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Page 61 text:
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L THE STORY OF LACON Colonizing a community and founding a town from wilderness and sav- agery means heroism and patience. There are stories of romance. enterprise and brilliant achievements, tales told and untold of intrigue and wrong doing, which. woven together, form a truly interesting history. The first inhabitants were undoubtedly the mound builders, and, years ago, there were traces of the monuments which belonged to that period not far from the site of Lacon. In sixteen hundred, or in the sixteenth century, Sieur Robert Cavalier de I.aSalle, the French explorer, took possession of all the Illinois country in the name of the King of France and the church. Xliith him was a force of armed men, artisans, trappers, a few priests, his trusted friend and companion. an Italian named Tonti, who was always in command in the absence of his superior. I.aSalle passed through the lakes down the Illinois River, and there is reason to believe he stopped where I.acon now stands and would have built a fort but for a large village of the I'ottawatomie tribe of Indians, who might have raised serious objections to the invasion of the French. lf LaSalle had decided to form a settlement here, and had succeeded, undoubt- edly the town would have had a French or Indian name rather than the abbre- viated lireek name it bears. Trappers and government surveyors were here in very early times. The earliest record of the first white settler was in 1818, when 'lohn Strawn and a man named Havers came from Newark, Ohio, looked the place over. and de- cided it was good. They found an open glade with an easy elevation back to the hills dotted with large oak and elm trees, an ideal place for an Indian village, and later a desirable location for a white man's town. The next year. I82Q, .lohn Strawn returned, bringing his family. The iirst winter they lived in a tent until a fine double log cabin was built. At that time the territory which now comprises Iilltllillll, Bureau, Stark and as called l'utnam in honor of Gen. Israel l'utnan1, of revo- 1831 the division of Putnam County was made and it was town where the Indian village had been before the Black Col. john Strawn and a government surveyor, named Thomas Patterson, laid out the new town, and William Strawn. a lad of fifteen years, rode a horse Marshall counties w lntionary fame. In decided to found a Hawk war trouble. dragging a log to crush down the blue-stem grass which grew as high as one's head. In their imagination they planned streets, business houses. tine homes, churches and schools. l,l'0YISlOl1S that were not furnished by rifle shot, trapping, or from the earth, were brought from Beardstown by keelboat. The new town was first called Strawn's Landing, then changed to
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Page 62 text:
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AC QNHIGH S cuoon. Columbia: but as there was a postoffice with the same name in the state, after some deliberation and consultation the name Lacon was decided to be not only unique, but the only one known at that time. lilisha Swan was an early white settler in the new towng he opened a gen- eral store and built the first brick house, a substantial looking building, still standing in the north part of town. The first religious service was held in an unfinished mill and the sermon was preached by the Rev. Quinn Hall. The Methodist Church was built in ISS7 and the first church of Lacon is now used as a store room in the rear of the K. l'. Hall. The first newspaper was pub- lished by Allen N. Ford and called The Lacon Herald. The first circuit court was held in the Methodist Church and Thomas Ford was the judge. He afterwards became governor of the state. In 1840 the first court house was built at a cost of 358.0003 it was burned seven years after and the old portion of the present building was built at a cost of SI2.000. The first marriages recorded were those of Elisha Swan to Zilpha Dent. Livingston Roberts to Margaret Dent, and Lemuel Russell to Sarah Catherine Edwards. Quite early in the history of the town there was a temperance organ- ization called the Xkashingtonians. Abraham Lincoln, in the early days of his law practice. often visited Lacon, and later. when candidate for Congress, made telling speeches in the hourt house square. During the Civil XVar Lacon sent many brave soldiers and also during the Spanish-American XVar. .Xnd in France, today, under the grass and flowers. a little white cross marks the grave of a brave boy. ' Une of the trying ordeals which proved a great burden to the business men of Lacon was the failure of the Air Line Railroad. Large sums of money had been subscribed and when the promoters did not make good heavy taxes were the result. Funds for school purposes were raised by subscription. Quali- fications for teaching required that the teacher write his own subscription paper. It was thought that women were not capable of keeping school. At one time there was an organized band of robbers in the country called Banditta of the Prairie. They had planned bold robberies in Lacon, but information from their spies concerning the number of rifies, shotguns, swords, horse pistols and determined men and women, led the banditta to give up their scheme of robbery. After the Black Hawk war a number of friendly Indians. who had never joined in the disturbances, lingered for a time about their former camping grounds. A chief, named Nacquette, had seven wives living in separate tepees about his larger one. He had a son, a handsome young brave, who fell in love
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