Editing Breese, Illinois (section)

==History==
The town is named after [[Sidney Breese]], a [[United States Senate|United States Senator]] and a contemporary of President [[Abraham Lincoln]].<ref name="historicgville">Allan H. Keith, [https://books.google.com/books?id=1gJ_RVeb5JYC&pg=PA2&dq=richard+bock+sculptor&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=ngQRYGbj78gEH8yXNlEZrDnRlMU#PPA1,M1 ''Historical Stories: About Greenville and Bond County, IL'']. Consulted on August 15, 2007.</ref> Breese was founded in 1855.

Even though the area around Breese, Illinois was first settled in 1816, it was not until 1835 that Germans came to the town to farm because of the flat fertile land there. Twenty years after the Germans' first immigration, the Mississippi and Ohio Railroad was completed. The early pioneers were enthralled by the thought of transportation by railroad. The Chicago-based company Sanger Kamp & Co. bought 80 acres of land near the railroad. Twenty-four acres were laid out with the railroad splitting the original town with some acres on the north side and south side creating Breese Township, February 3, 1855.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

Late in 1855, forty Catholic immigrants, wanting to fulfill their religious needs, had the idea of constructing a church. Their desires were realized when two years later the Sanger Kamp & Co. gave half of one of its {{convert|80|acres}} to the Catholics’ project. By December 1869, St. Dominic's Catholic Church was completed. Breese was first recognized as a town on April 11, 1871, and later became a village on September 23, 1876. As a result, the construction of the village hall had begun. This project was completed in 1885. Seven years later a volunteer fire department was organized. The ever-growing population was then acknowledged as a city on January 19,
1905. The mayor of this new city was Henry Hummert.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

Realizing that Breese would need some improvements, the mayor authorized the construction of an electric light plant that was completed in 1906. The streets of Breese were also topped with road oil in 1911. The next year improvements to the city's water works facility were also made.

However, things took a turn for the worse when, in 1914, a scarlet fever swept the community and its surrounding area and forced all the schools to close. Only four years later, still in the wake of the scarlet fever, the flu epidemic spread through the area.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

===1906 Coal mine disaster===
On December 24, 1906, Six miners were killed and one injured when a mine cage collapsed and fell down the shaft in a mine owned and operated by The Breese and Trenton Coal Company. The miners killed included Henry Middeke, Herman Scheleper, Walter Schaffner, August Foppe, Frank Zehrer, and Hermann Holtmann. The only one injured was mine manager William Fritz. An investigation concluded that improper filling of an old air shaft caused a dirt slide leading to the collapse. The Breese and Trenton Coal Company was found guilty of negligence.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://clintonilgw.org/history/mine.php|title = The 1906 Breese Mining Disaster, Clinton Co, IL}}</ref>