Randolph County ILGenWeb
Located in this Township is Lively Prairie. The first settler of this area was John Lively in 1805, he settled in Sec 4. John died in 1826. His sons: Reuben, James, Turner, William and Hugh P remained on the prairie. In 1816 Andrew Borders moved to the area from GA and Samuel Crawford came from TN. Crawford became the JP of the prairie. James Hugh and sons: William, Stacy and John arrived soon after. In 1817, William Morris settled on Opossumden Prairie. Arthur Parks made the trip to RC in 1819 from KY, he died in 1844. He had eight sons. In 1820 Thomas, William and John McDill settled near Sparta.
Schuline is now a tiny hamlet. It is located in Sec 16 & 17 (Rt. 4 south of Sparta on county road 1900N) It began as a depot for the MO & Illinois Railroad. J M Wier owned the first house in town. The Warmac's opened a store in 1890, as did Melvel Garner. Andrew Dier was the town blacksmith. In 1894, the #3 mine was sunk and a Post Office was established in 1896. A bit later there were stores owned by George Meyers, Levi Sheets and Mr. Haggin. Donna Beckman had the telephone exchange in her living room. Harvey Grefe owned a garage and Mr. Siers the grain elevator. In the early 1900's Andrew Dier sold his blacksmith shop to Herman Gerlich who passed it on to his son Edmond. In 1903 the mine closed and the town began to lose residents.