Oakwood, Illinois

History

The area where Oakwood currently is built was historically inhabited by the Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Pienkeshaw, all tribes of indigenous peoples; the indigenous peoples discovered the salts mines which would later become the start of the town's economy.

The first white presence in the area was that of the French, who documented the salty water near the Vermilion River in 1706. In the early 1800s, fur trappers employed by John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company arrived in the area. The indigenous peoples were driven westward into reservations as a result of several treaties over the course of the early 1800s.

In October 1819 an army surveyor team of white settlers and Shawnee hired guides arrived in the region, searching for salt mines. They established wells and salt mining in the area. In 1824, Major John W. Vance came from Urbana, Ohio and gained control of the mine, increasing production by bringing in more iron kettles to boil the saltwater down. Due to competition from other mines the mine eventually shut down in the late 1830s/early 1840s.

From the 1860s onward coal mining became a major source of jobs and industry in Vermilion County.

From the History section of Oakwood, Illinois on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.