The Town That Vanished

The Town That Vanished. . , A quiet bend in the river… a peaceful view of picturesque canyon cliffs… it's hard to imagine, but this was once the site of a bustling frontier town. Millville, Illinois had only a brief glimpse of prosperity before it faded and vanished, washed away by the waters of the Apple River. , A Promising Start , Millville got its start in the mid 1820s, when northern Illinois was in the midst of a lead-mining boom. A wagon road from Peoria to the mining district of Galena crossed the Apple River at this location, making it the logical place for a stagecoach stop. , By 1838, there was a sawmill here perhaps the inspiration for the town's name. By 1838 Millville had attracted enough settlers to have its own post office. By 1840, it was a well-established town, featuring the sawmill, a blacksmith shop, a dry goods store, a barn for stage horses, several grocery saloon businesses. and a tavern that also served as an inn. 1840 census figures report the town's population at 62, but the postal service area may have included over 330 people. , Bypassed, and Swept Away , In 1854, the Illinois Central Railroad began building a branch line to the Galena district…but unfortunately the rails passed four miles north of Millville. Businesses and settlement moved north to the rails, and the town began to decline. By 1870, only three businesses the gristmill, the blacksmith shop, and a store were left In June of 1892, a food swept across the townsite, destroying the few remaining buildings: They were never rebuilt. , The Stagecoach War , . Millville's original stagecoach service was provided by a local character named John D. Winters. In the 1840s, with increasing traffic on the roads, a company run by Frink and Walker stepped into the local market. , . The two competing companies launched a fierce advertising war, each ridiculing the other and bragging of its own superiority. The conflict even turned violent when Winters assaulted Frink in a Galena bar. In the end, Frink, Walker, and Company won the war. , [Captions:] , A painting of the gristmill-was done by Nellie Boone in 1885 , In 1847, Millville’s sawmill was replaced by a gristmill -perhaps a sign of the growing importance of agriculture in the area. , View along the Apple River , Amaza L. Spencer (b. 1838) drew this map in 1925. It is based on his recollection of Millville in 1850