Early communities in Woodland were Zion in the northwest corner, Polsgrove where the Old Galena Trail crossed Plum River below the grist mill at it forks, and West Point which had a saw mill site about 4 miles down stream. .

At Zion were stores, a blacksmith shop and other businesses, the post office, Zion School and a Presbyterian Church and cemetery. A brass band from Zion was known to play events around the county. Just to the north was Zion Grove, site of many picnics. Presently at the junction of the blacktopped Elizabeth route and the Zion country graveled county highways, the businesses have long since vanished along with the church. Only the cemetery remains. The school which was the next to the last to close its doors was auctioned off.

The Polsgrove or Henderson School was about ½ mile to the east along the Blue Mountain Road and Mill School about the same distance to the west along the Old Galena Trail. Across that trail and the West Polsgrove Road from Mill School is the old Grist Mill church site of many years ago.

William Thompson was the first white settler in Woodland Township at 6278 N. Blue Mountain Road. Mr. William Thomson had made a claim around March 1836 (the first in Woodland Township) and began the building of a log cabin. Around the spring of 1837 Mr. Thomson moved onto his Woodland claim.

Other names that followed (and by no means a complete list) are:

1838 Uriah Green;
1841 Mathias Watson, William and Stephen Davis;
1843 Harlyn Pyle came and lived on his farm on Section 36;
1844 Morgan Price, Lucius Douglas and W. D. Gillogly; Spring
1856 Samuel and Eliza Buckwalter.

Polsgrove Mill was built in the early 1850’s by Captain Polsgrove, one of the early pioneers. In it’s hay-day Polsgrove supported a post office and general store as well as a sawmill, shoe shop and saloon. From this saloon came a gang of lawless country boys who were to become widely known for their “delight” was to run horses, drink whiskey and fight with and harass the passer by.

Three miles up the ridge on the Old Galena Trail stood the Old Gunsmith Shop that was run by a man named Lafe Mills.

The Woodland Brethren Church and Cemetery are still in regular use today sitting on land donated by George A. Moore.

In Section 14 of Woodland Township, about a mile from Polsgrove was an iron mine, long ago abandoned. This location was on the S. J. Adam’s Farm; later owned by the Metz family.

John Hamel Jones conducted the prospecting for iron in Woodland Township during the Summer of 1889 and helped open the iron mine upon discovery of float ore. Several shafts were sunk as well as a tunnel running from 100 to 200 feet into the side of a hill where they found ore of excellent quality. The ore was taken by wagonload to Savanna and shipped by train to Chicago’s smeltering plants. The operation was closed when sufficient quantities were not found to make the mine profitable. Mr. Jones daughter (Mary Jones Espenshade) indicates the mine was closed when one of the two English investors had to return to England because of ill health, and died there.

According to A Goodly Heritage page 94; J. Ham Jones secured the financial assistance of George M. Rose** an Englishman from St Paul, Minnesota. Upon the discovery of float ore and yellow ochre; a lease was drawn up securing the farm land thought to be rich in minerals and Mr. Jones helped open the iron mine. The excitement was so great in the area that a branch railroad from Savanna up the Plum River valley was even discussed for the purpose of hauling the ore to Chicago or even building a furnace in Woodland Township to work the ore in the county. Either way, the mine was closed and long abandoned with but a fence surrounding the opening to the mine to keep cattle from falling in.

Another Goodly Heritage report on page 126 indicates the laboratory report from Woodland’s mining attempt said the ore was of too low a grade to be commercially valuable. The Savanna Journal in Feb 1890 reports the building enthusiasm of the possibility of a thriving iron mine business in Woodland from the discovery of the ore some months earlier and even more enthusiasm in a March 1890 report in the same paper. Mathew and Andy Law both executed leases for their farmland to use for mining in March 1890. The end of Carroll County’s mining business ultimately followed one of the paths indicated above.

Woodland Township in 1939 published by the Stacey Map Company from Rockford, Illinois. Bert G. Buckwalter was hired as part of a government project to plat this part of the county in 1939. All townships in Carroll County are in the book, and in the possession of Lori Buckwalter Gilbert.

Index of land owners from the above map transcribed and arranged alphabetically by Lori Gilbert.

No attempt was made to correct spelling:

 
1939 Woodland Township Land Owners
 
A., H 			Hoover, John		Prud. Life Ins. Co.	   
Adams, E		Hurley, D		Randecker, Conrad	   
Adams, M		J., H			Randecker, D	   
Adams, S B		John Hancock Life Ins	Randecker, Geo	   
Allanson, Nable		Kearnahan, Ed		Randecker, John	   
B., H			Kearnahan, H C		Randecker, Jr	   
Beck, D			Kehl, Geo		Reed, Mrs Mary	   
Bennet, Stella		Keller, Geo		R., H	   
Boreson, O		Keller, Samuel		Roberts, G	   
Bork, Amil		Klitz, Sam		Roche, Austin	   
Bowman, Wm		Knader, M		Roche, Jas	   
Boyd, R E		Knapp, Geo		Rogers, Chas	   
Brock, Willis		Kroy, Jos H		S., A	   
Buck, Geo H		Kupfer, Chris		Sazma, John	   
Buckwalter, B		Law, Chester		Schnitzler, J	   
Buckwalter, J		Law, Clara		Schnitzler, Jacob	   
Buckwalter, Jacob	Law, Ed W		Schnitzler, M	   
Buxtton, J		Law, J			Schmidt, W A	   
Byars, Harry		Law, Lloyd		Schubert, R L	   
Byres, Emma		Law, L R		Sharp, Edw	   
Canbell, S J		Law, M A		Shimer	   
Carroll Co. Bank	Law, Mathew		Sisler, G	   
Carson, G		Law, Wm H		Smith, Elmer E	   
Carson, Robt		Larsen, John S		Smith, O	   
Coats, J H		Larsen, Sam'l		Smith, W Ray	   
Corbett, Zella		Lawrence, Kate O	S., S	   
Curboy, John		Lutts, Geo W		Strickler, John	   
Curboy, W		Mark, Caroline		Strickler, L	   
Daiphin, Dav		McCall, C		Summerville, Wm	   
Davis, Frank		McCall, Jas Jr		Sword, Earl	   
Davis, Wm		McCall, Mrs John	Tippton, J & C	   
Davis, Wm J		McCall, Richard		Toepfer, John L	   
Dixon, W		Messmer, Roy		Toepper, Henry	   
E., E			Messmer, Roy R		Toepper, H G	   
Eacher, L E		Miller, Geo		Toepper, John L	   
Edwards, A L		Miller, Glen G		Traum	   
Ehredt, C		Miller, Henry		Tripp, Clarence	   
Elliot, Wm		Miller, John		Wacker, Elijah	   
Engleking, Fred		Miller, John Jr		Wacker, Mrs. Carrie	   
Engleking, Henry	Myers, B		Weber, John	   
Frederick, F		M., R			Weidman, Jacob	   
G., K			Neilson, R		Williams, R B	   
Getz, Ralph		Neilson, R V		Williamson	   
Gillespie, E J		Nelson, J		Williamson, Jas	   
Greison, H P		Neuschwanger, E		Williamson, Jos	   
Guenzler, Chas O	Nordwall, H		Williamson, Robt	   
Haas, A			Nordwall, Helen		Williamson, Mrs E	   
Haas, Samuel		Pauley, Roscoe		Wurster, Chas	   
Hannes, John		P., H O			   
Hay, John		Polhill, H			   
Hay, W			Preston, R			   
Hay, W J		Preston, Ruth			 

*John Hamel Jones was a life long geologist coming from Ohio and married twice in Carroll County, Illinois. First to Elizabeth Lucretia Roberts; daughter of John W.B. and Mary Joy Roberts and second to Mary Buckwalter, daughter of Samuel and Eliza Stouffer Buckwalter. 1870 he is a young married man in Mt Carroll Township. In 1880 we find him mining in Aurora, Grand County, Colorado but returned to Savanna before 1889.

** 38 year old George M. Rose came to the U.S.A. 4 Oct 1882 from Liverpool, England on the ship Scythia. We have no record of the length of his stay in Carroll County.

History of Woodland Twp. From "Historical Cncyclopedia of Illinois and History of Carroll County 1913"

The last census placed the population of Woodland at 794. It is a timbered country and was first occupied by William Thomson and Moses Wootan.

Uriah Green settled in this township in 1837 and became a very extensive farmer and stock raiser and was one of the wealthiest men in the county at the time of his death. The Hendersons and the Gills came to the township in 1842 or ‘43; Mathias Watson, 1841, and William Davis the same year. He was born in West Virginia and came to Vermillion County, IL in 1824. He lived with his parents on Indian Creek, six miles from Ottawa where his father was building at the commencement of the Indian War. All the neighbors had gone to Ottawa except two families who were at his father’s cabin. They were attacked by the Indians and his father and mother, two brothers and two sisters with several others were massacred. Mr. Davis and his brother, Stephen, escaped. When he came to Woodland he ran a saw-mill, one of the first, in the county. This probably was the Emmert Mill built at West Point and Plum river by David Emmert in 1842.

SAW-MILLS

These saw mills, although very primitive, were a great saving of labor in the sawing of logs into boards and other kinds of sawed timber which otherwise would have to have been hewn. They were usually constructed as follows: A dam and flume was built in the creek or river and the water shot down a planked flume twelve feet wide. A long straight white oak log was used for the axle of the wheel. Mortices were made through it in which cross bars were placed and on the ends of these bars wide planks were pinned, thus making a wheel with four paddles. The wheel was erected over fte flume so that the edge of the plank moved close to the bottom of the flume. To the end of the axle an arm was fastened like the crank or handle to a chain pump, and to the end of this crank was attached one end of the pitman. The other end of the pitman had the saw attached. It was hung in a long frame from which it got its name of a sash-saw to distinguish it from rotary saw. This frame ran in slides upon two heavy posts. The log to be sawed was placed on a frame and fed against the saw by means of levers worked by hand. The owner of the mill took half the lumber for sawing the logs.

LEAD MINES

Some of the early settlers were attracted to Woodland township by the lead mines where a good deal of mineral was dug in early days. It was also found in the neighboring township of Mount Carroll. Among these men were Morgan Proce, (1844), Peter Hay (1851) and others. Lucius Douglas and W. D. Gillogly came to Woodland in 1844. Daniel Kingery first settled here and then bought a fine prairie farm in Salem township, which his son Andrew Kingery now owns. Elijah Funk for many years county surveyor had bought from the Government a large tract of land near the center of this township thinking it much more valuable than the fine prairie land which he surveyed in later years when the farms were worth many times the value of the land he had bought in early days in Woodland township.

THE HAY FAMILY

Of the very early settlers of Woodland but few now remain and few of their descendants are left, the Hay family being about the only one. The others as time passed sold their farms and went west or settled in the towns pursuing other occupations than farming. Fifty years ago some wheat was raised in Woodland and a grist-mill near the junction of the east and west branches of Plum river did considerable business grinding grain and making flour for home consumption. A saw-mill was operated in connection with the mill. Samuel Yantz first built the dam and mill in 1849, leased it to Harvey and Ranse Wilsen, later of Elkhorn Grove. He sold it to Abraham Polsgrove in 1855, who caused it to be torn down, and the dam was washed away by the floods in the river.

CHEESE FACTORY

In the northern part of this township is a cheese factory which is operated on the co­operative plan by the neighborhood farmers. It has been a success and has enabled them to market the milk from their cows at a fair profit.