HR0031 LRB094 05162 CSA 35203 r

1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, The official Sesquicentennial Celebration of the
3 Village of Bement will take place on July 29-31, 2005; Bement
4 was chartered on August 6, 1855; and
 
5     WHEREAS, Bement, population 1,784, is located in Piatt
6 County; Bement got its beginning due to the vision and
7 foresight of three men; Joseph Bodman, L.B. Wing, and Harry P.
8 Little; they knew that the Great Western Railroad was going
9 from Danville to Quincy, and the land they staked out was on
10 both sides of the tracks; they named Bement after the Treasurer
11 of the Great Western Railroad, with whom they had worked while
12 buying the land; and
 
13     WHEREAS, Bement was one of the earliest villages to have
14 telephone service and electricity; the community also saw the
15 need for such things as paved streets, sidewalks, a water
16 system, and a drainage system for the village, as well as for
17 the farm ground; a school was built as one of the first things
18 to improve the community; when the frame-structured school
19 burned down, it was replaced with a brick school that, after
20 over a hundred years of service, is still being used; and
 
21     WHEREAS, As times have changed, so has Bement; it has not
22 grown like some towns, but it has increased in population over
23 the last two censuses; it still has its school, two implement
24 dealers, five churches, two nice parks, a swimming pool, a
25 nursing home, an aerated sewage system, four restaurants, a
26 bowling alley, a nationally-rated library, and other things
27 that make for a great community; and
 
28     WHEREAS, Bement is also home to Central Illinois
29 Manufacturing Company, which is its largest employer;
30 Topflight Grain Company, which is the largest cooperative grain
31 company in Illinois; Historic Bryant Cottage; Lincoln-Douglas

 

 

HR0031 - 2 - LRB094 05162 CSA 35203 r

1 Memorial; a Veterans Memorial; and the award-winning Bement
2 Country Opry; and
 
3     WHEREAS, What Bement does have is a great group of
4 citizens; and in that group, there is one descendant of one of
5 the earliest settlers, Robert E. Bodman; therefore, be it
 
6     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
7 NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
8 we congratulate the Village of Bement on the occasion of its
9 Sesquicentennial Celebration; and be it further
 
10     RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
11 presented to the Village of Bement.