Dear Seekers: >From THE HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY, Edited by Charles J. SCOFIELD, 1921, pg. 671, is the following data on the town of Ramus, Hancock Co., IL: [My caps for surnames] Ramus - Was a Morman town, laid out in 1840, by Wm. WIGHTMAN, and settled largely by the Mormans, having at one time 400 or 500 inhabitants. It was sometimes called Macedonia. It is now Webster. The history of Ramus is more clearly shown by an act of the General Assembly in force March 3, 1843, for the incorporation of the town of Macedonia. Section 14 of the act appoints Joseph E. JOHNSON, WIlliam McLEARY and Benjamin ANDREWS to conduct the first election for the seven trustees provided for in the act, and requires the persons elected to organize by electing one of their number president and by appointing a clerk, and then provides that this board of trustees shall prescribe the mode of conducting all elections after the first election, and that "the town of Ramus, from and after the passage of this law, shall be knwon and designated as the town of Macedonia". It thus appears that this particular municipality was first known by the name of Ramus, and that this name was afterwarded changed to Macedonia by act of the General Assembly. It is probable that this change of names had in fact been effected before the act was passed, and that the act was passed to give validity to the new name and to confer corporate powers accordingly. This is suggested by the first sentence of Section 1, which enacts that the inhabitants and residents of the town of Macedonia are made a body corporate and politic in law, by the name and style of the "trustees of the town of Macedonia." At a later date the name of the town was changed to Webster, by which name it is known at the present day. The population of from 400 to 500 inhabitants which Ramus or Macedonia had in Morman days ws greatly reduced by the exodus of the Mormans. -------------------end of data-------------------------- According to Wilma BRUNNEN in PIONEERS OF THE PRAIRIE, priv. pub. ca. 1985, pg. 803: "The Jonathan WEBSTER family was living in the Webster community before 1850. It is thought the community was named for him as he was influential in getting the Webster school built. - ------------------------------------------------------ Probable Fact: Once the Mormans left the Nauvoo area and Hancock Co., names they had given places/communities were changed to 'erase' whatever influence and the memory of the Mormans ever being in that area/county of Illinois. The irony of the above is that today, the long-ago presence of the Mormans, their homes in Nauvoo as historical sites, the old Carthage jail and gravesite of Joseph, Hiram, and their mother, are what brings tourists to the area. The Temple at Nauvoo is being re-built. This is having a direct increase in economic development in Nauvoo and nearby areas such as Hamilton, due to contracting out to local artisans who can still make items such as sash windows and the like, the way the early Morman settlers did. Kind of boggles the mind to imagine that Nauvoo could have been something like Salt Lake City is today. Have great days and peaceful nights! Shirley: bobert@panacom.com