Clinton is the county seat of DeWitt County. Nearby is the Clinton Nuclear Power Plant, at one time considered a failed plant, but now busily generating power for the surrounding area, thanks in no small part to the plan developed by engineer George Hughes for bringing the plant online. The city of Clinton is named after DeWitt Clinton, who had been governor of the state of New York. Of course DeWitt County is named after the same person.
Clinton is also home to the C. H. Moore Homestead, the DeWitt County Museum, and numerous antique shops. There are several car dealerships, including Anderson Ford has the exclusive right in the area to sell special souped-up Ford Mustangs. The Douglas car dealership nearby is unique in that the cars are not floor-planned, but rather purchased outright. That could mean a better price for the customer, more profit for the dealer, or both.
The first settlers came to the area in 1824, and one family initially lived in an abandoned Indian teepee. Their early accounts off the area say the big bluestem grass was “as tall as an elephant’s ear.” As is the case today, trees lined the stream beds.
Most early settlers came from Kentucky and Tennessee, via Indianapolis, Danville, and Springfield. From Springfield they went up the Sangamon River and its tributaries to various parts of what is now Central Illinois. Their wooden plows barely scratched the surface of the deep prairie sod, and it would not be until McCormick and others invented the steel plow (and John Deere successfully marketed his version of it from 1837 on) that the prairie soil could be broken on a large scale.
Early European settlers did not believe that land that wouldn’t grow trees could be very fertile, but in time the prairie soils would prove to be some of the richest in the world. They planted maize, and often called it Indian corn, because wheat and other small grains were (and still are) routinely called “corn” in Britain. Corn was a staple in early days. It was ground for cornbread, cornmeal mush, and hasty pudding.
Settlers made lye by dripping rain water through hardwood ash, with straw or grass underneath. Dried, this extremely caustic base chemical was used to soften hard water for doing laundry and to soak the hard exterior off corn so it could be cooked as hominy. Dried hominy was in turn ground to make hominy grits, of southern breakfast fame.
In 1830, the Slatten family arrived and built a cabin about a mile west of modern-day Clinton, at a place later known as Pascal’s Mill. James Allen and Jesse Fell passed through the area in 1934 in large covered wagons known in those days as prairie schooners. They were travelling from Decatur to their home in Bloomington, when they noticed a large Indian mound. They decided that was a good place for a settlement, and they came back a year later and filed a claim.
In 1835, a small log cabin was built, the first in what would be Clinton. The hotel was of logs, and it was called the Hotel de Log. It was later the site of the first post office in Clinton. The post office was run by Miles Gray, a local tailor. It was on the west side of the present square, and it would serve as the first hotel there.
An earlier blog covers a bit of the government’s purchase of Kickapoo land, which made the land the property of the federal government. In 1836, William Anderson bought some of that land and built a hotel at the corner of North Center and West Clay Streets, about two blocks north of the first hotel. Sometime around 1900, the hotel was moved to 121 West Clay Street. Of course Abe Lincoln stayed there, as at so many area hotels. abin at the west side of what would be the present square. It was first used as a store, and it sat across the street from and north of the Magill Hotel.
Following a county-wide plebiscite, Clinton was named the county seat of DeWitt County. A series of courthouses were built and used by the Eighth Judicial Circuit Court, where such worthies as Abe Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas represented clients. By 1841 there were about 12 families in Clinton. It was the 1850s arrival of the Illinois Central Railroad (the ICR) that really benefitted the town, perhaps more than any other event.
Within 20 years, the ICR had built a roundhouse and car shops in Clinton, and that heralded about 80 years of Clinton as a railroad town, the very hub of ICR operations.
I did not arrive in Clinton by train, but on foot, pushing a mountain bike, with a flag mounted on the back. As I climbed the hill up toward Anderson Ford, I was dozens of small American flags along both sides of the highway. I had walked for a little over an hour that morning, after getting a later start than usual. Out in front of the VFW, on the right-hand side of the highway, there was a crowd of people, cheering and welcoming me to Clinton.
Some of the Well-Wishers at the Clinton VFW
Chance, Gage, Rob, Mom Deanna
A lifesaving award presented to a registered youth member or adult leader who has demonstrated unusual heroism in saving or attempting to save a life at considerable risk to self.
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Boy Scout Honor Medal
As I understand it, the boys jumped into the water to save the life of a six-foot-eight epileptic, who experienced a seizure while swimming. Once Wesley had the man’s head safely out of the water and had him stabilized, he sent Austin on a fast run to a phone to call for help. The boys were later written up in Boys Life for their heroism. They are very humble about the entire episode, basically saying that anyone would have done what they did.
Wesley, Austyn, Destyn, and Old Man
Mark Lane was a Force Recon Marine during the Viet Nam War. He was the first to shake my hand when I got to the VFW. He has had a series of adventures that might indicate a lifetime in the Marines, but he spent only 5 action-packed years, almost all of it in combat. He offered to reenlist or extend to stay in Viet Nam, but they turned him down. They wanted him to go back to the States and reenlist there.
Instead he went home and got out. I’m sure that was a serious loss to the U.S. Marines and for the Force Recon teams.
Mark Lane, Rob, and Lola
Lola sat with Mary and me as we ate lunch, and she told us lots about the VFW post. Earlier, during the meeting of the auxiliary, she had invited me to speak to their members. They have 60 members, and that enables them do lots of service activities. For instance one day they heard a soldier was coming home to Clinton, but it was already short notice, and he was to arrive that very day at 7:00 p.m.
Undaunted, Lola organized everything, contacted Clinton’s finest, and put together a welcome home event that must have really blessed that soldier. I know they blessed me with their heartfelt welcome to Clinton and their whole-hearted support for my walk across the state.
Lola even went back outside town to bring in my pickup, and later Deanna followed Mary when she staged her car out at the east edge of town, then brought her back to get my pickup, while I walked through the rest of Clinton. The Clinton Police had planned to give me an escort through town, but just as I was leaving, there was a serious car accident, and the police had their hands full with that. I did hop on the bike and ride through a very narrow underpass, and again for about a quarter mile or so around a blind curve.
I loaded the bike back on the front of the pickup, and then I followed Mary back to Champaign to enjoy my hard-earned weekend off.
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