Page 223

History of Green County. 
(a business man from the village of Decatur, and the 
first clerk of the town), and a few others, happened to 
build north of the railroad in the street between these- 
rival streets, and this half way ground became the nu- 
cleus of the village. Dwellings went up in the new 
town in the summer of'56 as fast as workmen could be 
found to put them up. Before the end of September, 
Messrs. Sherman & Clinton had erected two good 
stores and were preparing to build others; and Messrs. 
Laird & Coffin were ready to entertain all guests of the 
village at the Manly House. Laird, McLaren & Co.'s 
lumber yard (the first in the county, and the only one 
until N. H. Allen started his in Monroe the next year), 
Messrs. Clinton's warehouse, and a number of stores 
appeared in 1857. In the first eighteen months after 
the town was platted, lots were sold to the value of 
$IIZ,ooo; and at the end of her second year, Brodhead 
had over six hundred inhabitants. In the fall of '57, 
thanks to the farmers, to Deacon Clinton, to Messrs. 
Graham, the contractors, and to J. T. Dodoe, the engi- 
neer who had charge of the work, the railroad reached 
Brodhead. In February, '5S, the dullest month of the 
year, the freight shipped from Brodhead amounted to 
896,oi4 pounds. Monroe, Brodhead's senior by twenty- 
two years, shipped 1,212,2o6 pounds during the same 
time. 
One of the first improvements in the new village 
was the mill race, which Thos. and John Hendrie dug 
from the river dam near Decatur to the site of the flour 
mill which Messrs. Hendrie, H. B. Stewart, and S. C. 
223'