for county officers held November 6, 1858, there were 34 votes cast in the township. At the judicial election held in May of the following year, 48 votes were cast. The census of 1870 gave the township 891 inhabitants. Education Schools The first school house in the township was built in 1836 near the Sprague homestead. The first teacher was Catharine Sprague, mother of Andrew and Ephraim. This was twenty years before the state public school system was adopted. The school was private and maintained by subscription. The Hilton school was built in 1855 and the Ames school in 1856. The report of Thomas F. Norton, the first school treasurer, shows that “in 1855 there was but one school, thirty-four scholars in attendance, ninety-two children in the township, and but one teacher; the highest wages paid was $12 per month, and the whole amount paid out for school purposes was $38.75; there were but 107 school books in all the houses, sixty-five of which were elementary spellers.” Post Office In the early years, the settlers received their mail at the little post office in Esmen Township which was on the mail route from Danville to Ottawa, Illinois. The post office was called Sunbury and kept at the William K. Brown residence. It was afterward moved to the home of Andrew Sprague. In 1870, when the town of Blackstone was established in Sunbury Township, the post office was moved there. Cemeteries There are three cemeteries in the township – Blackstone cemetery, located one-half mile west and one-half mile south of the village; Jones’ cemetery, located in the southeast quarter of section 21; Hadley cemetery, located in the southwest quarter of section 33. Churches The United Methodist Church in Blackstone was built in 1879. St. Bernard's Catholic Church was built in 1880 on the northeast quarter of section 10, one-half mile south of the village of Budd. Railroads There were two railroads that crossed the northern section of Sunbury Township. The western extension of the Chicago & Alton Railroad passed through Blackstone and the Three-I Railroad (now CSX) passed through Budd. Communities Blackstone Budd Points of Interest Sunbury Railroad Prairie Nature Preserve Notes References Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Livingston County, Edited by Newton Bateman, Paul Selby, Christopher C. Strawn, Fordyce B. Johnson and George H. Franzen; Munsell Publishing Company, Chicago, 1909 The History of Livingston County, Illinois, Illustrated; Published