Scope and Contents:
This collection contains early Schuyler County, Ill. records.
There are ten town plat maps, showing the towns of Rushville (1831), Pennsville (1833), Doddsville and Milton (1836), Middletown, Centreville, Newark, LaGrange (1837), and Littletown (1856). Pennsville was never settled, while LaGrange (for which there are two plat maps) and Milton failed. Centreville is now known as Ripley. Of the county surveyors who prepared the maps, William P. Manlove drew the first two, Leonidas Horney the last, and Allen Persinger the others.
The collection also includes an abstract, prepared by J. William Ellis, clerk of the county commissioners court on Aug. 4, 1838, which lists the lands of eight resident land owners subject to taxes in 1838.
Finally, the collection contains the poll book used at the Cross Roads School House in Buena Vista for the election of Nov. 4, 1862. It lists the names of 178 voters and of five judges and clerks, and indicates the total number of votes cast in each contest.
The Library acquired the plat maps and poll book in 1975. Wilbur Duncan of Decatur, Ill. donated the abstract at an earlier date. The plat maps are filed in flat storage.