Viola Township, Lee County, Illinois
One section of Viola at least may be
classed as belonging to the first year of Chicago road history.
I refer to that part clustering around Melugin's Grove and
Guthrie's Grove. In that little corner or rather spot in
sections 32, 33 and 34, near Melugin's Grove and sections 26, 35
and 36 in which Guthrie's Grove was situated; in the southern
tier of sections, settlements were made very early;
contemporaneously with those just over the border to the south,
in Brooklyn township. In fact most of the claims of the border
settlers, both sides, lapped over. The prairie portion of the
township, like all other prairie townships, did not appeal to
the settler, and Viola further to the north did not settle until
a much later period. When in 1851, Smith H. Johnson, father of
the present commissioner of the Inlet Swamp Drainage District,
B. F. Johnson went up into the prairie country of Viola to
settle, he was nicknamed ''Prairie Johnson,'' for his temerity
and ever afterwards the name clung to him. At first Mr. Johnson
lived south of Little Melugin's Grove, so that he was an old
settler in Viola neighborhood and may be classed as one of the
very oldest.
William Guthrie probably was the first
settler of Viola Township. In the chapter devoted to Brooklyn
and Melugin's Grove, his name appears many times prominently. He
settled at the grove which afterwards bore his name, in 1834.
Mr. Guthrie like so many others who had been attracted to this
county, had served in the Black Hawk war. In 1834, Mr. Guthrie
made his claim and the next year he built his cabin. The grove
was laid off into small lots of about one acre and sold as
timber lots in the early day. Mr. Guthrie actually built the
first house, a log affair, in this township. He cut the logs
from his grove and lived nearby until his death. In later days,
his grove became known as the Little Melugin's Grove. While John
Gilmore actually lived just over the line into Brooklyn
Township, his original lands extended over into Viola, so that
it would be unfair to class him as an old Viola settler.
William Lawton came in a little later,
but when Walter Little came along still later, 1837, he sold his
claim to the latter.
In the year 1837 there came to Viola
Township, one of the most remarkable men that ever lived in Lee
County. He was a man under size, five foot six or perhaps seven,
weight not over 145 pounds when I used to know him; very quiet;
deep set blue and very mild eyes, yet a man of tremendous
forcefulness. He was born in Ireland, in the County Antrim in
1815, October 15th. In the year 1835, after four years'
residence further east, he settled in Viola Township and lived
there until the day of his death.
Landing here without a dollar, he
accumulated land so rapidly and so perseveringly that he held
for half his lifetime the largest body of land owned by any man
in Lee County. There were 1,300 acres in his beautiful homestead
in and around sections 25, 26 and 35. He was a stock-raiser.
Rarely ever did he buy steers to feed. He preferred to raise his
own steers. He put thoroughbred bulls at the head of his herd
and very soon he owned the best grades in the county and Adrain
steers in the markets needed no advertising. He was honored with
every important office in his township. Though Viola was a long
time settling, those people who took up their homes there
achieved much and made great progress once they had got a good
start.
Henry B. Cobb is another instance of
what one man can do who possesses push and energy. I would class
him as one of Lee County's biggest men. Exactly like Mr. Adrain,
he farmed intelligently and accumulated large bodies of land. In
the year 1852, he bought a land warrant of Elias B. Stiles and
located it on the piece of land on which he lives to this very
day. He had so much faith in Lee County land that he did not
look at it before he laid his land warrant on it. It proved to
be one of the rarest pieces of land upon which the sun ever
shone.
Mr. Cobb did not settle upon this land
at once. When later he did, John Hagardine, a brother-in-law,
settled nearby and so did one or two other relatives and friends
from Connecticut, Mr. Cobb's native state. These relatives
however did not like the country very well and so after
wintering and summering it for a short while, they left. But
with New England pertinacity and pluck, Mr. Cobb stuck and
today, he probably owns more high priced land than any two or
three men in Lee County combined.
Mr. Cobb always has been a feeder. But
unlike Mr. Adrain, he has bought feeders and fed them the
product of his rich lands. He uses the same feed lot today he
has used for something like sixty years and today you will see
in that lot some of the shapeliest steers the butcher would care
to see.
The old house, modest, like the houses
of all the old pioneers were, stands today a little to the east
of Mr. Cobb's present beautiful homestead. In that little home,
he and Mrs. Cobb built up this splendid fortune, and unless
misfortune befall it, the little home will stand many years
more. When Mr. Cobb entered this land in section 13, he did not
have the means to till it and so he went down into Bureau
County, near LaMoille and did team work; also worked for a Mr.
Edwards in a nursery until by and by he felt he had accumulated
enough to carry him over the period of waiting for a crop. His
wages under Edwards were thirteen dollars per month and board.
By reason of the large area of swamp
land in the central and western parts of Viola, large herds of
cattle frequented that section in the earlier days.
Among the other old time settlers and
farmers were Richard Phillips, B. P. Johnson, William Tripp,
Henry Bennett, a man named Winters, another named Baker and
another named Bucholz.
Originally Viola was a part of Brooklyn
Township. On the second day of April, 1861, the voters of this
township met at the house of Moses Van Campen and nominated
Simeon Cole moderator and Abram Van Campen, clerk. With their
election the business of organizing the township of Viola began.
On a vote being taken, it was found that fifty-seven votes had
been cast, the great majority being for Samuel L. Butler for
supervisor; Simeon Cole, assessor; Samuel Vosburgh for town
clerk; constable and collector, John Melugin; justice of the
peace, Henry Marsh; commissioners of highways, William Holdren,
Ralph E. Ford and Moses Van Campen; poor master, Evins Adrain;
pound master, John Melugin.
By the very reason of the herding of
vast numbers of cattle by Robert M. Peile, this township had
gone by the name of Stockton; but when it came to giving it a
legal name under the organization proceedings, Butler, Eldorado
and Elba were proposed. At this meeting no name was given,
however, and so the officers gave their bonds to the township of
Stockton.
On May 11, 1861, the highway
commissioners of Brooklyn and Stockton met for the purpose of
making the road along the common township line. The name for the
township must have been discussed at that meeting because very
soon thereafter the name Viola was given to it.
Willow creek is the only natural stream
flowing in the town-ship and it empties into Inlet swamp country
in section 16.
The greatest enterprise carried on in
this township, of course, has been the drainage proceedings
which should be read carefully. The Panama canal is regarded
properly as the engineering feature of history. But behind that
enterprise, a great Nation with inexhaustible resources was
furnishing the necessary funds. This great enterprise was
carried on by a small portion of a small county and yet the
section of the county which paid for it, per capita, paid far
beyond the tax per capita paid for the canal.
Evins Adrain's wedding was the first to
be performed in Viola Township. He married a widow lady, Smith
by name, whose maiden name was Marilla Goodale. The marriage of
William Hopp and a Miss Smith was the next wedding and that of
Truman Johnson to Miss Mary Melugin was the third.
Walter Little was the first adult person
to die in this township. The first child born in the township
was William Lawton's which died in infancy.
Inasmuch as Melugin's Grove furnished
the churches and the schoolhouse of the early day for Viola, it
is unnecessary to allude to the latter at least, except through
the report on schools made by Prof. L. W. Miller. There was a
little school, however, at Guthrie's Grove and the first teacher
there was Moses Van Campen.
Viola has made a great number of very
rich farmers. At this very moment there are dozens of retired
farmers living in Dixon and Compton, made independently rich
from Viola farms. About two years ago Mr. Cobb astonished the
whole county by buying a large farm near his own for the sum of
$300 per acre, spot cash. When asked if he did not feel that he
had got rather ahead of the times in paying that price, he took
out his lead pencil and in no time at all he proved that he had
made a bargain in his purchase at the price, the first time in
the history of the county that $300 per acre had been paid for
farm lands.
Lee County
Townships
This page is
part of a larger collection.
Access the full collection at
History of
Lee County Illinois
|