These townships were one until 1896, and therefore their history is one until
that time, and will be treated as one, but the cities of Odin and Sandoval will
be given separately. The township is mostly prairie, with a skirt of timber land
in the south side. It is a beautiful land, slightly undulating and sloping
toward the watercourses by which it is drained. It was early settled by an
enterprising and industrious people, and their descendants, with additions from
other states, render it a thickly settled and prosperous community, with fine
farms, in a high state of cultivation, with many fine and substantial buildings
and large orchards set to apple and other trees. To the traveler from older
communities it is hard to realize that little more than a generation ago this
beautiful township was almost without a white inhabitant. The Illinois Central
Railroad, both main line and branch, crosses this township, the main line
running almost due north about one mile from the west line of the township,
through the thriving city of Sandoval, and the branch from the junction just
north of Crooked creek in an almost northeast direction through the city of
Odin. Both of these cities are also on the line of the Baltimore & Ohio
Southwestern Railway, which runs almost due east and west about two miles south
of the north line of the township. These little cities are rivals, each of the
other, and maintain such an even race, both in the number of inhabitants and
material prosperity, that one cannot say which is in the lead. This township is
next north of Centralia in the west tier of townships in this county. Crooked
creek runs southwest through sections 36 and 35 and is the drainage outlet for
the larger part of the township, while the East Fork drains the extreme northern
part of the township.
A native of Virginia, Thomas Deadmond, was the
first settler in these townships. He arrived in the timbered part of the
township near the southern line in 1827, intending to go farther north to
settle, but as it was late in the year and the weather was extremely cold, he
determined to camp for the winter, and set to work to construct a shelter for
his family, which he did by cutting small logs and building a shed cabin, the
roof sloping to the north and all the south side open. Before this open south
side he would drag logs with his team and so maintained a burning log heap
before the cabin all winter, which served the double purpose of keeping the
shelter warm and was a suitable fire for his wife to do her cooking on, and in
this primitive; manner the Deadmonds spent the first winter in their new home.
The greatest drawback to the shed as a habitation was smoke, which at times,
when there was a strong south wind, filled the shed to almost suffocation, but
then the family could adjourn to the other side of the burning log heap and thus
keep warm, although covered only by heaven's canopy of blue, but provided with
plenty of the hides of animals for beds and bedding, they of that day feared not
to sleep on the ground and in the open, and as to smoke, who has not seen the
old-fashioned fireplace when it was smoking. The early pioneers were used to
smoke and were not inconvenienced by it in moderation. Mr. Deadmond remained on
the land where he passed the winter in section 28, township 2 north, range 1
east, but did not enter the land, which he had improved, until the 12th day of
January, 1837, or ten years later, when he entered the west half of the
southeast quarter of section 28. He was for a number of years a Justice of the
Peace and lived and died on the land where he camped in 1827, respected and
honored by his fellow pioneers for his sterling worth. Mr. Deadmond raised a
large family, some of whom are still living, among them Mrs. Denisha Hays, of
Raccoon township, who in her ninety-first year is an active, alert old lady,
taking an active interest in affairs of family and church, of which she is an
enthusiastic attendant. Two years after Deadmond's settlement Silas Barr came to
the township from Tennessee and in 1831 entered the east half of the southeast
quarter of section 27. This was the first land entry in the township and is in
the Odin side of the township. James N. Barr, who was born in Tennessee, lived
on this same tract which his father entered. Isaac G. Barr entered, in 1836,
forty acres and made himself a farm in section 26.
Isaac McClelland was
born in Pennsylvania and went to Ohio and from there to Illinois and settled at
Walnut Hill about 1818. He married Sallie Welch. For the next few years he
partially improved three or four places in Centralia township, but in 1830 he
settled on section 32 (the Sandoval side of the township) and lived there many
years and raised a family of six children. In 1839 Jonas and Jacob McClelland,
and in 1840 Alexander and Henry McClelland came to the township and improved
farms. Samuel McClelland settled in 1830 near Silas Barr and lived there until
his death. He left eight children, four sons and four daughters. Isaac
McClelland bought the improvements that Isaac Smith had made in section 32 and
then entered the land. Three brothers by the name of Welburn settled here in an
early day. Two of them died here and the other went to Texas. James Adams,
Thomas Pigg and John Hill were also early settlers and all raised families and
have descendants now living in the county, and are respected for their honest
worth. All the farms were for many years confined to the timber, but Bluford
Deadmond ventured out into the prairie and picked out a farm near the center of
the township, which he improved, but afterward sold out and went to Oregon.
The first school was taught in an empty cabin that stood near Silas Barr's
home, in 1834, and was taught by Peter Wilburn. The first school-house built
stood near the McClelland graveyard and was built of logs, with puncheon seats.
The oil industry is at the present time getting considerable attention
in the southern part of this township, where a company of Salem capitalists and
business men and two plucky women have struck oil and are now boring the second
well. Other parties have thus far failed to strike oil, but boring is still
being vigorously prosecuted, no less than four or five companies being engaged
in the work. The oil is struck at a depth of less than six hundred feet, but
doubtless a deeper well will develop a more abundant supply, but we must leave
the chronicle of the success or failure of the oil fields to a future historian.
In the southern part of this township one of the most profound mysteries
was developed in the year 1896, known as the McClelland mystery. Some years
before Mr. McClelland and his youngest son disappeared from the county, but as
Mr. McClelland, who was a widower with no home ties, had once or twice before
gone without saying much if anything about going, and after a year or two had
returned, and as he had said to some of his relatives that he was going away and
not coming back, nothing was thought of their absence, especially as it was
thought he had money enough to take care of himself, and it was only regarded as
an eccentricity on his part. There was a pond on the old McClelland place, which
was owned by other parties, and in 1896 it had become somewhat filled up and the
owner resolved to clean it out and make it deeper during a very dry spell. While
the work was being prosecuted the workmen found two skeletons staked down in the
bottom of the pond, with stakes driven crossways over the bodies. Much
excitement resulted and much discussion resulted as to whose bodies they were,
some from the first declaring they were the bodies of McClelland and his son,
and this seems to be the settled opinion of those best qualified to judge from
the size of the skeletons, age and teeth and the filling of some of the teeth,
and the settled conviction was arrived at that the McClellands had been murdered
and the bodies disposed of in this unique manner. Suspicion pointed her
unreasoning finger toward several parties, mostly of kin to the missing men, and
some of them men grown old in the paths of right and who stood as high in the
county as any men living in her borders. Indictments were found against several
parties, among whom was another son of the elder McClelland. One or two were
tried, but the state utterly failed to make a case, whereupon the indictments
were quashed and the McClelland mystery is still as deep a mystery as ever, and
bids fair to so remain until the trump shall sound and the grave give up her
secrets. The two little cities, each of which gives its name to one-half
township, which is clothed with the powers of a civil town, now demand our
attention.
CITY OF ODIN.
The thriving little city of Odin is
situated in the east side of township 2 north, range 1 east, and about two miles
from the north line of the township. It is at the crossing of the Illinois
Central branch and the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern railroads and is the
product of these roads, hence was not built until the roads were. The first
building was put up by one John Hill, as a saloon, and with Hill as a
saloonkeeper absorbed much of the hard earnings of the railway laborers. It
stood south of the railroads and near the tracks. The Illinois Central built
their depot in 1856 and in 1860, April 5th, laid out the town, it being on a
railroad section. The house of the section boss, David Dudy, of the Ohio &
Mississippi Company, was the first dwelling erected. The first store building
was erected by P. Z. Stone, who opened a general store about 1857 or 1858. James
Garretson was the first postmaster and hotel-keeper. He built the first hotel in
1859 and called it after himself, the Garretson House. It was afterward called
the Hartley House. It still stands, but at present is not used as a hotel.
Before 1860 one De Schan, Branson and Lester, and George Craig had opened stores
and were doing a country trade and supplying the railroad men and passengers
from one road waiting for a train on the other. During the years of the war
between the states, 1862 to 1864, the town grew very rapidly, many refugees from
the South making it a stopping place and many a permanent home. A woolen mill
called the Odin Woolen Factory was built in 1867. It was of brick and two
stories high and manufactured jeans and flannel. It was destroyed by fire in
1879, and was never rebuilt. There was a sawmill in connection, which did not
burn at that time and was operated for some years by W. E. Smith, but it finally
was destroyed by fire. In 1863 a large hay press barn was built by A. M.
Woodward & Co., and it was afterward enlarged until it was one of the largest
press barns in the country, but it, too, was destroyed by fire in the nineties.
It may be well to state for the information of the younger generation that until
about 1870 hay was pressed into bales only in barns built for that purpose with
presses built in them, and these presses were massive pieces of machinery with a
heavy weight arranged like a pile driver, which was drawn to the top of the barn
and fell into the press and beat the loose hay solidly together until two
hundred or three hundred pounds were beat into a bale, when an immense screw
operated from below compressed the bale, which was then "baled" or bound with
hickory hoop-poles being passed around them and nailed together. The hay had to
be hauled to these barns loose and was much labor and expense. The invention of
the modern portable hay press killed the hay barn press, but has been a blessing
to the farmer. In 1863 Captain Pierce built a two-burr grist mill. It changed
hands frequently and the firm of Morrison & Smart ran it from 1873 to 1880, and
then sold to James Warren, the owner when the mill went out of business. Odin
has a commodious two-story brick school building and has a corps of six teachers
and takes pride in maintaining a first class school. The Methodist Episcopals
and Protestant Methodists each have a church in Odin, as also have the
Christians and Presbyterians, although the latter is not used of late, only
occasionally, as no minister is in charge. Odin Masonic lodge No. 503 was
instituted in 1866, under dispensation from the grand master. E. B. Wilcox was
the first worshipful master; E. Sidwell, senior warden, and O. F. Ball, junior
warden. It was organized with only eleven members. It is now in a flourishing
condition. The Modern Woodmen also have a strong lodge in Odin, with about one
hundred members. In 1886 a stock company was formed under the name Odin Coal
Company, to sink a shaft and mine coal, which was successful in striking a fine
vein of coal at a depth of seven hundred and fifteen feet, with a vein of about
seven feet in thickness. After undergoing the usual ups and downs of such stock
companies, Messrs. Morrison and Secor, with perhaps a few others, obtained a
controlling interest, since which time it has been so successfully handled as to
prove a valuable and profitable property.
Some few years ago electric
mining and haulage and electric lighting was installed. The dynamo of the mine
also furnishes electricity for lighting the city. During the life of the mine it
has been singularly free from fatalities, but few accidents of serious character
having occurred. The railroad crossing of the Illinois Central branch and the
Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern is controlled by an interlocking device controlled
from a tower built so as to give the operator a view of both tracks.
CITY OF SANDOVAL, ODIN TOWNSHIP.
The city of Sandoval, like Centralia
and Odin, was laid out by the Illinois Central Railroad Company on their own
section of land. It is at the crossing of the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern and
Illinois Central Railroad main line, and is about one mile from the west line of
the township and two from the north line, and, like Odin, gave its name to the
west half of township 2 north, range 1 east, when the township was divided. The
survey and laying out of the city was on May 11, 1855. Two other additions were
laid out the same year. Welcome Martin, as early as 1853, put up a frame store
house on the Ohio & Mississippi right of way just west of the right of way of
the Illinois Central Railroad, and sold goods to the railroad laborers and the
general public. The first boarding house or hotel was kept by J. B. Crawford,
the original building afterward making part of the Sandoval House. The city has
a fine public school building, in which there are employed six teachers, and
also maintains a primary room west of the Central tracks, and like all Marion
county towns, is proud of her schools. The Catholic church has a good church
building and parsonage and maintains an organization in Sandoval. The Christian
and Congregational churches have each a fine house of worship, while the
Methodists have a good, comfortable church house. There religious bodies each
maintain a resident minister and are full of good works. The Baptist Brotherhood
has recently built a neat little church in the south part of town. Sandoval has
one of the finest parks in the county, and here every year the annual reunion of
the old soldiers and sailors is held in a three days' session, and Sandoval
spares neither energy, time nor money to make the reunion a success. As yet they
have not failed, but, on the contrary, each year the success has been more and
more pronounced, until the Sandoval reunion attracts attention from all parts of
the state.
In 1877 the St. Louis Sandoval Coal and Mining Company began
sinking a shaft at Sandoval. After reaching a depth of one hundred and fourteen
feet the company went into bankruptcy. The property was sold at Sheriff's sale
and bought by the Sandoval Coal and Mining Company, a company composed mostly of
Salem men. The new company began work on the shaft in January, 1879, and reached
a vein of coal five and one-half feet thick in September of the same year at a
depth of six hundred and three feet, being one hundred and twelve feet less in
depth than the Odin mine, four miles further east, showing the "dip" of the coal
vein to be eastward about twenty-eight feet to the mile. The company was
involved in long and expensive litigation growing out of the bankruptcy of the
St. Louis Sandoval Company, but after years of legal contest the Sandoval Coal
and Mining Company established their right to the property. The cause was
carried to the highest tribunal and the Sandoval company's leading attorney,
Judge Michael Sheafer, of the Supreme Court of Utah, made such a strong and
learned argument that it is recognized as an exposition of mining law. The
company's stock was purchased January 1, 1903, by Thomas S. Marshall from the
holders, who thus became the company. The original shaft was in the eastern part
of the city on the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railroad, but an air shaft was
sunk on the Illinois Central Railroad in the southern part of the city about a
half mile from the original shaft. This was now turned into a hoisting shaft
with a steel tipple and machine mining implements, and was considered one of the
best equipped mines in the state. The old works at the original shaft in the
meantime burned down, but were immediately rebuilt. The mine at this time was
employing over three hundred and fifty men and taking out as much as ten
thousand tons per day. The vast expenditure necessary to thus equip the mine,
with other causes, involved Mr. Marshall, and he took voluntary bankruptcy. The
mine stood idle some time, but was recently sold to Mr. Middleton, who is
running it to its greatest capacity and is not only giving work to a great
number of men, but making it a success financially. The Sandoval mine was for
many years, while controlled by the Sandoval company, under the superintendence
of John Robinson, then of H. R. Hall, and later of C. E. Hull, and was one of
the best paying enterprises in the county, and it bids fair to become so again.
The Sandoval mine had several quite serious accidents resulting in the loss of
life, all of them perhaps the result of carelessness on the part of the victims
or of some fellow workman.
In the years from about 1890 to 1895 there
was a series of barn burnings in the western part of the county, confined to the
townships of Sandoval, Odin, Carrigan, Tonti and Salem. Several of the most
valuable barns in the county were burned, evidently set on fire, but the
incendiary invariably escaped detection, and these burnings occurred so
frequently that a feeling of dread and uneasiness prevailed over the entire
community. At the time there lived one McKibbon near Sandoval. McKibbon was a
fanatic on political subjects, and although in many respects a bright man, was
undoubtedly insane on the subject of equality of wealth and had brooded over the
unequal distribution of wealth until he was an anarchist on that subject and
thought to bring about equality by the destruction of property, but with subtile
cunning he kept his thoughts and feelings hid from all but a chosen few, who,
like himself, were lawless in thought and also in action when safe to be so.
McKibbon was the head center of the clique and managed to escape even suspicion
until he approached a youth in Sandoval whom he thought he could control. The
young man fell into McKibbon's views, but after studying over the matter
revealed the plot to burn the store of John Robinson to his mother, who advised
him to go to the marshal and tell what he knew. This the young man did and was
advised to carry out the plot and keep the officers advised. A committee of
safety was formed and for weeks kept watch armed to the teeth, but so secretly
was this done that none but the watchers ever suspected even the organization of
the committee. They at last were rewarded by catching the anarchists in the act
of trying to blow up Robinson's store. McKibbon was tried and found guilty, but
the jury so misconstrued the law that they fined him five hundred dollars. The
fine was paid after some time by McKibbon's relatives and he disappeared from
the county. Barn burning ceased with the arrest of McKibbon and farmers now and
for many years past have slept at night with no visions of burning barns and
tortured stock confined therein.
Sandoval is a center for the strawberry
industry. The celebrated Warfield berry was originated here by Mr. Warfield,
from whom it received its name. The Sandoval Packing Company's tomatoes, canned
here, are the best on the market, the soil being peculiarly adapted to the
raising of tomatoes to perfection. The smelting works in the eastern part of
town is also an industry of great importance to the city and is one of the live
industries of the county. In 1908 the Marion County Coal Company opened a shaft
at Junction City, so called, in the south part of the township, and at the depth
of about five hundred and sixty feet struck a fine vein of excellent coal. In
this mine petroleum oil seeped in considerable quantities and led to the opening
of the first oil well, which struck oil at the depth of five hundred and
seventy-eight feet. Other wells are being bored, but to Sandoval belongs the
honor of having the first oil well in the county, but whether or not it will
prove a commercial success can only be told by the passing years.
Extracted 27 Mar 2020 by Norma Hass from 1909 Brinkerhoff's History of Marion County, Illinois, pages 180-187.