Bowdre township has forty eight and one-half square miles of territory.  When township organization was adopted in 1868, this township was called Deer Creek, after the water course of that name traverses it, and had been a part of Collins precinct in Coles county.  The Embarras river runs through the northeast part and receives Scattering Fork in the north.  The township is traversed by the Illinois Midland Railway from the west to the southeast, a considerable deficction having been made in the line of the road that it might pass within a mile of the center of the township, upon which condition and for other reasons the people of the township voted bonds in ad of the road to the amount of thirty thousand dollars.

     Railroads - This township is intersected by the Illinois Midland Railway, now the Vandalia system, running generally east and west, entering it near the northwest corner of section 4, township 14, range S. running thence east along the congressional township line for about two miles; thence southeastwardly, leaving the township about the middle of the east line of section 8, township 14, range 10, then making a decided large curve to the north, and back again.
     This extra length and curvature was caused by a demand on the part of the citizens that the road should pass within a mile of the center of the township, upon which conditions the township, by a vote of the people, subscribed township bonds in aid of the road to the amount of $30,000.  It was shown that the issue was illegal there being no authority whatever for holding the election.  The tax was  enjoined and proper steps taken to abrogate the whole proceedings, which obtained.  The bonds found their way into the hands of innocent parties who purchased them as a permanent investment.

     Early land entries and early settlers. - As to the first entries of land in this township, the earliest date is found to be the entry of June, 1833, by Samuel C. Gill who took the east half of northeast quarter of section 2, township 15, range 9, and other lands.  John Davis, in October, 1833, entered wet half of northeast quarter, same section.  In 1836, in February, the northeast quarter of northeast quarter of section 11, township 15, range 9, was entered by the Barnets, and as in other parts of the county, the great bulk of the lands were entered in 1852 and 1853.  Isaac Davidson arrived in 1838.  James A. Breeden settled, in 1853, upon section 9, township 14, range 9, and built the first house on the prairie, between the old "Wallace Stand," near Hickory Grove, and the Okaw timber, which was eight miles to the west.
     The "Wallace Stand" was the residence of A. G. Wallace for some years.  Mr. Wallace is noted elsewhere in this book.  John Davis, who entered his land in 1833, arrived in the state from Brown county, Ohio, in September 1831.  He died in March, 1865.  Shiloah Gill arrived in 1852, and settled on the land entered by his father in 1833. (See sketches elsewhere.)

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     John Barnet, called "Jack" by everybody, came from Kentucky to the Little Vermillion in 1832, and to Coles county, since Douglas, 1842.  The life partners of several prominent citizens were his daughters.

     School lands. - Section 16, township 14, range 9 east, the "school" section, was purchased from the state in the first instance of its occupancy, each section 16 having been set apart by law for the use of schools.  The sales were made in 1856.  John Cofer took four hundred acres, and W. D. Martin two hundred and forty acres.  It was surveyed and lotted as required by law.  Lot one is northeast quarter of northeast quarter, forty and two-thirds acres;  Lot two is southeast quarter of the northeast quarter forty and two-thirds acres; three is west half of northeast quarter, eighty-one acres; the east half of northwest quarter is Lot four, seventy-seven acres; northwest quarter of the northwest quarter; thirty-eight and one-half acre, is five; and southwest quarter of the northwest quarter is six, which also contains thirty-eight and one-half acres.
     The south half of the section corresponds in position and area  This lotting was arbitrary, though the surveyor ostensibly preserved the original areas.  In this case, the east half of the section is found to contain seventeen acres more than the west half.  It is fair, then, to suppose that the quarter section corners on the north line and on the south line must have been found as originally much too far west.
     Section 16, township 15, range 9, another school section in Bowdre bounds, was lotted in forty and eighty acre lots, and found to come out exactly even all around; perhaps it was surveyed in the house.  It was aparted into ten lots; east half of northeast quarter was one, and west half was two and three; east half of northwest quarter was four, and west half of northwest quarter was five and six; the south half of the section was made into four lots, of even eighty acres each.
     These school lands were sold all too soon, and consequently almost sacrificed, bringing in some instances as low as a two dollars per acre.  It was not believed in those days that the prairie would be settled.  The high grass and weeds, and the absence of roads added to the blank, dreary lookout generally, and forbade the idea that homes would ever have a place there
     as late as 1851, John Davis offered to sell lot two, southwest quarter of section 6, township 15, range 10, eighty-four acres, for the entry money he had paid for it, viz., $1.25 per acre; this was seventeen years after he had entered it.  It was in Camargo township.

     Old inhabitants. - H. L. Thornsbure is the oldest living person born in Douglas count; Mrs. Mary West, relict of Thomas West, was the oldest resident, and settled here in 1834.  She died Mar. 3, 1884, aged seventy-nine, after a residence of half a century in the county.  Issachar Davis is the oldest male inhabitant, his residence here dating from Oct. 3, 1834.  Mr. Davis was a farmer and land surveyor.  He was elected county surveyor in 1863, 1867 and 1875.

     Churches. - In the southeast quarter of section 16, township 15, range 9, is situated Mt. Gilead Methodist church, which offers conveniences to neighboring church-goers.  At Hugo is Antioch church.  The Methodists have a church in section 14, township 14, range 9,

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and the Christians and Methodists in Hindsboro.

HINDSBORO VILLAGE

     The town or village of Hindsboro is situated in section 6, 14, 10, and was laid out by the railroad company upon the lands of the Hinds Brothers in 1874, the plat covering about sixty-two acres.  The railroad here runs about southeast and the plan of the town is in conformity with it, the principal streets being at right tangles and parallel with the line of the road.  The place is improving rapidly and has claims as a shipping point which can not be ignored.  Here Lodge No. 571, I. O. O. F., was instituted Apr. 12, 1875, the first officers of which were:  J. Gerard, N. G.; B. F. Strader, V. G.; J. M. Dwinnell, secretary; and James Stites, treasurer, and J. Gerard, D. G. M.
     The town was laid off in 1874, being surveyed by H. D. Niles, from plans furnished by the railroad, which plans, by the way, were changed by the proprietors before the town was surveyed, but after a map of the town had been engraved and published in an atlas map; this unfortunately, makes the printed map worse than useless.  the lots and blocks were laid off parallel and at right angles to the railroad, which here runs about southeast, and consequently bad "point" lots occur all around the borders of the plat.  In the country where the cardinal points re almost universally used in metes and bounds, a village plan not "square with the world" has many inconveniences for which there is generally no necessity.  The village is improving rapidly and has claims as a shipping and trading point, which are rapidly growing in importance.
     Hindsboro is a good business center, having two good general stores and two enterprising grain buyers.  Its population is about three hundred.
     Kemp is a small village in this township.
     Hugo has a postoffice and store with a population of about fifty.  It is the scene of about the last appearance of Indians in the county, a trading store having been kept there by one Vessar and one Hubbard in 1829-30.

     The Indians. - Issachar Davis said that at about the center of southwest quarter of southeast quarter of section 12, township 15, range 9, and on the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 13, near the old trading post, several Indian graves have been discovered and examined.  Human bones were found in each, as well as beads and a silver brooch, by William Wiley and John Welliver.  A large silver crescent, five or six inches in diameter, and about two and one-half inches wide at its broadest part, was also secured.  Samuel Cheney, a former resident, now living near Humbolt, in Coles county saw the departure of the last band of Indians, in April, 1833.  He was a son of James Cheney, who came to the neighborhood in 1830, and the first wife of Issachar Davis was a sister of his.  She had a quantity of trinkets, which she had procured from the Indians by trading provisions, etc.  At another time, the corpse of an Indian was found against a tree, near the Embarrass, and not far from the mouth of Scattering Fork.

     A Christian church. - A Christian church, yeleped "Antioch," is situated here on the southwest quarter of section 12, township 15, range 9, which was built in 1881, at an expense of about twelve hundred dollars.

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     Murder. - Bowdre is the scene of the second murder committed in the county, Arcola City having the first, third and fourth.  At the February term, 1871, of Douglas county circuit court, O. P. Greenwood was indited for the murder of George Mussett.  He met him in the woods near Hugo and shot him with a rifle.  Greenwood was tried at Charleston, Coles county, on a change of venue, and sentenced to the penitentiary for twenty-one years.  Having surrendered himself to the officers, and as there was some probability of self-defense, as well as some supposed justification, domestic difficulty being the cause of the quarrel, and some of the extenuating circumstances, a petition was circulated from his pardon, which prevailed after Greenwood had served about seven years.  He was defended by Hon. Thomas E. Bundy and Hon. James A. Connolly.  Hon. J. G. Cannon was engaged to conduct the prosecution by several citizens who made up a purse for that purpose.  Greenwood afterward lived a while in Tuscola and removed South.