VILLAGES AND HAMLETS 197
ter, because it was the central point between the two nearest
towns: Gum Grove and Spring Grove.
From 1887, when the postoiiice was established under Charlie
Omer, progress was rapid. William Hooper owned the first store.
The St. Clair brothers operated a stave mill, producing high
grade white ash staves for butter tubs. Men operating general
stores in this vicinity within the last fifty years have been
Charlie Omer, J. K. Norris, John Orr, John Perkins, and Everett ·
Bingham. John Crowe and Eastin Segraves were proprietors
of a drugstore in 1892, the year the Masonic Lodge was removed
from Shiloh Church to Grove Center.
Until 1901 children attended a log school on Dyer Hill a mile
away. After much argument and voting by the trustees it was
decided to have a school building in Grove Center. This was first
a structure of one room, then two, and later three rooms. Today .
the town boasts an attractive modern one-story three—room brick
building and a gymnasium, to which grade pupils from near-by
districts come by bus. Grove Center high school students go
either to Morganiield or Sturgis.
In 1914 A. Waller and Company put up a grain elevator, which
is now owned and operated by Conway and Omer. Of the two ,
grocery stores they also own the one which houses the postoflice.
with Bob Omer as postmaster; H. H. Hause is the proprietor of I
the other.
There are two churches, Baptist and Methodist, and about
twenty homes. Farming is the principal occupation of the popu-
lation of 180 persons. The 88—year—old S. E. Perkins is the oldest
inhabitant of Grove Center.
Henshoiw
_Henshaw, incorporated in 1910, has 250 inhabitants and is in
the west central part of the county at the junction of State i.
Highways 85 and 130, about twelve miles north of Sturgis. The
Illinois Central Railroad serves the town, which was named for
William Henshaw, pioneer settler and one of the county’s largest
farmers. Another honor conferred upon him was that of post- ,
master when the oflice was established in 1887.
He built the first house here. a log and frame structure of two
' rooms, now occupied after having been remodeled, by Hal Bing-
ham, who claims the distinction of felling the last of the original
I forest trees—in the fall of 1940.