James H. Wathen’s home, now the Elms Motel.
ford, Mrs. Kate Hodgson and Mrs. May Fleming, wife of William Fleming. After his death she married her former brother-in-law, Albert E. Fleming, a survivor of the Chatsworth wreck who had the first news of that disaster telegraphed back to Peoria from the little Chatsworth railroad station still standing. He was a long time El Paso businessman who was prominent in civic affairs. George L. Gibson served as the second Mayor of the town he and Wathen founded, and most of the city's fine trees were planted personally by him17 and his employee, Bernhard Sturm; the elms of Elmwood Court which yet arch that driveway are their work. Gibson died December 21, 1896 and was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery he helped plan; a reburial placed his remains in the mausoleum in 1909.
James H. Wathen was born in Bardstown, Kentucky, in 1816 and came to Illinois when he was nineteen. The man usually called Major never married. He died in 1902, one of the town's wealthiest citizens, and is buried along the Evergreen Cemetery's main drive with an appropriate monument. Like Gibson he served as Mayor of the town he