Concord Township formerly included Sheldon Township. The latter was separated and placed under township organization in 1868. Concord Township was surveyed by the United States Government in 1832, except range ten, which was surveyed in 1834. Although it had its definite boundary lines and was a definite olitical unit, it remained under the commission form of government until the year 1856.
Concord Township, although one of the first in the state to change its form of government, was not organized under township organization until the eyar 1856. For this purpose a meeting was held in April of that year by the resident voters.
The settlement of Concord Township during the succeeding period of a quarter century was not rapid. Chicago was the nearest market for the surplus products available. Pack horses or oxen-teams were the only transportation.
To furnish education, public schools were established in the township in the year of 1835. The first public school was started and "kept" in a log cabin on the hill on the north side of the river in a settlement then known as Bunkum. The statement has been handed down by the old settlers that the first two schoolmasters to preside in this primitive seat of learning were Hugh Newell and Benjamin Scott. The latter was also the first school treasurer and the second sheriff of the county. In 1840 the first schoolhouse was built in Concord Township.
In 1850 a United Brethern society was formed in the Enslen School, south of the river. The second Methodist society, organized in 1854 in the township, held meetings in the schoolhouse in Iroquois. In 1870 Samuel Warrick and William Brown were the promoters in the building of the church named Prairie Dell near the west line of the township.
The third period of the history of the township began about 1855. Grist mills spring up and were in operation. One was loacted at Old Texas, near the southwest corner of the township. The railroads, as a factor in building up Concord Twonship, cannot be overestimated. The C.C.C. and St. L. (Big Four) was completed in 1871.
The present village of Iroquois was plotted by Henry Moore, June 7, 1836, as the town of Concord, but was not incorporated until thirty-nine years later. It originally contained fifty-two blocks, eleven streets running norht and south and five streets running east and west.
Montgomery, which was laid out a year earlier, lies just south of the river and was first in point of settlement and prominence. It was also built up on both sides of the Hubbard trail. The original village of Iroquois was surveyed about the same time as Montgomery.
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