The committee has attempted to show in narrative form the highlights in our town’s development. This effort is not necessarily an authenticated history of our community. We have woven in some tradition as well as actual history. We have, however, attempted to make it as accurate and impartial as our information could make it.
In presenting the story of our community we were faced with two limitations. First the narrow space of the time available for a pageant determines that for each episode depicted, many with equal claim to attention must be left out. Moreover, the very nature of pageantry requires that our attention be focused upon events that can be seen with the eye rather than felt or perceived by the mind.
Here about us, at our feet, lay the hills covered with hardwoods, the streams interspersed with the hills, one complementing the other. So it was for untold centuries before the pioneer’s axe and gun disturbed the sacred stillness. Today about us lie the selfsame hills, changed only slightly by nature and man. Yet today a different generation of people till the soil, fell the trees, and look to the hills for strength.
“Backward O backward turn time in thy flight, Make me a child again, just for tonight.”
Early Pioneers Arrive
Permanent settlements in North Edwards County began around 1820. Prior to this date a few frontiersmen had pushed their way into the wilderness far in advance of the vanguard of settlers. According to tradition, three Daston brothers built log cabins here as early as 1800. This was 18 years before Illinois became a state. Their log cabins were located in section 15, approximately three miles northeast of West Salem.
Lot Sams, a native of North Carolina, lived in Tennessee and Kentucky. He left Kentucky in 1815, with his family on pack horses. He first settled in Shelby precinct but later moved to section 35 where he lived until his death in 1863. Samsville, a little hamlet of a few families, bears his name. It once boasted a post office and doctor’s office. At one time nearly half of the people of West Salem died of Cholera or typhoid. It is said that the remaining people were too sick to keep up with the burials of the dead. The country doctor, who has nearly disappeared form the scene today, was a necessary part of every frontier community, as he attended the sick and helped to usher new souls into the frontier society.
In passing, we might remind the audience that an extensive town was plotted and was named Marion. Had plans materialized, a sizable village would have sprung up. Nearby Bennington was surveyed and laid out into lots with the plan of developing it into a city. Both Bennington and Marion, however, fell far short of expectations as villages.
In the fall of 1830 quite a few arrivals came from Davidson County, North Carolina. Among them were George Hedrick, Thomas Walser, Briton Walser, Soloman Hedrick, Peter Snyder, and Peter Hinkle. Hinkle, a Moravian blacksmith, arrived in a two-horse wagon with just ten dollars in his pocket but he was destined to play an active role in the town’s development.
The Church's Influence
Time has passed. The frontier is still primitive but settlers are trickling in one by one. By 1840 several Moravians had settled in the area including such patriarchs as Adam Hedrick, Peter Hinkle, Joel Rothrock and others.
Soon they began to worship in barns, homes, or schoolhouses. A desire to unite as a formal organization was realized when a company of people left their daily chores on May 25, 1844 to organize a church. This meeting was held in Peter Hinkle’s barn located less than a mile north of the present village of West Salem. In Peter Hinkle’s barn the church was formally organized as the first church in the community by Rev. Martin Hauser.
In 1845 Martin Hauser entered eighty acres of land for Brother Charles Kluge, in behalf of the Executive Board of the Moravian Church at Salem, North Carolina. This purchase, together with others made by the same board made a total of 200 acres owned by the church. The Kluge purchase of 80 acres is the land on which West Salem was started.
Kalen Clodfelter bought the first lot for business purposes in September 1849. A few days later Paul T. Halbeck bought the remaining half of the Clodfelter lot and built a combined store and dwelling of frame construction. He sold merchandise including linen and broadcloth. The same day Stephen Bunn, a flat boat operator on Bonpas, bought lot 13 and also built a home-store type of structure. Thus a land boom was on in New Salem which was to bring about further expansion of the town.
In July of 1825 the Long Prairie or Primitive Baptist Church was organized. This church is located about three miles west of our town. In 1843 at the home of Quinton Nicks the Sugar Creek or Marion Christian Church was organized. Meetings were held in homes for about six years.
Nearby, in 1853, Rev. Burgener, and Olney traveling preacher, met with Michel Barnhart and Guyott to organize the Little Wabash Evangelical Church.
The West Salem Christian Church was organized August 15, 1858, by the union of the Long Prairie congregation and a group worshipping at Brother Barneys.
In the autumn of 1886 a few people of the Free Methodist Faith felt the need for a church home in West Salem. Just east of town a tent meeting was being conducted under the ministry of Rev. John Keys. This successful meeting led to the organization of the West Salem Free Methodist Church.
In 1893 there were several Methodists in West Salem who felt that they had no church home. They therefore contacted Rev. Hugo, a Methodist Evangelist, and arranged for a series of meetings. What was then the “Town Hall” was procured by the group as a meeting place. This was located where the W.S. Baichley residence now stands. In 1894 the church was organized with a charter membership of 43.
The War Years
On April 12, 1861 the firing on Fort Sumter plunged our nation into war. It was a war unlike many others in that it put brother against brother, a war that was to end slavery and establish the Federal Government as supreme over the states. The Immortal Lincoln, a son of Illinois, was destined to play an important role in this war. As Commander-In-Chief and President, few men have ever led our country through more perilous times. Records show that North Edwards responded nobly to Lincoln’s call for troops. One of West Salem’s most beloved persons, Uncle Lafe Hedrich was a drummer in this conflict. The husband of another beloved West Salem citizen, Aunt Mary Markman, was a member of the Union Army.
The period after the Civil War saw a vast program of railroad building. West Salem found a place in the sun when the first railroad was completed through here in 1881. It had reached Parkersburg in 1878. First known as the Peoria, Decatur, and Evansville, “downeasy road” (P.D.E.). Because the rail beds were soft, trains had to proceed slowly during wet weather-hence the derisive term. “Paddle Down Easy”. Railroads were the life line of many communities. Mail came in and out several times daily. Frankie Brandt used to meet the trains and bring mail back and forth several times a day. Any person who wanted to travel to Olney or farther naturally took the train. The West Salem Colts, a famous baseball team, occasionally traveled on the train. Foodstuffs, grain, coal, people- in short everything came in or left by train. The Illinois Central took over in 1900 and made many improvements.
Who hasn’t thrilled to the whistle of a train as it came around the bend, or who hasn’t in by-gone days gone down to the station to watch the train come in? Who would get on? What strangers would get off? Was she on time? The clanging drivers, the screech of brakes, and the hiss of steam, all were a distinctive part of railroads. But as of ******the trains stopped coming through West Salem. The depot is gone. Later the tracks were removed. An era was over.
A Mechanical Age
Shortly after the turn of the century a new mechanical age made its appearance. The horseless carriage, as this demon of speed was called was viewed by many with mixed emotions. “What’s this fast world coming to?” was the reaction of some. Others vowed it would tear up all of our roads. Old Dobbin looked askance, shied to the fence rows, and vowed that his days were numbered.
When the owner and his mistress set out, with goggles and gauntlets, no one could predict their fate. There were rip-roaring blowouts, sudden showers to render the carriage useless, and every vehicle had a dozen mechanical whims to play on an unsuspecting driver. Yet, they were a landmark in the evolution of man’s transportation, a vivid testimony that change is inevitable; that the old must give way to the new.
This was also the day of steam-powered threshing machines. Every farm boy thrilled as the puffing steam engine came into view to do the family threshing. How he envied the water boy, the separator man, and the engineer! What a delight to hear the whistle announce noon! The threshing done-the lumbering monster chugged away to the next farm busting bridges as she went. Names like Keck-Gormesman, and Avery were as familiar as John Deere and Case are today.
Already a machine was being perfected that would cut and thresh a crop in one operation. It was fittingly called a combine. No one took it very seriously, however.
The Local Government
One of the first steps people take when they settle is to provide a governing body. With the plotting of the town came the eventual incorporating as a town. On April 22, 1857 West Salem was incorporated under the general law. Its first Board of Trustees were William Foster,Sr. (President), J.H. McDowell, J.B. Michel, E.B. Altner, and George Pixley, A.L. Hammaker (Clerk), J.B. Michel (Treasurer). Records further show that an election was held December 8, 1897 on the following proposition:
Shall said incorporated town become organized as a village (under act of April 10, 1872). The vote carried by a 69 to 2 count.
Down through the years an active Mayor and Board of Trustees have done much to improve the condition in our village. The founding fathers were expressly opposed to the use of alcoholic beverages by the citizenry. To this day authorities have respected this attitude and wish of the founding fathers. Because of the efforts of village officials, West Salem is still a clean, wholesome place to live. Streets, lights, waterworks, fire protection, sanitation, safety, law enforcement and many other functions have been introduced and improved upon. Today we salute our Mayor and Board of Trustees for their unselfish devotion to leadership in our town.
Finale: The First Hundred Years
By 1920 people were talking about a mysterious contraption which could snatch sounds right out of the air and bring them into the living room of homes. Although they required tall poles for aerials and snug fitting earphones people began to buy radios. Names like Coolidge and Harding were making the headlines, stocks and bonds wee selling at a high price. Henry Ford was about ready to unveil a new Ford-reportedly the car that “made a “Lady” out of Lizzie”-all eyes were eager to see the new Model A Ford. Chevrolet was bringing out a “six in the price range of a four”. A bashful lad, Charles A. Lindberg, had just hopped the Atlantic non-stop from New York to Paris, foretelling a day when planes would span the oceans at will.
Land was selling for $35 to $60 per acre in this area. West Salem’s population was nearly a thousand. There were more men than women in West Salem in these days- the twenties. The foreign extraction of our citizenry has practically disappeared. Streets around the square are still unpaved. The Pixley Band was still a popular Saturday night attraction on the bandstand.
After the war, West Salem began to really grow. A new movie theater opened in town. Tuesday night was standing room only, with not a place to park uptown. There were four restaurants, one with a drug store and soda fountain, six stores. Kaericher’s had groceries and dry goods. Curma Hoeszle had groceries and hardware. Buzz Fishel’s grocery store was on the northeast side of the square,and the Kroger grocery store was on the north side. The Stop & Shop was owned by Meisenheimer. Wayne Orrel had groceries and gas. Wednesday night there was a band concert in the square, the farmer’s came to town. Saturday night the farmer’s came back to town to get groceries. The grocery stores had chairs to sit in for the women who waited for the men while they played pool. There were two pool halls, open until midnight. This was the night when the local teenage girls walked around and around the square. This went on for decades. Many marriages have been brought about from this tradition. 
In this decade the new school building now housed grades Kindergarten through 8th grade. The high school students were transported to Edwards County High School, in Albion, by bus. It was a challenge at first, but through the years we have adjusted to it. West Salem, though a small school, has produced students who have been real assets to our world. There have been several medical doctors, as well as some who have received their doctorate degrees in the field of their choice. We have educated published writers, attorneys, teachers, nurses, business people and several have reached the highest ranks in the military. Our Alumni Association has been bringing these people together since 1894. The Alumni Banquet, which takes place each year on the third Saturday in May, is regularly attended by over 100 people. 
Some of the improvements that we were able to make at this time included new street lights and improvements to the park. The West Salem Fire Department began holding a July 4th celebration with the best fireworks show in the area. We hope you will come join us for this spectacular event. 
