C. Coburn, still lives at Lyndon in the active discharge of her domestic duties. She began to teach in Vermont, her native state, and after seven years of service there, removed to Wisconsin, where she taught three years, and then to Lyndon, spending another three years in the school room. At Peacham, Vt., she attended the school of which the famous Thaddeus Stevens was a pupil. She saw the house where he was born, and remembers his coming there to see about a burial lot for his mother. He once said to a minister: "If what you speak of is religion, my mother had it." Not far from her town, the wonderful mathematician, Zerah Colburn was born. As we all know, New England people for two generations swore by Colburn's arithmetic. It came next to the primer and the catechism with its In Adam's fall We sinned all. One of Mrs. Rice's teachers confidently affirmed that with three things anyone could pass successfully through this vale of tears: the Bible, Webster's dictionary and Colburn's arithmetic. Perhaps the most venerable, the longest in service of any of our teachers, was Mrs. John Whallon, widow of the well known captain. She was born in 1832, coming with the father in wagon in 1837 from Massachusetts. Martha began to teach as a mere girl, returning to Galesburg after a time for further preparation. She taught at Sterling in 1848 when there was no school building and Col. Wilson had to hunt a room and seat it, at Rock Falls then Rapids city, when the river was innocent of bridge and had to be forded. She was in faithful service all over the county, at Como, Lyndon, Prophetstown, Portland, Fulton. In her first terms she received one dollar and a half per week, and boarded around. Mrs. Whallon spent the sunset of her active and useful life in quiet retirement amid ancestral scenes in Lyndon. W. W. Davis generally had an essay or lecture at the early institutes. He was for some time secretary, and every night during the sessions read a critical report of mistakes made during the day. Most of his teaching in the county was at Empire, now Emerson. Some of his former pupils have risen to prominence elsewhere. Miss Alice Dinsmoor was for many years principal of a young ladies' seminary in Brooklyn, Wilson Sterling is professor in the state university at Lawrence, Kansas, John K. Reed is a missionary in Litheria on the west coast of Africa, Dr. J. F. Keefer is one of the leading physicians of Sterling, Rev. W. C. Seidel, D. D., now at Nashville, Tennessee, in charge of a Lutheran church has long been active in the service of that denomination, east and west. I've wandered to the village, Tom, I've sat beneath the tree, But none were left to greet me, Tom, And few were left to know, That played with us upon the green, JORDAN. On Jordan's stormy banks I stand, And cast a wishful eye, To Canaan's fair and happy land, Where my possessions lie.-Samuel Stennet. All roads lead to Rome, or did, and three of the best highways in the county lead from Sterling to Jordan: the Freeport road, the Hoover, and the Pennington. If you go out the Freeport road, which starts from the east end of Sterling, on the left is the Catholic cemetery of ten acres, and although new, has many handsome monuments. We pass John Zigler's place with its boxes of bees and yards of chickens, each breed by itself. That frame dwelling was the home of D. O. Coe, or Dish, as he was called, long an elder in the Presbyterian church. Over there to the west is the farm house of Mrs. George Royer, with an unfailing spring in the cellar, a good place for butter and milk. Farm after farm of families all scattered. They grew in beauty side by side, They filled one home with glee, By mount and stream and sea. The Bressler farm and the Doc or Jonathan F. Coe place, now owned by D. N. Foster. The father of these Coes was Simeon M., who came to Jordan in 1835 and died in 1848. His wife was Mary Miles. A large family of 13 children, mostly boys. Each son got a farm. S. M. or Sim, who lived in the southern part of Jordan, was for years town treasurer. Near the Doc Coe place was an early frame schoolhouse, called the Coe school. It was taken down, and a new stone building erected on the west of the road, called the Stone school. Penrose is the business center of Jordan. There is a commodious general store with dwelling attached and a well kept lawn and garden on side and rear. W. D. Detweiler and wife are the accommodating proprietors. Just this side is a small Quaker graveyard containing the graves of Elida John, who died in 1888 at seventy-seven, and Sarah, his wife, in 1890, at ninety. Also that of A. C. John, son, hospital steward of 34th Ill. Infantry, who died in 1899 at 67. The little meeting house is now a dwelling. An iron fence in front. Here is a United Brethren church, Radical, built in 1896, with 23 members, and preaching every second Sunday. A Sunday school and Y. P. society. There are three Sunday schools in Jordan. The White church formerly, now East Jordan church, is the strongest religious organization in the town. Originally erected as a union edifice, but now controlled by the Liberal branch of the United Brethren, with Rev. J. A. F. King as pastor. A flourishing Sunday school of 150 pupils with Alex. Anderson as superintendent. Mrs. Lizzie Detweiler has home department and circulates lesson leaves in both English and German. The latter is Sonntagschul Lektionen, published at Mennonite Book Concern, Berne, Indiana. There are also a C. Endeavor and Junior E. Mrs. M. Kidder has the first primary of 30 scholars. Mrs. Nelson Jacobs, sister of Dr. J. C. Maxwell, Sterling, has the cradle roll of 24 tots, and has held the position for 26 years. Now let us drive beyond Penrose two miles, and on descending a hill a little valley lies before us, and prominent in the outlook towers a large frame building, grand, gloomy and peculiar. It is Wilson's old mill, for thirty years a scene of busy traffic. Here came Joseph Wilson from Pennsylvania, and built a log mill in 1836. An enterprising man, and from time to time he installed improvements to keep his grists to date, sparing no expense. His flour put up in family sacks had a high reputation, and a generation of Sterling and Dixon people believed no bread or cake could be undertaken without Wilson's flour. "Take no other." He hauled the goods himself to the towns, and many a day has the writer seen the venerable miller perched on the top of a two-horse load on his way to market. He delivered himself from house to house. The dam was thrown across Buffalo creek, and the meadow with the race on one side and woodland on the further hill, made an ideal landscape of rural beauty. How dear to this heart. Are the scenes of my childhood, Presents them to view. Not long before his death he enlarged the residence, making many rooms, perhaps for the entertainment of strangers, for the place was the center of a Quaker influence. Every Sunday Friends' meeting was held for the benefit of the few disciples who assembled there. Frances was a zealous advocate for her faith, and loaned the writer Clarkson's Portraiture of the Quakers. Both Joseph and Frances are buried in the orchard at the home, the sons are gone. Mary lived alone in the spacious mansion for twenty years until a nephew lately moved in, while the huge mill, silent and tenantless, is occupied as a warehouse by a farmer. To what base uses do we come at last. The big water wheel also remains. The whole structure speaks of desolation, and is a mute reminder of departed prosperity. One of the best men who ever lived in Jordan was James Talbott, who came from Westmoreland, Pa., in 1835. A carpenter in the east, but here he became a farmer. A devout Methodist. Oliver, born in 1833, is the best known of the surviving children and now resides in Polo. His wife is Mary Furry, a prominent writer and speaker in the W. C. T. U. In form, the late Jacob Vogdes was the Saul of the township. He was from Pennsylvania, kept bachelor hall on his eighty for some years, and in 1859 started for Pike's Peak and continued his journey to California, where he died after a varied career in mining. He was seventy-two. He was six feet four, broad shouldered and massively built. Jovial and kindly, his face always wearing a smile. About two miles from Wilson's mill was the log cabin of Charles Diller, in which he lived from 1850 to his removal to Sterling in 1878. He had been a teacher in Pennsylvania, was the most intelligent man in his neighborhood, was school director and justice of the peace, and kept open house. His wife, Ann (Thompson), was the soul of hospitality. Of four boys, Thomas was teacher in the country and Sterling for several terms, and in 1889 was appointed postmaster of Sterling by Harrison, in 1897 by McKinley and again in 1901. He purchased the Standard as a weekly from Theodore Mack, and in cooperation with J. W. Newcomer, published the paper until its appearance as a daily in 1893, Mr. Newcomer retiring. The Diller farm of nearly 400 acres was purchased by the late W. A. Sanborn, banker, and turned into a stock ranch by the erection of extensive barns. It is now owned by Fernandus Jacobs, who, with his 1,068 acres, is easily the largest land owner in Jordan. He started without a dollar and is still under sixty. It is a little singular that another man of almost the same name, John Adam Jacob, a foreign German, coming here poor, died at 64, owning 1,000 acres in Jordan and much in Iowa. On the crossroad from the Freeport to the Pennington is Jordan Center with its town hall erected in 1888 after a hot contest about the site with Penrose and a neat schoolhouse, both painted white. On the east side of the Pennington road stands the First Evangelical Lutheran church of Jordan with a pretty cupola and bell. Rev. Frederick William Schneider, Baden, Germany, is pastor. He was at the gymnasium of Breslun from 1881-1885, and three years at the theological school of Capitol university, Columbus, Ohio. The church was organized in 1874, remodeled in 1897, is well equipped with organ and other essentials, and is a credit to the people. An addition to the comfortable parsonage in 1907. Henry Helms, Henry Bitters, Bernard Fulfs, are the deacons. Besides the Sunday school of 80 pupils, there are Ladies' Aid society and Luther League. Membership of two hundred. The ground for church and cemetery was given by John Wolfersperger, who was one of the large landholders in that district. At one time he had a dairy of fifty cows, sending butter to St. Louis. His son, Aaron, is now Judge Wolfersperger of Sterling. Mr. Wolfersperger came to the country in 1851. South of the church is another landmark, the Capp schoolhouse. The first in 1856, the later one about 1867. D. N. Foster, now in Sterling, taught there before 1860. Across the Elkhorn to the east was the Hubbard Grove school, in which from 1856 onwards we find wielding the birch such tyros as W. W. Davis, John Lennon, C. W. Marston and others. Charles Diller, James Woods and John Furry were directors. In September, 1907, occurred at the Jordan Lutheran church an event that was productive of much good and pleasure. It was the meeting of the Wartburg Synod, the session continuing several days. Seldom that the staid. people of a farming community are favored with so many ministers and so much preaching. One noon the Ladies' Aid society served dinner in the Sunday school. It was a sumptuous entertainment of the richest viands that only country pantries can furnish, and in a quantity that left a surplus for another banquet. The cemetery adjoins the church and has many elegant memorials of granite and marble. The lots are kept, in good order. -Gone before To that unknown and silent shore. The W. C. T. U. flourishes in Jordan. At one of their late festivals 87 guests were present, and the occasion afforded great delight and profit to the happy throng. An excellent and varied program comprising a violin solo, a duet and quartet, followed by an earnest and suggestive address by Mrs. Dunlap of Champaign on the requisites of an ideal home. Bountiful refreshments at the close. Another admirable feature of Jordan life is the interest in the Sunday school cause. The East Jordan Loyal alumni celebrated their sixth anniversary in the winter of 1907 at the home of James Anderson with a banquet and toasts. The roll in five years grew from 23 to a membership of 55. Five years faithful attendance is the condition of membership. The Loyal Sunday School Army Alumni is an adjunct of the East Jordan Sunday school. The organization is composed of persons who have passed a grade of seventy-five per cent, perfect in attendance, lesson study and contribution for four consecutive quarters in each year for five years. The class at present numbers fifty-two. A banquet is held annually at which officers are elected for the ensuing year. The officers for the year 1908 are as follows: President, Mrs. Emily C. Coats; secretary, Miss Myrtle Sivits; treasurer, Mr. Clarence Parks. The W. C. T. U. was organized about twenty years ago with a membership of one hundred. The present officers are: Mrs. Ida Anderson, president; Mrs. Jennie Jacob, treasurer; Mrs. Martha Dick, secretary. Parlor meetings are held at the different homes, one a month. The Royal Neighbors were organized Aug. 24, 1898, and the present membership is 58. The number of the camp is 1103. Of the nine officers, Mrs. Ruth Sivits is oracle; Miss Margaret Coats, recorder, Miss Sarah Hocker, receiver; and Dr. Jane Keefer, physician. Jordan is a progressive community and takes hold of every movement that promises benefit to the general welfare. An amusing incident happened about 1894 in connection with a mission fest or service held in the woods near the John Kratz farm. It was in autumn and was under the auspices of the Jordan Lutheran church. The preaching was mostly in German. One of the speakers in an exciting flight of eloquence and fancy, exclaimed, "I see a fire!" at the same time, to give force to his remark, pointing in the direction of the house of a simple hearer who sat on a front bench. He took the orator at his word, and as his dwelling. was in that direction, seized his hat and darted off like a deer to quench the flames. The scare almost broke up the meeting. After the service was over, |