This excerpt was taken from the History
of Fulton County, published by Chas. C. Chapman & Co. in 1879, pages 865-866.
The township is well covered with timber and must have been picturesque and romantic in its natural condition. Then, doubtless, the points of timber and the valleys must have been attractive resorts for the red man. Even now, when dotted over with fields and houses and barns and lowing herds, its stillness broken by the rumbling of long, heavily-ladened trains of steam-drawn cars, one cannot help but admire the beauty of the scenery as presented by these groves.
The township received its name in honor of its first settler, Mr. Reading Putman, who located upon the southeast quarter of sec. 2 in 1823. Embracing a good deal of timber land, as this township did, it soon attracted a liberal share of immigration, as it is a fact that all the pioneers sought the timber districts in which to locate their claims, believing that it would be easier to make farms by grubbing and clearing the lands, than it would be to reduce prairie land to farm tillage and remunerative returns. But as time advanced, and the later settlers were forced out upon the prairies and began to experiment upon them, the first settlers were made to realize that they had made a somewhat costly mistake by selecting timbered claims. They had been pitching brawn and muscle against nature; for all that the prairies needed was to be tickled with the plow to make them yield living crops the first year and heavy, remunerative returns the second.
Not many years rolled by after Mr. Putman had erected his cabin on section 2, before Stephen Strickland, John Holcomb, William Pearson, Hugh and Absalom Maxwell, Stephen Eveland, Seth Hilton, Asel T. Ball, Salmon Sherwood, David Haacke, Elijah and William Putman, Asa and Samuel Mallory, Hirah Saunders, Andrew Laswell and Levi Millard came in and improved farms. Messrs. Strickland, Holcomb and Pearson were all Regular, or " Hard-shell," Baptist ministers.
Harvey L. Ross relates that he partook of bear meat at Andrew Laswell's which Mr. L. had killed in his neighborhood.
The first grist-mill was built by Jacob Ellis on Big creek, upon sec. 35, in 1824. This was the first mill in Fulton county. Mr. Ellis also had a cotton-gin here. Much of this article was cultivated in this county at an early day. The first marriage was solemnized Feb. 20, 1825, the contracting parties being Asel T. Ball and Miss Rebecca Ellis. Seth Hilton was the first Justice of the Peace. He subsequently moved into Liverpool township and became one of its first settlers. The first school was taught by Wm. Putman in a small log cabin on sec. 11. The first church was built at Centerville (now Cuba) in 1840, by a congregation of the Christian Church. It passed out of their hands and is now owned by the Methodist people.
This town is situated upon the northwest quarter of section 20, and is one of the oldest towns of the county. It is very pleasantly situated in the midst of a fine agricultural district, and is one of the leading places of the county at which coal is mined. Large quantities of coal are shipped from Cuba, and the mines situated northwest of the village are quite extensive. A small railway track is laid from the mines to the depot of the T., P. & W. Ry., a distance of over a mile. Coal is hauled in small cars by horses to the depot.
Cuba is a good business point and contains several good stores, churches, school-houses, and many pleasant residences. In 1834 Ephraim Brown laid out a little town upon the northwest quarter of sec. 20 which he christened Middletown. Two years afterwards (Nov. 16, 1836) Joel Solomon, D. W. Vittum, Samuel Brooks and T. B. Coggswell, platted another town upon this section and gave it the name of Centerville. Two towns upon one quarter-section was too much, so they were consolidated and named Cuba. Cuba is on the line of the Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw Ry., and about an equal distance from Canton and Lewistown. It is also on the line of the Fulton County Narrow-Gauge Ry., which runs from Fairview to Havana. Grading is now (fall of 1879) progressing finely upon this line.
Civer is a small station on the line of the T., P. & W. Ry. It is located on the northeast quarter of sec. 12, and about 7 miles from Cuba. There is a depot building, postoffice, store, shop, etc., here, but its close proximity to Canton will prevent it from becoming any great commercial center, or ever of local importance, although situated in the midst of a fine farming district.
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