charter. J. P. Ferrell was the first city supervisor elected. The office was discontinued when the city reorganized under the general laws.
The organization of Woodford County had been authorized in an act approved by Governor Thomas Carlin February 17, 1841, and three county commissioners had governed the county until 1854, when a proposal to organize the county into townships carried by a vote of 692 to 193 and twelve original townships were defined. The first board of supervisors was elected in April, 1855 with the El Paso area a part of Palestine Township until 1862. That year El Paso Township was organized with W. W. Sears our first supervisor.
The question of reorganizing under the general law carried by a large majority in the spring election of 1891, and El Paso's double representation on the county board ended. The city was then divided into three wards instead of the previous two, the third ward being formed from all that part of the city south of the T. P. & W. railroad tracks.
STREETS. El Paso streets were named by the two city founders who followed with a tree-planting program which today adds much beauty and comfort to the town. Elms and soft maples predominated and storms over the years have destroyed many; recently some elms have died of the new elm tree disease. A plan for replacement is a part of the long-range program now being slowly developed.
Walks for a time were simply paths along the roadside, followed by cinder and board walks. In the summer of 1865 the town board directed the construction of a sidewalk "on Front Street between Cherry and Pine, to be ten feet wide, laid on sills and covered with two inch planks laid crosswise." As part of the walk was not completed by the time specified, a tax of $1.30 per front foot was levied against the property owners. Sidewalks "four feet wide, made of one inch boards laid crosswise on three sills…" were specified in certain residential areas. The first stone was used for a street crossing on Central Street east of the Clifton House in October, 1895 and on another one block south soon after. The first vitrified brick sidewalk was laid in the summer of 1899 on the south half of Block 21, adjacent to the Catholic Church. Nearly three miles of new walks were built in 1900. Cement crossings were adopted August 1, 1907.
On May 19, 1900 the city council voted to discontinue wooden walks, but agreed the city would pay half the cost of permanent type walks. In 1953 the Council decided that sidewalks in front of property are the responsibility of the property owner. All of the wooden walks and many of the brick walks have been replaced by cement in recent years.
The city ordered the installation of hitching racks along Front Street, March 25, 1869, to be paid for by adjoining property owners. They were made of heavy chains, suspended from posts set at regular intervals adjacent to the sidewalks. Later two inch pipe was substi-
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