| The Great
Winnebago Swamp, extending west of Amboy and
including Greenville, Fairfield and Hamilton
Townships inundated vast acreage north of Walnut. A
bill passed in Congress in 1850 gave this swamp land
to the state and in 1852 the land passed on to the
counties in which it lay. This vast tract, lying so
close to Walnut, was a great handicap for years. As
settlers began crowding the edges of this rich swamp
soil, they realized that by drainage they could
reclaim some 200 square miles for agriculture.
In 1891, the first mutual telephone company
was organized in Bureau County and started
operations at Walnut. The first switchboard was
installed in a building owned by O. C. Nussle, of
Walnut, a druggist. The phone company continued to
expand until they had 328 subscribers by 1898. The
wires were attached from roof top to roof top over
the entire community, even to the steeple of the
Methodist Church. Among the note-worthy names in the
medical profession during Walnut's early history is
that of Dr. James (father of Don) who built "The
Walnut House," a hotel that stood at the site of the
present "Professional Building." Dr. Marquis started
practice in Walnut in 1878 just six years after
Walnut was incorporated. Predating him by a few
years was Dr. W. C. Mason, a practicing physician
starting in Walnut in the year 1866. Dr. Albert
Burress established dental office in the year 1883
and Dr. L. Georgia Mayhall Snader, Walnut's only
lady physician, started her practice in the village
around 1889.
Dr. A. P. Shearburn's private hospital was
the first institution of its kind established in
Bureau County. The building, on Walnut's Main
Street, was erected in 1899 "for all cases of
surgical and medical treatment, coming from Bureau,
Lee, Whiteside, and LaSalle Counties and also from
'out of state.'" This historic landmark was torn
down in March of 1972. Dr. Samuel W. Hopkins began
the practice of medicine in Walnut in 1895 and Dr.
Leroy Hopkins, his father, joined him in partnership
in 1903. They built a large, and well established
residence and office building at the south end of
Main Street where rooms for patients were provided
in the rear of the building. Later used for a hotel,
it was demolished in 1963 to provide the site of the
new Walnut Memorial Library.
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