Editing Bellflower, Illinois (section)

===Original plan and growth===
The original plan of the town consisted of two square blocks of land. Most of the western square was divided into sixteen blocks, each usually containing twelve lots, and this part of the town was split diagonally by the {{convert|100|ft|m|adj=mid|-wide}} path of the railroad. Unlike many towns found in the 1870s, there was no depot ground. The eastern square of land and a strip along the north edge of the western square was divided into out lots, each of which were several times the size the lots in the western square. The combination of in lots and out lots was fairly common in central Illinois and may be found, for example, at [[Hudson, Illinois|Hudson]] and [[Chenoa, Illinois|Chenoa]]. The small triangle of land cut off by the railroad from the remainder of block ten became the location of the town jail. The station was located on the south side of the tracks, and the two early elevators were on railroad land. By 1895 both in lots and out lots held residences.<ref>''Combined Indexed Atlas 1856 - 1914, McLean County, Illinois'' (Bloomington: McLean County Historical Society and McLean County Genealogical Society, 2006) p. 106, 155.</ref> R. E. Moreland established the first business. Bellflower quickly became a major [[grain trade|grain shipping]] center serving the fertile surrounding land. By 1879 it was shipping over 350,000 bushels of grain a year.<ref>''History of McLean County'', 1879, p. 739.</ref> In 1900 the population was 356, nearly the same as today.