eight McLean County towns laid out during the 1830s boom still survive—Danvers, LeRoy, and Lexington. During the fall of 1836, several log cabins were built in the town and Edgar Conkling erected a frame store. Gridley persuaded Hiram Buck to move to LeRoy and establish a hotel; in 1838 Buck became Post Master. In 1836 Conkling and a partner laid out a vast new addition to the town that tripled its size. The first mill, built by Elisha Gibbs on the south side of the town, burned in 1844. Buckles and Farmer responded by building a second mill that also burned. The first large brick commercial building was built for T. J. Barnett in 1858 at a cost of $3,000. By 1850, LeRoy had established itself as the second largest town in the county. It was incorporated as a town in 1853 and as a city 10 August 1874. Railroad era After the Civil War, the citizens of LeRoy were convinced that only a railroad could assure the prosperity of their town, and they took the lead in campaigning for what would eventually become the Indiana, Bloomington and Western Railway. In 1866 a meeting was held in LeRoy to generate support for the railroad. The following year, by a vote of 202 to 6, they voted to tax themselves to help pay for the railroad. Eventually they would subscribe $75,000 in bonds to the railroad. The railroad would pass through the southwest corner of the original town, with the depot located five blocks west of the square in Block 44 of Conkling's Addition. On 1 May 1870 the first train steamed into town. Disappointment quickly followed. The bonds were promptly hypothecated, that is, used as security to borrow money. In practice this meant that the citizens of LeRoy still had to pay each year, but had no say in the running of the railroad. The new railroad found itself in deep legal and financial trouble. Service was poor and rates exorbitant. Rather than simply complain, the people of LeRoy decided to build their own railroad. The narrow gauge railway was begun in 1876. It ran down the center of Oak Street eastward to Rantoul, in Champaign County, where it joined the Illinois Central. The idea was to bring down freight rates by providing competition for the I.B. & W. Much of the labor was done by local people. Local people