History of Honey Creek Township, Il.
From: Quincy and Adams County
History and Representative Men
David F. Wilcox - Supervising Editor
Judge Lyman McCarl - Charman of Advisory Board
Published by: The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago and New York, 1919
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HONEY CREEK TOWNSHIP The natural features of Honey Creek Township, which is located north of the central part of Adams County, are extremely diversified, and yet all favorable to substantial development and comfortable progress. Honey and Brush Creeks, tributaries of the south branch of Bear Creek, drain and fertilize the country, which is included in the watershed of the Mississippi basin. INDUSTRIES AND PRODUCTS OF THE TOWNSHIP Agriculture, horticulture and live stock raising all flourish, dairying being a chief and growing specialty.
The specific products upon which the people of the township depend for their substantial prosperity and future
growth are corn, hogs and cattle. Apples, pears and peaches do well, although on account of the constant fight
which fruit growers must wage against insect enemies, horticulture has not, on the whole, advanced. FROGGY PRAIRE The principal prairie of Honey Creek is called Froggy. The why and wherefore of the name is thus explained by
an old settler: “It originated at one of the old-fashioned spelling bees, where a school district at the west of
the prairie was pitted against the home district. Schoolhouse, a log cabin on the prairie; time, March 25, 1844;
at candle lighting, present both schools in full force; wild grass taller than a man; water, boot-leg deep full
of frogs, which made so much noise that the teacher was compelled to pronounce the words at the top of his voice
in order to be heard at all. A schoolgirl from the west district called the place Froggy; and Froggy it has been
ever since.” COATSBURG, QUINCY'S RIVAL There are two villages in Honey Creek Township, both on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy line—Coatsburg
and Paloma. The former was surveyed and platted by R. P. Coats in January, 1855, and derives its name from him.
Coatsburg witnessed a somewhat steady growth for about twenty years and reached a point in its development when
it had a substantial support for the county seat; but the contest of 1875 laid its ambitions low in that regard,
and it is now, and has been for some years, in a state of decline. It has a local newspaper, the Community Enterprise,
edited by R. C. Stokes, and a branch of the State Street Bank of Quincy, organized in October, 1909. D. L. MeNeal
is its cashier. The bank building was erected in 1914. |