Early History of the Village of Manhattan
Manhattan American, Wednesday, February 20, 1985.
“The town of Manhattan is the only village in the township of Manhattan. The name for the town was taken from the township which was named by John Young, an early settler who was supervisor for 13 years. He was given the privilege of naming the township which he named after his old home in New York. Manhattan is located at the fork in an Indian trail running southeast from Joliet. One segment of the trail goes east to Monee and the other south to Kankakee. The only activity at the early crossroads was a home and blacksmith shop built and operated by William Trask. Business was brisk in the 1870’s as covered wagons, carriages and low wagons converged from three directions with settlers and commercial traffic. Mr. Trask died on the prairie one day in 1879 when a survey team for the Wabash Railroad came through the tall grass.
“The real history of the village begins when the Wabash Railroad was surveyed through the area in 1879. A boarding house called the Wabash House was erected on what is now Consumer’s Hardware parking lot. This was built for the railroad workers. The Wabash was a big line railroad to the east long before it went through Manhattan. The three tracks you see today are the original tracks. The first
train service through Manhattan started then. Manhattan was one of the main stops because of its coal and for water supply.
“The first trains began to roll in June of 1880 and the farm products of Manhattan could now be sent north to Chicago or south to Decatur and St. Louis. There was good transportation now due to the Great Lakes shippers or the Mississippi River boats, providing an almost limitless market for the farm products. Prior to this new rail service, long hard wagon trips and trail drives were required to ship crops and livestock from the farm to the market. Most shipping had been done through the Spencer or Joliet rail facilities. At a later date the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad ran through the town of Manhattan, providing service to Joliet and Milwaukee to the north and Momence and Terre Haute, Ind. to the south. The village was at the crossroads of the two railroads and became a “railroad town”. The late Archie West of Manhattan was the first agent of the CM&G Railroad here.
“The village grew as a community to support the railroad in the form of coaling and watering the many steam engines passing through. In later years a flourishing grain business also provided the village with a large percentage of its income. Many large grain elevators lined the side of the rails as grain was stored for later shipment to all parts of the nation. Coal shoots soon replaced the old hand shoveling methods as traffic increased and an increased speed of coal loading was required. Freight, express, grain and livestock created many jobs and there was always activity by the rail siding.
“A large stockyard soon grew alongside the busy rail area. Cattle were guided by farmers on horseback along back roads and village streets to and from the pens alongside the tracks. It was not uncommon to see pigs, sheep or cattle walking down the village streets in the early 1900’s. Both railroads serving Manhattan had freight and passenger service with connections anywhere trains ran in the United States. The town’s people went from wilderness isolation to seasoned travelers due to the railroads. The Wabash was later sold to the Norfolk and Western Railroad line. The trains that pass by now are used for freight only, as passenger service was discontinued in 1940. On June 18, 1904, an ordinance was passed naming a street after the Wabash Railroad.
“Four years after the Wabash began serving Manhattan Township, Mr. William McGown saw a business potential and requested permission to open a saloon near the depot. A saloon could only operate in an incorporated area, so he set about to petition the local citizens to incorporate. It was found there were not enough people in the settlement area to incorporate so the town limits were extended 1½ miles in all directions encompassing many farms in order to reach the number necessary for incorporation. The legal process took two years and in 1886 the village incorporated and took its name from the township of Manhattan. At that time the village limits were retracted to be much as the boundary we know today.
“The village tavern was known to be a friendly and quiet place to “lift a couple” after a hard day’s work. This was all changed for a short time when the wrath of Charlie Guardner’s wife descended on the place. Charlie did not know when to stop consuming spirits and was a bad sort when “well soaked”. His wife sought to bring a stop to this sort of thing and she advised all saloons in the area by word and written message not to give Charlie anything to drink. One day she got the message that Charlie was drinking at McGowan’s Tavern and she set out to correct the situation. Arriving in front of the tavern she responded in a very unladylike way to McGowan having ignored her request. The street being covered by a fresh coating of stones, she selected them as her tools of revenge. The glass window panes were the target as she flung hand full after hand full of stones through the windows, shattering the front of the tavern. The bartender and customers inside were caught by surprise as the quiet atmosphere was changed to that of chaos with glass and stones sailing all over the room. Some thought it was a bank robbery while others had their own thoughts of disaster and responded for human survival. Some people sought shelter behind the bar and under the tables while others fled the scene through the rear door.
“The old frame saloon building at 237 South State St. is no longer there, but some senior citizens remember it well and also the many stories and experiences exchanged inside its long-gone walls. Some say the best part of it being there is the fact that its existence was the reason for Manhattan even being a town.”
Information taken from “Where the Trails Cross”, a publication of the South Suburban Genealogical and Historical Society and from an article entitled “History of Manhattan - 1886 through today”.