In the far northeast corner of Champaign County lies a 19 acre tract of preserved forest land that has remained largely unchanged since the county’s formation in 1833. Patton Woods, or as it is formally known Grandma Jane Patton’s Timber Nature Preserve, is named after ‘Grandma’ Jane Patton (1824-1921) an early settler to east central Illinois.
Jane Cade Patton arrived in 1854 along with her husband David Patton. They settled where the current Champaign, Ford, and Vermillion counties meet on a “lonely little place a little farther out on the prairie than our neighbors were at that time.” Jane Patton chronicled her homesteading experience in her memoir ‘Remembrances of a Pioneer.’ Published in 1904, the book chronicles the years 1844 through 1903 and touches upon the many roles undertaken by Patton, most out of necessity, throughout her life. She was mother to eight children, a seamstress, cook, counselor, financier, nurse, gardener, farmer, naturalist, midwife, and funeral director. She delivered 102 babies. It is no wonder she was known to all in her community as ‘Grandma.’
Patton was also a shrewd businesswoman. Finding herself $17,000 dollars in debt after her husband’s death in 1880, she wrote “I found that it would not do to let everything go and not take care of what there was, for it had cost lots of hard work, for we had always worked early and late, and did not have many holidays or idle days in the year.” Upon her death in 1921, Patton had not only paid off the entire debt, but had amassed 2,500 acres of land in Champaign and Ford counties and was heralded in her obituary as ‘Ford County’s wealthiest woman.’
In 1973, the heirs of Jane Patton donated 14 acres of land to The Nature Conservancy. In the late 1970s, stewardship of the land was granted to Parkland College for educational and scientific research making Parkland the first community college in the country to manage and use Nature Conservancy land. In 1993, the land was transferred to the Champaign County Forest Preserve District as an adjunct to the Middle Fork River Forest Preserve. A grant in 2008 allowed the Forest District to add a 4.68-acre parcel to the original 14, increasing the total acreage of Patton Woods to just under 19 acres.
Patton Woods features a mature oak and hickory forest with over 200 identified plant species including a variety of wildflowers in the spring. There is a ¼ mile trail which loops through the woods. To get to Patton Woods from Champaign-Urbana take U.S. 45 to Rantoul then head east on U.S. 136 to two miles east of Gifford. At that point turn north on county road 2500E and drive six miles. The woods are at the intersection of county roads 2500E and 3600N.
The Archives has numerous items on both Jane Patton and Patton Woods in our collection. We have Patton’s memoir ‘Remembrances of a Pioneer’ in our collection as well as a biography ‘Grandmother’s Story’ written by Ruth Cade. Stop by the Archives to discover a true pioneer woman and to plan your outing to Patton Woods.
- Sherrie, Archives Librarian