By Jared Olar
Library assistant
Among the communities described in John Drury’s “This is Tazewell County, Illinois” (1954), we find the following brief comment on page 97:
“Another hamlet in Elm Grove Township is Shaferville. It is located just south of Pekin city and near it is Meyer’s Lake. A highway, State 9, runs through the community.”
Remarkably, most of what Drury says here is wrong. “Shaferville” is Drury’s misspelling of “Schaeferville,” an unincorporated community right outside the Pekin city limits. “Meyer’s Lake” was originally named Bailey’s Lake and is more commonly known as Lake Arlann – the community of Schaeferville is situated between Lake Arlann on the east and South 14th Street on the west. It is puzzling, however, why Drury thought Schaeferville was in Elm Grove Township, for it has always been in Cincinnati Township — and in fact a map in Drury’s book shows Schaeferville in Cincinnati Township, albeit on East Court Street rather than South 14th Street. It’s less of a puzzle why he thought Illinois Route 9 ran through Schaeferville – a 1945 Tazewell County plat book shows South 14th Street was then designated as Route 98, and Drury apparently confused Route 98 with Route 9.
At the time Drury wrote, Schaeferville had only existed for a few years, having been platted out on land to the south of Pekin’s Fisher Addition — the land having been owned by the Schaefer family. The two most notable members of that family were Charles Schaefer (1875-1953), a former Tazewell County judge and Mayor of Pekin, and Judge Schaefer’s brother Fred Schaefer (1860-1948), who had been a partner in the Jansen & Zoeller Brick Company, later shifting to coal mining in 1939, when he bought one of the old Grant mines. Known at first as the Schaefer Mining Company, then as the Pekin Mining Company, the Schaefers’ mine closed around 1951, the last of Pekin’s coal mines.
The “hamlet” of Schaeferville is made up of 10 streets: South 14th, Norman, Hillview, Everett, Stout, Hazel, Gehrs, Mitchell, Martin, and Fredrick. The southern segment of West Shore Drive ending in Beachcomber Place is also outside of the Pekin city limits, but Schaeferville’s streets do not connect with West Shore or Beachcomber.
Schaeferville is also the home of Gethsemane Church, a non-denominational church located at 1601 Fredrick Drive. Formerly known as the Schaeferville General Baptist Church, the church was organized around 1960 at 901 Fredrick Drive (the lots on Fredrick later being renumbered, so that 901 is now 1601). The church’s long-time pastor, Rev. Frank G. Noyes, died at the age of 74 a little over a year ago after serving the church for more than 40 years.
As an unincorporated community of Tazewell County, Schaeferville is served by the governments of Cincinnati Township and Tazewell County, as well as the Schaeferville Fire Protection District under which the community operates its own 18-man volunteer fire department. The Schaeferville Fire Department’s station is at 1501 Hillview Drive.
