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EAST GROVE TOWNSHIP. At the November session, 1864 of the Board of Supervisors. East Grove was set apart from Hamilton Township. In 1837 Charles Falvey occupied a claim on the north half of Section 34 in the grove, from which the town took its name. On the north his nearest neighbor was a Mr. Robinson, six miles distant. In 1849 Fenwick Anderson settled on the south half of Section 34. having purchased the claim of Robert Tate. The house, which was built of logs, was for a number of years a stopping place for the stage on the line from Peoria to Dixon and Galena. In 1852 Mr. Anderson burnt a kiln of 200.000 brick in the, south part of the grove, which proved to be of excellent Quality and with which he built his residence. Thomas Sheban moved onto Section 5 in 1849, buying a claim of one John Kasbier. At the time of the land sale at Dixon, in 1844, S. P. McIntosh purchased the east half of Section 36, but did not move onto it until 1856. John Downey, A. A. Spooner, John Flynn, M. Coleman, A. Barlow, D. Sullivan, Henry Hubbell and Samuel Tubbs were also early settlers. In 1842 John W. Harrison, a Deputy Sheriff from Toronto, Canada, while on a visit in this region, was murdered by James S. Bell, near the north west corner of Section 35. Bell was finally tried in Whiteside County, on change of venue, and sent to the penitentiary. On the northeast corner of the southwest Quarter of Section 10 stands a church, known as the "Union Church," which was built a nunher of years ago by contributions of citizens without regard to denominational distinction. The old State road from Peoria to Dixon and Galena passed through the centers of Section 10 and 13 and jogged cast on or near the Marion town line, for a distance of about 20 rods west of the east line of Section 34, and thence passed directly north until it crosses Inlet Creek, or Green River. This road was turnpiked under authority from the Legislature. (See "Marion Township.") The population of the township in 1890 was 659; in 1900 it was 653, as appears by Government census.