Stanton Township History

 

Stanton township was taken from St. Joseph, in 1862, and was reduced to its present limits, in 1873, by the incorporation of its eastern portion into the new township of Ogden, organized at that date. Its boundaries are now identical with those of township 20, range 10, east.

One of the first settlers was John J. Trimmel, who built a cabin, and made an improvement on the east side of Spoon river, about one-fourth of a mile above its mouth, where Mr. Van Fleet now lives. Trimmel moved to this locality from Vermillion county. He entered the east half of the southeast quarter of section 26 (township 20, range 10), in the month of May, 1850, but the date of his settlement there was Inter, about the year 1857.

The first settler on Salt Fork was Levi Crayne, who came to the farm he now occupies, in section 23, in the spring of 1857. The country was then entirely wild, and it little looked as though the prairie would ever reach its present state of cultivation and improvement. Indeed, people told Mr. Crayne that he would never see the country improve, and that he would be destined to live always without neighbors. Mr. Crayne was born in Warren county, Ohio, but carne to Illinois from Fountain county, Ind. He is now the oldest settler in the township, and has lived longer in it than any other man.

One of the next settlers was a man named Wallace, who began improving the farm now occupied by Mr. McDonald.

Samuel Hayden and William Sutton settled on opposite sides of the Salt Fork. The former came in 1857, and the latter in 1858. Hayden sold his improvement to Luther Barnet, and went to Kansas. Soon afterward, James Yearsley, Christopher Cole, David Wilson, James Wilson, William Goble, Alonzo White, Abraham Thompson and James Carter came into the township. Yearsley settled where Aaron H. James afterward lived, and Christopher Cole on what is now the farm of Mrs. Narcissa Holliday. David and Jas. Wilson were bachelors, and lived by the themselves, on section 13; their sister subsequently kept house for them. They sold their land, and removed to Texas. Goble, White, Thompson, and Carter settled on the east side of Spoon river.

The first to settle on the Salt Fork, north of Crayne, in this township, were Thos. and Elias McKenzie, who located, on section l6, on land now belonging to J. C. Johnson and A. Timberlake. David L. Smith was an early settler on section 22, and J. Hutchinson on section 23.

On the west side of this township, the first settler was Frederick O. Frankenberg. He was from Ohio, and began making an improvement there, about the year 1856. Where Mrs. Samuel Brownfield now resides, there was an early improvement. Jonathan Hunt mde the first settlement on section 32. He came in the spring of 1858; he was born in Erie county, New York, and was one of the first justices of the peace in the township, and is still living on the place where he first settled. His sons, James H. and Filllmore Hunt, were the first to locate on section 33. On section 34, James Galt made the first improvement where A. Albertson now resides, and was followed by Isaac L. Lefever.

All of section 27 was originally patented to Robert Rice, who retained the southeast quarter in his possession, and died there, in 1877.

Claiborne Haworth began to improve the farm which he now occupies, in this section, in the fall of 1861. His brother, Willison Haworth, came to the township the year following.

On section 19, William A. Scott, who has been assessor and collector of the township, made the first improvement. Greenleaf Berkshire, further north in the township, lived alone, with no neighbors around him. He came there during the war, and has lived on the same place ever since.

E. W. Swisher has been justice of the peace for a number of years, and is an old resident. Erastus J. Clark came early to the township, in 1866, and has been a prominent citizen.

Stanton township, though not settled till at a comparatively recent period, has made a steady advance in wealth and prosperity. The Salt Fork flows through it, from north to south, and with this stream Spoon river, after flowing down the east side of the township, unites its waters.

No railroad passes through the township, but the Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western road runs just south, through St. Joseph township, and affords convenient shipping facilities, while the township is not far distant from Urbana and Champaign, the great commercial mart of the county. It has no post-office within its borders.

Here are two Churches, a Christian Church, and a Friends' or Quaker Meeting-house, both in the southern part of the township. A considerable number of the influential portion of the population belong to the Society of Friends---this being the largest Quaker settlement in the county, and their meeting-house the only building of the kind in Champaign county.