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Empire Township
Settlers & Settlements
McLean County, Illinois

(Transcribed by: Teri Moncelle Colglazier)

In 1827 big John Buckles of Virginia happened to find this beautiful grove along Salt Creek. He had wandered around for years, hunting for the perfect location to settle his large family. He built a log cabin immediately in what was called Buckles Grove. John was a hunter, not a farmer, and this spot was ideal for hunting and fishing. Food, and logs for building, and fuel were right at his door. John Buckles was a giant of a man weighing 380 lbs. He had 13 children but not all came here as some of the older ones had taken roots and settled along the way. He made a tannery, probably several of them, by hollowing out large oak logs for vats and using the bark in the tanning process. His boys soon became friends of the Indian boys who were nearby, playing games and running races. Aside from the very valuable timber, there were about 22,000 acres of beautiful rich undulating prairies in the township. This as well as the timber attracted other settlers. Jessie Funk and his brother-in-law, James Burleson, had driven a great herd of hogs into the grove the year after Buckles came. They established a camp for the hands caring for the hogs. There was much food there for swine including acorns. In that day livestock was driven across the country to market, often to Galena, Pekin or some other river town. Also in 1828, Aquilla Conaway brought his family up from Kentucky. He bought Buckles' house and claim-Buckles moving west from section 28 to section 29. Nathan T. Brittin and Thomas O. Rutledge came to Buckles Grove in 1829. In 1830: Henry Crumbaugh and son, J.H.L.; Daniel Crumbaugh and sons, William, John, and Leonard A; Michael Dickerson and sons, Robert F., Henry C, and Caleb P.; Daniel Jackson, James Rutledge, Silas Watters and sons, John and Chalton; James Merrifield and son Otho; Levi Westfall, James Van Deventer, James and Jerry Walden, all settled in various parts of Buckles Grove. By the 1830's Buckles Grove, built around John Buckles original claim, had become quite a settlement. Also many were staking claims elsewhere in the township. J.W. Baddeley, an Englishman, deciding Buckles Grove would be an excellent site for a town, laid out the town of Monroe. He put up a store and stocked it for trade. However, others had noticed the rapid growth of Buckles Grove. Among them Gen. A. Gridley and Gen. Merritt Covel, surveyors from Bloomington, who studied the lay of the land and decided that the natural knoll which lay almost in the center of the (Empire) township would be an ideal location for a town. About a mile to the east, south and west were the Buckles Grove settlers, while settlers to the north in Old Town Timber were only 3 miles distant. So in 1835 they purchased the 80 acres of which the elevation was surveyed and laid out the town of LeRoy. Mr. Baddeley was offered very liberal inducements to abandon his town and move his store to LeRoy. This he did and he and Amos Neal were the first to sell goods in the new town. The early town was laid out around a square. Lots were sold in December, 1835 and bidding was spirited. However, building had a very slow start. About 1837 Hiram Buck put up a hotel and by the fall there were a few log houses, stores and one frame store building erected by Edgar Conkling. At that time Mr. Buck, also a surveyor, laid out Conkling's and Woods' additions embracing about 120 more acres, lying on the west, north, and east sides of the original town. The following excerpts were taken from a letter written and sent by Hiram Buck on December 18, 1836 from Bloomington with no envelope or stamp but marked 18c postage due. "Land is slowly rising. I'm offered $11.00 an acre for mine. Money is plenty. Pork worth 5 to 5-1/2c; wheat $1,00; corn 20c; oats 25c; all in demand. My stock and loose property is worth probably twice as much as I was worth altogether when I landed here. Should I sell this place, I shall move about 10 miles east and settle in the town of LeRoy and buy a farm adjoining the town and keep a public house. This town has been laid off within the last year and the proprietor was induced to lay off the addition spoken of before. It lays on the road leading from Danville to Pekin and has every advantage of travel. --- It will no doubt become a place of business. At any rate it is as well located as any inland town in the west. "Our country is about equally divided on the great question of politics. The candidates for the U.B. party carried their ends in August by a majority of one vote and U.B. got 2 more than Harrison." Early settlers listed by Simeon West (Article on Pioneers of Empire Township, 1904) and other historians are as follows : 1830 — Ambrose Hall, William Davis. James Lawrence, Richard Edwards, Jacob Karr, William Johnson. 1831 — Reuben Clearwater, Amos Conoway, Joshua Hale, Aaron Williams, Andrew Deffenbaugh. 1832 — Abram Buckles and brothers, Peter, Thomas, and William; T.G. Barnett. 1835 — Mahlon Bishop, James Wiley and brother, Thomas; John W. Baddeley and son, John C, from England; Isaac Murphy; James Lucas. 1836 — T.D. Gilmore (from Kentucky); Elijah Hedrick, Elisha Gibbs and son, Simeon; Steven Conkling. 1837 — Hiram Buck and son, Thomas; Robert and John Barr; James Lincoln; Thomas M. Whitaker; James Bishop; Minor Bishop; Levi and Daniel Knott. 1840 — John and Jessie Karr; Thomas Martin; Thomas Rice; Henry Rice; Hamilton Gilbert. 1841 — Montgomery Crumbaugh. In 1843, E. E. Greenman, a popular peddler to Buckles Grove residents, was persuaded to open a store in LeRoy. He rented a building for $1.00 a month and paid $1.00 a week for board. When his landlord doubled his rent, he bought a lot across the street for $10.00, hired a man to saw up logs from the nearby timber, and in 21 days was in business in his own building. S. D. Baker went in with him. In 1857 they moved the old building and built a fine brick structure for $3,000. Other early merchants were Richard Edwards, Kimler and Bishop, L.H. and B.F. Park, E.L. Moorehouse and son, and Mr. McLean. T.J. Barnett commenced trade in LeRoy in 1852 and the next year built the post office building which was the first brick structure in town. Later he sold this and bought the Greenman building. He went into partnership with J. Keenan and in flush years sold $55,000 worth of goods. In 1854 and 1855, the firm of Crumbaugh and Reed had a large trade. All the goods from these early stores came by way of Pekin, being shipped there from St. Louis on boats up the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. Farmers hauled their wheat to Pekin to be sold or ground for their own use. In 1841 Elisha Gibbs built a good mill, run by steam, located on the south side of town. This served well until it burned in 1844. Buckles and Farmer built a steam grist and saw mill on the east side of town in 1853 and it burned in 1856. Hobert and Dickerson built a large steam mill in the west part of town near where the depot stood. This changed hands to Breener and Barnum, then Breener and Keenan and later to Barnum and Kennan who added a large grain and lumber trade. [Heritage of the prairie : a history of LeRoy and of Empire and West townships, McLean County, Illinois (1976) LeRoy Historical Society; LeRoy Bi-Centennial Commission]

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