VICTOR. The town of Victor was organized in 1853. For many years previous it had been, with Clinton and half of Afton,
in one town organization, which held its town meetings in Deacon Pritchard’s large barn until the school house
was built, near by, when they were convened at that place.
It was one of the prairie towns, remote from woodland, and consequently was not occupied by settlers until those
sections of the country which were better favored by timber had passed out of the hands of the United States, and
could not be purchased at “government price.” In 1847 and 1848 some of the lands were first entered, and during
the next five years it was all taken up.
Among the first settlers were: Jeremiah Mulford,—first post-master at Van Buren, and who named the post-office
after his favorite President,— W. H. Keene, Aruna Beckwith, James Green, Newton Stearns, Peleg Sweet, Jerome Baxter,
George N. Stratton, Simon Snydam, H. C. Beard, and W.
R. Prescott.
When the railroad was built, in 1851, there was a large influx of new settlers. Many Irish and Germans purchased
lands, and a considerable colony of Norwegians soon moved in. These are now among the most thriving and prosperous
of its townspeople. There is now no land in the town that is not occupied by actual residents.
Ross Grove and Shabbona Grove furnish some of its people with timber, but most of them own no woodland. They purchase
coal from Kewanee for fuel, and lumber from Michigan for fencing and building. The Little Indian Creek waters the
township.
There is no village in the town. Leland, a thriving railroad village in La Salle County, about one mile and a-half
south of the south line of the town, is the principal center for the trade of its people, and for those conveniences
and accommodations which villages furnish.
The first school house in the place was built in 1850, by Mr. Newton Stearns, on Section Eight. The school section
was sold in 1855.
In 1855 the population of Victor was 399; in 1860, 746; in 1865, 835.
This town gave 103 soldiers to the war of the rebellion, and taxed itself $10,858 for war purposes. Those who lost
their lives in the service were : Ferdinand Van Derveer, who died at Louisville, Kentucky, March 30, 1865; E. T.
Pierce, at Alexandria, Virginia, April 23, 1861; C. T. Bond, at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, March 17, 1865; C. R.
Snydam, at Alexandria, Virginia, January 26, 1862.
The Supervisors of Victor were: For 1853, Benjamin Darland; 1854—55—56, Samuel Lord; 1857, George N. Stratton;
1858—59—60, H. C. Beard; 1861—62—63—64, J. S. Van Derveer; 1865—66, H. C. Beard; 1867—68, W. R. Prescott.
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