Odin Township

Odin Township

The thriving little city of Odin is situated in the east side of township 2 north, range i east, and about two miles from the north line of the township. It is at the crossing of the Illinois Central branch and the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern railroads and is the product of these roads, hence was not built until the roads were. The first building was put up by one John Hill, as a saloon, and with Hill as a saloonkeeper absorbed much of the hard earnings of the railway laborers. It stood south of the railroads and near the tracks. The Illinois Central built their depot in 1856 and in 1860,

April 5th, laid out the town, it being on a railroad section. The house of the section boss, David Dudy, of the Ohio & Mississippi Company, was the first dwelling erected. The first store building was erected by P. Z. Stone, who opened a general store about 1857 or 1858. James Garretson was the first postmaster and hotel-keeper. He built the first hotel in 1859 and called it after himself, the Garretson House. It was afterward called the Hartley House. It still stands, but at present is not used as a hotel. Before 1860 one De Schan, Branson and Lester, and George Craig had opened stores and were doing a country trade and supplying the railroad men and passengers from one road waiting for a train on the other. During the years of the war between the states, 1862 to 1864, the town grew very rapidly, many refugees from the South making it a stopping place and many a permanent home. A woolen mill called the Odin Woolen Factory was built in 1867. It was of brick and two stories high and manufactured jeans and flannel. It was destroyed by fire in 1879, and was never rebuilt. There was a sawmill in connection, which did not burn at that time and was operated for some years by W. E. Smith, but it finally was destroyed by fire. In 1863 a large hay press barn was built by A. M. Woodward & Co., and it was afterward enlarged until it was one of the largest press barns in the country, but it, too, was destroyed by fire in the nineties. It may be well to state for the information of the younger generation that until about 1870 hay was pressed into bales only in barns built for that purpose with presses built in them, and these presses were massive pieces of machinery with a heavy weight arranged like a pile driver, which was drawn to the top of the barn and fell into the press and beat the loose hay solidly together until two hundred or three hundred pounds were beat into a bale, when an immense screw operated from below compressed the bale, which was then "baled" or bound with hickory hoop-poles being passed around them and nailed together. The hay had to be hauled to these barns loose and was much labor and expense. The invention of the modern portable hay press killed the hay barn press, but has been a blessing to the farmer. In 1863 Captain Pierce built a twoburr grist mill. It changed hands frequently and the firm of Morrison & Smart ran it from 1873 to 1880, and then sold to James Warren, the owner when the mill went out of business. Odin has a commodious twostory brick school building and has a corps of six teachers and takes pride in maintaining a first class school. The Methodist Episcopals and Protestant Methodists each have a church in Odin, as also have the Christians and Presbyterians, although the latter is not used of late, only occasionally, as no minister is in charge. Odin Masonic lodge No. 503 was instituted in 1866, under dispensation from the grand master. E. B. Wilcox was the first worshipful master; E. Sidwell, senior warden, and O. F. Ball, junior warden. It was organized with only eleven members. It is now in a flourishing condition. The Modern Woodmen also have a strong lodge in Odin, with about one hundred members. In 1886 a stock company was formed under the name Odin Coal Company, to sink a shaft and mine coal, which was successful in striking a fine vein of coal at a depth of seven hundred and fifteen feet, with a vein of about seven feet in thickness. After undergoing the usual ups and downs of such stock companies, Messrs. Morrison and Secor, with perhaps a few others, obtained a controlling interest, since which time it has been so successfully handled as to prove a valuable and profitable property. Some few years ago electric mining and haulage and electric lighting was installed. The dynamo of the mine also furnishes electricity for lighting the city. During the life of the mine it has been singularly free from fatalities, but few accidents of serious character having occurred. The railroad crossing of the Illinois Central branch and the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern is controlled by an interlocking device controlled from a tower built so as to give the operator a view of both tracks.

The city of Sandoval, like Centralia and Odin, was laid out by the Illinois Central Railroad Company on their own section of land. It is at the crossing of the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern and Illinois Central Railroad main line, and is about one mile from the west line of the township and two from the north line, and, like Odin, gave its name to the west half of township 2 north, range i east, when the township was divided. The survey and laying out of the city was on May n, 1855. Two other additions were laid out the same year. Welcome Martin, as early as 1853, put up a frame store house on the Ohio & Mississippi right of way just west of the right of way of the Illinois Central Railroad, and sold goods to the railroad laborers and the general public. The first boarding house or hotel was kept by J. B. Crawford, the original building afterward making part of the Sandoval

House. The city has a fine public school building, in which there are employed six teachers, and also maintains a primary room west of the Central tracks, and like all Marion county towns, is proud of her schools. The Catholic church has a good church building' and parsonage and maintains an organization in Sandoval. The Christian and Congregational churches have each a fine house of worship, while the Methodists have a good, comfortable church house. There religious bodies each maintain a resident minister and are full of good works. The Baptist Brotherhood has recently built a neat little church in the south part of town. Sandoval has one of the finest parks in the county, and here every year the annual reunion of the old soldiers and sailors is held in a three days' session, and Sandoval spares neither energy, time nor money to make the reunion a success. As yet they have not failed, but, on the contrary, each year the success has been more and more pronounced, until the Sandoval reunion attracts attention from all parts of the state.

In 1877 the St. Louis Sandoval Coal and Mining Company began sinking a shaft at Sandoval. After reaching a depth of one hundred and fourteen feet the company went into bankruptcy. The property was sold at Sheriff's sale and bought by the Sandoval Coal and Mining Company, a company composed mostly of Salem men. The new company began work on the shaft in January, 1879, and reached a vein of coal five and one-half feet thick in September of the same year at a depth of six hundred and three feet, being one hundred and twelve feet less in depth than the Odin mine, four miles further east, showing the "dip" of the coal vein to be eastward about twentyeight feet to the mile. The company was involved in long and expensive litigation growing out of the bankruptcy of the St. Louis Sandoval Company, but after years of legal contest the Sandoval Coal and Mining Company established their "right to the property. The cause was carried to the highest tribunal and the Sandoval company's leading attorney, Judge Michael Sheafer, of the Supreme Court of Utah, made such a strong and learned argument that it is recognized as an exposition of mining law. The company's stock was purchased January i, 1903, by Thomas S. Marshall from the holders, who thus became the company. The original shaft was in the eastern part of the city on the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern

Railroad, but an air shaft was sunk on the Illinois Central Railroad in the southern part of the city about a half mile from the original shaft. This was now turned into a hoisting shaft with a steel tipple and machine mining implements, and was considered one of the best equipped mines in the state. The old works at the original shaft in the meantime burned down, but were immediately rebuilt. The mine at this time was employing over three hundred and fifty men and taking out as much as ten thousand tons per day. The vast expenditure necessary to thus equip the mine, with other causes, involved Mr. Marshall, and he took voluntary bankruptcy. The mine stood idle some time, but was recently sold to Mr. Middleton, who is running it to its greatest capacity and is not only giving work to a great number of men, but making it a success financially. The Sandoval mine was for many years, while controlled by the Sandoval company, under the superintendence of John Robinson, then of H. R. Hall, and later of C. E. Hull, and was one of the best paying enterprises in the county, and it bids fair to become so again. The Sandoval mine had several quite serious accidents resulting in the loss of life, all of them perhaps the result of carelessness on the part of the victims or of some fellow workman.

In the years from about 1890 to 1895* there was a series of barn burnings in the western part of the county, confined to the townships of Sandoval, Odin, Carrigan, Tonti and Salem. Several of the most valuable barns in the county were burned, evi- dently set on fire, but the incendiary invariably escaped detection, and these burnings occurred so frequently that a feeling of dread and uneasiness prevailed over the entire community. At the time there lived one McKibbon near Sandoval. McKibbon was a fanatic on political subjects, and although in many respects a bright man. was undoubtedly insane on the subject of equality of wealth and had brooded over the unequal distribution of wealth until he was an anarchist on that subject and thought to bring about equality by the destruction of property, but with subtile cunning he kept his thoughts and feelings hid from all but a chosen few, who, like himself, were lawless in thought and also in action when safe to be so. McKibbon was the head center of the clique and managed to escape even suspicion until he approached a youth in Sandoval whom he thought he could control. The young man fell into McKibbon's views, but after studying over the matter revealed the plot to burn the store of John Robinson to his mother, who advised him to go to the marshal and tell what he knew. This the young man did and was advised to carry out the plot and keep the officers advised. A committee of safety was formed and for weeks kept watch armed to the teeth, but so secretly was this done that none but the watchers ever suspected even the organization of the committee. They at last were rewarded by catching the anarchists in the act of trying to blow up Robinson's store.

McKibbon was tried and found guilty, but the jury so misconstrued the law that they fined him five hundred dollars. The fine was paid after some time by McKibbon's relatives and he disappeared from the county. Barn burning ceased with the arrest of Mc- Kibbon and farmers now and for many years past have slept at night with no visions of burning barns and tortured stock confined therein.

Sandoval is a center for the strawberry industry. The celebrated Warfield berry was originated here by Mr. Warfield, from whom it received its name. The Sandoval Packing Company's tomatoes, canned here, are the best on the market, the soil being peculiarly adapted to the raising of tomatoes to perfection. The smelting works in the eastern part of town is also an industry of great importance to the city and is one of the live industries of the county. In 1908 the Marion County Coal Company opened a shaft at Junction City, so called, in the south part of the to\vnship, and at the depth of about five hundred and sixty feet struck a fine vein of excellent coal. In this mine petroleum oil seeped in considerable quantities and led to the opening of the first oil well, which struck oil at the depth of five hundred and seventy-eight feet. Other wells are being bored, but to Sandoval belongs the honor of having the first oil well in the county, but whether or not it will prove a commercial success can only be told by the passing years.