Rutland, Illinois

Rutland, Illinois
Village
Country	United States
State	Illinois
County	LaSalle
Township	Groveland
Elevation	699 ft (213 m)
Coordinates	40°59′2″N 89°2′36″W / 40.98389°N 89.04333°W / 40.98389; -89.04333Coordinates: 40°59′2″N 89°2′36″W / 40.98389°N 89.04333°W / 40.98389; -89.04333
Area	0.69 sq mi (2 km2)
- land	0.69 sq mi (2 km2)
- water	0.00 sq mi (0 km2)
Population	354 (2000)
Density	431.5/sq mi (167/km2)
Timezone	CST (UTC-6)
- summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
Postal code	61358
Area code	815
Location of Rutland within Illinois

Rutland is a village located mostly in LaSalle County that stretches into Marshall County, Illinois, United States. It is part of the Ottawa–Streator Micropolitan Statistical Area, and at the 2000 census, the population was 354.

The village was founded as New Rutland in 1855 when approximately 200 members of the Vermont Emigration Association paid $10 each for a plot of land. The original location of the town-site was exclusively within LaSalle county. However, an additional ten blocks of land was added October 20, 1856 that was located primarily in adjacent Marshall County.

Donated by Jim Flynn, HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF EARLY RUTLAND, IL, Taken from the Rutland Record Centennial Edition (1955). The long defunct Rutland Record was revived for a single 20-page centennial issue on August 4. Much historical information from the Record's files was well organized into the articles.

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The Section House mentioned in these stories was a bunkhouse built by the Illinois Central on the way through here. It was a lone landmark at the time, pre-dating Rutland by a couple years. It stood just north of the mine dump where the little pond is now. This house became the first permanent Flynn home. It stayed in the family for 3 generations. My dad and his brother were born in this house.

The T&E RR was actually the Toluca, Marquette, and Northern. It ran from Rutland to Toluca, then north to Spring Valley. It was owned by Charles Devlin, who also owned the Toluca coal mine and many other properties. There was no connection to the I.C. at Rutland.

Park View Hall was an early church, school, jail, firehouse, and finally a town hall. It stood where the water works is now, north of the park.

"My first run over the ground where Rutland stands was in '53 or '54 probably. I think there were no other houses between Wenona and Minonk than the old Section House south of the town site (not occupied), the Dresser house near the Santa Fe crossing and Abram Allen's cabin south of Wenona. At this time Wenona was an aspiring city of three or four residents, shacks included, and a hotel, not quite so large and complete in all its appointments as the Grand Pacific or Palmer, but had lots of room to grow and to make other needed improvements.

At this date the railway locomotives were burning wood as a principal fuel, for the storing of which long sheds had been erected. During the snow blockades of those early winters, trains could often reach Wenona from the north, where they had to be side tracked for an indefinite time to await the opening of the road south. Passengers could make themselves fairly comfortable by sleeping in the cars, but they had to be fed, and two or three trains of passengers would in a day exhaust the resources of the town, and it was arranged for the engines to bring provisions from LaSalle.