Westville High School - Janus Yearbook (Westville, IL)

Page 12 text:

The Ghost City I lit rise and tall of the fast-growing mining town of Himrod occurred within a j eriixl of about IS years. Himrod was located about two miles east and half a mile south of estville, and all that remains to recall this former town of several hundred inhabitants is the old illage Hall, now little more than a pile of bricks. 1 he root is gone and the windows long ago removed. In the front part of this hall the Village Council met. under the leadership of Mayor Anton 1. Chromis, and in the rear was the village jail. The town of Himrod started with the sinking of the Himrod Mine in 1895 bv the Himrod Coal Company. . W. Keefer was general superintendent and manage! ot the mine. A village sprang up within a few years, the company building some 40 or 50 houses for the convenience of their miners, many of whom had but a short time before come from Europe. There were several grocery stores, saloons and other business houses, and more than 500 miners were employed there at one time. It was one of the best equipped mines in the county. Himrod was incorporated in 1897. When it was a flourishing town it staged one of the largest Fourth of July celebrations ever staged in that section. Judge ‘S- ,UIT?y C,a.rk then one of leading attorneys of the county, made the prin-cjpa! address from a large platform erected in a grove just west of the village. I he village at this time had a population of nearly a thousand people. In 1 H)8 the water broke into the mine and today only the old town hall stands as a remains of the former flourishing village.

Page 11 text:

THE CITY AS IT IS TODAY Tlit Grape Creek of today has dwindled to a small village of less than 500 population. The children attend the valley school before entering Westville High School. THE STREAM The little stream still winds its way. with the wild grape vines still clinging along its banks.

Page 13 text:

With the building of the C. E. 1. railroad and the coming of the train in 1880 the mining camp of Westville began to grow. There are two stories told for the origin of the name of our city : one is the fact that it was just west of Himrod , another is that the town was named after Mr. West, who ran a general store here in the 90's. At the turn of the century the Big hour railroad and the Lyons vards were located here, making Westville c|uite a railroad center and this was further boosted by the construction of an interurban line. When the Himrod mine failed, the houses of that village were jacked up and moved into that part of Westville known as “Sardine Patch”, and Westville was now the center of a vast mining area. The Kelly mine interests had been purchased by a syndicate for three million dollars. Also, the Dering Coal Company had opened mines just south of town. In 1907, Little ermilion Company was organized and in 1908 the Bunsen Coal Company, a subsidiary of I’. S. Steel, located a mine here and soon afterward acquired possession of the Dering, Vermilion, and Old Kelly properties. Westville grew by leaps and bounds and soon became a city of four thousand inhabitants and it all came about through the building of the railroads and the tapping of our natural resources.