McDowell on the east side, called out the road labor and built the bridge. It was all hewed out of the neighboring forest, and was a substantial structure. The village of Avoca was laid out in 1854, by Judge W. G. McDowell, who owned the land on which it was located. It was surveyed by Amos Edwards, then County Surveyor. The first store in it was opened just before it was laid out as a village, by the McDowells, as noticed in the preceding pages, and for several years it was a flourishing business place. But on the laying out of Fairbury, the sun of Avoca began to decline. Many of the houses were removed to the latter place, and the Judge at last got it vacated and discontinued by a special act of the Legislature. Avoca Cemetery, across the creek from the village, was laid off by the elder McDowell. He and those of his family who have departed this life are buried there. Susan Philips was the first one to occupy the place, and was buried in it in August, 1833. Moore Cemetery is a private burying ground on the west side of the Grove. Jonathan Moore was the first buried in it, and was interred there in 1839. Nothing now remains to show where once stood a thriving village but the Pioneer Methodist Church," which has already been noticed. The first McDowell village is on the Chicago & Paducah Railroad, about six miles south of Pontiac, and has between fifty and one hundred inhabitants. It was laid out as a village in 1873, by Judge McDowell, who owns the land, and it is named for him. Chas. Hewitson surveyed it. The first house was put up by McDowell before the village was laid out, and was used as a dwelling. post office was kept by John Cottrell, and was established in 1872. Hugh T. Pound is the present Postmaster. The first store was built and occupied by Ben Walton, now of Fairbury. The village has two stores at present, one kept by R. B. Phillips and the other by Chas. Danforth; two blacksmith and wagon shops, the one by Henshaw, and the other by Jacob Schide. Frank B. Bregga is an extensive grain dealer, but the village has no elevator or grain warehouse. One of the principal features of the place is the stone quarry, owned by McDowell, which yields a very good quality of lime rock, quite valuable for foundations, and which makes also an excellent quality of lime. A large kiln is in full operation at present, which turns out about 300 bushels at a burning. Lodemia Station is on the Chicago & Paducah Railroad, a short distance south of McDowell. It contains nothing but a post office and church. Has no depot, but is merely a shipping point, with switch and side track. The post office was established in August, 1877, with Dr. C. B. Ostrander as Postmaster. It is kept at the parsonage, and the minister, Mr. Underhill, attends to the duties. The church, which belongs to the Methodists, was built here in 1876, and is a very neat little frame edifice, which cost $2,800. The society was organized in 1858, in the school house, under the pastoral charge of Rev. John W. Stubbles, and the church, when completed in 1876, was dedicated by Rev. K Robert G. Pearce, Presiding Elder of the District at the time. Their present preacher is Rev. Mr. Underhill, and the congregation is large and flourishing for a country church. Champlin is also a station, or rather a shipping point in this township, and is just south of Lodemia; makes no pretensions beyond a side track for shipping grain and stock. The first school taught in Avoca Township was by Samuel Breese, commencing in the Fall of 1835 and continuing until the next Spring. Mrs. McDowell, the widow of William McDowell, Nathan Popejoy, who first settled in Pontiac Township, and James Blake, built the first school house. It was a little log cabin, 16x18 feet, having a big wood fire-place that would take in a stick ten feet long; and in this cabin Breese taught the first school as noted above. James McDowell held the office of School Treasurer for twenty-seven years in succession. Lyman Burgit was the first Treasurer, but died soon after his appointment to the office, when McDowell was elected to succeed him, and held the position until his removal into Indian Grove Township. When he was first elected Treasurer, there was but one school district and it embraced the entire township, and the school fund consisted of what was termed the College and Academy Fund," from which this township drew annually about $30. The first Board of Trustees were Isaac Burgit, W. G. McDowell and N. Hefner. When McDowell resigned the office of School Treasurer, the fund was about $4,500. At present, R. B. Foster is Treasurer; and from his last report to the County Superintendent of Schools we extract the following: 66 There are eight school districts in the township containing good, substantial school houses, in which schools are taught for the usual number of months in each year. The county adopted township organization in 1857, when this town took the name of Avoca, from the village and post office which bore the same, and had been given by Nicholas Hefner, who was the first Postmaster. It is an Indian name, but what its signification is, we are unable to say. The first Supervisor was Wm. Fugate, and the first Town Clerk, Isaac R. Clark. Gideon Hutchinson is at present Supervisor, and J. W. McDowell, Town Clerk. Formerly, this and Indian Grove Township composed one election precinct. At that time, it was largely Democratic and contained, it is said, but seven Whig votes. But in the revolution of political parties, things have changed in Avoca Township, as well as elsewhere, and it now goes as largely Republican as it did Democratic in the old times. In the "eternal fitness of things," it is the Whig sections. that have generally turned out to be the strongest Republican, and not often that a Democratic stronghold has made a change of this kind. During the late war, its record was as good as that of any township in Livingston County, according to the number of its population, and it turned out many brave soldiers to battle for the Union. So far as can be obtained, their names are given in the general war record of this work; their deeds are engraved upon the hearts of their countrymen, and need no commendations here. Judge McDowell was Collector of Revenues in 1844, when Avoca and Indian Grove were all one district, and at that time, as we were informed, there was a premium on wolf scalps. A man who had killed a wolf could go before a Justice of the Peace and make affidavit to that effect, when he would receive a State warrant or order for one dollar, which was good for State taxes, and on presenting this document to the County Auditor, would get an order, which was current for all county taxes. The Judge says he collected almost the entire revenue that year in county orders and wolf scalps, not getting money enough to pay his own per centage on collecting it. The Chicago & Paducah Railroad was built through this township in 1872, and has been of paramount importance and benefit in uniting this part of the county with the seat of justice. The township of Avoca took $10,000 stock in the road, and has always shown the greatest interest in the enterprise and its success. There is but one regular station and depot in the town-McDowellwith two other shipping points, viz.: Lodemia and Champlin. These have switches and side tracks, but at present are not provided with depot buildings and telegraph offices. The only representative of the legal fraternity in Avoca Township was Judge McDowell, who lived in this town, where he practiced, as occasion required, until 1860, when he removed to the village of Fairbury. In 1859, he was elected County Judge, an office he filled with credit. He was Recording Stew ard of the Methodist Church at Avoca for twenty-five years in succession. CHATSWORTH TOWNSHIP. Chatsworth is in the eastern tier of townships, and is known as Town 26 north, Range 8 east of the Third Principal Meridian. It is fine rolling prairie, with the exception of Oliver's Grove in the southern part, a grove of, perhaps, as fine natural timber as Livingston County can furnish. Like all the prairie country, the people have devoted a great deal of attention to the planting and cultivation of trees, until beautiful groves of timber are to be found on every section of land in the township. Originally, Chatsworth embraced Forrest and Germantown, and was known as Oliver's Grove Township. But many of the citizens disliking a compound name, petitioned the Board of Supervisors for a change, at their annual meeting, the second year of township organization. William H. Jones, who was the Supervisor at the time, gave it the name of Chatsworth, which it has ever since borne. The name is said to have been taken from an English story he had read, in which “Lord Chatsworth" figures as a principal character. The first settlement made in what is now Chatsworth Township was by Franklin C. Oliver, who, at the age of 92 years, still occupies his original claim. "The ghostly shade of a man he seemed; His teeth were white as milk; And the long, white hair on his forehead gleamed Like skeins of tangled silk." He came from the State of New Jersey in 1832, and settled here among the Indians, with whom he ever remained on the most friendly terms. When other white people in the surrounding settlements, becoming frightened at the warlike reports of the Black Hawk campaign, retreated toward the Wabash settlements, Oliver remained upon his claim, and "went in and out" among the red men without molestation. His father, he informed us, was a Quartermaster in the Revolutionary war, and many of the old soldier's official papers were in his possession until some years ago, when his house was burned and they met the fate of much of his household property. Many of these papers, he said, were rather quaint, and would present a marked contrast, doubtless, to the ponderous accounts and vouchers of a Quartermaster in our late war. Mr. Oliver and his family were the only white people in the township for many years. A number of settlements were made in Indian Grove and other timbered localities, but not till away up in the "fifties" were other settlements made in Chatsworth. In 1855, Job H. and George S. Megquier settled in this township. They were from Maine, and the former now lives in the village of Chatsworth; the latter died in 1871. David Stewart came here from the State of New York in 1856. He bought land and settled in the town, where he remained for a number of years, when his wife died and he became dissatisfied, sold out and moved away. |