Vermilion City

At Vermilion City, the Vermilion Coal Company have sunk shafts from which immense quantities of coal were taken. This is simply a settlement made by the miners about the Vermilion Coal Company’s works, on the Chicago, Pekin & Southwestern Railroad, at the crossing of the Vermilion River, a mile southwest of Streator.

A plat of the place was made by A. C. Huetson, for J. M. Walker, President and A. T. Hall, Secretary, of the Chicago, Wilmington & Vermilion Coal Company. The plat consists of fifty-one acres, from Section 2, Township 30, Range 3. In the record of the plat, the right of mining all coal beneath the land is reserved. The town consists of forty or fifty miners and other employees of the Company, a few of whom have families.

Note from 2004: I believe this settlement is the area of South Streator, west of Rt. 23, south of 12^th Street the Vermilion River, where the old route 23 went through years ago, now a bridge goes above that property and crosses the river into South Streator. There was an old tavern sitting right on the river, on the right side of the road as you went into South Streator (which is in Livingston County), which I’m sure will help jog a lot of people’s memory on this location. Let me know if I’m wrong, Annette.