Drucken Lesezeichen hinzufügen

Sullivan, Moultrie County, Illinois, USA



 


Notizen:
Wikipedia 2020:

Sullivan is a city in Moultrie County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,440 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat and largest city of Moultrie County. Sullivan is named after Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, where Fort Moultrie is located.

History:

Sullivan was founded in 1845. Two years after Sullivan was founded, the first official courthouse of the county was built. It was a simple two-story brick building with a hipped roof, and the county jail was housed in the basement. The village would come alive with gossip when court was in session. Abraham Lincoln passed through this first courthouse many times from 1849-1852 as he practiced law in the Moultrie County circuit court. The present courthouse has a mural depicting this first courthouse.

Sullivan had not been a logical site for a county seat. The village of Nelson (which no longer exists) had already been developed and the prairie in which Sullivan would be built had poor drainage and malaria-carrying mosquitoes. In 1844, it was determined that the location that would soon be Sullivan would become the county seat. Unfortunately, decades later Sullivan would prove to be too close to Decatur and Mattoon to thrive as an important area city.

The original village consisted of 40 acres (25 city blocks) bound by Jackson Street on the north, Water Street on the south, Douglas (now Worth) Street on the East, and Hamilton Street on the west. Sullivan's first school was built in 1846 with the first church being built in 1848.

When Abraham Lincoln was campaigning for senate against Stephen Douglas, he gave a speech in Freeland's Grove (now Wyman Park) and there is a monument there commemorating his speech today. In 1858, during this senate campaign, a riot broke out on the town square between the supporters of Lincoln and the supporters of Douglas.

In 1864, a fire destroyed the first courthouse and a second, larger one was built that was in use until 1904, when it was demolished and the third, present-day courthouse was built. Along with the first courthouse building, hundreds of county records were lost.

Sullivan was also home to the Titus Opera House, built in 1871, which was located on the north side of the town square. Located on the second and third floors of the building, the large auditorium, balcony, and box seats could accommodate up to 800 patrons. The opera house was among the finest in the area, and it even hosted a concert given by the great Venezuelan pianist Teresa Carreno. Unfortunately, in the early morning of February 20, 1910, the opera house caught fire and burned to the ground. This marked the end of a live entertainment era in Sullivan until Guy S. Little Jr. founded The Little Theatre on the Square decades later.

Wyman Park, one of two parks on the north side of Sullivan, has an intriguing past. Albert Wyman, a man who immigrated to the United States from Germany, owned a shoe repair and sales shop on the west end of the town square. During the time Wyman was alive, Sullivan lacked a public park, so in his will he endowed much of his business profit to the city in order to purchase land for a park. While his will prohibited any kind of sales from occurring on the grounds of the new park, concession stands were built anyway.

The Moultrie County Historical and Genealogical Society, located in downtown Sullivan, houses a small museum of the county's past.

Ort : Geographische Breite: 39.6005413, Geographische Länge: -88.6079550


Geburt

Treffer 1 bis 1 von 1

   Nachname, Taufnamen    Geburt    Personen-Kennung 
1 Baldwin, Lydia May  30 Okt 1874Sullivan, Moultrie County, Illinois, USA I204197

Tod

Treffer 1 bis 1 von 1

   Nachname, Taufnamen    Tod    Personen-Kennung 
1 Zimbleman, Lucille  20 Mrz 2000Sullivan, Moultrie County, Illinois, USA I211791