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NAVIGATION
LaSalle
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History at
Rays Place
Also see [ Railway Officials in America 1906
] NEW
Rays
Place
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This beautiful and opulent agricultural township was organized April 2, 1850, and its first officials were:
Supervisor, C. D. Hartshorn; clerk, S. A. Jones; assessor, William Dana; collector, J. P. Hartshorn; justices of
the peace, Levi Sanborn, Robert Young; highway commissioners, George Ney, J. W. Dana, Jesse S. Thrasher; constables,
William Dana, Joshua P. Hartshorn.
From the 839 population given this township by the census of 1910 a slight diminution in numbers occurred before
the compiling of the census of 1920, which gave 752 inhabitants for Waltham.
Concerning the origin of the name of this township the following record has been given: "A short time before
the year 1850, three men living in the territory that afterward comprised Waltham Township, called a meeting of
the settlers. On the day appointed about ten men were present. Those living in the southern part desired the township
to be called Eaton, and those living in the northern part desired the names of Jonesborough. No name was selected.
Afterward three young men from Waltham, Massachusetts, were visiting this section of the country, and on their
return home addressed their La Salle County letters to 'Waltham Ridge, Troy Grove Postoffice,' and thus the name
of the township originated."
Thomas Burnham and his wife settled on section 34 of this township in 1834; Stephen A. Jones came in 1837 and settled
on section 8; Zaccheus Farrell settled on section 4, in 1838. Other settlers of that early period were George Nye,
Joseph Fullerton, Barzilla Bishop, Isaac Lamb, and Joseph Meserve.
FROM:
History of LaSalle County, Illinois
By: Michael Cyprian O'Byron
The Lewis Pullishing Company
Chicago and New York
1924
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