HILLVIEW

A short history of Hillview

William Shelton, a ranger from Ft. Russell, Edwardsville, chose the alcove at the mouth of Hurricane Creek (creek at Eldred also called Hurricane), in 1826, to build a cabin. He left no record except Shelton's Hill, Shelton's Spring, and Shelton's Graveyard. A back water lake bore the name of another early settler, Bucks Lake, for Joseph Buck, 1825. Another family name is Bishop's Dell for James Bishop, 1830. The farm where Bishop's Dell was located is bordered on the south by Trimley creek and the barn that James Bishop constructed using wooden pegs still stands as well as the foundation of his one-room stone home built against the bluff. Seely and Hodges built a mill on the creek in 1833. W. D. Wells came from North Carolina in 1834 and planted a small apple orchard on his farm. Later the McClay Orchard became famous for its varieties of apples and methods in orchard management. When the Chicago and Alton Railroad connected with the Kansas City branch at Roodhouse, Hillview was a lumber camp called Happy Ville. This is the same on the Illinois Atlas map of Greene County, 1876. In 1893 Hapeville was replaced by with Pegram P.O. and was locally reoffered to as both Hapeville and Pegram. The village of Hillview was incorporated in 1903. It still remains the route of the Illinois Central Gulf West.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Hillview, Illinois, revision 1378978267 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.