Communities

Vliets

When the Central Branch of the Union Pacific Railroad threaded its tracks through the Vermillion Valley in 1867, it crossed land that would become Sections 7 and 8 of Noble Township. Twenty years later the need for a grain and livestock marketing center was the incentive for establishing a train station and switch at this site. The settlers had tamed the virgin prairie into highly productive farm land, but marketing their crops meant long wagon hauls to Vermillion or Frankfort. Thomas Ewing had come from Illinois in 1874 and purchased this land in Noble Township. When the town was platted, it seemed logical to call the place Ewingsport. According to the files in the Register of Deeds Office in Marysville, the town was founded in 1887.

A depot was built and a post office established in November 1887. Postal officials rejected the name Ewingsport because they preferred shorter names and did not approve of similar sounding names for post offices. There was a Ewing post office in Lyons County at that time. A man by the name of Hiram Van Vliet had settled in Noble Township in 1869. Vliet was instrumental in developing the growing area and a prominent citizen. When the post office was named, it was called Vliets, dropping the Van. All legal transactions and documents still use the name Ewingsport.

Present day Vliets is a quiet, charming little town which is home to twenty residents. At the south edge of town stands the Vliets rock which was placed at the site of the former school building. A few old buildings that housed Vliets businesses are still standing and the Vliets Co-op is still quiet active. Within five miles of churches, schools, grocery store and other businesses, Vliets is the ideal place to live if you like the almost-country life.