Romanzo Miller was a Vermonter, and settled here in 1855. He finally sold his land and removed to Iowa, where he still remained, at last accounts of him.

John Snyder and Trueman Brockway were from New York, the Empire State of the Union. Snyder came in 1856 and made a settlement, upon which he died about 1863. Brockway had settled in El Paso in 1855, but came here in 1857. He was a single man when he came to Chatsworth, but after permanently locating, went back to New York, married and brought his wife here to share his Western home.

Addison Holmes came from Indiana in 1855. After remaining for several years, he sold out and removed to Champaign County, in this State, where he still resides.

John P. Hart was from the blue-grass of Kentucky, and came in 1856. A young man named James Greenwood came with him, and worked on his farm as long as he remained here. Hart owned a large tract of land, but finally

sold it and removed to Arkansas.

Peter Van Weir came from the "Faderland" on the banks of the Rhine. He settled here in 1858, but had lived for a while in Panola, Woodford County, before coming to this settlement. He finally removed into Charlotte Township.

Wm. H. Jones came here from La Salle County in the Fall of 1857. His family still reside here, but he, at present, is doing business at Burr Oak Station, in Ford County.

The first birth and death are supposed to have occurred in Mr. Oliver's family, as he was here so long before any other white people settled in the town. The first marriage particularly remembered was Samuel Patton and Miss Nellie Desmond in 1861, and they were married by the Baptist minister, stationed, at that time, in Fairbury. The first birth among the more modern settlers, was a child born to Trueman Brockway. The first death also occurred in his family in 1861. A man—a stranger that no one knew-was struck by lightning soon after the death of Brockway's child. He came to the village of Chatsworth, looking for work, and had been down on the prairie, where his efforts had failed, had come back, and while walking near the railroad track, was killed by lightning, not far from where Felker's store now stands. The first blacksmith shop in the town was opened by Samuel Patton in 1859. It was then the only shop between Fairbury and Gilman. William H. Jones was the first Justice of the Peace in the town, and held the office when Forrest and Germantown were included in Chatsworth. Dr. D. W. Hunt was the first resident physician. He came here, and still resides in the village of Chatsworth, and practices his profession in the township.

From the school records, we find the first meeting was held at the house of John R. Snyder, the 12th of April, 1858, when the town was still called Oliver's Grove. The following Board of Trustees were elected: Franklin Oliver, J. H. Megquier and Franklin Foot. On the 20th of the same month,

the Trustees held a meeting and elected Wm. H. Jones, School Treasurer. In the Summer of this year, the first school was taught in the township, by Miss Jennie Adams. At present, there are seven school districts, with good, substantial frame houses in each district. The office of Treasurer was held by Jones until 1872, when J. T. Bullard was elected and still has the office. The following facts are taken from his last report to the Superintendent of Schools: Number of males in township under 21 years of ago, 491; females, 444; total, 935; number of males attending school, 198; females, 208; total, 406; number of male teachers employed, 5; female teachers, 11, total teachers employed, 16; estimated value of school property, $15,600; estimated value of school apparatus, $225; principal of township fund, $8,133.01; tax levy for the support of schools, $3,365; highest monthly wages paid teacher, $110; lowest monthly wages paid teacher, $25; average monthly wages paid male teachers, $66.88; average monthly wages paid female teachers, $37.50; whole amount paid teachers, $4,751.25. The present Board of Trustees are J. M. Roberts, President; L. T. Stoutmeyer and S. T. Compton. The schools of Chatsworth Township are in a flourishing condition, and compare favorably with those of any other section of the county.

The first township meeting was held at the house of Franklin Oliver on the 6th of April, 1858, and officers elected for the year for the "Town of Oliver's Grove." The first election resulted as follows: James G. Meredith, Supervisor; W. H. Jones and J. G. Harper, Justices of the Peace; C. Hart and B. Harbert, Constables; John Towner, Assessor; J. B. Snyder, Collector, and Charles Cranford, Town Clerk. At the next election, April 1, 1859, William H. Jones was elected Supervisor; Charles Cranford, Town Clerk and Assessor also, and R. R. Miller, Collector. At the meeting of April 3, 1860, Jones and Cranford were re-elected Supervisor and Town Clerk; I. J. Krack. Assessor, and J. G. Meredith, Collector. The officers of the Township at present are as follows: G. W. Cline, Supervisor; J. H. Megquier and Peter Shroyer, Justices of the Peace; Charles Weinland, Assessor; Charles Reiss, Collector, and Thomas Nash, Town Clerk.

As already stated, Chatsworth, at the time of township organization, embraced the town of Forrest and the fractional town of Germantown. At the meeting of the Board of Supervisors in 1861, Forrest, on petition, was set off, and became a separate and distinct township, and at the September meeting of Supervisors for 1867, Germantown petitioned for separation, and was set off at this meeting, since which time it has been a separate town. Since these divisions and separations, Chatsworth remains still a complete. Congressional township of thirty-six sections.

When the settling up of the town began, about 1855, deer and prairie wolves were the almost undisputed possessors of the soil. In portions of Oliver's Grove, there are still deer to be occasionally seen, but they are becoming very scarce, and will soon all be gone, while the wolf, the natural foe of the settler, is almost if not wholly exterminated.

The first preacher to proclaim the Word of God in this section was Old Father Walker, as he was called, of Ottawa, who in 1832 established a mission among the Indians, whose lodges were then spread in Oliver's Grove. The following extract is from an address delivered before the Old Settlers' Society by Judge McDowell, of Fairbury, at the annual meeting in 1877: "The early footprints of Methodism began in this part of the country in 1832. Old Father Walker, who established a mission at the Kickapoo town (now Oliver's Grove), where there was, at that time, a village of ninety-seven wigwams, one large. council house, several small encampments, and 630 Indians in all, men, women and children. Father Walker came out occasionally and held meetings with them, appointed and ordained a missionary minister of their own tribe, who always held services on the Sabbath, when Father Walker was not there. Their prayer book was a walnut board, on which were characters carved with a knife, and at the top an engraving. They had a great respect for the Sabbath, and no Indian thought of retiring at night without consulting his board." These ministrations of Father Walker were the first we have any account of in this section, and were probably the first in Livingston County. As there are no church buildings in the township, outside of the village of Chatsworth, this part of our history will be again alluded to in connection with the village.

The old Indian trail that marked the dividing line between the Kickapoo and Pottawatomie tribes was plainly visible through this town, long after settlements were made and the pale-faces had become numerous. And there are still settlers living here who can point out the line along which the trail led.

The Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw Railway was completed through the township, and trains commenced running regularly in 1857. This brought immigrants to the neighborhood, and was the means of the rapid settling up of this town and the surrounding country. The amount of grain and stock shipped from Chatsworth Township over this road is truly wonderful. The Kankakee & Southwestern Railroad, projected to run from Kankakee City, through Chatsworth Township, tapping the Gilman, Clinton & Springfield, at Gibson City, will probably be in process of construction in a short time. It is supposed that the Illinois Central is the "power behind the throne" in this new road, and will push it forward to completion, in order to open to them (the Illinois Central) a more direct route between Chicago and St. Louis. The new Company only ask the right of way through Second street, in the village of Chatsworth, which has been unanimously given.

Politically, Chatsworth is pretty evenly divided on national questions, probably Republican by a few votes. Its record during the late war was good for so thinly a populated section as this was at that time. N. C. Kenyon, the present Postmaster of Chatsworth village, was Colonel of the Eleventh Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, one of the brave regiments of Illinois, that it is said, did as much hard fighting during the war as any regiment from the State. Conrad Heppe, a resident at present of the village, has served nine years in the

United States army, mostly in New Mexico. Many other brave fellows shouldered their muskets and went forth from this and from Charlotte Township (which at the commencement of the war was a part of Chatsworth), to the front, where "war's red blast raged the fiercest."

THE VILLAGE OF CHATSWORTH.

Chatsworth is situated on the Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw Railway, about forty miles from State line, and seventy miles from the city of Peoria. It was surveyed and laid out by Nelson Buck, County Surveyor, June 8, 1859, for Zeno Secor and Cornelia Gilman of New York, who owned the land on which it is located. In 1853, the land was entered by Solomon Sturges, who, in 1857, conveyed it to Wm. H. Osborn, and Osborn and wife in turn conveyed it to Secor and Gilman. The original town occupied 160 acres of land, embracing the south half of the northwest quarter, and north half of the southwest quarter of Section 3. Since then several additions have been made to the original plat at different times. It has been organized as a village under the Incorporation act, and the first board of officers were Jacob Titus, E. A. Bangs, John S. McElhiny, W. W. Sears and Albert Tuttle. Jacob Titus was elected President of the Board, and George E. Esty, Village Clerk. At present its official board is as follows: John Young, President; W. F. Dennis, A. M. Roberts, C. Spiecher, Samuel Crumpton and C. Guenther; R. M. Spurgin. Clerk; W. H. Wakelin, Treasurer; J. M. Myers, Superintendent of Police, and T. S. Curran, Police Magistrate.

The first building was put up in the village in 1859, by Chas. D. Brooks and Trueman Brockway, both of whom were from New York. It was a store and residence combined, a frame building one and a half stories high, with rooms over the store. They afterward went into partnership, and after Brockway got married, he lived over the store. A post office was established in 1860, the first, not only in the village, but in the township. Chas. D. Brooks was the first Postmaster, an office he held several years, when Matthew H. Hall received it. He was succeeded by Col. N. C. Kenyon, who is at present Postmaster. The first hotel was built by C. W. Drake, in 1859. It has been converted into a dwelling house, and is now used as such. The only hotel in the village is the Cottage House, kept by Wm. Cowling. The first blacksmith, as mentioned in the history of the township, was Samuel Patton, who is still in the business, on the same old stand. He came from Ohio in the Fall of 1859, and there was at that time but one house in the village (Brooks & Brockway's store), a little grain house and an old carpenter shop. There were two others in sight-the section house, and one two miles out on the prairie, owned by Franklin Foot. Mr. Patton is the inventor of a corn husker, which seems to be a good thing. It husks corn as fast as horses will walk, and can be sold at about $225. He has not commenced the manufacture of them, but designs doing so.

The first school house was built in 1858, on two lots donated by Osborn for school purposes. This was the first school house in both Chatsworth Township and the village. The present elegant school edifice was built in 1870. Two years ago additions were built to it, at a total cost of buildings and additions of $11,000. It is a two-story frame building, with stone basement, and is finished off in fine style. The teachers and Principal of the school for the year just closed were as follows: Prof. J. T. Dickinson, Principal; Miss M. J. Speer, Grammar Department; Miss Brown, Miss Aiken and Mrs. Tuckerman; Mrs. Palmer, Primary Department.

The Germania Sugar Company built their large factory here in 1865, for the purpose of manufacturing sugar from the beet. The capital stock of the company was $50,000, which was all owned in Springfield, except $1,000 held in Peoria. The enterprise was projected by a man named Jennet, a German, and, after the company was organized, he had the management. It proved unsuccessful from the lack of water. One well bored on the premises, 1,200 feet deep, cost $6,000, and afforded an insufficiency of water to meet the requirements of the business. It is believed that, with plenty of water, it would have proved a valuable business. The beets yielded about eight per cent. of their weight in sugar. The factory was in operation here for about five years, when the machinery was taken out and removed to Freeport, where it is devoted to the same purpose as here. The property fell into the hands of Jacob Bunn, of Springfield, who furnished the funds for its operation and removal to Freeport. Though the capital stock was originally $50,000, it cost while here, we are told, about $175,000. The "vacuum pan,' as it was called, alone cost $6,000 in Germany, and was an extraordinarily fine piece of machinery. But it was a losing speculation as long as it remained in this village.

A coal shaft was sunk near the village of Chatsworth, in 1867, by Capt. Beard, who had some connection at one time with the east shaft at Fairbury. A stock company was formed among the citizens of Chatsworth, of $10,000, but the stock was never all paid up. Enough, however, was collected to pay Beard for sinking the shaft, which was about 218 feet deep. The works were finally abandoned, upon the report of Beard that there was no prospect of coal. It is thought by some that a good vein of coal was found, but for some reason the fact was concealed, or at least never officially reported. One of the men employed in the work said to some friends one day, that they passed through a vein of coal about five feet thick in sinking the Chatsworth shaft. this is true or false, we are unable to say.

Whether

The first grain elevator was built by Charles D. Brooks, in 1861, and was burned in 1866. He then built another, which he afterward moved to Piper City. Samuel Crumpton built one next, and then Havercorn & Mette built the one now occupied by A. B. Searing. Joseph Rumbold built one, which is now owned by Searing & Crumpton. The next was an old mill, moved up by the railroad, and changed into an elevator by Chas. Weinland, and is now owned by H. L. Turner.

* Their Principal and teachers for the coming year are not yet chosen.