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Downs Township History
Railroads
McLean County, Illinois

(Transcribed by: Teri Moncelle Colglazier)

In 1868, under the pressure of the popular railroad arguments, Downs voted $10,000 stock in the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western Railroad. The road was built, and runs, for about five miles; across the northeast corner of the township, from northwest to southeast, cutting Sections 5, 4, 10, 11 and 13. The station on Section 4 is the only railroad station in town. This road was recently sold out under foreclosure of mortgage, and the stockholders get nothing for their stock. The Court, however, found a way to allow lawyers' fees, amounting to $32,000, for their labors in cleaning the stockholders out. The records of the township do not show that the lawyers have yet "declared a dividend" on the stock owned by Downs. The railroad agents, successively, have been C. D. Bellville, from 1870 to 1873; J. A. Davis, till 1876 ; George Willhoite, until 1877, and A. Daller since. [The History of McLean County, Illinois, Chicago: W. LeBaron Jr. & Co., 1879]

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