Olney Area High School - Olnean Yearbook (Olney, IL)

Page 27 text:

rh1s was the most frequent cause for anyone gomg anyplace 11 was only logtcal that the new county seat should be located there Luckrly for me a very energetlc man had lately come to the v1c1n1ty from Lawrencevrlle by the name of Iudge Aaron Shaw I do not care to get 1nto any argument about genealogy but as far as I know Iudge Shaw IS entrtled to whatever honor there may be for bema responslble for my exlstence Cer tarnly he gave rre my name and that ought to be suffxclent evxdence and nobody should be so uncharltable as to try to drag a one hundred year old skeleton out of the closet and try to breathe any scandal lnto our or1g1n as we assure you that everythmg was perfectly legrtrmate In our good democratrc way 1t was decxded that the txtle of County Seat should be determlned by a vote of all the people 1n the newly born county Watertown 1mmed1ately advanced her clarms and Faxrvlew followed su1t Fransoma also tossed her hat ln the rlng 1f she had a hat Iudge 'Shaw accepted the challenge and was all out for Olney he persuaded two estlmable gentlemen Mr Hrram Barney and Mr Thomas Lllley to donate thlrteen acres for my new home The s1te chosen was almost tn th exact center of the county and was on h1gh healthy land far dxfferent from the m1asm1c atmosphere of the Fox bottoms at Watertown and Fransoma and much better located than the s1te of Fa1rv1ew The battle waxed hot Iudge Shaw put up placards bearmg my name and pra1s1ng the beauty of my newly donated envlronment Watertown had all the advantage of age and prestlge It was not unt1l Mr Iohn Wolf another enterprxsmg c1t1zen had made a Paul Revere r1de to Falrvxew and convlnced the settlers there that 1t was erther Olney or Watertown and 1f they knew what was good for them that they would throw thexr votes and 1nfluence to Olney Otherwlse they would have two mlles farther to go and often have to swlm to get to Watertown Thls last mlnute dramatlc appeal brought the votes of many 1n the FGIIVIGW commumty to Olney and when the votes were counted 1t was found that Iudge Shaw s unborn fledglrng had won out by the blg marg1n of nlneteen votes Now you would have thought that after Iudge Shaw had accompllshed what he d1d that there would have been no one to dlSpUle hrs rlght to g1ve me my name Not so I became more or less publlc property and after more or less of an argument 1t was decrded to let three good men and true Samuel Olf1ClGl name These three VJISS men of a nat1v1ty of more modern trmes than the orrgxnal 1941 years ago flnally oy a process of el1m1nat1on got lt bolled down to two names Iudge Shaw s beloved Olney and the good agrncultural appellatlon of Farmlngton Iudge Shaw was st1ll ready to battle for hls good name He assembled the multltude and they appeared before the three wlse men w1th all the pent up energy of a modern C I O plcket lme We want Olney became thelr battle cry The b fuddled commlttee frnally gave up IH despatr and appearlng before the assembled multrtude exclalmed We wash our hands of th1s affalr see ye to 1t Whereupon the multltude ralsed a great shout saylng We want Olney and thus Olnev 1t became and st1ll IS VVe have been gllen to understand that the 1nsp1rat1on of our name so earnestly sought by Iudge Shaw was ID order to honor a very good frtend of hrs by that name who llved ln Lawrencevllle I have also been gwen to understand that Mr Olney was not sufflcxently honored to deem 1t worthy or hls tlme even to come over and take a look at me The name Olney 1S ho Never a not uncommon one and has an anc1ent or1g1n If the Mr Olney of Lawrence vllle d1d not care for the honor lmposed on htm 1t can be llghtlv dlsregarded for rf necesslty forces I can trace my lrneage back to W1ll1am the Conqueror who actually drd what up to date Adolph Httler has not done made the last successful lnvaslon of England IH 1066 We f1nd ln W1ll1am's Domes Day Book the word de Olner and there IS a town 1n Buckmglnamshlre England datmg Twenty three , . . . . . K I L. Lowry, a Iustice of the Peace, Iames Laws, and Ioshua Iohnston, select the .K . . . ' ' ' 1 - - . 2

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Rowlands were of thts early Englrsh and lrlsh stock many of whorn ha I9 lned w1th me for the century and have been promment ln my htstory Now for the Court House The flrst County Cornmtsstoners rn l84l Lot Basden Amos Bullard and Hugh Calhoun held thetr ftrst meetmg rn the log cabln of Bentamtn Bogard wht h stood on the present stte of the Charlte Harpster place on East Maln Street Thls may be located by those who do not know the Harpster place by the fuzzy old aroup of trees near the c1ty l1m1ts on tne north srde of East Maln In 1842 the Commrsstoners agreed wtth the Trustees of the newly organlzed Methodtst Church to erect a comblned Court House lvlethodrst Church and School House at a cost of not to exceed S200 Thrs noble butldrng was con structed of logs elght rounds hlgh The Methodlsts burlt 1t and the contract called for nrne rounds hrgh but when 1t was flnlshed 1t only counted up to erght Thrs means that there were only erght logs htgh mstead of nme and that any srx foot plussers who h1t the1r heads on the low rafters were sure to blame the Methodrsts for not l1v1ng up to tl'e1r contract Thts bu1ld1ng was located on Lot 4 of Lllley s addttron and stood for many years Just across the street west from the present lllmots Central depot In 1843 the second court house was erected on the present stte and was a commodrus two story structure costrng over S3 OOO It bankrupted the con tractors Asa Bearrd and W H Reed out was fmrshed by the help of Henry Sprrng three story monument of archttecture costmg over S25 OOO Whrch was destroyed by flre catchlng from a locomottve IH the brrds nests rn the belfry The present very fme butldlng was constructed IH 1916 at a cost of about S100 U00 and should be good for many years There IS only one thrng that I do not llke about the present court house and that IS the clock The clock ltself IS all rtght but the old school bell that was taken from the old Central School bulldmg burlt 1n 1867 doesnt always agree wlth a 1916 clock The clock was donated by Mr Iames E Wharf one of the former mayors and son Eugene Wharf and other rnterested CIIIZGHS and IS a good clock but oh' that bell' A few years ago rt got some very embar rassrng publrcrty by gotng on a strrke which would make one of our modern C I O strlkes look amateurrsh That clock struck over three hundred ttmes vrthout tollrng a breath and IS sald to ha I9 created a world s record for strrkes and was my face red? If they hadn t got the d rned thtng stopped I d have been 200 by now I lrke to dote on those early years as all old folks love to do I was known far and w1de as the pamted town Most early towns were largely log cab1ns llke Watertown Eransonla and Eatrvrew Not so Olney From the very flrst, rrost of the houses were made wtth real clap boards and were pamted whmte and as today I am noted for my whlte squtrrels so a century ago I was noted for my whlte houses Whlte has always been my predomlnant color Whtte houses whrte people and whrte squrrrels I have gone to consrderable detall to grve you the flrst few years of my ltfe From now on I must of necesstty htt only the hrgh places By 1847 I had grown to where I was gettlng to be a problem so tt was suggested that I be Twenty frve . , . , v The second court house served until 1874 when it was replaced by a , . I I K I I Y I I ,,-. . ' e ' , ' A , . .