1834

In 1834 the log schoolhouse west of town was closed down due to an accident.  The accident, according to old settler David Kindig:

There was a long school house built near the graveyard on the land now owned by Squire Baker. This girl, with others, was seated at the desk facing a window east. The Banta family lived some three hundred yards due east from the schoolhouse. Cornelius Banta had been having typhoid fever and ague. One day he took the gun and went out to kill a squirrel. He found one sitting on a tree 200 yards from the schoolhouse. He shot direct north, the schoolhouse being west of him. When he shot the ball struck a limb or something and glanced, going direct through the window and striking this girl in the head. Old Drs. Wood and Goodwin were called. They removed the ball (as supposed) from under the scalp, believing the trouble was all over, but not so; the patient grew worse. They summoned a doctor from Pekin in company with the doctors here, returned, made another examination, and found that part of the ball had passed through the skull. Found it between the skull and lining of the brain.

After removing the remainder of ball and piece of bone, the patient got well. Some thought the ball was split passing through the glass; others when it struck the skull bone. I should judge the latter. This young lady afterwards became the wife of George Gipson of El Paso. Sorry to say this accident broke up the school. The teacher, (being a stranger), left for parts unknown.

Also in 1834, William Holland officially laid out the town of Washington.  The original village only included what is seen in the map below.

Joseph Kelso Sr. built the first house in the new town that same year, buying three lots from Holland for $1.50.  Later, in 1834, Stiles and Titus Hungerford constructed the Hungerford House on the northeast corner of the square.

John Lindley took over the duties of postmaster on September 10, 1834, from Charles Dorsey.

Speaking of Dorsey, the Presbyterian Church was first organized on November 16, 1834, in his store by Flavel Bascom and Lemuel Foster.  Dorsey hung a tablecloth over his shelf of liquor during their first organizational meeting.  The following ten people were charter members of that church: Henry Kice, Mary Kice, John J. Tool, Elizabeth Tool, Horace Blair, Rebecca L. Blair, Elizabeth Reid, Charlotte Birkett, David Gibson and Mary Gibson.  David Gibson and Horace Blair were elected ruling elders.

In late 1834, William A. Tinney, who had first arrived in our town with his wife Sarah a year or two prior, applied to the Tazewell County Board for application to open a tavern, becoming a second location in the township for the drinking of alcohol.

The Thomas and Margaret Trimble family arrived in 1834, settling on a farm northwest of town.

Several other buildings were built around 1834, most of them log cabins.  Charles Dorsey built the first frame building in the township where the Esser Building currently sits on the square (108-110 North Main).  He used the building as his residence as well as his store.

Back to 1833 --- On to 1835