the foundation of many towns along the railroad, usually in association with local individuals. Railroad companies in Illinois were forbidden to found towns themselves. Iroquois Democrats had wanted to name the town "Douglas", after the Illinois senator, but Cruger Secor and Company had been given the right to name the town and they decided to honor Samuel Gilman, a director of that company. Original design of Gilman The design of Gilman in general followed the standard plan used by the Peoria and Oquawka Railroad. This was based on a Depot Ground, a wider area of railroad-owned land where the tracks pass through a town. In the original town of Gilman, east-west streets were given numbers, 6th to 2nd with Front Street where 1st Street would have been expected. The north-south streets, often given standard tree names in other Peoria and Oquawka towns, were here assigned distinctive local names including Chamberlain, Thomas and Douglas. Except for a slight bend in Central and Chamberlain streets, the plan is generally similar to that of Chatsworth, Fairbury, Gridley and Watseka (platted as "South Middleport"). The Gilman plat was exceptionally large with 73 blocks, most having sixteen lots. Unlike most towns of the era, Gilman never developed a single commercial focus. This was evident early in its history when Beckwith remarked, "The town is the most diffusely settled, probably, of any of like population in the state. It would be very difficult to tell which is the center of the town." Early Gilman The first new inhabitant of the area was W. P. Gardner from Pennsylvania, who at first lived in a shanty maintained by the railroad for its workers. When the survey of Gilman was done in September 1857, Gardner built the first house in Gilman. That same fall James Wright built a house in Gilman. This was soon followed by a much more expensive structure, a three-story hotel costing $4,000 with a third-floor assembly area. The first recorded event in Gilman's history was a ball held on 22 February 1858 at the hotel to celebrate George Washington's birthday. Some of the less respectable young men of the neighborhood objected to the ladies being inside the hotel while they were left out on the frigid street. They began calling for the ladies to come outside and join them. One of those invited guests was the builder of the hotel, a man named Lawrence. Wise