History:

The Village of Worden was incorporated on October 22, 1877. A group of men met at the home of Jake Dornseif and appointed the first Village Board of Trustees. They were C. Rudolph, J. C. King, S. W. Kell, H. H. Lueker, H. Roffmann and J. Domseif. From these six Trustees, C. Rudolph was appointed Village President. R. W. Deming was appointed Clerk. The first election was held the following year, but it was necessary to have a Board of Trustees before the first Ordinance could be put into effect.

The following notations were taken from the minutes of the records of the Village Board and show how the Village progressed through the years. In 1892, Jake Dornseif was the street lighter and was paid $11.37 per month. Every able-bodied male was required to work on the village streets two days a year or pay $2.50. In 1883 H. C. Picker put up the first hitching post and chain. In 1884, the Village Dram Shop License was $500.00 paid quarterly, in advance.

In 1885, the land was bought for a jail and engine house for $250.00; in 1891 the Village bought a town scale and placed it at the corner of Gilbirds and Wall Streets. John Hertel built the scale house at a cost of $104.00 and J. M. Handshy was appointed weigh master. In 1893, the Village purchased three acres of ground for a park site from Chris Nobbe for $500.00. This is where the current park is now.

In 1901, the new city hall was contracted to be built by William Schulze. In 1902 the front room of the city hall was leased to Wm. Wall for a bank room at $120.00 per year with a fiveyear option. Mr. Wall had a steel vault built in the city hall and the Village is still using this. The same year the Graffeman Dairy Company erected a dairy on the west side of the Wabash right-ofway. In 1909, electric lights for streets were put in. By 1909, phone lines were also put in the Village. The City Cemetery was established in 1921. Illinois Power Company established gas service to the Village in 1928.

October 10, 1955, the water works ordinance was passed and 3 Artesian wells furnished water to approximately 300 homes. These wells were located on the Arthur Dustman farm, just west of Worden. In January 1999, the Village started buying their water from the Bond/Madison Water Company and we are serving 420 homes at the present time. In 1978, the Village installed, with help of a Federal Grant, city sewers. In 1975, due to a federal revenue sharing program, the Worden Police Department was established. Prior to that time, the Village had always had a town constable. The first three officers to work for the police department were John Oltmann, Jim Vazzi and Tom Smith. Revenue sharing ended in the 1980's, however we still have three police officers working, they are Sgt. Chad Grammer, Officer Frank Leffler and Officer Ryan Ray. Once the Village was incorporated, it became necessary to establish and fill the offices needed to aid in governing the Village. With this came the election of Worden's first Village President, Mr. John C. Worden in 1878.