Editing Scales Mound, Illinois (section)

==History==
The original town of Scales Mound was located at the base of an erosional remnant similar to [[Charles Mound]], about a mile southwest of the present-day village. In 1830 [[Samuel Scales]] purchased the original village site from John Sole and built a tavern at the base of the mound along Sucker Trail, a major east–west corridor. The land that the present-day village of Scales Mound is on was purchased from the U.S. government in 1848 by a man named Dunning. Little is known about Dunning or the use of the land until the 1850s.<ref name=nrhp>Mansberger, Floyd. "[http://gis.hpa.state.il.us/hargis/PDFs/200844.pdf Scales Mound Historic District]", ([[PDF]]), National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, May 2, 1990, ''[[Illinois Historic Preservation Agency]]'', accessed May 17, 2008.</ref>

In 1851 the [[Illinois Central Railroad]] (ICRR) was established and it would become a major factor in the settlement of much of rural Illinois, including Scales Mound. In September 1853, anticipating the arrival of the railroad, the village of Scales Mound was [[plat]]ted by Josiah Conlee and B.B. Provost. During the summer of 1854 track crews from ICRR laid out {{convert|20|mi|km}} of track between Scales Mound and [[Apple River, Illinois|Apple River]] and trains were running the line the day after completion. With the arrival of the railroad, Scales Mound's first building was constructed in the late fall of 1854, a store built by Sherman Eddy.<ref name=nrhp/>