The restored Divernon train depot (SCHS photo)
According to Divernon: Its Place in Time, a centennial history written by David Brady in 2000, the village of Divernon began as one of four depots on a Litchfield-to-Springfield railroad formally known as the St. Louis & Chicago Railway Co. Informally, it was called “the Wing Line,” named after D.L. Wing, president of the company. The railroad opened on Jan. 27, 1887, with depots built about 4 miles apart – at Toronto, Glenarm, Divernon, Thomasville, Farmersville, Waggoner and Zanesville.
Di Vernon, as depicted by Sir John Millais in 1880
Named: “The village of Divernon and its township is (sic) unique in that no other place in the world shares its name,” Brady reported in his Divernon history. After its platting in 1886, the community was first named Springer, but a southern Illinois post office already had that name.
“H.C. Barnes (the assistant postmaster) suggested the name of a heroine from Sir Walter Scott’s Rob Roy,” Brady wrote. “Her name was Diana Vernon. In the book, her friends called her Di Vernon. It was then decided to drop the capital V and combine the two, making Divernon. This name was easily accepted.”
Coal boom, then bust: Construction began on Madison Coal Mine No. 6 near Divernon in 1898, resulting in jumps in both mine employment and the population of Divernon, which grew to be the second largest town in Sangamon County from 1900 to 1925. A so-called captive mine, Madison No. 6 produced coal solely for the Illinois Central Railroad and for a time was the most modern coal mine in the world – coal was “excavated by machine, transported by motorcar, hoisted by twin steam hoist and cleaned with mechanical shakers,” Brady wrote.
Following a wildcat strike, however, the mine closed in 1925, putting 800 miners out of work, and Divernon almost immediately lost two-thirds of its estimated 3,600 residents.
Effie Johnson, who lived in Divernon for a half-century, reminisced about the community’s glory days in a 1955 memoir on file in the Sangamon Valley Collection at Lincoln Library.
I watched the settlement grow from a huddle of houses, with planks laid down in the mud for sidewalks, to become a roaring mining town of 3,000. I not only saw but experienced the spectacular rise and also the heartrending fall of the village.
I saw the mine, of which we were all so proud, close down in 1925 after 27 years of prosperity, when a good payroll averaged $50,000 a month and which the miner’s wives spent as fast as their husbands earned it. … I saw 800 men suddenly rendered jobless, 600 of whom lived in the 123 houses which composed the mining camp. I saw those neat houses demolished or moved away, saw the huge miners’ boarding house razed, stoically watched the two banks fold and the building and loan collapse.
Other events
*A fire destroyed the Divernon light plant on Nov. 14, 1918.
*The collapse of an old mine shaft in the 1960s created a hole 60 feet deep and 53 feet wide, accompanied by the escape of methane gas near the Divernon residential area.
*In 2007, the Divernon School District was dissolved and the area joined the Auburn School District. Kindergartners through third-graders who live in the Divernon area use the Divernon school buildings, as do all Auburn School District middle schoolers.
More information: Divernon, Its Place in Time is available at Lincoln Library’s Sangamon Valley Collection, as are a number of other resources on Divernon.
Today: Divernon, located at Milepost 80 on Interstate 55 south of Springfield, had 1,172 residents as of the 2010 U.S. Census.
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I lived in the farm east of town. Brush creek ran thru or pasture. This was 1937. I went to the elementary school in town. I have a lot of memories of the town
Thanks for reading, Mr. Brown.
Change that location to the west of town. My grandfather had the farm. His name was will brown and my grandmother was Minnie. She was killed in an auto accident about a mile from town in 1947
My mothers family leaved there from 1910 to 1925. Have many pictures of Divernon schools.
Have vintage clothing (mostly women’s) that would like to know if you are interested or know of a historical society that would… 2 bags
My great grandmother was Myra Rebecca (Henry) Shutt, died in childbirth in 1923 …. I believe in Divernon…
She was married to Andrew Ervin Shutt who lived in Normal, Illinois
My mother is 95 and giving up her trunk of memorabilia…
Please email me asap if you are interested….
Ms. Knaffle: We’ll see if any readers are interested. Thanks for the note.
i have always been curious what my house looked like after it was built in 1896. I can only imagine the history of this old home. We live on north first street. If anyone has any info or pictures of my home I would be extremely excited
Ms. Woodall: North First Street in Divernon? Or Springfield? Thanks for reading.
My grandfather Mark McRoberts moved from Scotland to Divernon in September 1910. I believe he may have lived with his brother Bryce (or Brice) and/or sister Mrs. Catherine (Kate) Hughes and her family. He may have tried his hand in coal-mining (his brother was a coal miner). Any info about coal-mining in Divernon or any of the above individuals (especially fotos of the above people) would be of great interest. I have already documented what I know (unfortunately all I know about his time in Divernon is basically a footnote) in: – blurb.com/b/5183855-echoes-of-distant-shotts
Please contact me by email (via sangamocountyhistory.org). Rgs Jim McAnna
I was born on my grandfather Simon’s farm 1 mile south of the Divernon route 66 turn off to town in 1936. Raised in Divernon and graduated from the high school as did my grandmother Tessie Chance Simon in 1908,later my mother and father and two brothers. My Dad (Ralph Hay) and Uncle Frank owned and ran Hay Bros Garage and service station. The station was in business from 1932 to1976. Ralph and Frank are deceased but are now in the Illinois route 66 Hall of Fame.
Mr. Hay: Your comment prompted me to drive up to Pontiac today to see the Route 66 Hall of Fame. Look for a SangamonLink entry, hopefully in the next few weeks, about your father, your uncle and the other Sangamon County residents (there are a bunch) who are in the Hall. Thanks for the idea.
Is there a place we might be able to look up old pictures of homes in Divernon? I would love to see pictures of how our house looked through the years but I’ve been striking out on finding much.
A.C.: I think the book mentioned in the entry — “Divernon: Its Place in Time” — includes photos. But I’m going on memory. Contact the Sangamon Valley Collection, (217) 753-4900 ext. 5634. They have the book, and very possibly other photos of Divernon. Good luck.
Any information on the Divernon picnics. I remember going to them as you child.