Townships of Jefferson County Illinois

   Pendleton township next south of Webber, is one of the best townships in Jefferson county. It largely lies in Moores Prairie, which has always been considered the cream land of the county; besides this was the very first settled part of the county.
   School and churches came early and have been in business all of these years with increasing zeal and usefulness, and if every family is not benefited by them, it is their own fault.
   The first town laid out was Lynchburg and it had much business until the Louisville & Nashville Railroad came along and the towns od Opdyke and Belle Rive were started. Colonel Hicks, Dick Lyon, Doctor Gray and other old citizens did business in Lynchburg. Jonathan Beliew was one of the first citizens, but he stole a horse, sold it in Fairfield, was captured and put in the old log jail east of the court-house; escaped; recaptured; escaped again and remained escaped. When the railroad came, the business men of Lynchburg went to Belle Rive and Opdyke.
   Belle Rive was laid out in 1871 and had for its first citizens, Jesse Laird, the owner of the land, Hughey Eaton, Howard Bondinot Chaney, Grimes, Guthrie, Seeley, Hunter, Davenport, Yeakley, Miller, Buchanan, Ross, Waters and a host of others. But Belle Rive allowed Dahlgren, across the line in Hamilton county, to get ahead of it in business still Belle Rive is a desirable place to live. It has churches, schools, lodges and good society.
   Opdyke was also laid off in 1871 and has not been idle in the way of building up and improving. Its first people were Doctors Stonemetz and Montgomery, the Jones, Estes, Phillips, Keller, Alexander, Adams, Allen, etc. Among the first things came school-houses and churches and no party of the county is better equipped with these than is Opdyke and Pendleton township. Opdyke has all the modern improvements and is considered a pleasant suburb to Mount Vernon the King City of Southern Illinois.
   The interests and population of Pendleton township have grown so fast that there are two voting places now one at Opdyke and one at Belle Rive. The township generally gives a Republican majority. W. A. Jones was Pendleton's first Supervisor.