History

Hopewell township, with its swampy lands along the river, covered with grass higher than a man’s head, its heavily timbered bottoms and the hills and hollows, was an ideal place for game. Deer and wild turkey abounded, rabbits, raccoons, muskrats, mink and other fur-bearing animals were to be had for the taking. It was a paradise for a hunter. Long after the game had mostly disappeared from other parts of the country hunters from Henry and other places would go over there for deer and turkeys. It was also a great place for wolves, both of the large gray timber and smaller prairie varieties, but the wolf is a cowardly animal and seldom attacks man.

John Spencer Burt and W. E. Hawthorne, Past and Present
of Marshall and Putnam Counties Illinois, 1907