Industry High School - Eagle Yearbook (Industry, IL)

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Three courthouses have been built at different stages in Macomb's history, all be- ing erected on the same location where the present one stands today, The first court- house, made of logs, was built in 1831 at a cost of under 370. The second building, erected in 1838, was a brick structure costing around 38.000, In 1860 Judge C. L. Higbee was addressing a political meeting at the courthouse when the building began to crack. The crowd dispersed very quickly, and after that, whenever a meeting was assembled, if a slight noise hinted that the building might fall, it was almost impos- sible to retain any audience. Contracts for the present courthouse were let in 1868. Together with its furnishings, the present structure cost around S155,000. The plan for the city of Macomb was given by James Campbell, pioneer store- keeper whose home was the second building erected in Macomb. The unusual ar- rangement of the streets entering the courthouse square and the rest of the lay-out of the city were copied directly from the ground plan of Mr, Campbe1l's home city, Frankfort, Kentucky. Just after the founding of the town came the great snow, For fhree days and nights the snow fell, pilingup to fourteen feet on the level and in drifted places still deeper. Some histories tell of children in the late '60's walking to school on top of the ice-encrusted snow over the tops of fences. Education in Macomb began in 1834 when a one-room one-window log school house was opened as a private school, Each pupil's tuition cost his parents one dollar in cash and three dollars in merchandise or produce. In 1835 McDonough College was established. This undertaking proved a failure as did four successive attempts by va- rious groups, All were short lived, Finally, in 1899 Western Illinois State Normal School, now known as Western State College, was established on a campus of approx- imately 70 acres on the edge of the city. The college has prospered and grown, now numbering some 1,500 students and sponsoring a Training School for grade school pupils in connection with the college teacher-training program, In place of the one-room schoolhouse Macomb now has five grade schools, one parochial, one Junior High School and a Senior High School in addition to the Training School at the college. It is difficult for people of this day, accustomed to the present 23 miles of paved streets in Macomb, the electric street lights and the cement sidewalks, to realize the primitive conditions which existed in 1856 when Macomb was incorporated as a city, Candles or oil lamps were used in doors, while lanterns were carried when people were out on the streets at night. The first street lights were gas, tended by men who went about early in the evening to light them and again later to extinguish them, the streets being dark from midnight on, until the present all-night electric lights were installed.

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STORY OF MACOMB As the true beauty of an object becomes apparent only when viewed from a dis- tance so can the real romance of a city's growth be seen only from a detached view- point, Progress can be noted as the contrast between what was and what is, The history of Macomb, located on the old Burlington Trai1 to Burlington, lowa, is inextricably interwoven with that of McDonough County, whose majestic courthouse dominates Macomb's Square. Both the city and the county were named for heroes of the War of 1812, General Alexander Macomb and Commodore McDonough, who together defeated the British at Lake Champlain. The whole area was part of what was termed the Military Tract, grants of land set aside for those who volunteered for service in the War of 1812. For a while McDonough County, as it is now known, was first part of Madison and then a Part of Pike County until its present boundaries were set up in 1826. Even then, though the county had its name and its boundaries, its administration and tax collection were left in the hands of Schulyer County Of- ficials until the new county should gain a population of 350. ln the same year the county gathered its first white settlers, William Carter and Riggs Permington, who set- tled southeast of lndustry, In the spring of 1829 Reverend John Baker, a Baptist minister, built the first log cabin on the site of the present city of Macomb, This building stood about where the high school stands today. The cabin was not far from the exact center of McDonough County, which is at the corner of West Piper and South Johnson Streets. In 1830 a court order issued at Rushville recognized that the county had the necessary population fof county government and an election for county commissioners was ordered held. These commissioners located the seat of justice at the hut of John Baker, then the only house standing on the site of what is now Macomb, In December of 1830 James Clarke was sent to Springfield to get title to the quarter section on which the Baker house was located. He did this, getting caught in a terrible snowstorm on his way back, and receiving the sum of three dollars for his trouble, The Baker house was built of logs plastered with ordinary mud and served as tav- ern, grocery, courthouse and clerk's office until a new courthouse was built, The site had been given the tentative name of Washington, but the state legislature, meeting in Vandalia in December, 1830, passed an act locating the county seat for McDonough and giving this county seat the name of Macomb. There has never been any attempt to have its name changed, It has remained the county seat in spite of a spirited attempt just after the Civil War to establish the county seat at Bushnell, For a few months official records of the county show a McComb spelling, thought to be due to lrish influence in the county before the proper spelling was learned.

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Before streets and roads were paved, people were often forced to use mudboats like scows, drawn by mules or oxen, to come to town since no horse-drawn vehicles could get through the deep mud. There were no sidewalks for some time. The first ones were made of planks laid side by side and fasted to stringers. Next came regular board walks some three feet wide, followed by brick walks, and finally concrete walks, The Chicago Burlington at Quincy Railroad's Kansas City Line came through in 1855-56, the depot being about 400 feet west of the present crossing on West Jackson Street. The Macomb, Industry and Littleton Railway was apparently in service as late as 1929 but has since been discontinued. Macomb is 'now a city of 10,312 11950 city directory censusj and extends over 2 314 miles. Its location in the center of a vast farmland area, with no large towns within a radius of 30-40 miles, makes it a natural hub of activity, not only as a retail and wholesale center, but also as a gathering place for men of all professions--law- yers, doctors, dentists, optometrists, etc. The number of fine stores surrounding the center courthouse square is constantly increasing. Macomb has achieved a reputation as a medical center. There are two hospitals, totaling 150 beds, Other institutions established to serve the public interest include two banks, one established in 1890 and the other in 1871, a public library, 19 churches and three hotels totaling 190 beds. One of the hotels, the largest, is community-owned. Recreational facilities include 4 parks, 6 playgrounds, a country club complete with golf course, and Argyle Lake project, two moving picture theaters and two bowl- ing alleys. The present number of telephones in the Macomb area has soared to around the 4,500 mark. Many organizations, including the Rotary, Kiwanis, Optimists, Business and Pro- fessional Women's Club, Elks. Moose and Macomb Woman's Club and many others, are represented in the city, One of the early industries of Macomb was the Tinsley Flour Mill, where such ex- cellent flour was made that it was sold quite extensively, much of it in St. Louis. Flour was then sold in barrels and the Tinsley Mill, located on South Randolph Street, had its own cooper shop and made its own barrels. Other early industries included a brick manufacturing plant and a woolen mill, both of which are absent from the cur- rent scene,