CHAPTER 9
Civic Development of El Paso
The September 9, 1865 issue of The El Paso True Patriot published an ordinance regarding certain sidewalks, signed by J. D. Park, president and P. Boyles, clerk of the village board of trustees. In the November 25, 1865 issue of the same paper, ordinances are signed by Park as president and J. Fishburn, clerk. W. R. Willis is mentioned in several later issues of The El Paso Journal as the first justice of the peace. Other records of the early village government have not been located.
The earliest reference to El Paso in the acts of the Illinois General Assembly is dated February 22, 1861, when "An Act to incorporate the Town of El Paso" was approved and published that year in Illinois Private Laws, pages 625-30. This act provided for a president and four trustees to be elected annually, gave the boundaries, duties of officers, provided for taxes, elections, ordinances, road, labor, and education. Information regarding the first officials is meager, but it is certain Park and the town clerks were acting under this authority.
El Paso was organized under a special charter as a city in 1867. It was composed of two wards, the First on the east side of the Illinois Central, and the Second west of the tracks. The first council room was in the Strathman Building. After the fire of 1882, city offices were moved to the Eagle Block which burned in 1894. When rebuilt as it stands today, the city council set up offices on the second floor, remaining there until the City Hall was erected in 1908. While some city records were lost in these fires, the big city minute book which recorded all of the Council's activities from 1867 was saved and is still in existence.
Joseph Reichel began construction of the present City Hall October 8, 1907, and completed it the next spring. The two-story brick structure contains a large council room and three smaller office rooms on the second floor, with a polling place, jail, and fire department rooms on the ground floor. The building committee, composed of Omer North, John S. Welch and William J. Render filed a report showing the cost as $5,955.33, financed by the sale of $6,000 of city hall bonds.
Until 1891 El Paso had two representatives on the county board, one from the township and one from the city as provided in the special city
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