MOUNT ZION Though until the construction of the P. & D. (now I. M.) Railroad, was without railroad facilities, has been known for a quarter of a century as the location of the Mt. Zion Seminary, which at one time, was a flourishing school. The village is located near the junction of the I. M. and M. S. & D. Railroad, and is in one of the oldest, wealthiest and earliest settled neighborhoods of the county. [Smith, J. W. (1876). History of Macon County, Illinois, from its organization to 1876. Springfield, Ill: Rokker's Printing House. P. 232.] Mt. Zion. This village was platted on land owned by S. K. Smith between 1825 and 1830. It was called Wilson Postoffice, but in 1830 a Cumberland Presbyterian church was erected there and named Mt. Zion church; the name of the town was at once changed to Mt. Zion. The first house in town was built by Andrew Wilson near the present site of John Scott's house. The village contains three general stores, one implement house, one harness shop, one lumber yard, one blacksmith shop, one barber shop, one elevator, two doctors, a Cumberland Presbyterian church, a Methodist church and a two-room school house. The school house was built for a college and was used for that purpose until the school was removed to Lincoln, Illinois. The population is about 300. It is situated about five miles southeast of Decatur in Mt. Zion township. [Past and present of the City of Decatur and Macon County, Illinois. 1903. Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co. p. 70. Transcribed by Judy Rosella Edwards.] HOME ©2008 Genealogy Trails