John W. Ogden, the writer of the 1881 history of Champaign County, was interested in some of the same details as I am — such as exactly where on the landscape did the events of long ago take place?

In the following section he describes the use that was made of Urbana’s “Lot No. 104″ during the War of 1812. It’s the lot that’s across the street in this photo. I took the photo at the end of my September 26, 2008 bike ride, when there was not a lot of light left in the day.

From the first settlement, and until after the close of the war, alarms of threatened Indian raids were frequent. Reports of massacres of whole families, in close proximity, added to the alarm. In the earlier times, the rumor of the approach of hostile savages would send the few settlers to the more strongly built and roomy log-houses, where they would barricade the doors and windows. On one occasion, it is reported that Zephaniah Luce, receiving information that a body of Indians in the neighborhood intended to make an attack on the place during the night, went around among the settlers, urging them to repair to the house of George Fithian, and carry with them all their guns and ammunition, and barricade it as the most secure stronghold in the place. The advice was followed, and the night was one of intense anxiety and excitement. The attack was not made, and in a day or two they returned to their deserted cabins. These alarms suggested the expediency of building a block-house, which the people erected shortly after on lot No. 104. This house was used during the war as one of the artificer’s shops for the army.

This information is from page 264. If you go to the book and read what comes before this passage, you may wonder why the settlers in Urbana needed such a thing, given the large presence of the U.S. armies in this town during the war. Ogden writes that Urbana seemed to be on the edge of the wilderness. But there were also other blockhouses out in that “wilderness”, to the north of town, in areas that were probably a lot more vulnerable to Indian attack than Urbana.

Maybe the citizens of Urbana in 1812 didn’t have the same benefit of hindsight of that time that we now have.