Litchfield High School - Licohi Yearbook (Litchfield, IL)

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History of The Litchfield Schools, 1853-1946 The history of Litchfield and the now forgotten village of Hardinsburg are in- tertwined in the period of the 18 5 Os. The village of Hardinsburgf was laid out on January 25, 1850 and consisted of seven- teen blocks. At the height of its growth it contained a number of residences and business houses. J. M. McWilliams and James Cummings opened stores, Cum- mings also secured a postoffice and be- came its first and only postmaster. H. H. Hood opened up a drug store. The Methodist people erected a modest chapel. In addition to these, there were a school- house, a tavern, a wheelwright shop, a blacksmith shop, and approximately eight dwellings by the end of 1851. When the Alton and Terre Haute Railroad was built to Bunker Hill in 1853 and on to Clyde CHornsbyj in 1854, the people of Hardinsburg, foreseeing that it would miss their village, began a stampede to get into Huntsville. By 185 5, when the railroad reached Huntsville, the village of Hardinsburg had ceased to ex- ist. Nor did the town of Huntsville last long, as the Post Office Department re- fused to recognize the name of Hunts- ville, and the name, of Litchfield was se- lected in honor of E. B. Litchfield, who was one of the original planners of the town. In the fall of 1853 a syndicate of resi- dents of the Litchfield vicinity was formed and they agreed to lay out a town on an eighty acre corn field. After they had reserved the necessary land for pub- lic squares and railroad purposes they were to reconvey one half of the lots and blocks. When county surveyor, 'Hardinsburg was located a mile southwest of Litchfield, just south of the present Hardinsburg School. Ten Thomas A. Gray laid out the original plot of the town in October, 1853, the railroad had only been completed as far as Bunker Hill. Gillespie, from the west- ern end of the proposed road had been laid! out the same time as Litchfield and it is said that the men in charge of the selection of the point through which to run the proposed extension of the rail- road drew straws to decide between Litchfield and Gillespie. In this contest Litchfield won, and accordingly in Janu- ary, 1854, R. W. O'Bannon made the first purchase in the proposed town, buy- ing the east half of the block facing on State Street lying between Ryder and Kirkham, for one hundred twenty dol- lars. Owing to the settlers' urgent need for housing, no time was taken to erect new buildings. Odd buildings were moved to the site of the new town. J. P. Bayless brought here one-half of what had been a blacksmithf shop at Hardinsburg, Al- though it had neither floor nor windows, his family made it do as a home for sev- eral years. In the closing months of 1854 the new town showed an actual count of six families and a dozen buildings in- cluding a blacksmith shop, a wagon shop, two stores, and a crude hotel. Within a year there were eleven residences and a population approximating one hundred. On November 24, 1854, the railroad fBig Fourj was completed as far as Litchfield and this gave impetus to the growth of the village. By the fall and winter of 185 5-1856 nearly one hundred dwellings had been either erected or moved into the town. Ground was broken for railroad shops the same year and plans