Editing Pontiac, Illinois (section)

===19th century growth===
In 1848, August Fellows, who now owned much of the town, had managed to set up a hostelry. Some of the first church services in Pontiac were held at the tavern. In 1849 cholera swept through Pontiac, killing Fellows and two of his children. One early settler remembered that in Livingston County one person in two suffered from the disease.<ref>''History of Livingston'', 1878, p. 301.</ref> Fellow's widow, Maria Tracey Fellows, continued to run the hotel; she remarried Nelson Buck in 1850 and renamed the place Buck Hotel.<ref>"The Biographical Record of Livingston County", 1900, pp. 100–101.</ref>

Pontiac faced further challenges in 1851 when a rival town called Richmond was platted nearby. Its backers believed the new railroad would bypass Pontiac, but the railroad tracks were routed through Pontiac instead, securing its place as the center of Livingston County.<ref>''History of Livingston'' 1878, p. 326.</ref> By 1854, regular rail service was established, contributing to the town's growth. In 1856, Pontiac was incorporated.

In the following years, Pontiac saw a surge in development, including the construction of the Reform School at Pontiac in 1870, which became the Illinois State Reformatory in 1892 and is now the Pontiac Correctional Center.<ref name="Livingston 1878, p. 243"/><ref>''Reports Made to the General Assembly of the State of Illinois'' (Springfield: State of Illinois, 1875), p. 50.</ref><ref>''History of Livingston'', 1878, p. 323.</ref> Infrastructure improvements included the installation of electric lights in 1882 and the construction of new buildings around the courthouse square.<ref name="Historical Encyclopedia 1909, p. 817"/><ref>Historical Encyclopedia, 1909, p. 817.</ref> In 1870, a devastating fire destroyed much of Pontiac's downtown, but rebuilding efforts led to the creation of a fire district with stricter building codes.<ref>''History of Livingston'', 1878, p. 242.</ref><ref name="Historical Encyclopedia 1909, p. 817">''Historical Encyclopedia'', 1909, p. 817.</ref> By the 1880s, Pontiac had become a thriving town with a mix of brick commercial buildings and wooden residences, characteristic of many Midwest towns of that era.<ref>''History of Livingston'', 1878, p. 325.</ref>

[[Abraham Lincoln]] visited Pontiac in the 1840s and again in February 1855, when his train was snowbound on the nearby tracks, and he was taken by sled to spend the night at the home of John McGregor. On January 25, 1860, Lincoln was again in town when he addressed the Young Men's Literary Association. In 1858, [[Stephen A. Douglas]] and abolitionist [[Owen Lovejoy]] both visited Pontiac. When local people learned in 1880 that former president [[Ulysses S. Grant]] would pass through Pontiac on his way to visit his son, they begged the general to stay over for breakfast, and a large reception committee quickly arranged a celebration. [[William Jennings Bryan]] came to Pontiac on October 27, 1896, and returned on several other occasions. On June 3, 1903, during his whistle-stop tour through Central Illinois, [[Theodore Roosevelt]] spoke in Pontiac and unveiled the soldier's monument.<ref>''Historical Encyclopedia'', 1909, pp. 725–731.</ref> He spoke there again in 1910.