Recently, a friend of mine, a member of the Mossville Methodist Church, asked if the Historical Society had any information on his church. The Society does have some history on most of the churches in and around Chillicothe dating well back into the 1800s. As I reviewed that history to see what I could find to answer his questions, I realized that the history file of the village of Mossville was a bit thin in our files. That sparked my interest, so I decided to see what I could find. Naturally, the first question to answer was: Who was Moss? That question wasn’t hard to answer. I grew up in Peoria and went to and through the “high rent “district when I attended Bradly University and crossed “Moss” Avenue. That was a pretty big clue, so what did I find when I tried to put Mr. Moss in Mossville?

William S. Moss was a farmer, at first, but decided to become a riverboat captain on the Illinois River in Peoria. He became well-known in that role in the 1840s. But he was a quiet man who had a talent for developing business interests in many places. William S. Moss filed over 90 real estate contracts at the Peoria Recorder’s Office. The lands he owned were all over Peoria County, but the plat of Mossville was not one of them. That plat was filed by Isaac Underhill in September 1854. At the time, Moss and Underhill owned both the SE and SW halves of Section 27 in Medina Township, where Mossville is platted. The true name of the plat was “Mossville Station.” Underhill bought the entire Village of Rome in the 1830s and was a mover and shaker during his time. He started his own bank and was a primary organizing force in establishing the Peoria and Bureau Valley Railroad (P&BV RR) in 1853. The directors of the P&BV RR granted a lease of the entire railroad system to the newly completed Chicago Rock Island and Pacific Railroad in 1854. The Rock Island line was the first passenger train to run in Peoria.

As you have probably guessed, a railroad station was built at the location where Mossville was platted that same year. The station was a “flag stop” station and the train stopped only when it was flagged down. It isn’t clear as to who named the village Mossville, but one account says that a close friend of Moss, George Washington Schnebly, a very active land speculator in Peoria County actually gave it that name.

A look at the original Mossville Plat shows the main street is State Street, which is in line with the Galena Trail and Coach Road path that had been established by Native Americans long before European settlers arrived in the Midwest. Mossville Road today was named Sheffield in the original plat. Where did those other street names come from? 

The Chicago Rock Island and Pacific (Rock Island) railroad had just been completed by 1850 that ran from Chicago to the Mississippi River and then westward. It had been built by Henry W. Farnam and Joseph E. Sheffield Railroad Company. Farnam was the Civil Engineer and Sheffield handled the financial affairs of the company. This is when Farnam moved from Connecticut to Illinois just as the businessmen in Peoria were anxiously trying to expand and gain faster access to outlets in Chicago. The P&BV RR contracted Farnam and Sheffield to construct the line to Bureau Junction near Indian Town (Tiskilwa), Illinois in Bureau County. The P&BV RR was completed in Early 1854 and Underhill platted the village of Mossville Station in September. Farnam became President of the Rock Island RR and Durant the President of the Union Pacific Railroad. 

The source of the names Farnam, Wolcott, and Sheffield are obviously honoring the owners of the Railroad. Grant and George Washington are the names of U.S. Presidents. However, the name George Washington could possibly refer to George Washington Schnebly, who was a close friend of Moss and Underhill and a developer of several subdivisions in Medina Township. State Street recognizes the established “official” road owned by the State of Illinois. The name Durant most likely derives from Farnam’s involvement in building the C.R.I.P RR because Thomas C. Durant was the financial power and investor in railroads and formed a company (Farnam and Durant) while the Rock Island was being built. Durant became known as a ruthless and feared, investor, developer, and promoter of railroads. The name Scott is believed to be a recognition of US Army General Winfield Scott, who was an unsuccessful candidate for US President in 1852. 

Probably the most notable historical feature of Mossville is that it was a stagecoach stop on the Galena Trail and Coach Road since DR. James Temple established the stagecoach company running from Peoria to Chillicothe in 1834. The stop began as a place to feed and water or exchange horses if needed. A tavern was a common development at those points on the route and once in place, a hotel would be built for employee quarters as well as stage passenger’s rest. That stop was located at the intersection of what is now State and Durant Streets. 

Underhill sold the lots on State Street at Durant Street to George Schnebly in 1857 who operated it as the Mossville Inn and the Schnebly estate sold the property to John Crawl in 1866. Crawl changed the name to the Crawl Inn. Following the Crawl family descendants ran the hotel until 1941 when William Gallagher Fleming bought the Inn. The next owners were Charles and Frances Ryan who bought it in 1951. They then leased it to Dorance Grant who renamed the hotel to Grant’s Inn in 1970. The history of that property is quite interesting in itself and has been studied by the Historical Society.

The practice of “name-dropping” is usually viewed negatively in most conversations, but when it comes to history, it can enrich a historical study. William S. Moss can be associated with quite a few names of historical significance and business stature in the Peoria area. He was active in the vinegar distillery with Tobias Bradley and several others and owned a very large farm on Main Street Hill. His daughter Lydia Moss married Tobias Bradley and she became a very positive force in Peoria. She was a very successful bank president and philanthropist and founder of Bradley Poly Technical School in 1897 which became Bradley University. Her father died in 1857, and she was named executrix of his estate. When she filed his estate in Peoria Probate Court his total estate was valued at over $450,000 in that year. In today’s economy, that would be well over $11.6 million. Looking into the history of Mossville through the prohibition era is also interesting and could merit its own report.