Polk County news-gazette. (Benton, Tenn.) 190?-191?, 1913-10-30

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Nm blown 30 the beach two
HLlJ apple which have
but frai footing at the
entertainments edge the last reminders Of
a once thriving and populOus place will
have been swept away.
Almost seventy years ago The hamlet
of st. John founded by man named NJ
Hetnger and few Of his followers "
The site chosen a commanding
the bluff overlooking the lake and
oae-half mile east of the point where the north
western depot at the Village of HiRhwood now
stands, The great clay bank with the stretch of
sand beach which shelves away to the waters edge
at its foot looks as If it were strong enough and
far enough removed from the breakers to sate
against the angriest NORTHEASTERN that ever INV.
The who built their houses upon the plain
surrounding the embankment thought their foun
datiOns though founded the
traditional rock. They did take the precaution
however, to limit their building operations on the
east by line drawn fifty yards from the edge Of
the bluff That line has long since been buried in
the sand under the ard with It the
houses and the shops Of the early settlers.
In the year 1S45 the Village Of ST John the
rival of Waukegan, which then called Little
Fort. Both were prosperous and both were grow
ing. HighwOod tradition hath il that people pass
ing through the two places from Chicago declared
that st. John showed the ear marks Of success and
that it destined to be big city. Other people
beside the Chicagoans thought so, too and they
focked to the place and built substantial houses
and shops The two apple trees which alone re-
main of all that pertained TO the Village Of st.
John grew in the yard of Sebastian Richards,
whose house farther removed from the
lake than any other in the village The apple
back of the residence. Net long ago
the foundation of bricks, which all that
left of Richards dwelling. slid down the
bluff into the lake during the height Of win
storm. The roots of of the apple trees
extending into the air through the
side of the embankment. One good strong push
won Get
below.
Among the names of the builders of St John
in addition to those of Hettinger and Sebastian
Richards the only {hat the Oldest High
wood inhabitants remember Frank
Mitch, Peter Baker and George Shepard. Mitch
was a shoemaker and it is said that he is still
following the trade in town in the far north.
AS far as is known he is the only survivor Of
the who founded the Village Of St John.
In the year 1S47 there several stores,
blacksmith shop q tavern and postoffce in the
Village of st. John, which Their held popua-
ton of about 200 people. In that day there was
a stage coach line between Chicago and Mil
waukee The tavern at st. John relay
station for the stage. Henry Mowers. who
members the village in its latter days, says
that the tavern was noted for its table and it's
liquor, and that people frequently took the stage
journey from Chicago for the sole purpose Of
getting a good dinner and a good glass
1t who intended becoming a resi-
dent of st. John that afterward founded the
Village OF Half Day. He had looked over the
lakeside village. and then had declared that be
would establish that would last longer and
had people in It. The aHtomobilists who
every Sunday pass through Half Day their
runs to Waukegan and return may look the
halfdozen houses there assembled, and know
that the man who turned his back st. John
has kept his word.
When the Chicago and Milwaukee railroad was
built the surveyed line one-haH mile west
OF the Village of ST John. An adequate idea
hn funnn nf nInr npfu oh har
iy vestige remains may be had when 1t is
known that the railroad authorities built spur
line running to the south edge of the town.
Some OF the practical residents of the place had
discovered that excellent quality of brick
could be made from the clay which found
in a pit short distance south of the blacksmith
shop, AS matter of fact, the presence of this
brickyard was one of the chief reasons that the
branch line of the railroad built. When
Uncle Sam accepted from the Commercial Club
of Chicago the land to the north of the city
n military reservation the soldiers drew hun
dreds OF carloads OF both good brick and broken
brick from the site of the old brickyard and
used the material for temporary road-making
aud for the filling in of swamp spots The fore
thought of the St John people in leaving be-
hind them specimens of their handiwork saved
the United States government great many
dollars.
II is possible to trace today with no difficulty
at all the embankment upon which the branch
line of the railroad to the brickyard and to
the now lost Village OF St John. In size and
outline It looks like military redoubt, and 1t
would perfectly the purpose OF one The
embankment leveled at It's western end
when stores erected in the Village OF High
wood. II starts from point almost direct
ly back of the little Methodist church, and runs
eastward, broken only by roads which have been
dug through 1t.
II less than ten years after the founding
Of st. John that the people awakened TO a posi-.
Bile danger to their homes by the encroachment
of the waves OF the lake. II Is true that they