History Dwight, Illinois

1 history

1.1 founding dwight
1.2 dwight
1.3 original design of dwight
1.4 prince comes town
1.5 growth of dwight
1.6 june 2010 tornado

history
founding dwight

dwight laid out on 30 january 1854 richard price morgan, jr. (17 september 1828- 20 may 1910), james c. spencer (29 july 1828 – after 1990), , john lathrop (6 march 1909 – may 1870), each of these 3 men took quarter of land. working engineers railroad. final quarter jointly owned 2 bloomington brothers, jesse w. fell (10 november 1808 – 25 february 1878) , kersey h. fell (1 may 1815 – 1 may 1893) 5 distinguished group of men , had links chicago , mississippi railroad. spencer born in hudson river valley south of albany; ancestors included united states supreme court chief justice , 2 governors of new york; later have important career in wisconsin railroads. lathrop civil engineer long history of working canals , railroads in new york; return buffalo. morgan son of noted civil engineer , later became nationally known work on electric railroads in new york. fell brothers well-connected bloomington land developers had been active in helping found many central illinois towns including clinton, normal, pontiac, , towanda. employed railroad land agents; fells perhaps best known today role in persuading abraham lincoln write autobiography. plan of founders purchase block of land along route of railroad , divide 4 equal parts. morgan take charge of operation. draw plat of new town, sell lots, , divide proceeds among others. station placed @ point 4 quarters met. unsold lots divided among partners. other men seemed believe morgan acting in interest of railroad. town named henry dwight, had funded of building of part of railroad. chicago , mississippi became chicago , alton railroad. attempts in 1858 rename jersey, beckman, or dogtown failed.

early dwight

unfortunately partners, plan did not go quite expected. when surveyors, working railroad’s chief engineer, oliver h. lee, reached proposed location of town in 1853 speculators found tracks pass east of planned central point , go through lands in morgan’s part of land. have made morgan s lots more valuable others. men reconsidered plan. in revised version, convey lots morgan, sell lots, , split total profits. done. in 1855 partnership dissolved , unsold lots divided among 5 men. announce public town located here, tin pan placed on top of telegraph pole. railroad workers flooded townsite. morgan became afraid cover valuable lots “irish shanties” , make lots unsellable. therefore, had john campbell erect boarding house. first building in dwight. first house in town built augustus west in june 1854. first passenger train reached dwight on 4 july 1854 , regular traffic on railroad began in august of year. first store 2 story building put david mcwilliams in 1855 , painted white attract customers. first item sold pattern “lawn dress” 1 of workmen purchased wife of station master. in 1857 john spencer began buying grain , erected grain warehouse. grain elevator followed , large stone mill built in 1859.

dwight , watertower, 2006


original design of dwight

like new towns founded in illinois in 1850s, dwight designed without town square. centered instead on depot ground. widened area of railroad property, 1,000 feet long , 200 feet wide, tracks passed through town. such depot grounds common in towns of 1850s , may still found @ gridley, chatsworth, odell, towanda, mclean , many other central illinois places. 1870s depot grounds had begun fall out of favor. unfortunately, while morgan had deeded central 100 foot band chicago , mississippi, never got around turning on remainder of depot grounds railroad. led tangled lawsuit, had settled united states supreme court. suit provides excellent information on history of dwight. dwight s original town quite large, consisting of twenty-four blocks each of contained twenty-eight lots. unlike odell, entire original town aligned railroad, small central part of original town of dwight paralled tracks, west street running diagonally on northwest side of railroad , east street on south side. in remainder original town, streets ran true north-south or east-west. created 2 odd triangles of land these streets met diagonal streets @ center of town. southeastern triangle became site of dwight’s waterworks. depot on northwest side of tracks.

the prince comes town

the best remembered event in history of dwight time england s prince albert, prince of wales, son of queen victoria , heir british throne came stay few days in town. (at time, town known dwight s station.) prince supposedly traveling incognito lord renfrew, using 1 of lesser titles, fooled no one. visit important enough local people recorded exact time prince arrived: twenty-seven minutes after 6 on afternoon on saturday 22 september 1860. stay charles c. spencer, 1 of dwight s founders, @ spencer s farm south of town. local couches , chairs deemed insufficient royal highness, spencer s furniture stored, , prince s own furniture, had been shipped ahead, placed in house. after crown prince arrived shooting began; first bird shot royal visitor little screech owl, can not have provided in way or either sport or food. in following days hunting improved. royal party killed on 200 prairie chickens , quail. prince albert attended sunday services @ local presbyterian church. on wednesday, 26 september, departed not before planting elm on spencer s farm. prince albert went on become king edward vii , people of dwight have never tired of talking visit. in 1878 grounds of house prince stayed improved famed american landscape architect ossian cole simonds , in present century given town , have become renfrew park.

dwight library, 2007


growth of dwight

in 1869 prospects of dwight improved when second railroad constructed linking dwight streator, illinois. in same year chicago , alton railroad double tracked odell gardner. first brick house in dwight built in 1872. h 1891 became clear growing town needed new railroad station , railroad hired henry ives cobb design building. result splendid richardson romanesque building, in 1982, added national register of historic places dwight railroad station. new downtown building on national register frank l. smith bank opened in 1906, designed frank lloyd wright. in 1879 dwight physician, dr. leslie keeley, working richard oughton, announced had found cure alcoholism based on gold chloride. keeley institute became world-famous treating hundreds of thousands of patients including elliott roosevelt, brother of president theodore roosevelt. john r. oughton house, on south side of dwight, added national register of historic places in 1980. in 1930 state of illinois established oakdale reformatory women in dwight, has since become dwight correctional center. in 1921 paving finished on chicago springfield road, in 1926 designated route 66. in 1964 first phase of interstate 55 completed , dwight became increasingly highway oriented town.

june 2010 tornado

on june 5, 2010, ef-3 tornado ripped through streator , later dwight. described 1 ap reporter covered disaster, tornado literally rearranged these towns of dwight , streator, worst damage in mobile home parks , downtown streator. residents of dwight thankful fact tornado largely spared town.