It was three years ago that “From the History Room” presented a series on the unincorporated communities of Tazewell County. Among the communities that were featured in that series in the little village of Parkland in Spring Lake Township, which was established as a railroad station in the 1800s and dubbed “Prettyman” after the prominent family of Benjamin S. Prettyman who owned land there.
As we noted previously, Prettyman was later formally platted as “Hainesville” on 7 Sept. 1860, though the Hainesville post office continued to be known as the “Prettyman” post office until 1899, when Hainesville – along with its post office – was renamed “Parkland.” The Parkland post office remained in operation until 1918.
During the post office’s years of operation, Parkland’s postmaster was John Henry Louie (1849-1928), whose father was French immigrant to Tazewell County named John Louie (1824-1870), born in Bertrambois, France, and buried in Fon du Lac Township Cemetery in East Peoria.
John Henry Louie was born on his parents’ farm in rural Wesley City (Creve Coeur) on 12 Nov. 1849, later moving to Spring Lake Township and settling in Hainesville. He married Caroline Anna Bender in Peoria on 8 Nov. 1888, and they had a son, Charles Robert Louie, who was born in Manito on 29 July 1890.
John Henry’s obituary, published in the 7 Aug. 1928 issue of the Bloomington Pantagraph, says, “For years Mr. Louie was manager of the Smith-Hippen Grain company at Parkland, conducted a general store there and was postmaster of the village.” The obituary adds that he and his wife Caroline farmed for a while after their marriage, after which he “took employment with the Smith-Hippen company at Parkland and remained with that company 29 years.”
The Smith-Hippen Grain Co. was based in Pekin, being one of the firms founded and operated by German immigrant Teis Smith and his relatives (the Smith Wagon Works in Pekin probably being the best known of the Smith firms).
John Henry Louie’s great-granddaughter Cathy (Louie) Janus has graciously supplied the Pekin Public Library with digital images of a number of old photographs and documents pertaining to Parkland and John Henry’s tenure as village postmaster and Smith-Hippen grain elevator manager. These photographs and documents are shared here with Janus’ kind permission.
Cathy Janus says that her father attended school at Parkland, which was the location of Spring Lake Township’s School No. 6. Later, after the school was closed, her father acquired the property and converted it into his home, where Cathy grew up.
Janus also notes that the Parkland passenger train depot appears in Thomas Finson’s video “Tazewell County Memories 1932-1970,” in footage that was taken during the last passenger train to leave Pekin. The train headed south out of Pekin and past Parkland on its way to Havana.
