![]() ![]() He built a two-story white frame house facing the circular square, where he and his wife lived when he was at Zeigler, and he operated in baronial style. He gave the town his father's middle name, Zeigler. ![]() Leiter also built a school, a small hospital, and other buildings. The center of the town is a circle, with the streets running from it like the spokes of a wheel. The same architect designed the town, taking Washington, D.C., as his model. When the mine was sunk, Leiter set out to build a town to go with it. and brought out the firsf of countless tons of the world's best bituminous coal. 1 for his first coal shaft into the rich treasures below. In this manner he acquired a tract of about eight thousand acres. Leiter began buying up land in the Six-Mile Township area at J20 and $25 an acre and acquiring mineral rights on the property of owners who would not sell surface and underlying minerals. About the year 1900, Leiter, a Chicago financier and wheat speculator, flushed with his past success, was casting about for new worlds to conquer. Zeigler's growth and enterprising independence is due largely to the vision and enterprise of one man - Joseph Leiter. As early as 1902, the area, which is now Zeigler, was nothing more than a wooded area and some prairie land. ![]() No community in Franklin County can boast a more colorful, productive background and growth as can the City of Zeigler. Zeigler Beginnings in Franklin County Illinois ![]()
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