ROBERTS — The Ford County village of Roberts will mark its 150th birthday Saturday with a daylong celebration.
Roberts native Stan Daro, a retired teacher and member of the sesquicentennial organizing committee, said a 1 p.m. parade will highlight the day’s activities.
The parade is an informal affair.
“We didn’t do a registration,” Daro said. “It’s ‘come up and be in the parade.’ We’ve had people tell us they’re coming.”
The day’s activities also include a downtown dance from 8 to 11 p.m. featuring DJ Audio Faction from Bloomington.
There’s also children’s games, a pancake-and-sausage breakfast, a flea market, inflatables, beard and baking contests, a pulled-pork lunch, bingo, car cruising, a cornhole tournament and a raffle.
Town historian Jean Fox said the town is named after Francis Alonzo Roberts, who surveyed land for the village in 1871.
Fox said the village is celebrating 150 years this year because it marked its 100th anniversary in 1972.
A Dec. 8, 1871, article in the Paxton Record said F.A. Roberts was “planting trees for shade along the principal streets” and expected to plant 2,000 more the next spring. The article said Roberts had also been boring for water at what is now the crossing of Main and Green streets, had found an abundant water supply “at moderate depth” and was making preparations to put down a well.
In 1894, a fire destroyed much of the village’s downtown. Devastating fires of its type were common during the time period as most buildings were made of wood.
A Paxton Record article about the blaze indicated that the fire spread so rapidly that “almost before it could be realized, the flames had gained such a headway that all thought, except that of limiting its scope, passed out of the minds of the people.”
The article said the most plausible theory of how the fire started was spontaneous combustion from refuse and accumulation of varnish and other inflammable material used in finishing furniture in the rear of W.P. Landel’s hardware store.
The article noted that shortly after the fire started, a keg of powder exploded, which added to the fury of the flames, and in two hours, the entire frontage of the south side of Green Street was destroyed. The fire generated such heat that it melted glass in building fronts.
Bucket brigades and some residents’ “heroic actions” saved some buildings. The blaze brought a call from the paper to establish a fire department in the village.
The area’s first school district was formed in 1859 in Lyman Township, with Mrs. Marston the first teacher, giving lessons in her home. Nine years later, the first schoolhouse was built. The building is now a home on North Main Street.
The district consolidated with Thawville in 1949. In 1974, it consolidated further with Piper City to form the Ford Central school district.
In 1993, the village board voted to demolish the school building on West Weldon Street onto which a gym had been added in 1938. The gym was not demolished and was fixed up with volunteer help. It is still actively used and can be rented out for gatherings.
The Ford Central district dissolved in 1992, and Roberts students now attend Paxton-Buckley-Loda schools.
As with many towns, the location of the railroad played a part in its livelihood. Roberts was located on the Springfield branch of the Illinois Central railroad. Many of surrounding farms were farmed by “thrifty Germans,” the Record reported.
An article from 1900 said like many towns of its day, Roberts had about everything residents needed commerce-wise, including five general stores, two harness shops, one hotel (the Magnolia House), three veterinary surgeons, three churches and a tile-and-brick factory.
In 1923, it got its own seven-bed hospital, which had the first electrically operated X-ray machine and first cadiograph in the county.
