PEORIA MAGAZINE September 2023

H O M E T O W N

‘THE EPITOME OF RESILIENCE’ Canton continues to roll with the economic punches, as it has for nearly 200 years

BY SCOTT FISHEL PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

W hen asked to describe the people of Canton, Mayor Kent McDowell doesn’t hesitate. “Canton is the epitome of resilience,” he said. With its bicentennial approaching in 2025, this city of just over 13,000 has ridden waves of prosperity, weathered economic hardship and recovered from unforeseen adversities that might have crushed lesser towns. “We like to say we have risen from disaster like a phoenix from the fire,” said Cheryl Bielema of the Canton Heritage Center, a repository of local historical artifacts and stories. A TALE OF THREE INDUSTRIES Almost any conversation about Canton includes some reference to the closing of the landmark International Harvester factory in 1985. For more than a century, IH and its predecessor, P & O Plow, had been a regional economic powerhouse. The loss of nearly 2,500 good-paying jobs was devastating. Even after nearly 40 years, the closure and 1997 fire that destroyed the old factory are vivid and painful memories. The city’s growth and prosperity paralleled that of its major employer.

Lifetime resident and local historian Mike Walters said IH traced its Canton roots to 1849 when William Parlin opened a metalworking shop. He soon began designing and manufacturing plows that turned the soil of some of the world’s most productive farmland. Parlin’s brother-in-law, William Orendorff, joined the company in 1852. Through innovative selling tech niques and a dealer network across the Midwest, P & O Plow took off. By 1895, the company operated 11 factories as the top plow maker in America. International Harvester in Chicago purchased P & O in 1919. For the next 65 years, a wide range of signature red IH equipment was built in Canton and sold globally. All the while, an abundance of coal in Fulton County attracted mining companies to extract millions of tons of the sedimentary rock from below the fertile Illinois soil. This, too, created hundreds of good-paying jobs and wealth. By the 1880s, Fulton was among the top 10 coal-producing counties in Illinois, said Walters. But the high sulfur content of Illinois coal precipitated the demise of the in dustry locally. By the 1980s, most of the mines were closed and abandoned. All that remained were massive gouges in the earth and a network of hidden shafts.

The clock tower in Jones Park in Canton

Companies making hand-rolled cigars flourished in Canton from about 1870 to the 1920s, employing up to 2,000 people who produced 20 million cigars annually, along with the colorful wooden boxes they were shipped in. Brands such as Armstrong, Curtis, Eyerly Bros., McCreary and Van Doren carried the “Made in Canton” label all over the nation. The rise of manufactured cigarettes led to their decline and dissolution. AN ENDURING LEGACY P & O Plow may be long gone, but the immense fortunes made by its founders continue to enrich Canton to the tune of $3.1 million annually. Funds from a family trust are apportioned to the Parlin In

60 SEPTEMBER 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE