Moultrie County History
The tall, gently waving prairie grasses, the vast marshy meadows, and finger-like rivulets of silent oak and hickory forest mush have been and awe-inspiring wonder to behold. For years they had been serenely waiting , virgin lands untouched by human hands. it was young land, compared to areas around it, fresh and not quite dried off from its birth. Its mother was the Wisconsin glacier which flattened the land, scraped out shallow lake beds, deposited fresh soil on the surface, and created the West Okaw and Kaskaskia Rivers with torrents of waters from melting glaciers during the hundreds of prehistoric summers. The was Moultrie County in Illinois before the Whitleys and Waggoner's, before the iron rails, and before the Army Corps of Engineers.
The virgin prairie and timbers of Moultrie County were well stocked with wild life. Wild turkey, prairie chicken, buffalo, elk, bear, wolf, and wild cats once roamed here. The buffalo herd found river fords, and the paths across the county became Indian trails, which the white settlers eventually turned in roads, some still in use today.
Prehistoric Indians lived in several areas along the rivers of the county. Archeologists have determined they were of the same "mound-building" cultures that built this advanced civilization at Cahokia Mounds near East St. Louis. most of the Indians had left the area by the time the white man arrived, but a few Kickapoos were still living in Marrowbone township in the late 1820's.
Moultrie county's geography has played an important part in its history. At first the rivers and the two to six mile wide wide bands of timber land along them were the most valued features of the area. Macon and Shelby counties had their first white settlements by the early 1820's. Civilization slowly crept inward from the south and west, following the Kaskaskia and Sangamon rivers. it was not until the fall of 1826 that John Whitley moved into the far northeast corner of Shelby county and built a home for his family along Whitley Creek, a tributary of the Kaskaskia. He and his family were only temporary residents, for in a few years they sold out and moved on for more "elbow room", leaving only their name as a reminder of them.
Two years later, came Isaac Waggoner with his family of five grown sons to settle permanently about four miles west of the restless Whitley on Whitley Creek. They girdled the trees to kill the leaves so they could have sunlight on the timber soil, and with oxen provided by Samuel Linlay, they plowed it.
Waggoner's sons scattered out along the creek establishing their own farms. Between their homes they wore a rough trail, which is still followed by a county road. other settlers arrived and later a small trading post grew up along this trail, knows as Whitley's Point. These early pioneers did not know they were the first settlers in Moultrie County, which was carved out of the northeast corner of Shelby and the southeast corner of Macon many years later.
Between 1828 and 1830, Marrowbone, Sullivan, Lovington, Jonathan Creek and East Nelson townships, all received their first settlers. They all settled along streams or on the two rivers in the timber land, shunning the rich prairie soils. The pioneers chose the wooded areas for a number of reasons. Much of the prairie land was swampy and poorly drained. In the drier areas the soil was matted with roots and covered with an impenetrable layer of three-foot high prairie grass. the crude wooden or iron plows could not break the sod easily, and the thick, mucky soil would not scour from the plow shares.
Their previous homes in the east and south had been in forested areas, and they were totally unfamiliar with the prairie. people of that era had the mistaken notion that trees grew where the land was richest. other more obvious reason for settling there were the available supplies of fresh water; wood for fuel, shelter, and fencing; and protection from a winter winds and the prairie fires of the autumn.
A self-sufficient, subsistence agriculture developed in the years before 1850. The nearest markets for stock and grain in the 1830's were St. Louis or the Wabash river, and these were too far away to have practical use. There is some evidence that the early settlers drove livestock overland to these points for market.
The area was not, however, entirely isolated. Besides small trails between settled areas, there were at least three major roads passing through Moultrie County by 1833. n 1828 a trail or "plowed furrow" called the Springfield road running from Terre Haute to Springfield was surveyed across the northern part of the area. by 1830 a well traveled branch of this road known as the Charleston road, turned off the Springfield Road at what is now Covington, went southeast through East nelson Township, eventually rejoining the Springfield Road. This was the trail on which the Lincoln's migrated.
In 1833 a third trail was surveyed from Shelbyville to Danville, cutting across Witley Township. One can tell by by approximate location of these early roads because in many places they are now township roads which do not follow section lines. In Lovington and Whitley townships the abandoned road traces can still be seen in some places.
The first industries in the area were grist mills and saw mills. in 1830 an undershot water wheel grist mill was built in Marrowbone Township. Three years later James and John Purvis saw the potential of the Old Band along the Kaskaskia River as a mill site. The river formed a horse shoe shaped bend which was three and half miles around, but only 70 stops between the start and finish of the bend. They dug a mill stream between the two parts of the river and operated successfully for a number of years before their mill was wiped out in a flood and the river changed its course, following the short cut they had made with their mill stream. The Charleston road crossed the river just a few feet to the west.
It was only natural that a town should grow up near the Purvis mill. Old Nelson or East Nelson, founded in 1835, south of the mill, was the first village in what was to be Moultrie County. Lovington started in 1838 after growing around the Black Horse tavern, an inn on the Springfield road. Bethany, known as Marrowbone, had a blacksmith shop on its site in the 1830'2. There were numerous villages laid out during the late 1830's through 1850'2, but most have long ago disappeared.
By 1843 enough people lived in the area to qualify as a county and the residents voted to separate from Macon and Shelby Counties. choosing a county seat caused a lot of conflict. Finally Asa's Point was chosen. It was an uninhabited central location. Established in 1845, it was renamed Sullivan.
During the decade of the 1850's a change took place in the life of the new county. The Illinois Central railroad was constructed, only eight miles to the east in Coles County. This provided a way to market for agricultural products. This land-grant railroad encouraged the rapid filling up of unsettled prairie land. The government subsidized the railroad building by giving the railroad one-half of the land along it right-of-way. The I.C. was anxious to sell the land so it could finance construction. Advertising campaigns were conducted as far away as Norway and Sweden, doubled from the 1850-1860 as did the rest of Illinois. The was a direct result of the railroad building in the state.
Coinciding with the land promotion by the railroad was a gradual shift from subsistence agriculture-clinging to the forest soils-to a commercial type of agriculture. By the 1850's the old fear of the prairie had subsided and John Deere's steel plow enabled farmers to plow the prairie much efficiently for the first time. besides, most of the timber lands were filled and newcomers had to move on to the prairie.
After the court house burned in 1864, Moultrie County sold its swamplands (that had been granted to it by the state in 1852, provided the county set up drainage districts and promoted swampland sale) to get money for the new building. The drainage of the prairies of the county was on it way. It was during this decade (1860's) that Lowe and Dora townships were first settled.
The prairie blossomed with new farms and the settlers prospered on the unbelievably rich land, but the residents were still disadvantaged by the lack of a railroad through the major towns. The I. and St. Louis railroad was built through the southeast corner of the county in 1854, but mainly benefited Whitely township, Sullivan was stagnating. Trade was taken outside the county to Mattoon, Shelbyville, Decatur, and even Bement, where prices were cheaper.
Finally, in the 1870's three railroads crossed the county, and the villages of Arthur and Dalton city grew up along them. Sullivan, Lovington, and Bethany also got a boost in prosperity. Sullivan, the largest town in the county, is still small compared to the county seats around, mainly because it was 20 years behind them in getting a railroad.
At the turn of the century, Moultrie county reached its peak population of 15,224 and most of the people lived on farms. The towns were all small. Any industry in the towns was directly related to farming (milling and the manufacture of farm implements).
After 1900 the population began to decline. Farmer's sons were leaving the farm. After World War I the agriculture depression, combined with the increased efficiency of farmers, drove more of them off the land. The towns in the county grew, but their few industries were unable to employ all the non-farmers. by 1930 there were only 13,247 people in the county. Today, modern roads enable one-fourth of our people to work in nearby cities outside the county.
July 3, 1958, is an important date in the history of Moultrie County. it was on this day that the Shelbyville Reservoir was authorized by the federal government, to be built by the Army Corps of Engineers. Construction began in 1963 and continued throughout a decade. The government purchased...