of Menard and Mason Counties
By T.G. Onstott
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CHAPTER XXV Page 264 Havana, the county seat of Mason county, is situated on the east bank of the Illinois river. It is high and above the high water mark. The soil is very sandy. Its main production in an early day was sand burrs and fleas. The sand burr still survives the wreck of time and flourishes like the bay tree, while the flea is a thing of the past. It is supposed that they could not stand an advanced civilization. Havana is built on a high bluff, perhaps one hundred feet above the river and a quarter of a mile farther east is a second bluff. Havana is forty-seven miles north of Springfield and two hundred miles southwest of Chicago, forty miles south of Peoria and nearly two hundred miles north of St. Louis. Havana had a postoffice before Chicago did. The mail was carried on horseback from Lewistown to Springfield. The first justices of the peace were Eli Fisk and A.W. Kemp. There was some work for the justices in those days, as Fulton county would sometimes come over in force with clubs and cord wood, and many were the pitched battles fought after the combatants had filled themselves up with rot gut whisky. There fracases, with the building up of Point Isabel, were transferred across the river, and every Saturday afternoon the people of Havana would gather on the banks of the river to witness the battle. So common had this became that the name of Isabel was changed to "Bloody Point." Then the Crane Creek and Sangamon timber boys would come to town and conceive the idea of having a little fun and, after filling up with booze, would start out to run the town. It was said that Uncle Jesse Baker commenced to have his fun at one time and that C.W. Andrews was commissioned to arrest him. Uncle Jesse, being a law-abiding citizen, made no resistance. Uncle Jesse's by-word was "sartin and sure." Before 1857 there were no brick houses in Havana, when James H. Hole built a brick store house and William Walker built a dwelling house. We find in writing up the townships and then the towns in the same townships that some facts and incidents are liable to be repeated, if so, our readers will pardon us for repetition. Rev. Michael Shunk was perhaps the first Methodist preacher in Havana. He always filled his appointment no matter what was the condition of the roads or weather. Shunk had charge of the Methodist Church in Mason county as far back as 1838 and for fifty years was a faithful preacher of the gospel. The Baptist Church dates back in the "forties," although the Baldwins had preached here several years before. The German Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized in 1850 and has always been strong in numbers and wealth. The Catholic Church has been in good running order since the war. The Reformed Church was organized in an early day and has come to stay. We understand they have a fund to draw from in New York. The county seat question agitated the public mind for a number of years. In an election held in 1843, Bath won and the county seat remained there till 1851, when another election was again ordered and Havana, by a decisive vote, regained the court house. This probably settled the question for all time, as the north end of the county has two-thirds of the population. There is one eye sore. Though the public square is well set with trees and the grounds covered with a fine coat of blue grass, the court house is a dingy old building, not fit for a county like Mason. We believe we have given as full a history of Havana township and Havana as the brief limits of this little volume will warrant and will close up this part of the work.
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