Virtual Local History Tours
About Our Virtual Local History Tours
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Did you know…
· About a Clinton church rivalry in the 1950s?
· That the cure for hemorrhoids could be found in a hotel?
· That blood literally ran on a Clinton street?
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These are just some of the stories you will read when you complete the Virtual Local History Tours! Each location listed below that include the address, fun history facts and stories, and some even have a link to a special Tales from the Archives YouTube video presented by Bobbi Perryman, the Vespasian Warner Library's Executive Director.
History isn’t just found in books; it’s all around us! Go out there and find it!
About
The 2024 Scavenger Hunt
The purpose of the 2024 scavenger hunt was for the general public and visitors to Clinton to access information and material pertaining to historical locations throughout the town. It was created as a joint effort between the Celebrate Clinton Organization and the Vespasian Warner Library District and was funded by a generous grant from Constellation Energy.
The scavenger hunt information was collected and the signs were designed in 2024 by Bobbi Perryman, Director of the Vespasian Warner Library District. While the signs are no longer in place since the scavenger hunt has concluded, the information and photographs contained on the signs can be found below.
Barnett Tavern - 202 S. Center St. - Currently Heartland Bank Drive Thru
Barnett Tavern and A. Lincoln
In the 1850s, Mr. and Mrs. Bob Barnett operated a tavern here that was a very convenient distance from the DeWitt County courthouse. Abraham Lincoln was frequently seen strolling from the courthouse to Barnett’s Tavern, where he would have a meal, play games, and sit on the veranda to people watch. The other patrons at the tavern would listen, enraptured, to Lincoln’s humorous stories.
Vespasian Warner, the library’s benefactor, lived with his family across the street from Barnett’s. He recalled the first time he saw Lincoln when he was a young teen. “I saw a tall man with a plug hat on, his hands behind his back, and he was walking between two well-dressed men, one on each side of him, looking up into his face. I wondered what those gentlemen saw in that fellow to pay any attention to him.”
Be sure to check out the Looking for Lincoln sign across the street for more stories of the Barnett Tavern!
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Barnett Tavern, Lincoln, and Clinton's Early Days - Tales from the Archives Episode
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Downey Park - SE Park St.
Strike Three!
Downey Park was the first public park in Clinton, established in the first decade of the 20th century. At the beginning, maintenance at the park was non-existent and parents complained that their children were getting lost in the overgrown weeds. Starting in 1914, local organizations and private citizens worked together to improve the park by cutting weeds, adding seating, and installing a water fountain. In the 1920s, Clinton passed an annual tax levy to pay for improvements and upkeep for Downey Park. By 1928, the Clinton Daily Journal & Public boasted “Downey Park has been thoroughly fixed up by the city and is now an ideal place to spend an afternoon.” Improvements included cinder walks, flower gardens, picnic tables, and a baseball diamond. In the decades to come, local clubs and groups would host numerous picnics and local mothers would organize summer recreation programs at the park.
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Baseball was big business in the first half of the 20th century across the country, and Clinton was no exception. Not only would Clinton High School have regular games at the park, but the city’s churches organized a Church League and held annual tournaments at the park’s baseball diamond, leading to unforgettable newspaper headlines such as “Presbyterians lose to Baptists”.
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Fair Grounds - Currently 4H DeWitt County Fairgrounds
Racing at the DeWitt County Fair
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In the 1910s and 1920s, the DeWitt County Fair drew large crowds to see the variety of animals, crafts, and farm goods on display, but the biggest attraction – by far – was the racing.
The 1897 fair promised “The Fastest Horses, Swiftest Bicycle Riders”. In addition to the standard horse races, visitors could watch a mule race, boys’ and girls’ bicycle races, and a pack of bloodhounds from Decatur track a man down.
At the 1925 fair, more than 7,000 people came out, breaking previous attendance records. More than 100 racers competed in the Pace, Trot, Three-Fourths Mile Dash and Mile Dash. There were so many that five heats were required for the first and second races of the day, causing the last race to be pushed back until nightfall.
The 1925 fair also reportedly featured a number of pickpockets that kept the sheriff’s deputies busy.
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DeWitt County Fairgrounds: Racing and Pickpockets - Tales from the Archives Episode
HG Beatty Hardware Store - 405 SW Corner Square
Currently Grave's Stationary
Henry G. Beatty (1845-1926) was born in Ohio, but came with his family to Clinton when he was three years old. His father, Isaac, opened a store on the Square in 1848 and Henry made Clinton his home until 1863, when he left to fight as part of the Union Army during the Civil War. When the war ended, Henry opened a harness store in Moweaqua and then later Kenney. When his Kenney store burned to the ground in 1889, Henry moved back to Clinton took over his father’s store, moving it to 405 Southwest Square.
H.G. Beatty & Co. started as a harness shop, but changed with the times. Beatty expanded to automotive goods, housewares, gifts, and sporting goods. In advertisements, Beatty & Co. claimed to only sell the highest-quality goods at the fairest prices.
Beatty & Co. would be operated by the same family for 119 years, before finally closing in 1967.
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H.G. Beatty: A 100 Year Legacy - Tales from the Archive Episode
Interurban - 116 S. Monroe St. - Currently Cross Fit Influence
Murder at the Interurban
"Half a Hundred Witness the Shooting, But No One Attempted to Stop the Fusillade [barrage of bullets]” So started the Clinton Register article on January 2, 1914 that reported the murder of Tony Musser by Carl “Blondy” Person on December 30, 1913.
The history of the feud between Person and Musser is a complicated tale involving a railroad strike and the murder of a Clinton police chief. Suffice to say, there was no love lost between the two men.
On that fateful afternoon, Monroe Street was quite busy with people at the Interurban Depot and the numerous business just off the Square. Musser and Person ran into each other and a fistfight ensued. Two onlookers grabbed Musser, the larger of the men, and started to drag him away from the fight. At this point, there are conflicting stories as to what exactly happened. Some claim Person seized the opportunity to shoot Musser in the back seven times. Others claimed that Musser got away from the two men and charged Person, who shot him in self defense. What is known for certain, is that Person shot Musser.
As the victim fell to the ground, 20 feet from the depot in the middle of the street, a man named Dick Bryant rushed Person while he tried to get off another shot and dragged him to the sheriff's office. Dr. B.M. Pugh, whose office was across the street in the Register Building, heard the commotion and ran to Musser. Pugh pronounced him dead at the scene.
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The Interurban - Tales from the Archives Episode
Clinton, Carl E Person and the 1911 Shopmen's Strike, Part 1 - Vespasian Warner Library Blog
Clinton, Carl E Person and the 1911 Shopmen's Strike, Part 2 - Vespasian Warner Library Blog
Clinton, Carl E Person and the 1911 Shopmen's Strike, Part 3 - Vespasian Warner Library Blog
The Murder of Tony Musser - Podcast Episode
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Magill Hotel - 111 N. Center St. - Currently Leading Men Fiber Arts
​Before the 1870s, Clinton’s Square held the county court house and some 18 buildings, many of which were described as no more than “shanties.” After the Civil War, area businessmen wanted to build Clinton up, in hopes of attracting Illinois Central Railroad to build its offices here.
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To that end, the Magill Hotel opened its doors in 1873 and remained the premier hotel in DeWitt County until the mid 20th Century. Not just a hotel, Magill House also boasted shops and meeting rooms. For the next 70 years, it would be the place for meetings, social gatherings, and parties in the community.
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Magill House also rented out rooms to traveling salesmen, including so-called “snake-oil salesman.” These men would claim to have medical degrees and special medicines that would cure any ailment. Among those at the Magill were Drs. Lockwood and Millikan, who claimed to cure rheumatoid arthritis instantly with magnets and Prof. S. Clay Todd, M.D., who used secret remedies he learned while practicing medicine in South America and the East Indies to cure everything from “belching of wind” to “liver disease” to “female complaints”.
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Ohio Building - 801 E. Side Square - Currently MR Systems
In November 1914, what newspapers called “the worst fire, in point of financial loss, that has ever visited Clinton,” raged through the north-east section of the Square. The fire began on the awning of Day’s Drug Store, to the left of the Ohio Building. The Day building was one of the oldest brick buildings in Clinton at the time, having been constructed between 1858 and 1867.
The awning fire was put out, but about an hour later, the entire building was engulfed in flames, possibly from embers from the awning falling through a sidewalk grate and into the basement. Fire crews from Clinton and Decatur fought the blaze, but low water pressure hampered their efforts.
Several brick buildings, including the Day building, did not survive. The Clinton Register, when reporting on the blaze, claimed these old buildings were “known as fire traps.” The Register estimated the cost of the damage at $70,000 ($2.1M in 2024).
In 1912, the owner of the Ohio remodeled and modernized the building, including adding a firewall at the fire marshal's suggestion. It was this firewall that saved the Ohio.
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Register Building - 116 S. Monroe St. - Currently Law Office
In August, 1895, the Clinton Register newspaper moved into a band-new building at 116 S. Monroe St. The paper’s offices were located on the first floor, with the presses in the basement. The second floor was divided into five offices that the paper rented out.
Before the grand opening, the paper already had five tenants, which they claimed was due to the fact that this was only the second public building in town with fully indoor plumbing. The paper’s editors boasted about their convenient “water closets.”
Over the years, a number of tenants would occupy the Register Building from doctors and lawyers to seamstresses and cobblers. The Clinton YMCA even had a home here until its building on North Center St. was completed in 1913.
By the 1940s, the Register was no longer in publication and the building was sold. It would be home to variety of shops and apartments, including housing for a troop of summer stock actors and a WWII Merchant Marine recruiting office.
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Vermillion Recreation - 802 N. Side Square - Currently The Vault
What did Clinton residents do for fun before television and the internet? Many would visit billiard parlors, such as Vermillion Billiards. Sylvester Vermillion came to Clinton and set up his billiard parlor in the 1920s. In that decade, Clinton had at least four such establishments around town. Herbert Vermillion soon joined his father in the business.
Not one, but two fires would destroy two of the Vermillion’s billiard's locations, including the one here on the north side of the Square. However, the Vermillions did not stay down for long and quickly rebuilt both times. Sylvester would retire in 1931 and Herbert fully took the business. Vermillion’s Billiard hall was a thriving enterprise and they would frequently bring in expert pool players from around the country to provide lessons and demonstrations to customers.
During the Prohibition Era, billiard halls and parlors had a, frequently earned, reputation for serving illegal alcohol and many moralists of the era warned America’s youth to give such establishments a wide berth. There is no evidence that Vermillion’s engaged in such shenanigans, however, when Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Vermillion’s was quick to advertise in the local papers the quality and variety of beer it served.
Herbert was a savvy businessman and was always looking for ways to expand and improve Vermillion Recreation. In the 1930s, he leased part of his building to a café, which included an interior pick up window, so patrons at the billiard hall could grab a bite to eat without leaving the building. This proved to be very popular with customers and would become a fixture of the business as it grew and evolved over the next decades.
When the popularity of billiard halls began to decline in the late 1930s, Vermillion turned the basement of this building into a bowling alley and hosted regular tournaments. Bowling proved so popular, that by 1950, Vermillion’s Recreation became Vermillion’s Bowl and Grill and moved to a new facility on Moore Court. In 1960, Vermillion Bowl would move one last time to a large-purpose built facility on Van Buren St., where Baum Chevrolet is now located.
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Vermillion's Bowl and Recreation - Tales from the Archives Episode
Woodlawn Cemetery - Woodlawn St. ​​
Have you ever wondered why Grant Street curves the way it does? Before the 1920s, North Grant Street (then Grant Avenue) ended at Woodlawn Street. In the early 1920s, the Illinois State Highway Dept. planned a “hard-road” highway to go through the middle of the state. State engineers decided the best-placed street through Clinton for Route 2 was Grant Avenue.
Clinton had strong hard-road support at the time, but citizens became outraged when they realized the proposed highway would cut directly through Woodlawn Cemetery. Mudslinging soon began in Clinton’s newspapers between those who felt the cemetery should not be disturbed and those who believed the cemetery would be just fine and fighting the road would be fighting progress. Some even insinuated that Clinton’s political leaders would financially benefit from having the highway on Grant Ave.
Many Clinton citizens suggested North Walnut Street as an alternative, but this did not fit the needs of the state. The issue would go back and forth for years, with the “Clinton Gap” between Bloomington and Decatur becoming an embarrassment for city government. A compromise was reached between state and city government, allowing the state to take a small section of the cemetery, near the intersection of Woodlawn Ave. and N. Center St., becoming part of Route 2.
In 1925, the city removed a section of fence along the east side of the cemetery, so work could begin. But, this compromise did not satisfy everyone and a group of citizens, led by William Booth, brought suit against the city to stop road construction, after the fence had been removed.
An Urbana judge granted the injunction, but it ended by 1926 and construction began. Grant Ave. would be completely re-paved from the south end of town to the north. State engineers required that all state highways be curved instead of having 90 degree turns, as curves were considered much safer, and so Grant Ave curves along the cemetery border.
Illinois Route 2 would later become US Highway 51.
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Bringing the Highway to Clinton - Tales of the Archives Episode
Scavenger Hunt
Contact Us
If you have further information from valid sources or personal experience that you think would be appropriate for this site please contact Bobbi Perryman at perryman@vwarner.org.
Thank you for your interest in Clinton's local history.
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Further information about all the locations around the Clinton area can be found at the Vespasian Warner Public Library.