Adams Township, Champaign County

How Adams Township, Champaign County began

Adams Township, in the northwestern corner of Champaign County against Logan and Shelby counties, was cut from Johnson Township and organized in 1828 (the 1881 county history says 1826 or 1827), the last of the county's twelve townships, and named for John Quincy Adams. Swamps and dense forest kept settlers away for years: Asahel Wilkinson, a Virginia hunter who arrived in 1811 and settled by sulphur springs on Lees Creek, was alone until about 1813, and most farms were not cleared until after 1830. Its first village was Carysville, laid out by Calvin Cary about 1830 as Trenton, which lost its trade after the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton railroad passed a mile east in 1893 and Rosewood grew up at the new station. The township remains farmland with no incorporated village.

Settled 1811, incorporated 1828 (1917 history and Wikipedia); the 1881 history says 1826 or 1827, by first settler Asahel Wilkinson of Harrison County, Virginia.

Where the name comes from

Named for John Quincy Adams. The 1917 county history says the choice suggests the petitioners or the commissioners were followers of Adams, who was running for president the year the township was organized.

Before the town

The 1881 county history says the sulphur springs on Asahel Wilkinson's land in section 14 were known to Native people for their healing properties: sick people were brought there, six families once camped at the springs with a 'Big Medicine' man whose cures drew settlers from miles around, and shooting matches were held nearby. Settlers built a blockhouse on the farm, and when friendly Native neighbors warned Wilkinson of a planned attack, the families shut themselves in for several days; the attack never came. Neither the 1881 nor the 1917 history names the nation of these visitors. The area lay within the range of the Shawnee, Mingo and Wyandot before the Treaty of Greenville (1795).

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga), Wyandot.

• Wilkinson sulphur springs (camp) — Asahel Wilkinson farm, section 14, along Lees Creek, used as a healing and camping place in the early 1800s (archive.org)
• Wilkinson blockhouse (other) — Asahel Wilkinson farm, section 14, built during the Native troubles of the War of 1812 era (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1805 — Champaign County was organized from parts of Greene and Franklin counties.
2. 1811 — Asahel Wilkinson of Harrison County, Virginia, arrived by pack horse with his family and settled in section 14, paying for his land with furs from his hunting.
3. 1813 — Joel Harbour deeded a quarter of section 6 to Henry Ritter, the earliest deed on record in the township.
4. 1813 — Henry H. Wilkinson was born on April 2, recorded as the first white child born in the township.
5. 1816 — William McCrosky, a Kentuckian who left his state in opposition to slavery, settled in section 5.
6. 1818 — Silas Johnson, namesake of Johnson Township, moved with his son Walker to section 31, where he died in 1819.
7. 1820 — The first log schoolhouse was built on the Ritter tract in section 6, with Samuel Bates as teacher (1820 or 1821).
8. 1828 — Adams Township was organized from Johnson Township, the last of the county's townships; the 1881 history gives 1826 or 1827.
9. 1829 — The first church society, a Methodist class, was formed at Curl's schoolhouse in section 15, and the first Sunday school was organized there.
10. 1830 — Calvin Cary platted Carysville, first named Trenton; the 1881 history dates the town lots to 1833.
11. 1831 — Joseph Eiker built a corn-cracker mill on Mosquito Creek in section 29.
12. 1832 — The United Brethren built the township's first church, a log building about twenty feet square.
13. 1835 — The first brick house in the township was built on the Ritter farm.
14. 1837 — Benjamin Wilson, a Black tanner, opened a tannery in Carysville, the village's first manufacturing business.
15. 1837 — A post office named Carysville was established; it closed in 1901.
16. 1840 — A Whig and a Democratic rally held in Carysville on the same day ended in a brawl over the Whigs' buckeye log cabin.
17. 1880 — The township counted 1,445 people, up from 970 in 1840.
18. 1893 — The community of Rosewood was platted after the railroad was extended to that point in the township.
19. 1894 — A post office opened at Rosewood, a year after the settlement's founding.

Stories

A township built around a railroad stop

Adams Township took shape as ordinary farmland through most of the 19th century, with no village of its own. That changed in 1893, when a rail line was extended into the township's northwest corner and a small trackside settlement grew up around the new stop; it was platted as Rosewood, and a post office followed in 1894. Rosewood never grew into more than a crossroads community — its 2020 population was 224 — but the arrival of the railroad marks the one concentrated bit of settlement history the township has beyond scattered farms. State Route 29 now runs through the community along the old rail corridor's general path.

The silver in the stump

Asahel Wilkinson came from Harrison County, Virginia, in 1811 with his wife, Charity, and four children, riding pack horses. Before they left, a neighbor who had planned to go with them lost his mind over fear of want in the new country and killed his wife and nine children; the others set out anyway. Wilkinson arrived in Adams Township with two hundred dollars in silver, which he hid in a stump near the sulphur springs on his land. A party of Native hunters later chose that same stump as a target for a shooting match. Mrs. Wilkinson watched them shoot at it and check their hits, afraid they would find the money, but they tired of the game and left without it. Wilkinson paid for his 260 acres with furs and served fourteen years as township constable; he died in 1861.

Tippecanoe in Carysville

In the fall of 1840, during the 'Tippecanoe and Tyler too' campaign, the Whigs of Harrison Township and the Democrats of Adams and Johnson townships held rallies in Carysville on the same day. The Whigs rode in with a buckeye log cabin on a wagon, the symbol of their candidate, William Henry Harrison. As a Democrat named Hamilton and a Whig named Hayes spoke, feeling ran so high that the cabin came off the wagon, and Whigs and Democrats fought over it until it was in pieces; according to the 1917 county history, the Democrats used parts of it on the Whigs' heads. A later campaign in the village brought several days of street fights, a shooting and home guards sent out from Urbana to make arrests.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · commons.wikimedia.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Degraff Village69% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Quincy Village28% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Grandview Heights Civic Association3% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Power plants (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Statewide question: State Issue 3: Voter ID

Local questions for Adams Township, Champaign County, Logan County and its school district:

• Logan County: Authorizes an additional 2-mill property tax levy for the community developmental disabilities program & services of Logan County for 5 years, beginning in 2026.
• Logan County: Continues a 0.5% sales and use tax for: Permanent improvements; safety forces services of Logan County for 5 years, beginning July 1, 2027.

Races, candidates and every question for an address: your ballot. County offices and judges are on your county board's sample ballot.

Cite this page