OLD SETTLERS ASSOCIATION

                           OLD  SETTLERS  ASSOCIATION

                                    NORMAN  V.  KELLY

 

W have quite a few companies here in town that have been around at least One Hundred years and many of them are still thriving quite well. During Prohibition for some obvious reasons a lot of local service Clubs  formed and they too are still alive and kicking.   Now Peoria became a city in 1845 and one group that began here in Peoria on July 4, 1867 the Old Settlers Association had its first meeting and from that brief get together in the Peoria County Courthouse The Old Settlers association was formed.  There were twenty-two original signers of the Constitution they agreed upon that day. However over the months hundred more signed up including the very first original seven men that permanently settled here in our area in 1919 and led by Josiah Fulton.   The dues were to be a whopping one dollar a year and for the life of me I cannot see any written proof that they were ever raised.  Actually they had a rather long winded title which was The Old Settlers’ Union of Peoria and Vicinity was formed.  This group became an association to honor and remember all the citizens who resided here in 1835 the very year that Peoria was incorporated into a Town.  Mr. John Hamlin presided and the basic idea was presented to group of twenty-two men present at the old courthouse.  Thus began this remarkable association that built four cabins and a large stone monument as the group began to flourish and continue their remarkable organization that pretty much used the Glen Oak Park as their meeting place.  Basically it was an annual picnic, meeting place and annual reunion of old friends that rarely saw each at all ecept for the annual picnic they held to renew old friendships and meet new friends. They had a few rules as to who was eligibl to become a member. Mainly the applicant had to be of good moral character and was a citizen that had lived in Illinois at least on or before 1935. They further stated that an applicant had to have lived here in Peoria County during the last ten years. The charter members at that first meeting amounted to twenty two members.  John Hamlin became its first president and among the group were men that would eventually guide and lead this group for years to come.

 

As the group grew a more sociable, a more party-like group turned the one day a year into a day that thousands of folks looked forward to.  Natuarally the ladies took over the food aspect of the picnic and games were formed and in the early evening ‘Old Fashioned Dances’ were held and the day long activities kept every one happily busy.  The original meeting place was where the zoo area is located today and just down the road was the small lake that still exist to this day.  Horse drawn teams were parked among the shade trees, and folks came from all over the State of Illinois for the festival. The old men would get situated under the trees, talking of farming and the Civil War was still a topic of interest.  As the years changed our history there was always some major topic to discuses while the children played and the wives gathered to make sure there was plenty of food for everyone.  One year that held my attention was the year I was born, 1932, the year that yet another Abe Lincoln replica cabin was dedicated.  They built it as closely to the original plans a possible.  The cabin was to replicate the birth cabin of Mr. Lincoln, and all the labor and supplies were donated within the group itself, many of the members belonged to most of the local unions.  From Stone cutters, carpenters and experts of all kind they worked together to build the cabin that drew folks from all over to marvel at the workmanship and to discuss the popular Civil War President.  For you that may have forgotten, the original cabin of Abe’s birth was in Hodgenville, Kentucky, Circa 1809. On this day in 132 past president of the Old Settlers, Historian and early Settler, Ernest East gave the dedication speech.  I believe that the third and final cabin was dedicated on August 1, 1959. Each new cabin was began with the demolition of the previous cabin as it drew old and unsafe.   The builders stuck pretty much to the original plan, building the cabin seventeen feet long by thirteen feet and eleven logs high.  The roof was shingle, which they called ‘Shakes”    There was the front door, five foot eight and a space hone out for the fireplace. There was one two foot square window with the rest of the wasll having no open spaces at all.   Unlike Lincoln’s home, which had  a dirt floor, the Settlers made the floor from gravel and a smooth concrete surface.

 

                               THE  STONE  MONUMENT