"Dr. L. W. Gann, with J. M., E. S., T.C., and E. R. Fisher plotted a town on the old Vienna to Fort Massac Road, April 2, 1884 and recorded it under the name of Gannville. It consisted of fifteen blocks of varying sizes having a total of ninety-one lots.
The village was located in the N.E. ¼ of section 29 and the N.W. ¼ of section 28 in Grantsburg Township. The streets were sixty feet wide. Those running north and south were numbered one to five and the Old Vienna to Fort Massac Road was Third Street. The streets running east and west, beginning at the north end of town, were High Street, Fisher Street, Main Street and Railroad Street. Between Fisher and Main Streets was a double row of lots with a twenty-foot alley between them.
In 1861 W. T. Cagle came to southern Illinois from Tennessee and settled at Samoth, three miles south of Gann Town. When the new town started Mr. Cagle decided to move his business from Samoth and join his old doctor friend in Gannville. Cagle brought a general store, and established a post office, September 27, 1889, which existed until February 29, 1916. With the store came also a cotton gin, for much cotton was raised in Johnson and Massac Counties in those days. The gin did an enormous business and to it Cagle added a hoop mill and a gristmill. There was soon a blacksmith shop, for such a shop was then an absolute necessity to any community. Dr. Gann had his office and drug store in his home. There was a tobacco barn and market in Gann Town.
Tom Morgan moved to Gann Town and set up a cartwright shop. He made plows, wagons and carts; and repaired them for the Gann Town and Samoth communities, W. T. Cagle and his son, Taylor Cagle, ran a tavern at the south east edge of Gann Town. The village had about five hundred people living in the height of its prosperity.
The people built a two-story frame building, the upper story was used as a meeting place for the Masonic Order and the lower floor was used for a church. The Missionary Baptist were the chief users of the building for most of the people were of that denomination. However the Methodists used it some.
There was no school at Gann Town. The children went to "The Log School" a mile north of the town.
Toward the close of the century cotton raising was abandoned because of the low prices during the depression of the 1870's and because the yield in Illinois was low. Illinois tobacco could not compete for a higher yield and finer grade raised in Kentucky. For lack of produce the cotton gin was closed, the tobacco barn and auction discontinued. Samoth Milling Company set up a large flour and meal mill in that community. Gann Town mill was soon absorbed by the larger enterprise.
The railroad missed Gann Town. The tracks were never laid on the land reserved for them south of Railroad Street The nearest rail point was Reevesville.
Louis Cummins ran the last store in Gann Town. He was the community's leader in Sunday School and church activities. He soon decided it would be more profitable to move his store to Reevesville than to haul his goods from Reevesville in a wagon. With the last business and the community's leading citizen leaving town, the little village deteriorated rapidly. One by one the houses burned, were torn down or fell into ruins.
In the year 1900 the Fishers, Hicks and Sheltons left Gann Town to homestead land in Oklahoma. This migration was a severe blow to the decaying village.
Today the Church and Masons hall stands and is well-kept. The old home of Dr. Gann is rapidly deteriorating. Three other houses are occupied."

Note: The lodge building has deteriorated since they built another lodge building on the Reevesville blacktop road southeast of Ganntown.
The above copied newspaper article was in my Mother's scrapbook.

Dear Faye,
I enjoy your website very much. My father, Harlen Soper (son of Jesse
Soper and Jeannette Browning) lived in Dr. Gann's house when he was a little guy, before Grandpa Jesse bought his farm outside of Vienna. Dad tells a story about throwing a ball in the house and knocking over an oil lamp. Fortunately, Grandma and Grandpa were able to put the fire out before it spread.
I know that they were living there in November, 1925. Dad attended the school that was down the road (the road that runs in front of the house.) He was a shy, skinny little guy. It was November 17, 1925, his 7th birthday. The kids were having recess and he was standing alone when he saw his Grandmother, Molly McGinnis Browning Stewart, driving a buggy down the road. She saw little Harlen and stopped. She told him that she was going to Reevesville because her mother (Narcissa Kathline "Kate" Shelton McGinnis) had died. Grandma Molly gave Harlen a banana and went on her way.
I visited the area in 1984. Had no idea that Ganntown had once been so
thriving. Very interesting information. Thanks so much. When I visited the area, we walked up to where the school had been. My heart ached, thinking about my father as a little boy and what an impression Grandma Molly left when she stopped to talk with him and give him the banana.
Molly's first husband, James Wesley Browning (J.W. or Wes) had a store in Reevesville and had just opened one in Buncombe when he died in June 1899.
My Grandmother, Jeannette Browning Soper was born in Reevesville three weeks after his death. I keep hoping that we'll run across pictures or something. Jeannette died when dad was 16.

It would be wonderful if others would respond and we all could make some
additional connections. I love learning more about Johnson County.

Thanks again,
Harlene Soper Brown