how many actually went from this township, as many went to other towns and enlisted there, and were never credited to this township. Notwithstanding this apparent loss, the township was never drafted, and, at the close of the war, had more than furnished its full quota.

Of those who went out to fight the battles of their country and who returned not, are remembered Daniel Feathers, Adam Hoffman, Michael Kauffman, Nathan Kinsey, J. Ewing, William Stone, John Harley, William Waltman, D. Perstannie, Emanuel Keeve, D. Brock, Peter Burbank, George Brown, Casper Heckard, John Caton. Caleb Chapin, William Haughey, William Owen, Clarence Trott, Edward Butts, Emery Crawford and David Mason. Quite a number of these were killed in actual conflict, some died in rebel prisons of starvation, and others of wounds or disease contracted in the army. Their bones lie mingled with the soil of the country which they went out to rescue from the hands of those who sought the destruction of the Union. The sacrifice was a costly one, but their country demanded and they gave it willingly.

The township was honored by the selection from the ranks of its brave boys of quite a number to fill high positions in the army. In Company A of the One Hundred and Seventeenth Regiment, the commissioned officers were all Mount Hope men. Samuel B. Kinsey, who had resigned his office of Supervisor, was Captain; H. W. Wood, who had also resigned the office of Constable, was First Lieutenant, and Dennis Kenyon was Second Lieutenant of the same company. Charles Beath was promoted to the office of Captain of Company A in the One Hundred and Seventeenth Regiment; Benjamin Hieronomous, to First Lieutenant, and George W. Brown, to Second Lieutenant. F. A. Wheelock and C. W. Wheelock were both promoted to captaincies in the Fifth Cavalry. A. H. Dillon was First Lieutenant in the Thirty-eighth Regiment; James Palmer, Second Lieutenant in the One Hundred and Fifty-second Regiment, and Austin Rollins was promoted to a Lieutenancy in the First Missouri Cavalry.

EDUCATIONAL.

Mount Hope Township is noted for its good schools. No interest has received greater attention than that of education, and the amount expended for the purpose of educating the youth is greater than that paid out for any other single object of a public character.

A lady of the name of Pierce taught in her own house the first school in this part of the county. She was one of the Mount Hope Colonists, and her house was just east of the village. The school consisted of a few of the children of the colonists, and the branches taught were a little reading, writing and arithmetic.

A schoolhouse was built in very early times on Section 32 in Town 21, which was then in this county, but now in Logan, and near where Atlanta now stands. A schoolhouse was also built at an early date in Funk's Grove, a little west of the present site of Funk's Grove Station. These two schools were attended by the children of Mount Hope Township for several years, when a house was erected in the colony neighborhood. This was a small frame building, and was erected for both school and church purposes. The building was erected partly with means obtained from persons in the East friendly to the colonists. It was used for a number of years as a house of worship and as a schoolhouse. Soon after the village of McLean was laid out, it was removed to that place, where it was devoted to similar purposes until its usefulness had been outlived and more commodious quarters, both religious and educational, had been provided.

At the time the boundaries of Mount Hope were fixed, in 1858, there were in the township five schoolhouses, mostly of rather an inferior character. At that time, the school law of the State had been in operation but three years, and a few items extracted from the report of Daniel Wilkins, then School Commissioner of McLean County, will be interesting and instructive, as compared with similar items of the present year.

*Extract from Daniel Wilkins' Report, 1858:

Whole number of schoolhouses......

Number of scholars.............

Number of persons between 5 and 21

Average wages paid to teachers per month..........
Whole amount expended for school purposes...

Extract from N. I. Leach's Report for 1878:

5

129

..287

$28 00

.$671 00

The first Township Treasurer was John Longworth, who held the office until 1874, when the present Treasurer, I. N. Leach, was appointed.

The people of Mount Hope are proud of their school system, of their comfortable and well-furnished schoolhouses and of their efficient school officers, and believe firmly that they will compare favorably with those of any township in the county.

MILLS.

Mill interests in the early history of the county were considered of much greater importance than at present. The easy communication between neighborhoods, towns and cities by means of the railroad has revolutionized almost everything, but nothing more than that of transforming the grain into flour or meal. To the early settler, one of the most important items in his calculations was the grinding of his grain. There were no steam-mills then, and a site for a water-mill was an important thing. The pioneers were all poor, and, though mill-sites might have been plenty, they could not improve them. Therefore, numerous devices were invented to convert wheat and corn into bread. A few were possessed of hand-mills not greatly unlike those in use some thousands of years ago, and to which allusion is made in the Bible (Matt., xxiv, 41): "Two women shall be grinding at the mill," etc. By and by, some of the more forehanded farmers brought in a kind of horse-mill, which, though a very primitive affair, was considered a valuable accession to the industries of the neighborhood, and a wonderful convenience. These mills were mostly used for simply cracking corn, upon which the old pioneers lived. Corn was the staple feed for man and beast, and upon it they all thrived and grew healthy and strong.

About fifty years ago, Isaac Baker began the erection of a water-mill on Sugar Creek in Funk's Grove, but for some reason, the enterprise was abandoned. It was at about that time that he was elected to the office of "C. C. C. C.," when he removed to

* This includes the portion of Town 21 north, Range 1 west, lying in McLean County.

W

Bloomington to assume the duties of said office; and this may explain why such an important project was allowed to fail.

About ten years later, John Caton erected a small water-mill on Sugar Creek, which has not yet ceased its busy din. The mill, though a small affair, had, in its early days, an enviable reputation, and was looked upon as almost an indispensable thing. Things are different now. Mills are now usually extensive establishments, and furnish flour to consumers hundreds of miles away. Formerly, it was the universal custom for farmers to make their monthly trips to the mill with a bag of wheat, and, returning a week later, find it ground into flour for the family use. Now, most farmers sell all of their grain at the nearest railroad station. The grain-buyer sends it to the city, there to be handled and commissioned by the elevator. Then it is bought by one of those extensive grinding establishments, made into flour, put up in barrels or neat little sacks, and sold to a wholesale dealer in flour. From there it goes, by way of the same railroad that carried it as grain, back to the village, where it was formerly bought to be handled by the grocer and sold to the same man who produced it. Everybody who touched it in the long round has made a little money out of it, and this leaves us in a quandary how all this can be done and still compete with good mills near home. Perhaps some of the late disclosures on adulterated food may yet throw light on the subject.

The little mill was years ago purchased by Jacob Moore, by whom it is still operated.

VILLAGE OF MCLEAN.

The year 1852 was an eventful one for the region of country through which the Chicago & Alton Railroad was built. Along the completed part of the line, sprang up a score or more of villages and towns heretofore undreamed of. The products of the prairie, in a very short time, from various causes based directly on the completion of this enterprise, doubled, trebled, and then quadrupled. This required a corresponding increase of trades to handle the same, and the railroad company gave every encouragement toward the development of the country and the villages along its route. Though McLean did not at once spring into prominence, it may be said it is, in every sense of the word, a creature of the road.

The town was laid out by Peter Folsom, then County Surveyor for Franklin Price, from the southeast quarter of Section 35, Town 22, Range 1 west. A stone planted in the northeast corner of Lot 1 of Block 1, was planted for the guidance of all future surveys.

The town was laid out June 20, 1855, but it does not seem to have improved much for a few years.

G. L. and F. A. Wheelock were in the neighborhood in 1854, and, in 1855, they moved into the station-house, and transacted the business of the company at this point. E. G. Clark, a relative of the Wheelocks, came about the same time. The next persons of importance to locate here were H. W. Wood and John Kellogg. They came to the place in 1856-Mr. Wood from Massachusetts, and Mr. Kellogg from Tremont, where he had resided many years previously. Dr. F. P. King, about the same time, removed from Menard County to this place, and engaged with Mr. Kellogg in the mercantile trade. The Wheelocks and Wood also opened a store. Perhaps we have made the impression that the above were the first merchants here. That was not