History of Palestine, 1857, Crawford County, Illinois

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives
Copyright 2000  Cindy McCachern


Some Rambling Thoughts--A Look Back at Old Times
 
As It was.  As It Is.
 
I first saw Palestine in 1857.  Leaving the train from Cincinnati at
Vincennes, I arrived here by hack line, took my first meal in town at
a frame "tavern" kept by S. W. Hutchings.  Since that time I have been
away a good deal and have resided at several different places, but I
have always had a warm feeling in my heart for the town since my first
acquaintance with it.
 
Palestine was then a small town, and the business houses were all
frame buildings of unpretentious architecture.  The residences were of
the old style too, and it looked to me typical country village,
indeed.
 
How greatly changed.  Where stood those small frame business houses 
are now large brick blocks with fine store rooms and fine stores.
Handsome, modern style residences dot the town.  A large brick school
building has been erected, new churches, a Bank, electric lights,
natural gas, an elegant Opera House, cement pavements--these are some
of the changes and improvements of the New Palestine.  From a village
of a few hundred inhabitants it has grown to be a town of fifteen
hundred people.  It is always a healthy indication for a town when it
is increasing in population and advancing in wealth, for then it can
not be termed a "dead" or "finished" town.  Palestine is forging
ahead, not spasmodically, but gradually and surely.
 
Situated at the south edge of that grand and beautiful stretch of
prairie known as LaMotte, the location is ideal--one of the best that
could have been chosen for a town, and surrounded, as it is, by a rich
and productive agricultureal region, its citizens should feel greatly
encouraged as to its future growth and development; andthe writer is
glad to note that the people of Palestine like their town, have faith
in its future, and are public spirited enough to work for its best
interests.
 
Never before have I seen in a town of its population so many fine
stores and such large and well selected stocks of goods.  The
merchants understnad their business, are courteous to their customers,
and altogethr reasonable in their prices.  I can not understand why
anybody here, or in this vicinity, should seek other places to trade
when they can do better at home.
 
The peculiarity of the people of Palestine, and that has always been a
characteristic of its citizens, is their friendly and social
qualities.  I have often heard this remarked away from the town, and
have observed and "felt" it myself.  They were never divided into
little "chosen circles," but always seemed as one great family, each
member on an equality with the others, and all, whether strangers or
residents, treated with uniform kindness.  Perhaps there are a few,
only a few, who imagine they are made of a little better quality of
"clay" or "dust" than some others, but at the great "round up" of
human life their disappointment will be all the greater and
pronounced, and nobody will realize its effects but themselves.

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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Cindy McCachern
<mccachern@sbcglobal.net>