Payson Township:  Two Towns, Many Schools and Fruit Trees

Payson
Township lies on the southern boundary of Adams County and contains only two incorporated
communities: Payson and Plainville. State Route 96 bisects the township
diagonally, going through both towns. The township is drained by several large
creeks.

Although
Payson became and remains the larger of the two, Plainville was settled first.
Samuel Stone and his family probably arrived in 1825, followed in 1826 by Jacob
Waggle, the Spencer Collins family, and Benjamin Allen Collins. Henry Wagy,
Wyman Whitcomb and A. B. Vining followed in the early 1830s, and later Solomon
Shinn and John Delaplain. Stone served as the first preacher for the community.
The area became known as Stone’s Prairie, and the first post office, on the
southeast corner of today’s intersection at the center of Plainville, had that
name; but the locals referred to the community as “Shakerag.”

Growth
slowed for a few years, but increased again, and churches, businesses and
schools followed. Methodists dedicated the Shiloh Church in 1854 and the
Plainville Church in 1876.

John
Delaplain founded the first store in Stone’s Prairie in what Wilcox referred to
as “the little old building in which he displayed his small stock of goods.” In
the 1880s, Delaplain built a new store (the old building was moved and used
elsewhere) and a “handsome residence.” The town boasted a number of businesses
around the square, including F. Harris’s that advertised “drugs, medicines,
paints, oils and varnishes, dye stuffs, perfumery pure wines and liquors for
medical use & groceries & patent medicines,” written as text in the
1872 Atlas. A devastating fire later destroyed Delaplain’s store, house, and
several other buildings.

Perhaps
Stone’s Prairie’s greatest claim to fame was a riot in 1860. Nationally, young
supporters of the new Republican Party, which nominated Abraham Lincoln, had
formed an organization called the Wide Awakes. In mission statements local
chapters often included the aim of acting as “political police.” A rally was
planned for August 25, in a field south of town. Approximately 7,000 people
attended. Major miscommunications about the schedule and the participants
resulted in rioting between the Wide Awakes and supporters of Democrat
candidate Stephen A. Douglas.

Business
partners Chubbick and Coughlan founded the Observer newspaper in Stone’s
Prairie and became involved in civic affairs. They thought the village should
be named after Delaplain, the first merchant, instead of Stone, the first
settler, and they successfully petitioned the U.S. Postal service for the
change. Stone’s Prairie became Plainville. The community was incorporated on
May 1, 1896, with Lawrence Hoskins as the first president of the board of
trustees and A. J. Crim as clerk.

By
1915, a second newspaper was in print–The News, edited by Crimm, and the State
Bank had been established. The Independent Order Odd Fellows’ Lodge was
organized in 1887 as Stone’s Prairie Lodge, No. 759. The Masons and Modern
Woodmen of America were also active.

A
few miles northwest, in October, 1833, Albigence Scarborough of Connecticut became
the first settler in the carefully planned town he named Payson. He purchased
about 1,500 acres from 10 different landowners, including 113 acres from John
Wood, Quincy’s founder, for $2 an acre. Scarborough platted his community like
New England towns, with a church, businesses, and houses facing a town square. He
held Sunday services in his cabin and read sermons of Dr. Edward Payson of the
Second Congregational Church of Portland, Maine. He named his town after the
pastor. The Congregational Church constructed on the town square in 1836 was
the first in Payson Township. Payson was incorporated as a community in 1839,
as a town in 1869, then as a village in 1903.

The
first known school session in Payson Township was taught by Mr. Woodford
Lawrence during the winter of 1831. The 1874 Atlas shows Sodom School due south
of Payson about two miles on what is now E. 1400th St., south of the
intersection with N. 200th Ave., which runs east into Plainville.
Sodom School would have been a little more than two miles from each town.

In
the 1800s children commonly traveled and even boarded to attend school. Payson
became known as an educational center. Subscription (tuition) schools were
taught by Emily Scarborough, Ann Prince, a Miss Trimble, and Hugh Morrow. The
Hawley Boarding School educated the children of prominent Quincy families such
as the Bushnells and the Bulls. A private school building constructed in 1846
was rented to become the first public school. It was eventually sold and moved,
but a brick public school was built on the same lot, due to the initiative of
Joel K. Scarborough. (For a detailed history of Payson, see “Scarborough’s
Payson: ‘Yankees’ and ‘Suckers,’”

.org
/scarborough-s-payson-yankees-and-suckers

).

Other
schools in Payson Township included California (east of Adams, north of
Richfield, NW of the intersection of E. 2000th St. and N. 700th
Ave.) , Cooke (mid-way between Payson and Richfield on N. 400th
Ave.), Greencastle (southeast of Plainville on east side of E. 1800th
St.), Oakwood (northeast of Plainville on E. 1960th Pl.), Oregon
(east of Adams on N. 703rd La.), Rice (northwest of Richfield on N.
550th Ave.), Schroth (northwest of Payson on south side of N. 550th
Ave.), Tandy (almost due north of Payson, west of Adams, NW corner of N. 700th
Ave. and E. 1450th St.), Union (several miles southeast of
Plainville, then west on N. 3rd La.), Wagy (east and slightly south
of Plainville, west of E. 1960th Pl.), and Whitcomb (Hwy. 96
northwest of Plainville, south of N. 300th Ave.).

Although
the Chatten orchards in neighboring Fall Creek Township were eventually the
largest in the state, Payson Township gained fame for fruit much earlier.
Albigence Scarborough planted 200 peach trees in 1830. In 1839 William Stewart
started the largest orchards in the county at the time with about 300 varieties
of apple trees and became widely known for horticulture and landscaping. Payson
Township’s two towns and farms had become well-established homes for
generations to come.

Sources

Adams
County IL Historical Schools

IL Home Town Locator.

Business Block
Main St. Plainville, IL. Quincy Area
Historic Photo Collection. Illinois Digital Archives.

Scanned from 1872 Atlas Map of Adams County, IL.

Lane, Beth,
(2012). Lies Told Under Oath: The Puzzling Story of the Pfanschmidt Murders and
of the Surviving Son—Victim or Villain? iUniverse.

Nelson,
Iris and Walter S. Waggoner,

The Stone’s Prairie Riot of 1860

,
Journal of Illinois History, Vol. 5, p. 19 (Spring 2002) in

Payson Township.
Adams County 1872, Illinois (1872). Andreas Lyter and Company.

Wilcox, D. F.
(ed). History of Payson and Plainville, IL, Quincy and Adams County History and
Representative Men. Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1919.