In the early 1830s, a young man from Pennsylvania came to Illinois to be the first attorney of Bloomington, the county seat of the newly formed McLean County. | Stamp will honor Fell | ISU might have never been if not for Fell

It was the first of many roles Jesse Fell would assume in establishing the area that became the Twin Cities.

His influence and vision are evident everywhere in Bloomington-Normal and Central Illinois:

• Fell, whose 200th birthday is Monday, was instrumental in creating Illinois State Normal University and, in turn, he founded the town now known as Normal.

• He introduced Abraham Lincoln to the nation when he shared a brief autobiographical sketch of Lincoln with a Pennsylvania newspaper. He also encouraged David Davis to come to Bloomington. Davis became a close friend of and campaign manager for Lincoln and went on to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

• Fell founded the city's first newspaper (a forerunner of The Pantagraph), helped bring the former Illinois Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's Home to the community, and was one of the organizers of Bloomington's Unitarian Church.

• He was a key player in getting the Alton Railroad to build its headquarters and main machine shop in Bloomington and led the way to making the Twin Cities an integrated community.

• He also founded Clinton, Towanda, Pontiac, Lexington, LeRoy and El Paso and helped develop Dwight, Joliet and Decatur.

"He was a practical idealist," said Greg Koos, executive director of the McLean County Museum of History. "He was interested in changing society."

Jesse Fell

A key component to Fell's vision was securing the state's newest teachers' college for McLean County, the result of an 1857 state law creating a teacher-training school and calling for a later expansion into other disciplines.

Koos said Fell believed land in "North Bloomington" (now Normal) was perfect: It was near two railroads and "away from the crowd, noise and sin of the city (Bloomington)."

Then Gov. William Bissell announced the new college would go to the community that offered the best incentives. Koos said Fell "worked very hard" to sell the North Bloomington site to state leaders.

The community ended up outbidding Peoria $141,000 to $80,000.

"Fell provided the most money," said Jo Ann Rayfield, ISU archivist. "And he played a significant role in getting others on board, too," adding Fell's long-range plan went beyond a teacher's college.

"He wanted it to be the best university on the prairie," she said.

Jesse Fell

Fell also turned some of his farmland into residential lots so large homes could be built around the university. Koos said there was no student housing at the time, so students rented rooms in nearby houses owned by professors.

North Bloomington had been platted a few years before with land owned by Joseph Parkinson. Fell developed the first addition to the town - around what is now Fell Park - in 1857.

Koos said blacks were encouraged to make the new area their home.

Other community leaders, including the Dillon family, famous for breeding Percheron draught horses, and the Champion family, who were tinsmiths and later owners of a canning business, helped ensure Normal was a place where former slaves could succeed, Koos said.

Hester Fell

The Champions trained blacks in the art of tinsmithing, he said.

Fell also was behind the idea of "greening the prairie," Koos said. "He wanted to make it a comfortable community" and was instrumental in planting more than 10,000 trees in the Twin Cities.

His first residence, a 15-acre estate at the southwest corner of Broadway and Irving, was commonly called Fell Park because of its park-like atmosphere, according to "The Legacy," a book about Normal's historical architecture. The professionally landscaped grounds of the home Fell called "Greenwood" included trees, evergreens and paths.

Fell built a second home, at 702 S. Broadway, in the early 1880s and "Greenwood" was moved to 502 S. Fell Ave., according to "The Legacy." While the second home still is standing, "Greenwood" was razed in 1980 to make way for student housing.

Fell died on Feb. 25, 1887.

- Pantagraph reporter Michele Steinbacher contributed to this story.