La Fayette, Illinois
             FROM JUST1WAY.ORG

William Dunbar, in July of 1836, laid out the town on the western edge of Stark county, in Goshen township, with 10 city blocks.  Jonathan Hodgeson is responsible for an addition to the town.  The first white settler in this area  was Michael Fraker from Fulton county, who lived near what is now the Knox county line, with his family of twenty-six children.  The first house within the city limits was built by Jesse C. Ware.  The primary businessmen were Theodore Hurd and Barnabas Jackson; by 1838 they both had been in business for a number of years.  Shoemaker Ira Reed went into business the same year.  The first church was built by Mrs. Eunice Miner, a small frame structure.  Mr. Dunbar and his sons began a hat manufacturing business also in 1838m and did a good business.  Growth in Lafayette was initially slow, until the railroad was built.