diary indicating Hazlett was there first. He may have been our first railroad agent in addition to his restaurant job; the railroad records are lost. We do know the Central appointed Geo. H. Campbell agent in 1858 and that he was soon acting for the P. & 0. also. The moving of the little building from "El Paso" onto the railroad ground south of today's Route 24, then "out of El Paso," began the argument between Wathen and Gibson on the one side and the Peoria and Oquawka Railroad and Count Chlopicki on the other. The latter insisted on calling the place Illinois Junction; his disgruntlement grew as El Paso prospered and the new Campbell House took away most of his business.

El Paso’s first store, built by the Jenkin brothers, 1856.

Meantime the first Peoria freight arrived from the east bank of the Illinois River pending the building of the bridge, and it carried the lumber for the Jenkins Brothers' store building which they erected in 1856 where the Rebbec Garage now stands at Front and Cherry streets. It was the first business building in El Paso. A block eastward, Thomas McClellan completed his home, the first in town, with David Hibbs a close second. Gibson completed a building across the street west of the Jenkin's building which he also intended for a store, but changed it into a hotel apparently as a concession to the three Jenkins brothers. He delayed its opening and completion because Wm. R. Willis was already operating a hotel one block to the north, and this was another business the town founder could not afford to antagonize.

Page 49

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