1826
As winter turned to spring in 1826, Holland began farming an area of town which today would be in the southeastern section of the original city. He also began constructing a new cabin at what is now the southwest corner of Main and Holland.
Holland and his family were the only White residents in the area for about a year. In 1826 William Thompson of Ohio came and settled in Washington on a farm which would now be in the area of Cruger and Nofsinger roads.
William Weeks also came in 1826, from Indiana, settling in the area now to the northwest of Main and Jefferson streets.
John Redman of Indiana came in 1826 as well. He settled in what we now know as the Dallas Road area of town.
All three of the new arrivals settled on a source tributary of Farm Creek which runs parallel to Dallas Road, then flows south and merges with another source tributary just north of the bridge on Jefferson Street. In the geologic map below you can get a sense of how Farm Creek evolves and where the settlers first set up their residence as described in the text above, including a marker for William Holland at the bottom.
These four settlements were the extent of the White man settlement in 1826, in what is now Washington Township but was then just a part of rural Peoria County. Encounters with Native Americans were common, and timber and wild game around Farm Creek were abundant.