Editing Seatonville, Illinois (section)

==History==
A post office called Seatonville has been in operation since 1889,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.postalhistory.com/postoffices.asp?task=display&state=IL&county=Bureau&searchtext=&pagenum=3 | title=Bureau County | publisher=Jim Forte Postal History | access-date=March 28, 2015}}</ref> named for W. A. Seaton, an early settler.<ref>{{cite book|author=Chicago and North Western Railway Company|title=A History of the Origin of the Place Names Connected with the Chicago & North Western and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railways|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OspBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA123|year=1908|page=123}}</ref>

The town is part of a constellation of coal mining towns centered on Spring Valley and LaSalle, Illinois. The Seaton brothers, Isom and James, sank the first coal mine shaft there in 1880. The mine was sold in 1888 to the Chicago, Wilmington, and Vermilion Coal Company based in Braidwood, Illinois. During the strike of 1889, it was the only mine operating in northern Illinois. A small community of African-Americans was brought in by the company to replace deserting miners.

The mine went bankrupt in 1900 and was purchased by the Spring Valley Coal Company. The town grew until the mine was closed in 1913.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Piacenti|first=Jim|title=The Promise of a Better Life: The Coal Mines of Eastern Bureau County, Illinois|publisher=Locust Street Publishing|year=2011|location=Ladd|pages=72–81}}</ref>