Bruce Twp.

[galsal]

Awhile back someone asked the question how Bruce Twp. got it's name. I never did see an answer to this. Today while reading The Saga of LaSalle County I found that there was once a village of Bruceville in this area. I would assume that this is how Bruce Twp. got it's name. If anyone knows something different, I would love to know.

[bluejay201]

Do you know when Bruceville was founded/existed?
Probably should have made the original question a little clearer.
Looking for the person OR town outside of the area that Bruce Township or Bruceville was named after.

Thanks,
Joanie

[galsal]

This book doesn't say how Bruceville got it's name, or when it was first established. I could not find any early settlers with the name of Bruce. It does say there was also a thriving little village of Otter very near Bruceville at this time, and in 1868 they split.

[bluejay201]

At one time, Bruce was very large, then Otter Creek split off, then Eagle was created to the west, then still later Richland split from Eagle.

In some older history books, they refer to the town of Bruce, but what they really mean is Bruce Township.
Actually, there was a "town" called Otter, but it was just like Richards, just north of Streator. Had a post office in someones house/store. According to an old plat book, there was another house/building across the road, and that was it for Otter.

Does anyone know if the post office in Richards was in a home or the railroad station/siding? Richards lived in Streator. It was just a political position. I think its official date of closing was the day Richards died in 1907.

Joanie

[Job]

Sept 5, 2010 22:50:59 GMT -6 bluejay201 said:

At one time, Bruce was very large, then Otter Creek split off, then Eagle was created to the west, then still later Richland split from Eagle.

In some older history books, they refer to the town of Bruce, but what they really mean is Bruce Township.
Actually, there was a "town" called Otter, but it was just like Richards, just north of Streator. Had a post office in someones house/store. According to an old plat book, there was another house/building across the road, and that was it for Otter.

Does anyone know if the post office in Richards was in a home or the railroad station/siding? Richards lived in Streator. It was just a political position. I think its official date of closing was the day Richards died in 1907.

Joanie

Technically, Eagle was never a part of Bruce Township. The townships did not take names until after the 1848 Illinois Constitution provided for township governments. Prior to that time, they were simply referred to by number. Because of the river, when Lasalle County adopted township governments, Eagle and Bruce were created as separate townships.

[DumDave]

There is a 1898 railroad map that shows the town of Richards on the C.B.& Q. Next stop was Grand Ridge.
-Dave

[Job]

Richards is still on the map. It is east of #23 a few miles on Richard's Road. The Richard's family still owns a couple of sections there. Jack is my cousin.

[DumDave]

The C.B & Q must have built some sort of Railroad station aprx. where Richards Rd. crosses thier tracks. & called it "Richards".
-Dave

[bluejay201]

I think Eagle township was on the east side of the Vermilion River at one time, corner of the present Main and Bloomington.
The plat of Unionville, has Main St. as the "alley" to the south of their town. The plat was signed by a Dent and others from Eagle Twp. In fact, I think the only "Streator name" on the plat was that of U. S. Painter and he signed it as a notary.
Joanie

[Job]

Sept 15, 2010 12:25:13 GMT -6 bluejay201 said:

I think Eagle township was on the east side of the Vermilion River at one time, corner of the present Main and Bloomington.
The plat of Unionville, has Main St. as the "alley" to the south of their town. The plat was signed by a Dent and others from Eagle Twp. In fact, I think the only "Streator name" on the plat was that of U. S. Painter and he signed it as a notary.
Joanie

Check out Baldwin on this point. tinyurl.com/26rfcjd Read the comments on page 472.

[bluejay201]

Baldwin was written abt 1877, Unionville platted abt 1865.
Sometime in between Eagle Twp was going to be forced to bridge the Vermilion, and rather than do that, they ceded that part of area to Bruce.

The 1870 plat book is not that clear, I just have the 1876 and 1870 reprint. By the Way, the 1870 plat book shows a road off of the present West Main street, where the canoe launch is now. Probably the road used to ford the river.

I have to go out of town tomorrow, and have P.T. for 2+ hours on Friday morning,(yipes!) but I will see if the Museum has the Unionville plat and where I got my information. I think the same person that gave the Museum a copy of the Unionville plat gave us the other information. There was talk that the creation of Unionville was just a political move. John Dent and others from Eagle twp. knew that "eastern capitalists" were interested in the coal deposits. I think Natinger(sp.) from Ottawa was one of the people pushing for the coal development.
I was told that is why the plat of Unionville did not include the entire settlement of "Hardscrabble", because they could only claim that area that was in Eagle.
As far as I know, Hardscrabble was never platted, but I could be very wrong.
It may be only 5:30, I must need my nap. I can't even remember when they moved the "Eagle" post office into town. I wonder if back then, letters were addressed to Eagle or Hardscrabble? Oh well, my mind is really wandering...
Good Night,
Joanie

[Job]

I guess that I did not make myself clear, and I guess my Baldwin reference did not help. Bruce Township was not created until 1849, and as Baldwin said the county determined then that rivers would be the boundaries. Accordingly, Bruce Township became much smaller than the "congressional standard" of 36 sections.

As Baldwin said: "When the County was divided into townships, under the Township Organization Act, the Commissioners decided to make the navigable rivers, or such as so were declared by law, township lines and consequently all towns cut by the Illinois, Fox, and Vermillion rivers were divided by the stream."

Baldwin's book may have been written in 1877, but he came to the county early on. In fact, he bought his claim from McCormick long before 1849, the year of the Township Organization Law. That claim was only a couple of miles north of Bruce Township.

A plat of the proposed Unionville does not address the issue at hand. Under Illinois law, a town has never had to be coterminous with a township. In other words, signers of the petition did not have to live in any particular township.

[Job]

Here is another source. tinyurl.com/2bv7wdu
At page 213, the book lists the names of the Townships as they were created in Feb. of 1849. Both Eagle and Bruce are listed.

I still have no clue as to the origin of the name "Bruce." I am not aware of any prominent person in the area, in Illinois, or at the national level in 1849. If I had to guess, I would say that the Township was named after Robert the Bruce. Numerous places throughout the country were named Bruce by settlers of Scot's ancestry. The Mackeys and McCormicks were Scots-Irish, and Sam Mackey was the headman of the original Bruce Township, and he was one of the three commissioners who ran the county in its early years.

[bluejay201]

Neat...I never thought of the Scottish connection.
Joanie