The History of Four Mile Township and Keens

By N. W. Draper

Transcribed by Laurie Selpien

The first mill of any description in Four mile was built by John R. Smith; it was of the old stump variety and was operated by horse power. He ground meal for the surrounding country for miles. Later a water mill was installed by Ennis Maulding and George Mayberry on the Skillet Fork near the present bridge north of Wayne City. A U. S. Post office was established there in the 1850’s. The father of the late Oliver Gordon is said to have carried the mail on foot between Fairfield and McLeansboro, probably including Maulding’s Mill on his route. William Boswell also had a stump mill, location is not known. Early settlers would sometimes go as far as the Leech Mill on the little Wabash for their grinding. Many early immigrants from the south came to Southern Illinois by the Goshen Road which led northwesterly from Shawneetown to Vandalia. Branching from the Goshen Road southeast of Mt. Vernon, perhaps south of the bridge on Casey Fork, was laid out and then known as the Frog Island Road. It extended southeasterly to a point about a mile north of the Wayne-Hamilton county line, which it almost parallels east of the Four Mile-Big mound township line. The Commissioners’ records of Jefferson County make mention of the road. Within Wayne County 1 ½ miles from Wayne-Jefferson line and about the same distance from the old Frog Island Road was the old town of Middleton, roughly half way between Mt. Vernon and McLeansboro, and probable the source of its name.

LAID OUT IN 1854

Laid out in 1854 by William Whitace, county surveyor, the Main Street ran north and south. Parallel on either side of it were East and West streets respectively, and at right angles to these and the same distance apart were North and South Streets. The Village had a public school, two churches-Christian and Methodist-a blacksmith shop, post office (Long Prairie), a tavern, two or more stores- altogether about 18 buildings including shops and offices. Previous to the Civil War a Masonic Lodge was organized in Middleton but was later removed to Belle Rive. The town received mail perhaps three times a week by a star route from Xenia on the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railway. A man named Dobbs carried the mail for many years. On one occasion during high waters when he was crossing Suck Lick, a Rantankerous little tributary of Four Mile creek was overflowing, and over which there was no bridge. His little pony hitched to a cart was swept off the water hidden tracks. Postman Dobbs was able to save himself and his prized mail pouch from the torrent but his pony was drowned. When the U. S. Postal service was established on the Airline, the Xenia star route was discontinued and a mail route later established between Six Mile P. O. (Keens) and Middleton tha carrier receiving the munificent sum of 35 cents a trip.

EARLY MAIL ROUTE

A mail route was also established between the old village of Belle Prairie in north Hamilton County and the new village of Wayne City that served the patrons of the Mayberry post office in Frog Island. Early Postmasters were William Mayberry and Esq. J. H. Trotter, William Good and sons Charles and Almond the father having immigrated from Ohio, carried the mail on horseback at first once a week. Roads were frequently almost impassible in winter. However, the coming of the railroads, Louisville & Nashville Railway and the Louisville, Evansville and St. Louis (Airline) proved almost the death of Middleton. The Methodist church built there in 1861 was torn down and removed a few miles east and north near Farnsworth Cemetery and renamed Mt. Zion. The Middleton Christian church was later almost abandoned. The several Catholic families in southern Four Mile had no resident church but in later years worshipped at the New Catholic Church at Piopolis. The old public school on the North and Main in Middleton was removed farther north and west. Charles Jacobson, native of Belle Rive and later a druggist of Wayne city, was an early Middleton Merchant.

KEENES

Keenes was some five miles north of Middleton. It was named after the brothers Sam and James Keene, sons of Sumter Keen, a prominent citizen of early Hickory Township. The sons were large landowners and livestock dealers. Both were influential in politics and the general up-building of the town named in their honor. Keens Station is described in the “History of Wayne and Clay Counties” as having “Two general stores and groceries. It has a good school, and a church is being erected by the Missionary Baptist. It had a grist mill in 1881 and two saw mills.”

WAYNE CITY

The third village of importance and now the largest in the original Four Mile Township, is Wayne City, see other story.

FROG ISLAND

The southeastern quarter, or more, or the original Four Mile Township was known as “Frog Island’: an area which embraces much of the south half of the present Orel Township. Though the author of the epithet is unknown, the name, “Frog” Island must have been well adapted in those pioneer days when the virgin forest of the swamp lands were usually waterlogged till past midsummer. On the north and east the “Island” has Four Mile Creek and the Skillet Fork; on the south Oxier Creek, and on the west the McCoy Flats whose slow waters seep out north and south to the border streams just mentioned. Long before the days of modern highway building, the recurrent high waters of winter and spring made it necessarily poor roads well nigh impassible. The first known trading post in the island area was at old Baltimore with but one store-a grocery-which in those days also connected a place were liquor was frequently sold. This “Emporium” stood in the field southeast of the present Olive Branch Church. Merchandise was brought up from Shawneetown, probably to McLeansboro on the Goshen Road, and then across country. The name of the proprietor is unknown and the chronicles of old Baltimore unrecorded. The nearest approach to a record is on a lone marble slab in the Garrison Cemetery just over in Hamilton County which reads: “James Barnes died April 17, 1860” ‘The story which has become a sort of folk tale of bygone days is that he died “In a tavern brawl!” at the hands of one “Wild Bill” Garrison at old Baltimore.

More about John R. Smith and his family can be found at the Smith family history

More can be found on Wayne City

Early History of Wayne City By A. G. Scudamore

Story of Wayne City By Frank Coombs

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