Wayne County
History & Genealogy
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ILLUSTRATED AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCH BOOK
OF
Wayne County, Illinois
By Paul F. Campbell 1903
Transcribed by Laurie Selpien
Wayne County Town Sketches in 1903
BARNHILL
AN IMPORTANT SHIPPING POINT FOR LUMBER, RAILROAD TIES AND CORD WOOD
This is another of the county’s important villages and railroad stations and while it is among the younger villages some of the earliest settlements of Wayne County were made in the Barnhill Township. Located in the heaviest timbered belt of the county the development of the surrounding county is necessarily slower than the prairie sections. While the first settlers sought the timber and made clearings for agricultural purposes in preference to cultivating the open prairie lands the latter have been given the preference in recent years and have been settled up much faster. But the tide is again turning. The timbered lands and deep soil of the river bottoms are attracting the attention of the agriculturist. This is principally the kind of soil surrounding Barnhill. Artificial drainage has wrought a mighty change to the bottom lands and when properly drained they are the most productive lands in the county. The work of clearing, draining and developing is progressing rapidly and the land of the township is being brought under cultivation more and more every year. Thus it can be seen that the village of Barnhill has yet to reach the zenith of its glory and that the prospects for a much larger town are many and substantial. Today it is a hustling little business point and has such men in control of affairs as the firm represented under this head.
Another of Wayne County’s smaller towns is Boyleston, located on the southern railroad, four miles west and a little south of Fairfield and in Big Mound Township. Like other places this little village has its attractions and advantages. Located so near the county seat, it will, perhaps, never attain the size of a city, but it has its industries and its business enterprises peculiarly adapted to the citizen’s needs. It is home for several families, therefore there is no place like Boyleston to them. The most important business house of the place is the general merchandise store of J. M. Logan, which is represented in connection with this sketch. Boyleston is an important shipping point for the forest growths and is located in the timbered belt of the county, extending across the southwestern portion. Agricultural pursuits are becoming more extensive each year as the timber gives way before the ax and plow.
A THRIVING VILLAGE
One of the Business Trade Centers of a Rich and Prosperous Section of the County
The fertile agricultural districts that surround Cisne form the basis of the town’s permanent prosperity, for the wealth of one of the most prolific agricultural regions of this part of the state is poured continually into her commercial channels. Cisne is located in the northern central part of the county, on the B & O S-W railroad, 10 miles from Fairfield, in Bedford Township. Cisne is the center of a vast fruit, grain, hay, and livestock producing region and is the principle shipping point of these products and headquarters for the trade of the producers. With all these wealth-producing interest increasing annually it can readily be seen that the town is only in its swaddling clothes and has a brilliant future before it. Passing from the business portion of Cisne one sees broad streets bordering on either side by beautiful lawn environed cottages. This is essentially a village of homes. The town is built in modern style around a square which serves as a park and in summer, as a cool and pleasant place to sit beneath the large forest trees whose branches almost touch on every side. The excellent public schools and two good church organizations are laying the foundation of a moral and substantial future citizenship and are cooperating in a most commendable work – the education of the rising generation. No one thing will be accepted more generally as a criterion of a town’s standing in every way than its churches. Their attendance not only indicates a healthy moral sentiment but an encouraging business prosperity, most inviting to one seeking a location for a capital or family. The church as an educator, is as essential as the school, and as the monitor and guide of public sentiment materially influences every public or private enterprise. Cisne is justly proud of her churches and possesses a church going population. The population is also made up principally of a thrifty, prudent and enterprising class of citizens, who are interested in the welfare and future development of their town. Neither does Cisne posses a fluctuating population, but one that is constantly and substantially increasing in proportion to the town’s own needs, making the purchase of real estate a safe and paying investment. No one who watches carefully the growth and prosperity of communities; who takes into consideration all the natural and acquired advantages of such, and whose soul is enlivened with progressive ideas which characterize an intelligent and enterprising people, will dispute the fact that right here is destined to be located one of the important towns of southern Illinois.
Serenely resting on the summit of an eminence some sixty feet above the contiguous country, Mt. Erie presents an imposing spectacle and holds undisputed domination over a vast area of rich bottom lands. This mound is so situated as though it were destined to be the location of a prosperous village and trade center and the territory ascribed to it is most naturally and plainly designated. It is almost a complete island or might be called an inland island: for the headwaters of Elm River and the starting point of some smaller tributaries of the Little Wabash are so nearly together, on the north and with the Little Wabash on the south that the scope of the country lying between these rivers is almost entirely surrounded by water – small streams that drain the entire eastern part of the county. The shape of the enclosed territory resembles that of a flat iron. It is fourteen miles from the northern border of the county to the junctions of the rivers and twelve miles from the eastern border to the most extreme point enclosed by the Elm River and Mt. Erie is located almost in the center of this vast agricultural region.
Fairfield, the county seat of Wayne County, stands a memorial to the grand old pioneers who founded her upon solid ground. Adorned with beautiful residences, containing noble institutions of learning, characterized by strong and substantial industrial and commercial enterprises, populated by a hospitable and congenial people, diversified by the beauties of nature, improved by the hand of man and blessed with many churches whose emblematic spires point out the heaven-ward way, the city of Fairfield is a pleasant and desirable place to live and a good location. This little city does not claim to be a veritable paradise, but what she has she has in a substantial manner, and that is, every advantage and improvement that goes to make up the thriving little city that glitters and sparkles with the energy and push of modern civilizations. Modern science, modern engineering, modern architecture and modern sanitary ideas have all been contributory to the general up-building and advancement. Substantial stone and brick business blocks, electric lights for both street and house illumination, ample water supply, excellent public and high schools, and fine homes with grassy lawns, at once present a city inviting and bearing the imprint of prosperity. The citizens of Fairfield are proud, not vain, proud of their location, proud of their achievements and proud of their city and homes. It is said, and we can verify the statement by our own observation, that Fairfield has more nice residences than any city of the same size in southern Illinois. These are modern homes, lighted with electricity, heated by furnaces in the basements and supplied with water from a natural reservoir located on an eminence several feet above the town and about a mile away, the clear water is piped direct to the city and into the houses. The citizens are generally prosperous and good livers; everyone is busily engaged in some kind of enterprise that goes to make up some kind of business circle of a small city; there are few loafers and few idlers, consequently few police court criminals and few charity seekers. Fairfield is one of the few cities that have successfully and continuously baffled the open saloon. She has been free from saloons for an unbroken period of thirty-five years. The marked intelligence of the rising generation speaks unstinted praise for the persistent efforts of the citizens who have brought about this state of affairs and emoluments fully justified a continuance of their work.
HISTORICAL SKETCH (FAIRFIELD)
The inception of the city of Fairfield dates back almost a century – eighty-four years ago – into the days of the early pioneer life of the state. Fairfield was laid out for the county seat of Wayne County in the year of 1819, the same year the county was organized. The first sale of lots took place November 8, 1819. The original plat was surveyed by John Johnson, the county surveyor, under the direction of George W. Farris, Thomas P. Fletcher and Alexander Clark, the County Commissioners at the time. This plat was not recorded until September 4, 1825, but the initiative steps had been taken and the city today is the result of that beginning. The first settlers of the town or of Grover Township were the Barhills, who had come here from Gallatin County some time previous to 1819, had entered this land from the government and owned land upon which the town was laid out. The father of the Barnhill family died in Gallatin County, but his widow and three sons, Hardin, John and Audley, were among the first settlers of this county. They built the first two houses on the town site, both of which have passed and are remembered as landmarks of pioneer days by older citizens. Samuel Leech was the pioneer merchant of the town. He opened up a stock of goods in a house built as a store and holds the distinction of being the first “Storekeeper” of Fairfield. For many years Fairfield slumbered through her infancy, in apparent solitude and oblivion, making few and small improvements. However, each step of advancement taken has been retained, although the growth from the first to the present time has been slow, it is the more sure. No uncertain boom has ever taken place in the development of this city. By the year 1856 the town could lay claim to a population that would justify a village form of government, and on May 26th of that year the town of Fairfield was incorporated. The building of the railroads (The B. & O. S-W., then Springfield and Illinois Southeastern and later the O. & M. in 1870, and the Southern, then the Louisville, Evansville & St. Louis in 1881) brought new life and increased travel, made the transportation of goods much cheaper and the town began then a growth that brought it through its last struggle for a substantial existence. By the year 1884 Fairfield had attained another important stage in her history and demanded her present form of city government as a fourth-class city in the state of Illinois.
Golden Gate, located on the Southern Railroad line, 8 miles to the southeast of Fairfield and in Leach Township is one of the most prosperous little towns of which Wayne County boast, nestling closely within the heart of its richest and most fertile agricultural district. Its lands are well drained by the many small streams as they wind their way through field and woodland in the rich valley and timbered bottoms of the Little Wabash. The sound of saw and hammer is heard in every direction; churches, schools, homes, mills and granaries dot her acres on every hand. The scenes and surroundings present to the mind’s eye the earliest dawn of this wonderful section and it’s subsequent development. Wonderful in many ways; wonderful from the fact that only a few decades ago, the town site was but a wilderness, practically untouched by the hand of man in its settlement and its acres of waving grass and belts of timber growth were profuse in their presence and preponderant as a feature; wonderful that this grassy waste has transformed into a live and hustling trade center of almost a thousand souls, and the fertile adjacent land made to respond to the husbandman’s touch and the tall and stalwart timber to yield to the woodsman’s ax; waving fields of golden grain and blossoming orchards present to the observing eye a panorama of beauty as wonderful as it is beautiful. Remarkable in many ways is this quiet, yet thriving village.
JEFFERSONVILLE
SKETCH OF JEFFERSONVILLE
Jeffersonville, known also as Geff as a railroad station, but Jeffersonville as a post office, is located on the B & O. S-W railroad , five miles northwest of the county seat, in Lamard Township, and within one mile of the exact center of Wayne County. This is not a new town, but has stood for many years; the original plat of the town having been surveyed in 1853 – it is not striving to become a city, but is population by a happy and contented people who adapt themselves to circumstances, adopt such methods and take advantage of such new enterprises that will be to the town’s best interest. Two churches and a graded school added to the general refinement and substantial standings of the town, which is numbered among the most prosperous villages in Wayne County.
KEENS
KNOWN AS KEEN’S RAILROAD STATION, BUT SIX MILE POST OFFICE.
One of the Western Towns of Wayne City
Keen’s station is located on the Southern Railroad 16 miles from the county seat, it forms a part section 22 of Township meridian in Four Mile political township. Four Mile at one time the largest township in the state of Illinois and embraced eighty-six sections of land, although all were not full square miles sections. It was later divided and Orel Township was formed from the eastern part so the Four Mile is left now with forty sections, the township being in the shape of a perfect rectangle measuring eight miles north and south and five east and west. Keens is situated a little to the northeast of the center of this township and derived its name from the Keen families of that locality, who are prominent citizens and constitute a large part of the population.
A PLEASANT LITTLE VILLAGE AND A RAILROAD TOWN
Merriam is located in section 11 Township 2 south, range 8 east of the third principal meridian, in Grover political township, and on the Southern Railroad, four miles southeast of Fairfield. This is a good shipping point for cord lumber and ax timber. The land is being rapidly cleared and put under cultivation and all cereals are raised in that locality. Fruit is also beginning to attract the attention of the farmers and many young orchards dot the upland area. The village of Merriam is yet small but has several families in its confines who are busy engaged in some enterprise that goes to make up the business circles of the place or in agricultural pursuits. The school and church, each possessing good buildings, add refining influence to the substantial character of the little town.
Located in the northwestern part of the county, Orchardville Township, is another of the county’s interior towns, and while it is located on no railroad it is surrounded by a beautiful farming country and as the name implies it is the center of a huge orchard extending in every direction. It has many such advantages as these, then it has its industries in keeping with its proportions and the demands of its citizens. It is a typical country town, a quiet and pleasant place to live a retired and unassuming life.
RINARD
THE CENTER OF A BEAUTIFUL AND LEVEL PRAIRIE COUNTRY
An Important Trade Point and a Growth Village
Rinard’s resources are substantial and durable, consisting chiefly of agricultural surroundings – extensive farming, fruit growing and stock raising, extending over a large scope of territory on all sides which is naturally tributary to the town of Rinard, its most convenient trade point. These resources, the most substantial upon which any town can be based, would support a town of much larger size. This is an important shipping point for hay, grass seed, fruit, grain, livestock and all farm products and the producers are offered the best advantages right here for the purchase of all their supplies. The business men are, as a rule, progressive and energetic and carry a large stock of goods such as will supply the demands made upon them. As example we call special attention to those representing in the following pages. With these natural advantages and such men as these at the head of affairs, it takes no prophetic vision to see that the future of Rinard will be one of progress and prosperity. The population of this village, numbering some 200 inhabitants, is made up, principally of a thrifty, prudent, class of citizens, who own their home and with that pride of ownership that is natural, making them charming pictures of comfort and elegance. As a residence village, Rinard offers many inducements in the way of good government, orderly, law-abiding citizens, healthful climate, low taxes, cheap living, an abundance of good water and perfect sanitary conditions. The school and church are strong factors in the town’s prosperity and are given great attention. The facilities for ordaining a common school education in Rinard will compare favorably with those of any town of the same size in southern Illinois
Located on the Southern Railroad, nine miles west of Fairfield and in the southern part of Arrington Township, is the little village of Sims, also known as Arrington. Sims, is surrounded by rolling prairie and timberland while to the west, are rich bottomlands along the Skillet Fork River. This is the principle shipping point, of the county for cordwood and railroad ties. Last year 272 carloads of cordwood was shipped from the Sims station alone. Sims is also the principle shipping point in the county for hay. The shipments of that product last year greatly exceeded those of any other station in the county. The principle business concern of the village is the Bright Mercantile Company.
Ranks Next to County Seat in Importance, Population and as a Trade Center
Surrounded by Excellent Farm Lands and Bottom Lands Along the Skillet Fork River
Good Churches and Schools
Among the important little towns of southern Illinois, which deserves more than ordinary notice we wish to present Wayne City. It stands preeminently in the front ranks of Wayne County towns, occupying the envied place of importance next to Fairfield, the county seat. To give a detailed history of Wayne city and a lengthy account of its rise and progress is not the purpose of this sketch, but rather to give a correct account of the town’s present standing and the prospects for further growth. Wayne City is located on the Southern Railroad in the southern part of Wayne County, thirteen miles southwest of Fairfield and in the northwestern corner of Orel Township. It was laid out in 1881 by J. W. Hillard, county surveyor, and is one of the youngest towns in the county. Several of the first settlers are still living and are yet engaged in business in Wayne City. Prominent among those is J. B. Scudamore, who was the first merchant of the town, also the first Postmaster which office he holds today. The growth of Wayne city has been rapid and substantial. It has experienced no uncertain boom, but has grown steadily and constantly in prodrones that impede progress, so have all towns of all sizes, and in this respect Wayne city is not unlike the others. To those familiar with the town their identity is plainly evident. However among those mentioned in our other following sketches will be recognized excellent specimens of their calling. The success they have achieved is proof that they know how to keep abreast of the times in all that goes to make up business conquests. In summing up the merits of a town as a home location for business, there are many things to consider aside from industrial enterprises. There are public institutions those institutions of a semi-public and semi-private nature, the social features and many other things enter into the composition of a desirable home and business town. It is not possible, in this brief sketch to fully cover all the excellent features of Wayne City as a desirable hometown. Suffice to say that the town possesses good schools in the hands of a corps of competent teachers, has four church organizations each of which is provided with a comfortable and respectable place of worship and in addition to these the several fraternal orders and secret societies add no inconsiderable part to the social side of the town. Then the inhabitable comprise some of the best men and women in the world. We say best because for charity without ostentation, benevolence without display and sympathy without flourish, these people taken in the aggregate cannot be surpassed anywhere.
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