Early Progress

The following data is extracted from Money Creek Township, McLean County, Illinois.

The people on Money Creek manifested the true spirit of progress. They built schoolhouses and churches. They erected mills and secured a post office; and if they built no towns, it was not for the want of an attempt. Mr. Pennell and Mr. Baylor Tan the saw-mill, just across in Towanda Township, and George Wallace built a flouring-mill on the Mackinaw. When this mill was built, they had an old-fashioned "raising." Those were the days when the jug went around, and everybody indulged. They had a fine time, but no one became intoxicated. This mill was like its neighbors, it depended upon the force of the running stream for its power. It was near the site of Clarksville, and was built about 1836. But when dry weather came, the neighborhood was compelled to go off long distances to mill. Sometimes they went down to the Murphy mill, on Kickapoo, and sometimes they were compelled to go all the way to Ottawa. Wallace gave up the mill to a Mr. Denson. Denson died with the Asiatic cholera in 1855, and after this, the mill went down, and nothing has been heard of it since. Jacob Spawr was made Justice of the Peace. Justices had but little to do in those days. Lawsuits were seldom carried on, and marriages were necessarily few.

Source: Money Creek Township, McLean County, Illinois

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