Beason marks 150 years
Part 1: Beason gets its start

Come join Beason’s 150th Celebration
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[September 16, 2022] 

This weekend on September 17 and 18, 2022, Beason will celebrate its 150th anniversary.

Beason is an unincorporated census-designated place in Oran Township created as a result of the railroad being built throughout the state. Silas Beason and William Gelsthorp got the railroad from Chicago to come through Beason and Lincoln.

Early history

Stringer’s History of Logan County Illinois says, “The village of Beason was laid out July 29, 1872, by Silas Beason, Jonathan R. Hall, George Gelsthorp, Elias Hammerton, Lewis C. Turk and Joseph Wilson on the newly completed line of the Havana, Lincoln and Eastern, now the Champaign and Havana branch of the Illinois Central Railroad. [The] survey was made by Thomas G. Gardner, county surveyor.”

The town was named for Silas Beason, an attorney and one of the promoters of the new railroad. Stringer says the first store was built by Berryman H. Pendleton and used as a grocery. The second store was erected by M. R. Hall and occupied by Joseph Barwick with a general stock of goods.

John A. Evans built the first dwelling in town and very shortly after William Verry and Berryman H. Pendleton erected houses. The latter was the first postmaster. Rudolph & Evans built the first shop in Beason, and Pruitt & Gelsthorp erected the first elevator.

The first post office was established June 2, 1873, almost a year after the town was laid out.

Beason would face challenges in its first two decades. Stringer says, “In May of 1891, Armstrong & Company's elevator was destroyed by fire at a loss in building and grain consumed of $ 40,000.

Another fire in 1893 destroyed nearly half the business structures in the town.” Fortunately, “The principal buildings have since been replaced by a new brick block erected by J. H. Hammerton. The present schoolhouse was erected in 1893. In 1904, the Methodists built a new church at a cost of $5,000.”

A blacksmith shop was there in the early days.

In the early 1900s, Beason owned and controlled its own phone system.

Beason had become something of a self-sufficient community by 1911. Businesses included the Commercial Hotel, John Bumcrots Lumber Company, two grain elevators and two general stores.

By 1926, Beason had electricity.

[Angela Reiners]

Part two of the four-part series will continue tomorrow (Saturday, September 17th with a look at the business community in Beason from the earliest days to the current day.


Come join Beason’s 150th Celebration
CLICK HERE FOR SCHEDULE