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Community of Normal History
McLean County, Illinois

(Transcribed by: Teri Moncelle Colglazier)

The town of Normal was incorporated in 1865. Some 20 years ago [1910] an era of extensive public improvement was inaugurated under Mayor Manchester, resulting in many miles of pavement, a municipal waterworks and a part in the establishment of a modern sewage disposal plant for the Normal-Bloomington sanitary district. Normal now has a modern business district. Population of the town. 6,768. ["Official souvenir program, McLean County Centennial, Aug. 27, 28, 30, 1930" by: McLean County Illinois Centennial Souvenir Program Committee, Harold Lang and Eugene Funk] The township in which the town is located, bearing the same name, in 1950 had a total population of 10,444. First to settle in the township area was Achilles Deatherage, believed to have arrived in 1831. Later that year came Robert Guthrie. After 1835 the area became known as Major's Grove, a large portion of it having been acquired by the Reverend W. T. Major. He later established a school here known as Major's College. Subsequently, a village was laid out here called North Bloomington. After the Illinois State Normal University was located here in 1857, the name of North Bloomington was changed to Normal. [This is McLean County, Illinois by: John Drury, The Loree Co., Chicago, Illinois (1955)]

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