Duncan Manor

He lived on his claim, near the present Trimmer place, for three years, then three years in Mackinaw timber, then three years at Randolph's Grove, and then moved to Smith's Grove, about three miles from the present village of Towanda, and there he has lived ever since. The great sudden change in the weather took place in December, 1836, while Mr. Walden lived at Mackinaw timber. He was about a mile and a-half from home, but jumped on his horse and started on the full run, the intense cold freezing the slush as he traveled. As he passed a slough near his house he saw a lot of pigs belonging to his neighbor Bartholomew, frozen last in it. AVhen he arrived home, he could scarcely pull oil' his overcoat as it was frozen fast. Mr. Bartholomew was obliged to chop his pigs loose from the ice to get them out. During this sudden change, "William Walden, the brother of Jesse, came across the prairie on foot, and the water plashed on his trousers and froze on them so rapidly that he was obliged to cut off his pantaloons below the knee in order to travel. He was driving an ox-team and had a friend with him who wished to resign himself to fate and die, but William pitched the man into the wagon and brought him home.

Passage source: The Good Old Times in McLean County, Illinois : Containing Two Hundred and Sixty-one Sketches of Old Settlers, a Complete Historical Sketch of the Black Hawk War and Descriptions of All Matters of Interest Relating to McLean County, published 1874.

Towanda is pleasantly located on the prairie, less than a mile southwest of Money Creek. The village is on high land, and, judging from its location and the number of its physicians, is a very healthy place in which to live. It is situated on the Chicago, Alton & St. Louis Railroad, about half way between Bloomington and Lexington. The railroad enters the village at the southwest corner, and passes in a northeasterly direction through it. It is surrounded by a good farming and grazing country, and has all the natural facilities for a flourishing inland town. It would have grown much more rapidly, no doubt, had it not been so near to our ambitious county seat, whose shadow reaches far out into the surrounding country, chilling the young life-blood in many smaller towns. The population of Towanda, at present, is about 500.

Passage source: The History of McLean County, Illinois; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men, published 1879.

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

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