National Road - Casey & Greenup

Casey

John Lang, a native of Scotland, was the first person to settle in Casey. He was very intelligent and resourceful. He built the National House Hotel, which continued for many years until his death in 1872. Casey was platted as a town in 1851. D.R. Heimer surveyed Casey in 1853. The post office was named Casey after the Honorable Zadoc Casey, a United States senator from Illinois. People on the west side of town in Cumberland received their mail at Casey. They later changed their name to Casey, when the population center changed

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Greenup

William C. Greenup was a National Road surveyor and one of the supervisors who oversaw the building of the National Road from Marshall to Vandalia. The town is named after him. Many of the downtown businesses had second story porches and thus the town became known as the “Village of Porches.” Greenup received a $150,000 grant to help restore them. The historic depot and an old restored commercial building are located in historic downtown Greenup as a center for the Cumberland County Historic and Genealogical Society. A newly constructed covered bridge is located west of Greenup on a road parallel to Route 40 on the old route.

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Images courtesy of Phil Lewis and the Historical Collectors' Association for the Effingham County and National Road Museum Association.
Effingham County and National Road community histories by Phil Lewis