In the year of 1830 a little town called Manville was built on the place
now called Cedar Creek.
The first person to build a home there was a very old man. All the things he
owned was a horse, a dog, a wagon and a few clothes. His home was a one-room
shack made of logs. In 1832 there were quite a few people gathered in the
valley. The name Manville was given to the town because a man had founded
it. In 1840 Mr. Mudge moved to the little town and spent his first winter
building wagons for the people of Manville. The next spring Mr. Mudge moved
to a better homestead.
The greatest question of the town was a mill, and that winter a mill was
built. The water from the creek was used to run the mill. The farmers could
grind their own wheat and corn. No more long trips were made to Lowell to
get things ground.
A road ran through the town to Ottawa. Lincoln had used the little town as a
resting nlace when he was on his way to Ottawa to the court house. The
little town had about one hundred and fifty people in it. Most of the people
were farmers from the south and north. There was only one main street in the
town, and that was the road to Ottawa. A railroad was started to go through
the town. The ground upon which the track was to be laid upon was built up
by men. The railroad never went through because too many sidetracks had to
be put in.
In the year of 1850 a band of men occupied the valley across the creek from
the town. The men were what we would call horse thieves. One dark night the
men drove the horses away and sold them. The thieves occupied the valley
long after the town was gone.
Mr. Mudge came back to the town and bought a tract of land. He and his sons
cut the stone from the creek bed for their home. Mr. Mudge's home has stood
up for many a year in all kinds of weather and will stand up many more
years.
The graveyard was about one-half of a mile from the town. The first person
buried there was a pioneer called Coats. The graveyard was not a modern one,
with a man to cut the grass and trim the trees. It was under the trees and
wild flowers grew upon the graves. After the first death the people started
to move away. One by one the families left. The homes and then the mill
vanished. The last house was moved away in 1920. All that is left of the
town is the millrace and the cellars of the homes.
There are very few people left in this world that remember the town called
Manville. One of Mr. Mudge's sons owns the land on which the town stood. The
graveyard is in his pastures. I live on Mr. Mudge's farm. There are two
tombstones that mark the graves of the Coats', that have died long ago. Mr.
Mudge is the only person around here that remembers the town. He could tell
many a good story about Manville. It surprised me quite a bit to find out
that a town could spring up and then fade away and leave only a few people
to tell of its passing.
Extracted 06 Jun 2015 by Norma Hass from Stories of Pioneer Days in La Salle County, Illinois, by Grammar Grade Pupils, published in 1932, page 108.
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