Plenty of towns are named after the people who built them. Streator is named after a man who financed it from Ohio and, according to the historical record, never set foot in it. Here is the story of Dr. Worthy Stevens Streator. For the wider story, see our History of Streator.
Family Roots
Streator came from an old New England family. He descended from Stephen Streeter, who settled in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1642, and his great-grandfather served as a private in the Berkshire County, Massachusetts, militia during the American Revolution. In 1839 Worthy married Sarah Wakeley Sterling, and the couple raised five children.
A Country Doctor Turned Businessman
Worthy Stevens Streator was born on October 16, 1816, in Hamilton, New York. He trained in medicine and moved to Ohio to practice, but by mid-century he had left medicine behind for a very different career in Cleveland.
Building Railroads in Ohio and Pennsylvania
In Cleveland, Streator went into railroad construction. He contracted to build parts of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad in Ohio, and he then turned to the Pennsylvania oil boom, developing the Oil Creek Railroad to carry crude from the new oil fields. Railroad work gave him both money and connections, and both would matter in Illinois.
The Vermilion Coal Company
With that railroad money behind him, Streator turned to coal. In 1866 he gathered investors and formed the Vermilion Coal Company, with himself as president and his relative Ralph Plumb as business manager on the ground in LaSalle County.
Coal is only valuable if it can be shipped, so the partners needed a railroad. They brought in a friend of Streator’s, Ohio Congressman James A. Garfield, as an investor, hoping to persuade the American Central railroad to bend its line toward the Hardscrabble mines. That plan fell through, and the company arranged service with the Fox River line instead. More lines soon followed, and by 1877 the Vermilion Coal Company employed about 1,200 miners. You can read more on our coal mining era page.
A Town That Took His Name
When the mining settlement was chartered in 1868, it was named Streator in his honor. Streator’s attention, however, stayed in Ohio. He served in the Ohio State Senate from 1870 to 1872 and was the first mayor of East Cleveland. His friendship with Garfield lasted: when the president was assassinated in 1881, Streator was one of his pallbearers.
Never a Visitor
Worthy Streator died on March 6, 1902. Biographical accounts agree that he never visited the Illinois city that carries his name. His legacy here is real all the same. His capital opened the mines that drew thousands of immigrants, and Streator Township High School carries his first name in its “Worthy” Hall of Fame. A 2025 coal miner silhouette on East Elm Street reminds visitors of the coal company that started it all.
Why the Name Stuck
Naming a company town for an investor was common in the 1860s, and the choice told outsiders who was backing the venture. Neither Hardscrabble nor Unionville carried that kind of weight with Eastern buyers and railroad men. “Streator” told them the town had money behind it, and the name has outlasted the mines, the coal company and every one of the men who founded it.
Related Streator History
- Streator History Overview
- Hardscrabble to Streator: The Early Settlement Years
- Colonel Ralph Plumb: Streator's Founder and First Mayor
- Streator's Coal Mining Era: The Vermilion Coal Company and Its Miners
Sources
- Worthy S. Streator – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worthy_S._Streator
- Streator, Illinois – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streator,_Illinois
- Streator Township High School – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streator_Township_High_School
- Streator Public Art (Coal Miner Silhouette). https://www.streatorpublicart.com/art
