Newton. - The earliest settlement centered about the villages of Newton and Saint Marie.  The site of the former village by its geographical position and the natural advantages of the contour of the land made it the inevitable county-seat.  But before the erection of county its natural attractions had brought the situation to the favorable notice of the pioneer.  In November, of 1826, James Jordan came here with his family and erected the first cabin on the territory now covered by the village.  The site of the cabin was near the north gate of the court house yard, and here Mr. and Mrs. Jordan put up a log cabin unaided by others.  After settling his family Mr. Jordan was called from home on some business, and Mrs. Jordan with two or three children was left here alone in the wilderness surrounded by howling wolves and strolling Indians.  They brought a number of young cattle with them, and one night a young heifer attacked by the wolves, came rushing into the cabin, bounding through the door-way which was only protected by a suspended blanket, and startling the little family by its distressful cries of alarm.  In the morning the animal's side was found to be so terribly torn that it had to be killed.  Some three weeks after the coming of the Jordans, came the family of Abram Decker and settled about two and a half miles to the east of them.  The Deckers stayed only about two years, when they left the county.  The Jordans subsequently moved to the Decker cabin and lived there for years.  In February, 1836, when Grove came to the county, he relates that "there was but one dwelling house in the place, and a little water-oak pole grocery.  John V. Barnes was the dweller in, and part owner of the grocery, his partner being Tenny.  The Indians had all left this part of the country.  In the fall before I came here, an old Indian woman lived in Newton who claimed to be 130 years old.  She said she had always lived here, and that she could recollect when the Embarrass River had no certain channel, but ran promiscuously through the bottom.  She said that on the upland there was no big timber - "all little bushes."
     A little later came L. W. Jordan and Benjamin Reynolds.  The land on which the village was platted, was entered in 1831, in the name of L. W. Jordan, but it is probable that his father-in-law, Rey-

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square box affair, built with very red brick, and held together with great iron rods.  A saloon on the south side and one on the east side, not forgetting Litzelmann's hotel and Miller's hotel, and you have a fair picture of Newton in 1874.  With the debut of the G. & M. railroad, in 1876, its success became assured.  New life, new vigor and new people took possession of Newton, and to-day as a result of the building of that road we have you own beautiful county-seat, filled with substantial, brick, business houses, as fine a court-house as there is in southern Illinois, a splendid school building, the best appointed opera house in this part of the State, mills, five factories, and an elegant and well kept class of dwelling houses.
     Apr. 20, 1835, Newton was surveyed by order of the County Commissioners, by Thomas M. Loy, deputy county surveyor of Effingham County.  The lines were run at a variation of 6 degrees, the streets being sixty feet wide; the alleys twelve feet wide.  The streets named on the original map are Jordan, Washington, Jackson and Van Buren, and the alleys, Richard, Claycomb, Mattingly, Barnes, Ewing and Reynolds.  the plat is laid out on the east half of the northwest quarter of Section 1, in Township 6 north, in Range 9 east.  The lots are 80 feet in front and 100 feet deep, except fractional lots.  The town thus laid out consisted of eight blocks of eight lots each beside the public square, and was bounded, north by Morgan Street, east by Clark, south by Decatur and west by Lafayette Street.  In June 1841, the town was re-surveyed by William Bridges, when its size was doubled.  Beginning at the north, the streets running west and east were, Water Street, 20 feet wide; Saint Marie, 40 feet wide; Marion, 60 feet wide; Morgan, 60 feet; Jordan, 60 feet; Washington 60 feet; Decatur 60 feet; Harris 40 feet; and Reynolds, 20 feet wide.  Beginning on the west, the north and south streets were Perry, 20 feet wide; Lafayette, 40 feet; Jackson, 60 feet; Van Buren, 60 feet, and Clark, 30 feet wide.  Since then additions have been made on the east and south, ,so that the village has territory enough to build up into a very considerable town.
     The land where the town is located belonged to Benjamin Reynolds, who donated every alternate lot to the county, except the public square, which he gave in exchange for the same amount of land, out of other lots that he had given.  the town at that time had but four or five families in it, no public buildings except a little saw-mill that stood where the brick mill now stands.  They soon got a post-office, which wa a large addition to the place, as they received mail once a week, if the waters were not too high.  The

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and tin-shop, one seed store, two blacksmith and wagon shops, three carpenters, three shoe makers, one cooper and vintner.  the nearness of the dark bend to Saint Marie, with its vast quantities of white oak and other timber, will be a great source of wealth to Saint Marie for years to come.

     Mount Sidney - Laid out July, 1841, on Section 20, Township 8, Range 10, in Crooked Creek Township, but it soon went back, as it is not known as a town, by many now living in the township.

     Grandville. - (Or Yale, as the post-office is called), was laid out October, 1847, is located near the center of Grandville Township on a beautiful elevated place in the prairie, has about one hundred inhabitants, two hotels, two churches (almost new), one schoolhouse with good school six to eight months of the year, one blacksmith shop, post-office, etc., but the Danville, Olney & Ohio River Railroad missed them about half a mile, and as the township refused to issue the bonds previously voted, the railroad authorities refuse to stop their trains near the town.

     Brockville. - Was laid out February, 1853 - is in the northwest corner of Willow Hill Township, has a very nice frame church and frame schoolhouse, church and school well attended, and about forty inhabitants, but no post-office.

     Buena Vista. - Laid out October, 1853, in Section32, in Smallwood Township.  Several lots were sold and one or two houses built, but the town went back.  A. A. Hankins now cultivates the town as part of his farm.

     Centerville. - Laid out January, 1854, on Section 21, Township 8, Range 10, Crooked Creek Township.  The name, or something else, was too much for the town, and it died.

     Plainfield. - One and one-half miles southwest of Centerville, was laid out in the next month, February, and was a little more successful, as it succeeded in getting two or three dwelling houses, one schoolhouse and church, but has stopped at that.

     Harrisburg. - One mile west of Plainfield, was laid out the same day that Plainfield was.  It was not quite as successful in the way of schoolhouses and churches as its rival, but more successful in some other respects, as it succeeded in getting more dwellings, one or two stores, a blacksmith shop, etc.

     Queenstown. - Laid out in April, 1854, on Section 31, Township 6, Range 8, near the west line of South Muddy Township.  The inhabitants can scarcely realize the fact now that there was once a town so near them.

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     Franklin. - Born May, 1854, on Section 16, Township 7, Range 8, on the same section that Wheeler is now located, but Franklin is long since dead and buried.

     Constantinople. - Laid out July, 1854, on Section 5, Township 6, Range 8, in the southwest part of North Muddy Township.  It soon went back.  The name was too much for it.

     New Liberty. - (Post-office Willow Hill), in Willow Hill township, was laid out August, 1854, and is seven and one-half miles due east of Newton, and is next in size to Saint Marie.  It is a lively town, as in the last eighteen months the S., E. & S.-E. R. R. and D., O. & O. R. R. R. have been built through the township, cross each other at the north edge of the town, which has given it new life.  The town now has three stores keeping a good general stock of merchandise, one drug store, one grocery store, one hardware store, three restaurants, two blacksmith shops, three grain and flour dealers, one stock and grain dealer, two farming implement dealers, one stock and grain dealer, two farming implement dealers, one butcher, one shoe maker, one milliner, one hotel, one good flouring mill, one carpenter and undertaker, one house carpenter, one police magistrate, two justices of the peace, a post-office, two depots and express offices, three physicians, and three hundred inhabitants, two churches, and one nice two-story brick schoolhouse.  The town has doubled its inhabitants in two years, and they say all they want now is room, and to be let alone; and where will they be in two years more?

     Pleasant Hill. - Laid out August, 1854, two miles east of New Liberty, in Section 4.  It made a failure as a town, except two or three houses, a church and school house, and all together is called Pingtown.

     West Liberty. - Laid out December, 1854, near the northeast corner of Section22, in Fox Township, but never had much town except a church, and in October, 1877, Mr. D. B. Brown and others laid out a town in the south part of the same section, on the P. D. & E. R. r., where the D., O. & O. R. R. R. has since crossed the former road, and called it West Liberty, where they have fair prospects of a nice town.  It is located on a beautiful prairie, nine and one-half miles south and four miles east of Newton, about half-way to Olney.  West Liberty is in the advance, ahs 100 inhabitants, one dry goods store, where they keep a very good supply of general merchandise, one grocery and notion store, one drug store, one shoe shop, one wagon and carpenter shop, one warehouse and grain dealer, a post-office, telegraph and express offices, etc.  They yet need a good mill

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and a church in which to worship.  With the railroad facilities that West Liberty has, there is no reason why it may not number its inhabitants by the hundreds in a very short time.

     Point Pleasant. - In Section 10, or northeast part of Crooked Creek Township, was laid out October, 1855.  It is in a fine neighborhood, has one store, two blacksmith and wagon shops, and eighteen or twenty inhabitants, but has so far failed as to being entitled to the name of a city.

     Haysville. - Laid out February, 1858, on Section 21, in Grove Township.  It might have made a town, had not Mr. A. G. Caldwell, Sr., bought the land and laid out his large farm over it.  A man by the name of Hays once started a store and run it for awhile in the town.

     Embarrassville. - Laid out October, 1858, in Section 20, Saint Marie Township, on the west bank of the Embarrass River.  They once had a saw-mill and a few inhabitants, but is not doing much at present.

     Langdon. - Laid out July, 1861, in Section 2, in Grove Township, near Island Creek.  At one time they had a small store (peanuts and crackers and a few fire-crackers), a shoe shop and a black smith shop, and they all did some business in their line, and I am told the heaviest business done in the town was loafing.

     Rose Hill. -  Laid out 1878, on the P., D. & E. R. R., seven and three quarter miles north of Newton.  The town took its name from a post-office that Mr. A. S. Harris got established about 1839, when Mr. H. lived on a little hill in the Embarrass River bottom, west of Harrisburg.  Mr. H. moved to Harrisburg in 1840, and took the office with him.  Some years after, he moved to Newton, after which the post-office was knocked around the country for a mile or two, until the town (Rose Hill) was located as above.  The town, including Harrisburg, has 128 inhabitants, three stores keeping a general stock of merchandise, and one or two of which are quite a credit to any country village, one hotel and boarding-house, a nice depot and express office, two or three grain dealers, drug store, stave factory, blacksmith shop, and all other things necessary to make up quite a lively little town.  They have a new frame church that is well attended, with its Sabbath-school, that is a great credit to the community.  There are a great many staves, railroad ties, grain, etc., shipped from the place, and should nothing happen the town, they expect to catch up with some of its older rivals soon.
     The following towns have never been regularly laid out, or plats

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filed for record, yet some of them think they are entitled to the name of a town.

     Hunt City. - (Now in Willow Hill Township) was first started in Grandville Township, in the year 1872, John A. Hunt owner of what is now known as the Hunt City farm, erected a storeroom on his premises, put in a general stock of merchandise, and petitioned for a post-office.  Said office was granted and called Hunt City.  In February, 1876, J. A. Hunt sold his store to S. B. Bowman & Co.  In July, 1878, S. B. Bowman & Co sold the store to E. W. Parks, who continued the business till November, 1881, when the store and post-office were destroyed by fire.  In the fall of 1881, J. N. Huston, owner of the Hunt City farm, had a town laid out in Willow Hill Township, bordering on the north line of the same, four miles north of Willow Hill, and on the D., O. & O. R. R. R., and known as Hunt City.

     Immediately after the town was laid out, several parties commenced the erection of good, substantial business and dwelling houses.  It now numbers 150 inhabitants, two stores both doing a good business, one good flouring-mill doing a large business, one hotel, one grain house, one blacksmith and wagon shop, a depot, telegraph office and express office.  Parties now in business, are T. H. Week, merchant; Stewart Brothers, merchants; W. C. Parks, proprietor of hotel; Jones & Debow, proprietors of mill and dealers in grain; E. W. Parks, dealer in grain; M. L. Gettinger, M. Bilby, physicians; George Beeman, G. F. Merritte and C. L. Burk, carpenters; Fred Byerly, blacksmith; William Byerly, wagon maker; Isaiah Stewart, postmaster; E. W. Parks, freight and ticket agent for D., O. & O. R. R. R. and Adams Express agent; Jesse E. Parks, telegraph operator for Western Union; Bates & Buchanan, breeders of Norman horses, short-horn cattle and Poland China hogs.
     Hunt City is situated on a beautiful rolling prairie, surrounded by as good farming land as can be found in southern Illinois, and inhabited by well-to-do farmers.  It ships more grain over the D., O. & O. R. R. R. than any other point on the line, and is destined in the near future to become a place of considerable importance.

     Hildalgo. - Three and one-quarter miles north of Rose Hill, was started in 1878, by G. D. Briggs, on the P., D. & E. R. R.; has two stores, keeping a general stock of merchandise, two blacksmith shops, post-office, depot, express office, etc., and has about thirty-five inhabitants.  There are a great many railroad ties shipped from the place, and a good season, considerable grain also.

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     Falmouth. - Four miles north, and one mile east of Newton, on the P., D. & E. R. R., was laid out in 1881, by Hunt & Brooks, on a small prairie, has one store in which they keep a general stock of merchandise, two blacksmith shops, one boarding-house, post-office, express office, depot and grain house, has about forty-two inhabitants, and considerable business is done (for a small town) in ties and grain.

     Latona. - Eight and one-half miles west, and three-fourths of a mile south of Newton, in North Muddy Township.  The first improvement was made by S. Trexler, in 1869.  They have one store, keeping a good stock of general merchandise, one boot and shoe shop, one blacksmith and wagon shop, one drug store, two saw-mills, and one nice frame church.  They have forty-four inhabitants.  They also have post-office with daily mail.

     Wheeler. - (First platted as Mason), eight and one-half miles west, and three and one-half miles north of Newton, in North Muddy Township, on the S., E. & S. E. R. R., was laid out about a year ago, by Mrs. Nancy J. Carter (the town was named in honor of Mrs. Carter's first husband, who first improved the land on which the town is located, but who died while in the army, in the fall of 1861).  They have now sixty-nine inhabitants, two large two-story store houses, where is kept a large stock of merchandise, one drug store, one agricultural implement house, one blacksmith shop, one silversmith shop, one boarding-house, one brick kiln and large flouring mill to be put up this season.  The town is surrounded by as rich a soil as we have in the county, and if nothing happens the town, it will be quite a little city in a short time.

     List - Is not a town, but a post-office on the S., E. & S. E. R. R., six miles northwest of Newton.  No town laid out and no houses to put on the lots if there were any lots.

     Boos Station. - Five miles southeast of Newton, in Fox Township, on P., D. & E. R. R., has a large store and well-assorted stock of goods, blacksmith shop, post-office, depot-etc., in a good section of the county, and ought to do considerable business.

     Bogota. - At the cross-roads in Smallwood Township, at what is called Honey's Church, is promising fair to make a town if nothing happens it.  They have about thirty inhabitants, four grocery stores, one store keeping general stock, one blacksmith shop, a schoolhouse, two churches and one mill that grinds corn.

     Advance. - Post-office and town started on the D., O. & O. R. r. R., near the north line of Grandville Township just standing in a good country, and may surprise us yet.

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