Finding Love in Artesia Township

My sister, Jackie, told me "Neighbors married neighbors."  That was your little world in rural America . . . your dating pool.  Hopefully your neighbors were good looking or at least somewhat interesting.  

I am going to attempt to explain Artesia Township, Iroquois County, Illinois, and the Robbins, Day, Burrill, Isbister, Yaw, Perkinson, Mitchell, Sprague, Pacey family connections. 

I located an Iroquois County atlas on Family Search.  This book on Family Search was a reprint of plats from 1884, 1904 and 1921.  Unfortunately, there were some errors in the reprinting process.  But I knew exactly where my family was located in Artesia Township (sections 7,8,9) and found the correct maps.  

The cover:

Artesia Township 1884 and detailed 1884.  Thawville is located in the upper left corner of Artesia Township and Buckley to the lower right. (Below):

From L to R:  John Mitchell (married a Robbins girl), C. W. Sprague (married a Burrill girl), Henry Yaw (married a Robbins girl), Edwin G. Robbins, and Julius E. Day. Almost all of these families remained in this area and are buried at Ridgeland Cemetery near Thawville, Illinois, or the Onarga Cemetery in Onarga, Illinois.  John Mitchell  and Mary Alice Robbins moved out of the area. (Cousin Stephen Mitchell is on Ancestry and has contributed some great family photos.)

  

The Veatch School is circled in red.  I imagine most of our family received at least their elementary education at this school.  I think I have a photo of it somewhere. I'll try to find that.  

Artesia Township 1904 (Below):

In the 1884 map, there is a new land owner, R. S. Perkinson (married a Robbins girl.)

Artesia Township 1921 (Below):

The 1921 plat shows some changes with Alice Robbins now owning 40 acres and F. A. Pacey (married a Robbins girl) next to her 40. Olin Robbins and Halsey Robbins are now owners of property in Artesia Township also.  And R. S. Perkinson owns more land.  The tiny squares that I have circled in red in the sections are homes.  I know the home my Grandma Arnold was born and raised still stands on the H. D. Robbins land on this plat (section 8.) I'll need to do more research on the other homes.  

All very interesting and will require a road trip soon.  More to come on these family connections.