acting for the county were John S. Davis, Leonard P. Pyles and Benjamin (Blackbear) Vermillion.

Passage source: Brinkerhoff's History of Marion County, Illinois, published 1909.

The first house in Salem was a log house built by James Roberts ; it stood on the south side of Main street, east of the square, but was not in the original town. It is still standing, having been repaired and weatherboarded and now has the appearance of an old frame house. The second house was built by Mark Tully as a stopping place for the Vincennes stage, which route was in use as early as 1820. This house was built about the time that Ricker and Tully bought Roberts out and stood as the homestead of A. R. Bryan until his death, with, however, many improvements and additions it has sheltered three generations and still stands a commodious and substantial building.

Passage source: Brinkerhoff's History of Marion County, Illinois, published 1909.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Salem Township - 1,715 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.