Gypsy Camp at Foosland Illinois
Foosland Newspaper June 7. 1933
Gypsy camps moved on from north of Foosland Thursday after a stay of about a week in on the roadside of the Foos Farm. There were 52 in the eight camps. Ages were from 1 week old to eighty-eight years old.
The town of Foosland on the line of the Chicago and Paducah railroad, was laid out in the spring of 1874, on land belonging to William Foos. Mr. Foos is a resident of Columbus, Ohio, and is the owner of about four thousand acres of land in that vicinity. The first building to be erected in the town, was a dwelling-house, built by J. J. Taylor. The second building, a hotel and dwelling-house, was erected by George Dawson. James Malloy and a Van Deventer, put up dwelling-houses about the same time, in the summer of 1874. The first store building was put up by N. B. Tyler, who opened the first store in the summer of 1874. From Tyler, this store passed successively into the hands of Warner & Snyder, Wilson Bros., and William Phillips, and was discontinued in January, 1878. The grain elevator, water tank and railroad station, were all built in the summer of 1874. C. Dyer built the store which he now occupies, the same summer, opened the store November 17, 1874, and has continued in the mercantile business from that time to the present. G. W. Dawson and William Ridge built a store in the summer of 1874, and continued business till the spring of 1875, when they disposed of their stock to Theodore F. Phillips. The following spring the store was discontinued. The first blacksmith shop was started by Benjamin Sprague.