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The first settlers to this area came by wagon from Teutopolis, Illinois, in 1872. Having arrived on St. Martin's Day, November 11, they called the settlement Martinsville. The name was later changed to Tours in honor of the city in France where St. Martin served as Bishop. After the construction of homes was completed, the settlers began building a structure for the services of St. Martin's Catholic Church. Built under the direction of The Rev. J.L. Bussant, it was dedicated in 1874. The small log building was later replaced in the 1880s by a larger frame edifice. A community school was started in 1883. Classes were conducted in the second floor rooms of the Theodore Schroeder Home (.2 mi. E) until 1890, when a separate school building was completed on the church grounds. Tours was once the site of a post office, harness and saddle shop, cotton gins, saloons, blacksmith shops, meeting halls, and a town brass band. As area farm income decreased in the 1930s and young people left to seek jobs in other cities, the population declined. Several homes, a meeting hall, ball field, and a church building constructed in 1937 remain at the townsite. (1980) |
