The plowed furrow
•September 10, 2025•

by Janet Roney

After Amos Williams surveyed the route of the Springfield Road across the northern part of Moultrie County in 1825-26, they blazed the trees in the timbered areas and plowed a furrow with a team of oxen and a breaking plow across the open prairie to mark the route. Thereafter, “the Plowed Furrow” was a name for the Springfield Road along with the “Terry Haute Road”.

Before three years had passed, they were resurveying and changing parts of the route. In 1833, the Macon County commissioners changed it again and ordered another survey of the road to find a crossing over the West Okaw River suitable for a bridge. (Macon controlled the north half of Moultrie in those days.) That’s when the road shifted north to pass through the future site of Lovington and along a string of cabins leading to the site of the new Stringtown Bridge. A few years later, in 1838, the Blackhorse Tavern inn was built along the road, which was the beginning of the village of Lovington. 

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