Lost Towns of Illinois - Hardscrabble and Unionville, Illinois.

Hardscrabble was in LaSalle County, situated on the Vermilion River approximately 80 miles southwest of Chicago in the prairie and farm land of north-central Illinois.

In 1824, Samuel D. Lockwood, one of the first commissioners of the Illinois and Michigan Canal project, was given the authorization to hire contractors to survey a route for the canal to follow. This canal connected Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River, greatly increasing shipping traffic in the region. Land speculation in areas lining the canal and rivers ensued, and towns sprouted quickly.

The settlement of Bruce Township began when George Basore moved to the fertile State of Illinois and settled on section 24 in Bruce Township in 1831. Among the others who settled in the township in the 1830s may be mentioned William Morgan, Gayler Hayes, John Morgan, John and David Sotter, Norton Mackey, Rush, and Benjamin Mackey, Norton Gunn, William Reddick, Reuben Hackett, William Donnell, Isaac Painter, and William Bronson. (Bruce Township was organized in the spring of 1850, and Samuel Mackey was elected the first township supervisor. The City of Streator is situated in Bruce Township.)

In 1861, John O'Neil, a miner, established the first settlement in what was to become the city of Streator, Illinois, when he opened a small grocery and trading post. O'Neil is credited with giving today's town of Streator its first name, "Hardscrabble" (ironically an early name for the Bridgeport neighborhood), after watching two teams labor to pull a loaded wagon up the hill from the landing on the Vermillion River. O'Neil remarked that it was a hard scrabble (hard struggle) and then stenciled "Hard Scrabble" on the front of his store.

The Civil War led to Streator's second name, Unionville. Stories vary as to whether the name represented simply the community's devotion to the Northern cause or whether it symbolized the accord of Democrats and Republicans as soon as war actually broke out. Evidently many people regarded the change as merely symbolic and continued to call the settlement by its original, more descriptive name of Hardscrabble.

Both Unionville and Otter Creek had bazaars and community meetings where they engaged in work similar to that done by the Red Cross volunteers during recent wars; picking lint and making bandages and underwear for the hospitals.

All during the Civil War, the post office (named "Eagle") was about two miles from Unionville. The school children usually went from school to Squire Painter's house for the mail. It came twice a week. And when the spring or fall rains came, the road was full of water in places, and you had to walk on rail fences to get to the post office. Overholt and Holmes had a general store at Reading, but when the Vermillion River was past fording, you could not get to Reading, and the road to Ottawa was nothing but mud and water, so supplies got quite limited.

The men who returned to Unionville after the Civil War found little change. There were probably a few new settlers and a few new shanties along the river where Water Street is now; the Springer and Painter store had opened for business in 1864. But when the town was platted on April 27, 1865, scarcely six square blocks were encompassed by its boundaries: Main Street on the south, Bloomington on the east, Kent on the north, and the river on the west. James Campbell, John O. Dent, Clark S. Dey, and Isaac A. Rice signed as owners of the land.

Dr. Worthy Stevens Streator (1816-1902)

In 1865 some coal samples from the area were sent to Worthy Streator, a prominent railroad promoter, physician, industrialist, and entrepreneur from Cleveland, Ohio. Streator was immediately struck by the quality of the coal and financed the region's first mining operation, forming the Vermillion Coal Company. Streator approached his nephew Colonel Ralph Plumb at a railway station in December 1865 about overseeing the mining operation in central Illinois for him and several investors. Col. Plumb agreed and arrived in the town, then called Unionville, in January of 1866 with instructions to purchase and develop 4000 acres of coal lands as acting secretary, treasurer, and resident manager of the Vermillion Coal Company. He wasted no time. Under his supervision, miners went to work and sank the shaft of the company's first mine, the "Old Slope." Located east of the river, at the foot of Adams Street, and just north of Cedar, the mine reached a depth of fifty feet and eventually covered about sixty-five acres. (It never became a large operation, in its heyday employing only between fifty and a hundred men and averaging seventy tons of coal a day.)

While miners worked below ground, workmen above laid track for the first railroad into Unionville, the fifteen-mile "Stub End Road" that led westward to Wenona and a junction with the Illinois Central line. (It later became part of the Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio roads.) Halfway between the two towns grew up a small community which Plumb named Garfield after his Civil War commander.

With the new mine and the new railroad, Unionville gained more settlers. A row of wooden shacks sprang up along the railway near the mine. Overholt and Holmes moved their store from Reading to Unionville and put up a two-story building at Main and Bloomington - a site later occupied by the Plumb Hotel. Just back of the store and fronting Main Street was a three-story frame structure erected by Dr. E. E. Williams; its top floor was the chief place for entertainment prior to the construction of Oriental Hall. Zephaniah Schwartz, one of the earliest settlers in Livingston County, moved to the growing community and built a large rooming house called Streator House on the southwest corner of Main and Bloomington.

Unionville was obviously growing beyond the boundaries drawn for it in 1865, so Colonel Plumb and other residents arranged to have it replatted. In the meantime, they gave the town its third and present name, commemorating the efforts of the Ohio doctor who believed in its possibilities. Unionville officially became Streator, Illinois, on November 26, 1867. Less than three months later, on February 10, 1868, Ralph Plumb as secretary, together with James Huggans, Albert McCormick, and William Rainey - signed the second plat, which extended Streator's boundaries south to Wilson Street, east to Wasson, and north to Morrell. In the spring, a meeting was called to "determine by vote the question of incorporating the town of Streator." On the night of April 9, a group of about seventy landowners and businessmen met above the Overholt and Holmes store. There they voted, 56 to 5, for incorporation, and later that month, the townspeople chose five trustees for the village council: H. R. Stout, R. P. Smith, Robert Hall, A. J. Baker, and George Temple. The new village was formally incorporated in 1868, with a population of 1486.

Worthy S. Streator served as an Ohio State Republican Senator from 1869 to 1873.

In 1870 the Vermillion Coal Company opened its № 1 mine, with a shaft located just north of Grant and east of Vermillion Street. This mine, the largest in the entire Streator area, spread over about 930 acres at an average depth of 80 feet in its thirtieth year of operation. With a vein of coal between 4½ and 5 feet thick, the mine at its peak yielded more than 2500 tons a day, to make a total of approximately 5,000,000 tons. 

The Vermillion Company united with the Chicago and Wilmington Coal Company to form the Chicago, Wilmington, and Vermillion Coal Company in 1871; simply called "Vee Cee" by local residents.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The Darche Manufacturing Company, Chicago, Illinois. (1882-1929)

The Darche Manufacturing Company opened at 1824 West Grand Avenue, Chicago in 1882.

In 1909, Chicago renamed and renumbered many streets because Chicago's annexations caused multiple streets with the same name, making mail delivery a nightmare. 

Darche Manufacturing Company's address became 599 West Grand Avenue, Chicago.

The address became 599 West Grand Avenue, Chicago.

George C. Darche had several relatives in the business. In 1882, Theodore Darche, a carpenter, and Eugene Darche, a box-maker, were the only persons listed in the company records. George, a plater, first came upon the scene in 1883. That same year, Theodore changed hats from carpenter to contractor.

By 1884, Joseph Darche, a millwright, joined the group, and Theodore became the T. Darche & Co. CEO on South State Street in Chicago. From 1885 through 1888, George opened up at 31 South Clark Street and later at 35 South Clark Street as an electrical supply business. Theodore was listed as a locksmith and carpenter in 1887. Edward, another Darche, appeared in 1888 as an electrician at 416 South State Street. The only other Darche to appear was Ephraim, a teamster.

Here, we have the nucleus of an excellent electric clock. A millwright to create the fancy wood designs, a carpenter to construct the case, an electrician to do the wiring, a locksmith to tidy up the case and keep the door shut, a contractor to make sure everyone did what they were supposed to do and a teamster to settle disputes in case they didn’t.

The Darche Electric Co. shows up in 1889 at 37 South Clark Street, and in 1891, George C. is listed as President, and Edward T. is Secretary. By 1895, George was listed as a jeweler at 648 W. 12th Street, and, at last, in 1896, the Darche Clock Co. at the 648 W. 12th address was born. From 1897 through 1902, the Darche Clock Co. showed George C. Darche as President of the company at locations at 618 West 12th Street (12th Street was renamed Roosevelt Road on May 25, 1919) and then at 830 South Halsted Street.

The first mention of the Darche Electric Clock Company was in 1903 at the 2117 South Halsted address, and in 1904, we saw someone other than George as President of the company. Don Evans was President, taking over when George died in 1904. His presidency didn’t last long. In 1905, Frank Jansen became President and remained so through 1909.

Then, a wonderful thing happened. In 1909, the company underwent yet another name change, this time to Darche Manufacturing Co., with Augusta Y. Darche as President, a woman revolutionary for that time. Augusta held the position until 1928, when E. J. Heilman became President.

Going back to the early part of 1904, perhaps while George was sick, Augusta applied for a patent for a "Stand for an electric alarm clock," which the patent was granted in August of that year.

In June of 1904, Augusta applied for another patent for an Electric Alarm Clock, which was granted in March 1906. She had invented: "an alarm, i.e., the combination of a clock alarm mechanism and an arm adapted to be moved thereby, of an electric signal, a circuit for said signal in the path of movement of said arm and an insulating sleeve movably mounted on the said stationary electrode and adapted to be positioned between said arm and stationary electrode for preventing contact therebetween and thus maintaining the open circuit."

1910 Frank Jansen, President of the Darche Manufacturing Co., registered the trademark "Searchlight," the F. W. Jansen name appeared on the "Darche" clock.

The Searchlight Model

The Searchlight model had a button at the end of a bulb (not shown), and when pressed, it would sound the alarm bell to call someone (a nurse) into your sick room. Squeezing the bulb would turn on the light below the dial to illuminate the dial if the room was dark.

$8.35 in 1910 is worth $270.00 in 2024.

The "Medical Clock" was patented in 1910 and measures about 8" tall, and the base is approximately 12.75" x 5.75". The patent date on the base is 1910. The clock is an Eight-Day windup clock. 

The "Medical Clock" was patented in 1910.

It also has several additional features, which would have been powered by two batteries, one in each of the columns on the sides of the clock. The features could be selected using the toggle switch on the base of the clock and are as follows:

• Medical Battery - Using wires connected to the medical battery ports on the left side of the base, small electric shocks could be applied to the body for electrical stimulation, advertised as "beneficial for the treatment of numerous illnesses." 
• Surgical Set - a battery-powered "surgical lamp" with a tongue depressor for examination of eyes, ears, mouth, throat, and nose.
• Neutral - Off
• Night Light - the light bulb above the clock would light up, illuminating the clock and serving as a night light.
• Call Bell - the bell could be rung with a press of the call button on a cord with a wooden handle with the button. 

There is also a battery-powered alarm feature, which can be turned on and off using the switch on the right of the base.

The company survived until the Great Depression in 1929. While short-lived, the company produced multiple patents and became a real innovator in battery-powered alarm clocks. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.