conecting the Bloomington and Clarksville settlements with Fort Clark, now Peoria. Like a magnet, Bowling Green drew visitors and customers from a wide area.

A surprisingly large volume of merchandise poured out from its business establishments. William Denman had the largest store and also operated his inn, the Denman House on the south side of the east-west roadway. It was about midway between Peoria and Bloomington, and Hanover, now Metamora, and Bloomington. Thus it was a convenient stopping place for the weary traveler, with the facilities for the horse and lodging and merchandise for its owner. True, the inn and stores were a far cry from today's, but they were modem for their times.

Although the history of Bowling Green may have begun officially when its plat was recorded in 1836, actually it was a thriving village by then. Mr. Charles Moore and his brothers had built their water powered mill in 1830 a mile to the northwest on Panther Creek. Mr. Francis M. Willis who came from Frankfort, Kentucky and settled in Walnut Grove in Cruger Township in 1829, soon moved over to the lower Panther Creek settlement, one of the first along with the Moores. He was the grandfather of Frank Davidson of the Chicago Times. Willis bought the Moore mill in 1831 and with characteristic impatience quickly added new machinery. Thus improved, the old "corn cracker" evolved into an efficient mill capable of grinding the newly introduced wheat as well as the familiar corn.

Indians still encamped upstream must have worried Uncle Frank by their habit of taking away things that were not too heavy to lift. These Indians lived by their hunting, fishing and selling trinkets, Attorney H. V. Graybill said Mr. W. B. Carlock had related. Mr. Carlock's father had traded corn meal and other foodstuffs to the Indians in return for beads to give to his family for birthday presents. The Indians were moved away before and after the Black Hawk war.

Frank Willis was an energetic and visionary man. For one thing, he saw the need for a centralized community. He bought a tract of land and planned the village which he named in honor of Bowling Green, Kentucky. Streets were laid out for nine blocks and eighty-one lots were provided for future-building projects. He reserved a square for a public park. The north and south streets on each side of the park were named Springfield and Chicago streets. At the date of filing the plat for record Chicago was only three years old as a city. The streets passing the park in an east and west direction were named Danville and Peoria streets. For a quarter century, 1832 to 1858, Springfield Street was the nerve center of this pioneer village.

Two Indiana born men, Aaron A. Richardson Sr., and his brother, James Madison Richardson were as energetic as Willis. They arrived in 1831 and have been credited with aiding Willis in staking off the town. At least we know from the record that Aaron added his Richard-

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