IL American - Champaign

IL American - Champaign Drinking Water Report Info
The story of the City of Champaign begins at any rate as far back as the establishing of the county and the establishment of Urbana as the county seat. The individual most responsible for the new county was State Senator John Vance, who represented Vermillion County as well as the chaotic areas toward the west and north. Vance decided Champaign County's borders and provided the names for both the county and its seat of justice. Hailing from Urbana, the county seat of Champaign County, Ohio, Vance did what numerous others had done through homesickness, nostalgia or absence of creative mind, he conveyed spot names with him as he moved west. When the county appeared in 1833, the territory was a wilderness – 80 percent prairie. The staying 20 percent was timber, to a great extent along creeks and streams. Early settlers shunned the prairie territory, leaning toward instead to clear timber for their homesteads. The southwest corner of one of these forested areas, Big Grove, was selected as the area for Urbana. County populace growth was slow for the following 20 years, especially in the 36 square mile region that was to turn out to be West Urbana and later Champaign Township. The 1878 history offered a short clarification: "It was not until after 1857 that the township started to top off to any obvious degree. The slow growth previous to that period was no uncertainty owing to the assessment by and large that the prairie was not a fit residence for man." But the days that Champaign County was to stay a wilderness backwater were numbered. In 1850, President Pierce approved the land award for the Illinois Central Railroad. Late in the following year, one of the most massive construction projects witnessed by the youthful country was started. The first primary line was to keep running from LaSalle-Peru to Cairo. The Chicago Branch would interface Chicago via east-focal Illinois to the principle line at Centralia. Survey crews mapped four possible routes for the branch across Champaign County, selecting the one which kept running across the open prairie two miles west of the Urbana courthouse. J. O. Cunningham, a Urbana newspaperman when the Illinois Central was constructed, discussed the last decision in this 1905 History of Champaign County: "Why the westernmost line was adequate and two towns made possible – if not inevitable – has long and often been misunderstood and-however not purposefully ­misrepresented." Various stories have, truth be told, flowed over the years concerning the bypassing of the county seat contributing self-interest to the railroad and stupidity to Urbana citizens. The earliest, absent significant details, was connected by Lothrop in his first history of Champaign County (1870). "The purpose of the company constructing the Illinois Central Railroad was to run the line through or close, the City of Urbana, yet owing to some trouble in getting the option to proceed, and lands regarded necessary for the use of the company, that course was surrendered … And thus started Champaign, which yet for the terrible disagreement between the railroad and the citizens of Urbana, would never have been known." A progressively specific version was connected in the 1878 county history: "The area of Champaign … grew out of a disagreement between Colonel M.W. Busey, owner of a huge group of land close to Urbana, and the Illinois Central Railroad Company … Col. Busey spent some time in proving that the Urbana line was a superior one than the proposed Danville course. His arguments prevailed, and the Urbana line was settled on and surveyed as needs be. The company asked the Colonel to give to them 80 acres close (Urbana). He declined to do this, however offered to give them 20 acres for the stop and round-house, and sell 40 acres more at a reasonable cost. The officials would not acknowledge his proposition, yet took steps to run their line further west, and establish their terminal at a considerable distance from their county seat, which was finished. Having found their line, the company selected 80 acres as the site for the new town­ which land had a place with Colonel Busey." Both of these stories strain credulity. Presumably the most significant reason for questioning them is that they don't concur with the version related by Cunningham, who wrote in 1905: "At the time, economy in the construction of the line was of a lot more prominent significance to the company than was the running of the line close by an instant town-especially so insignificant as was Urbana at the time." Cunningham's conclusion was seconded by Illinois Central historian, Howard Brownson: "Thus the company selected the course completely upon its monetary and building merits and with exceptions, the line chosen was the most immediate and shortest of the possible routes." An assessment of the topographic guide of Champaign County would affirm that. The tracks strike deftly across the county along the waste divide – the Sangamon and Kaskaskia on the west, the Middle Fork, Salt Fork and the Embarrass on the east. Moreover, the railroad owned arrive on the two sides of the option to proceed and easily could have found the station without anyone else land. It seems that the railroad would have had a strong predisposition to choose its own territory instead of land for which it needed to pay, especially land having a place with Busey if there had been a disagreement. Moreover, Busey was an early advertiser of the railroad, both as an individual from the legislature, and later as a private resident. "His services," as indicated by his history in Pioneers of Champaign County" (were) invaluable in securing the contract for the Illinois Central Railroad." Why would Busey have fought with the Illinois Central, a company he had helped, over so small an issue? Also, Cunningham states that Busey, "was similarly interested in the land flanking the majority of the (proposed) lines." The last to pick up in either case. It does seem strange that after not purchasing open lands for almost 10 years, Busey made a blessed purchase of 80 acres through which the Chicago Branch just happened to be assembled. A supporter of the enterprise, he most likely followed events closely and when, in 1848, it turned out to be clear Chicago would be served by the railroad, he made a particularly decent guess as to where the line may go. Busey kicked the bucket on December 13, 1852, however not before he had discussed station sites with the railroad. Just over five months after the fact, his son-in-law sold the strategic 80-section of land tract to the Illinois Central for the royal sum of $1,600. (Open land, where available in the region, was valued at $1.25 per section of land, so Busey had paid $100 for the land in question less than five years sooner.).