Victoria Township although having some very fine and fertile prairies is, nevertheless, quite broken. Walnut Creek and its tributaries cut the southern portions of the township, and, until recently, it was rough and heavily timbered. Beneath the surface, however, are fine veins of coal. Stock farming, in this region, has been extensively and successfully conducted.
In Victoria Township, as elsewhere, the early settlers supposed that it was better to locate near the timber. This, of course, is true, when convenience to firewood is considered, but it did not take very many years to find out that the rich soil was prairie soil. Pioneers began to come as early as 1835, and some of them located in the timber. Deacon George H. Reynolds was the first man to build a house upon the prairie. He was postmaster of Victoria, and the first tavern keeper.
Victoria Township has given education and church building due consideration, both of which were increased very early in its history, and today the township is well supplied. The first Swedish Methodist Church ever establish in any country was established in the village of Victoria. It was organized December 15, 1846, by the Rev. J. J. Hedstrom, the founder of Swedish Methodism. It had but five members to start on, and today with that starting point there are five large conferences in the United States.
The first township officers were elected in April, 1853, at which election J. L. Jarnagin, was elected supervisor; J. F. Hovell, clerk; B. Youngs, assessor; C. A. Shurtleff, collector; Alex Sornberger, overseer of the poor; A. B. Codding, Peter VanBuren and J. W. Mosher, highway commissioners; Peter VanBuren, Moses Robinson, justices of the peace; C. A. Shurtleff and Seneca Mosher, constables.
Victoria
The village of Victoria is today one of the neatest little villages in the county. It had no railroad for many years. It was located upon high ground, upon a beautiful prairie; and was situated partly in Copley Township and partly in Victoria Township. It was laid out in May, 1849. It seems that it was started about a mile and a half southeast of the present location, where the pioneers had a store, a tavern and a blacksmith shop, but the Chicago road ran through the present site and George F. Reynolds accommodated transients at his house, and the village gradually moved over to its present site and thereby the village was started before it was ever surveyed. Mr. John Becker, late of Galesburg, formerly conducted a store there and it is claimed that the Post Office distributed more papers, in portion to the population, than any other town in the county which speaks well for the intelligence of the people.
In 1899, the Galesburg and Great Eastern railroad was extended into the township and village and added a new impetus to business. Lumberyards, stockyards, elevators, a bank, additional business houses, were soon established. It has a good system of schools and the churches are well supported.
--------------------------------------------------------
From the Stark County News, 29 October 1919,
submitted by Pat Thomas
Early History of Center Prairie
The following interesting historical speech of Center Prairie formed a portion
of an address delivered by W. B. Elliott at the celebration of the fiftieth
anniversary of the Swedish Methodist Church of that community recently.
"The early settlers who settled in the timber around
Center Prairie and who later themselves of their descendants helped to make
Center Prairie what it is were hardy pioneers, who came overland with their
families in wagons from the older states. I shall only attempt to enumerate a
few."
"Thomas Elliott first settled in Persifer township in
1837 where the writer's father, Burgess Elliott was born. He moved later to
Victoria township near the present home of James Cook and it was while he was
living here that he undertook and got out and delivered on the ground the long
hewn timbers for the Methodist church which was built in Victoria in 1854. It
was here he lived when he had a contract to deliver railroad ties between Altona
and Galva for the C. B. and Q. R. R. Well do I remember hearing my father tell
how when a boy of fifteen he with many others went in long strings of teams
across the prairies with these ties and how when they came to a boggy place each
man got off his wagon and took a tie and laid them side by side to make a
corduroy bridge which they crossed over, then they took up the ties and
continued on their way. In 1856, Thomas Elliott moved on the north side of the
John Arnold place and a year later to section 25, just north of where James
Mustain now lives, where he built the first house in that locality from the logs
of the old Salem school house which he moved there."
"Moody Robinson first settled on section 20 in 1836 and
a daughter of his, Sarah, born 1836, was the first white child born in Victoria
township. Later he moved to the John Arnold place in 1865 where Gus Swanson now
lives and in 1858 to the place where Charley Rice now lives where they built one
of the first frame houses on Center Prairie."
"The Wilburs settled just west of Delbert Patty's place
in the thirties and a daughter, Phoebe, married Peter Sornberger, and they were
the first white couple married in Victoria township in 1838 on Easter Sunday."
"Luther Rice settled in the timber about two miles
south from the Center Prairie church, about 1842 and was the progenitor of a
numerous family, among which were Foster Rice who built a log house where
Charley Larson now lives, about 1857 and Cyrus Rice, who built the Robert Young
house in 1857 where J. L. Huber now lives, which was another of the first frame
houses on Center Prairie. Alvin Rice still owns part of his grandfather's land.
Perhaps the earliest settler on Center Prairie proper was Thomas G. Stuart who
patented the N.E. quarter of section 27 in 1836 which old patent the writer
recently saw at the Exchange Bank at Victoria."
Burned To Death
"He died about 1845 and left his estate by will to his wife Catherine. In 1850
Catherine burned a brush pile near the house to prepare ground to sow tobacco
seed and the house caught fire and Mrs. Stuart was burned until she died trying
to save money in the house and was buried just west of the creek on the S.E. 1/4
of the old homestead. She was the mother of four boys: Tom, who kept the
homestead; married Eliza Gladfelter, was crippled in the war, died at the old
home and was buried in Thomas' graveyard, now the Center Prairie Cemetery, Elija,
Peter, William and one girl, Katie, who married Van Winkle and was the mother of
Henry Van Winkle, who lived for many years north of Four Corners."
"Perhaps the next settler in line who settled on Center
Prairie was Josiah Patty and Beka Patty, his wife, who built a log house on the
southeast quarter of section 27 where Phillip Gibbs now lives, he having
purchased the land from Richard J. Barrett in 1839. Mr. Gibbs still has the old
patent. Their children were James, William, Sarah, Nancy, Robert, George and
Josiah."
"John Arnold, a blacksmith, first came to Knox county
and Victoria township in 1836, but did not buy the old Arnold place where Gust
Swanson now lives until 1840. He did blacksmithing there until 1853 when he
moved to Victoria. John Arnold and his wife had ten children. In fact in those
days the hardy pioneer family that did not consist of ten was the exception
rather than the rule. Thomas Elliott and his wife were the parents of fourteen
children."
"Perhaps the first family that settled on the flat
prairie to the north was that of Thomas Durand, for whom Jonas Hedstrom the
tailor and preacher made a wedding suit, who owned the Conley place, where
Martin Gibbs afterwards settled in 1850, and the two eighty acre pieces that now
belong to Alex Ingels and William Englund. This land he bought in 1841 and as
there was no timber near he fenced the half section with a sod fence, the
remains of which may still be seen after a lapse of nearly eighty years. He was
the grandfather of John McNaught and Mrs. Cornelius Stevenson of later times.
These were the N.W. 1/4 section of section 13 and the S.E. 1/4 of section 12."
Arrival of Swedes
"From this time as settlers came in increasing numbers. Especially about 1850, the Swedes began to arrive in large numbers. Among the early settlers were J. L. Jarnigan, 1845; Dalgren, 1846; Adolphus Anderson, 1847 and Jorn Saline 1854. Then came in 1855 Peter Anderson, Lars Ostrom, John Chalman, Sam Coleman; In 1857 Peter Skoglung, stepfather to Mrs. Catherine Larson, who is still with us, and Sievert Larson, to be quickly followed by Noah Swickard, Lars Johnson, William Hammerlund, John P. Anderson, father of Frank Anderson, who still lives on the old homestead and shipped the first carload of frozen beef to Chicago and the man who invented the refrigerator cars that makes it possible to ship fresh meat all over the world, as also Eli and shil Johnson, Theodore Hammond, Joseph Cain, James Thomas, Jonas Olson and many others."
School Facilities
"These were a hardy race who willingly bore the hardships of a pioneer life and
bravely withstood the rigorous winters of the bleak and open prairies for the
sake of founding their new homes and establishing their families in a new
country. They early felt the need of an education, as most of them had very
limited opportunities for securing an education, so that almost with their
coming they set up log school houses, covered with clapboards and floored with
puncheon, which was poles split side hewn and laid up as a floor. There was a
fireplace in one end of the room and seats around the wall made of slabs or
split logs with four sticks in for legs upon which the children sat with their
feet dangling from the floor as they studied the old Webster's spelling book,
before the time of the far-famed McGuffey's speller. It was in such an
institution of learning that Burgess Elliott who was born in Knox county in
1837, as well as others of that time, secured the rudiments of an education. Not
long after the first settlers came here, Old Salem, which was started in 1836,
became too crowded and the settlers were so far away that they built a small
square house on the corner near Tom Stuarts."
"William Robinson, a cousin of John K. Robinson, was
one of the early teachers here. This school house soon became too small and it
was proposed to build a new one and there was great rivalry as to where it
should be built, but as this was near where Salem school now is, and most of the
patrons lived east of the prairie, it was finally determined to put it where it
now stands and so the school house was built here in 1856. The sawed lumber was
hauled overland from Rock Island and Peoria and the framing timber was got out
by John Saline and Charles Appell. John Saline did the building of it. There was
much discussion as to what it should be called. Some wanted to call it Stuart's
Prairie and some Anderson's Prairie, but a compromise was made and it was called
Center Prairie and Center Prairie it still is. The first teacher was John
Fleeharty, from Galesburg, who taught in 1856. The next winter, John Van Buren,
a brother of George Van Buren, who still lives in Victoria taught, and 'tis said
of him to this day that he was one of the best teachers Center Prairie ever had.
The next year, 1858, Miss Marry Garrett, a daughter of old Captain Garrett, who
later became Mrs. McIlvary, and still lives in Victoria, taught the school, as
she did for several terms thereafter. She, like all teachers of that day,
boarded at Thomas Elliott's and with other families who had children."
The Big Storm
"She was staying a week at Moody Robinson's when they had the big storm, May 14,
1858, about five o'clock in the afternoon. It came from the north and blew
Robinson's new frame house off the foundation and lodged it against the well. It
blew the roof off Foster Rice's houses and blew a log out over the door so that
Mrs. Rice had to put a blanket over Foster who was holding the door to keep him
from drowning. It blew the windows out of Peter Anderson's house; in fact, the
double log house of Thomas Elliott, made of the logs of the Old Salem school
house, was the only one in that region that withstood the storm and all the
neighbors stayed that night at Thomas Elliott's as it was the only dry place in
the neighborhood. They lay about two deep all over the floor and 'tis said that
none who were old enough to remember ever forgot that storm. Mrs. Robinson's
geese were blown away till she never found them. Wagons were picked up and
carried to the creek and washed away. Noah Swickard's new frame house where
Alvira Johnson now lives, was blown off the foundation and at Rochester a house
was blown in the river and carried away. The young men of the neighborhood went
the next day to Walnut Creek and swam around in the tops of the trees among the
limbs which were twenty or thirty feet from the ground when the waters receded."
"To these schools came the boys and girls that were to
make this wilderness a teeming land of plenty. Such men as young Arnold, son of
John Arnold, who afterwards became a noted lawyer of Peoria, and Jonas Olson,
the crippled orphan boy who afterwards became Galva's most famous attorney and
member of the Illinois legislature, and above all a life-long friend of all who
knew him. 'Tis said that although he had to walk two miles to school with a
crutch, he was one of the most happy pupils as well as one of the most
industrius. It is handed down in school lore that he was a mischievous boy and
while studying the old McGuffy's spelling book one day he ran onto what he
thought was a bad word and spelled out in a loud whisper so that the whole
school could hear, d-a-m, dam, n-a, na, t-i-o-n, shun, damnation, and he still
asserts that what the teacher, Mary Garrett, gave him, fitted the word. At these
school houses were held many famous exhibitions, singing schools and spelling
schools. Thomas Stuart was said to be a very poor reader who was the most famous
speller of all this region, always standing up till all the teachers even were
spelled down."
Center of Patriotism.
"So it was at this school house that the patriots of '61 met to encourage the
boys to enlist in their country's cause. One of the most famous songs and one
that always aroused the boys to a fever pitch of enthusiasm and which fitted the
great leader, Abraham Lincoln, was 'We are coming Father Abraham, Fifty Thousand
Strong."
"Center Prairie and the immediate neighborhood did not
lack in patriotism as evidenced by the list of boys who wore the blue. Among
them were August Carlson, Robert Young, Tom Stuart, Oliver Willy, Bill Larson,
George Elliott, George Newberg, Adolphus Anderson, John P. Anderson, Nehemiah
Coleman, Aaron Brothwell, Sam Cain, Jimmy Topp, Jonahs Empstrom, Lee Shannon,
Bill Thomas, Jonas Johnson, John Case, James Alderman, John Labar, Noah Swickard,
James Jarmigan, Spencer Jarnigan, John P. Peterson, Ward Todd, William Linday,
and Nat White. Of these famous sons of Center Prairie and surrounding territory
who fought in the army blue, only three, George Newberg, August Carlton and
George Elliott are now living. Sad to relate that although Center Prairie showed
her patriotism by sending so many of her sons to the front, there were those
whose sympathies were with the enemies of a united people and who showed a
yellow streak down the back by trying to avoid service. In this day we would
call them slackers and to this day their descendents have never retrieved the
disgrace of their forefathers by offering themselves on the altar of Liberty
when their country called. Thank God there were not many."
In the World War.
"A history of the patriotic activities would be incomplete in this year of grace
did it not include a list of the boys of the world war who wore the khaki of the
army and the blue of the U.S. navy. The honor roll that stands out in front of
this church contains the name of a list of men who risked their lives that
democracy might live. They are:
"Glen Olstrom, Raymond Wall, Arnold Swanson, Roy Gibbs,
Lew Gibs, Charles Carlson, Sargeant Harold Elliott, Raymond Elliott, Charles
Warrensford, Forest Cain, Machinist Mate 2nd, Edward Elliott, Paul Mustain,
George Todd, Ervin Mosher, Ernest Brown Bertas Mackey, Clarence Spencer, Fred
Steinman, Robert Kaser, Earl Brown."
The Religious Side
"The early settlers were not satisfied to rest at mere physical and intellectual
betterment, but above all they were religious. At first they met at the homes to
hold worship and as soon as the school houses were built they took the place of
churches until churches could be built, so that when the Old Salem school house
was built, they began to hold meetings there and camp meetings in the grove just
north and later the Swedish people held camp meetings on the opposite side of
the hollow from the American. Then when the Center Prairie school house was
built, they used it for a meeting house, both the Swedes and the English
speaking people. Louisa Anderson, now Mrs. William Seward, tells me that she was
baptised at the school house. Many of the inhabitants of the prairie had helped
to build both Methodist churches in Victoria, but they were now so far away and
had only oxen to drive, that they early began to feel the need of a church on
Center Prairie and when Peter Newberg and Exstrand started the movement to build
a church on Center Prairie they found willing hearts and hands to help. 'Exstrand
was a very bright young man, ' says Jonas Olson. 'Perhaps I am partial to him
because he was a cripple like myself. He walked with a crutch.' They were ably
assisted by the English people and Swedes alike, one of the most earnest workers
being Peter Skoglund. The land where the church now stands was purchased by
Adolphus Anderson in 1855 and he broke it up. In 1857 he sold it to Lars Johnson
and he in turn sold it to William Hammerlund in 1858."
"For a consideration of fifty dollars, Hammerlund sold
a piece of land eight and one half rods north and south and seven rods east and
west to the Swedish Methodist Episcopal church of the United States to be for
and under the control of the Swedish M. E. church in Victoria township, Knox
county, Illinois. The money to build it was contributed by popular
subscriptions. Many volunteered to haul a load of lumber back from Galva when
they went up with grain and produce. The mason work was done by Swenson from
Knoxville and the carpenter work was done by Peter Herdine, who lived in Galva
for so many years. But the building of the church in 1869 was not without some
opposition. Peter Chaiman, who had formerly been presiding elder of the Swedish
M.E . church of this district, assisted by John Wilson, a cabinet maker, and
full of gab, as Andrew Hartman expresses it, and who came to be a real free
shouting Methodist and who, wearing no suspenders, in the heat of his discourse,
is said to have shed his rainiment, organizing about three-quarters of a mile
south of the school house, a Free Methodist church. The money was raised by
popular subscription, but not enough was raised to pay the debt and so the
trustees paid the debt and tore the church down after some fifteen or twenty
years. In this church, the English Sunday school was held for many years. Thus
Center Prairie has been supplied since a very early day with ample church
facilities and I hope will take cognizance of this fact in writing the early
church history of Knox county."
The Cemetery
"One of the things neglected here, as in all newly settled districts, was the early setting apart of a plot of ground for a public cemetery. The early settlers buried on their own premises. The tabors buried on what is now the John Saline place, the Stuarts on the Stuart place, the Arnolds on the Arnold place, the Cliffords on the Dr. Craven's place where old Bobby Armstrong's first wife, who was a Clifford is buried. It was not until about 1858 that the family of Jim Thomas who owned the farm where the Center Prairie cemetery is located, lost several children to diphtheria and buried them there and when he sold the place to Olaf Bowman he received the present plot for a burial ground, and later, at the suggestion of William Messmore, deeded it to Knox county for a public cemetery. Center Prairie owes a dept of gratitude to Hohn Thomas for this generous gift and can best repay it by seeing that it is always properly kept up. The present neat appearance is due largely to the good work of William England, Charley Larson, and Victor Larson, who were selected by their neighbors to solicit funds and have it taken care of."
As to Utensils.
"The early settlers had very few of the comforts of life as we view them now.
There were simple cooking utensils. The writer has an old kettle that his
grandmother has baked many a corn pone in by placing coals under the kettle on
the hearth of the fire place and putting coals on top. Al the clothes were made
of wool or flax raised in the neighborhood and spun and woven by the women into
cloth. Much of the carpet woven in this locality by Aunt Margaret Larson,
Adolphus Anderson's first wife, was made on the old loom of Mrs. Thomas
Elliott's, and she used to weave the woolen and Linsel-Woodsey out of which she
made the clothes and blankets to keep her family warm. It is only within the
last few years that this loom has been destroyed."
"Practically all this whole prairie was broken up with
oxen. Burgess Elliott, Lars Ostrom, Martin Englund, and Adolphus Anderson did
much of this work. For this work they used a 28 or 32 inch breaking plow drawn
by from four to six yokes of oxen. Some of the back furrows can still be seen on
the Martin Englund farm where Mr. Englund now lives."
"At first the ground was very wet but within a few
years a ditching machine which pressed a round hole about three feet under the
ground and about the size of a six inch tile was used. This took the place of
tile which came later and did very well in an early day, but the hole was
gradually enlarged by the water until the top caved in and started large
ditches. Well does this writer remember when his folks moved south of the school
house, of crawling, as a boy, for rods in these blind ditches as they were
called. As the people in present day go to tractor demonstrations, so in those
days would people come long distances to see new and improved machinery."
"The sickle and scythe were not much used here to cut
grain but the cradle was although it was soon succeeded by the McCormick reaper
on which one man sat and drove and another stood and raked the grain off in
sheaves for the binders to gather up and bind. The first self raking reaper used
here was owned by Adolphus Anderson and his nephew, Frank Anderson, tells of its
first use. It was uses a quarter of a mile north of where the church now is
about 1857 to cut wheat. They used oxen on the tongue and horses in the lead.
Frank says he rode the horses. Among the men binding were J. K. Robinson and
Manford Mosher. Frank says they had molasses, ginger and water in a pail and a
long black bottle. Charles Clark and many others came to see the new reaper
work. Robinson says Frank carried the water and bottle and took toll for
carrying it to the others. Thus does the historian find himself in a maze of
uncertainty as to the true facts."
"In those early days all the corn ground had to be
marked out both ways and planted by hand. The tools they used to tend it with
were the hoe, single shovel, double shovel and bar share plow. It would look
funny now to see one plowing corn with oxen as Ben Nelson did about 1860 where
Fred Holstrum now lives."
Old Conveyances.
"Your historian has had much pleasure looking over the old conveyances of the
Patty place, the Arnold, the Stuart, the Peter Anderson, Louis Ostrum, Eli
Johnson and others. He has seen more patents by the government to land in the
last week than in his whole lifetime before. Cliff Gibbs has the original patent
to Tom Stuart from the government signed with the president's name. That is what
is known as a sheepskin. Besides a patent which is in effect a government deed,
there were issued to soldiers of 1786 and 1812 land warrants. This was a
privilege to locate a quarter section of land in this military district, enter
the land at the land office, surrender the warrant and get a deed in the form of
a patent. Eric Ostrom had such a patent issued in 1817 to Cornelius Riorden,
sergeant in Nelson's company of infantry to the U.S. after he had deposited a
land warrant in the land office that was issued on the soldier's bounty land of
the territory of Illinois in 1817. On the same day Riorden deeded the land to
Alexander Cooper and the deed is written on the back of the patent. It is sure a
curious document. In those days land titles were not so carefully recorded and
there was more or less counterfeiting of land transfers and the country was
infested with swindlers known as land sharps. It is said that Pete Skoglund paid
for his land two or three times rather than go to law about the title."
"But we must not think that all the life of these
ancestors of ours was bereft of enjoyment. They lived in a land of milk and
honey and had much to be thankful for. One of these was a famous peach orchard
owned by Tom Stuart. They were real peaches, says Jonas Olsn, and I can readily
believe him for you can always trust a boy to know where there's a watermelon
patch or a real peach orchard. With an ancestry such as this, it behooves us,
their descendants, to follow the advice of the poet who says:
Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate,
Still achieving and pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait."
Any contributions, corrections, or suggestions would
be deeply appreciated!
Copyright © 2003-2006, Janine
Crandell
All rights reserved
Updated October 27, 2005