ILLINOIS GENEALOGY EXPRESS


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CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, ILLINOIS
History & Genealogy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Source:
EARLY HISTORY
and
PIONEERS OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
One Hundred and Fifteen Superb Engravings by
Melville, containing Biographical Sketches of the
Early Settlers, the Early History of the
county obtained from the most
Reliable sources and many graphic
scenes and incidents from
THE BRIGHT AND SHADY SIDES OF PIONEER LIFE
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There are no times like the old times,
They shall never be forgot!
Keep green the dear old spot!
~ Holmes
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By Milton W. Mathews and Lewis A. McLean
Editors on the Champaign County Herald
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Price, in paper, fifty cents.  Cloth, one dollar
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Published by the
Champaign County Herald
Urbana, Illinois.
1886

[Page 116]
ing influences of our free institutions, in a third of a century.
     Loooking to the near future to be participated in by many of us we wonderingly ask, "What next."  Withdrawing our gaze from what we may yet see and participate  in, and looking to the far away future of our county and city, when we and those with us shall have been gathered to our fathers, we also naturally ask:
   Who'll press for gold this crowded street,
   A hundred years to come?
   Who‘ll tread yon church with willing feet
   A hundred years to come?
   Pale, trembling age and fiery youth,
   And childhood with its brow of truth,
   The rich and poor, on land or sea,
   Where will the mighty million be,
   A hundred years to come?

   We all within our graves shall sleep
   A hundred years to come;
   No living soul for us shall weep,
   A hundred years to come.
   But other men our land will till
   And others then our streets will fill,
   And other words will sing as gay,
   And bright the sunshine as to-day,
   A hundred years to come,

CONDIT, BROWN, NEWCOMB AND EAST BEND TOWNSHIPS.
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Read at Old Settlers Reunion, July 29, 1886.
BY F. B. SALE.
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CONDIT.

     This township was formerly the east half of Newcomb and was organized into a township in 1867.  The first settler was Ethan Newcomb, who settled in the county in 1828 at what is known as Newcomb's ford on the road or trail from Big Grove to Cheney's  Grove and Bloomington.  The following are among the old settlers:  Fielding Loyd, who settled in1834; John Phillippe, in 1837; Steven Busey in 1839; Lewis Adkins, son of
one of the oldest settlers of Big Grove and son-in—law of John Phillippe, in 1840; C. F. Columbia, in 1844; William and Dave Hawk, John and Abe Fisher and Wm. Morain, in 1847; the Cramers in 1852; the Gulicks in 1850; B. Ham in 1853; Alfred, Zack, Richard, Dock, John, Harrison W. and Deskin Gulick, with a widowed mother, all came from Virginia in the year mentioned; Hale A. Johnson, the Putnams, F. B. Sale, Wm. Lennlngton, Newark Lax and many others, came to the township in 1856.  Sale had been in the county since October, 1853.
     The first school teachers were Columbus Taylor, Miss Betsy Banes, Miss Discy A. Newell, David Cheney, Nancy Butler and F. B. Sale.
     The first preaching place was at Phillippe’s. The Methodist elder John Brittenham; first preachers, Levi Pitner, A. Bradshaw, J. C. Long and Mr. Arnold.
   
 The first postoffice was established in 1857, F. B. Sale postmaster; it was called Newcomb and retained that name until the completion of the narrow gauge railroad in 1876, when the name was changed to Fisher and the office removed to that place.
     The first supervisor was A. B. Condit, in honor of whom the township was named.  The township now has eight school houses, three churches, has neither railroad, village, saloon. blacksmith shop nor manufactory of any kind, does not owe a cent, and has no dead beats.  It is strictly an agricultural township.

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BROWN.

     Organized from East Bend in 1869.  First settler one Wm. B. King, in 1834, who was the only one for years in what is now Brown township.  The first entry of land was in 1845 in Sec. 4.  Wm. Brown was an early settler on Sec. 3.  The town takes its name from him.  Thomas Stevens a wealthy cattle dealer, settled in the north part in 1855, (now in Gibson), Ithaman Maroney in the extreme northwest corner about same time.  He enlisted in the army in 1862 and, did not return to this county.  Wm. H. Groves, the oldest living settler, came in 1854, and still lives on section 34.  Among the earliest settlers we mention Carle Dobson, C. C. Harris, now of Champaign.  Wm. Peabody, now in Oregon, David Cooter, John Strauss, Lyman Smith, ____ Adams, Steven Brown and others.
     The Chicago branch of the Wabash R. R. cuts through the northwest corner of the town and a flourishing village called Foos is the station.  The H., R. & E. also runs through the south and on it Fisher is situated.

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NEWCOMB.

     Newcomb, formerly composed of range 7 and 8, in town 21, divided in 1867.  Sangamon river runs through east side.  First settler is said to have been one Mitchell in 1835 at Pancake‘s Point.  He was a Kentuckian and did not remain long.  Wm. Pancake and Jesse W. Pancake came in 1837, Joseph T. Everett,1841; Major Sam’l Houston, 1849; J. S. Hannah and J. J. Hannah, 1857; Wm. Lane, Geo. Kimble, P. Hinton, Augustus Blacker, Sam'l Rhodes, Sam’l and Allen Hubbard, R. Lester, Banes Broderick, 1858; Rector and Merrill E. Holloway, J. H. Funston and Hiram Trotter, 1856.  First school teacher, Miss Martha Newell, at Jesse Pancake‘s old house in 1851.  First birth, Joseph Pancake, son of Wm. P. and wife.  First preaching at J. S. Hannah’s, Methodist Episcopal, by Rev. Parker.  First postoffice, Shiloh Centre, in 1874.  Shiloh church built in 1865; U. B. church, section 3, built in 1874.

[Page 117]

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EAST BEND

     Derives its name from the bend in the Sangamon river, which extends further eat in this township than at any other point.  It and Brown township once had the name of Sodom, which was the name of the first postoffice, Thompson Dickson, P. M.
     First Settlers: Franklin Dobson and Lot King in 1837; Nicholas Devore in 1841, his sons, A. J. Devore and John Devore, still live in same; Harvey Taylor, 1845; Gardner Sweet, 1848; J. L. Cosner (still there), Thompson Dickson and Harmon Bilberry, 1852; Ben Dolph and Richard Chism, 1854; Noble Byers, John Stansberry and Isaiah Ferris, 1856; Alfred Houston, Joshua Peck ham, Phillip Hummel, Charles Knapp and John Harnit, 1858.
     The H., R. & E. R. R. runs through the south part.  The principal station is Dewey, about 100 inhabitants, mostly German.  In the town are three stores. besides one large implement warehouse, one blacksmith shop, one church, German Lutheran, school house, mill, and an extensive business is done in grain and produce.  The principal operators are E. O. Sale, John Heineman and J. H. Linebarger.

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