Newtown Township

Newtown Township

The Chicago & Paducah Railroad having been completed through this part of the county in 1871, and a switch being laid at this place, steps were immediately taken to found a town. On the 7th of August, in the year mentioned, M. E. Collins, who had been actively engaged in procuring the location of the road, caused to be laid out, from the southeast quarter of Section 21, the plat since known as Collins. A few weeks later, October 18th, Jacob Kuns and David Hoobler laid out a second plat of eleven acres, from the same section, naming it Newtown. While the post-office, established here soon after, has always retained the name of Collins, the village has generally been known by the other name.

The first house in the limits of the village was a dwelling, brought by M. A. Newman from his farm. Chester Manley built the first dwelling in the town ; and M. E. Collins erected the first store building. David Hoobler and David Gouty moved a store room from New Michigan the same Fall. Soon after, J. & W. Hossack, of Odell, erected a small warehouse, built cribs and commenced buying grain. By the Winter of 1871-2, business was quite well established, and thus bid fair to be a town of considerable importance. Since that time, the village has continued to improve slowly, so that at present there are some twenty families in the place.

In the Fall of 1874, the Methodist Episcopal Church of New Michigan, following the example of other buildings, moved to the station. No school house has yet been erected, but one is contemplated, and will doubtless be built soon, as the wants of the town demand such accommodations.

Vermilion City

This is simply a settlement made by the miners about the Vermilion Coal Oo.'s works, on the Chicago, Pekin & Southwestern Railroad, at the crossing of the Vermilion River, a mile southwest of Streator. A plat of the place was made by A. C. Huetson, for J. M. Walker, President, and A. T. Hall, Secretary, of the Chicago, Wilmington k Vermilion Coal Company. The plat consists of fifty-one acres, from Section 2, Township 30, Range 3. In the record of the plat, the right of mining all coal beneath the land is reserved. The town consists of forty or fifty miners and other employes of the Company, a fcAv of whom have families.

This is only a station on the western extension of the Chicago & Alton Railroad. Wm. Shepard laid out a town here in 1870. The plat consists of thirty-two acres, from Section 8, but has never been improved, and the stationhouse is all that exists to indicate the presence of a town.