Full text of "History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois"

LIBRARY

OF THE

U N I VER.S1TY

OF 1LLI NOIS

977.38
PA2

™. VAistov^ Survjey

HISTORY

Bond and Montgomery Counties,

ILLI NOIS.

EDITED BY WILLIAM HENRY PERRIN.

Illustrated.

CHICAGO:

O. L. Baskin & Co., Historical Publishers, Lakeside Building.

1882.

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PREFACE.

nr^HK history of Bond and Montgomery Counties, after mouths of persistent toil and research,
-L is now completed, and it is believed that no subject of universal public importance or
interest has been omitted., save where protracted effort failed to secure reliable results. We are
well aware of our inability to furnish a perfect history from meager public documents and
numberless conflicting traditions, but claim to have prepared a work fully up to the standard of
our promises. Through the courtesy and assistance generously afforded by the residents of these
counties, we have been enabled to trace out and put on record the greater portion of the important
events thai, have transpired in Bond and Montgomery Counties up to the present time. And we
feel assured that all thoughtful people in these counties, now and in future, will recognize and
appreciate the importance of the work and its permanent value.

A dry statement of facts has, as far as possible, been avoided, and incidents and anecdotes
have been woven in with facts and statistics, forming a narrative at once instructive and
interesting.

To those who have kindly assist ed our corps of writers in gathering material, and furnished
us data of historical value, we acknowledge our indebtedness ; and to Williamson Plant, Esq., of
Greenville Judge A. N. Kingsbury, of Hillsboro; H. A. Coolidge, Esq., of Litchfield ; and Rev.
T. E. Spiln'ian, of Nokomis, our thanks lor able contributions are especially due.

August, 1882. THE PUBLISHERS.

CONTENTS

PART I.

BOND COUNTY.

Page.

CHAPTER I.— Introduction to Bond County— The Early State
of the Country — Difficulties of Occupying It — Coming of
the Pioneers — Hill's Station and Jones' Fort— Perils of
the Wilderness — Timber and Prairie— Prairie Kirns —
Hard Fare of the Settlers 11

CHAPTER II.— Trials of the Pioneers— Skins asa Circulating
Medium— War of is 12 — Murder of Cux and His Sun-
Progress of Emigration — Early Manners and Customs 19

CHAPTER [II.— Organization of Bond County-Its Present
Boundaries ind Topography— Courts Organized — County
Seat at Perryville — Jail Building — Lynching — Lawyers
Lost in the Prairie — Permanent Location of the Seat of
Justice 25

CHAPTER IV.— Early Agricultun — Hug Raising— Difficulties
of Teaming — Roads to St. Louis and Springfield — Ser-
mon on a Load of Apples— Building Mills and Manufac-
tories 33

CHAPTER V.— Early Society— Whisky and Fighting— Work-
ing Frolics — Gold and Silver Mines — Gaylord's Swindle —
Slavery — Magoou Kidnaping Case— Early Physicians 39

CHAPTER VI.— Religion— First Preachers and Churches-
Methodists j'.nd Presbyterians — Moody's Camp-Ground —
Sunday-Schools — "The Jerks" — Temperance — Education
— The Improvement in Schools — Statistics — The People
aud the State Debt— War History 47

CHAPTER VII.— Railroad History— The Internal Improve-
ment System — Old National or Cumberland Road — Mis-
sissippi & Atlantic Railroad — The Present Vandalia Line
and Its Officers — The Press of Bond County 54

CHAPTER VIII.- Greenville Precinct— Boundaries and Con-
figuration — Early Settlement — Pioneer Industries and
Improvements — Sketch of William S. Wait— Villages —
Gold and Sip er Mines — Educational — Religious 67

CHAPTER IX.— C ty of Greenville— Locating the County Seat
at Perryville— Its Removal to Greenvilb — Laying-out of
Greenville — The Name— Early Settlers of the Town— The
Kirkpatrick- and Others — First Business Men and Prom-
inent Citizens — The Roll of Pioneers 73

CHAPTER X.— Grleenville— Sato of Lots— Building a Court
House — Public Buildings of the County — Taverns and
Their Changes — Uncle Jimmy's Grocery — County Officers
—The Water Supply— War History of Greeuville and
Bond County ■ -The Ililliard Rifles, etc 101

Page.

CHAPTER XI. — Greenville — Educational — 1 k>mmon Schools —
Almira College — Religious — Presbyterians and Method-
ists — Erection of Church Building— Secret aud Benev-
olent Orders, etc 109

CHAPTER XII.— Retrospective— Building of Jails— Situation
of the City — More of Early Business and Business Men—
Agricnl in ml Warehouses— Banking Business— Shops and
M i hanics — Summary 1-1

CHAPTER XIII.— Ripley Precinct— Topography— Early Set-
tlers—Old Ripley— Churches— Schools— Villages 129

CHAPTER XIV.— Mulberry Grove Precinct— Its Configura-
tion — Early Settlements — Bev. J. B. Woolard and
Other Pioneers — First Birth, Marriage, etc.— Churches
and Schools — Village of Mulberry Grove 133

CHAPTER XV. — Pocahontas Precinct— Topography, etc.— Pio-
neer Settlers— The Plants and Johnsons— The Old Meth-
odist Church — Town of Pocahontas— Other Villages—
Schools and Churches 140

CHAPTER XVI.— Beaver Creek Precinct— General Description
— Manners and Customs of Pioneer Times — First Post Of-
fice, Blacksmith, Stores, etc.— Hills and Carding Ma-
chines — Villages — Educational and Religious 145

CHAPTER XVII. — Fairview Precinct — Descriptive— The
Name— Isam Reaves and Other Pioneers— First Elec-
tion — Early SchoolB— Religious— " Old Hurricane" and
Other Churches — Village of Fairview 151

CHAPTER XVIII.— La Granublic Schools — Newspapers
— Ups and Downs of the BusineHS — The A 7 t»'s and the
Journal of To-day 242

CHAPTER XL— North Litchfield Township— Description and
Topography— Character of Soil —Early Settlements — The
Briggs Family — Other Pioneers — First Preachers and
Churches — Schools and Teachers — Pioneer Incidents —
Tax Receipts, etc. — Early Diseases and Deaths- Ell"' ts
of the War 218

CHAPTER XII. — South Litchfield Township— Its Description,
Boundaries and Topograph} — Settlement of White People
— Early Customs and Industries — Facts and Incidents —
Educational and Religious— Miscellaneous Topics 255

CHAPTER Mil —City of Litchfield— First Settlers— Laying
out a Town — Growth and Development — Public Sale of
Lots — Improvements and Increase of Business^-Popula-
tion in 18:"i7 — First Circus — Pioneer Business Men — The
Machine Shop and Mill ot Beach, etc , 260

CHAPTER XIV.— Litchfield — Increase of Population— Early
Politics — The Journals — Douglas and Lincoln — Incorpo-
ration asadty — Late Business Men — Physicians — Dur-
ing the War-Fires— Removal of Railroad Shops, etc 275

Page.

CHAPTER XV.— Litchfield — Educational — The Press— The
Journal — the Monitor and other Papers— Banking Inter-
ests — The Coal Business— Sanitary Condition of the City 289

CHAPTER XVI.— Nokomis Township — Position and Bounda-
ries—Surface, Soil, Streams — Forest Growth— Agricult-
ural Products — Early Settlements — Roads— Schools-
Churches, etc 303

CHAPTER XVII— Town of Nokomis— Its Location and Settle-
ment—The First Stores, Mills and Other Business — Grain
Trade — Manufacture of Agricultural Implements —
Schoolhouses, etc.— The Press— Religious History— The
Different Churches, Preachers, etc 307

CHAPTER XVIII.— East Fork TownBhip— Boundaries— Water
Courses— Early Settlers— Mills— Cattle Raising— Roads-
Churches — Schools — Secret Societies 311

CHAPTER XIX.— Fillmore Township — Boundaries — First
Growth— Pioneers— Mills— Schools— Churches, etc..

CHAPTER XX.— Butler Grove Township— Boundaries— Soil-
Timber— Early Settlers— Roads— Educational and Re-
ligious—Village of Butler— Business Interests— Secret
Societies, etc.

CHAPTER XXI.— Raymond Township — Boundaries— Early
Settlement — Schools — Churches— Busiuess Interests—
The Fire — Secret Societies..

CHAPTER XXII.— Irving Tow i ship— Boundaries— Soil— Pio-
neer Settlers— Schools— Churches— Physicians and Mer-
chants

CHAPTER XX1IL— Zanesville Township— Position— Bounda-
ries, etc.— Soil and Products— Pioneer Settlements— Roads
and Mills— First Election and First Birti— Schools and
Churches— Village of Zanesville— Its Groivth and Decay 362

CHA PTER XXI V.— Walshville Township-Ten. toiy Embraced
—Soil and Timber— Crops— First Settlements— Schools—
Elections— First Marriage— Religion, etc 368

CHAPTER XXV.— Witt Township— Soil, Timbnr and Configu-
ration— schools, Past and Present— The Circuit-Rider—
Churches and Sunday Schools -
dustries

CHAPTER XXV I.— Hurvel Township— Position and Boundaries
—Topography— Productions— Pioneers -,- Schools —Vil-
lage ofHarvel— Industries— Churches— Sdcret Soi ietiea.

CHAPTER XXVII— Rountree Township— Soil and Drainage-
Timber— Firsl White Man— Pioneers-
Various Denominations

CHAPTER XXVIII.— Bois D'Arc Township— lloundaries and

Topography— Its Early Settlements— First Deaths— Early

Roads, Churches and Schools

CHAPTER XXIX.— Grisham Township— Location —Soil and

Drainage— Early Settlers— Religious— Secret Societies,

etc

320

327

340

360

-Mills and Other In-

378

384

Sc lools — Roads -

CHAPTER XXX.— Pitman Township — PoBitio i and Bounda-
ries—Physical Features— Productions— En rly Settlers and
Mills— Schools and Churches— Sei ret Societies- Robot ry,
etc -

CHAPTER. XXXI.— Audubon Township— To] ographical and
Descriptive— Physical Features— Early Settlements—
First Birth, Death and Marriage— The Littles— Cln
and Schools— Old Town of Audubon, e*

301

PART I

H ISTORY

BOND AND MONTGOMERY COUNTIES.

CHAPTER L*

INTRODUCTION TO BOND COUNTY— GENERAL OBSERVATIONS— THE EARLY STATE OF THE COUN-
TRY—THE DIFFICULTIES OF OCCUPYING IT— COMING OF THE PIONEERS— HILL'S STATION
AND JONES' FORT — PERILS OF THE WILDERNESS — TIMBER AND PRAIRIE — THE
LATTER SHUNNED AS A DESERT— PRAIRIE FIRES— AN INi [DENT— HARD
FARE OF THE SETTLERS— HOW THEY LIVED, ETC.

" Time though old is swift in flight,
And years go fleetly by."

THE advantages to be derived from the
study of history are numerous and im-
portant. There is something in the breast of
almost every individual which makes him de-
sirous of examining the past, and ascertaining
what has been, in relation to his own, as vvell
as other countries. Man is anxious to look
back and inquire into the transactions of the
generation which immediately preceded him :
this creates in his mind a desire to know some-
thing of the one preceding that, and so he
goes on inquiring back from one generation to
another, and from century to century, until he
arrives at his origin — Adam — in the Garden of
Eden, fresh from the hand of his Maker.
Knowing this general desire of the human
race, men have written histories, in every age
of the world, from the time of Moses down to

*By R. 0. White.

the present, in order to perpetuate the sayings
and doings of their fellow-beings.

The words and actions of man, either for
weal or woe, constitute the most important
feature in all histories ; there is no portion of
the habitable earth that has not been made or
ruined to a certain extent by his management.
Christianity, the arts and sciences, peace and,
as a consequence, civilization, render the earth

"One great garden of her God,
Bright with beauty and girt with power;"

but when infidelity, ignorance, bigotry, super-
stition and war prevail, barbarism is the result,
aud the earth becomes, changed into a wilder
ness. Such has been the case in the past, and
if it is any criterion by which to judge the
future, it is certainly of great moment, that we
become well acquainted with the history of all
countries, more especially that of our own ;
when we peruse its pages and find there re-
corded the former errors and virtues of our

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

race, whether considered as individuals, com-
munities or states, or, in a political, social, or
religious point of view, there are many instruct-
ive lessons to be learned. One of the first is
to studiously avoid any course of action which
has been fraught with evil consequences, and
to earnestly strive for those principles that
have been most productive of good, to all
classes of society.

Among all grades of history, none is more
instructive or sought after with a greater
eagerness than that which truthfully deline-
ates the rise and progress of the State, com-
munity, or even county in which we live.
There is pleasure as well as profit to every
well-educated and inquiring mind, in contem-
plating the struggles of the early settlers in all
portions of the great West ; how they encoun-
tered and overcame every species of trial, hard-
ship and danger to which human beings were
ever subjected. But these things strike us
more forcibly and fill our minds with more
immediate interest when confined to our own
little county of Bond, where we can yet occa-
sionally meet with some of the now gray -haired
actors in those early scenes, with whom life's
rugged day is almost over, whose bravery in
encountering the troubles and misfortunes
incident to a frontier life has borne an impor-
tant part toward making our county what it
now is, and whose acts in connection with hun-
dreds of others in the first settling of our vast
domain, have compelled the civilized world to
acknowledge that the Americans are an invin-
cible people.

It may appear, to some, rather small and in-
significant work to record the history of a
diminutive county like Bond, but it will be
remembered that our vast republic is com-
prised of States that are made up of counties,
each of which contributes its share toward the
general history of the country. Though occu-
pying but a small portion of the State of
Illinois, yet Bond County has a history that is

fraught with interest to its own citizens, at
least, besides many of those in adjoining
counties.

How little do many of the present genera-
tion, when they behold the " old settler," as he
is termed, either realize or appreciate the hard-
ships through which he has passed, or the part
he has performed in reclaiming our country
from the rule of the wild and savage tribes
that roamed at will over all parts of it.
" Young America," as he passes the old settler
by, without so much as nodding his head, little
dreams that he has spent the bloom of his life
in helping to make this country what it now is,
or rather, in preparing it for the reception of
all those modern improvements and business
which surround us on every side. The old
settler and his deeds should be remembered
and appreciated by all. Every lover of self-
sacrifice and undaunted energy cannot but
admire that adventurous spirit, united with
cool determination, which influenced the hardy
pioneer to leave the civilization of the older
States, and locate in this wild region, far re-
moved from the influence of the schoolhouse
and the church, driving back the savage, and
paving the way for the great advantages we
now so fully enjoy. And what must be the
reflections of the old settler himself, as he
looks upon this country and contrasts the
present with the past — for he knows some-
thing of the past. He looks over the thriving
county of Bond, which may be termed almost
one vast farm, and calls to mind the time when
all those prairies, now teeming with grain,
fruits and vegetables, were thickly covered
with grass six feet in height, where the deer
and wolves held high carnival, undisturbed,
save by the stealthy Indian, or the occasional
appearance of a white hunter passing from one
to another of the settlements or forts that
were ''few and far between." He views our
elegant homes, telling of wealth, ease and com-
fort, and remembers the time when there was

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

not a glass window in the whole comity — not
over two dozen dwellings, all of them log
cabins with weight - pole roofs and wooden
chimneys. He beholds neat churches, fine
schoolhouses and colleges, and thinks of the
time when there was not a church or school-
house in the county. He looks at our court
house, provided with its comfortable rooms for
the accommodation of various county officers,
and remembers the holding of the first court
that ever assembled in the county, which met
in a rude log house, the jury room being in the
woods. He contemplates with wonder and de-
light the railroad, one of the grandest achieve-
ments of human enterprise, and as he beholds
the numerous trains of crowded cars rapidly
conveying passengers and freight from one
point to another, his mind reverts back to those
early days when there were no railroads, and
not even tolerable wagon roads in all this
country, the means of transportation being ox
teams, the only market St. Louis, then a small
town, while in some portions of the year the
mud was many feet in depth. He sees our fine
flouring mills in all parts of the county, and
thinks of the days when there were no mills
here of any kind, and the inhabitants lived on
hominy and bread made of pounded corn. He
is delighted with our various agricultural im-
plements, and recollects the hardships of farm-
ing, when there was not a seed-drill, corn-
planter, reaper, mover, or thresher in the State.
when scythes and sickles cut down the harvest,
and flails or horses' feet, threshed or trod out
the grain. He looks back to the first advances
that were made here in improvement and civil-
ization — the early schools, their teachers and
many incidents connected with them ; the sing-
ing-schools, where the young men brought their
sweethearts behind them on the same horse ; of
camp-meetings in the olden time, and promi-
nent individuals and circumstances connected
therewith ; of old-fashioned muster and elec-
tion days, and the heroes of the various fights

which there occurred, the result of old grudges
and bad whisky. These, and a thousand other
reflections must pass in review through his
mind as he looks around upon the Bond
County of to-day in contrast with that of fifty
years ago.

It will be the object of the following pages,
to describe as accurately as possible the rise
and progress of Bond County, and the incidents
and characters pertaining thereto, from the first
settlement within its limits down to the present
time. In doing this, the great aim will be to
present facts, so far as it is possible to obtain
them. Many of these must necessarily be
gleaned from individuals now living, who emi-
grated to the county in an early day, and either
witnessed, or were actual participants in the
scenes connected with its early history, there
being no written account to which we can go for
information.

The task will be a pleasant one, both to the
reader and the writer, to go back to the period
when this county, along with other portions of
the State of Illinois, was a wilderness unmarked
by the hand of man. and note the advent of the
first white families, and contemplate the numer-
ous and apparently insurmountable difficulties
with which they were surrounded. But to give
precise dates in all cases of the early histor}- of
Bond County will be almost impossible, as
there are but few of the old pioneers now liv-
ing. The lapse of fifty-five or sixty years has
not only swept from the theater of life most of
those heroes of the old and perilous time, but
has dimmed the in -m >ries of those who yet re-
main, so that some of them have forgotten the
exact time when many events, appertaining to
our history, transpired. II >wever, by a careful
comparison of the different statements and
dates, they are given with sufficient accuracy
for general utility, even in the instances where
there is any lack of coincidence.

The first settlement made within the present
limits of Bond County was at Hill's Station,

HLST011Y OF BOND COUNTY.

or fort — (called also White's Fort) — ■ about the
year 1S12. This fort was situated about eight
miles, in a southwesterly direction, from where
the town of Greenville now stands. One mile
and a half south of this was another station,
one called Jones' Fort, built near the same time.
These buildings were erected by the white inhabi-
tants, as shelters not only to protect them from
the inclemencies of the weather, but from the
incursions of the Indians, with whom the
county was infested, it being considered unsafe
for one family to reside at a distance from
others. These settlements were all made within
a year or two of the same time, and during the
last war with England.

When we view the present prosperous condi-
tion of the country, it seems scarcely credible
to believe that no longer age than the period
under consideration, the entire population of
Bond County was comprised of only two feeble
bands of adventurers, each containing but a few
families, shut up within the walls of a fort, out-
side of which it was dangerous to venture any
distance. These forts, stations or block-
in mses, as they were variously called, were
located in the edge of the timber, and were con-
structed of hewed logs. They would not, it is
true, present a very formidable resistance to
the military arrangements of the present day,
but when considered as a protection against the
implements of savage warfare, they proved
quite efficient.

The only land cultivated was a few acres im-
mediately surrounding or near the stations.
These farms, or patches, as they would now be
termed, were in the timber also, and planted in
cotton, tobacco, corn, pumpkins, melons, pota-
toes, and a few other vegetables. Wheat, for
the first few years, was not cultivated, as there
were no mills ; hence, it would have been of
little service. Most of the first settlers were
from Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina,
where all the laud is timbered, and the prairies,
they viewed as uninhabitable deserts. The

idea of hauling rails, fire-wood and building
timber, several miles was not to be thought of
b}' them. It was a current remark by the
people then, that " the greatest drawback to
this country was scarcity of timber."

In the autumn of 1816, a few families of emi-
grants were crossing the prairie east of Beaver
Creek, in the southern part of this county.
The grass had nearly all been burnt off, afford-
ing a fine opportunity for viewing the soil and
situation of the country. An old gentleman
belonging to the part}' was walking along be-
hind the wagons, in company with a few others,
who, like himself, had become fatigued with
riding and got out to walk. The old man gazed
with wonder and delight on the boundless ex-
panse of prairie spread out before him in all its
original beaut}-. Taking up handfuls of the
rich, black soil, he would examine it minutely,
then toss it aside with the exclamation, "Ah
me, how rich it is ; what a pity there's no tim-
ber to fence it." He greatly deplored the
strange freak of nature, which deprived a vasl
extent of country of trees, otherwise so produc-
tive, evidently believing this arrangement one of
the mysterious workings of an All- Wise Provi-
dence, in creating a soil where trees would not
grow, and that it would be of no avail to ever
plant them, for if the Almighty had so intended
it, they would have been found growing there
of their own accord.

It is stated by one who belonged to this party,
that some of the old ladies felt afraid to enter
the first prairie they ever beheld ; fearful that
the ground might give way and the}' be swal-
lowed up as if in quicksand ; or that night
might overtake them before getting across, and
they have to wait in the darkness without wood
or water until morning.

It was the general opinion that, on account
of the scarcity and inconvenience of timber,
the prairies would remain as vast pastures, and
hence the first farms were made in or near the
edge of the timber. A heavy growth of coarse

HISTORY OF BOND COUXTY.

grass from four to eight feet high covered the
prairies and all the upland portion of the tim-
ber, as well as much of the bottom land ; its
place in the woods is now supplied by scrubby
underbrush. When the grass became dry in
autumn, or killed by the frost, it furnished ma-
terial for vast conflagrations annually, sweep-
ing over the country with destructive force,
consuming everything of a dry nature in their
pathway, and in some instances burning up
wild animals overtaken by them in their devas-
tating course. These fires broke out some-
times by accident, but were often put out on
purpose to burn the grass on", so that people
could see to hunt to better advantage.
Farms or settlements being few, this was not
objected to. The neighbors united on a certain
day agreed upon, and " burnt the woods,'' as it
was termed, first making their farms or clear-
ings secure by setting tire to the edge of the
grass next to the farm and carefull}- watching
it until a space was burnt all around it suffi-
ciently wide to prevent the fire passing over.
Fires were on some occasions set out by the
Indians, many miles from the white settlements,
and, driven before the wind, spread over exten-
sive tracts of country, destroying everything
in their course. As may be imagined from
the height of the grass, a tire on the prairie at
that time was a grand and fearful spectacle,
more particularly at night. When fanned b} T
a strong wind, the flames rose to a height of
thirty or forty feet, presenting in the large
prairies an unbroken wall of flame several
miles in extent, having the form of a semi-circle
with the convex side in front, and sending forth
a roar that could be heard at a great distance.
With a heavy wind, the flames advanced so
rapidly that many instances occurred where
persons, even on horseback, barely escaped
being overtaken before reaching a place of
safety.

On one occasion, a party of hunters from the
settlements near Greenville, returning home

with a wagon load of honey and venison, when
about a mile east of where Elm Point now is,
set fire to the grass, for amusement. As the
wind was from the south and blew the flames in
a direction opposite to the way they were going,
no danger was apprehended. After enjoying
the sight to their satisfaction, they started on,
when, in a short time, the wind changed to a
strong gale from the north, bringing the fire
directly toward them in all its fury, and so
rapid was its advance, that they were forced to
cut the horses loose from the wagon and, with
all possible speed, escape for their lives. By-
great exertion they managed to outrun it, but
the wagon, harness, venison and honey were
consumed. Quite a number of marvelous ad-
ventures of this nature were related by the
early backwoodsmen, detailing feats of horse-
manship in comparison with which John Gil-
pin's perilous ride was mere child's play. In
eveiy public crowd would lie found indi-
viduals who loved to hunt, and tell of their
adventures, or listen to ihose of others. There
was nothing wrong in this, perhaps, so long as
the truth was kept in view, but as every such
collection contained some " hard cases," es-
pecially when warmed up with whisky, they
soon entered the regions of fancy, trying who
could tell the " biggest tale," betting "drinks
for the crowd " on the result. The narrators of
these stories told them so often, that they grew
into the belief that they were actually true.

One of these will be sufficient to give the
reader. Its truth is not vouched for. but the
substance of what the old hunter stated is
here given. The hero of the adventure went
by the name of " old Slaymush," and was ac-
knowledged to be the " biggest liar " in Bond
County at that time, with but one or two ex-
ceptions, which was saying much for him in
that respect, for in those early times there were
some here " hard to beat " on frontier incidents.
The old fellow said he had been out huuting
" in the fall of the year, over on the Okaw, and

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

there was a heap of bear and deer over thai',''
but it seemed like " luck was agiu " him, hav-
ing shot several deer, but failing to kill them
instantly, or " drap them in their tracks," as
he " ginerally done," they ran off and he lost
them. He •' snapped " six times at the " big-
gest bear that ever was seen," when the animal
took fright and ran oh". Attributing his bad
luck to some newly-purchased powder, and ex-
pressing the modest desire that the individual
who sold it to him might be safely domiciled
in a region where powder would ignite without
flint and steel, he started home, taking a west-
erly course through the prairie lying in the
eastern part of this county. It was about 2
o'clock in the afternoon, and he was within two
miles of the timber, on the west side of the
" perara," when thick clouds of smoke ap-
peared, stretching to some distance along the
edge of the woods. At the first glance he
" knowed the perara was a-fire, and that old
Slaymush and his boss would have to git out
o' thar, or be roasted alive," and as there was
a high wind from the west, something had to
be done immediately. Putting whip to his
horse, he set out in a northern direction, hop-
ing, by this flank movement, to get around the
fire to a place of safety, but this was soon
found to be unavailing, for the flames extended
too far in that direction, and had already ap
proached so close that the heat and smoke
almost stifled him. The only remaining chance
was to turn back and keep ahead of the fire to
the Okaw timber — a distance of six miles. He
said he never was as " nigh skeered " in his
life as when he "seed " the race that was before
him. Wheeling his horse, he took out his
hickory rammer to urge him on, but his " boss
was the worst skeered of the two," and when
he " sort o' leaned forred and fetched a big
yell, the critter actually cum very nigh jump-
ing from under " him, causing him to " drap his
ramrod and lose his cap ;" but holding on to his
gun " like a possum to a simraon-tree limb," he

sped on like the wind, with the fire advancing
and roaring behind him like a hurricane. It
often got so close that " great rolls of it, big-
ger than a kivered wagon, would bust loose "
and run past him " roarin' like all natur,"
sometimes on one side and sometimes on the
other. Occasionally one of these " big rolls "
would rush " clean over " him, when he would
throw himself forward on the neck of his horse
till it passed over and then straighten up again.
Fortunately, none of the fiery billows happened
to envelop him entirely, and, with the jaws of
destruction snapping at his heels, he flew on-
ward, leaping gullies, one of which was " forty
foot wide." In crossing this, he and the fire
were side by side, and "jest the instant his
boss struck t'other bank, it was thar too."
Thus he went on with his fearful race, anxious-
ly looking ahead for the timber, near which the
grass had been burnt some weeks before, know-
ing that there he would be in a place of safety.
Though nearly blinded and suffocated with
smoke, he thought of making one more desper-
ate efl'ort to increase the speed of his horse,
although he seemed to be doing his very best
already. So leaning forward and straining his
voice to the utmost, he " fetched another big
yell," when the animal "jumped clear from
under" him. When he struck the ground, the
momentum caused him to roll over two or
three times and lose his gun, besides stunning
him considerably. On rising to bis feet, he
found himself on the open, burnt ground, and,
of course, safe. The fire having ceased in a
few moments, he looked around a little, and
found his gun, which had received no further
damage than being discharged as the fire
passed over it. He saw his horse standing at
a distance of a hundred yards, gazing at him
most intently ; going up in front of the faith-
ful animal and looking at him, he seemed un-
hurt — not a hair showed the least sign of
having been in the proximity of fire ; for this
he was thankful, as also, his own preservation

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

— " there was not a bar of his head even
singed." He took his horse by the bridle and
turned him round, when a sight presented
itself that was horrible to behold. Every par-
ticle of hair and skin was burnt off his tail and
hind legs, the tail itself being literally roasted.
The hair was also burnt off his hips and back,
as far forward as the loins, but no farther !
The old man would relate this story whenever
the subject of prairie fires was mentioned,
evidently believing it to be the truth, for if any
of his hearers showed any signs of incredulity,
he appeared much offended.

There being no mills in the country at the
time the forts were occupied, and for sev-
eral years afterward, the inhabitants used
much less bread than at present ; it was all
made of corn meal, procured in the following
manner : A large block of wood, two or three
feet in length and from one to two feet in diame-
ter, was set up endwise on the ground, the up-
per end being scooped out so as to make a hol-
low capable of holding from a peck to a half
bushel of grain. The corn was put into this
and pounded with a maul, or other heavy weight
made on purpose. This was, in the fullest
sense of the term, " earning bread by the sweat
of the brow," but there being no other chance,
it was better to procure it in that manner than
to do without. These " machines," called " mor-
tars," were sometimes made in the stump of a
tree when conveniently situated. Hominy was
much used, being considered a saving of bread.

The inhabitants, at first, depended rnostty for
meat on the game, with which the country
abounded. Nearly every article of clothing
worn by either male or female, was manufact-
ured at home by the women, on the old-fash-
ioned spinning-wheel, cards and loom. The
man dressed buckskins, out of which were made
pantaloons, hunting-shirts, moccasins, and oc-
casionally pillow-cases, and dresses for the
women.

They made shoes from leather tanned at

home by themselves. To do this a tree, three
or four feet in diameter, was cut down, and as
large a trough as possible dug out of it ; this
constituted a kind of vat, into which the hides,
after being duly prepared, were placed along
with oak bark, broken to pieces, and pulverized
a little by pounding, the whole being filled up
with water. They were kept in this condition
until tanned. Some of the leather manufactured
in this way was very good, but most of it rather
indifferent. These, primitive tanners put no
blacking on their leather, for the very good
reason that lampblack could nowhere be ob-
tained. Of course this kind of material made
rather a rough shoe, but being the best that
could be procured, the people were content. In
fact, such shoes best suited the rough jaunts
taken on foot by many of the pioneers, through
brush, briers, swamps and grass, wet with dew
and rain. Boots were seldom worn, except in
the towns, and then only by professional men ;
no better evidence could be adduced of a man
being a preacher, doctor or lawyer, than his
appearing in public with boots on. This scarcity
of boots continued for several years. Many old
ladies seemed disposed to consider them as
belonging especially to the legal fraternity,
styling every man who wore them a " dandy
lawyer."

Everything not manufactured at home was
termed a " store " article, as " store shoes,"
" store hat," " store bonnet ;" and any one wholly
or even partially attired in " store " articles,
excited envy in the breasts of the younger and
more shallow-brained portion of the community,
and many a young lass, when appearing in
public, considered herself highly honored, if so
fortunate as to secure the attentions of a " feller
with store clothes on," furnishing an instance
of that weakness in human nature, too common
even yet, judging persons by external appear-
ances.

The scarcity of the necessaries of life will not
be wondered at, when we consider that St. Louis

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

was the only market, and a very poor one at
that, being then a small town of only a few
thousand inhabitants, having but two ways of
obtaining everything of foreign growth or manu-
facture, one by keel-boats rowed or pushed by
poles up the Mississippi from New Orleans ; the

other from Philadelphia, by means of wagons
across the Alleghany Mountains to Pittsburgh,
thence down the Ohio Kiver, in keel-boats, float-
ing with the current to its mouth, and from this
point, pushed up the Mississippi in the same
manner as from New Orleans.

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

CHAPTER IX*

TRIALS AND HARDSHIPS OF THE PIONEERS— SKINS AS A CIRCULATING MEDIUM— THE WAR OF
181'.'— ITS EFFECT UPON THE SETTLEMENT OF THIS PORTION OF THE COUNTRY— MURDER
OF COX AND HIS SON— THE BLESSINGS OF PEACE— PROGRESS OF EMIGRATION-
BUILDING OF CABINS— EARLY MANNERS AND CUSTOMS— PIONEER COURT-
SHIPS AND OTHER SOCIAL EVENTS.

right," as they expressed it, one of them
slipped back where the pile of skins lay, took

"Oh, the waves of life danced merrily,
And had a joyous now,
In the days when we were Pioneers,
Fifty years ago !" — Gallagher.

FROM the time the first settlements were
made in what is now Bond County until
the close of the war of 1812, money was
scarcely ever seen. Skins of the mink, musk-
rat, raccoon and deer composed the circulating
medium of the country. Tobacco, powder,
lead and whisky were the principal articles
purchased, and the merchant or grocery- keeper
when asked the price of an} - of his goods,
replied by stating a certain number of skins
per pound or gallon.

A story is told of a party of fellows on a
Christmas spree, who, finding themselves about
out of whisky, and not having the wherewith
to replenish, hit upon the following expedient
to obtain a supply : They went one night to a
little grocery, having one raccoon skin with
them. This paid for whisky enough to furnish
them all a drink or two round, including the
proprietor, who of course was fond of the article
and imbibed rather freely, soon becoming quite
hilarious from its effects. The party observed
this, and each one, on placing the liquor to his
lips, merely tasted it, but the grocery-keeper,
whenever it came his turn, took a good drink ;
consequently objects soon began to assume a
confused appearance to his vision. This was
just what they wanted, and getting him " about

* By R. 0. White.

one and put it through a large crack in the
wall of the hut, to the outside ; then going out
at the door he went round, took up the skin,
and after waiting a few minutes came in —
being saluted by the others as a fresh arrival,
— and presented his raccoon skin in payment
for a certain amouut of whisky. This offer
was readily accepted, the whisky measured out
and the skin thrown back on the heap with the
rest. This feat was repeated every few min-
utes till they obtained all the whisky the}'
wanted, having actually sold the grocery-keeper
his own raccoon skin six or seven times in a
few hours. After the close of the war money
was brought into the country and gradually
took the place of skins.

At one time during the war Hill's Station
and Jones' Fort were abandoned, on account of
Indian hostilities, and all the white inhabitants
left the country except one man named Kenson,
— generally called "Old Kenson." There is no
account given of this man " showing whence
he came or whither he went," but we are told
he loved the spirit, but whether he was born of
it or not is quite another question. He was
as impervious to the angelic smiles and charms
of the softer sex, and had never realized the
truth, that

" The world was sad, the garden was a wild,
And man the hermit sighed till woman smiled."

but lived in the enjoyment of single blessed-

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY,

ness, in a large hollow sycamore tree, situated
in Shoal Creek Bottom, near where the Van-
dalia Railroad now crosses. "Old Henson"
remained alone in this primitive residence to
look after his hogs and hunt, returning to his
tree each time by a different route, to avoid
being tracked by the Indians. He stayed
there unmolested until the rest of the people
returned to the neighborhood, after which no
further trace of him can be found. But the
presumption is that he joined some band of
Rocky Mountain trappers, spending his life in
the wild seclusions of the land of sunset.

While the war of 1812 was in progress, but
few emigrants came to the county, and these
settled in the vicinity of the forts, or stations,
on account of the hostile incursions of the sav-
ages. Occasionally a settler erected his cabin,
and made a " clearing " at quite a distance from
the station, remaining there with his family as
long as there were no signs of Indians about
but as soon as the}' made their appearance in
the neighborhood, he would remove, with all his
responsibilities and household goods, into the
fort for safety, returning home when the danger
had passed. Families thus situated moved to
and from the forts, perhaps, several times in a
year, and, while living at their homes, were in
constant danger of being attacked by Indians ;
yet they appeared contented, and in the enjoy-
ment of more happiness than seems possible,
under the circumstances.

There was a man named Cox, who, in spite of
the warnings and entreaties of others, persisted
in staying at home instead of coming with his
family, into Hill's Station, the savages being then
encamped on Indian Creek, four miles nearly west
from Greenville. His house was near Beaver
Creek, a little below where Dudleyville is now
situated, and several miles from the station,
but he insisted there was no danger. As a re-
sult, however, of his imprudence, the Indians
attacked his house one day during his absence,
stole several articles of value, captured his

daughter, Sally Cox, and carried her off with
them. Intelligence of this melancholy event
reached the station in a few hours. A party of men
was instantly raised, the savages pursued, over-
taken, and the girl rescued and brought back safe
to her parents, all within the space of twenty-four
hours from the time of her capture. After this
occurrence, Cox was willing to remove his family
to the fort, especially in times of imminent dan-
ger, but, notwithstanding the remonstrances of
others, he would go out to his house once or
twice a week, " to see how things were getting
along." On one of these occasions he was ac-
companied by his sou, a small boy, both being
on horseback.

When they came within a short distance of
his residence, he sent 1 the boy to water their
horses at the creek, while he proceeded on foot
to the house. As he approached he noticed In-
dian tracks, which aroused his suspicions, but
being a brave man he went on, almost fearing
to enter. The savages were concealed in the
house, standing on both sides of the door with
rifles cocked and presented, ready to shoot him
the moment he entered. He came up to the
door, and on opening it. was shot by an Indian
and instantly killed. They then ran down to
the creek where the boy was, and gave him to
understand they would not hurt him, that they
only wanted the horses. Being greatly fright-
ened he endeavored to ride toward them, or hold
the horses so that they could come near enough
to take hold of the bridles, but the poor ani-
mals were so alarmed at the Indians he could
not manage them. Hence, quite a struggle en-
sued ; the Indians trying to get to the horses
and they struggling away from them, while the
boy was using every exertion to hold them, no
doubt thinking his life depended on his efforts
to do so. In this manner they gradually got
farther from the creek, when, suddenly emerg-
ing into the prairie, the boy thought to escape,
and started off at a rapid pace. The Indians
perceiving this, one of them leveled his gun

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

and shot the little fellow off his horse as he ran.
The house in which this tragedy occurred was
standing but a few years since.

The particulars of the murder of Cox and his
son were related by the Indians themselves, at
the treaty made near die close of the war. He
was a large, powerful man, an experienced In-
dian fighter, and had sent many a "brave" to
the " happy hunting grounds." Had he cer-
tainly known they were concealed in the house,
it would have cost them many lives to have
taken his, for he was considered a match for
two or three Indians at any time. Most of
them knew him, and acknowledged that, as they
watched through a small crevice in the house,
and perceived, from his looks and actions, that
he had discovered their tracks, and vet was
boldly approaching the door, they felt afraid of
him, although ten to one in numbers.

An incident occurred at Jones' Fort, about
the time Cox was killed, which is of interest
in this connection. At a little distance from
it stood a large elm tree, which at the height of
several feet separated into three prongs, all
branching out at the same distance from the
ground. Each of these being very large
afforded sufficient shelter to conceal a man
standing in the space thus formed. An Indian,
observing this, conceived the idea of climbing
up into the ambuscade thus furnished and
shooting at persons inside the fort. From this
elevated position, he could see over the wall
and fire on the people, which was impossible
from the ground. One evening, near sunset,
he ascended the tree and took his station ; soon
the report of a rifle was heard and one of the
men in the fort fell dead. This was so sudden
ami unexpected that no one could tell from
whence the firing proceeded, though all were
satisfied it came from an Indian concealed
somewhere outside the inclosure. This was
repeated on several evenings until four or five
white men had been shot down without any one
being able to find out the whereabouts of the

murderer. He was finally discovered, however,
in his hiding place, and shot by a man watch-
ing for him.

Another attack by Indians took place at
Hill's Station in the latter part of August,
1814. As there have been several versions of
this fight already published it is but proper to
mention that the following statement is in no
particular derived from any of them, as they
are not entirely correct. It coincides with them,
however, in man}- of its details. It is obtained
direct from persons now living who had the
scene described to them by those residing in
the station at the time of its occurrence, be-
sides from the statement of the hero of the
conflict himself, and may be considered relia
ble.

A few rangers, under the command of Maj.
Journey, were stationed at the station in order
to afford the settlers better protection against
the savages. Benjamin Henson, a resident in
the station, while out hunting one day, saw an
Indian, which circumstance he related on his
return in the evening, adding that he believed
they were in danger of an attack. This story-
was discredited by many, both officers and
men, who believed he had manufactured the
whole thing merely to get up an excitement
and alarm. On the evening of the day in ques-
tion some of the women found grains of
parched corn scattered about the spring, situat-
ed a little distance from the station, and as
none of the white people had been using any at
that time, this was conclusive evidence that the
" red skins" were about.

Strange as it may seem, however, some of
the rangers still refused to believe that there
was any danger. One Lieut. Boucher, on hear-
ing Henson's statement, called him a liar to his
face, and treated with contempt every sugges-
tion of danger.

After disputing and quarreling awhile over
the matter, they decided to send out a squad of
men on the following day to look for Indians.

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

Next morning Maj. Journey started out, taking
all the men with him, thus leaving the fort in a
defenseless condition, the gates all wide open
and the women milking the cows, apparently
unconscious of danger. The part}' of rangers
proceeded along a narrow path leading down a
narrow ravine, when they were suddenly fired
upon by a large party of Indians, concealed
behind trees and in the grass on both sides of
the path. Maj. Journey, Capt. Grotz and two

of the privates, ■ Lynn and William Pruitt,

were instantly killed. The fifth man,

Thomas Higgins, was shot in the thigh and fell
from his horse, which ran off. The others,
seeing danger ahead, left the path immediately,
scattering in different directions and taking po-
sitions at some distance from each other, man-
aged to engage the enemy as best they could
Having seen Higgins fall from his horse with
the other four, they supposed him killed also
and took no further notice of him at that time.
There was a small field of corn close to the
fort, on the north side, in which several Indians
had concealed themselves, for when the firing
commenced the women saw three or four run
out of this field and pass round to the scene of
conflict. They had doubtless been watching
the whites, intending to commit some depreda-
tion as soon as the men all left. Immediately
after Higgins fell from his horse he was
attacked by three Indians armed only with
spears, evidently believing him entirely within
their power. His wound had disabled him so
that it was with difficulty he could stand with-
out support, but the knowledge that his life
was at stake seemed to give him super-human
strength. Cocking his rifle, he presented it
whenever one approached nearer than the
others, as if intending to shoot, determined,
however, not to do so until he could make sure
of his game. The Indians, being uncertain
whether his gun was loaded or not, were afraid
to rush on him. Thus he held them at bay
for a short time ; but they kept circling round

trying to get on both sides of him, each time
coming a little closer and closer, whirling about
in various ways or falling down fiat in the grass
and weeds whenever he seemed likely to fire.
Occasionally one gave him a thrust with his
spear, when they would all laugh to see him
dodge and writhe with the pain, but were
afraid to advance near enough to take hold of
him. He still reserved his fire knowing that his
only chance for life was to kill one " dead" at
the first and only shot he would get. He said
that one of them was the " biggest Injun" he
ever saw, and he thought if he could only kill
him first his chance for life would be much
better. At length feeling himself growing
weaker, and receiving a severe wound in the
mouth and jaw from the spear of the largest
Indian, who also was the boldest, Higgins
leveled his rifle at him as he pulled the spear
from the wound and fired, killing him dead on
the spot.

The other two, knowing that his gun was
discharged, now advanced on him without fear.
His success in killing the most formidable one
inspired him with fresh courage, and not having
time to reload his rifle, he seized it by the
muzzle, arid as they rushed upon him with loud
and triumphant yells, struck the foremost one
with all his power over the head, knocking out
his brains and killing him immediately. The
force of the blow broke the gun off at the
breach and the barrel flew out of his hands to
some distance in the thick grass.

He now fell exhausted, and being unable
to rise to his feet, commenced crawling to-
ward the gun-barrel, his only means of defense,
in order to obtain it before the remaining In-
dian, who had also started to search for it.
The savage succeeded in getting it first, and
with a tremendous yell, came slowiy up in front
of him, brandishing the weapon in his hands, as
if to give him all the anguish possible, before
striking the final blow. Having reached a small
tree, he raised himself by means of it to a

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

standing position, leaning back against it for sup-
port, feeling that his time had come when, to his
great joy, he beheld two white men — William
Pursley and David White — on horseback, com-
ing to his rescue. They were coming up behind
the Indian, who was too much elated with the
idea of capturing his victim to observe them.
As soon as Higgins saw them he exclaimed,
• Pursley, for God's sake, don't let him kill
me."

The Indian still believing no one near.
and that this was a cry of despair, laughed
tauntingly in his face, and mimickingly repeated
his cry in bad English. The words had scarcely
passed his lips when the men were upon him
with rifles leveled. Instantaneously he com-
menced a series of the most vigorous and ludi-
crous gymnastic exercises, but they finally suc-
ceeded in killing him.

A portion of this fight was witnessed by the
women in the fort, and one of them — Mrs.
White — when she saw Higgins likely to be over-
powered, seized a gun, mounted a horse, and
started to his assistance. She had not pro-
ceeded far, however, when, perceiving Pursley
and her husband hastening to his relief, she re-
turned to the fort. Higgins was taken to the
station, where his wounds were dressed and
cared for until his recover}-. He died, a few
years since, in Fayette County, having been a
perfect specimen of a frontier man iu his day.
He was once assistaut door-keeper of the House
of Representatives of Illinois.

Such are the scenes through which some of
the pioneers of Bond County passed during its
first settlement. Our citizens should cherish
the memory of those victims who fell at Hill's
Station, Jones' Fort, and other places iu the
county. Their graves lie neglected, and some
of them unknown. This ought not to be. The}*
should all be found, if possible, neatly inclosed,
and a monument erected to their memory.

At the close of our last war with England, a
treaty of peace was made with the Indians as

well as with the English, thus bringing peace
to the pioneer. After the conclusion of this
treaty, the forts in Bond County were aban-
doned, though with some misgivings on the
part of the whites, lest the Indians should fail
to observe the terms of peace. In a short time,
however, the people becoming more satisfied of
the peaceful intentions of the savages, " scat-
tered out " from the different stations, forming
settlements several miles apart.

Emigrants came to the country but slowly,
so that by the year 1816, Bond County num-
bered not over twenty-five dwelling-houses, if
their pole cabins could be called dwelling-
houses. The people then managed to get along
without nails, glass, sawed lumber or brick, for
the reason they could not procure them. Their
houses were small, consisting of one story, built
of logs or poles, in many cases unhewed, with
the ends projecting from six inches to two feet
at the corners, the crevices between them being
daubed with mud or clay, and the whole struct-
ure covered with clapboards, held on by heavy
poles called " weight-poles." The same kind of
boards, fastened to cross pieces by wooden
pins driven into holes made with a gimlet, con-
stituted the door shutters, generally constructed
to open outwards. The floor, when they had
any, was made of puncheons, pinned down or
laid on loose. These, when carefully dressed
and closely put together, constituted a very
good floor, but some of them conveyed the idea
that the settlers believed in ventilation, for they
left cracks so wide that the children, in pursuit
of their juvenile amusements, their little feet
often slipped through those dangerous trap-
doors, causing many squalls and bruises. A
wooden latch, raised by a string, served as a
fastening for their doors. This string had one
end tied to the latch and the other passed
through a small hole above it, and when the
door, fastened on the inside, was left hanging
out, the person wishing to enter having only to
pull it, iu order to raise the latch ; hence, to

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

leave the "latch-string hanging out," they con-
sidered synonymous with sociability and hospi-
tality. They built wooden chimneys, plastering
them inside with earth, making the jambs and
hearths also of the same material — except when
stone could be procured — beating the hearths
with a maul to make them solid. The fire-
places were from six to ten feet in width, and
two rocks or billets of wood served instead of
andirons. Though so wide, these fire-places
were, nevertheless, quite convenient, furnishing
a receptacle for most if not all the cooking uten-
sils of the family, and when crowded the chil-
dren, and in some families the dogs found ac-
commodations on each side, in company with
skillets, ovens and frying pans. But at one side
or the other of these capacious hearths, one
article always stood conspicuous, and that was
the kettle of " blue dye," as the old ladies called
it, in which they colored their "yarn " for weav-
ing. This kettle being covered with an old
barrel-head, or something of the kind, often did
service as a seat for some member of the family,
and even for visitors. Young fellows, when on
courting expeditions, sometimes found it a very
convenient seat, with the " idol of their heart "
in close proximity. Some of the best men
of our country wooed and won their brides,
seated on a kettle of " blue dye " by the blazing
fire of the backwoodsman's rude cabin. An in-
cident is related of a youthful swain seated on
a kettle of " blue dye," engaged in close con-
versation with a lass, whose love he hoped to
win, when the covering gave way. precipitating
him to the bottom of the vessel in a sitting

position. As he wore white pantaloons, the
results may be imagined.

Articles of household furniture were few and
rude. With the exception of those brought
from the States, chairs could not for several
years be procured, their place being supplied
by wooden stools, which, though answering
very well the purpose of seats, were easily
upset, a circumstance often causing much mer-
riment.

The tables and bedsteads were rude, the
former being constructed of the same kind of
material as the doors, and many of the latter
by boring two holes in the wall with a large
auger, six or seven feet apart ; into these,
pieces of wood were driven having the oppo-
site end of each inserted into an upright post,
this constituting a kind of frame work, which,
being covered with clap-boards, served as a
receptacle for the beds. Sofas, rocking-chairs,
center-tables, bureaus and all such articles
were not used except where some old lady or
whimsical old maid had refused to part with
these " household gods," and had them hauled
out to this wild region, over mountains, hills
and swamps, at much trouble and expense.

On the outside of the houses, it was no un-
common thing to see a goodly number of rac-
coon and deer skins stretched and hanging up
against the wall to dry, and occasionally the
skin of a wild cat, wolf or bear. The project-
ing ends of the logs at each corner of the cabin
served as places to hang the various utensils
used on the farm, such as hoes, rakes, bridles
and harness.

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

CHAPTER III.*

ORGANIZATION OF BOND COUNTY— THE TERRITORY FROM WHICH IT ORIGINATED— ACT OF THE
LEGISLATURE— THE COUNTY AS NOW BOUNDED, WITH ITS DESCRIPTION AND TOPOGRA-
PHY—COURTS ORGANIZED — THE FIRST GRAND JURY AND COURT OFFICERS —
COUNTY SEAT AT PERRYVILLE— JAIL BUILDING— A CASE OF LYNCHING—
LAWYERS LOST ON THE PRAIRIE— PERMANENT LOCATION OF THE
SEAT OF JUSTICE, ETC., ETC.

AS the country settled up and population in-
creased, it became necessary to form the
territory into smaller divisions for the purpose
of convenience and the better administration
of the laws. It may be of interest to the read-
er to give a few of the territorial changes of
the country in which we now live. Illinois was
taken from the British in 1778, by conquest of
Gen. George Rogers Clark, and became a
county of Virginia. It then embraced what is
now the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michi-
gan and Wisconsin, with the seat of government
at Kaskaskia.t In 1784, Virginia ceded it to
the United States Government, and by the or-
dinance of 1787 it became the Northwestern
Territory, with its capital first at Marietta, and
then at Cincinnati. Ohio. This continued until
1800, when it was made a part of the Indiana
Territory, with the seat of government at Vin-
cennes, Ind., and embraced the present States
of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.
In 1809, that portion now forming the States
of Illinois and Wisconsin, became the Territory
of Illinois, and in 1818, Illinois became a State
of the Federal Union, with her capital at the
ancient town of Kaskaskia. The Southern
part of the State was settled long before the
central and northern part, and here the first
counties were formed, even before the State was
admitted into the Union. The country within

*By R. O. White.

fNe.ir Chester, the peat of the New Southern Penitentiary.

the boundaries of the present State of Illinois
extending northward to the mouth of the Little
Mackinaw Creek, was organized into a county
in February, 1790, and named for His Excel-
lency, Gen. Arthur St. Clair, Governor of the
Northwestern Territory. Other counties were
formed, as population increased. In 1795, Ran-
dolph was created, and Madison in 1812. Bond
County, comprising a large extent of territory,
and from which several counties have since
been formed, was organized in 1817. The fol-
lowing is the act of the Legislature, or that
part of it pertaining to the subject, which gave
it a legal existence.

An act forming a new county out of the
county of Madison, approved January 4, 1817 :

Be it enacted by the Legislative Council and
House of Representatives of Illinois Territory, and
it is hereby enacted by authority of the same, that
all that tract of country within the following
boundaries, to wit:

Beginning at the southwest corner of Township
3 north. Range 4 west ; thence east to the southeast
corner of Township 3 north. Range 1 east, to the
third meridian line ; thence north to the boundary
line of the Territory ; thence west with said bound-
ary line so far that a south line will pass between
Ranges 4 and 5 west ; thence south with said line to
the beginning. The same shall constitute a separate
county to be called Bond, and the seat of justice
for said county shall be at Hill's Fort until it shall
be permanently established in the following man-
ner, that is to say, there shall be five persons ap-
pointed, to wit : William Roberts, John Powers,
Robert Gillespie, John Whitley, Sr., and John

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

Laughlin, or a majority of them being duly sworn
before some Judge or Justice of the Peace of this
Territory to faithfully take into view the situation
of the settlements, the geography of the county,
the convenience of the people and the eligibility of
the place, shall meet on the first Monday in March,
next, at Hill's Port, on Shoal Creek, and proceed to
examine and determine on the place for the perma-
nent seat of justice and designate the same. Pro-
vided that the proprietor or proprietors of the land
shall give to the said county, for the purpose of
erecting public buildings, a quantity of land at the
said place, nut less than twenty acres, to be laid off
in lots and sold for the above purpose. But should
the proprietor or proprietors refuse or neglect to
make the donation aforesaid, then, in that case, it
shall be the duty of the Commissioners to fix upon
some other place for the seat of justice as conven-
ient as may be to the present and future settlements
of said county, or should the said Commissioners
fix it upon lauds belonging to the United States, in
that case, the Judges of the said county, or any two
of them, may apply to the Register of the Land
Office for that district, and in behalf of the county
purchase one-quarter section for the use ofgthe
county, and the seat of justice shall be established
thereon, and the county shall be bound for the
purchase money, which place, when fixed upon aud
determined, the said Commissioners shall certify
under their hands and seals, and return their certifi-
cates of the same to the next County Court in the
county aforesaid ; and as a compensation for their
services they shall each be allowed $2 for every day
they may be necessarily employed in fixing the
[foresaid seat of justice, to be paid out of the coun-
ty levy, which said court shall cause an entry
thereof to be made on the records, etc.. etc.

The remainder of the act, which is a very
long one, is taken up with matters which have
no reference to Bond County. It will be seen
by this act that the county was much larger
at the time of its formation than it is now. As
at present constituted, it is bounded on the
north by Montgomery, on the east by Fayette,
on the south by Clinton, and on the west by
Madison.

It contains nine entire townships, in a
square, aud five fractional ones on its north-
ern and western sides, comprising about three
hundred and seventy-eight square miles. The

population is fourteen thousand, being thirty-
seven to the square mile.

Shoal Creek and its tributaries water the
western and central portions, and the Okaw
River and Hurricane Creek the eastern part.

Shoal Creek rises in the northern part of
Montgomery County, and crosses the line of
Bond at the north half-mile corner of Section
28, Township 7, Range 4, and. (lowing nearly
south through the county, leaves it near the
southwest corner of Section 36, Town 4, Range
4. It has on both sides a fine body of timber,
varying in width from two to five miles. Its
principal tributaries in Bond County are the
Dry Fork, Indian Creek, East Fork, Locust
Fork, Beaver Creek aud the Lake Fork.

The largest of these streams is the East
Fork, which rises in the northeastern part of
Montgomery County, and, running southwest
into Bond, empties into Shoal Creek, in the
southwest quarter of Section 36. The timber
on this stream is of a good quality, aud several
miles in width. Beaver Creek rises a few miles
northeast of Greenville, and, flowing nearly
south, crosses the line into Clinton County. The
whole length of this creek is about twenty-five
miles ; it is a muddy, sluggish stream, and wa-
ters a fine portion of Bond County. When
the Government Surveyors first came to this
stream, they found a dead horse in it, and from
this circumstance called it "Stinking Creek,"
a name which appears on some of the older
maps. Lake Fork enters the county a few rods
south of the uorthwest corner, flows in an
easterly direction near the north line for a little
over a mile ; then, turning north and northeast,
1 Kisses into Montgomeiy County and empties
into Shoal Creek. It is noted for being a rapid.
rocky, stream, furnishing numerous quarries of
a <rood building stone, and for beds of coal
along its banks at various points. Dry Fork
rises in the southwestern part of Montgoniery
County, and, running southeast into Bond,
empties into Shoal Creek. It is a rapid stream,

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LIBRARY

OF THE
UNIVERSITY u f ILLINOIS

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

and runs through a rough, broken tract of
country. Indian Creek rises in the southwest
part of Township 6, Range 3, and runs south-
west into Shoal Creek. It was so named
from the Indians having once been encamped
on it during the first settling of the county.
Locust Fork is a small stream in the the south-
ern part of Township 4, Range 4, running
southeast through a fine portion of country ;
coal, and extensive beds of the finest limestone
in the county are found along this creek and
its branches. It flows into Shoal Creek, a
short distance north of the Clinton County
line.

The Okaw or Kaskaskia River runs through
the extreme southeastern part of the county.
It rises in Champaign County, and, taking a
southwestern course, empties into the Missis-
sippi River, about one hundred and twenty
miles above the mouth of the Ohio, passing
through or bordering in its course the counties
of Douglas, Coles, Moultrie, Shelby, Fayette,
Bond, Clinton, Washington, St. Clair. Monroe
and Randolph. A body of excellent timber;
from two to ten miles wide, is found along this
river, supplying the numerous and extensive
farms on both sides of it with lumber. It is
not navigable for any considerable distance,
though a small steamboat once ascended as far as
Carlyle in a time of high water. The Hurricane
Fork and its tributaries water the eastern por-
tion of Bond County, and are bordered with
fine bodies of timber.

Bond County contains a due proportion of
timber and prairie, and has a generally level or
undulating surface, but no mountains nor very
high hills. The general quality of the soil is
second rate, though in certain localities there is
excellent land. Some of the prairies are too
level to answer well the purposes of cultivation
without some artificial drainage, but most of
the land is sufficiently undulating to drain well,
and in fact some of the finest landscape views
in the State are found in this county. The tim-

ber consists of white, black, Spanish, over-cup,
water, black-jack, post and pin oak, hackberry,
ash, hickory, walnut, elm, sycamore, cotton-
wood, sugar and white maple, locust, mulberry,
sassafras, wild cherry and other kinds. Springs
are not very numerous, but good wells can be
obtained in all parts of the county. With but
few exceptions the water is limestone. There
are saline springs in Shoal Creek, a short dis-
tance above New Berlin, where, during the first
settling of the country, salt was manufactured
to a small extent, but, being down in the bed of
the creek, they are inaccessible the greater part
of the year, and have long since been aban-
doned.

In addition to the places already noted, good
quarries of both sand and limestone are found
in the western part of the county, at various
points along the banks of the main fork of
Shoal Creek, and many of the smaller streams
running into it from the west. In the prairies
are found, lying on or near the surface, large
bowlders nearly round, weighing from five hun-
dred to several thousand pounds. They are
granite in formation, and have been broken
from the parent quarry by some convulsion of
nature, and removed to their present situation,
probably through the agency of water, and
seem to have been rounded by rolling over a
hard surface. It is difficult to account for them
on any reasonable ground. There is not, so far
as is known, a quarry of granite in the State,
and hence it is evident that these " lost rocks,"
as they are called, have been transported many
miles.

As Bond County was organized in 1817,
when Illinois was yet a Territory, it was one of
the fifteen counties represented in the Consti-
tutional Convention of 1818. Thomas Kirk-
patrick and Samuel G. Morse represented this
county in the Convention that formed the first
State Constitution. Of the dimensions of Bond
at the time of its formation, Rev. Thomas W.
Hynes, in his address, July 4, 1876, says :

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

" Originally our county was of immense size,
extending indefinitely northward and eastward ;
but in 1821 tbe formation of Montgomery and
Fayette, and, in 1825, the county of Clinton
reduced her extent on three sides till she was
so small that an addition taken from Madison
had to be made in 1843, to bring it up to the
present extent of territory. This addition, two
miles wide and nine miles long, leaves the
county of respectable and convenient magni-
tude, though much below the average of the
102 counties in Illinois. Bond has 378 square
miles, while the average for all the counties of
Illinois is 544 square miles."

After the adoption of the act of the Legisla-
ture for the legal organization of the county, the
next business in order was to establish the dif-
ferent departments, and set the political, civil
and judicial machinery in motion. This was
accomplished without any unnecessary delay.
The first Circuit Court was held at Hill's Station,
on Monday, May 30, 1817. The State being
under a Territorial Government, all the offices
were filled by appointment, and were as follows :
The Hon. Jesse B. Thomas, Judge ; Daniel
Converse, Clerk ; Samuel G. Morse, Sheriff ;
and Charles R. Matheny, State's Attorney. The
following persons served as grand jurors : John
Whitley, Sr., Foreman, Solomon Reavis, Fields
Pruitt, Coonrod Hoosong, Samuel Davidson,
Paul Beck, William Robinson, John Hopton,
Robert Gillespie, Benjamin James, Charles
Reavis, Charles Steel, Andrew Moody, Absalom
Mathews, William McLane, John Whitley, Jr.
Peter Hubbard, David White, Francis Kirk-
patrick, William Burgess, John Samples, Elijah
Powers, Thomas White.

The list of petit jurors cannot be given, for it
does not appear in any of the old records of the
county, and, so far as can be ascertained, John
B. White, residing a short distance west of
Greenville, is the only man now living who
served on either jury at that court. The petit
jury, on retiring to make up their verdict, in-

stead of being shut up in a close room, went out
and sat on a large log.

There was only one bill of indictment found,
and but one case tried. Judge Thomas, allud-
ing to this circumstance when dismissing the
grand jury, remarked, " It speaks much for the
morals of your community ; long ma}' such a
state of things continue." In the foregoing list
of grand jurors, quite a number of our citizens
will recognize the names of ancestors and
others with whom they have been familiar in
former years.

Two or three terms of the Circuit Court were
held at Hill's Station, after which it was held at
Perryville, the first county seat, situated near
the mouth of Hurricane Creek, in the south-
western part of what is now Fayette County.
The following report of the Commissioners ap-
pointed to locate the seat of justice for Bond
Count}', shows something of the extent of terri-
tory then under its jurisdiction, and also, the
ideas entertained by the people in relation to
the navigation of the small rivers and large
creeks in this country :

Shoal Creek, April 15, 1817. (
Illinois Territory, Bond County, f

We, the Commissioners to fix the seat of justice
for the county of Bond, being duly sworn, after re-
viewing different parts of said county for that pur-
pose ; we do nominate and appoint for that pur-
pose, the bluff lying west of the Hurricane Fork of
Okaw, being the southwest quarter of Section No.
5, of Range No. 1 west, of Township No. 4 north,
now the property of Martin Jones, taking into view
the geographical center, the navigation, the eligibility,
and the common good of the people, as directed by
law. Given under our hands and seals, the day and
year first above written. John Powers.

Robert Gillespie,
John Whitley.

This town was laid out in the spring of 1818,
and the plat recorded May 17 of the same year.
Illinois having been in the meantime admitted
into the Union, Bond County was regularly or-
ganized the following autumn, and named for
Shadrach Bond, the first Governor of the State,

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

who was elected in October, 1S18, and filled a
term of four years. The county then included
a large scope of territory, extending to the
north, east and south, which is now embodied
in adjoining counties.

The first Justices' or Count}' Commissioners'
Court ever held in the county, met at Perry -
ville in the month of October, 1818. The Jus-
tices were Thomas Kirkpatrick, Martin Jones
and Isaac Price. Daniel Converse was Clerk,
and Samuel G-. Morse, Sheriff, Converse being
Clerk of both Circuit and County Courts. The
principal business of this first court at Perry-
ville seems to have been rewarding persons for
killing wolves, *2 being the amount paid for
each scalp produced. There were thirty-five
orders passed allowing pay for wolf-scalps, and
it appears that fifty-one wolves had been killed.
The whole amount of money expended by the
county for the year previous, as stated by the
Sheriff, was $97.75, which was probably mostly
for wolf-scalps.

Among the orders passed at this term of the
court was one for the erection of a jail at Perry -
ville, giving plan and specifications of the build-
ing. It appears to be the only order of any im-
portance passed after remunerating the wolf-
killers ; a jail, whether needed or not, being evi-
dently considered as a mark of civilization, or,
at least, tending in that direction. After perus-
ing this order, the reader can form his own con-
elusions as to the condition of the literature
and architecture of Bond Count}' at that time,
and picture to himself the imposing appearance
such a building would now present if located
in the public square of Greenville. The follow-
ing is the order, given word for word and letter
for letter :

Ordered thai Martin Join's lie appointed and Em-
powered to let a Gail to the lowest Bidder to lice
built in the following Manner; twelve by eighteen

feet in the clear, in 1 built of timber hewn square

12 Inches, the log with a partition of the same kind
of Timber, the partition to be 6 feet from one end,
the corners to be dove-tailed together and also the

partion walls, — the outside door to be double, of two
Inch plank, and sufficiently mailed with Strong nails
and barred with two Iron barrs, half an inch thick
and three inches wide, to answer for the hinges, to
be hinged with steeples J of an Inch in Diameter
drove through the Logs and Clinched, and also stee-
ples through the logs in the same manner on the
other side of the door, with holes through the bolls
to Lock the door with Pad Locks to each.

This jail was built, but not strictly in ac-
cordance with the above order, for if it had, it
would have been without roof or floor. It is
likely the architect, supplied with his inventive
powers what was omitted in the specifications.
The first man ever imprisoned in Bond County
was incarcerated in this building during the
first CircuitCourt held at Perryville. Hecame
into court not only a little " tight," but very
drunk, swearing and making quite a disturb-
ance. The Judge ordered him to jail until he
became sober, which order was promptly exe-
cuted by the Sheriff. That worthy official, how-
ever, found it impossible to lock the door, for
the reason that there had been no padlock pro-
vided, as stipulated in the building contract,
but as the door opened to the outside, he closed
it and placed fence-rails and poles against it,
making everything, as he thought, secure. This
was late in the afternoon, near sunset. The pris-
oner lay down and soon fell asleep. About mid-
night he awoke, duly sober, and finding himself
in such a place, was at first much surprised,
but after a little reflection, recollected his con-
dition the day before, and imagined that some-
body had put him in there for mischief. After
groping around the walls awhile, he found the
(lour, and by pushing, kicking, swearing and
yelling till almost daylight, succeeded in get-
ting out. The next day he was going about
trying to find the perpetrators of the outrage,
swearing he could whip any man that helped
to put him in there, never for a moment sup-
posing that an order of court had anything to
do with it.

Some idea of the sparseness of the settle-

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

merits at that time may be obtained from the
fact that a party of three or four lawyers, on
their wa}' to the above-named court, got lost in
crossing the prairie between Shoal Creek and
the Okaw. After wandering about for several
hours, vainly endeavoring to discover some
signs of a human habitation, night overtook
them, and the}* were compelled to pass it in the
tall grass near a pond, where, bitten by mos-
quitoes and gnats, and serenaded by hundreds
of wolves and myriads of frogs, their medita-
tions were anything but pleasant. They ar-
rived at their destination the next forenoon,
hungry and sleepy, where their acquaintances
accused them of having been on a spree the
night previous, judging from the reddened ap-
pearance of their countenances.

The courts continued to meet at Perryville
for more than three years, and until Greenville
was laid out and established as the permanent
county seat, which occurred in 1821. In the
chapters devoted to the history of Greenville,
the erection of the public buildings will be fully
given. For several years Bond Count}' contin-
ued to exercise jurisdiction over a large extent
of territoiy, as the following will serve to show :
At one of the Justices' Courts, held at Perry-
ville, an order was passed at a subsequent ses-
sion, when a license was granted authorizing
one Jones "to establish and keep in operation
a ferry over the Okaw River at Vandalia."
This large territoiy, however, was curtailed, as
we have seen, in the organization, some years
later, of Fayette, Montgomery and Clinton

Counties. Notwithstanding the rough state of
society then existing, and that the county con-
tained some pretty " hard cases," yet the laws
were, with few exceptions, strictly and prompt-
ly executed, without any serious resistance or
attempts at lynching. The only case of the
latter was that of a mau named Baker, arrested
on Big Shoal Creek for horse-stealing, where
he was tied to a tree, whipped, and then driven
from the county. He went to Vandalia, stole
another horse, and started east, but was pur-
sued, overtaken and shot near the Indiana line.
The precise date of this occurrence is not
known, but was probabl}' about the year 1820.
Bond County, in its civil organization, dif-
fers from a majority of the counties in the
State, in that it is not governed by township
rule, or more properly speaking, is not under
township organization. For civil purposes it
is divided into ten election precincts, which do
not correspond in territorial boundaries with
the Congressional surve}-, but are laid off accord-
ing to the best advantage, or to suit the will
of the people. These precincts, which are
more fully described iu other chapters, devoted
to each severally, are as follows : Greenville,
Ripley, Cottonwood Grove, La Grange, Poca-
hontas, Beaver Creek, Okaw, Fairview, Mulber-
ry Grove and Zion. These, as we have said,
are more minutely described ill chapters which
are devoted exclusively to them, and in which
everything of interest in regard to them are
fully given.

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

CHAPTER IV*

AGRICULTUKE IN EARLY TIMES— THE FUST PLOWS USED— HORSE COLLARS, HARNESS, TRACE
CHAINS, ETC.— 'GREEN HEADS "—WHEAT, AND THE MODE OF HARVESTING IT— AN INCI-
DENT—HOG RAISING— DIFFICULTIES OF TEAMING — ROADS TO ST. LOUIS AND
SPRINGFIELD— A SERMON UN A LOAD OF APPLES— BUILDING MILLS AND
OTHER MANUFACTORIES, ETC., ETC.

THE inhabitants of Bond County are an in-
telligent, industrious and enterprising
people, and are engaged mainly in agricultural
pursuits. In the early history of the country,
when Southern Illinois was but sparsely settled.
agriculture was in a very rude state, when com-
pared to the science to which it is now reduced.
The prime cause of this was the great lack of
agricultural implements, which were few in
number and of simple construction. Inventive
genius and Yankee enterprise had not yet been
employed in this direction to an} - great extent.
The plows in common use when the first settle-
ments were made within the present limits of
the county of Bond were of a rude character,
and of three kinds, viz., the " bar-shear," the
" shovel" and the " bull-tongue." To attempt
a description of the bar-shear plow would be
useless, as those who never saw one could
scarcely understand the description ; like the
alligator, it must be seen to be appreciated.
It was constructed on about as simple a plan
as could be imagined, having a heavy wooden
mold-board to turn the soil. The shovel plow
is yet in use and need not be. described. The
bull-tongue was like the shovel, though nar-
rower and longer.

With such implements as these it was im-
possible to do good plowing, the ground being
merely scratched over instead of broken up
deep. The harrows then had wooden instead
of iron teeth ; but a heavy brush drawn by a

> By R. O. White.

pair of horses or oxen usually served in their
place. As there were no seed drills of any
kind, the grain was all sown by hand, and cov-
ered by brushing or harrowing. Horse-collars
were made by plaiting and sewing together
corn-husks. They were constructed without
opening at the upper end, and put on the horse
by being pushed over his head, a feat some-
times difficult to accomplish, especially for
boys. The hames were much heavier than
those now used, and not plated with iron. A
raw hide or buckskin strap fastened them
together. When chains could not be procured
for traces, raw-hide, hickory withes, bark ropes
or dressed deer-skin served instead. These
were held up in proper position by a strap or
back-band made of the kind of material most
convenient, a piece of rope passed over the
back of the horse and tied to each trace, or a
strap of leather or hide two or three inches in
width and, in some cases, cloth obtained by
taking strips of the best parts of worn-out
pantaloons and other garments, sewing them
together and forming a band of the required
length and strength.

In addition to the lack of good plows and
harness, the early farmers were much troubled
and hindered by horse-flies, which annoyed
their horses during the plowing season to such
an extent that it was often impossible for them
to work except during a small portion of each
day — early in the morning and late in the even-

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

ing. The flies were most numerous in the
prairies and vicinity.

Some seasons, during •' fly-time," it was im-
possible to ride across any of the prairies. In
going a hall-mile, or mile at farthest, the
horse's neck and shoulders would be literally
covered with flies, which would cause him to
rear and jump about, or lie down and wallow to
get rid of them, so that the rider could not
maintain his seat. These flies were of a gray
color, with green heads, by which they attained
the name of " green-head flies." With the
rude plows and harness of the time an acre was
as much ground as one team would break up
in an entire day ; and hindered as they were
by flies in the spring of the year, the amount
plowed per day was much less. But, to com-
pensate for this want of culture, the wild land
was more productive than it is now, and the
people raised the most abundant crops, in pro-
portion to the ground cultivated.

.Most of the early inhabitants of Bond County
had emigrated from sections where corn was
the principal grain, and continued its cultiva-
tion here as their main crop, raising but little
wheat, notwithstanding it was of good quality
and fair yield. But, little as they did raise, it
was just about as much as could be harvested
with the implements they then had. For sev-
eral years after the first attempt at wheat-rais-
ing, the only means of harvesting was the old-
fashioned sickle or " reap-hook," as some called
it — a slow process — the man that could cut and
bind one acre per day being considered an
extra good hand. During harvest the people
in a neighborhood would unite, on the principle
that " many hands make light work," and be-
ginning at the farm where the wheat was ripest,
proceed to reap first one field and then another,
till all the grain was cut. They looked upon
harvest as a time of social enjoyment as well as
profit ; when the neighbors, male and female,
met together and had a good time generally.
Sickles were succeeded by grain-cradles, which

continued in use until superseded by reapers
and mowers.

Wheat was threshed by beating it with flails,
or laying the bundles down in a circle and
tramping them out by horses. As barns were
very scarce, the operation of threshing was per-
formed mostly on the ground, scraped off and
swept for the purpose. The grain was cleared
by slowly pouring it from a half bushel, or sift-
ing through a coarse riddle, in the wind, and
when this proved insufficient, an artificial cur-
rent of air was produced by two men holding a
sheet or coverlet at each end, and bringing it
round with a peculiar swing ; this served to
blow away the chaff and render the wheat toler-
ably clean. In consequence of the scarcity of
wheat, flour bread was quite a rarity, some
families having none at all, others enjoying the
luxury of biscuits for breakfast only on Sunday
morning.

The following incident will show the scarcity
of wheat bread, and how highly it was prized
by some persons : At a wedding party, the
bridegroom, after the Justice had pronounced
the words which bound two hearts together, for
" weal or woe," called him to one side, and
whether he gave him any money or not is un-
known, but he took from his capacious coat-
pocket six biscuits, with either of which one
could knock a man down at a distance of twenty-
paces, and giving them to him, exclaimed, " Here,
Squire, take these home with you, and keep
them expressly for yourself and the old woman ;
hide them away somewhere, so the children
can't get them, for you know what children
are." The bridegroom is yet living in Boud
County, and represents one type of the "old
settler."

Some of the first apple and peach orchards
in the State were planted in Boud County. For
many years it was noted for producing more
and better fruit than any of the adjoining coun-
ties, and at the present time, according to popu-
lation, it produces more apples than any other,

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

although the fruit is not as good as in former
years, owing to the severe droughts.

As most of the early emigrants settled in the
timber where nuts and acorns were plenty, they
paid but little attention to the raising of any
kind of stock except hogs. There was then but
one breed, a lank, sharp-nosed, long-legged,
ravenous hog, that ran in the woods at least
three-fourths of the year. Near the commence-
ment of winter, the settlers usually began to
hunt up their hogs for the purpose of convert-
ing them into pork.

These hogs, when found in the fall, were
more or less shy, many of them being half or
entirely wild. After finding them, the first en-
deavor was to tame them in the woods, and when
considered sufficiently gentle for the purpose,
they were brought home and put into an inclos-
u re, and afterward butchered.

Such was the commencement of hog-raising
in this county. Great improvements have been
made in this kind of stock in late years, both in
the breeds now reared and in the taking care of
them. Hog raising has become an extensive
as well as a valuable industry with our farmers.

The same imperfection and rudeness of con-
struction of other farm implements applied also
to wagons, which were clumsily and heavily
made, and drawn almost exclusively b} 7 oxen.
liuggies. and the lighter kinds of carriages, were
not used. When horses were worked to wagons,
the harness was of but little better quality than
that already described. Lines were ignored in
those days ; the driver rode the lead-horse, and
either held the reins of the other in his hand or
hung them on the hames of the leader. A
wagon, team and driver fitted up in the style of
fifty-five years ago, if now driven through the
streets of Greenville, would present quite a
grotesque and ludicrous appearance. When
people first began to drive with lines some of
the settlers ridiculed them, saying it was out
of the question for a man to drive horses as ac-
curately in that way as to ride one of them ;

that a horse could pull more, and with greater
ease with a man on his back than without, and
that it was all laziness, but notwithstanding
their misgivings, the new way of driving soon
became general, as everything always has done
which tends to ameliorate, or to do away with
an} 7 portion of manual labor.

The largest part of the hauling to and from
St. Louis — our only market at that time— was
done with ox teams. Wagons intended to be
drawn by oxen, were much more stoutly made
than others, in order to stand the rough usage
on the road, for it was no uncommon thing to
see six or seven yoke of oxen attached to one
wagon going to market in the spring, when
the mud was tough and almost bottomless.
The business of teaming necessarily increased
as the country became more populous, for this
was the only way in which produce could be
sent off, or merchandise procured. When
people first began to haul to and from St. Louis,
and for several years afterward, there were no
bridges across the streams on the route ; so the
reader can imagine some of the difficulties at-
tending those engaged in this business during
the spring or breaking up of winter. Even
after bridges were built over the larger streams
it was, at certain seasons, a serious undertaking
to perform the trip from Greenville to St. Louis
and back, and usually occupied from two to four
weeks, according to the state of the road. Per-
sons were often under the necessity of unload-
ing their wagons before going through a deep
mud-hole, and after driving through reloading
on the other side, carrying the load over by
peacemeal on their shoulders ; or worse than
this, undertaking to go through loaded, the
wagon would mire down, every wheel sinking to
the axle in the tough mud, and they be com-
pelled to wade through it knee deep or more,
and carry the loading out to solid ground.

After orchards were planted and apples be-
came an article ot produce, the settlers hauled
them to other points besides St. Louis. Being

II [STORY OF BOND COUNTY.

scarce, they always commanded ready cash,
and for several years it was not unusual to see
teams from Bond County taking them to
Springfield, a distance of eighty miles, over a
worse road than that to St. Louis.

The writer heard a sermon delivered about
twenty-seven years ago, by one of the primi-
tive preachers of Bond County, wherein he
related a case of miring down on the road
with a load of apples, about the year 1836, in
which he and another individual were the
principal actors. As nearly as can be recol-
lected, he described it in the following lan-
guage :

" M3- dear brethring and sisters, I'm a going
to tell you of a circumstance that happened to
your poor, unworthy speaker on the road to
Springfield with a load of apples. It is one
that I love to tell to my d3 T ing hearers, when-
ever I'm called upon to stand up and try, in my
stammering and imperfect manner, to preach
about the mysterious workings of Providence
toward the poor fallen sons and daughters of
men and wimmin-ah. Oh, my hearers, when I
think of that awful winter night, when we lay
out on the big prairie, with the wind and snow
and sleet a pourin upon us-ah ; and when we
had no fire and only about a quart of whisky
to keep us from freezing, I feel, nry dying con-
gregation, jest like the Lord had retched His
hand down from the shinin cauopits of heaven
and jerked me right out from between the very
jaws of death-ah. We were on the road to
market, my dear brethring, with a load of
apples. They were ' big Romanite ' apples,
put up in barrels, and were the finest apples I
ever saw-ah. We had my big wagon and four
yoke of oxens, and had on about forty hundred
pounds ; we had got along very well and were
making great calculations on gettin a good
price for our apples-ah. And right here, let
me tell you, my dying hearers, I learnt what it
is to feel disappointment and have all our cal-
culations blasted-ah. Along in the evening,

my brethring, it commenced raining a cold
rain, that soon wet us from head to foot, and
just about that time the wind turned to the
north, and the first thing we knowed it was
blowing and snowing and freezing, with all the
combined fury of the elements-ah. Then, my
congregation, we came to a big mud-hole,
where the ground had froze a little on top, but
not sufficient to hold up the wagon and team-
ah. When we drove into it, my hearers, the
wagon and oxens went in plumb up to the
hub-ah, and the poor unworthy worm of the
dust that stands before you to-day, my breth-
ring, was soon in the same deplorable condi-
tion-ah. But, my dear friends, we believed
we would get out safe, for we had a noble team
— all except the off ox at the wheel. Some-
times he was a little tricky and wouldn't pull
when it came to the pinch-ah ; and now, my
dear brethring and sisters, when we needed all
the help we could get, it seemed as if Satan
entered into that ox as he did into the swine of
old, and he stopped stone still and wouldn't
pull a pound-ah. So, my dear brethring, we
had to unload and carry them barrels of apples
about a hundred yards on our shoulders from
the wagon to the dry ground and lay them
down in the open prairie-ah ; and my dear,
I dying hearers, as we carried them barrels
through the mud, water, snow and ice, we sunk
in up to our knees at every step-ah. Then,
my dying congregation, we drove the wagon
and team out, and crawled into it, wet, cold
and hungry-ah ; and wrapped up and kept
ourselves alive with that little bottle
of spirits till morning-ah. When morn-
ing came, my dear brethring and sisters,
all our apples and two of the oxens' tails were
froze hard and were fit only to be taken back
and made into cider-ah. Thus you see, my
dear congregation, that it is through the mys-
terious workings of a spiritual power that your
unworthy servant stands before you to-day."
When the spring rains ceased and the roads

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

became dry, hauling was attended with fewer
difficulties. One of the greatest troubles, how-
ever, was the failing of the water-courses, which
became quite low in summer ; some of them
drying up entirely, and others having water
standing only in holes. This being the only
chance for watering teams, it was often a source
of much inconvenience. After traveling many
miles through the heat and dust, the oxen, of
course, grew very hot and thirsty ; in this con-
dition, all who are acquainted with their nature,
know that some of them are almost unmanage-
able when coming within sight of water. At
such times, they would start with a rush, not
stopping until the whole four or five yoke,
wagon and all, were in the water, or mud and
water, as deep as they could get, notwithstand-
ing the driver used every exertion to prevent
them from so doing. Sometimes they turned
so abruptly out of the road into the stream as
to upset the wagon in the operation, and some-
times the driver, fatigued with walking, would
be carelessly' seated on his wagon, when he
would find himself suddenly roused by the
sudden start of his team, and fearing an upset,
would be forced to jump from his seat, alight-
ing up to his knees, or coming down sprawling
in mud and water.

Such scenes as teamsters passed through in
the " olden times " until the building of rail-
roads, may truly be termed the times that tried
not onlyvmen's souls, but their temper and re-
ligion. The remark was often made, though
perhaps intended as a joke, that an}' one, not
even excepting a preacher of the Gospel, who
could drive an ox team through the mud to St.
Louis and back without swearing, would be re-
garded as one of the most remarkable men of
the age.

The price of hauling varied with the condi-
tion of the roads and the distance ; from Green-
ville to St. Louis it varied from 50 cents to a
$1 or more per hundred ; to Vaudalia it was
from $1 upward. This mode of transporta-

tion, although attended with so many incon-
veniences, was the only means of obtaining sup-
plies for a large scope of territory, and as late
as the year 1840, it was no uncommon thing to
see ox teams, in gangs of five or six from Effing-
ham County, passing through Greenville on
their way to St. Louis. They were noted for
offering venison hams for sale along the route ;
hence, some gave that county the appellation
of " Venison Ham County," a name which it
has long since lost the ability to sustain.

For several years after the first settlements
were made in this county, the pioneers were
compelled to do without mills of any kind.
The sparsely settled country did not justify the
expenditure required to erect mills even for
grinding corn. The nearest place for having
grain ground was at Edwardsville. For several
years after corn- mills were first built in this
section, the people had to take their wheat there
to have it ground into what they called flour,
though it would hardly be so considered at the
present day. Most of the people were content
if they had plenty of pork and corn bread, or
" hog and hominy," as they called it. Warm
corn "dodgers" and "johnny-cake," stewed
pumpkins, fresh spare-ribs and backbones, with
plenty of gravy, usually called " sop," varied oc-
casionally by a dish of wild game, were con-
sidered the sum total of good eating by the
early backwoodsmen.

In the year 1817, the first mill ever in Bond
County was built by Paul Beck, on quite a
primitive plan. It stood in the southwestern
part of Greenville, near the cemetery, and is
more particularly noticed in the history of
Greenville. The fine spring near this mill was
called " Beck's Spring." In a few years, other
mills were built, some of which ground wheat,
being supplied with a bolt turned by hand.
The first water-mill in the county was put up
on Shoal Creek, at Old Ripley, by Samuel Lee,
about 1819 or 1S20. E. R. Wheelock and
Wyatt Stubblefield erected mills on the East

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

Fork of Shoal Creek shortly after. Both of
these mills, together with their owners, have
long since passed away.

Most of the mills for grinding, in Bond
County, for a number of years, were horse-
mills, similar to Beck's, with the improvement,
however, of a large cog wheel instead of a raw
hide band, but they ground very slowly. Every
man had to hitch his own team to the machine
and grind his own grain. The large wheel was
furnished with two levers, so that either two or
four horses could be worked to it. The work
being much easier for four horses it was com-
mon for two neighbors to join teams, each put-
ting in a span of horses, and grind both their
grists. As an illustration of the inconven-
iences under which the people then labored to
obtain meal, some of them carried their grain
in sacks, on horseback, eight or ten miles to an
old horse-mill, where they sometimes had to
wait two or three days for their grinding.

Other manufactories were few in number
and on a par with mills in quality and impor-
tance. The first settlers being mostly from
the Southern States turned their attention early
to cotton-growing, and hence establishments
must necessarily be erected for its manufacture.
So, in the 3-ear 1820, Thomas Long put up a
cotton-gin not far from Stubblefield. A year
or two afterward Samuel White and Moses
Hintou put in operation a spinning-machine in
Greenville. Neither of these establishments
had a very extensive run, however, for their
owners had built them with the expectation of
obtaining supplies from the products of the
surrounding country. But it was found im-
possible to supply them with material, as it
was soon demonstrated that cotton would not

grow to do an} - good upon the soil of Illin-
ois. A tannery was started by Samuel White
in 1820, at the spring west of Greenville, the
first in the county. In 1822, James B. Ruther-
ford commenced the manufacture of hats in
Greenville, which he carried on for several
years. Other establishments of the kind were
started up from time to time. Somewhere
about 1823-24. Milton Mills started a wool-
carding machine in the county near Wisetown.
Many other small manufacturing establishments
were started, most of which, however, had but
a brief existence.

In the years that have gone, since the first
occupation of Bond County by the whites,
rapid strides have been made in every depart-
ment of life. Scarcely a trace now remains of
the old customs of the people. We are sur-
rounded by conveniences never dreamed of
fifty years ago. Instead of Beck's primitive
mill with its quaint " findings," we have a num-
ber of as fine mills as may be found anywhere.
We no longer have to wade through mud, snow
and rain with slow-going ox-teams to St. Louis,
but the iron-horse brings the best markets to
our very doors. It is no longer necessary to
go to Edwardsville for a physician ; every com-
munity has one of its own, always ready to
alleviate, so far as is possible, the ills of suffer-
ing humanity. Children are not compelled, as
of yore, to sit all day in a close, ill-ventilated
log-cabin, " to learn to cipher," but comfortable
schoolhouses are found in eveiy neighborhood.
Churches, with their lofty spires pointing to
heaven, dot the country everywhere. When
we view all this, we are forced to acknowledge
the Americans a progressive people, and the
present an age of improvement.

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

CHAPTER V.*

THE STATE OF SOCIETY IN EARLY TIMES — DAILY' USE AND MANUFACTURE OF WHISKY-
DRUNKENNESS, FIGHTING, AND OTHER INNOCENT AMUSEMENTS— SHOOTING MATCHES-
WORKING FKOLICS — GOLD AN1> SILVER MINKS OF THE COUNTY — GAYLORDS
SWINDLE— NEGRO SLAVERY — THE MAGOON KIDNAPING CASE — EARLY
PHYSICIANS, ETC., ETC.

IN the early history of Bond County, whisky
was considered as almost one of the neces-
saries of life, or at least " good in its place."
This "place" was nearly everywhere, embrac-
ing all occasions and applying to nearly every
condition of life. Of course, no one presumed
to uphold or advocate drunkenness, but a tem-
perate use of spirituous liquors, was not only
considered harmless, but in many cases abso-
lutely beneficial. Hence, distilleries were
erected, and the manufacture of whisky begun
soon after settlements were made in the coun-
try.

The first distillery in what is now Bond
County, was put in operation, in 181'J. by
George Donnell, at a spring about two miles
north of Greenville. Within a few years suc-
ceeding the erection of this one, several others
were built in different portions of the county.
one of which was at Beck's Spring, near the
graveyard (a very appropriate place for a dis-
tillery). The manufacture of whisky at these
distilleries was not carried on to a great extent,
nor for any considerable length of time. And
to the honor of Bond County be it recorded,
that there is not now an establishment within
its limits for the manufacture of ardent spirits.
At the time these distilleries were in operation,
and for several years after, intemperance pre-
vailed to an almost alarming extent. It is not
exaggerating to say, that whisky was in use,

*By B. 0. White.

either moderately or otherwise, by more than
one-half of the people in the county. On pub-
lic occasions, drunken men were so common,
that sober men seemed to be the exception.
At any time between the years of 1830 and
1845, it was nothing unusual to see twenty or
thirty men at one time, on election or muster
day, in Greenville, drunk, swearing and yelling
like Indians, the majority of them with coats
off and sleeves rolled up, wanting to resent an
insult which they fancied they had received
from some one whom they were trying to find.
Sometimes a fellow staggered against a tree, or
post, or came in collision with another indi-
vidual, and feeling the concussion, imagined
that somebody had struck him. In an instant
he would shed his coat and hat, and go rush-
ing through the crowd, endeavoring to find his
supposed enemy, and swearing that he was " a
boss," and could " whip his weight in wild
cats." And woe be unto the luckless indi-
vidual who was mistaken for the aggressor.
Many an inoffensive, respectable citizen re-
ceived rough treatment under such circum-
stances, and astonished his better-half by
returning home from an election, or muster,
with a smashed hat, black eye, or bloody nose,
to satisfactorily account for which, required, in
some instances, no ordinary amount of ex-
planation.

At the time of which we are writing, all the
the voting at a general election was done in

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

Greenville. On these occasions the people
from all portions of the county congregated
together and proceeded to settle their old
grudges. Quarrels were renewed, and fought
out, under the exhilarating influence of whisky.
People looked upon fights as inevitable on
public days, especially at elections, and were
disappointed if they did not occur. It was not
uncommon to see two or three fights in prog-
ress at the same time on an election day in
Greenville. These contests were conducted on
the regular old-fashioned "fist and skull"
st3'le — knives and pistols being seldom used.
Men prided themselves on their physical
strength, and for one to declare himself the
best man in the crowd was considered an in-
sult to be resented b} T everyone present. This
expression, " best man," had no reference to
anything further than mere bodily powers —
the finer feelings and nobler qualities of the
mind were not taken into consideration. It
may with safety be said that Main street, in
the old part of Greenville, has been the scene
of more hotly-contested fist-fights, louder yells
and oaths, and more brutal, as well as ludicrous
drinking revels, than all other places in the
county put together. On that street were
located the dram-shops where liquid ruin,
dealt out by glasses, quarts and gallons, sent
misery and destitution to all portions of the
community.

Other amusements, not quite so rough as
fighting, were engaged in by the inhabitants
on public days, such as wrestling, jumping,
running foot-races and shooting with the rifle.
Main street was, chiefly, the theater of these
sports, except shooting. The scenes connected
with them were more interesting, and occasion-
ally somewhat ludicrous, and numerous inci-
dents of the latter might be given, but space
will not permit.

Shooting with the rifle was practiced just
outside of the town, that there might be no
ihinger attending it. Certain individuals spent

the greater portion of every public day in this
exercise ; and many of them became ex-
pert marksmen, and very proud of their skill.
Shooting-matches were then of frequent occur-
rence. A beef was " put up," at a certain
price, to be shot for, each man paying a stipu-
lated amount — usually 25 cents— for every
shot. The best shots took the first choice of
the beef, the next best, the second choice, and
so on. About Christmas times, a live turkey,
fastened on a stump or fence at the distance of
a hundred yards, was sometimes put up and
shot at, the first man that drew blood taking
the turkey.

Bond County, as we have already stated, at
the time of its early settlement, abounded in
all of the wild animals common in this lati-
tude — bears, panthers, lynxes, wolves, cata-
mounts, wild cats, deer, and many kinds of
smaller game. Bears and panthers, however,
were not very numerous, and soon became ex-
tinct. A bear was killed in 1821, on Shoal
Creek, in the northwestern portion of the
county, which is the last account we have of
Bruin in this part of the State. But many of
the other animals remaining until a much later
date, gradually leaving the country, however,
as the settlements increased. A few deer and
turkeys are yet found in two or three localities
on Shoal Creek, where there are large bodies
of timber. As the wild animals disappeared
before the advance of the pioneer, a certain
class of people left also, or changed their mode
of living to the greater credit of the com-
munity.

The inhabitants were, for several years, an-
noyed by the ravages of wolves, which de-
stroyed many of their sheep and pigs. Wild-
cats and catamounts were also troublesome —
killing many young pigs and lambs. Wolves
continued so destructive that, as late as the
year 1842, wolf-hunts were organized, in order
to rid the country of these troublesome ma-
rauders. The writer attended one about that

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

time, in the prairie northwest of Greenville, a
description of which we will give as a sample.
The people assembled on horseback, and formed
a circle six or eight miles in diameter. At
a certain hour, all commenced moving toward
the center, and as the circle contracted, their
line became more compact.

The plan did not succeed well, only one wolf
being killed during the hunt. Wolves are very
suspicious of danger, and in nearly every case,
before the hunters got close enough together to
prevent it, they broke through the circle to the
outside, and escaped. This sport was both ex-
citing and amusing, and was often indulged in
by the earl}' settlers.

In those early times, the people were more
dependent on each other than at the present
day, and, as a consequence, more social and
accommodating. It was the general custom
for the neighbors all to meet and assist each
other in performing their heaviest work, such
as harvesting, log-rolling, house-raising, corn-
husking, etc., etc. In opening a farm, a great
many logs had to be burned, or taken off the
ground, before it could be plowed, hence log-
rollings were common. At these annual gath-
erings, the logs were collected in large heaps
suitable for burning, and men took special
pride in testing their manhood at the end of a
handspike.

At corn-huskings and various other gather-
ings common in those early days, lively, social
times were experienced by both sexes. When,
ever men met to roll logs, husk corn, or raise a
house, the ladies would have a quilting, " sew-
ing-bee," or something of the kind at the same
place. When night came, it was not uncom-
mon for the youngsters to have a dance or play.
The dances were old-fashioned reels, and were
sometimes continued till a late hour, and occa-
sionally they

"Danced all night till broad day light,"

when the young swains, with love-stricken

hearts, and warmly-beaming affections, deemed
it their duty to

" Go home with the girls in the raoruing."
Plays of various kinds, were as much in
vogue as dancing, but they have long since be-
come obsolete. Many persons, however, now
living, can look back to the scenes of those old
plays with pleasant memories. Who can think
of the old lines,

" Oh, sister Phebe, how merry were we,
When we sat under yon juniper tree."
Or,

" We're marching down to Quebectown,
And the drums are loudly beating.
The Americans have gained the day,
And the British are retreating,"

without thinking also of the " lads and lasses"
assembled on such occasions. Many delight-
ful reminiscences are connected with those
scenes, when memory calls them up from the
far distant past.

A great excitement was created here many-
years ago from a belief in the existence of the
precious metals in Bond County. Both silver
and gold were believed to be deposited at vari-
ous points in the middle, western and south-
western parts. Tales were related by some of
the old settlers, giving accounts of fabulous
quantities of silver ore being obtained here by
the French and Indians, more than a hundred
years before. The people credited these stories
and dreamed of future wealth and luxury.

Kobert Gillespie, living on Shoal Creek, a few
miles above Pocahontas, found shining particles
in the sand of a spring near his house, and
washing out a quantity, showed it to some fel-
low in St. Louis, who pronounced it pure gold.
This was enough ; the demand for Gillespie's
" dust " was such, that small quantities of it
were in the possession of various persons, in
order to compare it with such as might be found
on their own premises. About this time, a
man by the name of Gaylor, who was supposed
to know something about minerals, being a

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

" water witch," astonished the neighborhood by
announcing that he had discovered an inex-
haustible mine of silver on the land of Samuel
Hunter, near Indian Creek, about four miles
from Greenville.

A furnace was erected at the expense of Mr.
Hunter, and Gaylor went to work manu-
facturing silver. The business was carried on
for some weeks, producing but little silver, how-
ever, in proportion to, the amount of ore smelted.
Specimens of the metal had been tested by com-
petent judges, and found to be silver, and men
became almost insane with excitement, as they
beheld the treasure issue from Gaylor's cruci-
ble. Some individuals actually neglected their
business, spending days in wandering up and
down creeks, branches and ravines, and return-
ing at night with their pockets crammed full of
little pieces of the substance known as " horn-
blende," the shining particles of which they be-
lieved to be gold and silver.

Several of Hunter's neighbors, believing the
whole thing to be a deception, went, one after-
noon, to the furnace, where Gaylor was at work,
expressing a desire to see him smelt some ore
taken from the mine in question. He did so
producing a small quantity of metal which was
pronounced silver by all present. But while
stirring the mass of pulverized ore, one of the
men saw him drop a piece of silver coin into the
crucible, which fact he communicated to the
others. They then filled the crucible them-
selves with precisely the same kind of ore, and
placing it in the furnace, told him that, after
being thoroughly searched, he should smelt it,
with his coat off and sleeves rolled up. He re-
fused to do so, when they took him into custody
and proceeded to melt it themselves. After
heating and stirring the precious mass as he
had done, they poured it out, but no silver was
found.

Gaylor was taken to Greenville and lodged
in jail on a charge of swindling, but was soon
after released. He left the country, and thus

ended the gold and silver excitement in Bond
Count}-.

Strange as it may appear to the reader, slav-
ery existed in Bond County in the early period
of its history. A man named Houston, from
Kentucky, emigrated to this county and pur-
chased a farm three miles west of Greenville,
the place first settled and owned by Dr. Per-
due. He brought with him a number of slaves,
among whom were a woman named Fanny and
her two children, a boy and girl, Stephen and
Charitj - . His family soon became dissatisfied,
and he returned to Kentucky, taking all his
negroes with him except Fanny and her chil-
dren — she not being able at the time to travel.
They were left at the residence of Thomas
White, two miles west of town, until her recov-
ery, when she went to Greenville and hired to
work.

According to the laws of Illinois then in
force, she and her children were free, having
been in the State longer than the time specified,
sixty days. About this time, one Magoon
came to Greenville and stated that he had pur-
chased those negroes from Houston. He was
informed that they were free and could not be
removed without a violation of law. He then
formed a conspiracy with two citizens of Bond
County to kidnap them, which they carried
into effect one Sunday while the people were at
church. They wei - e pursued and captured at
Pearce's, on Silver Creek, in Madison County.
After being all brought buck, the negroes were
released and the kidnappers placed under bonds
for trial, but it appears were never brought
into court.

Magoon left the country, and remained away
until the excitement subsided a little, when he
returned and arranged with one of the Bate
mans, living on the Okaw, to steal the boy
Stephen, from a place north of Greenville,
where he had gone to live. Bateman succeeded
in kidnapping him, and carried him down into
the neighborhood where he lived. He was kept

HISTORY OF BOXD COUNTY.

concealed in the Okaw bottom until Magoon
found an opportunity to escape with him.

The excitement was intense, and a crowd of
resolute men soon started in pursuit. They
followed on to the neighborhood of the Bate-
mans, and spent several days searching in the
woods. Failing, however, to find the boy, the
pursuit was abandoned and the party returned
home.

Magoon succeeded in escaping south with
the boy, where he sold him into slavery, in
which condition he remained until liberated by
the late war between the States. He was
never heard from until near the close of the
rebellion, when he was found in the southern
part of Georgia, by a Bond Count}' soldier, to
whom he related the particulars of his cap-
ture and abduction. Bateman was one of the
Okaw desperadoes and drunkards, who were
wont to assemble in Greenville in the early
history of Bond County, on public days, to
drink and fight. He died not many years
since, in a state of intoxication, uttering with
his last breath the most horrible blasphemies.

Old Fanny's husband, Stephen Hudley, was
a slave in Missouri, and she, after years of toil,
saved money enough cooking, washing and
selling ginger cakes, to purchase his freedom,
and thus had the proud satisfaction of re-unit-
ing those sacred ties which had been sundered
by the curse of slavery. An attempt, as we
have seen, had been made to kidnap her and
her little children, not by slaveholders, from
whom nothing better could have been expected,
but by citizens of a free State — -the last men
it would be supposed, who would commit such
a dastardly act. But who can account for
human depravity ?

The health of the people of Bond County is
mueh better now than in former years. This
is attributable to the fact that there is less rain,
less decaying vegetation, fewer marshes and
stagnant pools, and a consequent diminution of
the vapors thus generated, which have proved,

in so many cases, fatal to the human family.
In addition to all this, we live in more com-
fortable houses, are better clothed, and expose
ourselves less to the inclemencies of the
weather.

The first physicians who located here were
Drs. William Perrine and J. B. Drake, from
New Jersey. Before this, when people became
sick, they had to send to Edwardsville for a
doctor. Both Dr. Perrine and Dr. Drake were
young men of talent and education, and well
versed in their profession. They soon got a
good practice, and became noted physicians.

Dr. Perrine married a Miss Townsend — the
daughter of a Presbyterian preacher,. residing
in the northwestern part of the county, and a
few years later removed with his family to
Florida. During the Seminole war, he was
murdered by Indians at his own house. Dr.
Drake removed to Greenville, where he con-
tinued the practice of medicine for many
years. He then engaged in the mercantile
business, and, still later, married, residing in
Greenville until his death.

As the county became more populous, other
physicians of eminence located here and ac-
quired considerable note as medical practition-
ers. During some of the sickly seasons, there
were not enough well persons to take care of
the sick. This state of affairs was not con-
fined to Bund County alone, but extended over
the southern part of the State. The year 1844
was, perhaps, the most unhealthy one ever ex-
perienced in this part of Illinois. Then, all the
physicians of this county resided in Greenville,
and, of course, their practice extended many
miles. They were kept going night and day.
during the sickliest portion, not only of 1844,
but of several years preceding, and after that
time.

There was much sickness then of a serious
and fatal character, }-et there were some per-
sons who would send for a physician for every
trifling illness. When an individual mounted

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

a horse to go for a doctor, he generally " put
him through," no matter what the distance, nor
what the disease, whether a sprained ankle, or
congestion of the brain ; the speed was about
the same. A man living ten or twelve miles
from Greenville was seen one day riding at a
fearful rate toward town, his horse in a foam of
sweat, and evidently going for a doctor in a
desperate case. He was hailed on the way,

when the following dialogue ensued : " Who's
sick?" "My brother." "What's the matter
with him ?" " He's bleeding." By this time
he had got so far off as to render further ques-
tions impracticable. It was afterwards ascer-
tained that his brother had only taken a spell
of bleeding at the nose, from which he soon
recovered.

LIBRARY

OF THE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

CHAPTER VI.*

RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY — THE FIRST PREACHERS AND THE FIRST CHURCHES-

TIIE METHODISTS AND PRESBYTERIANS— MOODY'S CAMP GROUND— SUNDAY SCHOOLS—

THE "JERKS "—TEMPERANCE— EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES— IMPROVEMENT IN

SCHOOLS — STATISTICS — THE PEOPLE AND THE STATE DEBT— WAR

HISTORY, ETC., ETC.

"Many things of many kinds."

THERE is no better evidence of moral ad-
vancement and Christian civilization in a
newly-settled community than the establish-
ment of churches. The history of Christianity
in Bond County ma}- be termed coeval with its
settlement by white people. The first preacher
of whom there is any authentic account made
his appearance in the county in the year 181G i
and was of the Methodist denomination, among
which were found those pioneer soldiers of the
cross, who preceded or followed close in the
wake of civilization in the West. Rev. Jesse
Hale, the pioneer minister of Bond County
preached his first sermon at the house of Robert
Gillespie, who lived two miles southwest of
Greenville, in the year mentioned (1816), and
where he continued preaching at intervals, dur-
ing that and part of the ensuing year. A
church, the first established in the county, was
organized in that neighborhood during the two
years of his ministration. What State he was
from, or where he went after this, cannot now
be ascertained.

The next preacher was Salmon P. Giddings
of St. Louis, a Presbyterian, who preached oc-
casionally at private houses, and in 1818 or
1819, organized a church at "Moody's Spring,"
about a mile southwest of Greenville. This
spring was so named for Andrew Moody, who
lived there several years, though the place was

•By R. 0. White.

first settled by Thomas Kirkpatrick. Here the
first church in Bond County was erected during
the year 1817, by the Methodist denomination.
It was built of hewed logs, and thirty feet
long by twenty-five feet in width. We have
not been able to ascertain the precise dates
when the first ministers belonging to each
of the denominations now in the count}- came
here, but those of the Baptists and Cumberland
Presbyterians arrived soon after the two already
mentioned, and those of the others at a still
later day.

At " Moody's Spring " the Methodists held
the first camp-meeting in. the county, and for a
series of years these meetings were annually
held there, so that it afterward became gener-
ally known as " Moody's Camp-ground." As
the county became more thickly settled, the
number of "camp-grounds " increased, and, for
many years, camp-meetings were annually held
in various portions by the Methodists and Cum-
berland Presbyterians. These gatherings of
the people for religious purposes took place in
July, August or September, when fruits and
vegetables were the most abundant, and provi-
sions to "feed the multitude" could most easily
be procured.

One of the most noted places in the county
for holding camp-meetings was situated near
the town of Newport, and called "Zion Camp-
ground," a brief description of which may not
be uninteresting to the reader. Many of us can

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

well remember its cool, shady arbor in the green
forest, with its primitive seats, the temporary
pulpit or " stand," in front of which, on a nail
driven in the trunk of a tree, was suspended
the tin trumpet or horn, by which the people
were called together for religious services ; the
tents with their straw-covered floors, forming
three sides of a square around the seated area,
at a distance of thirty or forty yards ; back of
these the cooking operations presided over by
old ladies with caps on their heads, and young
maidens with bright eyes, rosy cheeks and glossy
curls ; the space reserved for '• anxious seats,"
called the " altar," immediately in front of the
stand and covered with straw ; the shady and
well-beaten path to the cool spring, trickling
from its moss-grown sycamore gum ; the tables
spread with the choicest viands of the country,
of which all were invited freely to partake freely,
" without money and without price ;" and the
groups of singers in the tents, composed mainly
of young gentlemen and ladies, assembled for
the ostensible purpose of singing. All these,
and many other associations of these old camp-
meetings, will long remain fresh in the memory
of those who witnessed them.

Preaching then was very different from what
it is now, being generally of the noisy order.
Society, too, was in a rough state, and the
preaching, in order to rivet attention and be
effective, had to correspond with the times.
For, unless a speaker can gain the attention of
his audience and hold it, he may preach till
doomsday and then find that his time and
breath have been spent in vain. Thus the
style of preaching, as well as any other public
speaking, changes with the manners of the
people. In those early days, the preacher
who had the strongest voice and exercised it
most ; who could give the most extravagant
and over-wrought descriptions of heaven, hell
and the day of judgment, and could slash the
air with his hands and arms in the wildest man-
ner, was considered the greatest man by the

majority of the people. The singing partook
of the same noisy character as the preaching
and at night, with favorable wind, both the
singing and preaching might be easily heard
three miles.

With the rude state of society then existing
in the community, the behavior of some at
camp-meetings was not always of the best, and
ministers and members had much difficulty
some times in maintaining good order, espe-
cially at night. Notwithstanding their best
endeavors, frequent disturbances occurred after,
dark, such as shaving off horses' manes and
tails, smearing tar over the seats of saddles,
and throwing watermelon rinds, empty whisky
bottles, etc., into the altar among the mourners.
Taking all things into consideration, however,
the general behavior was as good as could have
been expected at that time ; and much as we
may now pride ourselves on our superior refine-
ment and deplore such conduct, we have, never-
theless, in our community at this day individ-
uals who are only restrained from committing
such disgraceful acts by the force of public
opinion and the laws of the land.

Though the religious exercises partook, to a
great extent, of this noisy character, and the
preachers were less polished in their phrase-
olog} - than at this time, yet the people were as
sincere in their profession of Christianity as
they are now. In proportion to number, there
were, doubtless, as few hypocrites among relig-
ious people and as much true piety as at the
present day. The pioneer ministers were not
all of the above type, but many possessed
talent and learning, used the best of language,
and were graceful and dignified in their preach-
ing. These backwoods preachers contributed
largely in their day to the morals of the com-
munity, and were mainly instrumental in laying
the foundation of the various religious denom-
inations in our county. They were not
ashamed to be seen traveling on foot or on
horseback many miles to meet their appoint-

HISTORY OF BOX!) COUNTY.

ments, often encountering hunger and thirst.
and exposing themselves to the inclemencies of
the weather.

The first Sunday school in the county was
organized in the year 181 S, at the residence of
William Robinson, about one and a half miles
northwest of Greenville. It was under the su-
pervision of the Presbyterian Church, which
we have already mentioned. It was composed
of grown people and children, and was termed
a Bible class or society. This school has been
kept up by that denomination ever since, but
meets now in Greenville, at the Old Presbyteri-
an Church, and is very justly entitled the pio-
neer Sunday school of Bond County. After
its organization, others, under the control of the
different religious denominations, were estab-
lished in various portions of the county, as new
churches were organized. The progress of
these schools was at first slow, but they gradu-
ally gained in strength and popular favor, keep-
ing pace with the various religious denomina-
tions, until there are now in every neighbor-
hood, not only neat, commodious churches, but
well-attended and flourishing Sunday schools.

Among the ministers of the Gospel who la-
bored here at an early day, may be mentioned
Bishop Ames, Peter Cartwright and James B.
Woollard, of the Methodist ; Peter Long, of the
Baptist, and Joel Knight, of the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church. These, with the excep-
tion of Peter Cartwright, have preached in
nearly all parts of the county. J. B. Wool-
lard and Peter Long have doubtless performed
more marriage ceremonies and preached more
funerals than any other two ministers in this
portion of the State. Of the early preachers
of this county long since dead, were Revs. John
Dew, John M. Peck, William K. Stewart, and
many others of the various denominations,
whom the old settlers can call to mind.

It is not inappropriate, in concluding this
sketch of the religious denominations of the
county, to notice briefly what was termed in

those early times " the jerks." Although not
so common here as in many other localities of
the Western country, yet they were of frequent
enough occurrence as to excite considerable
speculation as to their origin. There is little
doubt now, perhaps, that they were a species of
religious excitement, though many believed
then that they originated from witchcraft, or
were the direct work of Satan. Persons having
them were affected with violent convulsions,
their heads, necks and limbs being involuntari-
ly and forcibly jerked in every possible direc-
tion, their hands clenched, and their jaws
tightly set.

A young lady took the jerks one evening at
a camp-meeting at Mount Gilead, four miles
west of Greenville, about thirty-five years ago,
and so violent and rapid were her motions that
four men who attempted to hold her, to prevent
her being thrown against the benches or trees,
were unable to do so. Her hands were shut
more firmly than her natural strength seemed
to wan-ant. Attacks of this kind came on sud-
denly, lasting generally only a few minutes,
though sometimes longer, and occurred only at
camp-meetings, when the religious excitement
was at its greatest strain. There was anoth-
er phase or modification of the jerks, termed
•' the falling down exercise," in which the per-
sons affected suddenly fell down and lav per-
fectly helpless. Sometimes they remained in
this condition for several hours, but usually
only a short time, when they would rise to their
feet, and in most instances commence running
and leaping about, throwing their arms in even-
direction, manifesting all the symptoms of the
first form of the disease, with the exception
that, in the former cases, they seldom spoke a
word, but in the latter, after rising from the
ground, they often screamed, sang or laughed
in the wildest manner. Persons, after recover-
ing from one of these attacks, appeared li-iless
and dull for awhile, having little or nothing to
say to anyone, and utterly incapable of being

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

excited in any way whatever, until the return
of the paroxysm, which to some came every
night of the meeting, when the mourners were
called to the " altar.'' and the excitement again
became great.

From what has been said in a preceding
chapter of the prevalence of whisky-drinking
among the early settlers, and the general belief
that ardent spirits " were good in their place,"
it will not be supposed that Bond County was
a fruitful field for temperance organizations in
old times. Temperance societies were formed,
however, at different periods, between the years
1830 and 1840, though with but little perma-
nent success. A man would come along, de-
liver a lecture, organize a society, and, for a
while, all would go well ; but in the course
of a year or two, the whole thing went to
naught, and those of the members who had
been in the habit of drinking, like the Biblical
sow, " returned to their wallow."

As late as 1846, when the company for the
Mexican war from Bond County was organized
at Greenville, after the requisite number had
volunteered, the men were drawn up in line, on
the public square, and a bucket-full of whisky
brought out and distributed as a "treat," of
which most of them partook, drinking it out
of a tin dipper. It was not many years after
this, however, before the temperance cause be-
gan to gain ground, encountering more or less
opposition, until at present no one who is an
habitual drinker is admitted into the best
society, and no young lady of the community
will tolerate the addresses of a regular and
known dram-drinker. This state of things is
not so much attributable to the influence of
temperance organizations, perhaps, as to the
better training and education of the present
generation.

The schools and educational facilities of the
county now claim our attention, and follow
very appropriately the history of the churches.
Both possess refining influences, and furnish

the highest standard of the civilization of all
communities. It is a characteristic feature of
all American settlements that among their first
efforts of a public nature is the establishment
of churches and schools. The early school-
houses in Illinois were rude, and constructed
upon a primitive plan.

The first school in the county was taught, in
the year 1819, by Thomas White, in a little log
cabin, on the hill west of Greenville, between
the residence of Mrs. Black and where Samuel
White's tanyard was situated. This school
was small, as the inhabitants were few, some of
whom had no education themselves, and did
not care whether their children ever received
any or not. But as the population increased,
schools sprang up in various parts of the
county, whenever a neighborhood became
strong enough to sustain one. In some in-
stances, where but two or three families lived
near each other, they sent off several miles
to those similarly situated, took in children
and boarded them free, in order to have a
school that would justify the paying of a
teacher.

There being no school fund then, every man
paid for the tuition of his children out of his
own pocket. The price of teaching was from
$1.50 to $2 per scholar per quarter — equiva-
lent to $12 or $15 a mouth, for a school of
twenty-five pupils, which was more than any
school in the county averaged for many years.

The schoolhouses, for many years, were built
of logs with puncheon floors, weight-pole roofs,
and wide chimneys of wood and clay, on a par
with the dwellings of the settlers themselves.
The seats were long benches made of puncheons
or slabs, without backs, and frequently so high
that the feet of the smaller pupils could not
touch the floor, and it was quite an irksome
task for the little fellows to sit from early in
the morning till late in the evening, with noth-
ing to support their backs, aud their legs
dangling from the rough seats. It is no won-

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

der, then, that some scholars, instead of going
on to school when they left home in the morn-
ing, often played truant all day, concealing
themselves in the bushes till the usual time to
return in the evening. This trick the writer
remembers having been guilty of several times.
He once lay all day in a field of tall rye, near
harvest, when the heat of the sun and his thirst
were far more intolerable than sitting on a
bench at school.

The schools were conducted on the most
noisy plan imaginable. They received the ap-
pellation of " vocal schools," that is, the schol-
ars spelled, read and " ciphered " aloud while
studying their lessons, as well as when reciting,
and such another jargon of unintelligible
sounds as one of those schools presented has
never been witnessed, perhaps, since the con-
fusion at Babel. Some of the pupils tried to
study, others gabbled away with all their might
without uttering an intelligible sound, and the
noise made rendered it almost impossible for
the instructor to tell who were studying and
who were not. But the culminating point
came, when they were told to study the i: spell-
ing lesson," which was the last one recited be-
fore school " turned out " at noon and in the
evening, and was participated in by all the
scholars. The noise then produced has been
often heard at the distance of more than a
mile. When the teacher wished the class to
recite, he brought his foot to the floor with a
loud and vigorous stamp, which shook the
whole house, and had the effect of stilling the
noise for a moment, similar to the throwing of
a billet of wood into a pond of croaking frogs.
The whole school would instantly rise to their
feet and make an unceremonious rush for " their
places," recklessly running against or over each
other.

Occasionally, a "downy-chinned'' lad, un-
der the influence of " puppy love," took ad-
vantage of the confusion to imprint or, rather,
daub a kiss on the cheek of some fair damsel,

whom he imagined as far gone in the tender
passions as himself*

The teacher of one of these noisy schools
once gave his usual stamp to call up the class,
when his foot came down upon the end of a loose
puncheon, which fell beneath his weight, letting
him through as far as he could go. and tearing
one leg of his pantaloons from, the ankle to the
knee on a nail. The effect upon the school, of
course, was a serious and melancholy one.
Some of the teachers, when pronouncing the
words to the class, or " giving out " the lesson,
as it was called, spoke as though they intended
not only their pupils, but many of the neigh-
bors to hear them.

When schools prohibiting pupils from study-
ing aloud first began to be taught, they were
called " silent schools," and such was the preju-
dice in favor of the old, noisy system that in
some neighborhoods it was made the test of
qualification of teachers. School books then
were scarce, Webster's Spelling book, the En-
glish Reader, New Testament and Pike's Arith-
metic constituted the list of books used for
many years.

Male teachers only were employed for several
decades after the first organization of schools in
this county. Female teachers were so scarce
that none offered their services, and had they
done so, the prejudice against them was so
"■reat that no neighborhood would have em-
ployed them. So great was the opposition to
female education, many of the first settlers of
the county held that all the education a girl
required was to be able to read the Bible and
Testament and write well enough to sign her
own name. Some would not even go this far,
but allowed her only the privilege of learning
to read. When speaking of the literary attain-
ments of a girl, it was a common remark, "she
has education enough for a woman ! "

Our educational interests and facilities,

*[This was a part of the performance, wo presume, that was loft
off the programme. — Ed.]

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

though at first so inferior, have gradually kept
improving as the county increased in popula-
tion and wealth, aided by wise legislation, until
we have arrived at our present system of free
schools, of which all may feel justly proud.
Below we present the following condensed
school statistics of Bond County, as a matter of
interest :

Number of white persons in the county
betwei n the ages of six and twenty-one
years 4,618

Number of colored persons in the county
between the ages of six and twenty-one
years 32

Total 4,650

Number of schools in the county 69

Number of districts in the county 69

Number of scholars attending school 3,685

Number of teachers Ill

Number of male teachers 67

Number of female teachers 44

Number of brick schoolhouses 12

Number of frame schoolhouses 57

Number of log schoolhouses 2

Amount paid male teachers $14,501.64

Amount paid female teachers 7,512.98

Highest monthly wages paid any male

teacher 125

Lowest monthly wages paid any male

teacher 25

Highest monthly wages paid any female

teacher 50

Lowest monthly wages paid any female

teacher 20

The highest monthly wages paid to male
teachers are in Township 5, Range 3, $165 ;
Township 4, Range i, $65 ; Township 4, Range
3, StiO. The lowest wages paid to males arc in
Township 7, Range 3, $25 ; Township 4, Range

2, $28. The highest monthly wages paid to
females are in Township 5, Range 3, $50 ;
Township 6, Range 4, $45 ; Township 7, Range

3, $40. The lowest are in Township 4, Range
2 and Township 6, Range 3, Township 4, Range

4, and Township 7, Range 4, each $20 per month.
Alruira Female College, beautifully situated

in Greenville, is an educational institution of

which Bond County may well feel proud. It
was founded in 1857, and is in a very flourish-
ing state. A full history of it, however, will be
found in the chapters devoted to the history of
Greenville.

The citizens of Bond County have not been
behind those in airy other portion of the State
in asserting their opinions, demanding their
rights, or responding to the calls of patriotism.
As an instance of their readiness to make a
public declaration of opinion, thej - were the first
in the county to oppose what was called the
" internal improvement bill," passed many years
ago by the Legislature, the following notice of
which appears in Ford's History of Illinois,
page 201 :

" The people of Bond County, as soon as the
internal improvement system passed, had de-
clared in a public meeting that the system
must lead to taxation and utter ruin ; that the
people were not bound to pay any of the debt
to be contracted for it ; and that Bond County
would never assist in paying a cent of it. Ac-
cordingly, they refused to pay taxes for several
years." The citizens of the county were correct
in their conclusions, for in a few years the sys-
tem went down, and left the State in the almost
bankrupt condition they had foretold, with a
debt of $14,000,000 hanging over it. When
the subject of paying this debt by increased
taxation came up in 1S44, William S. Wait ad-
dressed a very able letter to Thomas Ford,
Governor of the State, in opposition to the plan

In patriotism the county has been equally
prompt in maintaining her position. When the
State of Illinois was called upon for four regi-
ments of volunteers for the Mexican war, in
1S46, Bond County furnished one company of
ninety-three men. This company had the fol-
lowing officers : Benjamin E. Sellers, Captain ;
J. M. Hubbard, First Lieutenant ; S. G. Mc-
Adams, Second Lieutenant, and I. N. Red-
fearn, Third Lieutenant. Of this number only
about forty men returned at the close of the

HISTOKY OF BOND COUNTY.

campaign, the remainder having died or been
discharged on account of sickness. But few of
them are now living in the county.

During the late rebellion, the county, small
as it is. furnished five companies of cavalry,
besides several companies of infantry.

Notwithstanding so many companies went
from this county into the late war, many of the
citizens strongly opposed it. In consequence
of their opposition, much excitement prevailed
during a portion of the time, resulting, how-
ever, in no very serious trouble, except in a
few instances. Many occurrences, both ludi-
crous and otherwise, might be related, but lest

the} stir up and keep alive old prejudices and
differences, they will be passed over in silence.
Suffice it to say, in conclusion of the county's
war record, that those who went forth to battle
for their country's honor acquitted themselves
as became American soldiers, and their history
in the long and dreadful four years' struggle
was that of all the soldiers from Illinois — noble
and honorable. Those who met a soldier's
death fell in a high and holy cause ; those who
survived the struggle and returned home en-
joy the proud consciousness that the Union
was preserved — the government unshaken.

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

CHAPTER VII.*

RAILROAD HISTORY— THE INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM— OLD NATIONAL OR CUMBERLAND
KOAD— MISSISSIPPI AND ATLANTIC RAILROAD— THE EARLY DIFFICULTIES IN ITS CON-
STRUCTION—FINAL COMPLETION— THE PRESENT VANDALIA LINE— OFFICERS OF
THE ROAD, ETC.— THE PRESS OF BOND COUNTY— EARLY NEWSPAPERS—
"ADVOCATE" AND ITS ANTECEDENTS— THE "SUN," ETC.

ALL who are acquainted with the history
of Illinois, will remember the old In-
ternal Improvement System, which well-nigh
wrecked the Commonwealth. For a time it
seemed as if the whole country had gone wild
upon the subject of internal improvements,
and railroads and canals were chartered with-
out regard to cost or eligibility of location.
Illinois took a front rank in this reckless ex-
penditure, and voted away millions of money
for internal improvements. But it is not our
intention to go into details upon the subject —
a subject that man} 7 still living in Bond Coun-
ty are familiar with. It is merely alluded to
by way of introduction to the internal im-
provements of the county.

The old National road was the first internal
improvement in which Bond County took an
active interest. Perhaps no work has ever
taken place in the United States, of a public
character, which excited so much interest
throughout the country as the " National, or
Cumberland road " from Washington City to
St. Louis, with a branch diverging at Zanes-
ville, Ohio, passing through Kentucky, Tennes-
see, and on to New Orleans. Not even the
Union Pacific Railroad excelled in magnitude
the enterprise of the Old National road in its
day, and which passed through Vandalia and
Greenville on to St. Louis. For years it was
the great question in the National Congress, as

»By W. H. Perrin.

the Mississippi River Improvement is now the
all-absorbing theme in that august body. Our
space, however, will not allow a sketch of this
great project, and the reader is referred to other
publications for its histoiy. The remarks upon
this road, as well as the old internal improve-
ment system, are but prefatory to the sub-
joined sketch of the Mississippi & Atlantic
Railroad, now so extensively and favorably
know everywhere as the "Vandalia Line."
The history of this famous railroad thorough-
fare is written by Mr. Williamson Plant, who
has been connected with it from the very in-
ception of the enterprise, and is perfectly
familiar with its career from the original sur-
vey to the present time. He has written it up
fully, and the article will be found interesting
to all the friends of the road. It is as follows :

The first railroad that gave an}- assurance to
the people of being built through Bond Coun-
ty was the Mississippi & Atlantic Railroad
from St. Louis through Greenville, Vandalia,
Terre Haute, connecting with lines to New
York.

One of the most earnest workers for that
road was the Hon. William S. Wait, who was
one of Bond County's oldest and most re-
spected citizens. His letter written in June,
1863, to ex-Gov. B. Gratz Brown, of St. Louis,
will fully explain the difficulties that sur-
rounded, and finally overcame that road :

"The railroad projected so early as 1835 to

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

run from St. Louis to Terre Haute, was in-
tended as the commencement of a direct line
of railway to the Atlantic cities, and its first
survey (of which a copy is inclosed) was taken
over the exact line of the great ' Cumberland'
road. We applied to the Illinois Legislature
for a charter in 1846, but were opposed by
rival interests, that finally succeeded in estab-
lishing two lines of railroad connecting St.
Louis with the Wabash — one by a line running
north, and the other by a line running south of
our survey, thus demonstrating by the unfail-
ing test of physical geography that our line is
the central and true one. The two rival lines
alluded to, viz., Terre Haute & Alton and Ohio
& Mississippi. We organized our company
with the name of the ' Mississippi & Atlantic
Railroad,' in 1850, by virtue of a General
Railroad Law passed the year previous, and
immediately accomplished a survey. An ad-
verse decision of our Supreme Court led us to
accept the otter of Eastern capitalists to help
us through, who immediately took nine-tenths
of the stock, and gave us John Brough for
President. Our right to construct was finally
confirmed in February, 1854 ; the road put
under contract, and the work commenced. The
shock given to all railroad enterprise by the
■ Schuyler fraud "' suspended operations, and
before confidence was restored, the controlling
power, which was enthroned in Wall street,
had arrived at the conclusion, as we afterward
discovered, to proceed no further in the con-
struction of the Mississippi & Atlantic Rail-
road. For purposes best understood by them-
selves, the Eastern managers amused us for
several years with the hope that they were
still determined to prosecute the work. When
we were finally convinced of the intentional
deception, we abandoned the old charter and
instituted a new company under the name of
the 'Highland it St. Louis Railroad Company'
with power to build and complete by sections
the entire road from St. Louis to Terre Haute.

The charter was obtained in February, 1859,
with the determination on the part of the
Highland corporators to make no delay in con-
structing the section connecting them with St.
Louis, but were prevented at the outset by
difficulties, since overcome, and afterward by
the existing rebellion.''

The foregoing letter portrays truthfully some
of the prominent difficulties with which Bond
and other counties on the central line had to
contend. State policy was openly urged bj-
many of the leading men north and south of
the " Brough road," as it was generally called.
Hon. Sidney Breeze, a long resident of Car-
lisle, on the line of the Ohio & Mississippi
Railroad, publicly declared for that doctrine.
" that it was to the interest of the State to en-
courage the policy that would build the most
roads through the State ; that the north and
south roads (alluded to in Mr. Wait's letter)
should first be allowed to get into successful
operation, when the central line should then
be chartered, as the merits of that line
would insure the building the road on that
line at once, giving to Middle Illinois three
roads instead of one, as the chartering of
the central line first would be a death blow
to the other two, at least for many long years
to come." Mr. Wait replied immediately, say-
ing it was the first instance he had ever known
where the merits of a railroad line had been
urged as a reason why it should not meet with
merited encouragement, and after more than
$100,000 was expended on the " Brough " road,
further work on it was, of the necessity before
referred to, suspended.

In February, 1865, the rebellion nearing its
close, the people along the " Central Line," or
''Brough" survey, again renewed their peti-
tion to the Illinois Legislature for a negotia-
tion of their right to build their railroad on
their long-cherished route.

On the 10th of February, 1865, a liberal
charter was granted for building the pros-

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

ent St. Louis, Vandalia & Terre Haute Rail-
road. The line was designated in the charter
as " commencing on the left bank of the Mis-
sissippi River, opposite St. Louis, running
thence eastwardly through Greenville, the
county seat of Bond County, and through Van-
dalia, by the most eligible route, to a point
on the River Wabash." The persons named
therein as incorporators were Henry Wing, T.
W. Little, John S. Dewy. Andrew Mills, Solo-
mon Koepfli, Garritt Crownover, Curtis Blake-
man, William S. Smith, Charles Hoiles, William
S. Wait, John B. Hunter, Williamson Plant,
Andrew G. Henry, Jediah P. Alexander, Na-
thaniel M. McCurdy, August H. Dieckmann.
Ebenezer Capps, Frederick Remann, Mathias
Fehren, Michael Lynch, Thomas L. Vest, J. F.
Waschfort, Samuel W. Quinn, Chauncey Rose
and Joseph H. Morgan. The citizens of Bond
County led in the enterprise of building the
road, not only by words, but by liberal indi-
vidual and county subscriptions. The county,
"small in territory, made the liberal subscription
of $100,000, payable in fifteen annual install-
ments willi 10 per cent annual interest, all of
which has been met promptly, and at this date
only $16,000 remain due. all of which will be
paid this year, the tax being already collected
for that purpose, and Bond County will be free
from debt, but the advantages in the use of the
road to the people, and the yearly tax paid by
the railroad company will continue as long as
taxes are levied and collected. The railroad
tax paid in Bond County for 1881 amounted to
64.374.29. The individual subscriptions in
Bond County were some $46,000 at Greenville
and 824.000 at Pocahontas, were not only
promptly paid as called for, but some half
dozen citizens of Greenville, viz., W. S. Smith,
J. F. Alexander, Williamson Plant, Andrew G.
Henry and others, gave to the Highland sub-
scribers their individual guaranty to refund
their $65,000 subscribed by them and being
then paid out on call as the work progressed,

if the road was not finished to Highland by
July 1, 1S6S. as per condition in their sub-
scriptions.

The road was completed to that point at the
date agreed upon, and the Highland subscribers
finished the payment of their subscription
promptly. And although of the citizens of
Bond County it may be said they led in start-
ing this great railroad enterprise, which has led
to the building one of the most popular lines
across the State of Illinois, the fact should not
be overlooked that Collinsville, Highland, Van-
dalia. Effingham and Clark County did then-
duty nobly. The entire subscription list along
the line amounting to $500,000, and was divided
as follows :

Collinsville and vicinity, individual $ 9,600

Highland, individual, and about $10,000

from St. Louis 75,000

Highland City 10,000

Pocahontas, in Bond Count}', individual.... 24,100

Greenville, in Bond County, individual .... 46,000
Greenville City, in Bond County, for depot

building 8,000

Bond County 100,000

Vandalia. in Fayette County 50,000

Douglas Township, in Effingham County. . . 50,000

Tentopolis, in Effingham County 15,000

Moccasin, in Effingham County .1.0110

Summit, in Effingham County 10,000

Clark County 100,000

Individual subscriptions in Clark County. .. 2,700
Individual subscriptions in Cumberland

County 600

Total .... , $500,000

The first meeting of the Board of Corpora-
tors was held at Vandalia, 111., on the 14th day
of November, 1S65, for the purpose of organ-
izing and electing a Board of nine Directors,
with following result : John Scholfield, and
Charles Duncan, Clark County, 111.; Samuel
Quinn, Cumberland County. 111.; J. P. M. How-
ard and L. W. Little. Effingham County, 111.;
C. Floyd Jones and F. Remann, Fayette Coun-
ty, 111.: WilliamS. Smith and Williamson Plant ,
Bond County. 111.

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

At the first meeting of the Board of Direc-
tors held at Effingham on the 22d day of No-
vember, 1865, for the purpose of electing the
first officers of the company, H. P. M. Howard
was elected President, and Williamson Plant,
Secretary.

Through the influence of E. C. Rice, who was
chief engineer of the "Brough" survey, and
had made estimates for the work under the
same. Gen. E. F. Winslow, a gentleman of great
energy and considerable railroad experience,
after various propositions being made to build
part of the line, or parts of the road, contract-
ed. Augusl 22, 1 866, to build the entire line from
the '■ west bank of the Wabash, to the east
end of the dyke at Illinoistown." Thecoutract
was finally ratified at a meeting of the Board
of Directors held at Vandalia November 14,
1866. An additional agreement was entered
into November 28, 1866, and made part of the
original.

The first shock received by the Railroad
Company in the outset, was the lamented death
of its earnest leader and judicious friend, Hon.
William S. Wait, July 17, 1865, thereby de-
priving them of his mature judgment and wise
counsel in making and carrying out the con-
tract about to be entered into for the building
of the road under the charter so recently ob-
tained from the Legislature.

In 1867, first mortgage bonds were put on
the ■• property, rights, franchises, leases and es-
tate," etc., of the company to amount of $1,-
900,000. When the property was leased in Feb-
ruary, 18G8, a second mortgage was put on the
same to amount of $2,600,000, each mortgage
bearing 7 per cent interest, payable semi-annu-
ally. For the purpose of further equipment of
the road, preferred stock has been issued to the
amount of §1,541,700, bearing 7 per cent
interest. The issue of $2,000,000 has been au-
thorized. This stock will take precedence over
the common stock of the company in receiving
dividends, and as the interest on the preferred

stock may accumulate before any payment
thereof, the prospect for dividends on common
stock is remote.

By mutual understanding between the con-
tractor and the company, E. C. Rice was en-
gaged as Chief Engineer of the company Jan-
uary 18, 1867, and he commenced the first sur-
vey on the west end of the line in March, and
the grading was begun as soon as the line was
fixed at the west end, in April following. At
the same meeting a code of by-laws was adopt-
ed, and Greenville was designated as the gen-
eral office of the company.

At the annual election held in January, 1867,
J. P. M. Howard was re-elected President, Will-
iamson Plant, Secretary, and W. S. Smith,
Treasurer. April 3, 1867, Mr. Howard gave
up the position, on request, and J. F. Alexander
was chosen President of the Company in his
place. This gave to Bond County all the officers
of the company, and at the same annual elec-
tion Bond County had three of the nine Direct-
ors. By the charter the company was author-
ized to issue first mortgage bonds not to ex-
ceed $12,000 per mile. The capital stock was
made $3,000,000, which could be increased al
an annual meeting by a majority of stockhold-
ers in interest, as they should direct.

At the annual election in January, 1SGS, five
Directors from Bond County were chosen out
of the nine, viz.: J. F. Alexander, W. S.
Smith, Andrew G. Henry, William S. Wait, Jr.,
and Francis Dressor. The same officers, J. F. Al-
exander, President, Williamson Plant, Secretary,
and William S. Smith, all from Bond County, were
re-elected, giving to Bond County again all the
officers and a majority of the Directors. Men-
tion is made of these facts only to show that
in the building of the road Bond County citi-
zens were considered and acknowledged as
leading in the enterprise. This may be owing,
in some degree, to the geographical position of
the county, being twenty mrles from Green
ville north, south or east to any railroad ad-

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY

vantages. It is not the intention of this arti-
cle to detract in any way from the many per-
sons and places along the line that responded
with their liberal subscriptions. Highland, and
the country around it in particular, by their
heavy individual, though conditional, subscrip-
tions, are deserving special recognition for the
same. The road was completed to Highland
by July 1, 1868, and the stock was issued to
the subscribers, and they paid up in full as
specified in their subscriptions. The first reg-
ular passenger train did not run, however, until
August 20. 1868, from Highland to St. Louis.

B} - the consent of the railroad, company G-en.
Winslow as contractor was paid $120,000 for
labor expended on the line to the 10th day of
February, 1868, and at his request was released
from his contracts. The same was ratified and
accepted by the company at their meeting
March 13, 1868. The railroad company en-
tered into a contract February 10, 1868, with
Thomas L. Jewett and B. E. Smith, of Ohio ;
George B. Roberts, of Philadelphia, and W. R.
MeKeen, of Terre Haute, in the firm name of
McKeen, Smith & Co., to complete the road at
an earl}- day. At the same time and place an
agreement was entered into, leasing the St.
Louis, Vandalia & Terre Haute Railroad to
the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad
Company. In the report of the President of
the Vandalia Company made to the stockhold-
ers at their annual meeting held at Greenville,
111., January 6. 1872, he says :

" When, on the 10th day of February, 1868,
the contract was made insuring the completion
of your road, another contract was also made,
providing for its forming a part of a continuous
railroad line from St. Louis (via Indianapolis) to
Pittsburgh ; and for perfecting this object your
line was leased for a period of 999 years to the
Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad Company,
for the joint interest of this company and the
several railroad companies forming the said line.
Under this lease, the lessees were to work your

road at their own cost and expense, and to pay
to your company thirty-five (35) per cent of the
gross earnings, first paying therefrom all the in-
terest due on the bonds of the company, and all
taxes assessed against the property of the com-
pany, advancing any deficit in the amount
needed to meet these liabilities and paying the
surplus (if any remained) of the thirty-five (35)
per cent to your company. Your board, in view
of the light traffic usually done upon a new line,
reduced the proportion due your company of
the gross earnings to thirty (30) per cent, pro-
vided, that after payment b} - the lessee of the
cost and expense of working your road out of
the sevent}' (70) per cent received for that pur-
pose, if any surplus remained it should go to
your company."

From small earnings from the time the road
was opened, first to Highland and Greenville in
1868, and finally through to Terre Haute, July
1, 1870, it has developed a marvelous increase
of business, not only to the road, but to the
farming and all other industries along the line.
The whole cost of the road and equipment of
the same to July 1, 1S68, when the contractors
turned the road over to the lessee, was $7,171.-
355.89, which has increased steadily as the line
is more fully developed by " rolling stock " and
" betterments," etc., on the road, until the last
report of Treasurer W. H. Barnes, made the
total cost of road and equipment to October 1,
1S80, $8,330,410.75. The amount of business
over this line, for the past year, aggregates
$1,565,515.04 ; and the rental due to the com-
pany from the lessee for the year ending Octo-
ber 31, 1881, was $469,654.50 ; and for the
same time, $424,827.04 was earned in carrying
passengers, $43,490.57 for express, and $90,-
835.98 for mail services.

Under the management of McKeen, Smith <k
Co., the line was completed to Greenville on the
5th of December, 1868 ; the first passenger train
reached Greenville on the night of December 7,
and the first regular passenger train on schedule

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

time, from Greenville to St. Louis, was on the
morning of December 8, 1868.

The first train ran into Effingham April 26,
1870. On the 8th of June, 1870, an excursion
train was run through from Indianapolis to St.
Louis, over the St. Louis, Vandalia & Terre
Haute Railroad ; and the first regular passen-
ger train, over the whole line on schedule time,
was on the 12th day of June, 1870 ; and, as
mentioned before, the contractors turned over
the road as per contract to the Terre Haute &
Indianapolis Railroad Company, Jul}' 1, 1870.

At first, one passenger train each way was
started, but soon found necessary for two ; and
now four regular trains each way for passen-
gers, and twice as many freights, are needed to
keep up with the increasing business. Boud
County furnishes its full share of the heavy
business of the road as it passes through the
county from west to east, passing through
Oakdale, Pocahontas, Stubblefield, Greenville,
Smithboro and Mulberry Grove.

The St. Louis, Vandalia & Terre Haute Rail-
road is 158 miles from East St. Louis to east-
ern line of the State, and seven miles from State
line to Wabash River at Terre Haute.

The interest of the people of Bond County in
the Vandalia Railroad is such that the history
of the county would be incomplete without, not
only a history of the road, but a detailed his-
tory or record so far as can be given of those
who have been and now are connected with the
same, probably made more appropriate as the
general office of the company is located at
Greenville, where the annual meetings of the
stockholders and directors are held.

Presidents— J. P. M. Howard, Effingham, 111.,
November 22, 1865, to April 3, 1867 ; J. F.
Alexander, Greenville, 111., April 3, 1867, to
February 15, 1871 ; George B. Roberts, Phila-
delphia, February 15, 1871, to January 11, 1876 ;
Thomas D. Messier, Pittsburgh, January 11,
1876, to present time.

Treasurers — William S. Smith, Greenville, 111.,

January 18, 1867, to April 14, 1869 ; Williamson
Plant, Greenville, 111., April 14, 1860, to Febru-
ary 15, 1871 ; Albert Hewson, Philadelphia,
February 15, 1871, to June 26, 1871 ; William
P. Shinn, Pittsburgh, June 26, 1871, to Janu-
ary 11, 1876 ; W. H. Barnes, Pittsburgh, Janu-
ary 11, 1876, to present time.

Secretary, Williamson Plant, Greenville. 111.,
November 22, 1865, to present time.

Superintendents and General Managers — R.
B. Lewis, first Superintendent in 1868 ; J. W.
Conlogue, second Superintendent, 1869 and
1870 ; Charles R. Peddle, third Superintendent,
1869, 1870 and 1871 ; Maj. John E. Simpson,
General Superintendent, from 1S70 to 1876. and
General Manager from 1876 to the time of his
death in August, 1880 ; Joshua Staples, Super-
intendent, 1877 to 1880 ; D. W. Caldwell, Gen-
eral Manager, after the death of Maj. Simpson
August, 1880, to May 1, 1882 ; Joseph Hill'
General Superintendent, from January 1, 1881,
to the present time, and since the resignation
of Mr. Caldwell, May 1, 1882, has the entire
management of the Vandalia line from St. Louis
to Indianapolis.

H. W. Hibbard has very acceptably filled the
responsible position of General Freight Agent
of the Vandalia line to Indianapolis for the past
ten years or more. C. R. Peddle has been Mas-
ter Machinist and Superintendent of Machinery,
etc., since 1870 to present time; and held the
same position with the Terre Haute & Indian-
apolis Railroad, for fourteen years continuously
before 1870. H. W. Billings was the first Gen-
eral Solicitor of the company. John Scholfield
was General Solicitor for the company from
May 1, 1870, until he resigned to accept the
Supreme Judgeship to which he had been
elected in the latter part of 1873. R, W.
Thompson, of Terre Haute, was appointed Jan-
uary 13, 1874. Mr. Thompson held that posi-
tion until he was selected by President Hayes,
in 1877, as one of his Cabinet (Secretary of the
Navy). John G. Williams, the present General

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

Solicitor of the company, was appointed in
1877.

The interest of the St. Louis, Vandalia &
Terre Haute Railroad and the Terre Haute &
Indianapolis, as lessee, being almost identical,
a history of one road necessarily includes much
that belongs to both, and whilst their organi-
zation are entirely separate — -each having a
Board of Directors, a President, Treasurer and
Secretary — many of the other officers and em-
ployes, besides the General Manager, General
Superintendent, General Freight Agent, and
General Solicitors as given above are covered
in both roads, under the latter head the names
of F. M. Colbun, General Ticket Agent, St.
Louis ; W. S. Roney, Auditor ; N. K. Elliott,
Master of Transportation, and many others will
be readily recalled.

The intelligent traveler will soon make the
acquaintance of the many gentlemanly conduct-
ors on this line, who vie with each other to
make the passengers feel at home whilst riding
in the " Vandalia " cars. In his memory he
will carry the names of John Wise, John Mc-
Mahon, John Trindle, Samuel Trindle, L. D.
Hibbard, Joseph Haselton. Richard Cornell, D.
T. Conway, Curtis Paddock, John T. Elliott
and A. E. Bobbins. The station agents at
Greenville have been : First, S. B. Hynes ;
second, J. E. Hunt ; third, M. W. Van Valken-
burg, and fourth, our present efficient and
affable agent, W. S. Ogden. Pocahontas has
had, among others, P. Powell, Mr. Record and
\V. H. Spradling, present incumbent. Mulberry
Grove, among others, Pitts Powell ; M. J. Rob-
inson, present incumbent. W. D. Hynes, mail
agent since the road started from Greenville,
having held his place until the present, is
worthy of mention, a period of nearly fourteen
years.

The general management of the St. Louis,
Vandalia & Terre Haute Railroad is in the
hands of W. R. McKeen, President of the Terre
Haute & Indianapolis Railroad Company, as

lessee, who has, by his judicious management,
and the management of those acting under and
in harmony with him, made it one of the most
popular lines in the United States.

Col. J. Hill, a gentleman of large railroad ex-
perience, has been General Superintendent since
January 1, 1881, and has had full control of
the line as General Superintendent since the
resignation of General Manager P. W. Cald-
well, May 1, 1882. Col. Hill, since assuming
full control of the line, has shown a determina-
tion to keep the good name of the Vandalia in
the lead by putting on an extra fast express
train for the Eastern cities, and also by extend-
ing the Highland accommodation to Effingham,
where the company have proper accommoda-
tion for their engines and cars, and make an
extra connection with trains of the Illinois Cen-
tral at that place. This last change will greatly
encourage the small stations along the road,
and will aid in developing the whole line. But
a few years will elapse before the growing de-
mands of trade and travel will require the com-
pany to make a double track the whole line.
Already steel rails are being laid as fast as the
finances of the company will allow, and at the
rate they are now being being placed, will soon
be laid on the entire road.

The Jacksonville & Southeastern Railroad is
a project now, not only in agitation, but in the
course of construction through Bond County.
Its history, however, will be more fully given
in the part of this work devoted to Montgomery
County.

The Press. — If journalism does not come under
the head of internal improvements, there can
be no denying of the fact that it is a stanch
advocate of all legitimate public improvements,
and that the press of the country is ever ready
to lend its influence to promote all honest en-
terprises for the common good, and for the
welfare of the people. The fact is, the people
themselves do not appreciate the press as it de-
serves. It is a power for good in the country,

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

and should be honestly supported by all enter-
prising and wide-awake people. The press of
Bond County merits an extended notice in this
work, and the following sketch of the Green-
ville Advocate is compiled from an article pub-
lished in its columns, January 19, 1882 :

With this issue the Advocate goes to its many
readers as No. 1 of Vol. XXV. In other words,
it enters upon its twenty-fifth year, or quarter
of a century of service. As with individuals
and nations, so with newspaper proprietors,
there is a pleasure in looking back over the past
history on special occasions. Inasmuch as
readers have as much, though not exactly the
same, interest in their paper that its editor has,
it is quite appropriate that this historical
review should not be confined to the editor's
easy chair, but given to the public through the
columns which all read — especially since about
all the day-dreaming an editor finds time to in-
dulge in must flow from the nib of his pen-
Though the Advocate proper, and by that name,
is scarcely yet twenty-five 3 r ears old, it is really
a continuation of previous journalism, which
only the oldest settlers will remember. It seems
that in this review a brief notice of that and
cotemporaneous journalism will not be out of
place, and that it should come in the order of
the respective papers.

Of The Barn-Jin run; nothing is preserved,
and the memory of the men of that time has
been resorted to in order to get even a trace of
its existence. Since then, however, everything
has been preserved, and all the back numbers
that could be obtained have been securely
bound, and are kept in a convenient place for
reference. The first that is accessible of the
above is No. 30 of Volume I of the Protestant
Monitor. This was the first paper ever issued
in Bond County. As its name indicates, it was
a religious paper. By counting the numbers
backward from the number just mentioned,
which bears the date of Wednesday, January 6,
184G, it will appear that the first number was

issued about the lGth of June, 1845, or more
than thirty-six years ago — over a third of a
century ago. It was owned and published by
Mr. E. 31. Lathrap. The subscription price was
$2 per annum, in advance ; $2.50 at the end of
three months, and $3, if payment was delayed
to the end of the year ; single copies, 6^ cents.
So far as its denominational views gave color
to its columns, it was a Protestant Methodist
paper, and had a circulation and list of con-
tributors reaching over an area of more than a
hundred miles in every direction, including
Springfield, Jacksonville, Alton and even St.
Louis. Though a religious journal, it mingled
secular affairs in its columns quite freely, after
the fashion of day. There was but little local
news, for in those days of little, and at best
slow and tedious, travel, people wished to hear
from the outside world, a want which is now
supplied by the dailies and large city weeklies,
which few could take at the then high prices.
The last Protestant Monitor that is preserved in
this office is dated May 24, 1848, and is two
inches larger each way than the first issue.

On Friday, September 13, 1850, the Green-
ville Journal issued No. 37, Vol. 3. This was a
four-page paper about the size of the first Mon-
itor. J. F. Alexander appears as its editor at
this time, though in the absence of other back
files we are obliged to rely on the recollection
of 0. Buchanan, that it was first owned by John
Waite. According to Messrs. 0. Buchanan and
J. Harvey Alexander, J. F. Alexander was in
partnership with Mr. Waite for a short time,
when he bought out his interest, but subse-
quently re-sold the entire concern back again to
Mr. Waite. Mr. Waite again sold out, this time,
to Alexander Brothers, Harvey and Cal., who
had been working in the office. These two sold
to another brother, D. W. Alexander, and he in
turn to Dr. Smith, whose widow, Mrs. Mary
Smith, Greenville citizens remember as a resi-
dent of this city only a few years since. Mr.
John Harper also owned the paper, but wheth-

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

er he sold out to J. P. Alexander the records
do not show.

It should here be noticed that while Mr.
Waite had the Journal, J. F. Alexander started
and conducted for about one year the "Barn-
Burner" as an organ of the extreme, or as we
would now say, Stalwart Free-Soilers, who in
New York had acquired the name of" barn burn-
ers" and who were for Martin Van Bureu. This
was the first journalistic venture of Mr. Alex-
ander, and died out soon after the election. It
was printed in the Journal office. A copy of
the first issue was sent to Martin Van Bnren,
who soon acknowledged the receipt of it in a
letter of thanks to the editor, enclosing also a
five-dollar bill. Mr. Charles Hoiles remembers
having the bill' shown to him and further says
that it was considered a big thing in those times.
This change was without material difference in
the paper or its management, except that J. F.
Alexander was left to give his time to editing
the paper by D. W. Alexander's entering the
office as publisher. The Journal, as has since
been the record of the paper, supported what
are now distinctive Republican principles either
settled or undergoing that process. Beneath
the picture of a hand holding a pen, are the
Fremont and Dayton tickets, followed by the
State ticket.

Next we find the American Courier, of which
No. 47, of Vol. I, bears the date of May 21, 1857.
Othniel Buchanan was editor and proprietor.
The entire outfit for this paper was purchased
new at St. Louis, 03- Thomas Russell and Othniel
Buchanan. Mr. Russell, however, retired in
about a year, leaving Mr. Buchanan alone. This
outfit was the nucleus from which the present
Advocate equipment has been developed. That
identical hand press is still in this office. This
outfit, press and all, cost $800 in St. Louis,
whence it was ordered shipped to Carlyle. About
the time it was expected at Carlyle, a wagon
was driven over after it. Failing to find it at
Carlyle, it was thought that the shipment had

been made to Hillsboro. At the latter place
some one told the " office-seeker " that he had
seen a printing press traveling toward Vanda-
lia, where the searchers were fortunate enough
to find it. So the Courier continued a very
readable paper of the dimensions of the present
Advocate, only that it was a single instead of a
double sheet. It should be stated that O. Bu-
chanan purchased of J. F. Alexander the Jour-
nal office, and subsequently sold both the Jour-
nal and the Courier to Alexander & Bro., con-
sisting of J. F. and J. H. Alexander, who, after
a while, disposed of the Journal outfit to a
Scotchman named Parson Percy, who took it
to Stanton, Macoupin Co. Thus it will be seen
that none of the Monitor or Journal material is
now in Greenville.

Next the paper became the Greenville Advo-
cate. Under this name, which it has ever since
retained, the paper began its first volume Feb-
ruary 11, 1858. In size the paper was what
the Advocate of to-day would be without the
inside pages. Its editorial management con-
tinued to be conducted by J. F. Alexander,
who was also proprietor. All know that those
times were eras of terrible earnestness. The
old and the middle-aged remember, and the
young have since learned of the situation of
that day. The columns of the Advocate from
that day to this have been true to the great
principles of Republicanism, freedom and hu-
•man right.

It might be well enough to state here, that
John H. Hawley, who is now, and has been for
three years, one of the Advocate force, worked
on the Greenville Advocate in 1860-61, com-
mencing the 14th day of November, 1860. J.
F. Alexander was editor, and Thomas Russell
foreman. The paper at that time being less
than half its present size, about one good man,
and a country boy like Mr. Hawley, was then all
that was necessary to do the work. The only
machinery about the office was the old hand-
press, now in use. On the editorial page an

^^Y^^ 1 ^ 7

LIBRARY

OF 1HE
UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

•■ Educational Department" was conducted by
Thomas W. Hynes, who still continues a warm
friend and occasional contributor to the Advo-
catt An article from his pen on " Our Early
Local History" urged the formation of an old
settlers' society, that the early incidents might
not be forgotten, and that memories of the past
might be preserved.

During the late rebellion. J. F. Alexander
was succeeded as publisher and proprietor of
the Advocatr by his brother, B. J. C. Alexan-
der, who continued the paper until August,
1865, when his interest was transferred to S. C.
Mace, who managed the paper alone until April
of 1866. when he associated with him T. 0.
Shenick. as publisher, who combined his ener-
gy with Mr. Mace, giving the public the only
local reading in the county, till March, 1869,
when Mr. Mace was again left alone. In No-
vember, 1871, Mr. Mace sold out to Samuel B.
Hynes. under whose proprietorship, his father.
Rev. Thomas W. Hynes, had the editorial and
general management of the Advocate, which,
with the beginning of the year 1872, they
had changed from a four page with eight col-
umns to an eight-page paper of six columns
each, considerably smaller than its present size.
This form was retained for two years, when
the former dimensions were again adopted.
From Mr. Hynes the Advocate was purchased
by George M. Tatham, the present proprietor
and editor. This was October 1, 1873. Since
that time the Advocate has steadily increased
in size, never decreasing, and often requiring
large supplements, so that readers might not be
stinted by thepressureof advertisements. From
a subscription list of about five hundred, many
for wood and produce, which often never came,
the present editor acknowledges the apprecia-
tion of the reading community to the extent of
over twelve hundred subscriptions, all settled
for, and an influence extending over the entire
county, and not unnoticed in neighboring coun-
ties. States and cities.

Also from a paper treating almost entirely
of general principles, and news from the outside
world alone, with rarely a word from different
parts of the county, except a special letter now
and then on some mooted question, the Advocate,
keeping up with the demands of the age, has
become a real news paper, with such an array
of correspondents from every part of the coun-
ty, that " Widow Bond " is no longer lonesome,
but every week her children learn how the rest
of the family are prospering.

The Sun, published by William Boll and
Fordyce C. Clark, at Greenville, is the suc-
cessor of the Bond Count)/ Democrat, which was
started by J. B. Anderson. June 2, 1876. On
the 25th of January, 1877, Boll & Clark bought
the paper, and changed its name from Bond
County Democrat to the Sun. They worked up
the circulation from 400 pay-as-you-please sub-
scribers in 1877, to an edition of 1,280, on the
cash- in-advance rule, reaching that circulation
during the campaign of 1880.

The Sun is an eight-page paper, with six
columns to a page, being considerably larger
than the average country paper. It is cut and
pasted in pamphlet form by a machine invented
by the senior proprietor. Its publishers are
both practical printers, and spare no effort to
get up a good looking paper. It is credited by
newspaper men with being one of the neatest
and newsiest country journals in the State ; its
particular specialty is home news. A page is
given every week to Greenville happenings, in-
cluding court house news, real estate transfers,
circuit and county proceedings, doings of the
County Board, City Council proceedings, school
and college notes, church and Sunday-school
news, local personals, home markets, etc., etc.
Besides this, the paper has a reporter in almost
every school district in the county, and gives
from three to five columns of news items from
these county neighborhoods regularly. News
from neighboring counties is faithfully gleaned

also, as well as State news and a good sum-

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

ining up of general news. Its editorial com-
ment is on topics relating to home matters, and
its opinions are stated clearly, forcibly and
fearlessly, a proper respect of the right of
opinion in others being observed. The Sun is
popular, and while it has many friends, like all
papers of influence, it also has enemies. Politi-
cally, it is independent, leaning toward Democ-
racy, but not controlled by party caucus or

office-seekers' cliques. Its opinions in politics
as well as on other topics are the expression of
the convictions of its editors after study, and
are not dictated or suggested by outsiders.

The foregoing is a brief sketch of the press
of Bond County, as there never has, we believe,
been a paper published outside of Greenville ;
none at least, of especial note.

GREENVILLE PRECINCT.

CHAPTER VIII.*

GREENVILLE PRECINCT— INTRODUCTION— BOUNDARIES, AREA AND GENERAL CONFIGURATION-
EARLY SETTLEMENT — FRONTIER LIFE, HARDSHIPS, ETC. — PIONEER INDUSTRIES AND
IMPROVEMENTS— SKETCH OF WILLIAM S. WAIT— VILLAGES— GOLD AND SILVER
MINES— EDUCATIONAL— RELIGION— THE FIRST CHURCHES ESTABLISHED

IN THE COUNTY, ETC . ETC

" Where nothing dwelt but beasts of prey,
Or men as fierce and wild as they."

THE history of Greenville Precinct com-
mences more than sixty years ago. and dates
back prior to the departure of the savages for
the land of the setting sun. It is the story of
a community planted in the wilderness amid
the murderous raids of prowling Indians ; of
camp-fires that grew into block-houses, forts,
and then into log cabins, and finally into
wealthy and prosperous homes. There is a
page which should come before this history,
and, like the prologue to a drama, be recited
first, but space forbids it, and the page which
calls to mind the Indian occupation of the
country will be found in other chapters of this
work. Our narrative will begin with the settle-
ment of the whiles among wild, ferocious beasts
and savage men. and will recount their trials
and hardships, their perils and hazards in sub-
duing the country.

Greenville Precinct comprises a large terri-
tory lying in the central part of Bond County.
it is irregular in shape, and embraces portions
of Township 5 north. Ranges 2, '.', and t west,
with one tier of sections in Township C. and
same ranges. The land is diversified between
hill and prairie, the latter predominating ; the
rough and broken country being confined to the
vicinity of the water courses. The principal
streams are the east and west forks of Shoal

! By W. H. I'errin.

Creek. The east fork flows nearly through the
center of the precinct in a rather southwesterly
direction, while the west fork makes its tortu-
ous course almost southeast, and unites with
the east fork at the southern line of the pre-
cinct. Beaver Creek rises in the vicinity of
Greenville, flows southwest and passes out
through Section 34 into Beaver Creek Precinct.
Indian Creek touches the northwest corner of
the precinct, and a few other small and name-
less streams intersect it. The timber consists
i if oak, hickory, walnut, elm, sycamore, cotton-
wood and other species common in this section.
This precinct is noted for containing the capi-
tal of the county, and hence, much of the his-
tory of the surrounding community centers in
the town of Greenville. Two or three small
villages have sprung up along the railroad
since its completion, which will receive notice
further along in this chapter. Upon the whole,
Greenville Precinct is a fine agricultural region,
and contains many excellent farms.

The settlement of Greenville Precinct dates
back to the days of forts and block-houses.
Says i pioneer of the town : - Wyatt Stubble-
field. George Davidson and the Kirkpatricks
all came prior to the war of 1812, and when the
war came on they left through fear of the In-
dians, but when peace was declared, they re-
turned to their former settlements." Thomas
White ami William Robinson came into the
precinct in 1816. They lived one year in Lind

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

ley's Fort, and in the fall of 1817 settled one
and a half miles from where Greenville now
stands. William S. Wait and his brother set-
tled a little east of the present village of Ripley
(just over the line in what is now Ripley Pre-
cinct), in 1820-21. They went back East in a
short time, but in a few years returned and
settled permanently. William S. Wait was so
long prominently known in the county, that a
few words of him are not out of place in this
connection, although he is extensively men-
tioned in the railroad history. He will be re-
membered as an early friend and supporter of
the Mississippi & Atlantic Railroad, now the
famous Vandalia Line. He wrote many articles
in the Illinois papers, the St. Louis Republican,
New York Evening Post, the New York Tribune,
and other prominent newspapers, in earnest
support of the enterprise. He was a constant
worker for the road, from 1847, the time of the
first agitation of the question, to 1865, and a
large portion of his time was spent in procur-
ing the charter, right of wa}-, stock, attending
meetings in its interest, etc., and in discharging
the duties of the different offices, viz., President,
Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer, which
he successively held in the company. He was
a thorough student, an investigator of all new
subjects and theories, and a voluminous writer
on political, educational, agricultural and re-
formatory questions, and always took the side
of progress and improvement. A regular con-
tributor to the press, and in constant communi-
cation with many of the leading minds of the
United States, he was fully familiar with all
topics of interest, and versed in all questions
pertaining to the public good.

Mr. Wait was Chairman of the National In-
dustrial Convention, held in New York in Octo-
'>er. lS-lf>. and delivered an able address, He
was nominated for Vice President of the United
States, on the ticket with Hon. Gerritt Smith
{on National Reform Ticket) in 1848, but re-
spectfully declined the exalted position. He

wrote numerous newspaper articles, and able
letters on the Constitution of Illinois adopted
in 1848, and many portions of which were from
his pen. In county and State agricultural so-
cieties he took an active interest, and was a
zealous friend to the public schools ; an active
and valuable citizen, honored and admired by
the people of the country at large.

Joseph Lindley built the first house in the
forks of the creek southwest of Greenville in
1817, and was the first white settler in that lo-
cality. Hezekiah Archer settled just below
him soon after, and in 1818-19, the Hunters
settled in the same neighborhood. John Pick-
ett settled six miles west of Greenville about
the same time as the Hunters. George Nelson
in 1819 settled one mile east of Pickett. Sam-
uel White settled in the neighborhood very
early, and Thomas Long in the vicinity of Stub-
blefield. Mrs. Morse, in a letter to Rev. Mr.
Hynes, says : " One of the early settlers was
Mr. Seth Blanchard. who arrived in 1820. He
came out from New York expecting to settle in
St. Louis, but, disgusted with the Frenchy look
of that place, bought laud of Mr. Wyatt Stub-
blefield, east of town, and opened a store and
tavern in town, just laid out by Green P. Rice.
Samuel G. Blanchard assisted in laying off the
public square. The principal families then
were the Kirkpatricks, Messrs. Camp, Goss.
Leonard. Rutherford. Fergueson, White, old
Father Elam, the Birges, and Drs. Drake. New-
hall and Perrine." Andrew Moody was an
earlv settler, and occupied a place originally
settled by Thomas Kirkpatriek, about one mile
southwest of Greenville. The famous spring
at this place took its name from Mr. Moody,
and was known far and wide as " Moody's
Spring," a famous place for holding religious
meetings, and the site of the first church built
in Bond County. William Perrine and J. B.
Drake might be termed early settlers, though
they were young meu and single when they
came here. Thev boarded at Richard White's,

GREENVILLE PRECINCT.

two and a half miles west of Greenville, and
were physicians.

It is not possible, however, at the present
day, to give the names of all the early settlers
in as large a district as the precinct of Green
ville is. as at present laid off. As the settle-
ment of the country progressed, people scattered
out on to the prairies, opening farms first near
the timber, but gradually extending farther
and farther from it. Thus large farming com-
munities sprang up in different portions of the
precinct, and at considerable distances from
Greenville. Especially was this the case after
all danger from the Indians had passed away,
and the more savage of the wild beasts had
been driven from the vicinity. Even then, how-
ever, the lives of the pioneers were not all sun-
shine and prosperity, but many hardships min-
gled with their every -day experiences. Their
implements of agriculture would be considered
the most extreme hardships by the farmers of
the present day, if they had to work with them ;
and the mode of obtaining bread and other
needed supplies, would be deemed by us among
the impossibilities, and beyond human power
to overcome. The Rev. Thomas W. Hynes, in
a historical address on Bond County, delivered
July 4, 187G, says :

" We look back from our present position to
the time when the brave and enterprising pio-
neers left their homes and friends and came to
this wild and unsubdued land to make their
residence here. They faced danger, for up to
1 816 the country was the frequent resortof hos-
tile and predatory savages. They endured toil
— for houses, orchards, farms, implements of
husbandly, mills and shops, schools and
churches, in short, all that men need in civilized
society, were to be provided here out of the
rough material. They bore self denial — for they
left behind them the comforts and abundance
of their old homes. They were few at first in
their numbers, but strong in their faith and
courage. The} - developed a character of which

we, their descendants and successors, need not
feel ashamed. Their necessities made them in-
genious. Their perils made them brave. Their
fewness made them sociable. Their community
of wants and dangers made them sympathetic
and helpful of each other. However scanty
their board, it was shared with the neighbor or
stranger with a free-heartedness that gave a
relish to the plain repast. However small and
unsightly their cabin, its room and bed and
genial warmth were divided with a cordiality
that sweetened your welcome. Their social life
was adorned with the graces of liberality and
true friendship. They did wisely and well their
peculiar work of laying the foundations that
we might build upon them. They established
schools and churches, and organized society
and civil government, and left us a heritage of
freedom and a home of peace and comfort.
Let us honor their names, cherish their memory,
record their virtues, and, thankfully recognizing
our obligations to them, see to it that we hand
down to our successors an untarnished inherit-
ance of manly independence, wholesome liberty,
free intelligence and pure religion."

As the community increased in wealth and
importance, the people enlarged the facilities
for living more comfortably, and with less toil
and privation. Mills were built, and roads
leading to them were laid out. Probably the
first mills in the precinct were those of Wyatt
Stubblefield and Beck, erected prior to 1S25.
Stubblefield's stood a little northwest of Green-
ville, on Shoal Creek, near where the Hillsboro
road now crosses. A notice of Beck's will be
found in the history of Greenville. Stubble-
field's was constructed for sawing as well as
for grinding, and was a great convenience to
the neighborhood. The Waits built an ox-mill
very early. The power was received from a
"tread-wheel" — that is, a large inclined wheel,
trod by oxen, was used, which, when put in
motion, operated the machinery of the mill.
They added a distillery, and for several years

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

carried on both distillery and mill. Samuel
White started a tan-yard at the spring west of
Greenville in 1820, where he manufactured
leather for the purpose of contributing to the
"understanding" of the community. ' Thomas
Long put up a cotton gin the same year, near
where Stubblefleld now stands. The cultivation
of cotton having been attempted by the early
settlers, led Mr. Long to that enterprise, but
cotton growing in Southern Illinois proved a
failure, and gins turned out to be poor invest-
ments.

It is a characteristic of the human race to be
easily duped, and it has been said that the
American people are more easily humbugged
than any other race of beings below the sun.
The settlers in this section of the countrj' were
no exception, and when reports were circulated
that gold and silver ore was hidden in the Shoal
Creek bluffs and ravines, the most intense ex-
citement prevailed in every home. People
spent days and weeks in search of the precious
metals, roaming through the swamps of Shoal
Creek bottom, digging in the hills, and scratch-
ing in the sands of the ravines, filling their
pockets with glittering rocks, and accumulating
stuff that in the end proved utterly worthless.
A silver mine was once supposed to be found
on Samuel Hunter's place by a man named
G-aylor. Hunter lived on Indian Creek, four
miles from Greenville. A close investigation
showed that neither gold nor silver were native
in that region, but that Gaylor was a good-sized
fraud. He was arrested for an attempt to
swindle, but finally succeeded in making his
escape from the country. This put a damper
upon the idea of digging out fabulous wealth
from the creek hills, and had a tendency to
shake the confidence of some of the wiser
heads, but the excitement continued quite a time
before the people settled down quietly again to
their every-day duties.

The first physicians in Greenville Precinct
were Drs. Perrine and Drake, already referred

to. and practiced the healing art for some time
among the pioneers. Malarial diseases pre-
vailed in the first settling of the country, some
years to a fearful extent, and before the coming
of Perrine and Drake, the people of this section
had to go to Edwardsville for a physician. Al-
though doctors were often actually needed
when their services could not be obtained, yet
many people sent for them for the simplest
cases. Mr. White relates the following, which
is illustrative : " One morning," says he, " we
saw a fellow coming down the road on a gallop,
whom we had seen pass rny father's ever} - day
for a week or more, going for a doctor for his
sick wife. This time he was riding faster than
usual, without a saddle, the bottom of his
breeches' legs slipped up nearly to his knees,
showing his bare legs, although he had on coarse
shoes ; and the rim of his old wool hat blown
back in front. He was urging his horse along
by the repeated strokes of a hickory sprout
four or five feet long. As he passed the house,
some one screamed out. ' How's your wife?'
'She's worse; git up!' was the reply, the last
part of which was addressed to his horse, at the
same time he gave him a cut round the flank
with the hickory which might have been heard
at the distance of a hundred yards." Such
scenes were common in those days, as though
the pioneers were determined that the doctors
should earn their money. Dr. Newhall was
also an early physician in this neighborhood.
These early practitioners, however, are more
particularly mentioned in a preceding chapter.
Schools were established and schoolhouses
were built as soon as the population of the pre-
cinct would permit. Just where, when and by
whom the first school was taught outside of the
town of Greenville we cannot say. The early
education of the surrounding country centered
in the town, and the first schools were taught
there, and will be alluded to more fully in the
chapters on Greenville. There is now, in the
precinct outside of town, some half a dozen or

GREENVILLE PRECINCT.

more excellent schoolhouses, where good schools
are taught, and the rising generation can be
educated " without money and without price,"
an advantage not possessed by their ancestors.

Two small villages are located in the precinct,
in addition to the city of Greenville, viz., Smith-
boro and Stubblefield. Smithboro, or Hender-
son Station, was laid out by H. H. Smith in
1^70, and is on the Vandalia Railroad, about
three miles from Greenville. It is called Hen-
derson Station, but the post office is named
Smithboro. and was established in 1871, with
H. H. Smith as Postmaster. There is a grain
elevator operated by Hoffman & Hinkle, who
ordinarily ship a large quantity of wheat. A
cheese factory or creamery was started in 1870.
II. H. Smith was the first President of the Com-
pany. The establishment is doing an exten-
sive business, and makes up the milk of about
five hundred cows. A. store is kept by T. L.
Miner, the only one in the place. The Jack-
sonville & Southeastern Railroad is laid out
through this village, and, when built, will add
considerably to its importance.

Stubblefield is merely a station on the Van-
dalia Railroad, about four miles west of Green"
ville. It consists of but half a dozen or so of
houses, a water tank of the railroad, and a
shipping place for farm products.

A place was laid out, probably about 1840,
some three or four miles northwest of Green-
ville, on the Hillsboro road, called Elizabeth
City. " This famous city," says Mr. White
" was to occupy ground little better than a frog-
pond, and yet five plats of it were made and
sent back East on which appeared in high-
sounding names, its streets, avenues and
squares. Flaming notices of it were published
in the newspapers, in which it was represented
as being eligibly situated on ' Shoal River,'
and in the midst of a country which, with com-
paratively little labor, could be transformed
into an earthly paradise." These Haltering
representations, or more properly speaking.

misrepresentations, led many persons in the old-
er settled States to invest in this " city on pa-
per," all of whom, it is needless to say, were
" taken in," as Elizabeth City never had any
existence other than fancy plats and flaming
advertisements.

The first churches organized in Rond were in
Greenville Precinct, by the Methodists and
Presbyterians, and are fully noticed in a pre-
ceding chapter. There are now, so far as we
are able to learn, three churches in the precinct,
outside of the city of Greenville, viz.: Methodist,
Baptist and Cumberland Presbyterian. The
Methodists and Presbyterians are about four
miles west of Greenville, and are but a short
distance from each other, while the Baptist
stands near Stubblefield.

The Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church,
one of those mentioned above, is a very old
church, and is believed to have been originally
organized some time about 1820. William Hun-
ter states that when he came here in 1821, the
society was then in existence. The families
forming it were those of Allen Conner, Aquilla
Suggs, Richard White, John Hunter, Samuel
Hunter, McHenry Nesbit, etc. The first minis-
ter was Rev. Samuel Thompson ; Rev. Jesse
Hale also preached here, and Rev. Joshua
Raines. The society met at private residences
at first. Allen Connor was a zealous Methodist,
and his house was long used as a place of wor-
ship, and a home of the preachers, who fre-
quently stayed with hiin a month at a time, and
preached as often on week days as on Sundays.
The name of the society was finally decided -as
11 Sinai," and they met in a schoolhouse which
was dedicated to worship. The present society
is called the " Centenary Methodist Episcopal
Church," and was formed from the Mt. Horeb
and Sinai societies as early as 1825. The
church was built in the Centennial year of Meth-
odism, and is thirty-four by forty-six feet —
a frame building, costing $2,300. The present
minister is Rev. J. H. McGrifF. The Trustees

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

are Wesley White, W. B. Sibert, W. C. Nelson,
James C. Causay, John Ward, John W. Plant
and William Hunter ; has about sixty members.
A Sunday school was organized early, of which
Allen Conner was first Superintendent ; Conner
was also the first class-leader ; the next, John,
and then Samuel Hunter.

Mount Gilead Cumberland Presbyterian
Church was formed, or the society from which
it originated, was formed about 1850-21.
Among the first members were James Johnson,
John Edwards, James Hunter, Thomas Hunter
and their families. Mrs. Mary Nelson, etc.—
about a dozen in all. The church was organ-
ized by Rev. Joel Knight, and among the first
preachers were Rev. John Berry, David Foster
and G. P. Rice. Soon after the formation of
this society, the members joined together and
built a log church. Some years afterward, a
frame house was built. The present church
was built in 18(50, and cost about $1,500. There
are at present about sixty members. The first
Elders were James Johnson and Thomas Hun-
ter ; the present Elders are Macklin Hunter,
William King and Alvin Jackson ; Trustees,
Robert Mackey and Larkin Jackson. Sunday
school has been in existence nearly ever since
the organization of the church, and now aver-
ages about fifty children in regular attendance.

The Smith's Grove Baptist Church was or-
ganized less than twenty years ago. Prior to

this organization, however, there was a society
formed, perhaps as far back as 1828. and was
under the ministrations of Elders John Crouch
and James Long. They put up a large log build-
ins, which was used both as church and School-
s'

house, and was located but a short distance
from the present church. The society pros-
pered for that early day, but dissensions final-
ly sprang up, which injured its usefulness, and
it after awhile became extinct, Through the
instrumentality of the ladies of the old society,
a new church was organized with the following
members : Henrj- Harris and wife, John
J. Smith and wife, John Leverton and wife,
James Harris and wife, John Hagin and wife,
Monroe Ditch and wife, and Mrs. Hillard. The
church was organized July 23, 1869. Elder F.
M. Long was chosen Pastor, and John J. Smith,
Clerk. They decided the church should be called
" Smith's Grove Church," to belong to the Ap-
ple Creek association. Elder W. C. Harvey is
the present minister, and J. M. Harris, Clerk.
The church is a frame building and cost about
$2,000. Preaching every two weeks.

This comprises the history, so far as we have
been able to obtain it, of Greenville Precinct,
and with its conclusion we end the chapter,
leaving the hisUny of Greenville to be treated
of in a new chapter, by Mr. Williamson Plant,
from whose pen we have no doubt that it will
receive justice, and all the importance it merits.

CITY OF GREENVfLLE.

CHAPTER IX*

CITY OF GREENVILLE— LOCATING THE COUNTY SEAT AT PERRYVILLE— ITS REMOVAL TO GREEN-
VILLE— LAYING OUT OF THE LATTER PLACE— THE NAME GREENVILLE— EARLY SET-
TLERS OF THE TOWN — THE K1RKPATR1CKS AND OTHERS — FIKST BUSI-
NESS MEN AND PROMINENT CITIZENS — THE ROLL OF PIO-
NEERS—MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS, ETC.

A S has been heretofore noticed in this work
-*-J- under that part covering the county his-
tory, the act of the Legislature approved Jan-
uary 4, 1817, forming a new county out of
Madison County, to be called Bond, in honor
of Shadrack Bond, afterward elected first Gov-
ernor of the State of Illinois, also appointed
William Roberts, John Powers, Robert Gilles-
pie. John Whitley, Sr., and John Laughtou,
Commissioners to locate and establish a per-
manent seat of justice for Bond County, and
that their first meeting should be held at the
house of David White, at Hill's Fort, on Shoal
Creek, on the first Monday of March, 1817, and
the act further provided that Hill's Fort should
be the county seat of justice for Bond County
until the same was located by said Commis-
sioners or a majority of them, and that the
County Court should be held on the first Mon-
days in February, June and October.

The first County Court for Bond County was
held June 2, 1817. The following copy of their
record at this first meeting, and the report of
the said Commissioners to that court will be
interesting :

Be it remembered that on the id day of June,
1817, at a County Court held for Bond County, be-
gan and held at Hills Station, in pursuance of an
Act of the Legislature of the Illinois Territory,
passed in the year 1S17 [January 4], Thomas Kirk-
patrick, John Powers and Martin Jones produced
commissions from His Excellency, Ninian Edwards,

*By Williamson Plant.

Governor of said Territory, appointing them Judges
of said County Court, who. having taken the sev-
eral oaths prescribed by law, and thereupon took
their seats. Present, Thomas Kirkpatrick, John
Powers and Martin Jones, Judges. Samuel (4.
Morse produced in court from His Excellency, Nin-
ian Edwards, a commission appointing him Sheriff
of the said county of Bond, and also a certificate
that he bad taken the several oaths (before His Ex-
cellency) prescribed bylaw. Daniel Converse pro-
duced in court a commission from His Excellency,
Ninian Edwards, appointing him Clerk of tin- said
court, and also a certificate of hi- having taken the
several oaths prescribed by law. The court then
proceeded to business.

The Commissioners made the following re-
port to the court :

A majority of the Commissioners appointed to fix
and establish the permanent seat of justiee for this
county, this day present the following report : " We
the Commissioners to fix the permanent seat of jus-
tice for the county of Bond, met according to ap-
pointment, on the west side of the Hurricane Fork
of the Kaskaskia River, on the southwest quarter ol
Section No. 5, of Town No. 4 north, of Range No 1
west, and stuck a stake for the center of the public
square, as may be at any time when necessary

" May 16, Anno 1817. " John Powers.

" Robert Gillespie.
"John Whitley."

Illinois Territory. Bond County :

We, the Commissioners to fix the seat of justice
for the county of Bond, being duly sworn, after
veiwing different parts of said county for that pur-
pose, we do nominate and appoint for that purpose
the bluff lying west of the Hurricane Fork of Okaw,
being the southwest quarter of Section No. 5, of

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY

Range No. 1 west, of Township No. 4 north, now
the property of Martin .Tones, taking into view the
geographical center, the navigation, the eligibility,
and tin- common good of the people as directed by
law.

(iiveu under our hands and seals the day and year
first above written. John Powers.

Robert Gillespie.

John Whitley.

The Commissioners were not authorized to
locate the county seat on the land of any per-
son, unless the owner or owners should first do-
nate to the county at least twenty acres of land
where the location was made, to be laid off in
town lots, to be sold, and the proceeds to be
applied toward erecting county buildings.

The land designated b} T the Commissioners
was deeded to the county by Martin Jones, who
also surveyed and platted the same, and named
it Perryville. The County Court -: ordered that
the lots be exposed to public sale for the use of
the county, on the 28th day of October, inst,
[181 7], and it is further ordered that an ad-
vertisement describing the place be inserted two
weeks successively in both the Illinois Herald
and the Missouri Gazette [now the Missouri Re-
publican] ; and it is further ordered that money
be lodged in the hands of the Postmaster at
Edwardsville, for the payment of the advertis-
ing of the same.''

William M. Crisp, the first Constable ap-
pointed by the County Court, cried the sale of
the town lots sold in Perryville, for which he
was allowed $2.

The first County Court held at Perryville,
and being the third held in the county, was on
the 20th day of July, 1818, and was called a
'• Justice's Court," three Justices of the county
acting, viz., Thomas Kirkpatrick. Martin Jones
and Isaac Price ; Samuel G. Morse was Sheriff,
and Daniel Converse had again been appointed
Clerk of said court. The principal business
transacted by the County and Justice's Courts
fir several years after the organization of the
county, was the laying-out the various county

roads needed by the inhabitants, the hearing
petitions from those desiring to erect water
grist-mills on the numerous streams in the then
large though not populous county. To that
end the appointment and the summoning for
each applicant " twelve discreet householders
of the vicinage." to assess any damage that
may accrue to the owner or owners of adjoin-
ing lands by overflow or otherwise, bj the
erection of a mill dam at the place stated in
the petition, and to report whether in their
opinion the health of the neighborhood would
thereby be endangered, and the height of dam
that the petitioner may erect, etc., and also
granting license to those persons desiring to
keep tavern and to sell spirituous liquors, and
grant orders to those entitled to pay for vari-
ous services performed, a large number of
which were for wolf scalp premiums. Every
age has its day ; much of the time of courts
and citizens of fifty or sixty years ago was
taken up in harmony with the surroundings of
that time, much of which would be inappropri-
ate for the present day and generation.

Before closing the history and events con-
nected with the County Court whilst being held at
Perryville, it would be interesting to know that
the court at its session July 2(1. 1818, empow-
ered Martin Jones " to let the contract for
building a jail, provided the bids did not ex-
ceed $200. The building was to be 12x18 feet
in the clear, to be built of hewed timber,
squared one foot at each side, and laid up and
dovetailed at the corners ; the floors, both up-
per and under, to be of hewed timber one foot
square, and laid close together with a partition
of timber neatly hewed eight inches thick, and
laid close together ; the roof to be made by
laying ribs or straight timber in the form of a
common cabin roof, and clapboards nailed on,
so as to be perfectly tight and secure from
storms, the outside door to be made of plank
two inches thick, doubled and riveted together,
or nailed with large nails, and hung with two

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

liars of iron, half an inch thick and three inches
broad, hung on staples at one side, and the
other the staples through the bar, so as to re-
ceive a padlock at each end. the steeples to
he let or drove in through the log and clinched,
and the wires to be threee-fourths of an inch
in diameter, and the inside door to be made of
one inch plank, double, and riveted or nailed,
and hung with strong iron hinges, with a good
padlock, with sufficient clasp and staples.
In 1820. Francis Brown and Eleazer M.
Townsend were the only acting County Com-
missioners. James Jones was Clerk of said
court : the Clerks at this time were appointed
by the County Courts ; the Justices of the
1 'eace were appointed by the Governor on rec-
ommendation from the County Court.

In May, a second term of the Circuit Court
was held at Perryville. Only five indictments
were presented at this court. It does not ap-
pear that any other business was acted upon.

The last County Court, and being the eleventh
held at Perryville, was held October 9, 1820.
-ome time prior to this date, it was appar-
nt that a new county seat for Bond County
must be chosen.

The county was large, and the settlements
were being scattered over a large district of
country — generally in the timber, near some
water course; always near any spring found,
no matter how rough the surrounding country
— as the inhabitants found it necessary to make
division of the county, necessarily the county
seat must be removed. The act of the Illinois
Legislature, at its session February 14, 1821,
passed the following act :

Section 1. Be it enacted, etc., Thai all thai tract
of country lying north of a line beginning' at the
southwest corner of Township No. 3 north. Range
No. 1 west, extending cast to the southeast corner of
Township No. ■ > north, of Range No. 6 cast, of the
Third Principal Meridian, shall constitute a new
county, to be called Fayette, the county seat of
which shall be Vandalia.

Sec. 3. Beit further enacted. That for the pur-

pose of fixing a permanent seal of justice for the
county of Bond, the following persons, to wit:
James B. Moore. Abraham Eyman, Joshua Oglesby.
Samuel Whitesides and John Howard be, and they
arc hereby appointed Commissioners, which said
Commissioners, or a majority of them, being duly
sworn before some Judge or Justice of the Peace of
this State, to faithfully take into view the conven-
ience of the people, the situation of the settlement-,
with an eye to future population, the eligibility of
the place, and the preservation of the boundaries ol
counties, the limits of which have been heretofore
established, shall meet on the first Monday of April
next, or at such other lime thereafter as they may
agree upon, at the house of Thomas White, in said
county, and proceed to examine and determine on
the place for the permanent seat of justice, and des
ignate the same; Provided. That the proprietor, or
proprietors of the land shall give to the county, for
the purpose of erecting county buildings, a quantity
of land, not less than tweutyMtcre^to be laid out in
lot, and sold for that purpose. Orshouldthe propri-
etor, or proprietors, prefer paying the donation in
money, in lieu of land, then and in that case the
Commissioners are authorized to receive (lie bond of
the proprietor, or proprietors, with good and sum
eient security, for such same as in their opinion will
he sufficient to defray the expense of the public build-
ings of the county, the same to be paid in three equal
semi annual installments. And should the proprie
tor, or proprietors, refuse or neglect to make the do-
nation aforesaid, then and in that case it shall be
flic duty of the Commissioners to fix on some other
place for the seat of justice, as convenient as may
lie to the inhabitants of said county, which place so
fixed and determined upon, the said Commissioners
shall certify under their hands anil seals, and return
the same to the next Commissioners' Court in the
county aforesaid, which court shall cause an entry
thereof to be made in their book of record, which
place so designated shall be the permanent seat of
justice for Bond County.

And until the public buildings shall be erected, the
courts shall be held at Greenville, in said county
And it shall lie the furtherduty of said Commission
ers, or a majority of them, within three days after
they shall have established the seat of justice of
Bond County, to repair to Perryville. in tin' said
county of Fayette and proceed to appraise and as
certain the damages sustained by the proprietor, or
proprietors, of lots in said town in consequence i
the removal ot the scat of justice therefrom, and

7<;

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

shall certify the araout to the County Commission-
ers' Court of Fayette and Bond Counties. Provided,
however. That the Commissioners, before they pro-
ceed to ascertain the said damages, shall be sworn
before some Judge or Justice of the Peace of either
of said counties, faithfully and to the best of their
judgment, to ascertain the damage as aforesaid; and
when the damages assessed as aforesaid shall have
been certified as aforesaid, the said County Commis-
sioners nf the said counties respectively, shall allow
and direct the same to lie paid out of the County
Treasuries in proportion to the number of taxable
inhabitants of cadi county.

The compensation allowed said Commission-
ers for the time necessarily employed in fixing
the county seat, and assessing the damages
heretofore referred to. were to be paid $2 per
day out of the treasury of Bond County, by
order of the Commissioners' Court. The said
court in Bond, Fayette and Edwards Counties
were authorized and required to levy a tax, not
exceeding one-half per centum per annum, on
all taxable property within their respective
counties, to pay the damages which may be ad-
judged by the removal of the county seats of
Bond and Edwards Counties, which shall con-
tinue until a sufficient sum shall be raised to
pay all the damages which shall be allowed by
said removals.

In accordance with the act just recited, the
first Commissioners' Court for Bond County was
held in Greenville, April 1G. 1821. The Com-
missioners appointed to locate the county seat
for Bond County made their report to said
court, fixing upon twenty acres of land in the
northeast quarter of Section 10, Township 5
north, Range 3 west, of Third Principal Merid-
ian, and near the center of which the said Com-
missioners fixed a stake for the public square.
The court made the demand upon Samuel Da-
vidson, the owner of the land upon which the
location had been made, as appears by their
record, to wit :

Wednesday, 18th April. 1821.— The court met
cording to adjournment; present. William Rus-
sell, John Kirkpatrick and Robert McCord, Judges.

This day a demand was made by the court upon
George Davidson, for twenty acres of land immedi-
ately around and contiguous to a stake fixed by the
Commissioners authorized to locate the seat of justice
for Bond County, which demand was decline
words hereafter inserted. It is considered by the
court that the statute authorizing the location of tin-
seat of justice required the donation of twenty ■
of land to lie in a body, and the court indulging that
construction of the statute, had made the demand
above set forth, in consequence thereof. John Kirk-
patrick, one of the Judges, dissenting in opinion
from the court with regard to the demand.

To which Mr. Davidson made the following
answer :

"I, George Davidson, in answer to a demand this
day made upon me by the County Commissioners
t'nr a quantity of land around the stake equal to
twenty acres, to be laid off in lots and sold for
benefit of the county, present to the Honorable
Court the following for my reply to the above de-
mand (to wit) that in order fully and entirely to sat-
isfy the requisitions of an act entitled an act form-
ing a new county out of the parts of counties the
mentioned. I duly executed to the Commissioners
therein named a bond with sufficient securities for
the gift or grant to the Count}' Commissioners for
the county of Bond, which said obligation is now on
the files of the County Commissioners' ( 'ourt for said
county, of a quantity of land equal to twenty acres,
the terms and conditions of which said writing ob-
ligatory I am now perfectly ready and willing to
fulfill. George Davidson.''

April 18. 1821.

Mr. Benjamin Mills, a lawyer of some o
and Probate Judge in 1822, etc., acted as at-
torney for Mr. Davidson.

An examination of the records and papers
pertaining to the location, shows that Mr.
Davidson had previously sold a small portion
of the land (on the north side) included in the
twenty acres fixed upon by the said Commis-
sioners for the county seat of Bond County, to
one Samuel Whitcomb, and was thereby unable
to comply with the demand for the donation.
Two members of the court, Russell and Mc-
Cord, believing that the donation should be in
a square around the stake fixed for the center
of the public square; John Kirkpatrick, the

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

other member, believing that the statute would
be fully complied with if the land was adjoin-
ing. The court met again on the 4th of June,
1821, same Judges as last term. Samuel David-
son was allowed to withdraw his bond given
for the twenty acres of land, and substitute for
the bond given April 18, 1821. a bond for that
amount of land

in the form of a square as near
as may be, of which said square the stake fixed by
the Commissioners appointed by the last General
Assembly to locate a permanent seat of justice for
the county of Bond, shall be the center, by or be-
fore the first Monday in December next, then this
obligation to be void, otherwise to remain in full
force. Provided, nevertheless, that this obligation
shall not be held toobligate the above bound George
Davidson to make a title to any land at present
■ omprised within a tract for the conveyance of
which the said George Davidson lias given his bond
to Samuel Whitcomb.

"Witness our hands and seals this oth day of
June, in the year of our Lord, Eighteen Hundred
and Twenty-one.

"Georhe Davidson, [seal.]
"Samuel, G. Blanchard, [seal]
"Robert G. White, [seal.]
"Samuel Whitcomb, [seal.]

his
'Daniel X Ferouson. [seal.]

mark
"Milo Wood, [seal.]
"Samuel Houston, [seal.]
"Witness, Ben.iamin Mills."

More than two-thirds of a century has elapsed
since the first white settler made his " clear-
ing," and built his first log cabin in what was
for many years called " East Fork," now Green-
ville Precinct, near the center of which, nest-
ling on the brow of the highest point of land
between Terre Haute and St. Louis, sloping
gently to the south, is situated the beautiful
city of Greenville. Few are now living who
can recall the time and the occasion of the set-
tler, his clearing and his cabin.

That settler has long since passed from the
active duties of this life, his cabin is no more
but his eleariner then commenced, is now wide-

spread, and truly may it be said of him. " his
works do follow him."

And afterward, whilst he lived, though far
removed from his early home, it has been said
by those who occasionally met him, that lie
spoke of Greenville as a fond parent would of
his absent child to whom he was devotedly at-
tached. It was to him, as the childhood home
is to us all. to be recalled with grateful and
joyous recollections.

That first cabin built on the primitive style
of logs, with clapboard roof, weight-poles on
same to hold them in place, with puncheon
floor made of split and hewed slabs, the entire
structure without nails or glass was situated
on the hillside, between the present residence
of the family of J. H. Black, in the extreme
western part of the present town, and the " tan-
yard," was the first home of George Davidson
in 1815 or 1816, the first known settler and
owner of the land upon which Greenville has
since been built,

Mr. Davidson's family consisted of himself,
wife, two sous and two daughters. Mrs. George
Davidson was regarded as a most estimable
woman, and an excellent nurse for the sick.
One of the sons, Samuel Davidson, married
Miss Violet Enloe, sister of James and Isaac
Enloe, and died in 1820. He was taken to his
father's house shortly before his death, that he
might in his last days have his mother's care
and sympathy. The widow of Samuel David-
son married Thomas L. Waddle, County Treas-
urer, in 1S27. Vance L. Davidson, the other
son, married Miss Purse, one of the daughters,
Saliy, was blind, and Caroline, the other daugh-
ter, married William Blundell. Mrs. Blundell
now resides in California ; letters have been
received from her within the past three years,
in which she speaks with happy recollection of
her early home and friends at Greenville. Mr.
George Davidson laid off some of his land in
Section 10, Town 5 north, Range 3 west, in
1819, into lots, but by some neglect the plat of

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY,

the town was not recorded, which occasioned
much trouble to those who purchased lots in
the first laid out town.

Some diversity of opinion exists as to how
or by whom Greenville was named. The de-
scendents of Mr. Thomas White (R. O. and
Sprague White), affirm that when the town was
first surveyed, the question of name for same
came up, and the bystanders said " we will
leave it to Mr. Thomas White for a name, as he
is the oldest man present," and Mr. White re-
sponded as he cast his eyes over the green
woods and prairie around — " everything looks
so nice and green, we will call it Greenville."
Rev. Peter Long, who came t<> Greenville in
1821. and still lives to recount the incidents of
early life in the county, heard Mr. John Ellis
(who came here earlier than Mr. Long), say
that his understanding of the name was. that
Mr. Thomas White named it in honor of Green-
ville in North Carolina, a State from which
Mr. White had recently emigrated.

Mr. James Enloe. who came to Greenville in
February. 1818, when he was over fourteen
years old. and more than a year before the
town was first laid out. says that Greenville
was named in honor of Green P. Rice, a Cum-
berland Presbyterian preacher, who resided here
at an early day. and kept the first store ever
kept in the place, and was Clerk of the Com-
missioners' Court of Bond County from August
15, 1822, to March 3, 1823. For a number of
years Mr. Rice lived on the old Stafford prop-
erty, where Mr. William Morris now resides.
Be the question or problem of the origin of the
name as it may be. neither of the gentlemen
to whom the honor is credited, could they see
it to-day. would recognize the village then laid
off in the wilderness, now sixty-three years
ago.

George Davidson is recognized as the pioneer
settler of the land upon which Greenville has
since been built. His son. Samuel Davidson,
had the second store in Greenville, on the north-

west corner of Sixth and South streets ; his
health failed him. and he sold his stock of
goods to Elisha Blanchard, and he sold to
Thomas Long, brother of Rev. Peter Long, who
kept the store for his brother until he sold to
Drake & Durley.

George Davidson " moved up into tow;.
they termed it. from his residence, at or near
the west end of Main street, to a lot just south
of northwest corner of Sixth and Main streets.
and kept what was then known as a tavern, in
1819-20. and until September. 1821, when
Seth Blanchard became his successor, and kept
and enlarged tavern for many years, who was
in turn succeeded by David Berry January 1.
1828, to March 1. 1829, when he moved, and
Thomas Dakin took the place for many years.
and was well known by traveling men, who
made long and tedious journeys on horseback.
crossing the State, and going to and from St.
Louis. Mr. Berry removed to the lot just west
of Birges store (No. 7), where he kept an excel-
lent hotel, which was headquarters for the St: _
stand for a great many years. His table was
well supplied with the best the county afforded.

Among the early settlers of Greenville and
vicinity may be mentioned the Kirkpatricks.
who came at least as early as 1817. Thomas
Kirkpatrick lived about one and half miles
southeast of Greenvile. in the hewed log house
in which uncle Tommy Brown lived for many
years afterward and died. He was, as has
been stated before in this work, a member of
the first County Court held in the county, at
Hills Station June 2, 1817, and also a mem-
ber of Constitutional Convention for Bond
County in 1818. John Kirkpatrick. a Meth
ist preacher, lived northeast of Greenville,
near where Madison Alien now resides a
half mile north of Almira College. He was
one of the members of the first Commission-
ers' Court held at Greenville April 16. 1821.
His associate members of that court v
Robert McCord and William Russell.

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

Francis Kirkpatrick, brother of John and
Thomas, above mentioned, lived about half mile
northeast of John Kirkpatrick. The Kirk-
patrick family were Methodists. Capt. Paul
Beck whilst he held the office of Captain, and
was duty qualified as such May, 12. 1817, also
had a little band horse-inill situated some forty
rods south of the old cemetery, and nearly west
of the present cheese factory. His mill ground
wheat and corn. The bolt for the flour was turned
by hand, as was common for many years at the
horse-mills in operation throughout the county.
Asahel Enloe settled in 1818, on the highest
point in what is now the old cemetery, west of
Greenville. A short time afterward, Asahel
Enloe and his son, Ezekiel. lived just southeast
of the passenger depot at Greenville, about
eighty rods therefrom — the first about where
the old Lansing House was situated, and the
latter (Ezekiel) a few rods north of his father;
whilst James Enloe's house was on the north
side of southeast quarter of northeast quarter
Section 15, Township 5 north, Range 3 west,
about fifty rods southwest of his father's house.
He sold the land to Daniel Ferguson a few
years afterward. Isaac Enloe, brother of James
and Ezekiel, is at present a resident of the
county. Ezekiel Enloe died about twenty
years ago. Mr. A. Enloe and his sons cleared
off a tract of land near the court house square,
and planted the same in corn in the year 1819.
Wyatt Stubblefield entered land east and ad-
joining Greenville in 1817, and remained on
same until the time of his death somewhere
near 1851. He had a horse-mill and a cotton-
gin in operation many years near his residence.
Mr. Stubblefield was very generously disposed
toward those who came from a distance to his
mills. He had three brothers. John. William
and Jeremiah, who lived much of their time
within a few miles of Fairview in Bond County.
Thomas White and his sons, John B., James.
Hugh Alexander and Thomas White (tanner)
came into the count} - about the year 1818,

Only one, James White, is still living. Sam-
uel and Eleazur White, sous of John B.White,
live on the old White homestead. R. O. and
Sprague White, sons of James White (who is
also alive), live in Bond County.

Of the early settlers near Greenville, none
are more worthy of mention than Mr. George
Donnell. who moved into the county, from
North Carolina, about 1819,and after living on
Shoal Creek, near Bilyew's Mill (northwest quar-
ter Section 23, Town 5, Range 4). a few years,
settled on a farm about three miles north of
Greenville, where he lived many years, until the
burdens of farm work, the privations of church
privileges and advanced age admonished him
that he must retire from the farm. He sold
his farm, came to Greenville, where he spent
the last dozen years of his life. He died aboul
1874. Mr. Donnell was an active man, in not
only the Presbyterian Church, to which he be-
longed — an account of which is given in this
history, under proper headings — but he was a
co-worker in the cause of religion and temper-
ance with all denominations. He was also the
leader in the first Sunday school ever taught in
the county, and scholars came often eight or
ten miles to attend. The writer of this article
heard Mr. L. D. Plant say that, in his lifetime/.
he was under lasting obligation to Mr. Donnell
for the Sunday schools he organized and
taught, as a large part of his education was
received from those schools. Mr. Donnell dis-
played more than ordinary wisdom in provid-
ing homes anil farms for his large family of
sons. His family consisted of Joseph M., John
D., William N., Mary J., James M., Thomas S ..
George W., Henry C. and Emily K.

His sons worked well when young, and their
father secured for himself a good farm of good
proportions, and, as the sons reached that
period when they would need a farm, he bent
his energies, with the help of the sons at home
and the savings of the home farm soon secured
the needed farm. Commencing at an earh

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

. l:iv. as he did, with the low price of land and
his good judgment, he was enabled to locate
his family around him with but little trouble.
To those who did not want land, he gave
money and his own notes, as a matter of bus-
iness. He lived to see the largest part of his
family settled around him, happy and con-
tented.

Samuel 6. Morse was also an early settler.
He was one of the delegates from Bond County
to Kaskaskia that made for Illinois the old
Constitution, adopted August 26, 1818, as has
been stated before. He was the first Sheriff of
Bond County, in 1817 and 1818 ; was fond of
music, and taught singing schools occasion-
ally.

The following persons were in the county
more than fifty years ago, and their faces were
familiar in the streets of Greenville whilst they
lived, or were in the county, viz.:

Daniel Converse, first County Clerk, and half
owner of water-mill of Converse & Lee, where
Brown's Mill now stands.

Samuel Houston, first Deputy Sheriff, and
member County Court. August, 1826, to April
111, 1827.

James B. Rutherford, first hatter in Green-
ville.

Samuel Whitcomb owned land in Davidson
trad before county seat located.

James B. McCord, a cabinet-maker in Mc-
Cord settlement.

Andrew Finley, a good farmer and cooper in
the northwest part of county ; kept a store in
1835-36 at his home.

James Wafer came to the county in 1818 ;
was anti-slavery ; Presbyterian ; died February
8. 1 873, aged more than eighty-seven years.

David White lived in the fort, near the cen-
ter of Section 6, Town 4, Range 3, southwest of
Mr. Patrick Byrne's residence, as early as
1816 — and from David White took the name
of " White Port," sometimes called Hill's Sta-
tion or Fort — and at this place the first two

County Courts were held, before the county
seat was established at Perryville. And it was
at this fort Tom Higgins was so terribly
wounded, and William Burgess surprised and
cut off from communications by the Indians,
as they were out for water. Mrs. Pursley, see-
ing; the danger which surrounded them, seized
a gun and shot the Indian who was leader in
the attack, and then succeeded in getting them
into the fort alive. Tom Higgins lived to re-
late the adventure and thank his deliverer, for
more than fifty years, and died near Yandalia
about 1872. Mr. Burgess lived more than
forty years afterward, and died at his home,
near Millersburg, in this county. Benjamin
Henson was out of the fort on horseback at
the time, but by good luck he escaped the
Indian bullet. Mr. White had a little band
horse-mill to grind for those stopping in the
fort during the war. This was the first mill in
the county. Mr. White was a Methodist.

John Powers, a Methodist preacher, and
preached at Jones Station, near Andrew
Green's, in February, 1816, and at White's
Fort in March of the same year. These were
his regular preaching places. The company
who came with the Rev. Powers were his three
sons, Thomas, Elijah and Samuel, all heads of
families, Rev. William Hunter, son-in-law of
John Powers, John Hunter and James Bolds.

William M. Crisp, first Constable in 1817.
lived in Locust Fork Precinct.

Henry Rule, appointed Constable same time
in "East Shoal." now Greenville Precinct.

Francis Travis, first Treasurer Bond County.
July 5, 1819. No record of any Treasurer be-
fore that date.

Martin Jones, one of first Judges of County
Court, member of Legislature, owner of Perry-
ville.

James Jones (brother of Martin) appointed
County Clerk June 6 and October 5, 1820 :
was Circuit Clerk same time.

John D. Alexander, Constable in 1821 ; Tax

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

Collector afterward ; now lives near Bethel,
with his son.

Elezarum Ripley Wheelock, laid out Ripley;
named same in honor of his uncle, Gen. Ripley.

John Powers, a Methodist preacher and one
of the first County Judges of Bond County ;
built water-mill, east of Millersburg, in 1818.
Thomas Powers (son of above), built the water-
mill near John A. Smith's old residence, in
Section 25, Town 5, Range 4.

Francis Brown, member of the County Court
in 1820.

Eleazur M. Townsend, member of the County
Court in 1820; was an Eastern man; his sister
married Dr. Perrine.

Green P. Rice, Cumberland Presbyterian
preacher ; kept first store in Greenville.

Samuel Hill, near Ripley, was father of
Anderson Hill.

Hezekiah Archer, had water grist-mill on
Shoal Creek, near Brown's present mill.

John and Hubbard Short, intelligent men.
John married Robert McCord's daughter.

Evan Hinton, first wife, sister of Rev. Peter
Long's mother ; second wife, mother of James
Bradford.

David Smith lived about six miles southwest
of Greenville, near Hill's Station.

Jonathan Berry, from Tennessee, lived in
southwest quarter of Section 6, Town 6, Range 3.

Williamson Plant, Sr., from Tennessee in
1818 ; lived and died on his farm, one mile
northwest of Pocahontas.

Charles Johnson, from Tennessee, settled on
land now laid out as Pocahontas, in 1817. He
was a member of the County Court at Perry-
ville from July 5, 1819, to June 5, 1820.

Benjamin Johnson, son of the above, brought
the first drove of cattle to the county ; was an
energetic, thoughtful man ; was a member of
the Illinois Legislature, and was generally con-
sulted in the neighborhood where he lived for
fifty years. He built Pocahontas Academy,
and laid out Pocahontas ; his home adjoined

Pocahontas on the north ; he died April G
1862.

John Leeper, Presbyterian, was a member of
County Court, July 5, 1819, to June 5, 1820.
also from August 15, 1822, to September 2,
1823 ; he built a horse grist-mill about four
miles south of Greenville, near James Mc-
Adams' old farm.

Robert Gillespie, one of the Commissioners
who located county seat, Bond County, at Per-
ryville.

James and Andrew, sons of the above, lived
ten miles west of Greenville ; James having
trouble with his eyesight from infancy, became
quite famous for his remarkable memory ; he
had a clear head, and was often consulted on
points of law.

John Laughlin, one of the Commissioners
who located County seat Bond County, at Per-
ryville.

John Whitley, Sr., one of the Commissioners
who located county seat Bond County, at Perry -
ville.

Hugh Kirkpatrick brought Titus, Jack, Bob
and Haley, respectively ten, six, five and two
years old, colored children, December 18, 1817,
and had them registered, agreeable to the act
of the Illinois Territory of September 17, 1807,
to serve the said Kirkpatrick, the males until

they are years of age, and the girl until

she is . Mr. Kirkpatrick brought two

colored women and had them indentured by
" their consent " for a period of ninety-nine
years — should they not consent to the inden-
ture, Mr. Kirkpatrick had the privilege, under
the law, to remove them to a Slave State at any
time within sixty days.

William Vollentine, son of Hardy Vollentine,
an energetic and successful farmer, living twelve
miles northwest of Greenville ; he died about
sixteen years ago ; on the 17th day of June,
1817, he had Silas, a colored boy, registered
under the law of 1807 ; Silas was registered as
five years old, but as he had the appearance

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

of being at least five or six years older, he
probably served longer than otherwise would
have served, had his age been certainly known ;
Silas took the name of Register from the fact
or his being registered, as before stated. The
sons of William Vollentine, W. P., in his life-
time, George and James M. Vollentine. have
furnished many substantial comforts for old
" uncle Si," as he has been called for the past
thirty-five years ; Mr. James M. Vollentine, son
of William, as before said, has cared for the
wants of Silas almost as his own family. Silas
was the last survivor of all the ten colored per-
sons "registered" and "indentured" in the
count}' so far as known. He was taken sick
some two weeks before his death, which oc-
curred on Thursday, June 22, 1882 ; he was
about seventy-six years old at his death ; he
was an exemplar}- Christian, had been a mem-
ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church more
than forty years.

Hardy Vollentine (father of William), regis-
tered a colored girl fourteen years old, on June
30, 1817, named Tisby.

Isaac Hill, of Okaw Township, indentured
his colored man, named Peter, to serve him
ten years.

John Hapton, Sr., was a farmer living six
miles southwest of Greenville.

John Hapton, Jr., inherited a competency
from his father, and kept it. He lived many
years, before moving to Missouri, on the farm
of W. Barker.

Wilson Brown was an early settler and good
citizen, living near White Fort, the fort being a
few rods south ; he acquired considerable prop-
erty, which he left, by will, to his children.

Stringer Potts was neighbor to Hapton, Sr.,
and Wilson Brown.

Henry Williams, an intelligent farmer for
manj - years two miles northwest of Pocahon-
tas, and for several years before his death twelve
miles southeast of Greenville ; was a member
of the County Court August 15, 1822 to 1824 ;

he served in later years in the same ca-
pacity.

A. C. MacKay was for considerable part of
his life in some official capacity ; was Justice
of the Peace, and was member of the Commis-
sioners' Court in 1834 and 1835, and also in
later years held same position.

James M. Davis, always characterized himself
as " old settler ;" he was an active Whig ; mem-
ber of County Court in 1834 and 1835 ; was
engaged in merchandising in Greenville.

Thomas M. Davis, brother of above, now liv-
ing seven miles north of Greenville, was a Cap-
tain in the civil war, from Bond County ; resides
on his farm.

Richard Bentley was a member of the County
Court in 1835 and 1836 ; was also a member of
the Legislature at a later period ; many anec-
dotes were related bearing on his official posi-
tion.

Samuel White and Thomas White (brothers).
Samuel had the first tannery just west of Green-
ville ; he sold the same to J. Harvey Black)
who manufactured leather for many years ; he
kept store in the brick building on the north-
east corner of Main and Sixth streets, in 1829.
Mr. White retired to his farm adjoining Green-
ville on the east, more than forty years ago,
where he amassed a handsome fortune, aud
died much respected about twelve years ago ;
his sons were Edward B , John B. 0., James
W. Samuel G. and William C. White.

William and John Russell (brothers). William
was a member of the County Court from April
16, 1821. to June 4, 1822 ; John was a mem-
ber of the County Court from August 7. 1827
to 1833 ; John Russell was the surveyor who
laid out Greenville, June, 1821.

Rev. Peter Long, now living on his old farm
on southeast quarter of northeast quarter of
Section 35, Town 6, Range 4, some four miles
northeast of Old Ripley. He and his brother,
Thomas, came with their father. James Long,
a Baptist minister, from Indiana; the family

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

were orginally from Virginia. Peter Long taught
school soon after coming to the count}', near
the house of Bonham Harlan (father of Will-
iam and Abner Harlan), he also clerked in his
brother, Thomas Long's, store, who had bought
the stock of goods of Blanchard. on the corner
of Main and Sixth streets, Greenville. Mr.
Long did not continue in the business but a few
months when he sold his goods on hand to Dr.
J. B. Drake and William Durley, who continued
the business for a few years, when Dr. Drake
purchased the interest of Durley and carried
on the same for more than twenty-five years.
Rev. Peter Long, now nearly fourscore years
of age, has been a faithful and consistent Bap-
tist minister of the Gospel for nearly sixty
years ; continues to preach within the circuit
of his near friends once each week, without
compensation from his hearers ; he has never
used tobacco in any manner.

Ransom Gaer, a member of the County Court,
from August, 1824, to August, 1825.

Robert W. Denny, a member of the County
Court from August, 1826, to August, 1832.

Cyrus Birge kept store on Lot 8, Davidson's
Addition to Greenville, in 1819 to 1824.

Ansel Birge boughthis brother's (C\tus) stock
of goods early in 1825, and kept same stand for
at least eight years ; he removed afterward to
his beautiful farm one and a quarter miles south
of Greenville. He died over twenty years ago.

Williard Twiss, a brother-in-law of Ansel
Birge, continued the sale of goods from same
stand, having purchased the stock of Mr. A.
Birge. Mr. Twiss was also clerk of the County
Court in 1831. to March 9, 1836, when he re-
signed.

William S. and Thomas W. Smith (brothers)
had a store, for some years in name of W. S. Smith,
in 1833, on the corner of Main and Sixth street,
and after some twenty years of success as part-
ners they removed to the corner of Main and
Fourth street, northeast corner, and after en-
larging to suit their trade carried on a heavv

business. Mr. W. S. Smith carried on the mer-
cantile business after the death of his brother
in 1862, to 1876 ; was County School Treasurer
for a number of years, and served one term in
the Legislature of Illinois ; he also was Presi-
dent of the First National Bank of Greenville
several years, at present holding the place of
Director ; he is also one of the Directors in the
St. Louis, Vandalia & Terra Haute Railroad
Company. Thomas W. died about twenty years
ago.

J. E. Rankin was appointed Clerk of the Coun-
ty Court, in place of Isaac Murphy, who, by non-
attendance, the court declared out of office,
June 1, 1829. Mr. Rankin has filled several
important trusts during his long residence in
the county ; he is quietly living on his farm, at
present, in Pleasant Prairie, at a ripe old age,
much respected.

Space cannot be allowed to give further de-
tailed history individually of " old settlers,"
but we will give a concise list of those whose
names or faces are familiar to those who have
lived in the county for the past forty years,
with occasionally some repetition of previous
mention :

Anderson, Ignatius, Beaver Creek.
Anderson, James, Beaver Creek.
Allen, Benjamin, large fanner, Beaver Creek.
Armstrong, Joseph, father of Wesley and Will

iam.
Armstrong, Wesley, died in Iowa.
Armstrong, William, died in Bond County.
Armstrong, Robert, strong Democrat and Pres-

byterian, died in Bond County.
Armstrong, Thomas, died in Missouri.
Armstrong, Joseph.
Armstrong, Mid. These four — Robert, Thomas,

Joseph and Mid., being sons of one man and

cousins of Wesley and William.
Alexander, Josiah N.
Alexander, Jediah F., State Senator ; President

Vandalia Railroad, Receiver St. L. & S. E.

Railroad, etc., died in Greenville, in 1876.

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

Alexander, E. J. C, State Representative and
editor.

Alexander, J. H., farmer. These three — Jediah
F., E. J. C. and J. H., were brothers.

Allen, Albert, merchant, Greenville.

Adams. John and James I., brothers, Zion.

Alexander, John, early settler in Bond County.

Alexander, M. H., son of John.

Allen, Hector.

Allen, William, Allery, J. M., A. J., Daniel, Jerry
and George, sons of Hector, and the first four
Whigs.

Aduey, William D., peddler.

Abbott, Thomas J., Hurricane, father of John B.,
Samuel W. and William H.

Abbott, John.

Abbott, Samuel W., died in the army, at St.
Louis, during the war.

Abbott, William H., cabinet-maker and mer-
chant, Fairview.

Abbott, John B., brother of Thomas J.

Andrews, John, Beaver Creek.

Austin, Josiah, Okaw.

Aldemau, Henry, pump-maker.

Aldeman, William P. and James W., broth-
ers.

Austin. William M., Zion.

Alexander, H. B. and John, brothers, Green-
ville ; the former a druggist, latter a carpen-
ter.

Allen, W. A., physician, Greenville.

Abell, J. H, North Zion.

Brown, Tommy, model Christian, near Green-
ville.

Berry, David, kept hotel at Greenville and died
there.

Berry, James W., David P., George F. and
Franklin, sons of David, Greenville, the first
named dying at Greenville.

Beech, Rufus.

Bi-yant, Thomas, southwest of Pocahontas.

Blizzard,

Blizzard, James and William, sons of above.

Blizzard, J. J., son of James.

Blanchard, Samuel G., Elisha, Seth and Lemuel,
the first three being merchants ; Seth, a hotel-
keeper ; Lemuel, a farmer.

Brown, Wilson.

Brown, Calvin, Marion, Charles, Robert and
Kerney, all sons of Wilson.

Bilyew, Joseph, who had a horse-mill south of
Pocahontas.

Bilyew, Jesse, Joseph, Isaac S. and John, sons
of Joseph, the two latter being twins.

Bilyew, Louis G., son of John.

Bilyew, W. A. and Finis, sons of Joseph, Sr.

Balch, Amos P., La Grange.

Balch, Calvin, son of Amos P.

Barr, Isaac G., S. N. and W. H, Isaac a farmer,
La Grange S. N., La Grange ; W. H, a black-
smith, Fairview.

Bird, John H., Beaver Creek.

Birge, Cyrus, Ansel and James, brothers.

Birge, Cyrus, Edwin and William, sons of
Ansel.

Birge, J. H, son of Cyrus, Sr.

Barlow, J. N, Town 7, Range 4.

Barlow, W. Carroll, son of J. N.

Buchanan, Welsheir.

Buchanan, Othniel, son of Welsheir.

Buchanan, John, cousin of Othniel.

Bunch, Lambert.

Baker, Hiram.

Booth, James.

Baldridge, D. C.

Brown, Simon.

Brown, Thomas M., W. W. and McCune, sons of
Simon.

Brown, Benjamin, William, Matthias and Hen-
ry, brothers ; the first three farmers ; Benja-
min, formerby a miller ; Henry, near Old Rip-
ley.

Brown, Thomas, southeast quarter of Section
12, Township G, Range 4.

Bine, Alexander, merchant, Greenville.

Baits, Anson, Josiah, Samuel J. and Eliphalet,
brothers ; the first two were farmers, the last
two carpenters, as well as Anson.

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

Baldwin, Samuel.

Baldwin, William T., S. F., J. P., John and
Charles, all sons of Samuel, and farmers.

Brown, J. M., Zion.

Brown, J. H.

Bradford, James, County Treasurer, Clerk Cir-
cuit and Count}' Courts, and County Judge.

Badoux, J., Beaver Creek.

Blankenship. James and John, brothers.

Bass, Henry and William, brothers ; the first a
stock-dealer and large farmer, the latter also
a farmer.

Barth, Jacob, Okaw.

Barth. Joseph, Millersburg.

Bulkley, Samuel B., merchant, 1843, Green-
ville.

Barber, Rev. John, Cumberland Presbyterian
clergyman.

Badoux, F. E., Beaver Creek.

Barber, Rev. D. K., Cumberland Presbyterian
clergyman, son of John.

Barr, John T., Sr., merchant, Greenville.

Byrnes, Patrick O., large land owner and farm-
er, died about ten years ago.

Barker, Joshua and Jordan, sons of William,
deceased.

Barker, Williamson, son of Jordan.

Briggs, Henry.

Briggs, Kendall, son of Henry.

Briggs, Richard, brother of Henry.

Brookman, Garrett, hatter in Greenville in
1836.

Brooks, Dr. T. S., died of suffocation in fire at
Greenville.

Brown, W. P., physician.

Brown, J. M., Mulberry Grove.

Blaze, William, Beaver Creek.

Coyle, John and James, brothers.

Coyle, Jeremiah, son of James.

Chisenhall, Alexander, Pocahontas.

Cormack. William.

Cormack, T. Jeff, son of William.

Castle, John T., son of J. H.

Castle, John H.

Comer, Allen and James, brothers ; the former
a Methodist, who settled in the county in
1817.

Comer, Thomas F., Samuel B. and Johnson
sons of Allen.

Coleman, Isaac.

Case}', Green.

Cochrane, Henry M.

Clarage, John.

Cock, Robert, Constable in 1826.

Cawvey, Conrad and Martin, brothers.

Cheesman, William, Mulberry Grove.

Curlee, J. W., Zion.

dishing, Roswell, died in Indianapolis.

Cushing, Charles and Henry, sons of Roswell.

Callihan, Alexander, Greenville.

Cole, Rev. A. J., Methodist clergyman, Okaw.

Coal, C. C, brother of A. J., merchant at Keys-
port.

Crosbie, House.

Corie, Joseph.

Corie, Joseph T. and Horatio, sons of Joseph.

Clark, Solomon, son-in-law of Isaac Reed.

Carson, William and John W., sons of Andrew.

Carson, Andrew.

Cruthis, James and John, brothers.

Cruthis, Vincent, William and Henry, brothers.

Cruthis, Neely, son of John.

Clanton, James.

Clantou, Wesley, Chap., John and Alfred, sons
of James.

Camp, Hosea T., was Sheriff and Clerk ; lived
on home farm of Williamson Plant.

Clouse, William and John, brothers.

Colcord, Samuel, William S. and Otis B.,
brothers.

Carroll, Mac.

Carroll, Tillman, son of Mae.

Clark, William.

Crichfield, Joseph and James, brothers.

Crichfield, William.

Causey, James E., blacksmith and farmer,
northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of
Section 33, Town 5, Range -4.

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

Comeitus, Zachariah, exhorter.

Dowler, John Q. A., shoemaker (lame).

Chittenden, M. B., Police Magistrate.

Dixon, Walton B., Bethel.

Challis. S. II., Representative in Legislature

Downing, James, Beaver Creek.

and merchant at Pocahontas.

Duckworth, Paden, lived northwest of Poca-

Combs, J. A., Justice of Peace, Mulberry Grove.

hontas.

Crutchley, M. W. and Samuel E., brothers.

Duckworth, Thomas, son of Paden.

Coburn, Reuben, Fairview.

Deuson, Joseph, Constable in 1827.

Dove, David.

Dwelly, Alexander, merchant, Beaver Creek.

Duckworth, Thomas, Okaw.

Donnell. George.

Daniels, Eli E., carpenter, Pocahontas.

Donnell, T. Carson, S. Rankin and John P.,

Dormau, L. D., blacksmith. Bethel.

sons of George.

Davis, Joel M.

Dressor, Rufus, member of Circuit Court sev-

Durham, Kindrick and Baldy, brothers.

eral years.

Durham, Gideon L., son of Bald}'.

Dressor, Nathaniel, Hiram and Joshua P., sons

Der, John.

of Rufus ; Nathaniel is President First Na-

Der, Fred, son of John, Zion.

tional Bank of Greenville ; Hiram was mem-

Dnnsmore, S. L.

ber of Legislature ; Joshua a farmer.

Davis, James M., Thomas M. and William,

Douglas, H. B., son of James, Sunday school

brothers ; James died at Hillsboro.

worker.

Davis, Robert W., son of J. M., died at Hillsboro.

Douglas, A. B., son of Nathaniel.

Drake, J. B., physician and merchant at Green-

Davis, Ira B., died at Bethel.

ville.

Dixon, William, died northwest of Greenville.

Denny , Robert W.

Dixon, James I. and William A., sons of Will-

Denny, George, father of Jesse Denny.

iam ; southwest quarter Section 6, Town 5,

Denny, Samuel.

Range 3.

Denny, James.

Durley, William and James, brothers ; the

Denny, John.

former of firm of Drake & Durley ; the lat-

Denny, J. S. and A. S., sous of John ; the former

ter Clerk of County Court in 1831, also

Treasurer and County Clerk many years.

Count} - Treasurer.

Denny, M. V., son of Samuel, Cashier First

Donnell, George, a Presbyterian and Sunday

National Bank.

school worker.

Denny, Imbert H.

Donnell. Joseph M., John D., William N., James,

Denny, J. B.

Thomas S. and George W., all sons of George

Drake, William and John, brothers.

Donnell.

Denny, Alexander.

Dale, G., member of Constitutional Convention

Douglas, Nathaniel and James M., brothers —

in 1848, County Judge, etc.

Bethel.

Dakin, Thomas, hotel keeper at Greenville in

Diamond, Robert.

183G, etc.

Diamond. Samuel.

Dewy, R. K., Greenville.

Duncan, Robert.

Dugger, Alfred.

Duncan. Elisha, James Riley and Abraham,

Dugger, James A.

sons of Robert ; Elisha in Colorado ; James

Davis, William, Jr., son of Major Davis, south-

died in Okaw.

eastquarter of the southeast quarter of Section

Dulaney, Aaron, Dudleyville.

22, Town 5, Range 2.

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

Davis. Major William, Greenville, died in
1882.

Dechenue, Phillibert, southeast quarter of the
southwest quarter of Section 21, Town 6,
Range 2.

Dewy, Nelson, Yankee farmer.

Dewy, H. C. and Theron,sons of Nelson, south-
west quarter of the northwest quarter of Sec-
tion 1 3, Town 4, Range 3.

Driskill. William, Pleasant Prairie.

Dixon, Bluford.

Daggett, Daniel.

Edwards, William M. and John N., old set-
tlers.

Evans. Edward, large land-owner, Zion.

Etchison, W. H. southeast quarter of Section
1, Town 6, Range 2.

Elam. Alexander.

Elam, Josephus, farmer.

Elam, Samuel.

Elam, James N., Sr.

Elam, F. M.. large farmer.

Elam. David.

Elam, Moses.

Elam, James N., Jr.

Elam, Edward, blacksmith, Greenville, 1819.

Elam, Joel, brother of Edward.

Elmore. Hiram.

Elmore, Hardin, son of Hiram.

Elsworth, George, Wesley and Jerry, brothers.

Eldridge, C. L., Greenville.

Edwards, Charles.

Etheridge, Henry.

Etheridge, N. B.

Enloe, Asahel, settled at Greenville, 1818.

Enloe, Ezekiel.

Enloe, James.

Enloe, Isaac.

Etzler, John.

Etzler, George B.. son of John.

Ellison. Price.

Etheridge, Burrell.

Elligood, Elijah.

Essenpries, Les, large farmer, north half of
Section 18, Town 4, Range 4.

Ellis, Ed., large land-owner.

Eblin, Samuel.

Elder, John.

Ellis, John, old settler.

Ellis, Noah A. , son of John.

Ellis, Joel, Hurricane.

Eyman, Henry.

Ewing, Thomas, Town 6, Range 3.

Ewing, John H. , son of Thomas.

Eakin, James, son of Samuel.

Eakin, Ichabod and Samuel, brothers and
farmers near Fairview.

Fitch, J. W. , physician, Greenville, 1835—
1849.

File, Henry, old settler.

File, Daniel, Moses, Tobias, George, J. Nel-
son, Jacob and William, sons of Henry.

File, John N. and Thomas B., sons of Moses ;
the former southeast quarter of the south-
west quarter of Section 16, Town 5, Range 4.

File, Ed B. and E. J., sons of Daniel.

Fisher, Charles, cabinet-maker, Greenville.

Fuller, Seth, surveyor and carpenter, Green-
ville.

Fuller, H. Lyman, son of Seth, died in Green-
ville in 1881.

Fuller, Lucius, hotel -keeper, died in Mulberry
Grove.

Floyd, John W. and C. Stewart, brothers;
former a Methodist, and died in Beaver
Creek.

Floyd, George, J., Wesley, John S. and Dr.
Thomas W., sons of John W.; George, of
Greenville; J. Wesley, north of Green-
ville; John S. died on Beaver Creek;
Thomas W. died at Gillespie, 111.

Foster, Edwin, carpenter and farmer, dead.

Foster, Charles, son of Edwin.

Fenton, William, dead.

Foster, Elijah, Okaw.

Ferguson, Daniel, settled at Greenville, 1819.

!MI

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

Ferguson, William, George and Horatio N.,

sons of Daniel.
Floyd, Jonathan C. — Okaw.
Finley, Michael — Pleasant Prairie.
Fouke, Joseph T.,old settler, Greenville.
Garland, B. F. and John P., brothers; for-
mer died at Patoka, latter resides at Green-
ville.

Gossage, .

Gwyn, Elisha. died near Elm Point.
Gwyn, H. B., R. H., Thomas C. and John,
sons of Elisha; the first two live at Elm
Point, the last one in Kansas.
Graff, Daniel and Peter, brothers, Beaver

Creek.
Gross, Gustave. northwest quarter of Section

25, Town 5, Range 3.
Gill, Francis, early settler, Mulberry Grove.
Grigg. Daniel, Frederick, Bowlin, Samuel,
Jesse, J. R., John T. and Richardson — all
Zion.
Goodson, John, Spencer M. and Urban,
brothers; first-named died south Green-
ville; last one died west Beaver Creek.
Goodson, Preston.
Goodson, James M. and J. K., sons of Urban;

James M., Beaver Creek.
Goodson, S. Monroe and John, sons of John.
Gaskins, E., County Judge and County Clerk

many years.
Gaskins, E. V., son of E. Gaskins.
Gall, J., southeast quarter of southwest quar-
ter of Section 32, Town 4. Range 4.
Greenwood, John, cabinet-maker and farmer.
Greenwood, John K. and A. W. , sons of John.
Goddard, John and Alexander.
Gillespie, Samuel.
Gillespie, Robert, settled in Bond County in

1816.
Gillespie, James Ma, Andrew, Robert and

John.
Gillispie, Nathaniel.
Gilley, James C.

Grotts, Joseph and George F., brothers,
Okaw.

Glaze, William — Beaver Creek.

Gum, Henry, Isaac J., Riley and J. Finley,
brothers; first named died northwest
Greenville, the second died at Okaw.

Gill, W. R. and James, brothers; former a.
farmer, latter a stage-driver.

George, Aaron — Hurricane.

Gardenhire, J. M. — Mulberry Grove.

Gilliland, S. M— Beaver Creek.

Gower, A. V. S. M.— Dudley vi lie.

Gaston, John.

Green, William, Andrew, George and Royal.

Gracy, Joseph and William.

Gilmore, John, Treasurer and County Judge.

Gilmore, J. Mc. son of John.

Goodin, Hezekiah and John, brothers, Okaw.

Gullick, A. J., Sheriff Bond County eight
years.

Harkey, William, Town 7, Range 3.

Helms, Thomas, second County Clerk.

Herrin, Moses, Section 8, Town 4, Range 4.

Huffstedler, John, Town 5, Range 4.

Hill. Nathan, colored, originally slave of
Samuel Hill.

Henry, John, farmer, Beaver Creek, died in
Texas.

Henry, Andrew G., William D., Samuel T.
and P. C, sons of John; the first, a mem-
ber of Legislature and County Judge,
Greenville; second, a farmer; the third, a
farmer and stock-dealer; the last, a money-
lender, Terre Haute.

Hug, Martin, farmer, Town 4, Range 4.

Howell, Joseph, farmer and Presbyterian,

Town 5, Range 3.

Howell, J. S., son of Joseph, Presbyterian
minister, Elm Point.

Haisley, Alexander, Greenville.

Hastings, Sutton, early settler- Zion.

Hastings, Joseph W. and William, sons of
Sutton.

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

Harper, Robert, farmer, Zion.

Harper, James R., Isaac and Samuel W.,sons
of Robert; James died in Montgomery
County; Isaac lives near Fairview, and
Samuel near Zion.

Hawks, Solomon and Drewry — Okaw.

Hundley, James — Hurricane.

Hays, W. T., southwest Mulberry Grove.

Harper, Peter, south half Section 10, Town
5, Range 2.

Harper, J., Madison, northwest quarter Sec-
tion 22, Town 5, Range 2.

Hameteaux, Louis, southwest quarter Section
33, Town 4, Range 3.

Harrison. Daniel — north Bethel.

Hill, Anthony — north Elm Point,

Hill, D. W. and Joseph S., sons of Anthony,
north Elm Point.

Huffman, B., southwest part of county.

Hubbard, David, Peter and Philip, brothers;
the first. Mulberry Grove; second, east
Greenville; last, west Greenville.

Hubbard, T. S., L. B. and George W., Bons
of Peter; first two, east Greenville.

Hubbard, Simeon W. and John, sons of
Philip ; Simeon, west Greenville; John,
killed in Texas during the war.

Henry, Matthew, old settler.

Henry. Johnson, son of Matthew.

Hull, William T. and S. V. R, brothers; for-
mer died in St. Louis during the war; lat-
ter moved to Kansas.

Harned, William, died on return from Cali-
fornia.

Harned, John W. and D. B., sons of Will-
iam.

Hawley, Milton, lawyer and farmer.

Hawley, R. M., Delavan B. and Luther C,
sons of Milton; R. M., in Northern Illinois;
Delavan. southeast of Greenville; Luther,
attorney, in California.
Hittle, William and Jacob, brothers, Town
7, Range 2.

Harris, U. B. and W. C, brothers; former
member of County Court; latter a Cumber-
land Presbyterian minister.

Hill, George W., merchant, Greenville.

Hurley, Isaac.

Hoffman, Nicholas.

Harlan, Bonum — Beaver Creek.

Harlan, William and Abner, sons of Bonum.

Hull, Benjamin, farmer, Beaver Creek.

Hudson, R. H. , farmer, Mulberry Grove.

Hunter, David.

Hunter, William, Methodist clergyman.

Hunter, Samuel, John P., William M., Mar-
shall, W. Mc, Samuel J., James B. and
D. N.

Hunter, John B., Thomas N. and T. J., sons
of David; the first, a large stock-dealer;
the last, gone West.

Hutchinson, Z. K, of singing family.

Hazier, V. W.— Okaw.

Hartley, S. P.— Okaw.

Holsberry, John — Okaw.

Holcomb, P. J. — Greenville.

Holcomb, S. B. and P. E., sons of P. J.

Hunt, Charles W.

Hagan, John T.

Hutchinson, W. T., Cumberland Presbyterian
minister.

Hoiles, Charles, banker and merchant, Green-
ville.

Harmon, Anderson and William.

Hampton, John M. — Pleasant Prairie.

Holbrook, Amos, farmer and old settler.

Holbrook, Jacob, Methodist and great hunter.

Hilliard, J. C, farmer.

Harris, James H.

Harris, James W., Charles D., Patrick H.
and Jacob, sons of James H ; James, Pat-
rick and Jacob, farmers; Charles D., lum-
ber-dealer.

Hynes, Thomas W., Presbyterian minister,
Old Ripley, and Superintendent of Public
Instruction.

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

Hynes, A. W., merchant, Greenville, brother

of Thomas W.
Hess, H. W., northwest quarter of northeast

quarter of Section 32, Town 4, Range 4.
Hugg, S., southwest quarter of the southeast

quarter of Section 32, Town 4, Range 4.
Isley, Stanford — Zion.
Ives, Myron, farmer.
Ives, Charles, son of Myron.
Jackson, Larkin, James W., John C. and

George W., brothers.
Jones, James, second County Clerk, 1819.
Johnston, James.

Jandt, H. G. , merchant, Old Ripley.
Jandt, H. A., merchant, son of H. G.
Jett, John, had large family, died in La

Grange.
Jett, Thomas, Francis and Humphrey, all

died north Zion.
Jett, Thomas A.
Jett, William A. and Stephen J., sons of

Thomas.
Jett, J. Madison, north part of Section 4,

Town 6, Range 3.
Jett, T. Jefferson.
Jett, Jacob H., died in La Grange.
Jett, B. F. and James W., live in La Grange.
Jett, John H. and Gabriel, sons of Francis;

the former on northeast quarter of Section

31, Town 5, Range 2.
Jett, Stark N. and Thos N., sons of Humphrey.
Jackson, John.
Jackson, James T. , Jonathan, W. H. and

Freling, sons of John.
Joy, Samuel N. and Sylvester.
Jones, Nathaniel C. and Daniel D., brothers

and twins; the former died in the army.
Jarrard, Abram, runs saw-mill.
Jewett, Benjamin, near Fairview.
Johnson, Israel, died north Bethel.
Jennings, B., died east Greenville.
Jennings, W. E. and C. W., brothers; former

died north Bethel.

Jay, J. A., blacksmith.

Jones, William, north Bethel.

Johnson, Charles, member County Court,
1820, etc.

Johnson, Benjamin, member Legislature,
Pocahontas.

Johnson, Charles, died in Bond County.

Johnson, Duncan, died at Vandalia.

Johnson, J. P., banker. Highland, Kan.

Johnson, Hugh, killed at the South.

Johnson, James, died in California.

Kershner, Isaac, died in Bond County.

Kirkpatrick, William.

Koonce, Nicholas, died in Bond County.

Koonce, George, Jacob, Christ H. and Joseph
L. , sons of Nicholas; George moved to
Harper's Ferry; Jacob, Sheriff of Bond
County, 1852, etc. ; Joseph a farmer.

Kelsoe, Alexander, Clerk Circuit Court.

Kizer, Henry, Okaw.

Kimbro, Frederick, Zion.

Kirkham. Jesse, Pocahontas.

Kirkland, John.

King, John B., Okaw.

Kesner, Jacob, William C. and Josiah, Okaw.

Kesterson, Robert, Okaw.

Kuykendall, Simon, runs saw-mill and farm.

Kingsbury, Ira, farmer and surveyor.

Kingsbury, A. N., Daviess, A. N. and John,
sons of Ira; all attorneys, and the latter,
A. N., Judge of Montgomery County Court.

Kerr, Lewis, Zion.

Keys, Thomas, merchant, Keysport.

Long, James, Baptist clergyman; came in
1822.

Long, Peter, Baptist clergyman, son of
James.

Long, Thomas, son of James, merchant and
had a wool factory.

Long, James, Lemuel B., Isham V. and
Peter, sons of Peter; James, a farmer, and
Lemuel a merchant at Old Ripley.

Lindley, Jacob, an old settler.

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

Lindley, Elisha, Town 7, Range 4.

Lindley, Urias, Town 4, Range 3.

Lindley. JDseph, an old settler.

Libbey, W. P., near Elm Point.

Libbey, W. A., S. H. and John, sons of W. P.

Little, James.

Leaverton, Noah, Methodist minister, died
in Kansas.

Leaverton, John A. and Wilson, sons of
Noah; former died in Sangamon County,
a large land owner; the latter lives at

Chatham, 111., a farmer.

Lyttaker, Moses, a brave soldier.

Lynch, Henry.

Lynch, Henry F., son of Henry.

Lookinbill, J. H.

Lucas, William, old settler.

Lister, W. W.

Laws, Fielding, and John A , brothers, north
of La Grange.

Laws. Thomas A., James and Newman, sons
of Fielding.

Lawson, Joseph, Beaver Creek.

Lampkin, P. W., merchant and farmer, Poca-
hontas.

Lampkin, Benjamin and George, sons of P.
W. ; former died at Pocahontas.

Lansing, J. D., died at Greenville.

Littlefield, L. P., gone West.

Lester, J. L. D.

Lovet, John G., farmer.

Lovet, John C, son of John G.

Mains, James, died near Greenville.

Moore, Albert, died near Beaver Creek.

Mills, George S., son of David.

Miles, David, son of William.

Miles, William, Methodist minister, Poca-
hontas.

Miles, James, Elijah and Morris, brothers.

Miles, Irving, Jonathan and William, sons
of Elijah; the first named died at home,
Beaver Creek.

Moss, W. W., died near Woburn.

Moss, Lemuel S. and James H, sons of W.
W.

Malone, John M., harnessmaker, Greenville.

Moore, Emery, farmer, Okaw.

Meritt, Isaac N. , farmer, Okaw.

Murray, Jordan, farmer, Okaw.

Moore, Joseph, farmer, Beaver Creek.

Moore, William, farmer, son of Joseph.

Metcalf, Balaam, died on Beaver Creek.

Metcalf, William and Henry H. sons of Ba-
laam, and farmers.

Mason, Haywood, — Gillham Creek.

Maytield, William and James, brothers, Gill-
ham Creek.

Miller, George W., Mayor of Greenville.

Mattinly, J., eye doctor, Mulberry Grove.

Miller, Rufus, —Mulberry Grove.

Maxey, Joel, Fairview.

Mathews, Elisha, north of Fairview.

Mathews, J. J., John F. and E. P., sons of
Elisha; J. J. moved to Fayette.

Moore, Daniel and Philip, brothers, early
settlers; the former a brother-in-law of
Ned Elam.

McClung, James, north of Greenville.

Mills, Jonathan and Thomas J., sons of Rev.
William Mills; former died in Texas.

Mills, W. J., harness-dealer, Greenville.

May, John, — north of Zion.

Maxey, William O.

Merry, Prettyman, David, Robert, Samuel,
James C, Andrew B. and David W.,
brothers, sons of David; Robert keeps
livery-stable; Samuel southeast quarter of
the southeast quarter of Section 33, Town
6, Range 3; James, northeast quarter Sec-
tion 20, Town 6, Range 3; Andrew, north-
east quarter Section 31, Town 6, Range 3;
David, northwest quarter Section 32, Town
6, Range 3.

McAdow, S. N. and David K., brothers; for-
mer County Judge and member of County
Court.

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

McAdow, John and William, sons of S. N.
Miller, Lewis, near Ripley.
Miller, Charles, founder of Millersburg.
May, Morris, southeast part of Pleasant

Prairie.
May, Robert, Isaac J. and M. V., sons of

Morris.
McCulley, Clinton and Clement, brothers.
McLean, James K., Captain in late war.
McManus, B. P.

McVey, Nathan, died at Greenville.
McVey, Peter, Cleaveland and Thomas, sons

of Nathan.
McAdoo, D. C, farmer, near Fairview.
McCollum, William, south of Pocahontas.
McCollum, Aaron, A. W. and Henry, sons of

William; A. W. lives in Pocahontas.
McShawt, William, southwest quarter Section

5, Town 5, Range 3.
McKenzie, George, — Bethel.
McDonald, F. R.,— Okaw.
McLearen, John, — Okaw.
McCaslin, J. O. and Hugh, brothers; former

Beaver Creek.
McCaslin, William G. and Williamson, sons

of J. O.
McAdams, Jesse, Robert, James, Sloss and

John, brothers; first three farmers; Sloss for

many years Sheriff; John member of

County Court.
McAdams. Jesse and Hiram, sons of Jesse.

McAdams, Henry, son of James.
McLenny, John H.
McAlilly, James J.
Murphy, John and Thomas.
Morey, Hiram, — Mulberry Grove.
Mayo, Benjamin F., Henry and Charles,

brothers; Benjamin north of Fairview.
Myatt, Alexander, member County Court.
Myatt, Wesley, Alexander B. , W. C. and J.

B. , sons of Alexander; Wesley, killed;

Alexander and W. C. farmers, Okaw.
McNeill, Noilly, father of Abe and William.

McNeill, Abe, large land owner.

McNeill, William, farmer.

Mills, Andrew G., old settler, Beaver Creek.

Mills, Milton, son of A. G.

Mackay, A. C, member of County Court sev-
eral years.

Mackay, Robert, son of A. C. ; also member
of County Court.

McCaslin, JohnM., Sheriff, 1879-80.

McCaslin, Younger, early settler.

McCracken, James, Nathan and John P.,
brothers; the two first near Bethel; John
southeast quarter of southeast quarter Sec-
tion 30, Town 7, Range 4.

McCord, John H., Robert E. and James S.,
Bethel.

McCord, Elihu R., hotel-keeper, Greenville.

Morgan, Thomas, Circuit Clerk, 1833, etc.

Morgan, W. T., farmer.

McFarland, Robert, died near Bethel.

McFarland, C. C. and John V., farmers, sons
of Robert.

McCulley, James I. and Joseph, brothers, the
former gone to Kansas; the latter a farmer.

McCracken, Eli, Methodist minister.

McCurley, Abraham.

McCurley, Hartwell, son of Abraham.

McCann, William, and Joseph, brothers,
Pleasant Prairie.

Murray, William B., member County Court.
Pocahontas.

McReynolds, John.

Margrave, John, farmer and Presbyterian.

Margrave, Felix, Treasurer of Bond County.

Mears, Edward A.

Moody, Richard.

Moody, Andrew, son of Richard.

McLain, John A., and J. Thomas, brothers.

McLain, N. W., C. D., Thomas R., A. H. and
Milton J., sons of John A.; N W. a ma-
chinist; C. D. and Thomas, farmers; A.
H. and Milton, in Kansas.

Myres, Joseph, — Beaver Creek.

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

McAdams, William.

McAdams, Samuel G., son of "William, Cap
tain Company E, Twenty-second Regiment
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, a brave soldier,
killed while searching for deserters.

McAdams, J. M., son of Captain S. G.,
Treasurer of the county.

McCaslin, W. R., northwest quarter Section
29, Town 7, Range 3.

Montgomery, John.

Newhall, Horatio, Greenville, 1824.

Nowlin, David, Circuit Clerk in 1825.

Nowlin, John.

Neathery, G. W., northeast quarter Section
35, and northwest quarter Section 30, Town
7. Range 2.

Nesbit, Robert, north of Fairview.

Nance, Berick, north of Old Ripley.

Neidhammer, John, east of Old Ripley.

Neifardt, Jacob, north of Old Ripley.

Near, Alfred, — Greenville.

Nicholson, J. F. and George W., brothers;
J. F., Pleasant Prairie.

Orrusby, Martin P., Presbyterian clergyman.

Oates, W. S. , east Greenville.

Overstreet, William — Kansas.

Pritchett, Thomas J. — Fairview.

Potts, Stringer, Amos, Daniel; F. G. , north-
west quarter Section 7, Town 4, Range 3;
Henry and Robert

Potter, J. M.— Elm Point.

Pender, Andrew.

Pugh, William H. , east Fairview.

Price, Jonathan, Isaac H. , Oliver and
Thomas.

Powell, Benjamin E. and W. C, brothers.

Page. R. G. and Jesse, Town 7, Range 4.

Pierson, Aaron, Town 4, Range 2.

Purveyear, James A., Town 4, Range 3.

Petti John, Reuben, an early Justice of Peace.

Perry, Joseph, east Elm Point.

Paine, Elisha and William, brothers, Town
5, Range 4.

Paine, William R., Thomas and John B.,
sons of Elisha.

Plant, Williamson, settled in county 1818,
died 183-.

Plant, John, William, Robert, Williamson,
Lorenzo D. and James, sons of William-
son; John died in 1805; William, at New
Orleans; Robert died July 4, 1852; Will-
iamson died of cholera May 12, 1833; Lo-
renzo died May 21, 1801; James died
March 22, 1850.

Plant, L. B., son of Robert.

Plant, Lemuel H. and Williamson, sons of
L. D. ; former died on the way to Califor-
nia in 1852; latter, Sheriff of Bond County
many years, and Secretary of Vandalia
Railroad Company.

Plant, W. L., James D. and George F., sons
of James; W. L., Town 5, Range 4; George,
Town 5, Range 3.

Pool, John, settled afterward in Putnam
County.

Perkins, John, north Fairview.

Perkins, Ephraim, Henry, William C. and
Thomas, sons of John; Ephraim — Fair-
view; William and Thomas, Town 5,
Range 2.

Prater, Brice and Samuel, brothers, north
Zion; Brice, Town 6, Range 2.

Prater, John W., son of Samuel.

Plant, John W. and Charles B.,sons of John;
John, Section 1, Town 5, Range 4; Charles,
Section 33, Town 5, Range 4.

Page, William — Mulberry Grove.

Pigg, Elijah — Mulberry Grove.

Polhtt, John W., drowned in Shoal Creek,
near Pocahontas.

Peterson, Alexander, northwest part of Old
Ripley.

Plog, Charles F. , died near Old Ripley.

Plog, John and Peter, sons of Charles F.

Phelps, S. A., attorney, Greenville.

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY

Paisley, William and Robert, brothers; for-
mer died at Elm Point; latter died of hy-
drophobia.

Paisley, Robert G. and "William F., sons of
William; Robert, southeast quarter of
northeast quarter Section — , Town 6,
Range 3; William, on old homestead.

Parr, Samuel, had a water grist-mill, east
Shoal Creek.

Pruitt, Solomon, early settler.

Pursley, William.

Peter, W.

Pruitt, Fields, came to county in 1816.

Ridgeway, William, northwest Pocahontas.

Ridgeway, J. S. and George W., sons of
William.

Rosebrough, James.

Rutherford, James B., first hatter in Green-
ville.

Redfearn, James and Ira.

Ross, J. Milton, Andrew B., Thomas and
William B., brothers.

Rea, Andrew.

Rhea, Henry D., County Commissioner and
farmer.

Reavis, Isham, early settler.

Reavis, Hiram, Isham T. and Ewing, sons of
Isham.

Redding, Andrew J. — Mulberry Grove.

Redding, William M. and James, sons of
Andrew.

Robinson, James W. and Isaac, sons of Alex-
ander.

Robinson, Alexander.

Reneh, Joseph.

Rench, David, William, John and Peter, sons
of Joseph.

Reeves, John, farmer, north Fairview.

Reeves, W. B. , George W. and James, sons
of John.

Rushton, Gaius.

Riley, Barnabas, farmer, near Mulberry
Grove.

Riley, James, John and William, sons of
Barnabas ; James, a farmer ; John, mem-
ber of County Court.

Robinson, Gideon, married in Bond County,
1817.

Robinson, Lawson H., Sheriff in 1828-29.

Rodgers, James, farmer.

Rodgers, William M. and F. M., sons of
James.

Reams, William, farmer, Locust Fork, a great
hunter.

Stout, Samuel and Thomas, brothers ; the lat-
ter a miller and hotel-keeper.

Stout, H. E., son of Thomas.

Senn, John, merchant, Pocahontas.

Stewart, Robert, Presbyterian minister, and
W. M., brothers.

Stroube, Jacob, north Zion.

Snow, James and W T illiam, north Zion.

Seybert, Henry, west Greenville.

Seybert, Morgan, H. V., Jacob and W. B.,
sons of Henry; first two, west Greenville;
Jacob, north Pocahontas.

Sugg, Aquila, Josiah, William and Lemuel,
sons of Noah; the first a Methodist clergy-
man, west Greenville; the second, a farmer
near Pocahontas.

Sugg, Howell and Noah, sons of William.

Sugg, Noah A., Thomas W., W. Fletcher
and Foushe T., sons of Aquila; Noah, a
Methodist clergyman; Foushe, noted for a
great memory.

Sugg, William T. and Josiah F., sons of Jo-
siah; latter was Treasurer of Bond County
1853-56, and Sheriff 1856-58.

Sheirod, Joel.

Stoneburner, Samuel and William, brothers,
near Dudleyville.

Stone, James.

Sellers, Benjamin E., Captain in Mexican
war.

Sellers, L. J., Sr.— Mulberry Grove.

Spradling, James — Mulberry Grove.

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

<J7

Spradling, James H., son of James.

Taylor, John H.

Sturgis, Dr. D. B., laid out New Hamburg.

Thompson, James W. and Williamson, broth-

Scott, John, south New Hamburg.

ers.

Segraves, Bennett, south Mulberry Grove.

Thacker, Abner, Martin, W. H., Allen and

Segraves, L. J., son of Bennett.

Elijah.

Stubblefield, Wyatt, William, Jeremiah and

Tabor, D. N., removed to Litchfield.

John, brothers and early settlers; "Wyatt —

Tabor, S. M. , Captain in the late war.

east Greenville.

Travis, John E.

Stubblefield, John M., W. H. and A. H, sons

Toler, Reuben.

of Wyatt; John, at Stubblefield Station;

Ulmer. Martin, father of George, Casper and

others, Greenville.

Martin, Jr.

Skelton, John, early settler.

Vanlaningham, Zimri.

Scott, Moses, southeast Fairview.

Van Grundy, John.

Spratt, William.

Vaughn, Newman, John, David C, William,

Sargeant, James W. — Okaw.

Samuel, Sr., and Samuel, Jr., member

Sturgenhofeeker, G. L., peddler.

County Court.

Snodgrass, Isaac, member of County Court.

Vollentine, Hardy.

Stallard, Samuel D. — Pocahontas.

Volleutine, William, son of Hardy.

Stallard, Rawley E., son of Samuel D.

Vollentine', J. 0., W. P., George W., Hardy,

Shields, Thomas — Okaw.

James M., Benjamin, John J. and C. C,

Savage, Richard.

sons of William; J. 0., killed by falling of

Scott, A. E., carpenter and cabinet-maker.

a house; W. P., deceased; George, in

Stephens, Cyrus H. and Alvan, brothers.

Christian County; Hardy, in Northern Ill-

Smith, John and James, brothers; the former

inois; remaining four Methodists.

a nurseryman.

Vest, James, Mulberry Grove.

Smith, J. J., son of James.

Vest, Thomas L. and J. E. , sons of James.

Smith, C. J., T. N. and James M., sons of J. J.

Vawter, Presley G.

Schneider, Theodore, member of County

Watson, Matthew, carpenter and farmer.

Court; south half Section 19, Town 5.

Wood, Charles, large farmer, Town 7, Range 3.

Smith, Elisha, on Hurricane.

Wood, Eli, Ezra and John, sons of Charles,

Smith, C. T., George M., Sowoll and Merit,

and farmers.

sons of Elisha.

Webster, F. M., George, A. J. and Levi.

Sharp, Henry.

Willey, John F., Wilson W. and James W.,

Sharp, Milton, Treasurer of Bond County

brothers.

1877-80.

Watson, Fielding.

Smith, Peter and Andrew.

Widger, James D.

Stoker, Joseph.

Williams, Henry, member of County Court

Sherwood, David.

several years.

Tatum, Richard.

Williams, Henry M.

Teasly, Jonathan.

Walker, Andrew, north Zion.

Teasly, William, son of Jonathan.

Wightman, Charles.

Tedrick. Alvin — Hurricane.

Washburn, John A., Nevils, Lemuel, Martin

Tate, Charles F.

and J. S.

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

White, Thomas, Commissioner to locate
Greenville as county seat; they met at his
house in 1821.

White, Hugh T., John B., James, Thomas
(a tanner), and Alexander, sons of Thomas,
and Presbyterians.

White, Robert G. and William, brothers;
north Greenville; Presbyterians.

White, S. D., killed by falling of Shoal
Creek bridge.

Wood, Frederick, shoemaker, Greenville.

Weathers, Wilson, west Zion.

Walker, Richard, north Zion.

Wright, J. J., north Zion.

Wollard, James B., Methodist minister.

White, J. C. Stephen and Ambrose B.

Wilmarth, Joel, son of William.

Watson, Isaac and Joab, brothers.

White, Richard, a Methodist.

White, Wesley and Thomas M., sons of Rich-
ard; former a farmer; latter a Methodist
minister.

Williams, Henry, son of Henry.

Wishon, Ralph, — Okaw.

Williamson, William.

Whitsides, John, Town 7, Range 4.

Wilson, Samuel, south Greenville.

West, Alexander, cabinet-maker.

Williford, James.

Williford, Robert, J. H. and Willis, sons of
James; Robert, west Old Ripley; Willis,
east Old Ripley.

Williford, James M. —Greenville.

White, Samuel, east Greenville.
White, Ed B., Samuel G., John B. O.,
James W. and W. C, sons of Samuel; E.
B., — Greenville; Samuel, — -Beaver Creek;
James died in the army; W. C, east
Greenville.

White, Thomas, brother of Samuel.

White, John, — Beaver Creek, northwest quar-
ter Section 36, Town 4, Range 3.

Wafer, William, Thomas, Sr., and James,
brothers; latter came to the county in 1819.

Wafer, Thomas, James E, and John F.,
sons of James; Thomas a miller and far-
mer; James, a machinist; John, Sheriff of
Bond County 1869-70, now Sheriff in
Kansas.

Wait. Silas Lee and William S.. brothers;
latter a large farmer, died July 17, 1865.

Wait, William S., Richard S., Henry W.
and Foster F., brothers; William, — Poca-
hontas; Richard in California; Henry, east
of Greenville; Foster, southwest Green-
ville.

Watson, Hugh, had a horse-mill, Zion.

Watson, A. W. and W. P*, sons of Hugh.

Wait, Stephen, farmer.

White, Thomas D., north Greenville.

Wait, Lee, son of S. L.

Young, Tapley, a Methodist.

Young, William M., Methodist minister.

There may be omissions in the foregoing list,
but it is as nearly correct as can now be
given.

-——___ __

■#m

^rp^^z^^O^

LIBRARY

OF 1HE

UNIVEKSlTr wflLUNu.;

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

101

(

CHAPTER X.*

GREENVILLE — THE SALE OF LOTS — BUILDING A COURT HOUSE — PUBLIC BUILDINGS OF THE

COUNTY— TAVERNS AND THEIR CHANGES— UNCLE JIMMY'S GROCERY— COUNTY OFFICERS

— THE WATER SUPPLY — WAR HISTORY OF GREENVILLE AND BOND COUNTY —

THE DIFFERENT REGIMENTS IN WHICH THEY WERE REPRESENTED —

THE 1I1LLIARD RIFLES, ETC., ETC.

AS has been referred to heretofore, Green-
ville was surveyed and platted by John
Russell, in June, 1S21. The court ordered
June 5, 1821, " that thirty lots be sold in
the town of Greenville on the first Monday in
July, on a credit of six, twelve and eighteen
months, payable in three equal installments,
for the benefit of the county;" and it was
further " ordered that the Clerk procure the
insertion of the foregoing advertisement in
the Edwardsville Spectator and the Illinois
Intelligencer, for three weeks successively."
The proceeds of the sale of the lots to he ap-
plied toward erecting public buildings for the
county.

At a court held September 4, 1821, it was
" ordered that the court house of Bond County
be let to the lowest bidder on Wednesday,
the 19th inst., and that the Clerk give due
notice by advertisement of the same." The
court met on the 19th of September, 1821.
When the bids were opened, it was found
that Robert G. White was the successful bid-
der, for the sum of $2,135, and he imme-
diately entered into bond for the fulfillment
of the contract, with Andrew Moody, Samuel
Houston and ElishaBlanchard his securities,
payment of same to be notes of purchasers of
town lots. At a court held December 3,
1821, the Commissioners delivered notes
from sale of lots to R. G. White on his con-

* By Williamson Plant.

tract to the amount of $1,338. The lots sold
for average price of $44.60 per lot, provided
the thirty lots were sold; if a less number
sold, the average would be larger. Other
lots were sold at various prices at private
sale. By agreement between the court and
the contractor, some change was made in the
number of lights to be put in the windows;
those below, twenty- four lights instead of
twenty, and those above, twenty in place of
sixteen, as per contract, and only to have two
windows in each end to correspond with those
on the sides in size. The glass in the win-
dows were 8x10 inches, and to have but one
chimney in place of two, as first designed, and
that one in the end opposite the Judge's seat.
At this time, and for several years after,
there was not a stove in the county, the old-
fashioned fireplace, that which yet brings to
our minds the comforts of other days, was in
use in every house, many of them being from
four to six feet in length, and when a good
fire was made in the same, resembled the
burning of a log heap, such as are made when
clearing timber fields for the plow. This
house, made of a poor quality of bricks, was
badly damaged by storms, wind and rain be-
fore it was completed. In fact, it can hardly
be said to have ever been completed. Com-
menced in 1821, it was so nearly completed
on June 4, 1822, that the court paid to Rob-

102

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

ert G. White, the contractor, nearly the bal-
ance due.

At this time the center of business of Green-
ville was at the crossing of Main and Sixth
streets, in the west end of the present town.
And the bad boy, of which there is sufficient
evidence, was fully represented in this new
town, would, for pastime and comfort, only
understood by himself, gravitate, when his
convenience was suited, near that public in-
stitution of justice, and, with his sling in
hand, under cover of the surrounding bushes,
would watch the falling stone drop on
those coveted 8x10 lights. The building,
only half built at first, greatly perplexed the
court to get and keep it in repair for the few
years that it stood. They made at least two
orders appointing agents at different times,
to prosecute those who broke the glass,
smashed in the sash, and defaced the house
generally. Nothing appears on the record to
show that any guilty parties were brought to
justice. In the building of the next court
house, which was commenced in 1829, and
not completed until about 1835 or 1836, the
court had the benefit of the experience of the
court who superintended the building of the
first one. On consultation, they thought best
to try a frame building this time. Instead
of the letting of the whole contract to one
man, they let it out in parts. Thomas Stout
furnished most of the lumber, others hewed
the timbers, some furnished the shingles.
Hosea T. Camp engaged to haul a large part
of the lumber from Stout's Mill, and James
McGahey contracted to " lay the floor, parti-
tion the upper story into four rooms, run up
stairs, make ■ Judge's seat and bar agreeable
to the draft, previously season the plank in a
suitable manner, furnish and put in such
joists as may be necessary, make suitable
steps of hewn timber at the outside doors,
and have the same completed on or before

the 1st day of September next (this was
April 6, 1829), for which he is to be paid
such sums of money as may be ascertained
and fixed by three disinterested workmen,
chosen by the County Commissioners, to be
paid on or before the first Monday of Decem-
ber next." The house was several years
under contract before it was called com-
pleted, as a sale of window sash, with glass,
paints and oils, was made at public sale on
the 25th day of June, 1836.

This building served the people until
1853, when a contract was made in April,
1853, with Mr. Daniel W. Norris, to build
the present court house of brick, at a contract
price of $10,000. Some improvements have
been added, making the total cost about §12,-
000. Those who witnessed its erection can
hardly realize that it is now more than a quar-
ter of a century since it was completed.
Could the court have fully comprehended the
growth and prosperity of Bond County at
that time, they would have built more with
reference to fifty than twenty- seven years.
The present building is 40x60 feet, two sto-
ries high, with two jury rooms, which are used
outside of court for the State's Attorney and
Surveyor, two rooms for the use of the County
Clerk, Circuit Clerk's office, with vault for
records, Sheriffs office, and one for the County
Judge, and for the holding of County Courts.

Let us go back again in this history for a
moment. Although the village of Greenville
contained but few inhabitants, and the county
was sparsely settled from the time of its or-
ganization of the latter, until twenty years
had rolled by, yet we find that the number of
" taverns " licensed should have only been
called for if the necessity for such could be
admitted in a county containing many times
the number of people in Bond County.

The tavern licenses were more designed for
the sale of liquors than for the accommoda-

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

103

tion of " man and beast;'' but, with the grant-
ing of such license, a lists of charges that the
landlord may make were attached to each
permit. We give the rates made by the
County Court, March term, 1827. These
rates varied slightly from year to year:

For breakfast, dinner or supper 25 cents.

Bedding, per night 12* cents.

Feed for horse 12 J cents.

Stable and forage, per night 50 cents.

Whisky peach or apple brandy, per

half pint 12| cents.

Run, French brandy or wine, per half

pint 25 cents.

Gin, per half pint 18f cents.

Whilst but few can be found who can go
back to the first days of the county, when we
step forward fifteen or twenty years we find
many who, if fifty-five years old or more, and
here at that time, cannot forget the excite-
ment generally that attended " court week,"
" election" and " muster" days. The men of
muscle were the heroes of that day. Each
militia company had one particular man who
could whip any man in any other similar com-
pany. Each neighborhood had within its
borders a man who could and would, on any
suitable occasion, whip any man in some other
neighborhood; and last, though by no means
least, one political party had each a particu-
lar man who could and would, on any pretext,
whip any other man or particular man be-
longing to that other party.

The writer of this article, when a boy, say
in 1835-36, so well understood these matters,
that on public occasions referred to, or on
Saturdays, he would station himself upon the
fence across the street in good season opposite
"Uncle Jimmy Clark's" "grocery," as such
places were then called, about 1 or 2 o'clock
in the afternoon, and await the milling fun that
was sure to come, especially if Chap Clan-
ton, Cob Coffee, Allery Allen, the Adamses,
Washburnes, Will Coyle, Henry Harmon, the

Albertses, Batemans or Dowds, or many others
that might be named, were patronizing Uncle
Jimmy. When all got ripe, the first intima-
tion of what was certain to follow would be
first, a quick, rumbling sound, " like a small
earthquake in close proximity," then out they
would come, piling over each other as they
came out of the door, with their coats flying
thick and fast in the air, only likened by
coming out of bees from their hives to swarm.
As soon as a ring could be formed, they raised
or lowered their names with their friends,
as the tide of battle turned. If any " foul"
was called, then the fight became general,
and, under such circumstances, the high fence
upon which the writer was perched as a wit-
ness, would have to be abandoned in haste to
some more distant place of safety. In later
years, in 1844, in the high political excite-
ment, when Clay and Polk were candidates,
the Democrats thought they had a man, Mr.
James Adams, who could whip any Whig in
the county. Of course, the Whigs could not
stand such a challenge, or, perhaps, the chal-
lenge came from the Whigs to the Democrats.
With many, this was the biggest issue in the
campaign, when and where would it take
place? The mere mention of the subject in
any crowd was enough to start excitement.
On a hot, sultry day, when a great gathering
of people was in the city of Greenville, these
two giants were in the crowd with their
friends. They seemed slow to meet each
other from the fact that both kept reasonably
clear of that which both knew might put them
out of condition; but suddenly they came to
gether, in the cross of Main and Second
streets (between Justice's store and the south-
east corner of the public square), they struck
(as a bystander said), like " horses kicking."
They were both jiowerful men. When the
fight was over, the animosity was gone, and
thev became better friends. Of all this long:

104

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

list of men whose names are mentioned, most
of them were as honorable men as the com-
munity afforded, and only acted in harmony
with their surroundings of the times in which
they lived. Those who have lived on to the
present time find no satisfaction in allowing"
a stronger man than they to whip him, or for
themselves to find some man not so powerful
as themselves, and turn upon him and force
him to cry " enough."

Liquor was common at almost every house,
and a store without it would be as hard to
find as the average retail store in Greenville
at the present day without sugar and coffee.
One thing may be said in its favor then, it
was pure, and not the poisonous compound
made at present under the name of liquor.

As we have said, Daniel Converse was the
first County Clerk for Bond County in 1817-
18; Thomas Helms in 1819-20; James Jones,
June 6, 1820; Jonathan H. Pugh, March 5,
1822; Green P. Rice, August 15, 1822;
James M. Johnson, March 23, 1823; Asahel
Enloe, March, 1825; Joseph M. Nelson, April
10, 1827; Isaac Murphy, March 2, 1829; James
E. Rankin, June 1, 1829; James Durley,
June 30, 1830; Willard Twiss, December
31, 1831; James Bradford, March 9, 1836;
Enrico Gaskins, September 7, 1846; J. S.
Denny, November, 1865; Robert L. Mudd,
November, 1874, the present County Clerk.

James Jones was the first Circuit Clerk,
in 1819. His successor was James M. John-
son, March 2, 1821, Clerk at the first court
hel 1 in Greenville, on that date; next, David
Nowlin, September 19, 1825; Thomas Mor-
gan, June, 1833; James Bradford, October,
1836; Alexander Kelsoe, 1848; John B.
Reid, November, 1860; J. A. Cooper, No-
vember, 1868; George S. Phelps, September,
1872; T. P. Morey, November, 1876, the
present incumbent.

First Sheriff, Samuel G. Morse, 1817-18;

second, Samuel Houston, 1819 and 1824;
Hosea T. Camp, 1824 to 1827; Lawson H.
Robinson, 1828-29; Sloss McAdams, 1830 to
1846; W. K. Mastin, 1846, and part of 1848;
S. H. Crocker, balance of 1848; Richard
Bentley, 1848 and 1850; Samuel H. Crocker,
1850, and 1852; Jacob Koonce. 1852, and
1854; Williamson Plant, 1854, and 1856;
Josiah F. Sugg, 1856, and 1858; Samuel H.
Crocker, 1858, and 1860; William Watkins,
1860, and 1862; Williamson Plant, 1862,
and 1864; James L. Buchanan, 1864, and
1866: John Fisher, 1866, and 1868; John
F. Wafer, 1868, and 1870; Williamson Plant,
1870, and 1372; Andrew J. Gullick, 1872 to
1878; John M. McCasland, 1878, and 1880;
Andrew J. Gullick, 18S0, and 1882.

Mr. Francis Travis was first County Treas-
urer, appointed June 5, 1819; next, James
Galloway, June 6, 1820; James Durley, June
5, 1821; Felix Margrave, March 2, 1824;
Leonard Goss, March 11, 1825; Thomas S.
Waddle, April 10, 1827 j John Gilmore,
March 5, 1828; James Bradford, March 9,
1831; Peter Hubbard, March. 1836.

Peter Larrabe, Treasurer, 1845; John M.
Smith, November, 1851; J. F. Sugg, Novem-
ber, 1853 to 1854; J. F. Alexander, 1854 to
1856; J. K. McLean, 1856 to 1858, J. S.
Denny, 1858 to 1864; Milton Mills, 1864 to
1866; Cyrus Birge, 1866 to 1870; R. L.
Mudd, 1870 to 1876; M. J. Sharp, 1876 to
1880; J. M. McAdams, 1880 to 1882.

One of the first difficulties met by the peo-
ple of Greenville was the supply of water
needed. The first settlers, Mr. Samuel Dav-
idson, Capt. Paul Beck, Asahel Enloe, with
their families, settled near the spring on the
west of the present town to obviate any
trouble for water. But those settling up in
the town carried all the water they used from
the springs, except for washing clothes, and
for that purpose went to Wash Lake, just

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

105

west of town; but they found it too much la-
bor for so small return. About March. 1822,
the subject of public wells was discussed.
Some attempts had been made, and failed to
find water within a reasonable depth. The
depth necessary to find water was found to
be from ninety to one hundred feet. Three
wells were finally dug and curbed with wood
puncheon or plank, the part under water was
mulberry, "charred by fire" before using, to
add, as was supposed, to its lasting qualities.
The first well was dug in the middle of the
street, where Main and Sixth streets cross
each other, in the west end of town. The
next one was in the middle of the street, where
Third and College streets cross, the other at
the crossing of Second and Main streets. The
mode of drawing water was with the old-
fashioned windlass, a brake to hold on the
same while the bucket was sent down. There
was a frame around each well above the
ground some three feet, which made it dan-
gerous for the many boys of ten or twelve
years that often had to draw from them. In
1836, whilst a son of Mr. Hildreth, some
twelve or fourteen years old, was looking over
the curb into the well, when his feet slipped
out, and down he went head first. It was
never known whether he ever drew breath
after striking the bottom. An accident also
occurred at the well in the middle of the
street, near the southeast corner of the pub-
lic square. A Mr. William Gray, an experi-
enced well-digger, was employed to clean out
the well. Two men were at the windlass.
He was warned by some bystanders of their
fears of the safety of the rope, but he fear-
lessly stepped into the bucket, holding to the
rope or chain above, and had only made a
start when the upper part of the rope or
chain broke, and he was precipitated to the
bottom, a distance of over ninety feet. He
received internal injuries, beside dislocation

of the ankle. He lived about twenty-four
hours, and died in great pain. In time, these
wells gave evidence of caving in, and were
filled up to prevent accidents. A few months
ago, the filling that had been put in this
well more than twenty -five years before sunk,
leaving a hole the size of the well, eight or
ten feet deep.

Cisterns have since become plentiful, and
the water is so much preferred to the limestone
water contained in the former wells, that no
complaint is made on the question of water,
except in excessive dry seasons, or when by
some cause the cistern is out of order. Some of
the best natural springs immediately north
and west of the town are found, and the day
is not far distant when they will be utilized
by water-works in furnishing the town with
a bountiful supply of water.

The St. Louis, Vandalia & Terre Haute
Railroad is supplied with water from two of
these strong springs. Nearly all trains take
water at Greenville, the water giving the
least trouble to their boilers of any other
along the line of the road. The railroad
company have made some very substantial
engine houses, tanks and dams to secure the
water.

In the year 182T>. the Legislature appro-
priated $200 to aid in constructing a bridge
across Shoal Creek, on the St. Louis wagon
road. Before this bridge was built, Benja-
min Henson had a primitive boat at his house,
a short distance below the present bridge, that
was used in cases of high water. It has been
stated in a preceding chapter in this book,
that Mr. Henson was thought to have been
the first white settler in Bond County, having
been here in 1812 or 1813, and for a consid-
erable time his house was a large, hollow
sycamore tree, not far from the cabin he after-
ward built and lived in until his death, about
1848. When he first came into the county

10G

HISTORY OF BOXD COUNTY.

the Indians were in some parts of the then
large county.

At a session of the County Court held June
3, 1822, an order was made for the erection
of a " stray pen in Greenville, forty feet
square, to be made of posts and railing, each
panel six feet high above the surface of the
ground, and the posts let into the ground two
feet and a half." In this " stray pen," the
estray stock of the county was brought during
the sessions of the Circuit Courts, and, per-
haps, muster and other public occasions in
Greenville, and any one having lost stock
would go to the estray pen on these days and
examine for his missing animal.

When the county was first formed, not
many years had elapsed since the straggle of
the Revolution, and the war of 1812 and 1814
had only just preceded the tirst settlement.

It would be but natural for a people who
had so signally in the tirst and latter struggle
achieved and maintained their independence,
to call together their comrades in arms, with
their neighbors and friends at stated periods,
and relight those battles, and thereby infuse
into the rising generations, who are always
the hope of a country, the spirit of their
fathers. Actuated by a spirit of patriotism,
the people held the election of military offi-
cers, their drills and muster, as their highest
privileges. The first election of militaiy
officers was held as other elections for county
officers, but in later years the mode adopted
was for the candidates for whatever office
they desired to elect, to step out of the crowd
assembled and call out, " All who will join

Company fall into line.'' This often

led to much excitement, but was always kept
within the bounds of good humor. Paul
Beck was made a Captain as early as May
12, 1817, and Samuel Davidson, Ensign,
same date. John Laugh lin was elected Cap-
tain June 14, 1817, and John Hopton, Lieu-

tenant, and John Whitley, Jr., Ensign, same
date. The troubles with the Indians in some
of the northern counties, and anticipated
trouble within the borders of the county, fol-
lowed soon after by the Black Hawk war of
1831-32, kept the military companies through-
out the county well organized until about
1840. Since that time it declined rapidly,
until a Captain, Major or a Colonel was only
a thing of the past, until revived by the ac-
tive military movements in this country dur-
ing the late civil war.* This civil war in a
land so peculiarly blessed, between a people
so enlightned aud refined, this fratricidal war,
now as we review it when it is passed, having
seen its commencement, its continuarce and its
close, seems only as a dream of the past; yet it
was to many hundred thousands a fatal dream.

Bond County was in the front in furnishing
her full quota of brave and patriotic soldiers
to defend and uphold the flag and honor of
our whole country. They went promptly at
every call for volunteers, carrying with them
the prayers of sympathizing friends and rela-
tives, many of whom never returned, some
returning with lost or shattered limbs, or a
diseased body, as can be attested by the large
pension roll in our Bond County.

The volunteer companies, with their com-
missioned officers for Bond County, may be
mentioned as follows:

Company D, Twenty-second Regiment Illinois Vol-
unteers.— Captains, James A. Hubbard, John H.
Phillips ; First Lieutenants, E. J. C. Alexander, Lem-
uel Adams, John H. Phillips, Enoch J. File ; Sec-
ond Lieutenants, Lemuel Adams, Edward Stearns.
J. H. Phillips, Cyrus M. Galloway, Enoch J. File,
Joel B. Paisley.

Company E, Twenty-second Regiment Illinois Vol-
unteers.— Captains, Samuel G. McAdams, George
Gibson ; First Lieutenants, James M. Hamilton,
George Gibson, J. M. McAdams ; Second Lieuten-
ants, George Gibson, J. M. McAdams.

* For convenience the war hiBtory of Bond County is given in con
nection with the city of Greenville.— Ed.

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

107

Company C, Twenty-sixth Regiment Illinois Volun-
teers. — Captains, George M. Keener, James A. Dug-
ger, Owen W. Walls, Isaac N. Enloe ; First Lieu-
tenants, Thomas L. Vest, J. A. Dugger, Owen W.
Walls, James Manes, John McCallister ; Second
Lieutenants, J. A. Dugger, E. B. Wise.

Company E, One Hundred and Thirtieth Regiment
Illinois Volunteers. — Captains, U. B. Harris, W. C.
Harned ; First Lieutenants, William Harlan, Will-
iam C. Harned, Charles W. Johnson ; Second Lieu-
tenants, W. C. Harned, Charles W. Johnson.

Company F, One Hundred and Thirtieth Regiment
lllnois Volunteers. — Captains, William M. Colby,
John D. Dounell, F. D. Phillips ; First Lieutenants,
John D. Donnell, Charles Ives, Ficlden D. Phillips,
John Murdock ; Second Lieutenants, Charles Ives,
F. D. Phillips.

Company F, One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Regi-
ment Illinois Volunteers. — Captain, Samuel G. Mc-
Adams ; First Lieutenant, James A. Hubbard ; Sec-
ond Lieutenant, Edward Stearns.

Company F, One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Regi-
ment, enlisted June 6, 1864, and discharged Septem-
ber 28, 1864 ; served one hundred days ; only one
man died during the time, viz.: James McCann, at
Ironton, Mo., July 25, 1864.

The Twenty-second Infantry Illinois Volun-
teers was organized at Belleville, 111., May
11, 1861, and was mustered into service for
three years at Caseyville, 111., June 25, 1861,
by Capt. T. G. Pitcher, U. S. A. July 11,
they moved to Bird's Point, Mo. November
7, seven companies engaged in battle at Bel-
mont, three being left to guard the trans-
ports; loss, 144 killed and missing. At Stone
Biver, December 31, 1862, and January 1,
1863, they lost 199 men out of 342 going in-
to action. At Chickamauga, September 19
and 20, they lost 135 officers and men out of
an aggregate of less than 300 men. The
severity of the battle was such on the 19th
they lost ninety-six men in less than ten
minutes. They were engaged in many hard-
f ought battles during the three years of their
service, including the storming of Mission
Bidge, Besaca, battle of Farmington, Chick-
amauga, etc. Among the many brave officers
and men who had their names inscribed on

the roll of honor in Company E, may be
mentioned that of our lamented Capt. Samuel
G. McAdams.

The history of the Twenty-sixth Infantry
of Volunteers would be almost a history of
the war. They were mustered into service
at Camp Butler, 111., August 31, 1861, and,
after serving four years, were discharged or
mustered out of service at Louisville, Ky.,
July 20, 1865. The company was paid off
at Springfield, 111., July 28, 1865. The
commanding General ordered the placing on
their banners " New Madrid," " Island No.
10,'' "Farmington," "Siege of Corinth,"
"Iuka," "Holly Springs," "Vicksburg,"
" Mission Bidge, " " Kenesaw, " " Ezra
Church," " Atlanta," " Savannah," " Colum-
bia," etc., etc., as recognition of the many
hard-fought battles in which they had been
engraved. The One Hundred and Thirtieth
Begiment of Infantry Illinois Volunteers was
especially noted for bravery, of which Com-
panies E and F, from Bond County, whilst
in the service, discharged their duty nobly.
They were engaged in the battles at Port
Gibson, siege of Vicksburg, siege at Jackson,
Miss., battle at Sabine Cross Boads, or Mans-
field, where Col. J. B. Beid was seriously
wounded, siege of Blakely, Spanish Fort,
Ala., and Mobile. Maj. J. B. Beid was pro-
moted to that of Lieutenant Colonel in this
regiment for meritorious services. Dr. David
Wilkins was First Assistant Surgeon, and
Bev. W. D. H. Johnson, of Greenville, Chap-
lain of the regiment.

The Third Cavalry was organized at Camp
Butler by Col. E. A. Can-, in August, 1861.
The regiment moved to St. Louis September
25; October 1, moved up the Missouri Biver
to Jefferson City, aud thence marched to
Warsaw, where they arrived October 11; on
the 23d, marched toward Springfield, Me. , in
Col. Carr's Brigade, Brig. Gen. Ashboth'o

108

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

Division. On November 2, Gen. Hunter took
command of the army. November 13, the First
and Second Battalions moved with the army on
Rolla, Mo. The Third Battalion, Maj. Riig-
gles commanding, remained with Sigel's Di-
vision, and was the last to leave Springfield.

On the 18th of February, 1862, the Third
Battalion participated in a calvary charge,
routing the enemy. The regiment moved
rapidly from point to point as ordered and
the interest of the service required, and were
engaged in many skirmishes and battles dur-
ing the three years they were in the service.
Their active duty was at Pea Ridge, Hunts-
ville, Grenada, Vicksburg, Chickasaw Bayou,
Port Gibson, Tupelo, Okolona and Gun
Town, Miss. September 27, 1864, six com-
panies crossed the Tennessee at Clifton, and
confronted Hood's army, fell back skirmish-
ing, and took part in the battles of Lawrence-
burg, Spring Hill, Campbellsville and Frank-
lin. They were also engaged in an expedi-
tion after the Indians in 1865. Capts. Thomas
M. Davis, J. Iv. McLean and S. M. Tabor, all be-
longing to Bond County, made for themselves a
noble record. The regiment was mustered out
of service at Springfield, 111., October 13, 1865.
During the time of service, a large number
of the regiment re-enlisted as veterans.

Hilliard Rifles. — The company was first or-
ganized with a view of entering the State
militia, entitled the National Guards of Illi-
nois. Charles H. Beatty was one of the most
active in securing the names that formed the
first organization, effected December 30,1878.
At a meeting held at the county court house
the above date, and presided over by Lieut.
Col. James T. Cooper, of Alton, 111., the fol-
lowing list of officers was elected: Captain,
P. E. Holcomb. a retired Major of the regu-
lar army; First Lieutenant, S. M. Inglis;
Second Lieutenant, Charles H. Beatty. The
number enrolled in this first company was

seventy-one. Maj. Holcomb, being a retired
army officer, consequently skilled in milli-
tary science, the company, under his com-
mand, became one of the best drilled com-
panies in Southern Illinois, and enjoyed gen-
eral prosperity. In December, 1878, it re-
ceived the title of Company G, Fifteenth
Battalion, I. N. G., and was assigned to the
Second Brigade, under command of Brig.
Gen. J. N. Reece, and in September, 1879,
entered encampment at Camp Cullom, near
Springfield. The company at this time had
been recruited to the number of forty -five
members, with three commissioned officers.
The Hilliard Rifles, as a social organization,
by this time had gained some local promi-
nence. In November, 18S0, they leased and
established themselves in their commodious
and well-equipped armory (hall), in which,
from time to time, under their auspicies, the
public was treated to first-class lectures,
musical and other entertainments, festivals,
etc. In the fall of 1881, they again went
into encampment near Bloomington, 111.,
where they made a reputation and an excel-
lent record in target practice, Lieut. Elam
representing his battalion, and doing excel-
lent work. February 18, 1882, the company
was re-organized by a new election of officers,
the term of service of the first elected having
expired. Col. George C. McCord, of Gov.
Cullom's staff, and a resident of Greenville,
presided at this meeting, and Lieut. S. M.
Inglis was elected Captain, C. F. Thraner,
First Lieutenant, John A. Elam, Second
Lieutenant. About this time the State
militia was also re-organized into ten regi-
ments, and the Hilliard Rifles, Company G,
Fifteenth Battalion, was assigned to the
Eighth Infantry as Company F. It has been
recruited to fifty-three men, with three com-
missioned officers, and in all essential respects,
is enjoying prosperity.

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

109

CHAPTER XI.*

GREENVILLE — EDUCATIONAL HISTORY— COMMON SCHOOLS — ALMIRA COLLEGE — RELIGIOUS -

ORGANIZATION OF CHURCHES— THE PRESBYTERIANS AND METHODISTS— THE ERECTION

OF CHURCH BUILDINGS — SECRET AND BENEVOLENT ORDERS — MASONS

AND ODD FELLOWS— OTHER ORGANIZATIONS, ETC., ETC.

Greenville District employed Samuel M. Inglis,

'The Church and State, that long had held
Unholy intercourse, now divorced
She who, on the breast of civil power," etc.,

etc.

THE education of children at an early day,
all over the country, was much the same,
and many were to be found who would recognize
the necessity of any special effort to educate
the females. They were quite unanimous forty
years ago in believing that, at most, they might
learn to read and write. Arithmetic and gram-
mar were thought to be quite useless. But
however much the parents may have desired
to give their children a good education at that
time, they would have found it often very dif-
ficult to find teachers with the requisite qualifi-
cations to teach the required branches to enable
them to draw the small school-fund distributed
annually by the State.

The first schools taught at Greenville, so far
as can now be known, was by Mr. Enloe, a Mr.
Beeman and White. Miss Elizabeth Norton
(afterward Mrs. Foster) taught a school in 1835,
in a cabin on part of Lot 22, Greenville, nearly
in front of Mrs. Larrabee's present residence.
A number of teachers were at different times
employed with varying success, until under the
free-school system the present brick school
building was erected about 1859. The first
teachers in the new building as principals,
have been Messrs. Cunningham, Clark, Hynes,
Taylor, Mudd, Dean and Inglis.

August 8, 1868, the School Directors of

» By Williamson Plant.

at a salary of $100 per month, and who has
also been employed from time to time since,
and at the end of the fifth year as Principal of
the school he had the pleasure of having seven
graduates. The sixth year, 1874, seven more
graduated; in 1875, nine graduated; in 1876,
eight; in 1877, eleven; in 1878, six; in 1879,
nine; in 1880, fourteen; in 1881, eleven; in
1882, twelve, making a total graduation of
ninety-four for the ten years after the school
was brought up to the present graded system.
The same Principal is employed for the com-
ing school year, making fifteen years of contin-
uous principalship. Ten assistants are now
necessary to aid in giving instructions in the
different departments.

This school is very popular at home and en-
joys a high reputation abroad.

Almira College.— In 1827, two lads, Ste-
phen Morse and John B. White, attended
school together at a public institution in New
Hampton, N. H. One year later they entered
Brown University, Rhode Island, where they
were class and room mates during their colle-
giate course. After a few years, one devoted
himself to teaching, and the other engaged in
the mercantile business. These boys were
raised by unusually intelligent, devoted, Chris-
tian parents, and each sought the path in life
that seemingly would promise the most useful
and lasting results.

Mr. Morse was prospered in his business,

110

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

and accumulated wealth. Occasional letters
passed between these old friends and class-
mates, in which the subject of education was
frequently discussed. Nothing of unusual in-
terest occurred, however, until 1854, when they
arranged to meet in Greenville, 111., which meet-
ing resulted in the initiatory steps for founding
the much-talked-of institution. After some
days of consultation and study, it was decided
that the institution should be for the higher ed-
ucation of young women. That it should not
be engaged in as a private enterprise, but that
an act of incorporation should be secured, so
that the contributions could be held in perpe-
tuity for educational purposes. Mrs. Alraira
B. Morse, a lady of thorough and accomplished
education, was fully in sympathy with her hus-
band, and seconded every effort of his for the
advancement of the worthy enterprise, aiding
not only by words of encouragement and cheer,
but with a generous personal money gift; and
thus the institution was founded in 1855-56, a
charter being obtained in 1857. The work of
erecting the building was immediately begun,
and one wing completed and occupied in May,
1858. Work was gradually carried on and the
main structure was finished in 1864. It pre-
sents a frontage of 160 feet; width, forty-eight
feet; is four stories high, and contains seventy-
two large and elegant rooms. The college
grounds contain twelve acres, consisting of a
park, a yard front of the building, and land in
the rear for domestic and ornamental purposes.
In honor of the lady, Mrs. Almira Blanchard
Morse, who endowed it with her little fortune
of $6,000, this college was appropriately named
Almira.

From its foundation, the institution has been
under the instruction and general management
of Prof. White, and his wife as assistant, except
for three years during the rebellion, during
which time the Rev. D. P. French and Mr.
Morse assumed control. Prof. White severed
his connection with the institution in 1879,

when Prof. J. B. Slade, of Springfield, took con-
trol.

Mrs. Almira B. Morse died at her home in
Palva, Kan., in August, 1881. Her remains
were returned to Greenville and interred in Mt.
Rose Cemeteiy.

The ladies of Greenville and vicinity, desir-
ous of promoting social intercourse and of aid-
ing in the intellectual and moral elevation of
society, met on the 19th of January, 1856,
and organized a society for the aforesaid pur-
pose and adopted a constitution and by-laws.
It was called the Social Circle, and its object
was the purchase of a library. The ladies pres-
ent at the meeting for organization were Mrs.
A. Morse, Mrs. M. Shields, Mrs. L. Stewart,
Mrs. E. Hutchinson, Mrs. S. Morse, Mrs. E. G.
Smith, Mrs. S. Sprague, Miss J. Merriam and
Miss E. M. White.

The meetings were held once a week. In
the afternoon, the ladies sewed, and, in the even-
ing, gentlemen came in and some literary enter-
tainment was given. An idea of the energy
and labor bestowed upon the project may be
seen from a single quotation from the records:
'• Work on hand for January 28 — Knitting, a
cradle quilt, three sun-bonnets, two pairs of
pantalets, infants' dresses, caps and aprons,
three shirts finished and price for making the
same $2.25.

An attractive feature in the evening enter-
tainments for years was the reading of The Ga-
zette, a collection of articles and essays written
by the members of the society. Many of the
papers contained productions that reflected no
discredit upon their composers, indeed some
evinced more real literary merit than much
that appears in the leading periodicals of to-
day.

Besides the labor thus bestowed, we note a
supper given April 25, 1858, at which $61.88
were realized ; also, June 25, a concert, the pro-
ceeds of which were $21. The first purchase
of books was made August 26, 1856 ; the

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

amount invested, $100. October 22 of the
same year, by vote, the name was changed to
Ladies' Library Association. Thus we Snd the
little germ, planted and nurtured by the ladies,
and supported by the good wishes and patron-
age of the gentlemen, steadily growing.

In the year 18G7, through the instrumental-
ity of Hon. J. F. Alexander, a charter was ob-
tained. About this time, the need of a town
hall being greatly felt in Greenville, a number
of ladies, many of them being also members of
the Library Association, determined to raise
money to build one and connect with it a
room for the public library, which had been
kept at the residence of some member of the
society. After nearly 81,000 had been ob-
tained, the project was abandoned, and a dona-
tion of $712.40 was made to the Library Asso-
ciation on the 13th of February, 1873.

The interest of this fund is annually ex-
pended in the purchase of books. The serv-
ices of librarian having always been gratuitous,
the institution is self-supporting, and has added
some to the permanent fund.

The twenty-fifth anniversary was celebrated
on the 19th of January, 1881, at the residence
of Dr. William Allen. The event proved an
important epoch, in that it revived much of its
history that had never been put on record, and
awakened new zeal in the work. Letters were
read from absent members, an historical sketch
of the society was given, some poems of merit,
good music and an elegant repast, combined to
form a delightful re-union.

At present the library consists of 1,500 vol-
umes. Seventy-five or one hundred new books
are added yearly, and it furnishes patrons the
best magazines of the day. The library room
is large, pleasantly situated in Bennett's Block,
well furnished, and kept open every Saturday
afternoon.

The following is a list of the officers at the
present time :

Mrs. F. C. Mudd, President ; Mrs. E. Denny,

Vice President ; Mrs. J. W. Hoiles, Secretary ;
Miss A. E. White, Treasurer and Librarian ;
Misses E. Birge and G. Blanchard, Assistant
Librarians.

Presbyterian Church.— On the 10th day of
March, 1819, a church was formed in Bond
County, called the " Shoal Creek " Church, em-
bracing all the Presbyterians in the county at
that time, with thirty-three members enrolled.
On the 15th of September, 1825, the committee
appointed by the Presbytery of Missouri, at a
meeting held for that purpose, divided this
church into three separate churches, known as
the Bethel, Shoal Creek and Greenville ; and
the following list of male members was assigned
to Greenville at that time : John Gilmore,
Hugh T. White, James White, John B. White,
Samuel White, John Russell, John Short,
George Donnell, Robert G. White, John White,
Joseph Howell and William Nelson.

The location of Shoal Creek Church was in
what was then known as the Ohio Settlement,
some four or five miles northwest of Green-
ville, where the Union Grove Church now
stands. The Bethel Church was about ten
miles northwest of Greenville. These churches
maintained a separate existence until April 7,
1832. At this time, the Shoal Creek Church
had become so enfeebled by removals and
deaths, it seemed necessary for them to unite
with the Greenville Church. The Greenville
Church was organized by Messrs. Giddings
and Lacy and Elder Collins, of Collinsville,
September 15, 1825, with twenty -nine mem-
bers. As before stated, the two branches of the
church were consolidated April 7, 1832. Up
to this time, no house of worship had been
built at Greenville, but soon after the churches
had united they built a house about two miles
northwest of Greenville, as a more central and
convenient point for all the members. The
members of the united church hauled and
hewed the logs, sawed the timber, split the
boards and shingles, and did all the work for

112

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

the completion of the same within the member-
ship. From 1825 to 1829, the church had no
stated pastor, hut was served from time to time
by transient ministers whose names are un-
known. From 1829 to 1831, Rev. Solomon
Hardy was the minister in charge ; in 1832,
Rev. W. J. Fraser ; then followed the labors of
Revs. A. Ewing, T. A . Spillman, W. K. Stewart;
Rev. J. Stafford, from 1837 to 1838, and again
from 1840 to 1850. In 1847. the pastor was
absent, and P. D. Young supplied the place
for six months. In 1851 and 1852, Rev. Will-
iam Hamilton, and from 1852 to 1867, Rev.
Thomas W. Hynes were the stated supply ;
1867 to 1868, Rev. Arthur Rose, 1869 to
1872, Prof. George Frazier, were the ministers
in charge. About this time, eighteen members
withdrew from the New School or Congrega-
tional Church, and joined the Presbyterian
Church of Greenville. Rev. N. S. Dickey was
the stated supply from 1873 to 1880, since
which time the Rev. Hillis has been their very
acceptable miuister of the Greenville Presby-
terian Church. In 1S73, the building of the
church had become so dilapidated, having been
built and occupied since about 1845, that the
members and friends enlarged the same with
cupola, at a cost of about $2,000. It was re-
dedicated July 13, 1873, free from debt. And
now to-day it stands, as it has stood for more
than fifty-seven years, like a city set upon a
hill, radiating its light, shedding its beneficent
influence on all around, in harmony with the
community for good, and in fellowship with its
sister churches. Its large membership and its
admirable Sunday school speak well for its
continued usefulness in the future.

Congregational Church.— The origin of the
Congregational Church was with the divis-
ion of the Presbyterian Church about 1836,
into the old and the new school churches. Dr.
Lansing from New York came to Greenville in
1839, and through his influence a house of
worship was commenced soon after, which was

not, however, completed and dedicated until
January 1, 1843. Rev. Thomas Lippincott
preached the dedicatory sermon.

Up to this time no Presbyterian Church for
the old division of the church had been built
at Greenville, and many of both branches of
the church held their membership together
with a number of Congregatioualists. By an
act of the Legislature of Illinois in 1844, the
worshipers of the new building were afterward
known as the Congregational Church of Green-
ville. About this time the old Presbyterian
branch had built for themselves a house of wor-
ship, and the churches exchanged and withdrew
from time to time according to their peculiar
ideas — the Congregational society making some
payment to the Presbyterians withdrawing from
their church for their interest, and aid in build-
ing the Congregational Church. Considering
the early period in which it was built, the Con-
gregational Church to-day is quite an imposing
structure, standing as it does on Lots No. 27
and 28, Davidson's Addition to Greenville.

The church was for many years prosperous, es-
pecially so during the time Rev. Robert Stew-
art, Rev. George C. Wood and Rev. M. M.
Longley were pastors, since which time the
church has so often been without a regular pas-
tor that its spiritual interests have not advanced
as it otherwise would. Rev. John Ingersoll,
father of Robert G. Ingersoll, of infidel noto-
riety, preached to this church about six months
about the year 1852. Since that time Rev.
Longley was for a time a stated supply, as also
have Rev. Isaac Godell and Rev. M. A. Craw-
ford not labored in vain for the short time they
each occupied the pulpit, The present pastor,
Rev. Joseph Wolfe, sustains well the position
assigned him, and the outlook of the church is
brightening.

Methodist Episcopal Church. — It is impos-
sible to give anything like a complete his-
tory of the Methodist Episcopal Church
in Greenville, because, as its present pastor,

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

113

Rev. E. A. Hoyt, states, Methodism sets
little value ou the formalities of organization.
Its methods are simple ; those who desire a
home in her communion are enrolled as a class,
and one of the number appointed her leader.
No official minutes of the transactions are
kept or recorded, except incidentally ou the
class books. The first sermon perhaps preached
ill the county bj* the minister of any denomi-
nation was that by Rev. John Powers, a Meth-
odist minister at Jones Fort, in February, 1816.
His next appointment was at White's Fort or
Hill's Station in March, 1816, and for a time
these two forts or stations were his regular
preaching places. Jones Fort was in the Green
neighborhood, and White's Fort was a few rods
southeast of the old residence of Wilson
Brown in Section 6, Town 1, Range 3. The
first Methodist meetings at Greenville were con-
ducted by Rev. John Kirkpatrick, assisted oc-
casionally by Rev. John Powers, Joshua Barnes,
John Dew and others. The several Kirkpat-
rick families were Methodists. The first Meth-
odist Church was built about a mile and a half
southwest of Greenville where camp-meetings
were held for several years, at which an old neg-
lected burying ground some eight or ten rods
northwest of the southeast corner of north
half of northwest quarter of southeast quarter
of Section 16, Town 5, Range 3, is yet visable.
For more than twenty years after the first set-
tlement of the count}*, Methodist services were
very irregular. Mr. J. E. Travis, now living in
Greenville, remembers of Methodist preaching
at the house of his grandfather, Tapley Young,
where the old cemetery is now located, and
heard their family relate of those attending
church bringing their guns and stacking them
at the door whilst two sentinels stood watch
outside the door to give the alarm, if any
Indians made their appearance. His first rec-
ollection was associated with class meeting,
being held at the house of oue Knapp, in Green-
ville, by Rev. John H. Benson, an early circuit

rider of Carlisle Circuit in 1839. His appoint-
ment at Greenville was once in four weeks, and
continued one year ; only four of that class
are obtainable. Knapp and wife, Elizabeth
Drake and Elizabeth Stubblefield. The Rev.
Thomas Brown was the next to take up the
work, just at what date cannot be stated, but
he held services once in four weeks until the
fall of 1844, when he died, having left a good
name. For the next three or four years serv-
vices were only held by transient preachers.
The first Methodist Episcopal Church built in
Greenville on Lot No. 15. Davidson's Addition
to Greenville, in the years 1848 and 1849. For
several years previously meetings were held in
the old court house, and in the Odd Fellows
hall, which was the upper story of the present
residence of William Evans.

Before the building was erected, the " cir-
cuit riders " were unceasing in their labors to
increase the membership of the church, and to
that end, one of them, a Mr. Falkner, would
at the close of every service, " open the
doors of the church." On one occasion, after
the usual services in the Odd Fellows hall,
whilst the brethren were singing a familiar
hymn, the minister calling loudly and earnestly
for any " who desired to unite with the church
to manifest the same by coming forward, and
give to him their hand, and God their hearts."
As they were singing the chorus of the sec-
ond verse, and manifestly a deep feeling pre-
vailing through the audience, two well-known
females of not the most unblemished char-
acter came forward, and gave to the minister
their hands, who took them, but without that
cordiality sometimes discernible, and with a
queer and much-puzzled expression on his
countenance, remarked, as he released that slight
grasp: " Occasionally, when the fisherman casts
in his net he brings in a gar." It is unneces-
sary to add, that the records of the church
next da}' did not show any increase of mem-
bership for the meeting of the previous night
to the Methodist society in Greenville.

114

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

For more than thirty years past the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church in Greenville has en-
joyed a reasonable degree of prosperity under
the charge of the many preachers sent by the
conference of the church to minister to her
people. A few familiar names of some of
those worthy men are called to the mind of
those acquainted with the church for half of
a century or more, such as Kirkpatrick, Pow-
ers, Barnes, Benson, Johnston, Falkner, Lin-
genfelter. Munson, Moore, Vaucleve, Morrison,
Taylor, Waggoner, House, Massey, Van Treese,
Gibson, Robinson, down to the present min-
ister, E. A. Hoyt.

Some six years ago, the old church was sold,
the title to the property being made to some
of the members of the Christian Church, and
the Methodists by the aid of many friends
outside the church, have built a handsome
brick edifice on Lot No. 50, on Second and
Sumer streets, which was finished and dedi-
cated some five years since. The membership
of this church is steadily increasing, and their
congregations and Sunday schools rank with
the first in the city.

Greenville Baptist Church — Was organized
September 18, 183G, by Revs. James Lemen
Elijah Dodson, Joseph Taylor, Joseph Lemen
and A. W. Coole}\ The church comprised six
members, namely, Lemuel Blanchard, Charles.
Eunice, A. N. and Elizabeth C. Norton and
Sibbel Blanchard. Within a year of its organ-
izing, although without a pastor, and having
preaching only occasionally, the number of
members had increased to twenty, and up to
1842 twenty-two had been received by experi-
ence and baptism, and fourteen by letter, mak-
ing the total membership forty-two. From this
date, July, 1842, no additions were made, but
on the contrary the church declined in nu-
merical strength, until in May, 1847, the church
relations were dissolved. This was done at a
meeting held by the Rev. Ebenezer Rogers,
who acted as moderator. At a meetiuar held in

July, 1847, a new organization was effected,
under the title of the Baptist Church of Christ
of Greenville. The Revs. B. Rogers and I. D.
Newell assisted, and the following persons
signed the roll : K. P. and Elizabeth Morse,
Sibbel Blanchard, Elizabeth Foster and others.
During the year, seven others were added, mak-
ing in all twenty-two. Like most churches or-
ganized in early days, this one had to depend
for preaching for years on such occasional
supplies as could be obtained. Among those
who occupied the pulpit from time to time were
Revs. John M. Peck, James and Joseph Lem-
en, Joel Sweet, Elijah Dodson, Joseph Taylor,
Ebeu Rogers and Jonathan Merriman, all now
deceased.

The first regular pastor was the Rev. Thomas
W. Hynes. He served two months, from June
to August, 1838, and was succeeded by Rev.
E. Dodson, et. al.

Lemuel Blanchard and M. P. Ormsby were
ordained the first Deacons, and served until
their deaths, 1838 and 1845, respectively. Ben-
jamin Floyd and K. P. Morse succeeded them.
Prior to April, 1854, meetings of the church
were held in private houses or in the Presby-
terian Church. In 1839, the subject of erecting
a Baptist meeting-house in Greenville was
agitated, but nothing was accomplished, and
the courtesies of the Presbyterian Society were
gladly extended and accepted, until the present
church, 32x50, was completed in April, 1854.
at a cost of $2,500. In the summer of 1856,
Mr. Charles Perry donated $200, to be used in
procuring a bell. The sum was made sufficient
by additions, and the present bell, weighing
1,500 pounds, was cast in St. Louis. Much
more might be said of this flourishing Chris-
tian organization, but space forbids more than
that it is firmly established, and is uow doing a
good work.

Catholic Church of Greenville — Was organ-
ized in April, 1877. First mass was celebrated on
Sunday, May 6, following, Rev. Father Quitter,

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

115

of Vandalia, officiating. There were but a few
Catholics in the Greenville district, and those
living remote from Catholic divine service had
become lukewarm in the faith. A few of the
faithful, feeling the need of religious culture and
astrengthened faith, had accustomed themselves
to meet in a small hall on the third floor of the
First National Bank building. In this room
services were conducted for about three years.
The subject of a more suitable place of worship
was from time to time discussed and a building
fund started. The citizens of Greenville were
all afforded an opportunity, and many responded
with liberal donations. Protestants not excepted.
In November, 1879, a contract for the building
of their present commodious edifice, situated
in the eastern portion of the city, was awarded,
the good work pushed to completion. On the
first Sunday in June, 1880, Father Quitter, as-
sisted by Mr. James Henry and others from
Vandalia, celebrated the first High Mass. This
congregation was made up of Catholics of
many nationalities, but all met upon the one
religious plane for one and the same purpose.
The same harmony and true fellowship still
prevail, and while the church is still in its in-
fancy, it is thought that a permanent pastor
will in the near future be engaged and a larger
church needed.

Protest/ 1 a t Episcopal Church. — Up to the
year 1878, the Protestant Episcopal Church
had not been known in Bond County. There
had been several Episcopalians in Green-
ville for years past, but uo effort had been
made to secure the services of the church. Feel-
ing the importance of a Christian education for
their families they had worshiped with other
religious societies.

July 20. 1878, Messrs. C. K. Denny, M. B.
Chittenden, W. S. Ogden, Henry Howard and
Henry Chittenden met at Squire Howard's
office, and there decided to organize a parish
to be known as Grace Church. To the above
list the names of about seventeen persons were

added, who had been baptized in the Episcopal
Church, also names of twelve others who were
not connected with any church, and seemed
inclined to aid in sustaining this. The Bev.
Mr. Van Duzen, then officiating at Paris, Edgar
Co., 111., heard of this movement and visited
Greenville, and about the 1st of August, 1878,
and for the first time, services of the Protestant
Episcopal Church were held in Greenville, at
the Congregational Church. It was found that
the Canons of the Diocese did not permit the
organization of a parish to so limited a number
of communicants. W. S. Ogden was sent to
attend the annual Diocesan Convention of
1879, at Springfield, 111., and to confer with
Bishop McLaren, Bishop of the Diocese. He
carried with him a petition embracing some
thirty -odd names. The petition was favorably-
acted upon, and Messrs. Ogden and Denny
appointed Senior and Junior Wardens ; M.
B. Chittenden, Treasurer, and H. A. Ste-
phens, Clerk, with Henry Chittenden Li-
censed Recorder. In July, 1879, Rev. R. E.
G. Huntington was called as Rector of Christ's
Church. Collinsville, and as Missionary to
Grace Mission, Greenville, and thereafter, fort-
nightly, services were held until May, 1881,
when Mr. H. resigned and removed to Kansas.
During these two years, quite a number were
added by baptism and confirmation. The
church, however, lost, by death and removals,
more than she had gained. For about one
year, the church was without a rector ; but
April 1, 1882, the Rev. Joseph G. Wright, of
Altamont, took charge of the Mission, and the
life of the church much revived. Measures
have been taken looking toward the erection of
a church edifice, and it is now believed that a
pretty Gothic structure, sufficiently large to
seat some two hundred worshipers, will be
built at a cost not to exceed $2,000, and com-
pleted this coming fall of 1882. Everything
connected with the Mission, owing to the zeal
and energy of the rector, is in a flourishing

116

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

condition, and no doubt but that a bright
future is before it.

The Plymouth Brethren (so called). By one of
the Brethren. — Those people who, for about
twenty-eight years, have met together in this citj
as Christians, are not connected in an}' way with
any of the other denominations of Christians,
as they meet on quite different ground than
they do. First of all, they have no creed ; (and
as one of them expressed) our creed is the
word of God. They take into fellowship any
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose doc-
trine is sound according to God's word, and
whose walk in the world is in accordance with
the teachings of God's word, as to how a be-
liever should behave himself, who has been
redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. As
to their ground of meeting together, they do so
as the disciples of the Lord, after he had left
them to go in the glory ; that is, meeting
every Lord's Day morning to break bread in
remembrance of their Lord, as He told them,
before He departed, " Do this in remembrance
of me." They do not believe in ordination,
accepting only the word of God, which says
that He has given the church gifts, some
apostles, some doctors, evangelist teachers, etc.;
not educated by man, but by God alone. They
meet without preachers, and any member of
the body, led by the spirit, is free to offer a
prayer or give a word of exhortation, or words
of thanks to the Lord. If the Lord sends them
one of His gifted servants from time to time,
they gladly receive him, as from the Lord, to
either teach, exhort or comfort, or preach
the Gospel to sinners. Those gifted servants
receive no fixed salary, but depend entirely on
the Lord, thus walking by faith, and they are
generally better cared for than those who are
depending on man for support, though surely
man is the instrument that God uses. This is,
in short, the history of those people, so called,
Plymouth Brethren. The building in which
they meet was built by Mr. George Rutchley,

for the purpose, and the assembly pays rent
for it to him with money put in a box even-
Lord's Day morning, b}' those whose heart is
opened, and are able to thus contribute not
only to expenses of rent, light, and so on, but
also For the servants of the Lord, who are trav-
eling from place to place, working for the Mas-
ter.

A., F. & A. M., Greenville Lodge, No. 245,
received a dispensation October 28, 18(36, and
the following list of officers were elected : W.
H. Collins, W. M.; T. W. Hutchinson, S. W.;
W. T. White, J. W.; W. A. Allen, Secretary ;
J. Burchsted, Treasurer ; Neely McNeely, Ti-
ler. Charter for this lodge was issued October
7, 1857, and was signed by J. H. Hibbard, G.
M.; William Lane, D. G. M.; Harrison Dills,
S. G. W.; F. M. Blair, J. G. W.; Harmau G.
Reynolds, Grand Secretary. Charter members
were: W. H. Collins, P. W. Hutchinson, W. T.
White, John Burchsted, W. A.Allen and Neely
McNeely. According to last report, the lodge
contained sixty-five members.

/. 0. O. F., Clark Lodge, No. 3, was insti-
tuted January 10, 1839 ; chartered August 1,
same year. The following were the charter
members, of whom only one, James E. Star, of
Elsah, Jersey County, 111., is now living. James
Clark, Patrick O'Byrne, David P. Berry, George
Files, Thomas Dakin. Charter was signed by
S. C. Pierce, M. W. G. M.; M. Botkin, D. G.
M.; Daniel Ward, G. W.; John M. Krum. G.
T.; Alfred Shannon, G. S.; J. 11. Woods, P. G;
James E. Star, P. G.; A. W. Chenoweth, P. G.;
John R, Batterton, P. G. Original officers
were; James Clark. N. G.; Patrick O'Byrne,
V. G.; James Bradford, Secretary ; R. F.
White, Treasurer. Present number of mem-
bers of the lodge is fift3 r -three.

1. 0. 0. F., Greenville Encampment, No. 39,
was instituted February 5, 1869. First officers
were : Henry Howard, C. P.; C. W. Holden, H.
P.; L. Adams, S. W.; J. F. Bowman, J. W.;
G. A. Collins, Scribe ; E. Reidemann, Treasurer.

££ufiu^ii&U

C^^ jfi^**- e^C^-^^s/^L.

LIBRARY

OF 1HE

UNIVERSITY yf ILLINOIS

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

119

Charter was issuer! October 12, 1869, and was
signed by J. J. Tichner, Grand Patriarch ; N.
C. Nason, Grand Scribe. Present number of
members, twenty-five.

Independent Order of Good Templars, Green-
ville Lodge, No. 44.6, chartered May 2, 1870,
with the following members and officers : C. W.
Moore, Wyatt Canse} - , J. H. Hallarn and thirty-
one others signed the call. First officers
elected: S.French, W. C. T.; Mrs. E. C. Smith,
W. V. T.; Rev. M. N. Powers, W. C; J. J.
Clarkson, W. S.; George Perryman, W. A. S.;
W. C. Brown, W. F. S.; Mrs. Alice Phelp. W.
T. R. E. A.; Munroe Mc Adams, W. M.; Miss
Alice Alexander, W. D. M.; Mrs. C. Larabee,
W. I. G.; H. H. Hughes, W. D. G.; Miss Kate
Kelso, W. R. H. S.; Miss Flora Larabee, W. L.
H. S.; H. H. Smith. P. W. C. T. Original
number of members in good standing was
forty-six. and present number is sixt}'. The
lodge is in a prosperous condition, and accom-
plishing much good.

The title, Women's Christian Temperance
Union, is strikingly suggestive of the laudable
object of the society. A union of Christian
women representing the different evangelical
churches, organized so as to systematically, and
with the blessings of God, aid in the suppres-
sion of intemperance in their midst, working in
harmony with the State and National organi-
zations of their order. The Greenville Union
was constituted April 1, 1879, with officers as
follows :

.Airs. E. W. Dewey, President at Large: Mrs.
Dr. R. C. Sprague, Vice President at Large;
Mrs. A. B. Byram, from the Presbyterian
Church; Mrs. S. Perry, from the Baptist Church;
Mrs. W. S. Dann, from the Methodist Church;
Mrs. Charles Clark, from the Congregational
Church; Caroline Phelps, Corresponding Secre-
tary; Mrs. Samuel Colcord, Recording Secre-
tary; Miss Allie Robinson, Treasurer. The
Union is in a prosperous condition and accom-
plishing much good, and at their last election.

April 11, 1882, the following officers were
elected: Mrs. A. E. Haven, President; Mrs. P.
C. Reed, Vice President; Mrs. N. H. Jackson,
Recording Secretary; Mrs. Mary Murdock,
Treasurer. The Union has about thirty en-
rolled members.

A temperance society that accomplished
much good was organized April 6, 1848, by J.
R. Woods, A. D. G. W. P. of the State of Illi-
nois, with the following charter members:
Robert F. White, John Burchsted, John T.
Barr, Otis B. Colcord, Daniel Detrick, John
Waite, Franklin Berry, John A. Dowler, S. B.
Holcomb, George Ferguson. Nathaniel Maddux,
Lonson Lane, Joseph T. Fouke, Samuel H.
Crocker, E. Gaskins and James Stafford. The
following officers were elected and installed:
Franklin Berry, W. P.; John T. Barr, W. A.;
John Waite, R. S.; S. B. Holcomb, A. R. S.;
Joseph T. Fouke, F. S.; Daniel Detrick. F.; R.
F. White, C; George Ferguson, A. C; Nathaniel
Maddux, I. S.; O. B. Colcord, O. S.; E. Gas-
kins, P. W. P. James Stafford was appointed
Chaplain, and John Waite alternate. During
the remainder of April sixteen more were
added to the membership, making thirty -two.
This number increased rapidly, and the pros-
perity of the order was unbounded. Many
men joined who had been for years habitual
drunkards, came for miles to attend the meet-
ings, and in most cases were prosperous in
their business whilst they were members, and
often testified to their enjoyment during those
several years of their membership. It gave
way to other temperance societies, its last meet-
ing being April 29, 1853. Its enrollment was
over 200 members.

Integrity Lodge, No. 72, ^4 0. U. W., was
instituted April 28, 1877, with the following
officers: S. M. Inglis. P. M. W.; George S.
Phelps, M. W.; Henry Howard, F.; William
Ballard, 0.; Cyrus Birge, Recorder; George C.
Scipio, Financier; M. V. Denny, Receiver; C.
W. Holden, G.; Samuel Werner, I. W.; S. M.

120

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

Tabor, 0. W. Henry Howard was the first
representative to the meeting of the Grand
Lodge at Ottawa, 111., February, 1878. The
lodge now has sixty-three members, and is in
a prosperous condition.

I. 0. M. A. was organized September 20,
1880, with the following officers : J. J. Clark-
son, P.; C. W. Sawall, P. P.; John Kingsbery,
V. P.; Henry Rammel, R. S.; J. M. Mc Adams,
F. S.; H. T. Powell, T.; E. C. Stearns, J. J.
Clarkson, H. T. Powell, Trustees ; A. T. Reed )
0.j C. H. Beatty, I. G.; 0. L. Lupton, O. G.

The I. 0. M. A. is a State organization, and
the Greenville branch contains twenty-seven
members.

The Greenville Band consists of thirteen
public-spirited and enterprising young men of
esthetic musical tastes, who have, by enduring
perseverance, accomplished much in the way of
musical culture, and rendered themselves a
credit to their city, county and State.

The band was organized October 10, 1879 ;
chartered November 12, 1880, with John A.
Elam as their leader ; Adel Albright, first E
flat cornet ; Ward Reid, second E flat cornet ;
Will E. Robinson, clarionet ; Charles Thraner,
piccolo ; Wallace Barr, first B flat cornet ; Will
Johnson, second B flat cornet ; Will Donnell,

third B flat cornet ; Robert Johnson, first
solo alto ; Jesse Watson, second solo alto ;
Walter Powell, third solo alto ; Rome Sprague,
first tenor ; Jesse Smith, second tenor ; Frank
Shaw, baritone ; Louis Derleth, tuba bass ;
Frank Boughman, tenor drum ; Will White,
bass drum and cymbals.

Of the above only five were, according to
law, old enough to have their names appear on
the charter, namely, Leader Elam, Messrs. Al-
bright, Johnson, Shaw and Boughman. Messrs.
Reid, Robinson, Albright and Smith have re-
signed and their instruments are at present si-
lent, but a movement is on foot that will un-
doubted!}' result in filling their places.

On the evening of September 20, 1880, the
band was treated to a most happy and appro-
priate surprise by the loyal ladies of Green-
ville, who presented them with an elegant flag
of our country, twelve feet long and six feet
wide, mounted on a substantial staff, and sur-
mounted with a gold gilt American eagle with
extended pinions. The stars are worked in
silk floss, and among them appear the letters
G. B. The cost of this flag was $50. The
band is in constant practice, and bids fair to
soon become one of the best in Illinois.

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

121

CHAPTER XII*

GREENVILLE— A RETROSPECTION— BUILDING OF JAILS— SITUATION OF THE CITY— MORE OF THE

EARLY BUSINESS AND BUSINESS MEN. STORES, ETC.— GRIGG. BARR, DAVIS. ELLIOTT AND

OTHERS— AGRICULTURAL WAREHOUSES— THE BANKING BUSINESS-SHOPS AND

MECHANICS— SUMMARY, ETC., ETC.

HPO what, extent the early settlers of Bond
-^- County believed in the existence of
ghosts, no official record has been left; but
they have recorded their belief in that mys-
terious healing art where faith is the active
agent as late as June 2, 1829. In that rec-
ord is found that Polly Harness, " in conse-
quence of a canser or ulser is unable to earn
a livelihood;'' whereupon the court makes the
following order: " Ordered, that Thomas
Hunter be appointed Agent to convey Polly
Harness to a Dutch Doctor, living about ten
miles below Herculanium, in Missouri, and
that the sum of $30 be paid to said Thomas
Hunter to defray said expenses. " The record
in due time shows that the said Thomas Hun-
ter reported to the court the delivery of the
said Polly Harness to one " William Neiil,
and took his receipt for the cure and main-
tanence" of the said Harness "near Harkale-
naum," and that the $30 was duly expended;
after that announcment the record is silent.
At least two jails have been built in Green-
ville before the one now in use, which was
built in 1859. The first was built by Andrew
Moody and Thomas Stout, of square logs, ac-
cording to specifications, at a cost of $2-1450,
in State paper. It was built somewhere
near the present house of Samuel Bradford.
The contract is dated July 4, 1829, to be
completed by the first Monday in December

* By Williamson riant.

following. The second jail was built by
Richard Tatom, on the public square, for
$321.74, payment made for same July 4,
1835, that probably being the date of receiv-
ing the building. The present jail is a very
respectable building, having none of the for-
bidding outward appearances often attending
that class of buildings. It was built at a cost
of about $5,000, with the cells since fitted up
on the west side. But few persons have es-
caped from the same since it was finished.

The city of Greenville, containing a popu-
lation of 2,500 inhabitants, is located on the
highest point of land on the line of the St.
Louis, Vandalia & Terre Haute Railroad,
fifty miles from St. Louis, gently sloping to
the south, with woodland in close proximity
on the north and west, through which nu-
merous springs of pure water flow continu-
ously, giving early promise of furnishing for
the city and manufactories, to be established,
a bountiful supply of water.

Beginning as the towu did in 1819, with
one small building made of unhewed logs, in
which Green P. Rice measured his first yard
of cotton goods to the early settler; next, to
the time when it was made the county seat,
in 1821, when he had retired from the trade,
and his successor, Samuel Davidson, was no
more; then the erection of county buildings,
and. within the next ten years, the increased
number of stores in the hands of Blanchard,

122

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

Birge, Long, Durley, Drake and White, al-
though frequently changing in the time.
Then George Davidson with his small cabin
entertains, as best he can, man and beast.
Next, Seth Blanchard, his successor, and
David Berry, each with enlarged cabins, gave
ample accommodations for shelter, and their
ever well loaded tables (of which tradition
speaks in praise), fed the weary traveler as
he wended his way on horseback through the
new country to the West. The next ten
years bring an increased population, more ex-
tensive business in every department. The
first old court house had returned to the
ground if not to the dust. The old jail failed
of its purpose, and both were condemned as
unsuitable longer for usefulness.

We have now reached 1841. The business
houses have increased not only in number,
but their stocks of merchandise have been
greatly enlarged. Within this last ten years
we find Seth Blanchard, J. B. Drake, Ansel
Birge, Williard Twiss, W. S. Smith, L. D.
Plant, William Davis, Gooding, Morse & Bros,
and James M. Davis have been selling goods,
not all at one time, for many changes were
made within that time. The hotels in the
meantime had made further improvements
under the management of Blanchard; then
his successor, Thomas Dakin, and David
Berry at his old stand, second house west of
Drake's. A new court house has also been
built, of wood, in place of the old crumbled
brick, and a new jail on the southeast corner
of the public square.

During all these years, many times without
building for Clerk's offices and places for
holding courts, among the first places for
holding the courts was in a building west of
Elam's old blacksmith shop, southwest of
Joel Elam's present residence; then in the
house of Wyatt Stubblefield; then in the old
Berry Tavern, where the difficulty between

two lawyers occurred during session of court.
One twisted the nose of the other, which he
resented with his cane. If we move up ten
years more, to 1851, living witnesses are nu-
merous who know of the changes. We have
some of the old merchaots, with many that
are new. The list now is covered by W. S.
& Thomas W. Smith, J. B. Drake, Morse &
Bros., Charles Hoiles, George W. Hill, S. B.
Bulkley, P. J. Holcomb and L. D. & W.
Plant.

The hotels, by David Berry, Thomas Stout,
J. B. O. White, the latter where Mrs. McCord's
hotel is now kept, and who that lived within
the last period named does not remember the
private boarding house of Mi - , and Mrs. John
Ackerige, next house east of Dr. Drake's ? what
nice meals at " moderate prices ' ' they pre-
pared! During court week, their table was
always crowded by jurors, witnesses and those
interested in court, living in the county,
whilst the Judge and most of the members
of the bar from abroad stopped at the Berry
House. The tables of these houses were
abundantly supplied with wild game, such as
venison, prairie chickens, quail, etc., which
were plentiful and very cheap. The common
price for " venison saddle" (the hind quarters
with the loin), would sell for 37i cents per
pair. The average weight would be from
thirty to fifty pounds each, making the meat
average about 1 cent per pound. 'What boy
now living that was in Greenville during
this time does not remember the ginger cakes
made by old Mother Allred? The next ten
years takes us to 1861. Increased business
on every hand. We find during this time
that the merchants are covered by the follow-
ing list: W. S. & T. W. Smith, Morse &
Bros., Charles Hoiles, E. A. Floyd, Alexander
Buie, G. W. Hill, Samuel A. Blanchard, El-
liott & Kershner, A. W. Hynes, and Barr &
Elliott.

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

123

The hotels are now all removed to near the
public square. Tho St. Charles Hotel, by E.
R. McCord, Franklin House, by Franklin G.
Morse, from whom it took its name. "Within
this last period a new jail has been built, of
brick, where it now stands on Third street, and
the present court house completed in 1855.

Now let us pass from 18(31 to the present,
1882, covering a period of twenty-one years,
as the town has grown until it would be im-
possible to make mention in detail of many
changes and occurrences. The greatest im-
petus given to Greenville since it was first
named, was the building and completion of
the St. Louis, Vandalia & Terre Haute Rail-
road through the southern line of the city.
The first passenger train from Greenville to
St. Louis was on the morning of December
8, 1868. and from that date we mark the first
march of improvement. As has been shown
by an article in this book covering a history
of the Vandalia Railroad that the citizens of
Greenville and Bond County have more than
ordinary interest in the success of this road.

The stores that have been in operation in
that time, but have closed out, are as follows:
W. S. Smith & Co., J. M. Smith, Morse &
Bros., C. Hoiles, G. W. Hill, A. Buie, Will-
iam M. Evans & Co.. J. G. Sprague, H. Y.
Schell, J. W. Elliott, P. C. Reed, McLain &
Wafer, John B. Reid, Samuel B. Hynes, E.
V. Buchanan, George F. Salisbury.

If a stranjrer visiting Greenville for the
first time should desire detailed information
in regard to the business transacted in the
city at the present time, and ask to be shown
first the merchant longest in the trade, any
one of whom the request was made would
conduct him to the well-tilled " U. S." store
of John T. BaiT, successor of Messrs. Barr &
Elliott, on Main street, south side of the pub-
lic square. This house has always had a good,
regular trade.

He would next be shown the store of Daniel
R. Grigg, on Lot 31, corner of College and
Second streets. Mr. Grigg has well proved
the old adage to be correct, that " He who by
the plow would thrive, himself must either
hold or drive. " Mr. Grigg has succeeded well
by his personal attention to his business. He
would next be shown north across the street
to the large, well-filled house of W. S. Dann
& Co. This house speaks for itself, the pro-
prietors having the happy faculty of pleasing
their numerous customers, and to meet the
requirements of their trade have recently en-
larged their already commodious building.

The firm of Berry & Davis, Third street,
west side of the public square, would claim
his attention next. The business of this firm
has increased until they now stand in the
front ranks with their worthy competitors;
the range of their trade is varied, keeping a
general stock of dry goods; they have bought
and sold grain, wool, etc. Adjoining their
store on the north is the well and favorably
known house of Jandt & Weise, successors to
Jandt & Reed. This house is connected in
some degree with the house at Pocahontas,
under the name of H. A. Jandt & Co., and,
by concert of action by the two houses, have
now a lucrative business.

These five stores of general merchandise
are all in a prosperous condition, each house
having their friends, makes a good division
in the trade, and, the competition being close,
each stands as a guard on prices, to keep
them within proper bounds.

Only three clothing houses are in opera-
tion at present ; a fourth, however, is in pros-
pect.

The New York Clothing House, on Lot 42,
corner of Third and Main streets, first made
its bow to the public some fifteen years ago,
with Mr. S. Stearn as proprietor. Mr. Stearn
was lost whilst crossing the Atlantic on the

124

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

steamer Schiller, iu company with Mr. John
Suppiger and family. Soon after, Mr. Louis
Kaufman took charge of the store and con-
ducted it successfully until recently. Mr.
E. B. Wise became associated with him under
the name of Kaufman & Wise. They have
always had a good trade.

The store of A. Abrams, on Lot 41, corner
of Main and Second streets, under the name
of " Golden Eagle," though not one of the
largest, is well assorted for the trade. This
store was broken into one night a few months
since by two tramps, strangers to the town,
and several hundred dollars' worth of goods
taken. The thieves were captured soon after,
the goods recovered, and are now serving out
their sentence in the Chester Penitentiary.

Theodore W. Coverdale is proprietor of
the " Elephant" clothing, boot and shoe house
on Lot 61, corner of Second and South
streets. Commencing some eight years ago
with a small stock of boots and shoes, he now
enjoys a large, prosperous trade from his new
stand with his large stock of clothing, as well
as boots, shoes, etc.

Mr. H. T. Powell is just fitting up his
building on the northwest corner of Lot 47,
on Main street, with a new stock of ready-
made clothing. He has been a successful
business man in the past, which argues well
for him in the future.

Of the grocery stores there are five, all ap-
parently doing a flourishing business. The
oldest is that of Mr. E. P. Justice, on Lot
48, corner of Main and Second streets; has
held a good trade for many years past. Mr.
John Perryman's comes next. Mr. Perry-
man's business has been conducted for several
years by his son George, who has made a
first-class grocery house of it. It is situated
in his new building, built recently on his lot
for the business for which they are so suc-
cessfully using it. It is located on the south

side of the public square. Robinson & Son,
just north of Abram's clothing store, have
had their share of the grocery business during
the several years they have been in business,
always keeping reliable goods.

The firm of Watson & Jett, although only
some two years in business, have a trade that
often takes many years to secure its equal.

| They were not new men in the trade, but
had had several years' experience in business

I at another point. Their trade is all they
should desire.

Mr. Warren B. Beedle, successor to E. V.

, Buchanan, on the west side of the public
square, enjoys his share of the grocery trade.
He is well located, and his pleasant address
will not fail to add to his already increasing
business.

Four drug stores adorn the town. The
health of the county and city is so good that
did they depend on the sale of medicines
alone for a support, one would easily satisfy
every demand; but these stores include, be-
sides their drugs and medicines, a great va-
riety of fancy and toilet goods, cutlery, paints,
oils, dye stuffs and some medicinal liquors,
to which they add the soda fount, etc., etc.,
and with a full line of these, each establish-
ment, although of good proportions, find a
paying business throughout the year.

C. B. Bennett may be found at his old
stand, on Lot 23, corner of Third and Col-
lege streets. Mr. M. Ouyden, with a compar-
atively new stock of goods, just south, across
the street, on the opposite corner. C. W.
Watson & Co., successors of H. T. Powell,
one door east of the First National Bank,
and George W. Seaman, on the corner of Lot
47, corner of Main and Second streets.
These four drug houses are all first-class.

Only two tin and hardware shops are lo-
cated in Greenville, but they have ample fa-
cilities to meet the requirements that may be

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

125

made upon them. Mr. Theodore Smith ha9
been in business more than twenty-live years;
is proprietor of one of the shops. He is now
located on Lot 45, on Third street, in a large,
commodious room, well suited to his busi-
ness. The other is owned and conducted by
Messrs. F. Seewald & Co. , on Lot 49, Green-
ville, on Main street. A double building was
found necessary to give sufficient room for
their work and trade.

There are two furniture stores, one kept
by Gerichs & Norman, on Third street, who
also keep undertakers' goods. The other, in
charge of Mr. Gus Tripod, on Second street;
besides which there is the cabinet shop of Mr.
Barbey, who includes in his stock picture
frames, undertakers' goods, etc.

Three regular agricultural warehouses,
with partial hardware stores attached, are to
be found in the city — one on the corner of
Main and Third streets, kept by Messrs. J.
J. Glarkson and G. W. Lowrance, under the
name of Clarkson & Lowrance. They handle
many manufactures of plows, several self
binders, and keep a good stock of hardware,
seeds, etc. Another, and quite similar estab
lishment, is first door north of the Presbyte-
rian Church, kept by Jonathan Seaman and
Hubbard, under the style of Seaman & Hub-
bard. The third agricultural house is kept
by William Leidel. He keeps everything
belonging to a first-class agricultural estab-
lishment, and is located across the street,
west from his residence, near the railroad
depot. Other agricultural implements are
sold by parties who have no regular house for
their sale.

Three millinery and fancy stores may be
named. McLain & Co., on Lot 49, Main
street, is a house that has been established a
number of years, and has always had the con-
fidence of the public. The millinery parlors
kept by Misses Jennie F. and May Barr, on

Second street, one door south of the Thomas
House, is well filled with fashionable goods;
and the St. Louis Bazaar, by Mr. A. W. Hynes,
one door east of E. P. Justice's grocery store.
This last is more of a fancy store, with rare
fruits, than to be called a millinery establish-
ment. These houses have careful attendants,
and are getting good trade.

Five blacksmiths are scattered through the
town. John Schlup, who also makes a spe-
cialty of manufacturing wagons, has his shop
on Third and Summer streets, T. B. Savage,
aid to N. W. McLain's machine shop, is also,
on Third street; J. E. Travis' shop is on
Summer street, and W. W. Williams is lo-
cated on Main, on Lot 50. J. D. Dorsey,
"the village smith," makes a specialty of
horseshoeing, on what is claimed to be an im-
proved system; is located between the Baptist
and Christian Churches.

Three banks have been in successful oper-
ation from fifteen to twenty years each. The
first was under the style of W. S. Smith &
Co., which was succeeded by the First Na-
tional Bank of Greenville, located on the north-
west corner of Lot 4(3, Main and Third streets,
with a capital of $100,000, which has since
been reduced about one-third. Its officers
are: Nathaniel Dressor, President; Abe Mc-
Neil, Vice President; M. V. Denny, Cashier.

Mr. Charles Hoiles having retired from the
bank bearing his name some two years ago,
the same is now very successfully conducted
by his two sons, C. D. and S. M. Hoiles, under
the old firm name of Hoiles & Sons. Their
bank is located on the southeast corner of
Lot 47, on Second street. The bank of James
Bradford and Samuel Bradford, under the
style of Bradford & Son, is situated on the
southwest corner of Lot 31, Second street.
Each of the banks has the confidence of the
people as regards their solvency.

Two large lumber yards are located within

126

HISTORY OF BONO COUNTY.

the corporation, that of Messrs. G. W. Flint
& Co., successors to Gerichs & Koch, on
Fourth and Washington streets, and that of
C. D. Harris & Co., successors to Mudd &
Harris, opposite the public school buildings.
The lumber trade of Greenville is very large.
The hotels should not be overlooked. The
Franklin House, by L. Silverman, is well lo-
cated on College and Third streets. The
house ,was built in 1840, by L. D. Plant, for
a hotel, but was not used as such for many
years after. It has undergone considerable
repairs and additions since building. The
hotel on the east side of the public square,
by Mrs. Elizabeth McCord, is the same build-
ing in which J. B. O. White kept hotel over
twenty-five years since. Mrs. McCord has at-
tended closely to her duties, and has kept up
the name of her house. She has many old
traveling friends.

The Thomas House, kept by Mrs. Mary A.
Thomas, deserves special notice. She com-
menced some ten years since, keeping her
first hotel in the old Sargeant House; then
the Franklin; next the new Empire. Her
success in these houses enabled her to pur-
chase the house she now occupies, which she
has been keeping for the past three years,
under the name of the Thomas House. She
has shown more than ordinary executive abil-
ity in conducting her hotel business in the
past, which is a sure guaranty for success in
the future. Her table is loaded with the del-
icacies of the season, as the market affords.

Three jewelry stores are at present in
Greenville. That of G. S. Haven, on Lot
32, northwest corner of court house square, is
the oldest, Mr. Haven having been in the busi-
ness about thirteen years. The other two stores
are situated side by side on Lot 47, south-
east corner of the square, one kept by Mr.
Charles Derleth, the other by Mr Phillip
Freeh. Both make attractive exhibits of their

wares. There is but one machine shop in
the city, and is kept on Lot 11, Third street,
where ordinary repairs to machines needing
experts are repaired.

A number of shops for the manufacture of
boots and shoes can be found by walking
through the town. Across the street, on the
north side of the square, may be seen the
shop of Messrs. Flaharty & Sala. Just south
of Mr. Justice's store the shop of Mr. Jacot,
and south, on the same street, on Lot 53, the
well-known shop of August Brunning: and
the shop of Louis Derleth, in the basement
of Hoiles Block, has had a good run of trade
since he has been conducting the same. Mr.
James Lyon's, two doors west of the Baptist
Church, is the convenient shop for those liv-
ing at the west end of the city. He has not
been known to refuse to sell or work for those
living in any other part of Greenville.

For a number of years three elevators have
been in operation in Greenville, buying and
shipping grain, besides the mill of Plant &
Wafer. The proprietors of the largest of
these elevators have recently retired from the
business, but the business will probably con-
tinue under another management.

Adolphe Breuchand and his brother Mark
Breuchand have each an elevator on the line
of the railroad, some forty rods distant from
each other. The buying of wheat for ship-
ping and grinding at Greenville annually
amounts to more than two hundred thousand
bushels, in good seasons.

There are three steam ilouring-niiUs at
Greenville — one situated half a mile north of
the city, near the creek, from which the sup-
ply of water needed in running the mill is
taken. A similar mill, though not so large,
was burned on the spot where the present one
stands, by one Page, some forty years ago,
for which he suffered the penalty of the law.
Mr. W. S. Smith is the owner of the property

CITY OF GREENVILLE.

127

at present. On account of its having been
built on the ashes of the old mill, it was for
years known as the Phoenix Mills. The small
mill immediately north of the railroad, known
as the Star Mills, was built some ten years
ago by J. E. Walls and W. M. Evans. It
was designed for a custom or exchange mill.
Mr. E. Tinkey, its present proprietor, has
made some improvements in the same during
the past two years he has owned it, and he
runs it to the extent that business justifies.

The mill on the south side of the railroad,
known as the Greenville City Mills, was built
some fourteen years ago by N. W. McLain
and James E. Wafer, who ran it for a number
of years, when John B. Eeid became their
successor, added some improvements, and
sold it to its present owners, Williamson
Plant and Thomas Wafer, who have recently
expended several thousand dollars putting in
improved machinery to enable them to man-
ufacture a superior grade of flour for their
large and growing trade. They have opened
up a good shipping trade within the past two
years with Belfast, Ireland, Glasgow, Scot-
land, Liverpool and London, having shipped
to those points within that time over thirty
car loads of flour, at prices in advance of
any market in the United States. This mill
also does a general exchange business with
farmers the same as the other two mills before
referred to. The water for running this mill
is abundant in a good well in the mill. In
addition to the above, Messrs. Elam & Sons
are putting up a mill on the railroad near the
stock pens for sawing walnut blocks into legs
for tables, and hickory butts into carriage
and wagon spokes, etc.

The perplexities and uncertainties of the
law iD Greenville is explained and argued if
necessary, for a proper fee, by Messrs. S. A.
Phelps, D. H Kingsbury, A. G. Henry, W.
H. Dawdy, John Kingsbury, W. A. North-

cott (Mr. Northcott at present being State's
Attorney), and L. H. Craig. Robinson &
Reid, over the post office, are engaged in an
abstract, loan and insurance business.

The citizens of Greenville claim that the
health of their city and surrounding country
has been so good that they will need, if such
continues, a list of the names of their resident
physicians placed in some conspicuous place
that they may not forget them. If such a
list was posted in the order in which they
came to the city, it would be in the following
order: Drs. W. P. Brown, R. C. Sprague,
J. A. Slaughter, David Wilkins, James Gor-
don. D. R. Wilkins, Prank Brown, W. H
H. Beeson and Miss Florence B. Holden.

The above list will not need to have the
name of our excellent dentist, Dr. N. H.
Jackson, inscribed on it for fear we may for-
get him, as each one, sooner or later, will
have occasion to know of him or his brethren
in the profession elsewhere. He is at pres-
ent located pleasantly in rooms above the
Elephant Clothing House.

The three harness shops will not be over-
looked by the farmer, or those in need of +heir
goods. That of T. B. Wood, one door south
of Bradford's Bank, of W. J. Mills, on Lot
25, northwest corner of the public square,
and last, but not least, that of Will Holdz-
kom, on Lot 32, west side of the square. All
these men give personal attention to their bus-
iness.

The pleasure-seekers will always be glad
to make the acquaintance of the good natured
livery stable man. When you step out of
the Thomas House, on the first lot to your
left you will find the Empire Stable, kept by
Mr. James W. Whittaker, and he keeps
many new buggies to sell to those who do not
want to ride in his.

Capt. S. M. Tabor, in the Francisco Stables,
has had an excellent run of business. Capt.

128

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

Tabor's friends are loud in praise of the
speed of some of his horses.

Mr. Kobert Merry, successor to Wood &
Merry, has found it necessary to own two
stables to enable him to carry on his large
and growing business — one just west from
Gapt. Tabor's, and the other across the street
north. Mr. Merry has some good rigs for
the business. All seem to do a good busi-
ness.

The tonsorial art, in the hands of Messrs.
C. R. Jones, Thomas Barbee, Mr. Kepler and
Joseph Jones has had the tendency of smooth-
ing the faces and shortening the locks of
their numerous visitors, adding largely to
their personal appearance in proportion as
they remove this surplus growth.

No one should shun Messrs. Hurley & Co.,
on Third street, below the First National
Bank, because their home and business is
among the tombstones. A call upon them
will give some idea of the work that may
stand as a sentinel at your last resting-place.

No business list of Greenville would be
complete that did not include the bakeries of
Messrs. Frank Parent and Nicholas Faust;
and they know how to make a good lunch or
square meal.

Mr. C. R. Brenning makes a specialty of
his restaurant, and knows how to please his
patrons by keeping a nice, clean house. The
ice cream saloon and fancy bakery of Mrs.
Heffer & Sons commands the attention of not

only the young man and his girl, but older
people find real comfort^in those dishes they
know so well how to serve. In closing our
Greenville notes, mention must be made of
the " boy merchant, " Lincoln Reid, son of
Col. J. B. Reid, a mere lad, yet he has been
in business about three years, beginning at
first selling stationery on a small scale from
a counter in the corner of the post office in
Greenville. His business is steadily in-
creasing, until now it is developing into a
business of larger proportions. Such enter-
prise gives hopeful promise in the future.
To write of incidents of a foreign land as
they fall under our observation or related to
us by others, is largely of the nature of ma-
chine work. But to write of one's home,
early associations and recollections, of inci-
dents of days that are passed never to return
and bring back those happy inspirations of
youth, cannot but bring its share of sadness.
But let these be as they may, the writer has
honestly, but perhaps too hurriedly, given in
the proceeding pages (or at least that part
allotted to him), which came under his per-
sonal knowledge, or was derived from official
records of the different events as they oc-
curred, faithfully and impartially, knowing
full well that some errors may have crept in
unobserved, for which great care has been
used to make the number of such as few as
possible.

RIPLEY PRECINCT.

129

CHAPTER XIII*

RIPLEY PRECINCT — TOPOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE — EARLY SET I'LEMENT — PIONEER LIFE

AND HARDSHIPS — THE WHEELOCKS — THE ANCIENT TOWN OF "OLD RIPLEV"— OLD

SPANISH TRADITION— CHURCHES— SCHOOLS— VILLAGES, ETC.

" The past and present as herein told,
Form topics of thought for young and old."

— Riley.

~^T~ATURE in her green mantle is nowhere
-L. ' more lovery than in that portion of Bond
County set aside by survey and known as
" Ripley Precinct." Cozy farmhouses nestle
in somber quietude amid the green orchards
which dot the landscape in every direction.
Though it has every appearance of newness, this
country has been settled for many years. Scenes,
familiar to many of the older residents, are fast
passing from view, and the old landmarks are
disappearing with those to whom they owe their
existence, and mention must be made of them
before the places which once knew them shall
know them no more. Only too frequently it is
the case, that people do not see beyond the
narrow limits of their own lives, and items of
private and public interest are neglected and
allowed to drift into the channel of the forgot-
ten past. A great many important facts con-
nected with the earlier history of Ripley Pre-
cinct are irrecoverably lost, but a few have
been found by careful research, which will be
appropriately mentioned.

Ripley Precinct lies almost directly west of
Greenville, and is somewhat irregular in shape,
very much resembling in form an inverted L.
It extends from the western limits of Green-
ville Precinct to the Madison County line, with
Cottonwood Precinct extending along its north-
ern boundary and Pocahontas Precinct bound-
ing it on the south. The entire surface is suf-

* By Taylor J. Riley.

ficiently rolling, so that artificial means of
drainage is unnecessaiy. Some of the land,
however, along the creeks is low, or so very
rugged that it can only be used for grazing
purposes, and is not susceptible of cultivation,
but the farming lands are nearly level, or but
slightly undulating. The soil is of the finest
quality, and yields abundant harvests of all
crops usually grown in this latitude. The
principal products are wheat, corn and oats,
which indeed are almost the only products.

The residences throughout this precinct are
mostly good, substantial buildings, though ver} -
little attempt is made at the elegance displayed
in older and longer settled countries, but the
finely cultivated farms bespeak the success
which has attended those who were fortunate
enough to secure a footing here, when land was
much cheaper. The original timber consisted
of hickory, oak, ash, poplar, walnut, sugar ma-
ple, and the present growth is much the same,
though a great deal of the original timber has
fallen before the industrious hand of the set-
tlers. The water-courses flowing through Rip-
ley Precinct are Shoal Creek, the only one of
any importance which enters from the north
and Bows across the precinct in a southeasterly
direction. There are also two small creeks,
both known as Dry Fork, one coming from the
south and the other from the north, and, unit-
ing, flow about three-quarters of a mile into
Shoal Creek. Shoal Creek has a number of other
small tributaries, hardly worth mentioning.

The early settlement of Ripley Precinct is

130

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

somewhat involved in obscurity, but promi-
nent among those of whom anything is known
was Anderson Hill, who came from South Caro-
lina, in the time of the Indians, and settled
upon the farm now owned by John Davis. His
son, Anderson Hill, Jr., then but a child, came
with his father and afterward settled upon the
farm now owned by William Brown, where he
lived until his death, which occurred in 1853.
Moses File was also among the early settlers,
coming from North Carolina and settling about
seven miles west of Greenville in 1818. His
son, John N. File, now owns the old home farm.
The Wheelock Brothers came from the East, in
1812, and founded the town known as "Old
Ripley," which in early times was quite a trading
post, people coming from within a radius of
fifty miles to do their trading. The town was
founded upon a farm belonging to a Mr. Lust
of Edwardsville, now owned by William Brown,
and numerous signs are still visible, though the
buildings have long since been torn down or
moved away, the ruins of old blacksmith
shops and several old wells alone remaining to
mark the site of this once prosperous village.
Dr. Baker came about this time, and occupied
the house now owned by the Widow Jandt.
He was the first person buried in the old Brown
Graveyard, where many wear3 - mortals are now
resting. Numerous descendants of the above-
named early settlers still live in this precinct,
and the farms of their forefathers, which were
then a wilderness, have indeed been made to
" blossom as the rose." Other families con-
tinued to move into the community just de-
scribed, until the war of 1812 put a slight
check on immigration for a time, but after its
close it commenced again with renewed vigor.
Glowing accounts were carried back to the
older settlements of the richness and fertility
of this new country, which brought many of
the sturdy backwoodsman of Virginia and
North Carolina, accustomed from their earliest
childhood to lives of self-dependence, and in

whom had been generated a contempt of dan-
ger and a love for the wild excitement of an
adventurous life. "We of the present day,
accustomed to the luxuries and conveniences of
a highly civilized state of society, lapped in the
soft indolence of a fearless security 7 , accustomed
to shiver at every blast of winter's wind, and to
tremble at every noise, the origin of which is
not perfectly understood, can form but an im-
perfect idea of the motives and influences which
could induce the early pioneers of the West to
forsake the safe and peaceful settlements of
their native States and brave the unknown
perils and undergo the dreadful privations of
a savage and unreclaimed wilderness."

In early times, the procuring of bread was a
source of great anxiety to the settlers, and
when the first white people came to this coun-
try they found none of the conveniences of to-
day. An enterprising settler named Lee was
the first to erect a mill. It was built on Shoal
Creek, where Brown's Mill now stands, over
sixty years ago, and for many years supplied
the settlers of Ripley Precinct with corn meal
and a scanty supply of flour. All signs of this
mill have entirely succumbed to the lapse of
time, and where it once was there now stands
a thriving grist-mill, which was erected in the
year 1840, by Benjamin and Henry Brown.
When this mill was first built, it was used only
for sawing lumber, but in 1847 William
Brown purchased the interest of Henry Brown
(his cousin), and he and Benjamin Brown put
in machinery for grinding grain, and for thirty-
five years this vicinity has been filled with the
merry din of the wheels of " Brown's Mill." A
few years later a saw and grist mill was built
on Shoal Creek, about three and one-half miles
below Brown's Mill, by William Hunter, which
was afterward purchased by Wesley Bilyew
who ran it for several years. No traces of this
mill at present remain. At an early date a
tannery was built on the farm now owned by
William Brown, though the builder's name

RIPLEY PRECINCT.

131

could not be ascertained, and only an old vat,
or two remain to mark the place where it once
stood. A distillery, supposed to have been
built by the Wheelocks about 1813, once stood
near where Brown's Mill now stands, though
one looking at the place to-day would scarcely
imagine it ever to have been the scene of an
active industry.

One particular in which Ripley Precinct is
sadly deficient is its roads, which are very lit-
tle superior to the early day " trails " or
" traces." The first road of any importance
was the old " Vandalia road," which is but lit-
tle better now than it was then, being the same
old, unimproved dirt road, and in the spring
becomes almost impassable. It is an old road,
and as there are no pikes in the precinct, it is
very much used. Another road which has been
used as a highway since an early date, is the
" Pocahontas and Ripley road," but its unim-
proved condition renders travel upon it any-
thing but comfortable.

The first bridge constructed in this precinct
was over Shoal Creek, on the " Vandalia road,"
and was made of wood. It has been washed
away twice and rebuilt of wood, and it was
washed away the third time in 1875, and re-
built of iron, the same 3-ear. In April of the
present year (1882), this iron bridge was washed
away, but was caught and replaced in June,
without any material damage having been done.
This bridge is the only one ever built in the
precinct.

For many years, an old tradition has been
going the rounds in this vicinity to the effect
that the Spanish, who lived here at a very earl}'
date, had buried three barrels of silver dollars
in that portion of Ripley Precinct known as
" Shoal Creek bottom," on land now owned by
Thomas B. File. So much credit has been
placed in this tale that the three barrels of
Spanish dollars have been often sought for, and
numerous places give evidence of having been
dug up, in the vigorous search for this mythi-

cal fortune. An old gentleman named Bates
living near New Berlin, claims to know where
this " hoard " is located, but the thinking por-
tion of the inhabitants place no credit in it. It
is also stated that the Indians who inhabited
this region in an early day have been heard to
say that " if the people of Shoal Creek bottom
knew what they did, they could shoe their
horses with silver."

The precinct of Ripley cannot boast of many
churches. The first one erected was " Mount
Nebo," built by the Baptists, in 1835. The church
was organized on the 9th of February, 1832, at
the residence of John Coyle, on Round Prairie,
by Rev. Peter Long, assisted by Thomas Smith,
of Madison County, and with twenty-three mem-
bers, several of whom were subsequently turned
out for unfaithfulness. At a meeting in March
of the same year, Rev. Peter Long was chosen
pastor, in which capacity he served for over
forty years, and. in 1874, in his seventieth year
of age, on account of his enfeebled condition, he
resigned his pastorate, though he is still a mem-
ber of the same church. Since its organization,
the membership has run up as high as 130, and
during this time two other churches have been
organized out of it. Since the resignation of
Rev. Peter Long, the pastors have been : Rev.
W. C. Harvey, A. J. Sitton, John H. Jones, who
filled the pulpit for about three years, and J.
B. White, who is the present pastor, with a
membership of about sixty. Their first church
building was constructed of hewn logs, and was
an enormous affair, said to have been the larg-
est log building ever built in thecount}-. About
1850, it was replaced by a frame house, which
was destroyed by fire in 1S52, by ashes being
put in a keg and igniting. Late the same year,
the frame edifice, which at present occupies the
site, was erected. No other churches have been
built in Riple}- Precinct, until the present year
(1882), when the Presbyterians, led by Rev
Thomas Hvnes. erected a beautiful little church
of brick in the village of New Berlin. This

132

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

organization is as yet quite small, but supports
a very good Sunday school, and is in a flourish-
ing condition. Quite recently, also, the Regular
Baptists have built a frame church on the
" Vandalia road," about two miles east of New
Berlin. Their membership only numbers about
twenty souls, and their church is presided over
by no regular pastor. For nearly twenty years
the African Baptists, numbering about twenty
members, have been worshiping in a little log
church on " Shoal Creek Hill," near New
Berlin, but have never had a regular pastor.

The subject of education and the building of
schoolhouses were paid very little attention to
by the early settlers in Ripley Precinct. For
many years school was had in a small way
around at the houses of the settlers. The first
schoolhouse erected in this precinct was built
on the old " Lee Wait farm," in 1830. For
some time, it was taught by Thomas Arm-
strong, and afterward, the tutorship was as-
sumed by Peter Long. At present, nothing
remains to show where this old pioneer school-
house was located. The instruction given the
pupils at this time was of the most primitive
character, embracing only the most common of
the school branches, such as reading, writing,
spelling and a knowledge of the rudimentary
principles of mathematics. There are at present
six schoolhouses in Ripley Precinct, namely :
Round Prairie Schoolhouse, present teacher, F.
W. Fritz ; Ray's Schoolhouse, present teacher,
Henry Dixon ; the Baker Schoolhouse, presided
over by Miss Bunn ; the Ripley Schoolhouse,
teacher, George H. Donnell ; the Mount Vernon
Schoolhouse, teacher, R. O. White, and the Terra-
pin Ridge Schoolhouse, presided over by Millard
Dixon. Of late years, the subject of education
has received much more attention than it did
in an earlier day ; efficient teachers are em-
ployed at reasonable salaries and many of the
higher branches are taught.

New Berlin, the post office name of which is
Old Ripley, is the only village in this precinct.
It was founded in September, 1850, by Charles
Plog and Mathias Brown, and is located on a
part of the south half of Section No. 8, Town 5
north, of Range 4 west, of the Third Principal
meridian, near the old " Vandalia road." The
originial plat contained twenty-four lots. 50x120
feet in dimensions, and, in June, 1866, H. G.
Jandt made an addition of sixteen lots, of the
same dimensions as those in the original plat.
Mr. Jandt was among the first residents in New
Berlin, and for probably twenty years kept a gen-
eral merchandise store. I. V. Long also was en-
gaged in the general merchandising business
about this time. William Lytle built and ran
the first tavern, and kept in connection with it
a small stock of groceries, and retailed liquors.
The monotonous quiet, which always exists
about a small village, was relieved in New
Berlin by the merry clanging of the hammer of
Ferdinand Gauzer, the first village blacksmith,
and every Sunday divine service was held in
his shop, led by the Rev. Thomas Hynes. H,
G. Jandt kept the first post office in the rear
end of his store. The present Postmaster is
R. 0. White, who is also engaged in teaching
the " young idea how to shoot" at the Mount
Vernon Schoolhouse. At present, New Berlin
is a thriving little hamlet of about one hundred
and fifty inhabitants, mostly Germans, and is
considerable of a trading-point, the business
enterprises consisting of two general merchan-
dise stores, one brick drug store, two black-
smith-shops, two wagon-makers' shops, two
shoe shops, two saloons, a steam grist and saw
mill, owned by Mrs. Cox, and a neat, comforta-
ble hotel, owned by Mrs. Mary Arnold. No
secret societies exist in New Berlin as yet,
though a number of the inhabitants are mem-
bers of organizations in the neighboring
towns.

MULBERRY GROVE PRECINCT.

133

CHAPTER XIV.*

MULBERRY GROVE PRECINCT — PHYSICAL, TOPOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE — EARLY SETTLE-
MENT—REV. J. B. WOOLARD AND OTHER PIONEERS— FIRST BIRTH, MARRIAGE, ETC.— THE
BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS— CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS— VILLAGE OF MULBERRY
GROVE— WHEN LAID OUT— GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT, ETC., ETC.

" A song for the early times out West,
And our green old forest home."

— The Old Pioneer.

MULBERRY GROVE PRECINCT is
rather diminutive in size, and its cit-
izens, as has been said of those of the
State of Rhode Island, when they want to
communicate with each other, do not write
letters or send messages, but go out in
the yard and call to them. Though small in
extent, it is fine land, well adapted to cultiva-
tion, and numbers some excellent farms. It is
mostly level prairie, with a few hills along the
small water-courses which intersect it. It con-
tains a fractional part of two townships ; a por-
tion lying in Township 5, the remainder in
Township 6, Range 2 west, and is bounded on
the north b} - Zion Precinct, on the east by Fay-
ette County, on the south by Fairview Pre-
cinct, and on the west by Greenville and Zion
Precincts. The land is watered and drained by
Owl Creek, Lick Creek, Town Branch, Sea-
graves' Branch, and a few smaller streams that
are nameless on the maps. The streams drain
the land sufficiently, without the farmers hav-
ing to resort to artificial means. More or less
timber bordered the water-courses, consisting
of the species common to this section. The
precinct has the advantage of the Vandalia
Railroad, which passes nearly across the cen-
ter, with a station at the village of Mulberry
Grove, whence large shipments are made of the

•By W. H. Perrin.

surplus products of the surrounding country.
Upon the whole, this little division, called Mul-
berry Grove Precinct, ranks among the best
and most prosperous portion of Bond County.

The first settlement or improvement made in
what is now known as Mulberry Grove Pre-
cinct was made about the year 1826 b}' Zopher
Foster, on the place now occupied by Rev.
James B. Woolard. The next settlers after
Foster were John Bilvew and Duncan Johnson,
who came in about 1829-30, and were from
Tennessee. Rev. James B. Woolard, from
North Carolina, was the next permanent settler.
He came to the country in 1831, and pur-
chased the improvements of Zopher Foster,
where he has resided ever since — a period of
more than fifty years.

Mr. Woolard has lived an active life, and
been closely identified with Bond County
throughout a long period of time. From a
published sketch of his life, we extract a few
facts and incidents that will probably interest
the reader, and without which a history of
Bond County would scarcely be complete. He
was born in North Carolina, but brought up
principally in Tennessee, and, as we have said,
came to Bond County in 1831, locating upon
the place where he still lives. In the spring of
1832, the next year after he came here, upon
the call of Gov. Reynolds for volunteers for the
Black Hawk war, he enlisted as one of the fifty
men comprising the quota of Bond County.
For the money received for his services in the

134

HISTORY OF BOXD COUXTY.

campaign, he entered his first forty acres of
land, being that upon which he lives, and to
which, in a few years, by industry and econo-
my, he was enabled to add, until he was the
owner of 600 acres in a body. He was one of
the Judges of the first election held in his part
of the county, and when a post office was es-
tablished in 1834-35, he was appointed Post-
master.

Of his religious life, much might be said
which space will not permit. In the summer
of 1823, he made a profession of religion, joined
the Methodist Episcopal Church, served as class
leader and licensed exhorter. In the fall of
1829, was licensed a local preacher ; his first
license was signed by Rev. Peter Cartwright,
Presiding Elder. In 1834, was ordained Dea-
con by Bishop R. R. Roberts. In the fall of
1836, was received as an itinerant in the Illi-
nois Conference, and was appointed to the Car-
lyle Circuit, in the bounds of which he lived.
In 1837, to Grafton Circuit, and in 1838 to Car-
linville. In 1839, was ordained Elder by Bish-
op Morris, and appointed to the Carliuville Sta-
tion ; 1840, to Staunton ; 1841 again to Carlyle,
1842 to Shelbyville, 1843, to Sharon. On ac-
count of his aged and feeble parents and young
family depending upon him, in 1844 he asked
and obtained a location from the annual con-
ference. He continued laboring diligently as a
local preacher until the fall of 1853; after he
had buried his aged father, who died in his
eighty-fifth year, and made comfortable pro-
vision for his mother, he again entered the itin-
erancy in the Southern Illinois Conference, was
appointed agent for McKendree College, and re-
moved to Lebanon. In the fall of the same
year, was appointed to Trenton Circuit ; 1854 to
Shiloh, and again, in 1855, to Shiloh. In 1856,
to Fillmore ; 1857 and 1858, to Salem; 1859 and
1860, to Middleton. In 1862, was appointed
Chaplain in the One Hundred and Eleventh
Illinois Volunteers, J. S. Martin, Colonel, in
which capacity he served three years, but

through exposure and fatigue of camp life, his
health failed, and he came home at the close of
the war with a broken constitution, not able to
perform the labors of an itinerant minister.
Yet his friends of the Conference continued
him on the itinerant list as a superannuated
member of the Southern Illinois Conference,
and now, in the seventy-eighth year of his age,
his voice still clear and strong, he frequently
preaches and attends funerals.

Since his first settlement in the county, his
home has been a welcome stopping-place for
friends, and especially for ministers ; none were
ever turned away from his door. And now,
full of years and full of honors, the hero of two
wars, he is calmly awaiting the summons,
" Well done, thou good and faithful serv-
ant," etc.

Other early settlers in Mulberry Grove Pre-
cinct were Richard Moody, James Dunaway,
James Spradling, Mark Dunaway, Joseph Arm-
strong, Bennett Seagraves, Arthur Sherard,
Drury Petty, Durham, Henry Inman, John
Perkins and others. Durham settled on Sec-
tion 12, and was from Tennessee. He has a
son and a daughter living in Fayette County.
Inman settled on Section 1, about the year
1S30 ; Perkins, about the same year, settled on
Section 10, and has several sons living in the
county. Moody settled on Owl Creek, and was
from the southern part of the State ; the Dun-
aways settled east of Moody ; also, Petty. The
latter sold out to Spradling about 1830. Arm-
strong was a Tennesseean, and bought out
Mark Dunaway. Sherard was also from Ten-
nessee, and settled on Section 36, in 1833. In
illustration of the healthfulness of the neigh-
borhood. Mr. Woolard says that the first fifteen
years he lived there, he did not pay $15 in
doctors' bills, and although more than twenty
different families have lived on the farm at dif-
ferent times, there has never been but one
death on it since it was settled.

This comprises the sum and substance of

SZ^L

C&Vi/

LIBRARY

OF THE
UNIVERSITY ot ILLINOIS

MULBERRY GROVE PRECINCT.

137

what we have obtained of the early settlement
of this portion of Bond County. The story of
the early trials of the pioneers may be found in
other chapters of this work. What applies to
them in one section of Southern Illinois is com-
mon in all parts of the State. Their life for
years was hard, and beset with dangers and
difficulties, but patience and perseverance,
coupled with an indomitable will, carried them
over safe, and wafted them on to wealth and
prosperity.

John Bilyew, who is mentioned as one of the
first settlers of the precinct, and who built his
cabin near where the village of Mulberry Grove
now stands, erected a horse mill at a very early
day, upon or near the site of the present Meth-
odist Church, which he operated for a good
many years. It was a great benefit to the
neighborhood, and continued to do good service
until enfeebled by age, and it had became so
frail and rickety that the customers had to
withe in the cogs with hickory withes so that
they could grind their corn. But it finally
went "the way of all the earth," and a good
steam mill now occupies its place in the busi-
ness of the community.

Evervthing must have a beginning, and in
Mulberry Grove Precinct, the increase of pop-
ulation began bj the birth of a daughter to the
wife of Zopher Foster, the first settler, and
was the first birth in the precinct. The first
marriage was a daughter of Arthur Sherard.
She was married by Duncan Johnson, who was
the first Justice of the Peace, but who she mar-
ried we did not learn. The first election was
held in the neighborhood under a tree, near the
dwelling of Bennett Seagraves, about 1833-34.
Rev. J. B. AVoolard and Drury Petty were the
Judges of this election, and John Russell and
William Hunter were candidates for the Leg-
islature. The first sermon preached was by
Rev. E. R. Ames, afterward Bishop Ames.
The first post office was established about the
year 1834-35, and J. B. Woolard was appoint-

ed Postmaster. From the great number of
mulberry trees standing around his cabin in
which the post office was held, he gave it the
name of Mulberry Grove, a name it still bears.
and which has been given both to the village
and precinct.

As soon as a sufficient number of people had
settled in the neighborhood, a schoolhouse
was built and a school established. This
schoolhouse was of the regular pioneer type,
being of the rudest architecture, and having
the usual puncheon floor, stick chimney, and
great, wide fire-place. The school was taught
on the subscription plan, as was the custom
then, but the name of the first teacher was not
obtained. On Sunday, the building was used
as a temple of worship, where the pioneers
gathered to hear the word. Near this house a
cemetery was laid out, and the first person who
died in the precinct (Mrs. Margaret Riley) was
buried in it. Since then, many of the pioneers
have been buried there. Arthur Sherard was
one of the early school teachers, but we do not
know if he was the first one. There are now
three schoolhouses in the precinct, besides
that in the village of Mulberry Grove. Educa-
tion has advanced considerably since the build-
ing of the rude schoolhouse described above,
as the present handsome and comfortable
houses now in use, and the excellent schools
taught annually iu them truthfully attest.

Bethlehem Baptist Church was originally or-
ganized July 10, 1830, ou Hurricane Creek, in
Fayette County. Among the first members
were D. E. Deane, James Street, Willis Dod-
son, Larkin Cragg and Henry Sears. Iu a few
years, a great many others united and it became
strong in numbers. Elder Dodson preached
the first sermon ; the first Clerks were Joseph
Williams and James Ferrell. The first meet
iugs were held at the houses of the brethren
alternately. The church was "dissolved" in
Fayette County, June 11, 1835, and in 1837
the first meeting of the congregation was held

138

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

in Bond County, the church to be called Beth-
lehem. The church house was built in the fall
of the same year. Elder John Crouch was the
first minister; the present, Elder John Lawler,
and the present Clerk, J. H. Taylor ; meetings,
the second Saturday of each month.

The village of Mulberry Grove was surveyed
and laid out April 28, 1841, by Asahel Enloe,
for Francis Gill, the proprietor of the land upon
which it stands. It is the second largest town
in the county, and from the records seems to
have been first called Houston, but afterward
changed to Mulberry Grove. It is situated on
the Vandalia Railroad, about eight and a half
miles from Greenville. Contiguous to it on the
east (in Fayette County), and lying on Hurri-
cane Creek, is a fine body of timber, while
north, west and south is a thickly settled coun-
try, in a fine state of cultivation, rendering this
an excellent shipping point for grain, stock and
other products of the farmers.

The first house in Mulberry Grove was built
by David Hubbard, several years prior to the
laying-out of the towu. In this house, he and
a man named Dewelby kept a store, the first in
this part of the county. Hubbard also built a
steam mill in the fall of 1837, which succeeded
Bilyew's old horse-mill, already described. It
was a custom mill, and did a good business.
A saw-mill was added, and the two were car-
ried on until about 1850. In April, 1869, the
present mill was built. It was first started as
a saw-mill by E. W. and C. E. Dee, brothers.
The saw-mill was sold in 1872, and moved
to Fairview, flour-mill machinery having been
put in by the Dees in 1870. C. E. Dee is the
present proprietor, having bought the remain-
ing half-interest in 1873. The mill is operated
by a twenty-five horse-power engine, has two
run of buhrs, and makes " straight grade " flour
only. The first blacksmith was David Elam,
just across the line. He did all the work for
this neighborhood, as well as a large portion of
Fayette County. The first school in the village

was taught by Arthur Sherard, and the first
church society was that of the Methodists.
The town at present shows the following busi-
ness : Three or four general stores, grocery
stores and drug stores, blacksmith, wagon, car-
penter and shoe shops, flour and saw-mill, sev-
eral physicians, two churches, and an excellent
school. The population is about 500 souls.

The Methodist Episcopal Church at Mul-
berry Grove was organized by Rev. J. B.
Woolard, about the year 1830, with a member-
ship of six, besides himself and wile ; the
others were Duncan Johnson and wife, John
Bilyew and wife and Zopher Foster and wife ;
Duncan Johnson was the first class-leader, and
Revs. William Chambers and Wilson Pitman
the first ministers. This church has since
grown to a large congregation from which
several other churches have been formed. The
old log schoolhouse, already mentioned, was
the first place of worship, and served as a
church for several years. The first church
building was erected in 1841, on the site of the
present church, and occupied by the congrega-
tion until 1866, when the present brick church
was built at a cost of about $3,000. The pres-
ent pastor is Rev. J. W. McGriff, and John
Riley, class-leader. The first Sunday school
was organized by Duncan Johnson in 1834, and
has been kept up pretty nearly ever since ; the
present superintendent is John Riley, the
school is well attended, and both it and the
church are prosperous and healthy. This
church was included in the first circuit ever
traveled by Rev. E. R. Ames, afterward Bishop
Ames, of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

The Christian Church, or " Church of Christ,"
as it is called, was organized in the 3'ear 1865,
by Elder John A. Williams of Salem, 111. The
only two members living here at the time of
the formation of the church were A. J. Leigh
and Elizabeth Hensle}', but this did not deter
them from organizing a societ}', on the Bible
principle perhaps, that " where two or three

MULBERRY GROVE PRECINCT.

139

are gathered together in my name," etc. Elder
Williams preached for the church about seven
years after it was formed, and is now preach-
ing for it. The membership is about eighty,
with a good attendance. A large and flourish-
ing Sunday school is maintained, of which J.
B. Rodecker is Superintendent.

Charity Lodge, No. 1,733, Knights of Honor,
was organized in August, 1879, and has been
in operation ever since. The meetings are held
in Prather's Hall on the first and third Satur-
days of each month. The present officers are :

C. Ormsworthy, Dictator ; C. A. Ragland, Past
Dictator ; W. B. Hutchison, Financial Reporter ;
S. G. Gillian, Guide ; C. C. Simmons, Vice
Dictator ; have about twenty-six members.

Mulberry Grove village is provided with ex-
cellent schools. The school has been graded
for the past eight years. There are two school
buildings — one brick and the other a modern
frame, two stories high, costing about $2, GOO.
Three teachers are employed, and the average
general attendance is about one hundred and
fifty children.

140

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY

CHAPTER XV.*

POCAHONTAS PRECINCT— TOPOGRAPHY AND DESCRIPTION— ITS EARLY SETTLEMENT— FIRST PIO-
NEERS— THE PLANTS AND JOHNSONS— THE QLD METHODIST CHURCH— THE TOWN OF
POCAHONTAS— OTHER VILLAGES— SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, ETC.

" O sprecht ! warum zogt ilir von donuen ?
Das Neckarthal hat. Weill und Korn ;
Der Schwarzwald steht voll finstres Tannen,
Im Spessart kliugt des Alplers Horn."

THE Precinct of Pocahontas lies in the south-
west corner of Bond County, and is
bounded on the north by Ripley Precinct, on
the east by Beaver Creek Precinct, on the
south by Clinton County, and on the west by
Madison County. Most of the surface of this
precinct is level prairie land, especially the
western half. The eastern portion, however, is
somewhat higher and more rolling, and well
adapted to agriculture. The only broken or
rough land is found along the borders of the
creeks and water courses, and is mostly devoted
to grazing.

The timber consists of oak, ash, elm, walnut,
hickory, etc. The original timber has been
mostly cut down for building and various other
purposes, and the present timber is a younger
growth. The water-courses of Pocahontas Pre-
cinct are all small. The most important stream
is Shoal Creek, which flows in rather a south-
erly direction across the precinct, near its cen-
ter. It has a number of branches and tribu-
taries, all of which are small and of but little
importance. A small stream called Locust
Fork flows through the southern part, and near
it is Dry Branch ; both of these are verj' small.

Prominent among the pioneers who first lo-
cated in this precinct was William Burgess,
who came in shortly after the war of 1812, and

* By T. J. Riley.

settled just south of where Millersburg now is,
on Sections 22 and 27. He was a volunteer in
this war, and has no descendants living here at
present. Joseph Critchfield, another very early
settler, came in about the same time, and lo-
cated on Section 25. His wife was for some
time an inmate of the old fort (in Beaver Creek
Precinct, and referred to elsewhere). He has
still one descendant, Mrs. Prichett, living in the
county. Joseph Bilyew, another early pioneer,
came to this State prior to the war of 1812, and
settled in Madison County. In 1817, he moved
to this precinct and settled on Section 1 0. He
has several great-grandchildren, at present re-
siding in this county. A family named Coles
settled east of where Millersburg now is, about
1820. John Bilyew came in as early as 1822,
and settled on the land where Frank Meyers
now lives (near Pocahontas). He afterwards
sold this farm to William Mills. James Nance
settled on Section 27, in 1820. Samuel Lee-
came in prior to Nance, and located in the same
neighborhood. William Reams came in 1830,
and settled in Section 28. A man named
Rolten settled southwest of where Millersburg
now is, about 1822, but on account of ill health
he soon after moved away. John Powers set-
tled on Section 25 in 1820, but at present has
no descendants living here.

About this time three brothers, Andrew
George and James Green, located on Shoal
Creek, a little above Powers. Daviil White,
after whom White's Fort received its name, set-
tled near them late in the same year. Isaac

POCAHONTAS PRECINCT.

141

Reed settled a little farther up the creek on
Section 10 in 1820. The Johnsons and Will-
iamson Plant settled near where Pocahontas
now is during the same year.

About 1833, Benjamin Johnson, accompanied
by five brothers, Duncan, Charles, James P.,
Hugh and John P., came in and located near
where the town of Pocahontas now stands.
Benjamin was a large land owner, and at one
time was a member of the Legislature from this
district. He lived here until his death, which
occurred in 1861. There are a number of the
descendants of the Johnsons living here at
present. About this time, came the Sugg
family and the Gillespie family, from Tennes-
see, and the Ridgeways from Ohio. Two men,
named Weise and Stockley, settled in the south-
west part of the precinct in 1833. Josiah File
came in 1837, and was followed, in 1840, by
Edward Ellis, who is now the largest land
owner in the precinct.

The early industries in Pocahontas Precinct
were of the most primitive pattern. Among
the first was a mill, built on Shoal Creek by
Thomas Stout about the year 1S31. It was a
saw-mill, run by water-power, but a small attach-
ment for grinding purposes was afterward put
in, which did not prove much of a success. The
mill ceased operations in 1870, and has done
nothing since. William Burgess ran a small
copper still on a spring branch on Section 26,
but it ceased to live in 1828. About the time
the town of Pocahontas was laid out, Duncan
Johnson built a mill on Shoal Creek, but it has
long since ceased to exist.

In early times, a great excitement was created
on account of a belief that gold and silver was
to be found in Bond County. To add to this
excitement, Robert Gillespie, a settler who lived
on Shoal Creek, a few miles above where the
town of Pocahontas now stands, found some
shining particles in a spring near his house and
gathering them carefully together, he took them
to St. Louis, and showed them to a fellow who

pronounced them gold. For some time after
this the fever ran high, but as time gradually
elapsed and no more was found, the search was
finally abandoned.

The Methodist Episcopal denomination or-
ganized a church at the house of Charles John-
son about the year 1820. Among the earlj'
members were Charles Johnson, the Plant fam-
ily, the Williams family, Harley Valentine and
wife, and a part of the Bilycw family. Among
the first class leaders was Henry Williams.
The first church was built south of where the
town of Pocahontas is now located, near where
the depot now stands, sometime during the year
1826. It was a log building of the most primi-
tive structure. About 1835, this organization
erected a new frame church three and one-
quarter miles west of the old log church. The
next church was built in the village, in 1854.
It was a frame building, 50 feet long and 34
feet in width, and cost about $1,500. The ground
was donated by Benjamin Johnson, with the
proviso that it should be open to all denomina-
tions, except Catholics and Mormons.

The town of Pocahontas was surveyed on
the 21st day of March, 183S, by T. S. Hubbard,
for Benjamin Johnson, the proprietor. It is
located in Section 3, Township 4 north, Range
4 west, nine miles southwest of Greenville, on
the Vandalia Railroad. The town was first
called Amity, and the post-office name was
Hickory Grove. When this town was laid out
Mr. Johnson (the founder) made provision that
no lots were to be sold to any one unless they
would agree not to handle liquors of any kind
in any way. It is a well-known fact, that the
Germans like their beer, and as most of the set-
tlers were Germans, instead of locating in Poca-
hontas, they went to Highland, a neighboring
village, and settled there. The plau proved to
be a bad one, and after a few years it was
abandoned.

Benjamin Johnson was the first Postmaster,
and the first hotel was run by P. W. Lampkins

142

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

in 1837. Benjamin Johnson owned the first
blacksmith shop, and it was run by a smith
named Hereon. The first store was a general
merchandise establishment owned by Benjamin
Johnson and Dr. Fitch, in 1836. Dr. Griffith
was the first physician, about 1843, and the first
church building was erected in 1852 by the
Methodist denomination.

At present Pocahontas is a flourishing village
of a little over four hundred inhabitants. It
contains three churches, a flouring mill, owned
by W. S. Wait, one furniture store, one agri-
cultural implement store, the Union Hotel, kept
by William Justi, and the Western Hotel, kept
by Henry Idler, three blacksmith shops, two
wagon-maker's shops, one harness shop run by
Frank Senn, two millinery establishments, one
barber shop. Leopold Knobel and Joseph
Leibler buy grain, and John Snyder and John
Meyers deal in stock. There are also two dry- i
goods stores and one grocery store. A. A.
Simms is the Justice of the Peace, and Drs,
John Gordon and J. R. Clinton represent the
medical fraternity. The present Postmaster
is H C. Challis.

But little need be said concerning the schools
of Pocahontas. The land on which the first
school building was erected was donated by i
Benjamin Johnson for the purpose of building
an academy thereon. At its completion, in
1854, it waa put in the charge of Prof. Cav-
anaugh (a minister), of Lebanon.

The first Trustees were Benjamin Johnson,
N. Leaverton, W. Mills, B. Kavanaugh, P.
Lampkins, D. Johnson and L. D. Plant, who '
gave it the name of Amity Academy. The
academy was run according to the original plan
for some time, but on account of its being so
far in advance of the times, it was not suffi-
ciently patronized to warrant the management
in continuing it as an academy, and finally the
project was given up. At present the building
is used as the public school in District No. 4, and
is the only school in the village of Pocahontas.

The " Gordon Lodge," of A., F. & A. M., was
organized at Millersburg October 3, 1866, by
Grand Master Bromwell, but in 1867 was
moved to Pocahontas. The first officers were :
James Gordon, W. M.; Edward Teter, S. W.;
Robert Elegood, J. W.; R. J. Collin, Treasurer,
and A. J. Gullick, Secretary. The charter mem-
bers were : Sidney and Harvey Cole, William
Casey, Robert Elegood, Bellfield Featherston,
James Gordon, A. J. Gullick, Edward Teter,
John C. Gordon, Isaac Howell, Jacob Lindley,
J. M. Lucas, James Pigg, Franklin Pressgrove
and P. C. Reed. The present officers are : S. H.
Challis, W. M.; Joseph Dever, S. W.; J. M.
Minor, J. W.: George Powell, Secretary ; John
Gordon, Treasurer ; Morris Margood, S. D., and
Joseph Hunter, J. D. The lodge at present
has a membership of about twenty, is in a
flourishing, prosperous condition, and has about
$800 in the treasury. For some time after the
removal of the lodge from Millersburg to
Pocahontas, they held their meetings in the
the schoolhouse, but since 1873 they have occu-
pied a large, convenient lodge room of their own.

Lodge No. 177, of the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows, was organized on the 12th da}'
of October, 1855, by James Starr, the Grand
Master of the State. The charter members
were : R. K. Dewey, George H. Dewey, A. W.
Greenwood, R. T. Sprague and J. F. Sugg. The
first officers were : R. K. Dewey, N. G.; R. C.
Sprague, V. G. ; A. W. Greenwood, Secretary ;
and J. F. Sugg, Treasurer. The lodge held their
meetings in the schoolhouse, until in the fall of
1873. when they moved into the hall the}' now
occupy. The lodge is at present in good con-
dition, having about twenty-two members, and
$700 in the hands of their Treasurer. They
built their hall in 1873, at a cost of about
$3,000, but the building has since been pur-
chased by S. H. Challis. The present officers
are : H. E. Reed, N. G.; Joseph Neathammer,
V. G.; John Robinson, Treasurer, and W. S.
Wait, Secretary.

POCAHONTAS PRECINCT.

143

The A. 0. of U. W. was organized by C. W.
Sewell, District Deputy, in June, 1880. The
charter members were : W. M. Haj-s, F. E
Jaudt, William Justi, Frank Meyer, James,
Chiswell, J. M. Minor, Joseph Lawrence and
John Neathammer, L. B. Long, William Bolt,
Jacob Segar, Harmon Treadbar, Hartman
Gruner. Perry Reed, Fred File, Philip Leibler,
Frank Hochdafer, H. E. Reed, W. E. Smith, D.
C. Heston and J. A. Hamptou. The officers
who have filled the places since the organiza-
tion of the lodge are : W. M. Hays, M. W.; F.
E. Jandt, Recorder ; J. M. Minor, Financier ;
H. E. Reed, Receiver ; W. E. Smith, P. M. W.;
Fred File, Overseer, and William Justi, Fore-
man. At present, the lodge is in a thriving
condition, and is growing steadily in popular-
ity and members. They hold their meetings
in the Odd Fellows hall, and have a regular at-
tendance of about twent3'-two members.

The Good Templar Lodge was organized
February 9, 1881, with ninety charter members.
The first officers were : Z. T. Hendricks, Worthy
Chief ; Miss Laura Stevens, Vice Worthy
Chief; E. Balch, P. W.; H. Hatchet, Secretary;
Miss Jennie Harned, Assistant ; C. Phelps,
Financial Secretary ; Joseph Dever, Chaplain ;
E. Alderman, Marshal ; Fannie Savage, assist-
ant ; John Savage, Outside Guard, and Miss
Hannah Challis, Inside Guard. The lodge has
at present a membership of about forty-five,
and meetings are held regularly every Thurs-
day evening in Itemick's Hall. John Jett is
the present Worthy Chief; E. Alderman acts
as Secretary, and Mrs. Bridgewater is Treasurer.

The Catholic Church was organized in the
spring of 18G9, by Father Peter Peters. Among
the first members were : John M. Gilmore and
wife, Louis Loux and wife, Mr. Schwedenmau
and wife, George Hochdefer and wife, George
Arnold and wife, George Hansilman and wife,
father and two sons ; Charles Kuebel and wife,
Tom Ryan and wife, Charles Rovolt and Frank
Rudolph and wife. The society worshiped in

a private house, which they purchased and
used as a place of worship until the erection of
their present church building in 1872. It is a
frame buildiug fifty feet long and twenty-six feet
in width, and cost about $2,400. It was dedi-
cated by Bishop Battles. For some time after
the organization of this church, it was under the
care of the Franciscan priests of Teutopolis, 111.,
but of late years it has been under the pastorate
of regular priests. The first Trustees were Leo
Eisenpris and John Senn. The present Trus-
tees are Baptist Eisenpris, Timothy Coffee,
Frank Senn and Fred Eisenpris. The Treas-
urer is Frank Senn, and the priest now in charge
is Rev. A. Kersting. About forty families now
belong to the church.

The United Baptist Church was organized
on the 10th day of January, 1873, by Peter
Long. The church was formed from members
of the old Mount Nebo Church in Ripley Pre-
cinct. The first members were Albert Ray
and wife, S. N. Jett, Agnes E. Jett, Mildred
Wait, Mary Bridgewater, Catharine Harvey
and W. C. Harvey. Albert Ray and S. N. Jett
were the first Deacons, and W. C. Harvey was
the first clerk. The society worshiped at the
houses of the members until in the spring of
1874 ; a church fifty feet long and thirty feet
wide was erected at a cost of about $1,400. The
first Trustees were Lee Wait, J. G. Scott and
S. N. Jett. The present Trustees are N. Bridge-
water and Louisa C. Gilmore. The church at
present is under the pastorate of Rev. J. H.
Jones, has about twenty-five members, and is
in good running order. It belongs to the Ap-
ple Creek Association, over which Peter Long
is Moderator. A flourishing Sunday-school is
conducted in connection with the church, under
the superintendency of Lawrence Stevens. An
interesting Bible school of about fifty scholars
is also taught regularly every Sunday.

Millersburg is a small village situated in
the southern part of the precinct. It was laid
off by William Burgess from Kentucky, and

144

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

received its name from a man named Charles
Miller, who built the first mill. The first store
was run by David C. Baldridge, who built the
first house erected in the village. Fritz Haek-
ick was the first blacksmith. At present it is a
flourishing little hamlet of between one and
two hundred inhabitants. It contains one store
run by Peter Minges, three blacksmith shops,
one wagon shop, run by John Dishouser ; one
schoolhouse and one saloon. The postoffice
name is il Baden Baden," and Clem Williams is
the present Postmaster. Only three mails
are received each week. The mill is run at
present by Peter Strife, and is doing only a
moderate business. There are no churches in
the town. Recently, for the convenience of cit-
izens living in the southern part of the precinct,
a sub-voting place has been established at Mill-
ersburg. This sub-votiug precinct includes a
part of the southern portion of Pocahontas
Precinct, and a couple of tiers of sections off

the western side of Beaver Creek Precinct, but
as yet no lines have been made ou our maps
to indicate it, and it was doubtless made more
for convenience than anything else.

Pierron, a small village of about one hun-
dred inhabitants, is situated near the midway of
the western boundary line of the county, a part
of it lying in Bond County and a part in Madi-
son County, though most of the business por-
tion lies in this county. It was laid off in 1868,
by J. Pierron, who built and ran the first store.
August Pierron was the first Postmaster. At
present the town is in a prosperous condition,
and contains one store run b3 T Suppiger & Uti-
ger ; two blacksmith shops, one on each side,
of the county line ; two wagon shops; one ele-
vator owned by Kuebel & Co.; three hotels,
only one of which is in this county, namely, the
" Oak Dale House." A. A. Pierron and Louis
Sehuert handle agricultural implements, and
A. A. Suppiger is the present Postmaster.

BEAVER CREEK PRECINCT.

145

CHAPTER XVI.*

BEAVER CREEK PRECINCT — DESCRIPTION AND GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY —TIMBER AND WATER

COURSES— EARLY SETTLEMENT— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PIONEER TIMES— THE

FIRST POST OFFICE, BLACKSMITH, STORES, ETC.— MILLS AND CARDING MACHINES

—VILLAGES— EDUCATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS— CHURCHES, ETC.

THE precinct of Beaver Creek, to which
this chapter is devoted, lies in the south-
ern part of Bond County, directly south of
Greenville, and comprises Township 4 north,
Range 3 west, together with a tier of fractional
sections along Shoal Creek on the western side
of the precinct ; thus giving it these fractional
sections more than a regular Congressional
township. The surface of the land is generally
level, much of it originally being prairie.
Along the margin of the streams it is some-
what hill}' and broken, and was covered
with timber when the country was first settled.
The timber, which was that common in this
section, has been considerably thinned out, and
that plauted by the settlers themselves now
makes nearly as much show as the original I
growth. The precinct is drained by Shoal and
Beaver Creeks, and their tributaries. Beaver
Creek flows through the eastern part in a
southerly direction, receiving numerous small
streams in its course, while Shoal Creek drains
the western portion. The precinct, as at pres-
ent laid off, is bounded on the north by Green-
ville Precinct, on the east by Okaw, on the
south by Clinton County and on the west by
Pocahontas Precinct. It is as fine an agricult-
ural district as can be found in this section ;
the people are an intelligent and industrious
class, well educated, and rank among the best
citizens of the county. The surplus products
of the precinct find a market over the Vandalia

*By W. H. Perrin.

Railroad, which passes near the northwest
corner, but does not come within the limits. It
has no lack of churches, schoolhouses and vil-
lages.

Settlements were made very early in the
present precinct of Beaver Creek. The first
white man of whom we have any account of
making a settlement here was James Blizzard,
in the winter of 1817-18, unless we except
" Old Kenson," as he was called, and Cox, who
was murdered by the Indians near the present
town of Dudleyville. Of Old Kenson there is
nothing but a vague tradition. It is said that
he lived in a hollow sycamore tree in Shoal
Creek bottom, near where the Vandalia Rail-
road now crosses (whether the " hollow syca-
more" stood in this precinct or not we are
unable to say), and that he was there during
the war of 1812. When the few people then
living in Bond County fled to the forts for
safety from the Indians, " Old Kenson " re-
mained in his " den," looking after his hogs,
and hunting. When the war closed, and the
people returned to their cabins, " Old Kenson,"
like the Arab, pulled up his hollow sycamore,
or his tent —

"And as silently stole away,"

leaving no trace behind. What became of him
or whither he went no one ever knew. He
utterly refused to go into the fort with the
other whites, alleging there was no real danger,
and that the Indians would not molest him.
Mr. Blizzard made the first permanent set-

146

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

tlement, as we have said, in the winter of
1817-18. He settled on the northwest part of
Section 7, near where the school house now
stands. He has two sons living here, J. J. and
William M. Blizzard ; a daughter, Mrs. Harriet
A. Gower, lives in Missouri. A Mr. James
settled on Section 3, about 1825, and a man
named Harlan settled near Dudleyville, on a
place since owned by his son. A Mr. Hoffman,
John Henry and A. G. Mills also settled near.
Wilson Brown came in soon after Blizzard and
settled on Section 6. Abraham McCurley and
family settled on Section 3, in 1830. Richard
Briggs came in with Wilson Brown and settled
in the same neighborhood. McCurley has a
daughter still living in Bond County — Mrs.
Mary Woolard, wife of Rev. J. B. Woolard, of
Mulberry Grove. Wilson Brown has two sons,
Charles and Marion, living in the county.
Andrew Green settled on Section 18, and was
a blacksmith — the first perhaps in the precinct.
James Kirkpatrick and Samuel G. Morse
settled a little south of Harlan, and William
Burgess settled on the west side of Beaver
Creek, near the county line. As early as 1826,
the Crutchfield brothers, Joseph and Jacob,
settled on Section 30 ; they have descendants
still living here. The Drake family, who were
from Tennessee, settled on the same section.
Durham and Phipps came in about 1820;
Phipps has a daughter, Mrs. Goodsou, and
Durham a son, Gideon Durham, living in the
neighborhood. John Henry was an early
settler, and the first Postmaster in the pre-
cinct. The "old fort," mentioned so exten-
sively in preceding chapters of this work,
* stood on Section 7, the land now owned b}' the
Byrnes heirs.

About the year 1S26 or 1827, the McCas-
lands, James McCasland, and his sons, John
and Hugh, came into the precinct. They were
from Kentucky, and John settled on Section
11 ; Hugh settled on Section 23, but afterward
moved on to Section 11. He finally moved to

Montgomery County, where he now lives. A
Mr. Harlan settled on Section 15 in 1825 and
1826. Andrew Mills and family, from Tennes-
see, settled on Section 14. Joseph Mills, a de-
scendant, still lives in the precinct. A family
of Browns came in early and settled on the
same section with Mills. Balaam Metcalf, from
Tennessee, settled on Section 14 about the year
1S28. He has a son, Henry Metcalf. still living
in the precinct. William Downing settled on
Section 24, and afterward sold out to Allen.
Joseph Meyers settled on Section 22. This
comprises a list of the eariy settlers so far as
we have been able to learn anything concerning
them.

The first years in a new country are years of
toil and hardship. It was particularly so in
the early settling of Southern Illinois. There
were no railroads then; no improved agricult-
ural implements ; no mills deserving of the
name, and, indeed, no luxuries, and veiy few of
the necessaries of life. Log cabins with punch-
eon floors ; " hog and hominy ;" the bar-shear
plow, reaping-hook, and scythe and cradle were
things with which the pioneers were altogether
familiar fifty years ago in Bond County. We j
in this age of civilization and refinement and
of peace and plenty, know little of what the
early settlers had to contend with. The fol-
lowing incident will illustrate, to some extent,
the dangers they were exposed to in the early
days of this country : A man named Cox, who
had built a cabin, near or a little below where
the village of Dudleyville now stands, notwith-
standing the remonstrances of the people, re-
fused to take refuge in the forts during the war
of 1812, but remained at his cabin several
miles distant. He was a brave man, a cele-
brated Indian fighter (considering himself a
match at any time for half a dozen " red skins "),
and a thorough frontiersman. One day, during
his absence, a party of Indians attacked his
cabin, and, among other depredations, carried
off his daughter a captive. She was rescued!

BEAVER CREEK PRECINCT.

147

however, a few hours later, without injury other
than a severe fright. After this, he deemed it
prudent to remove his family to the fort, but he
persisted in visiting his cabin every day " to look
after things," until the Indians finally looked
after him. Going to his cabin one day as usual,
accompanied 03- his little son, they were fired
upon by a party of Indians, who had concealed
themselves in the house, and were both killed.
Their fate was a sad one, but was nothing more
than had been anticipated and predicted by his
friends. The incident, with its attending cir-
cumstances, is more particularly noticed in a
preceding chapter.

The first settlers in this section had to go to
Edwardsville to mill, au undertaking that some-
times occupied several da}'s or weeks. The
first mill in this precinct, of which we have any
account, was a horse-mill built by William
Downing, and was one of the early institutions
of the community. For a number of years, it
did good service, and was a great accommoda-
tion to the people. A carding-mill, or cardiug-
machine, as they were more commonly called,
was built by Milton Mills on Section 13, about
1823 and 1824, and was the first, not only in
this precinct, but the first in the county. Be-
fore it was put in operation, the people carded
their wool themselves on hand cards, or took it
to Edwardsville. This mill was shipped here
from Kentucky, and was successfully operated
for a great many years. Other pioneer indus-
tries were confined to blacksmith shops, stores,
and such other business as the wants of the
time demanded. As the country settled up
and improved, roads were laid out through the
precinct to the different towns, bridges were
built over the largest water-courses, which com-
bined very materially to facilitate locomotion
and transportation. The latter, in those days,
was a very serious undertaking, as everything
had to be transported by teams, and ox-teams
at that, and several weeks, according to the

state of the roads, were required to make a trip
to St. Louis, then the principal market.

In 18G9, a circumstance occurred near the
little village of Dudley ville, which cast a gloom
over the entire community. We allude to the
brutal murder of Mrs. Louisa McAdams, in
July of that year, b}- John Moore, a near neigh-
bor. He went to her residence in the absence
of her husband, grossly insulted her, and when
she attempted to escape from him, he pursued
her and cruelly murdered her by cutting her
throat from ear to ear. For this crime, lie was
arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to be
hanged by Judge Gillespie. He made a full
confession of his guilt, which was afterward
published, and, on the 23d of October, 1869, he
expiated his crime upon the gallows, under the
sentence of the court — the only execution that
has ever taken place in Bond County.

There are two villages in Beaver Creek Pre-
cinct, viz. : Dudleyville and Wisetown. The
former was surveyed and laid out by R. K.
Dewe} - , for John Dudley, the proprietor of the
laud, March 14, 1857. It is situated on Section
3 of Township 4, Range 3, and is five miles
from Greenville on the Carlyle road, surrounded
b}' an excellent farming region. It bears the
name of Dudleyville, for its founder and pro-
prietor, and, for a small place, does considera-
ble business. Mr. Dudley inherited the land
upon which the town stands, through his mar-
riage with Fanny Blizzard, daughter of one of
the early settlers of the precinct. He kept the
first store opened in Dudleyville. Fred Kahn
was the first blacksmith ; H. C. Dunham was
probably the first physician of the place, and
F. Thraner was the first Postmaster. Thraner
was among the very first settlers in Dudley-
ville, and built the best storehouse in the place,
and which is still in use by W. D. Rockwell, the
present merchant. About this time, a number
of German families settled in the village, and
opened shops of different kinds. F. Geries

148

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

built a cooper shop, and John Schlup, a wagon
shop. R. W. Chapman and brother came in
soon after Kahn, and remained several years.
There are now two blacksmith shops kept by
Albert Keagy and A. W. Reed. The town now
has about twelve families, comprising some
fifty inhabitants.

The Methodist Episcopal Church of Dudley -
ville was organized so long ago (about 1820 it
is believed) that no one now can give the names
of the original members, except James Bliz-
zard and several members of his family. The
church was originally organized at his house
by (it is believed) Rev. Simeon Walker. Serv-
ices were held at the house of Mr. Blizzard for
several years, then at Rebecca Hoffman's, his
daughter, and subsequently at schoolhouses.
The church building was erected about 1856-
57, and was a frame 26x40 feet. It cost $900,
and was built upon land donated by John Hud-
ley for the purpose. There were about fifty
members when the church was built at Dudley -
ville, and the Rev. Daniel Oglesby was the
minister, and J. J. Blizzard the class-leader.
The membership is still about fifty ; the Trust-
ees, J. J. Blizzard, Thomas Harlan, Jesse Mc-
Adams and H. W. Blizzard ; and the pastor,
Rev. J. H. McGriff. A Sunday school continues
the year round, of which J. J. Blizzard is Su-
perintendent, and which has a regular attend-
ance of about sixty persons.

The Free Methodist Church of Dudleyville
was organized in the fall of 1880 by Rev. F.
M. Ashcraft, and was originally composed of
eight members as follows : P. M. Rogers and
wife, Wilford Hockett, Ellen Upchurch, Charles
Mayfield and wife, John Upchurch and James
Garrett. The church edifice was built in the
summer of 1881, is a frame 28x40 feet in size,
and cost about $800. The first class-leader
was Wilford Hockett ; Trustees, P. M. Rogers,
Wilford Hockett and James Garrett. The
church has a membership at present of about
twenty-five, under the pastorate of Rev. C. C.

Brunei'. Sunday school organized when the
church was built ; the first Superintendent was
James Garrett ; the present one, P. M. Rogers ;
attendance good.

The village of Wisetown, or Beaver Creek, as
it is sometimes called, was surveyed and laid
out March 14, 1860, by R. K. Dewey, for David
W. Wise, the proprietor and founder. It is
located on Section 26, about ten miles nearly
south from Greenville, and five miles from Dud-
leyville. Although christened Wisetown for
its founder, the post office is called Beaver
Creek, after the name of the precinct, and first
one name and then the other is applied to the
village. It is quite a business little place, and
is surrounded by a class of enterprising farm-
ers. No saloon has ever been opened, which
speaks well for its morals. There were a few
houses here long before it was laid out as a
town. A post office was early established, with
John Henry as Postmaster ; Samuel Avis was
the first blacksmith, Peter Bostock the first
wagon-maker, and Delkhaus the first shoe-
maker. Dr. O. E. Hornedy was the first phy-
sician of the village, and the first drug store
was opened by Dr. Powell Gordon. The next
physician of the place was Dr. D. A. Bailey,
then came Dr. J. A. Warren, still here in prac-
tice. The place now has one store, kept by N.
B. Harues & Company ; two blacksmith shops,
A. J. Sapp and T. J. Sapp, each running a sep-
arate establishment ; W. A. McNeil, undertaker,
and also wagon-maker; drug store, kept by J.
M. Harlan, and an excellent schoolhouse. The
place consists of some twenty-five houses, and
has about one hundred and fifty inhabitants.

Union Church, in the village of Wisetown, is
composed of the following denominations, viz.:
Methodist, Cumberland Presbyterian and Mis-
sionary Baptist, members of which had be-
longed to no organized body until the formation
of this church, except the Methodists, who
worshiped at a schoolhouse. The church build-
ing was erected iu the summer of 1878, and is

BEAVER CREEK FRECrNCT.

149

32x48 feet. The ground upon which it stands
was donated and deeded by Dr. J. A. Warren,
on the following conditions : That the Method-
ists have it the first and third Sundays of each
month, commencing at 6 o'clock P. M., preced-
ing, and ending at 6 o'clock P. M. on Friday
following these Sundays ; the Baptists to have
the same privilege, including the second Sun-
day, and the Presbyterians the fourth. The
four extra Sundays in each year are divided up
on the same principle. This plan was adopted
by the donor of the land that no discord might
arise as to the ownership of the church. The
building cost $1,200 ; the Trustees are N. B.
Harnes, I). C. Baldridge, J. M. Myers, A. J.
Miller, E. B. Wise. J. A. Warren and Jesse
Burch. A good Sunda3' school is kept up all
the year round.

The precinct paid early attention to matters
of education, and schools were established as
soon as the couutry was sufficiently settled to
justify the expense of paying teachers. The
first schoolhouse of which we have any ac-
count was built on the present site of the
town of Dudleyville, just in the rear of the old
Methodist Church. It was a log building of
the pioneer pattern, with puncheon floor, and
the first school taught in it was by a man
named Babcock. Another of the early school-
houses was built on Section 26, a little south of
the spring of the old camp-ground. The first
school in it was taught by a man named P. G.
Vawter. A school was taught about three
miles west of Wisetown, in 1835, by a man
named Tobey. There are now seven school-
houses in the precinct, all of which are com-
fortable and commodious buildings, well-fur-
nished and ventilated, and in which good schools
are taught for the usual term each year by
competent teachers.

The people of Beaver Creek Precinct are a
religious people, if one may judge from its
number of handsome churches, of which there
are several in the precinct, outside of the vil-
lages of Dudleyville and Wisetown.

The first house in the precinct built exclu-
sively for church purposes, and used also for a
schoolhouse, was built at the old camp-ground
on Section 26. The Baptists organized a church
society here very early, and their church for
some time had no floor except the ground ; the
pulpit was 6x8 feet in size, raised (the plat-
form) about a foot above the ground, and the
whole thing boarded up about to the preacher's
shoulders, so that while speaking, only his head
and arms could be seen. The people attended
this church for miles and miles away. Camp-
meetings were held here, when the worshipers
came and camped upon the grounds until the
meetings closed. Among the first ministers at
this church were Revs. Arnot, Joseph Taylor,
Semons, Jesse Ford, etc. The congregation
worshiped here for many years, and then moved
into a schoolhouse. Several denominations
worshiped here also, but about 1866, religious
services were discontinued, and the house was
removed to Wisetown, where it is yet standing,
being used for a dwelling. The members went
elsewhere to worship, and joined themselves to
other churches.

The German Methodist Church was built in
18G5, and cost about $1,400. The society was
first organized in 1850, and consisted of the
following original members, viz.: George Ul-
mer and wife, John Hilde and wife, Elizabeth
Dollanbach, Charles Dollanbach, Elizabeth
Tishruser, Mary Dollanbach, John Danler and
wife, Mathias Huffman, Elizabeth Barnridher
and Conrad Peters. The first Trustees of the
church were John Thoman, Henry Garke, Fred-
erick Schubert, George Barnridher and Chris-
tian Dollanbach. The first minister was Rev.
W. Fiegenbaum, who organized the church ; the
membership is now about twenty-eight. A Sun-
day school was organized in 1870, of which
George Ulmer was the first Superintendent. It
continues the year round, and is at present under
the superintendence of Henry Garke and Mr
Thoman.

150

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

Mount Carrnel Methodist Episcopal Church
stands on the southwest quarter of Section 20,
and was organized in the early part of 18(32, by
J. J. Blizzard. The first regular minister was
the Rev. Simeon Walker. Among the first mem-
bers were J. J. Blizzard, Samuel J. Gilleland
(class-leader), and others, amounting in all to
about fifteen. The church edifice was erected
in the fall of 1866, and was built of brick,
costing about $960, and is a handsome little
church building.

The Camp Ground Cumberland Presbyterian
Church was quite early in the field — believed
by some to have had a society here about
1826. Among the first members were the

McAdamses, Goodsons, John Harris, William
Harlan, etc. Early ministers were William
Finley, Joel Knight, John Barber and Joseph
Barlow. The society first worshiped in a log
cabin, purchased of one of the first settlers
named Durham. This house was used for sev-
eral years, when the present house was built,
probably about 1835, and is 24x30 feet in size.
The organization is still kept up. The church
property is deeded to the Board of County
Commissioners for the benefit of the Cumber-
land Presbyterians. The present minister is
Rev. Allison Hunter ; the Sabbath school ia
kept up all the year.

FAIRVIEW PRECINCT.

151

CHAPTER XVII*

FAIRVIEW PRECINCT-INTRODUCTORY AND DESCRIPTIVE -THE NAME •■ FAIR VIEW --TOPOGRA-
PH Y AND PHYSICAL FEATURES — SETTLEMENT— ISAM REAVES AND OTHER PIONEERS—
THE FIRST ELECTION-EARLY SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLHOUSES— RELIGIOUS— " OLD
HURRICANE" AND OTHER CHURCHES— VILLAGE OF FAIRVIEW, ETC.

" The fairest among ten thousand,
And altogether lovely."

ONE iu traveling through that part of Bond
County known as Fairview Precinct,
would scarcely realize that, less than a century
ago, over these same rolling prairies, the red
man roamed in all his savage glory, undis-
turbed save by rival tribes of his own race.
That where now maj>- be seen in every direc-
tion beautiful and well-improved farms, he
hunted the buffalo, chased the deer, and shout-
ed his blood-curdling war-whoop as he dashed
in pursuit of his fleeing enemy. Since that
time, the light of civilization has spread o'er
the land. The " wigwam blaze " has been ex-
tinguished, and the red man has folded up his
" tepee " and followed after the retreating j
herds of buffalo. This precinct as well as the
other precincts of Bond County, partook of the
change, and the vast prairie was transformed
into blooming fields, and beautiful homes. Be-
cause of the beautiful view this precinct pre-
sents, it received the name of " Fairview,"
which appellation it rightfully deserves, being
without doubt one of the prettiest landscapes
in this portion of the " Sucker State."

Fairview Precinct comprises sixteen sections
in the southeast corner of Township 5, Range
2 west, and is bounded on the north by Green-
ville and Mulberry Grove Precincts, on the east
by Fayette County, on the south by Okaw
Precinct, and on the west by Greenville Pre-

*By W. H. Perrin.

cinct. Its surface is mostly prairie, being
gently rolling or undulating, except that por-
tion which borders the water-courses, it being
quite broken and very rugged in places. In
some portions of the precinct, however, arti-
ficial means of drainage is necessary, but it is
as fine an agricultural region as any part of
Bond County, the land being rich and fertile
and growing in value yearly. There is more
timber in this section than there was originally,
considerable having been planted by the early
settlers. The original timber, very little of
which is now left standing, is found almost ex-
clusively along the numerous streams through-
out the precinct, and consists principally of
oak, ash, hickory, walnut, etc. Most of the
precinct is devoted to agriculture and grazing,
the principal crops produced being corn, oats
and wheat.

Until recently, very little attention has been
paid to stock-raising in this section, but the
fine grazing facilities of the country induced
some of the more enterprising residents to em-
bark in this branch of farming, and of late
years the stock has been very much improved.

Numerous small streams contribute to the
productiveness of the soil of this precinct, the
most important of which is Sanders' Branch,
which rises in the northwestern corner of the
precinct, and flowing a little south, and then
directly east, leaves the precinct near the sec-
tion line dividing Sections 13 ami 24. Its
strongest tributary is Booker's Branch, which

152

HISTORY OF BOXD COUNTY.

rising in the northern part of Section 10. of
Greenville Precinct, flows in a southeaster!}'
direction into Sanders' Branch, which it enters
in the southeast corner of Section 14 of Fair-
view Precinct. Several other streams flow
through various parts of the precinct, but they
are so small as to scarcely deserve being
named.

The settlement by white people of Fairview
Precinct extends so far back into the past that
it is somewhat difficult to obtain reliable data
in regard to the original pioneers. Among the
first white men to locate here, probably, was
Isam Reaves, who came here from Maryland
with his family prior to the war of 1812. Some
time after this the gReaves family removed to
Kentucky, near Bowling Green, and, after re-
maining there for awhile, again moved to this
State and settled in Madison County, near Col-
lins ville. In 1832, Isam Reaves again moved
to this county and settled in what is now Fair-
view Precinct. He died on the old Reaves
farm, which he entered at a cost of 50 cents
per acre. He participated in the war of 1812,
on the Beaver Creek side. In one of the bat-
tles, two of his comrades named Prewitt and
Gratis were killed by the Indians, and Joseph
Gratts' father, Thomas Higgins and William
Burgess were wounded. Gen. Whitesides was
also wounded at the same time. This occurred
about the close of the war. Hiram Reaves, the
son of Isam Reaves, was born in this county,
four miles south of Greenville, and within one
mile of the old fort on Shoal Creek, on the 10th
of June, 1816, and is probably the oldest resi-
dent now living in the county who was born
in it. He resides in the southeast corner of
Fairview Precinct, and is totally blind. Some
time after the advent of Isam Reaves, in 1S29,
came William Harper, Thomas L. Harper, Elisha
Mathews and John Reaves, all from Tennes-
see. John Reaves settled on Section 14, on the
farm now owned by Mrs. Booker. William
Harper settled on the northeast quarter of Sec-

tion 22, where J. M. Harper now resides. John
Reaves and William Harper both died in this
township, and both have descendants now liv-
ing here. Reaves has two sons and two daugh-
ters at present residing in this county. Among
the early settlers were also Jerry Stubblefield,
Henry Brown and thrt 5 brothers named Jor-
dan, Morgan and William Murray. About
this time came the Long family. There were
three brothers of them, namely, Abner, Joseph
and John, who settled on the northeast quarter
of Section 22. They afterward separated, Jo-
seph settling on Section 15 on land now owned
by J. M. Harper, and John settling on the
land now owned by D. Cable. Abner being a
"potter" and a maker of earthenware, floated
about from place to place, plying his trade,
until 1840, when they all "pulled up stakes"
and moved to Missouri, leaving no descendants
in this county.

Isaac Snodgrass came in with the Longs and
located on Section 15, on land now owned by-
Charles Bowman. He was a Justice of the
Peace, and was probably the first Justice in
this section of the county, but ho has no de-
scendants living here now. In the spring of
1832, the Bates family, headed by Anson, came
and settled on Section 22. He had a brother
Samuel, who came shortly after him, and set-
tled on the same section. John Crouch, a Bap-
tist minister, also came at an early day and
settled on the northeast quarter of Section 23,
on the land now owned bj' E. Perkins. He
was followed soon afterward by James Clark
and Maj. William Pavis, who settled on Sec-
tion 22, and John II. Taylor, who settled on the
east half of Section 13. In the spring of 1830,
two men named Fisher and McKee came in
and settled on Section 22. Ben Jewett entered
Section 27, and Andy and John Williams
settled on Sections 36 and 25, respectively.
In 1S20, Isaac Jones and John Williams
came with their families from Virginia, the
former settling near the Fayette Count}' line,

JIcui^. £>jyj

LIBRARY

Of 1K{

UNIVEKbilt vl luiwuia

FAIRVIEW PRECINCT.

155

on the east half of Section 24, and the latter
settled on Section 13. They have no descend-
ants in this county now, except one nephew
named Winslow Taylor. Then, in 1827. John
Lockhart came from Maury County, Tenn.,
and settled on Section 11, on the farm where
L. J. Segraves now lives, where he resided un-
til 1841, when he removed to Arkansas. He
has one daughter. Nancy, the wife of L. J. Sel-
lers, residing at Mulberry Grove, this county
Then came Bennett Segraves, from Georgia, in
the spring of 1829, and located in the north-
east corner of Section 11, where he remained
until his death, which occurred in 1868. His
son, Lockhart J. Segraves, succeeded him, and
now lives on the old home farm.

The first election ever held in Township 5,
Range 2, was held in the brush, near the cabin
of Bennett Segraves, in August of 1835. The
people cast their votes in the old-fashioned
manner, by calling out the name of the candi-
date whom they desired to vote for, and their
own name, a register of the same being kept by
a clerk, appointed for that purpose.

It is not known at this day who taught the
first school in Fairview Precinct, but the one
said to have been the first, was taught by Joseph
Williams, the schoolhouse built about 1831, on
the northwest quarter of Section 13. It was a
log building, the crevices between the logs be-
ing plastered up with mud, and the pupils were
accommodated with seats upon a slab, the ends
of which were stuck into chinks between the
logs on either side of the building. The school
was taught on the subscription plan, the teach-
er receiving a small remuneration (usually
from $1 to $1.50 per term of three months) for
each pupil placed in his charge.

The first minister, of whom anything authen-
tic can be learned, was a Methodist Episcopal
minister named Rev. James B. Woolard, who
came to Fairview Precinct about the year 1830,
perhaps sooner. Usually divine services were
held at the house of John Reaves, on Section

14, and it was his custom to gather up his con-
gregation on his road to the meeting. as they
were generally to be found in the woods engaged
in hunting or fishing.

Another church which figured quite promi-
nently in the early church history of Fairview
Precinct, is the one known as " Hurricane
Church." It is of the German Baptist order,
and the present organization was established in
1858. For a number of years after the organi-
zation of this church, meetings were held in
schoolhouses, in barns, and at the residences of
the different members, and the first minister
was the Rev. D. B- Sturges, who was assisted
in his ministerial duties by George Beanblos-
som. Rev. Sturgis was some time after this
made a bishop, and the Rev. John Heckman
succeeded him as pastor of Hurricane Church,
and he was, in turn, succeeded by Rev. William
Elam. After this, the church was taken charge
of by Elder John Metzsger, after whom Elder
John Wise assumed the pastorate. The first
Deacons of this church were William and
Edward Elam and Jacob Cripe. In 1874, this
organization built a neat frame church build-
ing, at a cost of about $1,500, on land donated
for that purpose by Henry Jones, who is the
present minister. The present Deacons are
Jacob Root, Daniel NofTsinger and Cornelius
Kessler. The church has at present a member-
ship of about seventy, is in a highly prosperous
condition, and regular meetings are held every
first and third Sunday in each month.

In 1833. a number of the old, original i: Hard-
shell " Baptist denomination organized a con-
gregation, and built a log church on Section 12,
and Rev. Crouch was installed as pastor. This
building still remains standing, and at present
is occasionally used as a place for holding
divine service. Among the first members of
this organization were John Crouch and wife.
Mrs. Mary Rushton, Polly Rushton and her
daughter Susie, Elisha Mathews, John Taylor,
etc.

156

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

Another church of the German Baptist
denomination, and probably the first church of
this kind in Fairview Precinct, was organized
by Joseph Bench and George Beanblossom,
prior to the establishment of " Hurricane
Church," in 1858, and the teachings of the Bible
were explained by Rev. Isam Gibson. Its
early membership was, of course, very small,
but among those who were the first to join,
were : George Beanblossom and wife, AVilliam
Rench and wife, John Rench and wife, Aaron
Rench and wife, Joseph Rench and his daughter,
Mrs. Rhoda Sutton, Hiram Reaves and wife,
Jacob Cripe and wife, Charles Edwards and
wife, etc. This church gradually drifted out of
existence, and most of its old members, now liv-
ing, have united themselves with " Hurricane
Church."

About 1848, a Pennsylvanian named Dr.
Daniel B. Sturgis, laid off a town uear the
section line, between Sections 23 and 24, and
gave to it the name of Hamburg, his idea being
that the name would induce German emigrants to
come there and locate. It, however, being located
on low ground, those came who did not take
to it readily, and pointed to the hill near by,
significant of its superiority as a place of settle-
ment. The first store and dwelling house in
this village was erected by the Perkins Brothers,
in 1854. They also ran a blacksmith-shop.
This little hamlet had only about five families
in it, and all the dwellings, excepting one, were
rudely constructed of logs.

In 1856, the Perkins Brothers accepting an
offer of four lots to build upon if they would
come, removed to what is now the village of
Fairview, and Hamburg virtually met its death,
most of the inhabitants removing to Fairview.

The town of " Fairview " lies eight miles
nearly east of Greenville, in Section 23, Town-
ship 5, Range 2. It was surveyed by R. K.
Dewey for the proprietors, E. P. Mathews and
John Reaves, on the 28th day of January,
1857. It is situated on a high ridge, affording

a magnificent view in ever}' direction, and sur-
rounded by the best and most beautiful portion
of Bond County. (Hence its name.) In 1857,
the Perkins Bros, traded their store to J. P.
Mathews, for land on Section 28. He contin-
ued the business for one j'ear, when he died,
and his brother, J. J. Mathews, succeeded him,
and run the store for about two years, when he
sold out to Elisha Matthews and Ephraim Per-
kins, who were succeeded by W. C. Perkins and
J. H. Perkins (brothers). These gentlemen
finally sold out to Owen Walls, who soon after-
ward sold out to J. H. Pahlman. He ran the
store some time, when he was bought out by
J. S. Gorline, who continued the business about
one year, when Elisha Mathews again pur-
chased it, and after running it some time it was
repurchased by J. H. Pahlman, who is the
present incumbent. The first blacksmith shop
was owned by the Perkins Bros., and was run
by a German named Fred Kahn. Emmet
Roberts was the first wagon maker. The first
mill was run by Stephen D. Bouraer and Dan-
iel Faulkner. It was a wind-mill and ground
mostly corn, and some little wheat. This mill
was not a success, and as a wind-mill it was run
about one year, when steam power was put in.
It has made several changes of ownership, and
at present is run by Hammond & Tompkins,
who have attached a saw-mill to the grist or
grinding part, but as it is behind in the way of
improvements, it is doing only a moderate busi-
ness.

There were at one time two stores in the vil-
lage, but in 1879, the second one, run by Wel-
lington Bourner, was closed out, and since that
time no goods have been kept there. The first
shoemaker was William Rench. Allen Caylor
ran the first drug store in 1876, and the present
drug store is run by S. D. Bourner. The first
Postmaster was Reuben Coburn, in 1862, and
the present Postmaster is J. H. Pahlman.
There are two churches in Fairview, the United
Baptists and the Cumberland Presbyterians.

FAIRVIEW PRECINCT.

157

The latter-named church was founded about
1840. and their first minister was Rev. Barber.
Meetings were held around at the houses of the
members, until in 1849 a schoolhouse was
built on Section 23, on land owned by John
Reaves, and meetings were held in it from that
time forward, under the spiritual guidance of
Rev. William Hutchinson. The church was
re-organized in April of 1866, and a frame
building was erected at a cost of about $1,300,
and Rev. William Turner was installed as min-
ister. The first regular minister, however, was
the Rev. William B. Poland. The first Elders
were George F. Berry, John H. Minor and Will-
iam Davis, Jr. The first Trustees were John H.
Minor, D. H. McAdoo and Thomas L. Reaves.
At the time of its re-organization in 1866, the
membership of the church numbered about
thirty, and the}' have had preaching regularly
ever since until within the past year (1881).

At present there is a Sunday school conducted
in the church, under the superintendency of
»i. S. Duff. It is a recent affair, having been
organized in April of this year (1882), and as
vet they have no library.

The United Baptist Church was first organ-
ized December 30, 1869. The first members
were E. P. Mathers, Mary J. Mathews, W. C.
Perkins, John H. Perkins, Martha A. Perkins,
Amanda Perkins, Amanda Stubblefield, Anna
Perkins and Catharine Shipby. Their first
minister was Rev. R. B. Reaves and the first
Clerk was W. C. Perkins. The Deacons in Feb-
ruary of 1870 were E. P. Mathews and John
Perkins. At this time they worshiped in the
building of the Presbyterian Church, and after-
ward in an old dwelling-house belonging to
J. H. Perkins, where they continued to wor-
ship until the erection of their own church
building in 1877.

158

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

CHAPTER XVIII.'

LA GRANGE PRECINCT— TOPOGRAPHY, BOUNDARIES AND PHYSICAL FEATURES— SETTLEMENT BY

WHITE PEOPLE — THEIR TRIALS, TROUBLES AND TRIBULATIONS — AN INCIDENT WITH

WILD HOGS— NO TOWNS, VILLAGES NOR MILLS — BUT PLENTY OF CHURCHES

AND SCHOOLS— A PRIMITIVE SCHOOLHOUSE — THE DIFFERENT

CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS, ETC.

LA GRANGE PRECINCT, the subject of
the following pages, is situated in the
northern part of the count}', adjoining the
Montgomery line, and is comprised of frac-
tional portions of Townships 6 and 7 north, in
Range 3 west. It has something like about
thirty-two sections of laud, which are well wa-
tered and drained by the East Fork of Shoal
Creek, Indian Creek and Panther Branch.
East Fork flows through the eastern part a lit-
tle west of south, receiving a few small tribu-
taries within the precinct, while Indian Creek
and Panther Branch drain the southwestern
portion. The land is diversified with hills and
prairie, the latter predominating, the hills being
contiguous to the water-courses, and were orig-
inally well timbered. As now formed, it is
bounded on the north by Montgomery County,
on the East by Zion Precinct, on the south by
Greenville Precinct, and on the west by Cotton-
wood Grove Precinct. It has no towns, villages
railroads nor manufacturing establishments, but
is dotted here and there with churches and
schoolhouses. affording to the people excellent
religious and educational facilities.

Settlements were not made in what is now
La Grange Precinct as early as in some other
portions of Bond County. Among the pioneers
of the precinct may be mentioned John Ber-
neathy, Jonathan Teasley, John A. Laws and
Fielding Laws, Abner and Allen Thacker, Rich-

*By W. H. Perrin.

ard Savage, Elizabeth Mallard, John and George
Denny, T. G. McCasland, James White, Thomas
Wafer, C. D. McLean, Charles Wood, a Mr.
Parr, Humphrey Jett and others. Who of
these are entitled to the honor of being the first
settler we do not know ; most of them settled
prior to 1830. Berneathy, Teasley, the Laws,
Thackers, Savage and Elizabeth Mallard were
from Kentucky, and some of them still have
descendants in the county. The Penuys came
from North Carolina and settled on Section 33 ;
McCasland settled on the northeast quarter of
Section 29 ; Wood settled also on the same
section in the fall of 1828 ; Wafer and McLean
settled on Section 30, and Parr on Section 35.
Settlers were now coming in too rapidly to keep
track of them. And after this long lapse of
time, it is not strange if names have been over-
looked that are entitled to mention in the list
of early settlers.

The first decade or two after the whites oc-
cupied this country the}* lived in constant dan-
ger, exposed to marauding bands of Indians
and the depredations of wild beasts. Incidents
are related in other parts of this work, of per-
sons slain in what is now Bond Count}-, by the
savages, before the} - were finally removed to
distant reservations in the West. Other dan-
gers, as well as from savage foes, surrounded
the earl}- settlers. Wolves, panthers, bears and
other wild beasts were numerous, that, when
made furious by hunger, did not hesitate to at-

LA GRANGE PRECINCT.

159

tack human beings. Add to these actual dan-
gers the troubles and annoyances that the peo-
ple were exposed to from the " ager " and other
malarial diseases ; from mosquitoes, buffalo-
gnats, " greenhead " flies ; the difficulty of pro-
curing supplies, and a hundred other drawbacks
which stood in the way as large and bold as
Don Quixote's windmills, and we conclude that
the pioneer's lot was not cast

"On flowery beds of ease."
But little stock was kept for many years ex-
cept cattle and hogs, and the latter were reared
principally in the woods, where they lived on
the " mast," otherwise nuts and acorns. By
the time the} - were wanted for meat, they were
almost as wild as the native animals of the for-
est, and quite as fierce and dangerous when
a little angered and excited. Mr. White relates
an incident illustrative of their savage nature
when half wild and provoked to anger by a re-
striction of their liberty, which, although it was
quite dangerous, was ludicrous in the extreme.
A drove of large, half-wild hogs had been driven
into an inclosure in the spring of the year for
some purpose, when the sap was running and
the bark peeled easily from the trees. Several
men were present with dogs by which the wild-
est of the hogs had been caught in order to get
them in the inclosure, and this had served to
madden the entire drove to quite a degree-
The inclosure contained several acres, in which
stood a number of trees. The men were all in-
side endeavoring to drive the hogs through a
gap into another lot, but the more they tried to
drive them the more they, hog-like, wouldn't
drive, while all were more or less afraid of
them. At last, one fellow who had made much
sport of the others on account of their timidity,
swore he was not afraid of any hog " that ever \
wore har," and so boldly started toward the
gang, waving his hat at the excited porkers.
Not one moved until he was in twenty paces of !
them, when a large male started right at him
with an angry snort, displaying an array of long

white tusks that did not look at all pleasant.
Quick as thought the brave man dropped his
hat, turned tail, and made for the nearest tree,
which chanced to be a small elm, not over six
inches in diameter, and from which the bark
had lately been peeled, rendering it about as
sleek as if it had been smeared with soft soap.
The sapling was perfectly straight, and it was
fifteen or twenty feet up to the first limb, and
when the luckless individual reached it the hog
was in ten feet of him. The exertions he put
forth in trying to climb that tree was probably
never excelled by mortal man. He gave a
bound and sprang as far up the tree as possible,
clasping it with his arms, legs and feet, and
clinging for dear life, tried to hold fast, but de-
spite his efforts down he went to the ground.
But the hog, as it happened, passed the tree
while he was up out of reach, and, missing its
enemy, kept on beyond. The man, however,
unaware of that fact, continued his efforts to
climb the tree, believing that his life depended
upon his accomplishing it, until he fell ex-
hausted. His companions were in convulsions
of laughter, but he, even after he discovered
the danger was past, failed to see the least bit
of fun in the matter. It cured him effectually,
however, of his boasted bravery among wild
hogs.

This precinct, as we have said, has no vil-
lages nor manufacturing enterprises. It is an
agricultural region, and is devoted wholly to
that calling. The early settlers went to other
neighborhoods to do their milling, and even
follow the same example to the present day.
The first roads through the precinct were but
trails, which were improved as the couutry set-
tled up, and finally made into good roads. In
later years, these have been further improved
by bridges over the largest streams, which
tend to facilitate travel. The people go to the
neighboring villages and to Greenville to do
their trading, and to purchase their supplies.

The pioneers of La Grange were alive to the

160

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

value of education, aud established schools at
an earl\ T day. The first school of which we
have an}- reliable account was taught in a small
log cabin on Section 2S. This primitive temple
of learning was without floor other than the
ground, and had a chimney of mud and sticks.
When the pupils practiced writing, it is said,
they sat on a sycamore pole, the ends of which
were placed in the cracks between the logs.
The first teacher in this cabin was McCasland,
and he taught at $1 and $1.25 per scholar for three
mouths. If the youth of the present da}- de-
serve credit for educating themselves, what did
they not deserve in those days for obtaining an
education under the circumstances such as de-
scribed above ?

Another of the early schools of this precinct
was taught by Rev. John Barber on Jett Prai-
rie. It was also taught in a small log house,
which has disappeared with other pioneer land-
marks. To note the advancement in educa-
tional matters, we have but to look around us
at the neat schoolhouses to be found in every
neighborhood, which afford ample evidence of
the present perfect school sjstem. There are
about nine schoolhouses in the precinct as at
present laid off. These are comfortable houses,
well furnished, in which good schools are main-
tained during the school year.

On the land of Thomas Booker in this pre-
cinct is a mound, supposed to have been made
by the pre-historie races. Bones, it is said,
have been dug up, which show their owners to
have been of extraordinary large size. This
corresponds with many writers upon the
Mound-Builders, who are represented as a race
large in stature.

If the citizens of La Grange Precinct are not
a God-fearing people, it is certainly their own
fault, and not for any lack of church facilities.
There seem to be almost as many churches in
the precinct as schoolhouses. Nothing speaks
more loudly for the civilization of a communi-
ty than its churches and schoolhouses. Where

plenty of these evidences of enlightenment ex-
ist, the people cannot be very bad or very igno-
rant. One of the first churches organized in
the north part of Bond County was by the Old
School Presbyterians in this precinct in 1825.
Among the principal members of this pioneer
organization were George Donnell, Newton and
Joseph Laughlin, Robert Stewart and John
Benny These were from Ohio. Benny was a
prominent member of the church from its or-
ganization, an Elder, and an upright and zealous
Christian. Robert Stewart's remains lie buried
in the cemetery adjacent. He was the first per-
son buried there, about 1826 ; one of the
Laughlins is also buried there. This was an
old log building, aud stood upon the site of the
present Union Grove Church. It was heated
bj' a charcoal fire in the center of the building,
and the floor and " loft " were laid with broad
puncheons. A Sunday school was organized
about the time the church was, which was kept
up for a number of years. Services were final-
ly discontinued at the church about 1831,
when the building, grounds, etc., were vacated
until the organization of Union Grove Church.
The church originally known as " Union
Grove Church" was organized January 12,
1855, under the superintending care of the
Yaudalia Presbytery of the Cumberland Pres-
byterian Church. The minister at this time-
was Rev. William T. Hutchinson ; the Elders
were Thomas Cline, S. N. Jett and Thomas M.
Bavis. The members were William T. and M.
C. Hutchinson, Thomas N. and Jane Bavis,
Thomas and Sarah Cline, S. N. aud Agnes E.
Jett, John M. and Sarah Johnson, Thomas and
Elizabeth Scott, Henry C, Elizabeth and Patty
Hutchinson, James Hunter, Isaac and Minerva
Kershner, Caroline Crocker, Newton Barr, J. L.
and Martha Mathersou, Maiy Enloe, Maria
B:ik'h,and William and Lucy Bavis. The soci-
ety occupied the house known as the Union
Grove Church and grounds, which had been
deeded by William T. Hutchinson to four de-

LA GRANGE PRECINCT.

101

nominations, viz.: The Old School Presbyteri-
ans, United Baptists, Cumberland Presbyteri-
ans and the Methodists. This organization
continued until the formation of Maple Grove
Church, since which time the other three de-
nominations have occupied Union Grove until
recently. It is now occupied by the Free Meth-
odists. The church is a frame structure, about
20x30 feet, and was built in 1854-55 by volun-
tary labor of the people.

Maple Grove Church alluded to in the above
sketch, was organized by Rev. William T.
Hutchinson, and worshiped at Union Grove
until their church here was built in 18t!8. It
is a frame building, 30x40 feet, and cost about
$800. The present officers are N. A. Hughey,
Wm. Smith, D. D. Jones and J. M. Jett, Elders ;
Madison Jett, D. D. Jones and W. H. Vaughn,
Trustees. Rev. Thomas McDavid is the pres-
ent minister, who preaches twice a month, and
has a membership of about sixty-live. A Sun-
day school was organized at the same time of
the church, and it is still maintained.

Hopewell Christian Church was organized in
1869, of scattering members — some from Wal-
nut Grove Church and some from other points.
Among the original members were Jacob
Young and wife, James Baker and wife, Charles
Baker and wife, John Davis and wife, Mrs.
Rahm. William T. Gwiun and wife, Mrs. Caro-
line Jett, William Clouse and wife, Miss Mary
Oaks, Mrs. Eliza Harris, Miss Caroline Laugh-
lin, Miss Jennie East, Mrs. Sarah A. Sharp,
Mrs. Nancy J. White and John Haley. The
society first worshiped in the brick school-
house at Elm Point, then at the schoolhouse on
Section 33, where they remained until they
built their church in 1870. The first minister
was Elder O. Hulen, J. G. Baker and W. T.
Gwinn, Elders; present Elders, Ezra Wood,
Hiram Crocker and William Vaughn. The
Sunday school was organized since the church
was built, and is flourishing at present.

The Mount Carmel congregation of the Cum-
berland Presbyterian Church was first organ-

ized by Rev. Joel Knight, in Montgomery
County, HI., February 24, 1868, and after
one or two changes in reference to name and
place of worship, said congregation having
erected a house of worship in Pleasant Prairie,
Bond County, they therefore petitioned Van-
dalia Presbytery at the regular session at Blue
Mound (in Bond County) in the fall of 1868, to
change the name of the congregation, so that it
should be known as the Pleasant Prairie Congre-
gation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.*
After leaving Mount Carmel, the church
worshiped at Willow Spring Schoolhouse until
the erection of their house of worship. The
trustees of the Pleasant Prairie Church are Jas.
E. Rankin, James F. Nicholson and Imbert H.
Denny. The church is in a goodcondition.

Mount Tabor Baptist Church was organized
about the year 1857 by Richardson Grigg. J.
G. Davis, Gabriel Jett and Kinley Hittle were
the first Deacons, Robert Horton, Clerk. Among
the original members were J. G. Davis and
wife, Gabriel Jett and wife and daughters,
Kinley Hittle and two sisters, Richard Savage
and wife, Parmela and Mary Teasley and
others. The church was built by the voluntary
labor of the neighbors, and was 30x40 feet in
size. It has prospered since organization, and
at present has some sixty-five members, under
the pastorate of Rev. Mr. Duff. The present
Trustees are Thomas Jett, James T. Davis and
George Sharp ; Deacons, John G. Davis and
Martin Nelson, and Robert Savage, Clerk. A
Sunday school has been in existence for a num-
ber of years, the first Superintendent was
Elijah Thacker ; the present Superintendent is
Jesse Denny, and the school is in a flourishing
state. This church was built by three denomi-
nations, viz. : Baptist, Methodist and Presby-
terian ; but is now only used by the Baptists.
Thus we see from the foregoing that the
people of La Grange Precinct have no lack of
religious facilities, and if they are not good
Christians it can certainly be the fault of none
but themselves.

* From the Church RecordB.

102

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

CHAPTER XIX.*

ZION PREOINcT— TOPOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE— EAKLY SETTLEMENT— EARLY 1'IONEEES-
LIFE ON THE FRONTIER — PIONEER INDUSTRIES — " OLD ZION" (AMP GROUND-
VILLAGE OF WOBURN— SCHOOLS, CHURCHES. ETC.

TTTHEN that section of Bond County known
' * as Zion Precinct was first settled, the
brave men who undertook its subjection were
exposed to cold, hunger and savage brutality.
They commenced clearing the wilderness, and
thus laid the foundation of the beautiful coun-
try, thickly dotted over with comfortable, lux-
urious homes that we find there to-day. The
pioneers of fifty years ago are gone, and " Old
Time " with his scythe has made sad havoc
among the children of men. They sleep in the
quiet graveyard, beneath the sighing elms and
weeping willows, where the balm} 7 breath of
summer brings beautiful blossoms and luxuri-
ant verdure. We know comparatively little of
their trials except as they are handed down to
us through family traditions. To the early
settlement, and to the pioneers of that portion
of Bond County now forming Zion Precinct,
this chapter will be devoted.

It lies in the northeast corner of Bond Coun-
ty, and is bounded on the north by La Grange
Precinct and Montgomery County, on the east
by Fayette County and Mulberry Grove Pre-
cinct, on the south by Mulberry Grove Precinct
and Greenville Precinct, and on the west by
La Grange Precinct. It is well watered by nu-
merous small streams, the most important of
which probably is Zion Creek, which rises in
the northern part of Section 10, and flowing
first south and then directly west, leaves the
precinct in the southwest corner of Section 19.
Its most important tributary is the Dry Creek,

* By T. J. Rile).

which, rising near the center of Section 30.
Township 7, takes its course a little west of
south, and enters Zion Creek in the southern
part of Section 19, uniting with it about a mile
from where it leaves the precinct. A number
of other small brooks and rivulets flow through
various parts of the precinct, rendering the
rich soil still more productive, and very little
artificial drainage necessary.

At one time this precinct was known as
■■ Dry Fork " Precinct, but in 1857 or 1858 the
voting place was changed from Sutton Hast-
ing's, where elections had previously been held,
to what is now Newport, and at the same time
the name of the precinct was changed to
"Zion," in honor of the old Zion Church and
camp-ground.

The early settlement of Zion Precinct is very
interesting, it being one of the first-settled pre-
cincts in Bond County. Sutton Hastings came
in from North Carolina earl} - in the year 1818,
the same year that Illinois was admitted into
the Union as a State. Two years later (in 1820),
Daniel Moore and family, also from North
Carolina, came and settled in Section 19. His
father, Philip Moore, came at the same time.
He raised a large family of boys, all of whom
are either dead or have left the precinct. In
1817. Horatio Durley came from Kentucky,
and in 1819 he entered about one thousand
acres of land, a part of which is the farm now
owned by James H. Moss. Mr. Durley was
considered a very wealthy man. He ran the
first horse-mill in the precinct, about 1820. It

ZION PRECINCT.

163

was a grist-mill, but at that time was used
mostly for grinding corn ; it was located near
where the old Enloe place now is. A family
named Stubblefleld came in 1818, and in Au-
gust of 1819 John Stubblefield entered the
farm now owned by John Griggs. Daniel
Griggs came from North Carolina in 1825, and
settled in Section 31. He was accompanied by
his brothers Samuel and Richardson, both Bap-
tist ministers, and Bolin Griggs, another brother,
who at present resides in Section 4, and is the
oldest man in the precinct (ninety-two years
old). There was a large family of Griggs, and
numerous descendants at present reside in Bond
County. Prior to the war of 1812, a man
named Truitt came from Kentucky, and settled
on what is now known as the " Old Kline
place." but about the time of the war the In-
dians became so bad that he was compelled to
leave, and he returned to Kentucky. He after-
wards returned to Illinois, and lived until his
death near Edwardsville in Madison County,
where he became quite a prominent man. and
accumulated considerable wealth.

The Diamond family came from South Caro-
lina in 1820, about the time the Watsons came.
The father, John Diamond, was a very old
man, and deserves especial mention, from the
fact of his having been a soldier in the Revo-
lutionary war. He died soon after removing to
this precinct, and was buried in the " Old Dia-
mond Graveyard,'' near Zion Spring, in the
northwest corner of Section 29. His son Rob-
ert lived in the precinct until his death, which
occurred in 1850. He was a very old man,
and has three brothers still living in Arkansas.
William W. Moss came in 1835, and located in
Section 21. His son, James H. Moss, came
with his father, and also settled in same sec-
tion. He at present resides in Section 30, and
is considered one of the best, most industrious
and responsible citizens in Zion Precinct.

On the "Old Kline place " there is an im-
mense spring, known as " Zion Spring," and

when the earliest settlers came to this region,
a widow, named " Clarey," and her sons, occu-
pied a cabin near this spring. She is said to
have come from Kentucky, though nothing
definite concerning her can be learned. She
must have been a courageous woman, however;
to brave alone the dangers and perils of the
wilderness. Alex Glenn came from North Caro-
lina about 1828, and located in Section 17. He
was, for many years, a Justice of the Peace,
appointed by common consent, to settle the
grievances of the settlers of this region.
Thomas Kline came with Glenn, and settled in
Section 30. His widow at present resides in
the village of Newport. William Hunter set-
tled near the Cross Roads, in 1820. He was
the first Methodist minister in this section of
the county ; and was a very popular and good
man, and very highly respected. Hugh Wat-
son also came in 1820, from North Carolina
and entered the land on which the village of
Newport now stands. His son Wilson, who
died last summer, was about the first merchant
in that town. Daniel Moore came from North
Carolina in 1825, and settled in Section 31
His widow, Jennie Moore, who is now more
than eighty years of age, at present resides
with her daughter, Mrs. Henry Hill, about four
miles west of the town of Greenville. It was
at her residence and at the residence of Sutton
Hastings that the first Methodist preaching in
Zion Precinct was held. Asa Oliver came from
Tennessee about the year 1830, and settled on
Section 29. John Griggs came from North
Carolina in 1829. and located on Section 30.
Lemuel Scroggins came from the same State in
1833, and settled in Section 17. Three or four
miles north of the village of Mulberry Grove,
a Frenchman, named St. John, kept a trading
post, which was established prior to the year
1816. Some of the first white settlers used to
haul furs and skins from that place to Cahokia.
Another Frenchman, named La Croix, lived
near St. John, and also dealt in furs. When

161

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

horses belonging to any of the settlers strayed
away, they were sometimes taken up by the
Indians. In such cases the settlers would em-
ploy these Frenchmen to recover them, by giv-
ing such rewards as they could afford. A few
years subsequent to this time, settlers came in
so fast that it is difficult to keep trace of them.

The first church built in this precinct was
the " Old Zion Church," reference to which is
made elsewhere. It was built on Section
19, about the year 1828 ; was a log building
twenty-four feet in length, by twenty feet wide.
It was built facing the south, and on the west
side was an immense fire-place. The only win-
dow in the building was on the east side,
and was sixteen feet feet long, and two panes of
glass in width. It had puncheon floors, and the
congregation was accommodated with seats up-
on slab benches, made by splitting a log in two
and putting peg legs in each end. In 1833, the
camp ground was cleared off, and regular camp
meetings were held there until late years.
About 1840, the old log building was torn down
and a neat frame church, twenty-four by thirty-
sis feet, was built in its stead, at a cost of about
$500. In 1861, the society, which was of the
Methodist denomination, removed to Newport,
the Zion Church was torn down, and a new edi-
fice erected in that village, which they now oc-
cupy. Among the original members of this
church were Robert Stewart and wife, Philip
Moore and wife, Rev. William Hunter and wife,
Arthur Sherrad, Asa Oliver, Jane McCracken,
Eli McCracken, Ephraim McCracken, and Dan-
iel and Jane Moore.

In 1881, the Free Methodists built a church
on the camp-ground, on the site of the " Old
Zion " Church. It is a frame building, forty-
two feet in length and twenty-eight feet in
width. On the site of the Zion Camp Ground,
there is at present a cemetery, where repose
the last remains of many of those who, in an
early day, attended meeting on that same spot.

Schools were taught in the precinct as soon

as there was sufficient population to support
them, but where, when and by whom the first
schools were taught, we are now unable to
state. They were of the primitive pioneer pat-
tern, being constructed of logs and having
either puncheon floors or no floors at all. The
advancement made in the schools in this pre-
cinct is observable, however, in the number of
good, comfortable, commodious school-buildings
which may be seen there to-day, in which schools
are taught for the usual term each year.

The village of Woburn was first called New-
port, but on account of there being another
post office of the same name in the State, the
name was changed to Woburn. In this section,
it is more generally known as the Cross Roads,
the name it bore in early days. It was laid
out by John Hughes, of Virginia, who owned
the land, about the year 185G. The first store
was built and run b\* William Harper. The
first Postmaster was A. W. Watson. His father,
Hugh Watson, ran the first blacksmith shop.
John Hughes was the first miller, and Abraham
Jarred was the first wogon-maker. Dr. Har-
nady first administered to the ailments of the
settlers in this precinct. The first mill of any
importance in the precinct, was erected here in
I860. It was a saw-mill, but was afterward
purchased by the Moss Brothers, who took out
the saw-mill and put in two run of buhrs for
grinding purposes. These brothers run the
mill for several years and finally sold out to
Porter McKay, who, after running it about one
year, sold out to J. W. Daniels and William
Davidson. These gentlemen, after continuing
the business for some time, sold the mill to its
present owner, George Force, and at present it
is doing a fair business. Melton Phillips was
the first shoemaker. At present there are
about 150 inhabitants in the village; two stores,
one run by Joseph Isle}- and the other by
Eugene Enloe, who. is also the present Post-
master; three blacksmith shops, doing a good
business, though Thomas White has the best

ZIOX PRECINCT.

105

trade. Dr. Poindextcr is the present doctor,
and has the best practice of any physician who
ever did business here.

The Protestant Methodist Episcopal Church
was organized here about the time of the laying-
out of the village, through the influence of
Samuel Glenn, of North Carolina. He and his
wife had been members of this church in North
Carolina. His family formed the nucleus
around which this organization formed. Their
first minister was Rev. William II. Collins.
Among the first members were Samuel Glenn,
wife and two daughters; Thomas Kline, wife
and two daughters; Mrs. Thomas Enloe and
Mrs. Joseph Washburn. The society at first
had no church, and for several years worshiped
at the houses of the members, and afterward in
the schoolhouse. In 1871, a church building,
forty feet in length and twenty-eight feet in
width, was erected, at a cost of about $1,400. At
present, the membership, which has been as
high as forty, numbers but nineteen. The
present minister is Rev. Edward Bache, and
services are held semi-monthly. A flourishing
Sunday school is at present held in the church
under the Superintendency of Saburn Mid-
dleton.

The United Raptist Church, commonly called
" Liberty Church," was established about 1856.
The first minister was Richard Keel. Among
the first members were Richardson, Samuel and
Bolin Griggs, James Elam, Gabriel Jett and
wife, and Charles Messenger and wife. At that
time there were only eight members, all told.
Samuel Griggs and James Elam were the first
Deacons. Their first meeting was held at the
house of Gabriel Jett, and afterward at the res-
idences of the several members, until in 1859,
when they erected their present church, which
is a frame building thirty-six feet long and
twenty-six feet in width, and cost about $600.

In this building, Richardson Griggs preached
the first sermon, and was succeeded by Samuel
Griggs, who is the present minister. The Dea-
cons are R. S. D. Roberts, Joseph Bigham and
Anderson 101am, and the Clerk is R. B. Griggs.
The membership is at present 215. Regular
services are held ever} - third and fourth Sab-
bath, and prayer meetings on the first and sec-
ond Sabbaths in each month. The first Sunday
school was established in 18G0, with John
Fisher as Superintendent, and at present a large
and flourishing Sunday school is conducted
here.

The Church of God in Christ, or Christian
Church, was organized at Newport in 1859.
They experienced considerable difficulty in es-
tablishing a church, but through the exertions
of Jonathan Skates, who located here in the
sluing of 1858, they finally succeeded. Among
the early members were Jonathan Skates and
wife, Miranda Lemert, Henry Allen, Daniel
Tabor, James Adams, John Curlee, etc. In
August, 1860, by vigorous efforts, they suc-
ceeded in erecting a church, and Brothers
Adams, Skates and Tabor were chosen Deacons.
At present the church is in a veiy prosperous
and thrifty condition, having a good member-
ship, regular services, and maintaining a good
Sunday school. From the foregoing church
history, it will be seen that Ziou Precinct is well
supplied with religious instruction. That it is
not only well supplied at present, but ever
since the settlement of the country it has had
no lack of church facilities. If the people are
not moral and religious, it is certainly nobody's
fault but their own, and nobody but themselves,
perhaps, will be held to account for their short-
comings. With this finale on the moral influ-
ence of this favored section, we close our chap-
ter on Zion Precinct.

1(JG

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

CHAPTER XX.*

COTTONWOOD GROVE PRECINCT — ITS EARLY HISTORY— WHITE SETTLEMENT — THE McCORDS

AND ROBINSONS— OLD SHOAL CREEK CHURCH— THE VILLAGE OF

"BETHEL" — SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, ETC

THE early pioneers of " Cottonwood Grove
Precinct," notwithstanding all the uncom-'
fortable circumstances by which they were sur-
rounded, were contented, and enjoyed life to its
utmost. They knew nothing of railroads, and
had never heard the whistle of a locomotive.
The present improved mode of farming was far
beyond their most extravagant expectations.
To chronicle the changes and note the vast im-
provements made within the past fifty* years, is
the most interesting part of the historian's work.
Notwithstanding these vast changes, numerous
indications and landmarks remain to mark the
primitiveuess of the early pioneers in this sec-
tion.

Cottonwood Grove Precinct, to which this
chapter is devoted, lies in a northwesterly di-
rection from the town of Greenville, in the
northwest corner of Bond County, and well
adapted to agriculture. It is bounded on the
north by Montgomery County, on the east by
the precinct of La Grange, on the south by La
Grange and Ripley Precincts, and on the west
• by counties of Madison and Montgomery. It
is well watered bj r numerous small streams.
The most important of which is " Shoal Creek,"
which, entering near the middle of the northern
line of Section 3, winds its tortuous course en-
tirely across the precinct near its center. An-
other stream of considerable importance is Dor-
ris Creek, which enters the precinct near the
southeast corner of Section 12, and, taking first
a westerly course and then directly south, leaves

* By T. J. Riley.

the precinct at the southern boundary line of
Section 34. These streams have several small
branches or tributaries, most of them of such
diminutive size as to be considered scarcely
worth} - of mention.

The early settlement of what is now Cotton-
wood Grove Precinct cannot be given with per-
fect correctness. The precise date of the building
of the first cabin by a white man within its lim-
its is obscured in the shadows of half a century,
and we are left to conjecture to a certain extent
as to the commencement of its settlement by
white people. Alexander Robinson, from Ten-
nessee, settled here about the year 1816, and
still has descendants living in the precinct. He
was accompanied by Robert and Daniel Mc-
Cord from Virginia. These men came togeth-
er from Tennessee to Bond County and made a
settlement in Cottonwood Grove Precinct, in
the spring of 1816. They made their first
camping ground where the cemetery now is,
and kneeling upon the ground dedicated the
land to the service of the Lord, and called the
place " Bethel." In later years, about 1825, a
church was built here, which still remains. It
was a log structure, with no fire-place or stove.
The only warmth was afforded by means of a
raised place of dirt in the center of the room
on which charcoal, which the members were re-
quired to furnish, was burned, the only escape
for the smoke being a hole in the roof immedi-
ately above the mound. Robert McCord set-
tled on the northwest quarter of Section 11.
He has one daughter, Mrs. Mary Mears, living

COTTON WOOD GROVE PRECINCT.

107

in Greenville, and a son, Blackburn, living in
Iowa. David McCord settled on the east half
of Section 1 1 , where J. T. McCracken now lives,
in 1820. James Wafer was an early pioneer in
this section. He located northwest of Bethel
in 1817. James Denny settled on Pleasant
Prairie, about 1819. During the same year,
George Donnell settled near the mouth of Indi-
an Creek. George and John Denny, sons of
James Denny, settled on the east side of Shoal
Creek, in the north part of the precinct, in 1820
or 1821, and about the same time the Jetts,
Vaughns and Thackers settled in the same
neighborhood, on both sides of the creek. Will-
iam and Lawrence Stewart settled on the west
side of Shoal Creek about 1821. Jesse Mar-
graves and others also located along the west
side of Shoal Creek about this same time. In
1819, Newton Coffee came in and settled on
Jetts Prairie.

In February of 1880, a church was organ-
ized in this precinct by the Free Methodist de-
nomination. The first minister chosen by them
was the Rev. J. B. Colt. Among the first mem-
bers were James Robb, J. F. Nicholson, John
Parmalee, John McCracken, Daniel F. Justice,
John F. Humphrey and Winnie Singleton.
James Robb was chosen Class-Leader, and John
Parmalee was chosen Steward. Early in the
spring of the present year (1882), a neat frame
church, thirty-six feet long and twenty-eight
wide, was erected on Section 31, at a cost of
about 1700, and John Parmalee, James Robb
and J. F. Nicholson, were appointed as Trust-
ees. This organization has grown in strength
from the beginning, and at present has a mem-
bership of about thirty-five, and maintains a
good Sunday school.

In noticing the early churches of Cotton-
wood Grove Precinct, one church stands out
prominently, and seems to be to a ureal
extent the " mother " of all the Presby-
terian Churches in this section. We refer
to the "Old Shoal Creek Church." The

original church was organized by Rev. Solomon
Sidings, of St. Louis, Mo., on the 10th of March,
1819, and is more particularly referred to in a
preceding chapter.

The " Pleasant Prairie Presbyterian Church"
in Township 7, Range 4, was formed from the
Mt. Carmel society of the same denomination,
then existing in Montgomery Count}', on the 24th
day of February, 1828. Through the exertions
of Rev. Joel Knight, Andrew Finley and Jos-
eph Barlow were chosen Elders, at its organiza-
tion, and C. G. Keown was their first regular
pastor. The first Clerk was Andrew J. Finley.
Among the first members were William, Eliza-
beth, Andrew and Rebecca Finley ; Joseph and
Harriet Barlow ; Elizabeth, Sarah, Emily and
Polly Barlow ; Sarah Keown ; William and Pol-
ly Pitman ; William and Jane Kline; Nelly
Breance ; Catharine, Polly and Joseph Buck ;
Michael, Elanor, Sinah, Catharine, Polly and
Palsey Finley; Andrew Keown, James E. Ran-
kin, Eli Covvdon and James Driscol. They
have at present a good frame church building
sixty feet long by forty feet wide, which was
erected at a cost of about $2,200, and the pres-
ent membership is about thirty in all. James E.
Rankan, the first Superintendent, organized a
good Sunday school, which has been conducted
here for man}' 3'ears.

In an early day, some of the pioneers of this
section built a " sod fence " for some purpose,
out of which sprouted a beautiful grove of Cot-
tonwood trees. It is from this grove that the
village of " Bethel, or Cottonwood Grove," ob-
tained its name. It was originally called " Au-
gusta," but the name was afterward changed to
" Cottonwood Grove, or Bethel." It was sur-
veyed on the 9th day of June, 1836, by Asahel
Enloe, for John Mitchell & Co., the proprietors,
and is located in Section 11, Township 6 north,
Range 4 west, about eight miles northwest of
the county seat (Greenville). It is a flourish-
ing little village, and is surrounded by an intel-
ligent and industrious community.

108

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

The Bethel Presbyterian Church was estab-
lished here on the 15th day of September, 1826,
several years prior to the laying-out of the
town. It was the outgrowth of the church
already alluded to, as the first church in the
county, called Shoal Creek Church. The orig-
inal church was in 1S25 divided into three
churches — Shoal Creek Church, Bethel Church
and Greenville Church. Of these three, the
two last named still exist. The Bethel Church
was organized with sixty-two members, and
their first house of worship was a log building
20x26 feet. It was heated in a novel manner.
A space about six feet in diameter in the mid-
dle of the house was left without flooring, thus
securing an earthen hearth. A bushel of char-
coal was laid there and then set on fire, render-
ing the house quite comfortable. Among the
ministers in Bethel Church for the past fifty
years are the following : Thomas A. Spillman,
Albert Hale, E. L. Huntington, Thomas Lippin-
cott, Samuel Foster, Charles L. Adams, Charles
Barton, E. B. Olmstead, N. A. Hunt, Robert
Stewart, William Rankin, William H. Bird, J.
S. Davis, Charles Barton (a second term), James
H. Spillman, etc. Some years later, when the
church had become strong in numbers and

wealth, a new church was built a few rods
from the old one. It was a frame building well
adapted to the wants of the church and the
times. A large volume might be written of
this pioneer church, but our space is limited
and only this brief sketch can be given. A
large and interesting Sunday school of both
young and old has always been maintained in
old Bethel Church.

In 1838, the town of Harrisonville was sur-
veyed by T. S. Hubbard, for Andrew Finley,
proprietor. It was situated on Section 32,
Township 7 north, Range 4 west, on Pleasant
Prairie, about twelve miles northwest of Green-
ville. For some time this village gave consid-
erable promise, but it gradually died out until
nothing now remains of it except the records
of the platt.

On the 17th of May, 1856, the town of Elm
Point was laid out by Anthony Hill, for William
P. Libby. It is located on Section 31, Town
7, Range 3, about nine miles in a northwesterly
direction from the town of Greenville. It is
on the prairie, and is surrounded by a well
cultivated country, but has never made much
improvement, and at present there is scarcely
what might be called a town remaining.

OK AAV PRECIXCT.

lfin

CHAPTER XXL*

OKAW PRECINCT— DESCRIPTION AND TOPOGRAPHY— EARLY SETTLEMENTS— THE FIRST PIONEERS
—THEIR EARLY LIFE AND HABITS— SCHOOLS, SCHOOLHOUSES, CHURCHES, ETC.

IN giving the history of Okaw Precinct, there
is probably less to tell than of any other
precinct in Bond County, from the fact that it
was settled at a much later day than any other
portion of the county. For many years the
land was held almost exclusively by large land-
owners, and this is still the case to a consider-
able extent. These land-owners would not sell,
except at such exorbitant prices as deterred
settlers from purchasing, especially as other
lands at that time were sold at a very low
figure. Thus it was that settlers who might
have located here purchased elsewhere, and at
present we find that, though there are a number
of good farmers in this locality, it is settled
mainly by squatters, or farmers on a small
scale, who have come in at a comparatively
late day and purchased small tracts of land.

Okaw Precinct lies in a southeasterly direc-
tion from the county seat ( Greenville ), and
comprises thirty-six sections in the southeast
corner of the county. It is bounded on the
north by the precincts of Greenville and Fair-
view; on the east by Fayette County; on the
south by Clinton County and on the west by
Beaver Creek Precinct. Almost the entire
surface of the land is very low and level, so
that artificial drainage is largely resorted to.
The low, flat nature of the most of the land is
another reason why it was not settled sooner.
In the southern part, however, near the Clinton
County line, it rises into nice rolling land, well
adapted to agriculture, and it was here that the
earliest settlers located. There is very little of

* By T. J. Riley.

the land but is susceptible of cultivation, the
soil is of the richest quality, and yields abun-
dant harvests of all the crops usually grown in
this section. The principal crops are corn,
wheat and oats. This precinct is not very
thickly wooded, though along the creeks may
be found an abundance of hickoiy, ash, maple,
walnut, etc.

Numerous small streams flow through Okaw
Precinct, and among them is one of consider-
able importance, namely, the "Kaskaskia,"
commonly known as the " Okaw," which flows
just across the southeastern corner, through
Section 30. This stream abounds in large
numbers of the finny tribe, and is a great re-
sort for fishing parties. Another stream is " Flat
Creek," which takes its rise in " Calamus Lake,"
a small body of water in the northwest corner
of Section 16, and. flowing a little west of south,
leaves thf precinct near the line, between Sec-
tions 31 and 32. Little Beaver Creek, another
small stream, flows across the northwest corner,
through Sections 5 and 6. Another stream de-
serving of mention is " Keysport Creek,"
which, rising in the northern part of Section 14,
flows directly south and leaves the precinct at
the southern boundary line of Section 35.

It is sweet, yet sad, to recall the scenes of
the past ; sweet, because we see the faces of
dear ones ; sad, because the picture is unreal,
and will vanish like the mists of the morning.
Though the early settlement of Okaw Precinct
is not so remote, still most of the earliest set-
tlers have been laid away in the quiet grave-
yards, and, " though lost to sight, are to memory

170

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

dear." Among the first settlers who located in
Okaw Precinct was Josiah Austin, who came in
1833, and located in the southern part, on Sec-
tion 32. Two men, one named Bateman and
the other named Martin, settled near him about
the same time.

John Butler came in prior to the coming of
Josiah Austin, and located in the southern part
of the precinct. Alexander Myatt came in an
early day, and settled in the west half of Sec-
tion 33, and about the same time a man, named
Fix, settled in the southeast part of the pre-
cinct. Among the earliest settlers in this sec-
tion was Mathew Henry, who first settled in
Greenville Precinct, about four miles west of
the county seat, and after remaining there some
time, located in this precinct, where, at present,
a number of his descendants reside. On his
way to Bond County, Mr. Henry came through
St. Louis, and it is said that, while there, he was
offered five lots where the Southern Hotel now
stands for a little pony mare, which he refused.
Mr. Henry also was the possessor of one of the
first " cook stoves " in this county.

But little can be said of the early schools in
Okaw Precinct, and for many years after its
settlement but little attention was given to the
subject of education, but of late years a great
improvement has been made in this direction,
and at present there are several schoolhouses
in the precinct, in which school is taught by
efficient instructors for the usual term each
year.

At present, there are two churches in this
precinct, the Methodist Episcopal and the Evan-
gelical Lutheran. The former was established
early in the year 1842. For some time after the
organization of this church, meetings were held
at the residence of Alexander Myatt. Among
the first members were Alexander Myatt and
wife, Joshua Sharp and wife, Micajah Bowen,
Mr. Zimmerman, Mrs. Rainey, Mrs. Gillespie,
Robert Tucker, wife and mother, and the Skel-
ton family. About the first minister was the

Rev. Joshua Barnes. Their present church
building was erected about the year 1856, on
the southwest quarter of Section 33. It is a
frame building forty-four feet long and thirty-
four feet wide, and was built at a cost of about
$1,000. The first minister who assumed the pas-
torate, after the building of this new church, was
the Rev. J. W. Low. The Trustees were A. L.
Cole, William Hoppock, B. F. Taylor and A. J-
Cole, and the first Class-Leader was A. L. Cole.
Alexander Myatt was chosen the first Steward.
The church is now in a highly, prosperous and
flourishing condition, and the present Class-
Leader is J. D. Blackwell, and J. B. Myatt and
1). L. Reynolds are acting as Stewards. A good
Sunday school is and has been maintained
ever since the organization of this church.

The last named, the Evangelical Lutheran, or
St. Peter's Church, was built in the fall of 1874,
on the southeast quarter of Section 33. Among
the men who were instrumental in getting the
church built were, Frederick Meyer, J. H. Pah-
man, Julius Meyer, Conrad Kromer, Henry
Shumaker, Henry Brauchmiller, etc. Their first
minister was Rev. Kornbeaun. Prior to the
erection of their church building, the society-
worshiped at the private residences of its mem
bers, and continued thus until their present
church was built. It is a frame building, thirty
feet long and twenty-four feet wide, and was
built at a cost of about $600.

No regular meetings were held here until in
1880, but before this time, Rev. H. Wolfman,
who had dedicated the church, preached at in-
tervals. Since November, 1880, they have been
having meetings every Sunday, and Rev. H.
Baker, the present minister, is employed at a
yearly salary of $300, which, it may be said to
their credit, is always promptly paid. At pres-
ent the church is in a prosperous, thriving con-
dition, and maintains a large and very interest-
ing Sunday school. The Trustees at present
are Julius T. Brauchmiller and John Turenck.

■'.- ■■-,■..•"•,■ ,."„lJ

o-^z^!-^

LIBRAR/

OF The

UNIVEKSlTy wf ILLINOIS

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

173

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

CHAPTER L*

MONTGOMERY COUNTY — INTRODUCTORY — DESCRIPTION AND GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY — THE
VARIETIES OF TIMBER — GEOLOGICAL FEATURES — LIMESTONE AND SANDSTONE— COAL
MEASURES — QUALITY OF THE COAL — QUARRIES OF BUILDING STONES-
OBSERVATIONS— CLIMATOLOGY— THE CHANGES OF SEASONS—
NOW, AND FIFTY YEARS AGO.

" When rust shall eat her brass, when Time's strong

hand
Shall bruise to dust her marble palaces,
Triumphant arches, pillars, obelisks ;
When Julius' temple. Claudius' aqueducts,
Agrippa's baths, and Pompey's theater ;
Nay. Rome itself shall not be found at all,
Historians' books shall live."

THE annals of time are marked by various
ages under different denominations. The
ancients had their fabled ages of iron and of
gold. To the downfall of the Roman Empire
succeeded the Dark Ages, with their dismal
concomitants of superstition and crime. Next
came the age of the Revival of Letters, which
was followed by that of the Reformation of
Religion. Great men have also stamped their
names on ages, as their likenesses have been
perpetuated by statues and medals. Egypt
had her age of Sesostris, Greece of Pericles,
and Rome of Caesar, Pompey and Cicero. Brit-
ain boasts of her age of Alfred the Great, and
France that of Henry the Fourth. History
will yet speak of the age of Washington,
Franklin and Jefferson, and that of Napoleon
will also be commemorated. In splendor, use-
fulness, the wonders of scienoe, and the power
of art, the present age far surpasses all that

>Bv W. II. Pen-in.

have preceded it, and may lie fitly denominated
the age of improvement. Instead of the monk
laboring to ameliorate the condition of man by
the dreams of his dusky and secluded closet,
the real philosopher now walks abroad in open
day. looks at things around him as they are,
consults nature as his oracle, receives her re-
sponses as pure emanations from the fountain
of truth, and employs them successfully for the
benefit of his race.

In the wonderful changes which the present
age has witnessed, the period of vision and hy-
pothesis has gone by. Fact has assumed the
place of abstract theory, and practice has
ejected speculation from her seat. All this and
much more has been accomplished, but we will
not follow up the subject. In nothing are the
changes of the present age more strikingly
illustrated than in the wonderful improvement
and advancement of our country, and especially
the great West. But a few decades ago. and
this country was the home of the red man and
his kindred ; these broad prairies his hunting-
grounds, where he chased the buffalo and deer.
Less than a century has passed ;the Indian of
the haughty bearing and the falcon glance has
disappeared, and Cooper's "Last of the Mohi-
cans " preserves in romance a story of the race.

174

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

From a wilderness, infested with savages and
wild beasts, the country has been reclaimed,
and transformed into an Eden of loveliness,
unsurpassed in glory and beauty, nowithstand-
ing the poet has sung of

" a clime more delightful than this ;

The land of the orange, the myrtle and vine."

The history which attaches to every portion
of our countiy increases in interest as time
rolls on. Its wonderful development and ad-
vancement are more like magic tales than act-
ual occurrences, and its vast resources the won-
der of all nations. No section but has its tra-
ditions and memories; no spot, however small,
but is more or less historical. Montgomery
County, which forms the subject matter of the
pages following, bears no mean part in the his-
tory or the importance of the State of Illinois,
as she bears no inconsiderable part in the his-
tory of our common country.

Topography. — The county of Montgomery, as
formed at present, is bounded on the north by
Sangamon and Christian Counties, on the east
by Christian, Shelby and Fayette, on the south
by Fayette, Bond and Madison, on the west by
Macoupin, and has an area of 702 square miles.
Of its topography, timber growth, prairies and
general surface features, the following has been
published, which we give entire for the benefit
of our readers : "On Ramsey Creek, the hills are
low and the country gently undulating; near
Nokomis there are several mounds, with long,
gentle depressions between, stretching off into
rich plains. Westwardly, across the country,
through Townships 10, 11 and 12 north, the
country is for the most part rather flat. Near
the East Fork of Shoal Creek, the hills are gen-
erally low, becoming higher as we descend the
stream; in the south part of Township 8 north,
they are forty to fifty feet high. On Shoal
Creek and Middle Fork, the hills are forty to
fifty feet high, and rise by long, gentle ascents.
On the West Fork of Shoal Creek the country
is generally broken for a few miles from the

stream, and the hills sixty to seventy feet high ;
near Lake Fork, the hills are not very high. In
the south half of the county, between the main
streams, there are occasional mounds, often a
mile or more across their base, and about fifty
feet above the adjacent plain, with which they
are connected by a long descent.

" A little less than two-thirds of the area of
this county is probably prairie. The northern
part is mostly prairie; the southern has a large
proportion of timber. Near Hurricane Creek,
there are post oak flats, changing to large
white- oak hills near the creek. At the edge of
the prairie, the growth is mostly laurel oak,
sumac, hazel, plum, etc. Near Ramsey Creek,
the upland growth consists of white-oak, black-
oak, post-oak, laurel oak, hazel and sassafras.
The East Fork hills have mostly pin oak, black-
oak and post-oak, changing near the prairie to
laurel oak, black-oak and hazel. Shoal Creek
hills have mostly white-oak, black-oak, sassa-
fras and hickory, often extending to the prai-
ries. Near Hillsboro, the growth is principally
black-oak, with some white-oak, hickory, sassa-
fras and hazel. Near Walshville and Lake
Fork, the country is gently undulating, with a
growth principally of plum, black walnut,
honey -locust, wild-cherry and grapevines.
Wild vines loaded with grapes are observed
nearly everywhere in the woods, proving the
soil to be naturally well adapted to the grape.
Post-oak flats occur near West Fork, as far as
Township 10 north. Sugar trees are occa-
sionally found along the Middle and West
Forks, and some extensive groves are found on
the bottoms of main Shoal Creek.

"The following comprises a list of such trees
and shrubs as were observed occurring in this
county : Crabapple, ash, prickly ash, red
birch, buckeye, box-elder, button bush, bitter-
sweet, blackbeny, coralberry, chokecherry,
common cherry, coffee tree, cornus (two spe-
cies); Cottonwood, Clematis Virginiana; elder,
grape (four or five species), gooseberry, black

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

175

haw, hackberry, honey-locust, hop tree ; hazel,
shellbark and thick shellbark hickory, pig-
nut hickory, black hickory and common
hickory, iron-wood, linden, white maple, sugar
tree, red mulberry, papaw, persimmon,
plum; black, red, white, post, laurel, pin,
chestnut, black-jack, burr and swamp white-
oak; red and American elm, red-bud, rasp-
berry, rose, red-root, poison oak. sassafras,
service berry, sarsaparilla, sumac, trumpet
creeper, Virginia creeper, willow (several spe-
cies), and black and white walnut."

Geology. — The geological formations of a
country are the most important part of its his-
tory. By the science of geology, the history of
the earth is traced back through successive
ages to its rudimental condition. It is not in-
appropriate then to introduce the history of
this county with a brief sketch of its geological
structure, as compiled from the official survey
of the State. A familiarity with the subject
should be of interest to all citizens, for we are
told by men of science that upon the " geological
structure of a country depend the pursuits of
its inhabitants and the genius of its civilization.
That agriculture is the outgrowth of a fertile
soil; mining results from mineral resources,"
etc., etc. Hence, for the benefit of our readers,
a few pages will be devoted to the geology
of Montgomery County, as reported in the
geological survey. " Along the various
streams," says this authority, " are occasional
exposures of sand and pebbles, with some beds
of brownish-yellow clay. Five miles northeast
of Litchfield forty-five feet of drift is exposed,
the lower part a compact bed of dark clay,
with some sand and pebbles. The following
description is given of the various clays passed
through in well-digging in the vicinity of
Hillsboro: First, soil; second, yellow clay or
hardpan; at twenty-four feet, reached a three-
foot bed of sand, then soft, moist clay. Seventy-
five yards from this, another well was dug,
showing in the upper part brownish-yellow clay

at twenty feet, and at thirty-eight feet was a
two-foot bed of sand, and, at forty-two feet,
specimens of wood.

" On the head-waters of the Ramsey, there are
many springs slightly chalybeate, and some
containing sulphate of iron, issuing from beds
of drift, sand and pebbles. There is certainly
evidence that at some former period of time
the whole surface of the count} 7 was fifty to
seventy-five feet higher than at present; that
since the original drift deposition ( it may have
been just at the close of the drift period), large
masses of these deposits were washed off, leav-
ing occasional mound-like elevations, several of
which may be seen near Nokomis, a few be-
tween the East and West Forks, and the hills be-
tween Hillsboro and Butler.

" The upper coal measures appear in part in
this count}-, and underly all the superficial
deposits, and include coal beds No. 11 and No.
13, and a trace of No. 12, and embrace 150
feet of rock, reaching from the base of No. 33
to No. 20 of the upper coal measure section.
Nos. 20 and 21, in Section 12, Township 10
north, Range 1 west, there crops out along the
creek eight feet of sandy shale and blue lime-
stone; close by is an outcrop of brown, shaly,
soft limestone, containing Hemipronites crassus
and crinoid stems; Machrocheilus and Spirifer
cameratus were also found. The exact thickness
between 21 and 22 is unknown; the outcrops
are ten miles apart, with no evidence of a con-
tinuous easterly dip, but it is probable that
twenty-five or even fifty feet may intevene.

" Northeast of Irving on East Fork, and
down stream for a mile, there are occasional
outcrops of an ash-blue hard shelly limestone,
abounding in a large variety of Productus Prat-
tenianus. It also contains P. cost at us, P. punc-
tatus, P. Ncbrascensis, Spirifer cameratus, Avi-
culojiecteii carboniferous, C/ionetes, Verneuiliana,
Ch. Flemingvi, and a branching coral. A quar-
ter of a mile up stream, the limestone appears
in a regular layer, stretching across the bed of

176

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

a small branch. Three miles up stream, many
fossils were collected, weathered out of the shale
beds in a fine state ot preservation, including
beautiful specimens of Pleurotomaria, sphceru-
lata, P. tabulata, Orthoceras, Macrocheilus pa-
ludinaformis, and one like the M. primigenius,
but with body, whorl and spire more elongated ;
Goniatites globulosus, Bellerophon carbonarius,
Leda bella-striata, Nucula ventricosa, Astar-
tella vera, Conularia, Leda Oweni, Euompha-
lus, subnigosus and Polyphemopsis peracuta.
These shales contain round and oblong clay
and ironstone concretions. In Section 28, Town-
ship 10 north, Range 3 west, a few fossils were
obtained, indicating the presence of the same
beds as those last named. The upper blue
limestone, named above, undulates along East
Fork for about eight miles, which is regarded
as equivalent to No. 22 of general section.
Near Section 36, Township 8 north, Range 3
west, on the East Fork of Shoal Creek, there
crops out eight feet of sandy shale and sand-
stone. On West Fork, at the bridge on the
Hillsboro and Walshville road, there is a bluff
of thirty-five feet of bluish-gray sandy shales
with a thin bed showing markings resembling
those of Fucoides catida galli, and containing
one Bellerophon. East of Litchfield, at the
creek bluffs, is seen thirty feet of sand}', shale,
and below that ten feet of thick-bedded sand-
stone, resting on limestone. Four miles up
stream, this sandstone is quite ferruginous at
the base, and contain many remains of plants,
Calamities^ Sigilaroe,etc. One mile farther up
stream, there were observed forty-eight feet of
darkish micaceous saudj' shale. On Five-Mile
Creek, in Section 26, Township 10 north, Range
5 west, there are twelve feet of sandy shales,
with a thin bed of partially carbonized wood,
containing a fossil fern. A quarter of a mile
up the creek, there is an exposure of sixteen
feet of this olive-drab clay shales, with iron-
stone nodules. These shales are evidently con-
tinuations of the same beds, and make the

total thickness of No. 26 not less than eighty- '
five feet. The best exposures of Nos. 27 to
33 inclusive are on Lake Fork and at Litch-
field. The section on Lake Fork, at the Bond
County line, near McCracken's, coal, is as fol-
lows :

Ft. Id.

Drift slope 20

No. 27 — Lead blue limestone, with crinoid

stems, and Athyris subtilita 2

No.28— Coal 2

No. 29— Blue clay shales 10

No. 30 — Shale and shaly limestone abounding
in fossils, but many are much crushed
including Spirifer cameratus, Produc-
tus punctatus, P. Nehrascensis, Spiri-
ferinn Kentuckensis, Hemipronites
crassus Productus, Prattenianus,
Athyris subtilita Terebratula bovidens,
Myalina subquadrata, a Macrocheilus,
a Pleurotomaria, and one in fish tooth 4
No. 31 — Ash-gray limestone; in the lower
part there is from one to one and a half
feet of dark ash-colorcd limestone,
often traversed by fine lines of calc-
spar ; fossils not abundant contains

Productus longispinus 18

Bituminous shale 4

No. 33— Coal No. 11 1 5

" Part of No. 27 appears two and one-half
miles northwest in the bed of the creek, con-
taining Spirifer cameratus, Fistulipora, Pro-
ductus costatus, P. Nehrascensis, P. Pratteni-
anus and Myalina subquadrata. The fossils
here have a well preserved and nacreous ap-
pearance. One and a half miles southwest
of Bethel, part of No. 31 crops out along the
creek ; the upper portion is an even bedded
bluish-gray sub-crystalline limestone ; but lie-
low it is more irregularly bedded. Productus
longispinus abounds, associated with Ariculo-
pecten carboniferus. Four miles northeast of
Litchfield, the upper part of No. 31 is a thick
bedded brownish-gray limestone, abounding in
Rhynchonella ITta.

Coal — " On J. Wilson's land, Section 7,
Township 8 north. Range 2 west, coal No. 13
(No. 24 of upper coal measures section) has

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

177

been mined ; that used was from near the out-
crop, and does not appear very favorable ; the
quality and thickness might improve by thor-
ough opening. The same coal has also been
taken out on the land of John L. Newsman, in
Section 28, Township 10 north, Range 3 west,
some eighteen inches thick, but could not be
thoroughly examined on account of the over-
lying debris. On the land of Mr. McCracken,
near the south count}' line (probably in Bond
County) Coal 13 is seventeen inches thick. Oc-
curring as it does below the bed of the creek,
it can only be reached at low water, and even
then the labor of one man is required most of
the time to keep the pit sufficiently dry for two
others to work ; but with this trouble it will
repay very well to work for neighborhood pur-
poses. The same bed has also been worked at
Ross' old mill, on Shoal Creek, at the south
county line, and ma}- also be reached just be-
low the surface of the water on Shoal Creek
above Long bridge. At the limestone quarries
on the creek near Butler, it may be reached at
about ten to fourteen feet beneath the bed of
the creek ; also about four feet beneath the
darker colored limestone at the base of Mi-
chael Cleary's quarry east of Litchfield.

Building Rock. — " On East Fork, about Sec-
tion 2C, Township 8 north, Range 3 west, there
is a tolerably good bed of hard bluish lime-
stone. On Rocky Branch, east of Litchfield,
there are extensive quarries of pretty good
limestone; the beds are rather irregular, but the
rock is very extensively used for ordinary
stone work, and makes very good lime. North
of the railroad on the West Fork, there are sev-
eral outcrops of a brown and gray limestone in
three-foot beds. The same rock is also found
four miles farther up stream. At the latter
place, part of it presents a beautiful bluish-gray
variegated appearance. This limestone pos-
sesses much durability, and being in a thick
even bed, may become in time very useful for
large columns. It is believed to be equivalent

to that used in the construction of the old State
House at Springfield. West of Butler, there
are good quarries of limestone for lime, and it
is also much used in the neighborhood for ordi-
nary building purposes."

The foregoing presents a pretty good digest
of the geology of Montgomery County, and its
wealth of coal measures, building rocks, etc.,
and will be found of interest to land -owners at
least.

The climate of Montgomery County, in com-
mon with Southern and Central Illinois, is vari-
able. No one who has lived here long needs
to be told this ; it very soon becomes an estab-
lished fact in his own personal experience. Of
the temperature, climate, and the various
changes of Southern Illinois weather gener-
ally, Foster's Physical Geography has the fol-
lowing : " The melting snows of winter, gen-
erally attended by rains, convert the rich soil
of the prairies into mud, and render earl}'
spring the most unpleasant part of the year.
The heat of summer, although more intense
than in the same latitude on the Atlantic, is
greatly relieved by the constant breezes which
fan the prairies. Autumn, with its slowly di-
minishing heat, terminates in the serene and
beautiful season known as Indian Summer.
Its mild and uniform temperature, soft and
hazy atmosphere, and forests beautifully tinted
with the hues of dying foliage, all conspire to
render it the pleasant part of the year. Next
comes the boreal blasts of winter, with its so-
cial firesides, and tinkling bells in the mystic
light of the moon, as merry sleighs skim
over the level snow-clad prairies. The winter
has its sudden change of temperature, causing
colds and other diseases arising from extreme
vicissitudes of weather. This is the most un-
favorable feature of the climate, which in other
respects, is salubrious." These sudden changes
seem to increase both in number and in ex-
tremes, a fact doubtless attributable to natural
causes — the settling-up and cultivation of the

178

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

country. It is very common to hear old citi-
zens who have lived in the State forty or fifty
years, tell how different the seasons are now
and when they first came here. There is more
or less snow or rain, the seasons are less favor-
able for farming, the springs more backward,
etc., etc., just as their fancy happens to get
the start of them.

The following extract from an article in the
old Illinois Gazetteer, published in 1834, would
indicate that there had been considerable
atmospherical changes within the last half-
century : " There are a great proportion of
clear, pleasant days throughout the year. Dr.
Beck, who resided at St. Louis during the year

1820, made observations upon the changes
of the weather, and produced the following
results: ' Clear days, 245; cloudy, including all
the variable days, 110.' The results of my own
observations, kept for twelve years, with the ex-
ception of 1826, and with some irregularity
from traveling into different parts of Illinois
during the time, do not vary in any material
degree from the above statement." Taking
the present year of grace (1S82) as a sample of
cool, cloud}-, disagreeable weather, it presents
a striking contrast to the observations of Dr.
Beck quoted above, and proves conclusively that
changes are taking place in the climate and sea-
sons.

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

179

CHAPTER LT*

EARLY OCCUPATION OF THE COUNTRY— THE MOUND-BUILDERS— THEIR REMAINS AND FORTIFI-
CATIONS— THE INDIANS— TRACES OF THEM IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY— THEIR SUCCES-
SORS, THE'WHITES— DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY THE EMIGRANTS ON THEIR
WAY TO NEW HOMES— INCIDENTS OF THE PIONEER PERIOD— GROWTH
AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY.

P RE-HISTORIC research has evolved the
fact, that, at a period tying wholly within the
province of conjecture, a semi-civilized people,
whose origin and final fate, as well as their
habits and customs, are enshrouded in com-
parative mystery, inhabited, not only this conn-
try, but most of the Western Continent. All
attempts to unravel the rnystery enveloping
their peculiar lives meet with failure, save where
their fast-decaying works cast a feeble ray of
light on the otherwise impenetrable darkness.
From the northern lakes through the Mississippi
Valley into Mexico, and thence into South
America, these relics of a lost race extend.
Many archasoligists believe that their occupa-
tion of this country was anterior to that of the
Eastern Hemisphere, and that this continent is
really the Old instead of the New World.
However extravagant this opinion may be, there
is no longer any doubt in the mind of the
archaeologist that this country was occupied by
a race of people, of whose origin the Indians,
found in possession of the country by the Euro-
peans, knew absolutely nothing. The mounds
and fortifications left by them form by far the
most interesting relics of American antiquity.
Some of the most extensive mounds in the
United States are in Illinois, and are located
contiguous to the Mississippi River. But our
limited space will not admit of a detailed ac-
count of this lost race of people. Their name,

*Bj W. H. Perriu.

language and history have utterly perished from
the earth, and their very existence even would
never have been known but for the almost ob-
literated remains which still show the work of
their hands. That they did exist, such writers
as Rafinesque, Foster, Lubbock and others, who
have spent years in pre-historic research, stoutly
maintained. No traces, however, of the " lost
race " are found in Montgomery County, so
as we can learn. Fortifications, camps, bu r
ing-grounds, etc., which some have attributed to
the Mound-Builders', and which are located in
different sections of the county, are believed by
others, better informed, to be but the works o
the American Indians. The latter theory is,
doubtless, the correct one.

Following the Mound-Builders, and supposed
by writers upon the subject to have been their
conquerors, came the Indians, the red sous of
the forest. They next occupied this country
and resisted the encroachments of the whites to
the bitter end. From the Atlantic coast, they
were pressed backward toward the setting sun,
strewing their path with the bones and skeletons
of their martyred warriors. They crossed the
Alleghanies, and, descending its western slope,
chanted their death songs as they moved slowly
and mournfully away from the land of their
fathers, before the ever-advancing tide of pale-
faces. Halting upon the plains of the " Illini."
amid the forests that bounded its streams, they
made the last home of their own choosing.

180

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Bat here they were not allowed to remain in
peace. The handful of whites, who had dropped
upon the western shore of the Atlantic, had
grown into a great multitude, and like the little
stone cut out of the mountains by unseen hands,
were rolling on, as a mighty avalanche, crush-
ing all that opposed. In the early dawn of the
nineteenth century, the red man was again
forced to take up his line of march from South-
ern Illinois, nor allowed to rest until he reached
his promised land, the great plains of the far
West. His foot-prints are still visible in what
now forms Montgomery County, in fortifica-
cations, burying-grounds, etc.

The Indians occupying this portion of Illinois,
were the Kickapoos. The following extract
will be found of interest to our readers : " The
Kickapoos, in 1763, occupied the country south-
west of the southern extremity of Lake Michi-
gan. They subsequently moved southward,
and at a more recent dale dwelt in portions of
the territory on the Mackinaw and Sangamon
Rivers, and had a village on Kickapoo Creek,
and at Elkhart Grove. They were more civi-
lized, industrious, energetic and cleanly than
the neighboring tribes, and it may also be add-
ed, more implacable in their hatred to the
Americans. They were among the first to com-
mence battle, and the last to submit and enter
into treaties ; unappeasable enmity led them
into the field against Gens. Harmar, St. Clair
and Wayne, and to be the first in all the bloody
charges on the field of Tippecanoe. They were
prominent among the Northern nations, which,
for more than a century, waged an exterminat-
ing war against the Illinois Confederacy. Their
last hostile act of this kind was perpetrated in
1805, against some poor Kaskaskia children,
whom they found gathering strawberries on the
prairie above the town which bears the name
of their tribe. Seizing a considerable number
of them, they fled to their villages before the
enraged Kaskaskias could overtake them and
rescue their offspring. During the years of

1810 and 1811, in conjunction with the Chip-
pewas, Pottawatomies and Ottawas, the}' com-
mitted so many thefts and murders on the
frontier settlements that Gov. Edwards was
compelled to employ military force to suppress
them. They claimed relationship with the
Pottawatomies, and perhaps with the Sacs and
Foxes and Shawnees. When removed from
Illinois, they still retained their old animosities
against the Americans, and went to Texas, then
a province of Mexico, to get beyond the juris-
diction of the United States. There were other
tribes, also, who roamed through this part of
the State. The Foxes sometimes made incur-
sions into this immediate section, and if they
did not live here permanently, they remained
at least temporarily. In what is now East
Fork Township, on McDavid's Branch, in Sec-
tion 34, at a fine spring, the Foxes once had a
village or camp. Of this, however, we have
but little that is definite, as none now living
remember the event from their own personal
knowledge.

There is a tradition, but how true we do not
know, that Capt. Whiteside, the celebrated
pioneer and Indian fighter, once, in company
with a few kindred spirits, fought a battle with
the Indians on Shoal Creek, in the southeast
part of North Litchfield Township; but of this
battle there remains no record, other than tra-
dition. Many other traditions may be gath-
ered of the occupation of the count}- by the
aborigines, but none of them are particularly
reliable. In many parts of the county there
are remains of camps, some of them fortified
with something of military order. One of these
near Hillsboro still shows the old fortifications
very plainly, and has been examined by mili-
tary men, who recognized its situation for a
successful defense. Nothing, however, has
been published in regard to it, and few people
in the county know the place of its location.

As the white settlement increased, the In-
dians left the neighborhood, falling back, as has

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

181

ever been their fate, before the advancing tide
of immigration. Their camp fires paled in the
sunlight of civilization, and then went out on
the prairies of Illinois forever.

The first white people who traversed this
country, and claimed it by the right of discov-
ery, were the French explorers and travelers.
More than two hundred years ago, such men
as La Salle, Marquette, Hennepin, Joliet and
other Frenchmen, had traversed the State of
Illinois, or what now forms this great State, and
made settlements along the Mississippi River.
Many trees and stones bore the impress of the
finer </c /is of France, and Kaskaskia, Cahokia
and Vinceunes became enterprising French
towns surrounded by flourishing settlements.
Marquette discovered the Mississippi River, and
spent years of toil in explorations and Chris-
tianizing the natives of the great West, then
died, with none to soothe him in his last mo-
ments save his faithful Indian converts. La
Salle penetrated to the mouth of the " Great
Father of Waters," and after planting the
standard, and claiming the country in the name
of his king, was treacherously murdered b} - his
own followers. Rut time passed on, and
eventually the lilies of France drooped and
withered before the majestic tread of the Rrit-
ish lion, who, in his turn, quailed and cowered
beneath the scream of the American eagle.
The conquest of Gen. George Rogers Clark
made Illinois a county of Virginia, and wrested
it forever from foreign rule. Rut few decades
after Clark captured Kaskaskia and Vinceunes,
white people from the Eastern States began to
cross the Wabash into the present State of Illi-
nois. The first settlements were made in the
southern part of the State, and not until about
the years 1810-17 was there a settlement made
by the whites in what is now Montgomery
County.

It was in the latter part of 1816 or early in
1817 that the first white settlement was effected
in the county. This pioneer settlement was

made in the extreme southern part, on Hurri-
cane Creek. Among the settlers forming it
were Joseph Williams, Henry Pyatt, William
McDavid, John and Henry Hill, Jesse Johnson,
Henry Sears, Aaron Case, Harris Reavis, Joseph
and Charles Wright, Easton Whitten, John
Kirkpatrick. Henry Rowe, John Russell, David
Bradford, E. Gwinn and others. In what is
now Hillsboro Township, on Shoal Creek, the
next settlement was made by an importation of
Kentuekians and Tennesseans in 1817-18,
among whom were the following, viz.: Alexan-
der McWilliams. Solomon Prewitt, John Nor-
ton, Roland Shepherd, Jarvis Forehand, Gor-
don Crandall, William Clark, David McCoy,
Nicholas Lockerman, Hugh Kirkpatrick, Mel-
cher Fogleman, William Griffith, Joseph
Me Adams, Israel Seward, James Street, Luke
Steel, John McPhail, Joel Smith, David Kirk-
patrick, Jesse Townsend, Jacob Cress, Israel
Butler, the Harkeys, and a number of others
now forgotten. Hiram Rountree, one of the
prominent men of the county, who is noticed
fully elsewhere, settled in this neighborhood in
1821, and spent the remainder of his life here.
These settlements were made in the timber
bordering the water-courses. The people who
composed the original settlements came from
timbered countries, abounding in springs and
streams of running water. To them, the broad
prairies of waving grass, overtopped with in-
numerable blossoms and fragrant flowers (in
summer), presented all the monotony, if not the
dreariness, of sandy deserts, and the groves of
timber were as welcome as the "shadow of a
great rock in a weary land." It was not for
years after the first settlements were made in
the timber that people ventured out on the
prairies. The prairies, the}' believed, would
never be utilized, except for pasture, as the
country afforded an insufficiency of timber to
fence them, and " if God Almighty did not
make timber grow on the prairies," they ar-
gued, " it was no use for man to attempt it."

182

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Hence, the prairies would never be fit for any-
thing but pasturage.

Settlements were made in other portions of
the county soon after those already mentioned.
Some of the people composing these early set-
tlements, after a temporary rest, made other
settlements. Melchoir Fogleman, with Nicholas
Voylis and William Stephens, settled in what is
now Walshville Township some time in ISIS.
A little later, Austin Grisham, James Baker
and John Jordan settled in the same neighbor-
hood. In what is now Butler Grove Township,
Jacob Cress and family, already mentioned,
settled in 1818. The present township of Fill-
more was invaded by a colonj' from Kentucky
about 1820, among whom were James Card,
Thomas J. Todd, John Alexander, Henry and
Peter Hill, M. Mason and others. Thus set-
tlers came in every year, and settlements were
made in eveiy body of timber in what is now
Montgomeiy County. As the population in-
creased, and the timbered laud was occupied,
settlers began to branch out on the prairies.
Slowly at first, and with many misgivings, but
as the first venturesome ones did not starve to
death, others soon followed them, until all the
prairie land was either settled or taken up. It
is not our purpose to minutely describe the
settlements made in different parts of the
count} - in this connection, but will leave it to
chapters devoted to each individual township.

For a number of years after the first settle-
ments were made in the wilderness, life pos-
sessed few pleasures and comforts, and was
hard in the extreme and often dangerous. The
people were exposed to danger, and were forced
to undergo the most arduous toil to maintain
life. The following extract from an article by
Mr. Coolidge will give the reader some idea of
the life led by the early settlers until civiliza-
tion and prosperity improved the times. The
article referred to says : " The earliest houses
or cabins were of logs, one story high, and usu-
ally of one room. The door was frequently

made of split stuff, and the openings for light
sometimes were defended by a frame or rude
sash, with oiled paper for glass, but more usu-
ally the opening was closed only by a solid
shutter. In the summer, this was left unclosed;
in the winter, the cabin was lighted down the
chimney or through an open door. In such a
residence we have seen the entire family of
father and mother and well grown boys and
girls and the occasional guest sleeping on the
floor, and heard Senator Douglas repeat the
ludicrous comments of the grown-up daughters
on the ' right small chance of legs ' he was
forced to exhibit when dressing in the morning
after a night's rest en famille. The kitchen
utensils were a pot for boiling potatoes, a bake-
kettle for bread and a skillet for frying meat.
Twenty-five dollars would buy the entire do-
mestic outfit of a family, the coveted feather-
bed representing a moiety of the same. Chairs
or seats were made at home, strong, durable
and weight}', but not luxurious. The pantry
was a rustic shelf or two in a corner, with a
bit of cloth before them. We are dubious as
to the cradles, but the crop of children was
sure and large. They grew up stout, rosy-
cheeked, and shy as untamed colts. As for
pocket-nioney, nobody seems to remember if
they had any. The writer's allowance, when
sixteen, was but 5 cents a year. A tea-kettle was
a superfluity, and irons were supplied by a
couple of flat stones. The hearth was the
naked earth; the chimney was outside the
house. A bank of clay and stone was raised
up several feet; about four feet from the gen-
eral level, two stout pieces of timber were fas-
tened on each side of the fire-seat, the upper
ends inclining toward each other, and resting
against a loft-beam, a yard and a half from the
wall of the house. The angular space thus
inclosed was filled with split sticks and clay
mortar. At a convenient height on each side,
a hole was left into which was thrust a pole
from which depended a log chain, into which

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

183

pot-hooks could be inserted to sustain a pot or
kettle. If the owner was forehanded, he sub-
stituted a trammel for the chain; this was usu-
ally a flat bar of iron, the upper part bent to
grip the pole easily, and the lower portion
pierced with numerous holes for the 'insertion
of pot-hooks.

" After 1830, wagons began to be seen. Prior
to this, the ox-cart was the universal vehicle of
transportation. Judge Rountree brought his
wife and worldly possessions to the count}-,
drawn by a yoke of two-year-old steers*
Thomas C. Hughes brought his family here in
a similar vehicle. These carts were not built
for rapid movement. A yoke of oxen usually
lounged onward at the rate of a mile and a half
an hour, and five days was the usual time for a
trip to St. Louis. With the use of wagons
horses began to be employed to draw them.
Mules were not seen here until well on in the
thirties. If a stranger noticed a house a fur-
long or half a mile from a highway, and ap-
proached only through several gates, he knew
he was gazing on the site of a pioneer home.

" The plague of insects was intolerable to
man and beast. A green-headed fly was the
most formidable pest. In the heat of the day,
horses were frantic, and for safety were put iu
stables. Cattle would dash through thickets
•of hazel brush to dislodge their tormentors or
stand midside deep in pools of water. The
people would at times maintain ' smudges ' to
drive away mosquitoes, and cattle would seek
and stand in the smoke for hours for relief.
With the increase of land cultivation, these
pests have disappeared."

In further illustration of the pioneer period,

I'll.' following incident is related of Judge Rountree'a advent
in Ilill.hniT. : A settler was at work upon his "improvement'* In
lii' 1 south end of the present town, when he heard a doleful noise,
which he \v;»s wholly unable to comprehend, and which was so per-
fectly harrowing as to make every particular hair on his head
Ht;iiMl on end. Stories of Indian outrages were rife in the land, and
he imagined it was some Indian device to draw the whites into an
■ ide, and with the greatest caution, he Bet nut to reconnoiter.
Whi 11 he reached a poiut commanding a view of the trail— now the
Vandalia road— he saw Judge Rountree coming up the long Blope,
driving an oxcart, the creaking and screaking of the wheels ol
which had produced the horrible Bounds, so alarming tohissensitive
<\trs, ever on the alert for danger. — Ed.

we quote the following from the " Rountree
Letters," published a few years ago in the Hills-
boro Democrat : "Biscuits and corn-dodgers
baked in an oven over and under glowing coals at
the fire-place, and johnny-cakes baked on a
board in front of the fire, are among the pleas-
antest memories. The big pot of lye-hominy
was also one of our earliest delights. Game
was so plenty that it rarely happened that
meats were scarce. But the means of obtain-
ing meal and flour for bread were scarce. Mills
for flour came after awhile, but hand-mills, run
not by steam, horses nor oxen, but by women
and children, were occasionally seen ; new corn
was often grated by hand for immediate use-
* Instead of our gay chandeliers,
and coal oil lamps, were candles of tallow or
wax, and an old-fashioned affair, dignified by
the name of lamp, that was stuck in a crack in
the wall and held lard in a heart-shaped sheet-
iron basin, in which was a wick which burned
well and gave a torch-like glare. Those who
had brass or silver or even iron candlesticks
strove to keep them as bright as their pewter
and tinware.

" The clothing for both sexes was made at
home. If of cotton, the cotton was raised,
picked, ginned, carded, spun, woven, colored
and cut and made at home. If of wool, the
sheep were raised, the wool clipped, picked by
hand, carded, spun, colored, woven and made
up at home. All members of the household,
male and female, men, women and children,
were usually employed in some part, if not in
all parts, of the manufacture. It is true that
the men and boys frequently wore clothing
either made entire of the dressed skins of ani-
mals or had their clothes ' foxed ' with them.
There are no doubt many now living in our old
county who can tell of the long linen shirts,
home-made, that were the only summer gar-
ments worn by children and of the moccasins and
the buckskin clothing. Boots were nearly un-
known, and shoes were indulged in as a luxury

184

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

milv by the grown people, while moccasins made
at home sufficed for the smaller members. How-
ever, as soon as tanning could be done, and it
was also often done at home, it was not unfre-
qnent that the shoe-maker went from house to
house with his implements, and made the shoes
for the family. There are no doubt man)- now
living in the county who never wore boots un-
til they were nearly grown, and, perhaps, never
saw an)- until nearly grown. Yet while there
were days of self-denial, they were days of sin-
cere happiness ; and though the memories are
pleasant, would we go back to them ? Would
we be willing to live as our fathers lived ?
Would those who grew up thus, like to try it
again ? Times have changed, and with the
times our people, and their notions and tastes ;
and no doubt it is all right. But the memory
is pleasant."

Such were some of the experiences, and the
hardships with which the early settlers of this
county had to contend in reclaiming it from a
wilderness. In the grand march of civilization
the great changes that have taken place within
the last half-century is almost beyond the power
of the mind to comprehend. When we look
around us at the enterprising cities and towns,
the magnificent residences and broad, product-
ive fields, the manufactories of various kinds,
and the improved machinery in use, thus facili-
tating men's work and giving employment to
hundreds and thousands of human beings, we
are startled at the fact that fifty or sixt} r years
ago these fertile plains were the abode of savages
and wild beasts ; and the few whites, scattered
here and there, as little dreamed of the results
of to-day, as we dare predict what the next
fifty years may bring forth. The pioneer's cab-
in '• rude in its simplicity, and simple in its
rudeness," has given place to comfortable
homes ; the rude implements of agriculture
have disappeared before improvements and in-
ventions that have made farming not a labor
but a science, while the patient ox has been
supplanted by the iron-horse.

Additional to other troubles and trials of the
pioneers in the early period of the country were
prairie fires. These fires have always been a
source of terror to people living in a prairie
country, and much damage and loss of property
and even of life have resulted from them. The
tall prairie grass, from four to six feet high,
when dry, with strong winds prevailing, pre-
sented combustible matter only surpassed by
kerosene, gunpowder, etc. " In. time of peace
prepare for war," is an adage that was very
generally observed by the settlers living on the
verge of the prairies, and later in the prairies
themselves. As soon as the grass began to die
and dry up in the fall of the year, preparations
against fire were made by burning or plowing
roads around fields and farms. But even these
barriers were sometimes overleaped, and dis-
tressing consequences followed to the poor man,
who had but little to begin with, and lost that
almost in the twinkling of an eye. The early
inhabitants were often melancholy witnesses to
these great conflagrations — so glorious in their
grandeur, and gloomy in their ruin and waste.
The dense smoke arising from them in the days
of Indian summer, often enveloped the land in
the " shades of evening," recalling the lines of

Milton—

"The sun,

In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight

Shed o'er half the nations."
In the natural course of event, everything
must have a beginning. As the county settled
up and population increased, mills were built,
shops and stores established to supply the
wants of the community, and highways opened
to the markets of the outside world. The first
store in the county was kept by John Tilson,
a man prominent in the early history of the
county. He was from Boston, and located on
the farm afterward known as the " Scherer
place," about three miles southwest of Hills-
boro. He opened a store about the year
1S20-21, where he lived, and when the county
seat was established at Hillsboro, moved his

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

185

store to town. He built the first brick house
in Hillsboro, and kept the first store in the
town as well as in the county. When the post
office was established, he became the first Post-
master. Melchoir Fogleman is believed to have
been the first blacksmith, and had a shop in the
west part of the county. The first mills, manu-
factories, etc., will be found in other chapters
of the work. We are informed I33 - a local au-
thority, that N. Lockerman was the first man
married, and that he was married by Rev.
James Street, while hoeing corn, but whether
it was Mr. Street or Mr. Lockerman hoeing
corn, deponent saith not. It is said there is a
woman in everything, whether for good or ill,
but there is none mentioned in connection with
the marriage of Mr. Lockerman, aud it may be
that he was married by Mr. Street to the corn
he was hoeing. We would be glad to describe
the toilettes and bridal presents of this pioneer
wedding, for the benefit of our lady readers,
who are always interested in such things, but,
owing to circumstances, are unable to do so.
We doubt not, however, but that they were in
accordance with the customs of the time. As
to the truth of the assertions that

' ' Full many cares are on the wreath,
That binds the bridal veil,"

we cannot say, but presume that Mr. Locker-
man and his bride — if he had one — lived as
happily as the common lot. The second mar-
riage celebrated in the county was David Mc-
Coy to Miss Kirkpatrick, and the third, William
H. Brown to Miss Harriet Seward. The license
of the latter couple were the first returned to
the Clerk's office of Montgomery County.

Apropos of " marrying and giving ill mar-
riage," the following incident comes in place :
In the early years of the county, Judge Roun-
tree was the engineer that ran pretty much all
of its machinery. He was Probate Judge,
Recorder, County and Circuit Clerk, Justice of
the Peace, legislator, and held a dozen or two
other minor offices " too tedious to mention."

Once, while at Springfield on legislative busi-
ness, a couple came to town to get married,
and when they found him gone, they seemed
greatly troubled in " body and mind." But
somebody sent them to Mrs. Rountree, who
told them that she could issue the license if
she could get in the office, but that Mr. Roun-
tree had carried off the key with him to Spring-
field. The}' went to the office, however, when
the bridegroom elect set up a lot of fence-rails
against the window and finally succeeded in
forcing it open. He then entered and opened
the door from the inside, and Mrs. Rountree
went in where she found a license signed by
Judge Rountree, which she filled up for the
happy couple, and sent them on their road to
Hymen rejoicing. Since then, many couples
have gone and done likewise ; the old, old
story, and yet forever new, has been told over
and over again, and still the work goes on. The
date of the first birth is forgotten, but as Mr.
Coolidge says, the crop of children was sure
and large ; there loas a first birth, and, perhaps,
at an early day. The present population of the
county indicates their frequency.

The first death which occurred is not now
remembered. Sixty-five years have come and
gone since the first white people came here, and
now most of them have passed to that bourn
whence no traveler returns.

" Long years have flown o'er the scenes of the past,
And many turned gray in the winter's cold blast;
While others but dream of the time that is gone.
They are bent by the years that are fast rolling
on."

It was appointed unto all men to die, says Holy
Writ, and pretty faithfully have the pioneers of
Montgomery County obeyed the summons.
The grass has grown over their graves in the
old churchyard, the flowers have bloomed and
1 withered with the coming and waning years,
and a new generation now fill their places upon
the stage of action.

18G

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

CHAPTER III*

ORGANIZATION OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY— THE ACT OF THE LEGISLATURE CREATING IT— EARLY
OFFICERS AND COURTS— LOCATION OF THE COUNTY SEAT — COURT HOUSES AND PUBLII
BUILDINGS — DIVISION OF THE COUNTY INTO PRECINCTS AND TOWNSHIPS— CON-
VENIENCE OF TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATIONS — THE FOOR FARM, ETC.
—POLITICS AND POLITICAL PARTIES.

THE American people tend naturally to self-
government. Hence, the formation of
States and counties as soon as the number of
inhabitants will allow. Under the history of
Bond County, we have seen how Illinois formed,
first, a county of Virginia, then a portion of the
Northwestern Territory, then of the Indiana
Territory, later a territory of itself, and finally,
a State of the American Union. Its first divi-
sion into counties is there noted, and the man-
ner in which Bond was created while the State
was still a Territory, and embraced a vast ex-
tent of country now divided into a number of
counties. This tendency to independence and
self-government, led to the formation of Mont-
gomery County, when there were but a few hun-
dred people within its present circumscribed
limits. It was set off from Bond County, by
act of the Legislature, passed at the session of
1820-21, and approved on the 12th of February
of the latter year. That portion of the act per-
taining to the organization of Montgomery
County, or the main point of it, were as follows :
" Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Illi-
nois, and it is hereby enacted by authority of
the same, that all that tract of country lying
within the following prescribed boundaries, to
wit :

" Beginning at the southeast corner of Sec-
tion 24, in Township 7 north, and Range 2 west,
of the Third Principal Meridian ; thence west
eighteen miles, to the southwest corner of Sec-

*By W. II. IVrrin.

tion 19, in Township 7 north, and Range a
west ; thence south to the line of said town-
ship, thence west to the southwest corner, and
thence north to the northwest corner of Town-
ship 12 north; thence east twenty -four miles to
the northeast corner of Township 12 north, and
Range 2 west, thence south to the beginning, to
be known as Montgomery County, and that
Melchoir Fogleman, James Street and Joseph
Wright, be appointed Commissioners to locate
the seat of justice of said county, etc., etc."
The remainder of the act, with a number of
" whereases " and " enactments," has no particu-
lar reference to this county and is omitted. The
newly created county was named, it is said, in
honor of Gen. Montgomery, a Revolutionary
officer, while others are dubious as to whence it
received its name. In the absence, however, of
certainty, we will leave the honor with the old
soldier mentioned above.

Montgomery County retained its original
boundaries until the formation of Dane County,
now called Christian, the act of which was ap-
proved February 15, 1839, when a large mouth-
ful was taken out of the northeast corner of
Montgomery, leaving it in its present irregular
shape. The Commissioners, appointed to locate
the county seat, met at the house of Joseph
McAdams, to determine the matter, and to de-
cide upon an eligible site. According to the
act creating the county, the owner of the land
selected for the county seat was to donate
tvventj' acres for public buildings, as an induce-
ment for bis land being accepted for the pur-

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

137

pose. After mature deliberation, the Commis-
sioners made selection of a site, known since as
the "McAdams place," and which is about
three, miles southwest of Hillsboro. A town
was laid out and called Hamilton, lots were
sold, streets surveyed, and contracts let for pub-
lic buildings, and every effort made to start a
town. In the meantime, however, there was
much dissatisfaction as to the place selected,
and strong objections raised to the erection of
a court house and a jail at Hamilton. Joseph
Wright, one of the Commissioners appointed to
locate the county seat, refused to sign the
report of the Commissioners, and made a
kind of minority report on the question,
urging as a reason for his course, that Ham-
ilton was neither the geographical center
of the county or of population. So great
was the controversy over the matter that, by
another act of the Legislature, passed early
in the year 1S23, new Commissioners were ap-
pointed to relocate the county seat. This new
board consisted of Elijah C. Berry, Silas L.
Wait and Aaron Armstrong, and in accordance
with the provisions of the act they met and,
after considering the different points contesting
for the honor, they chose the present site of
Hillsboro. The name is said to have been
given by a North Carolinian, many of whom
were among the early settlers of this section, in
honor of his native place, Hillsboro, N. C.
But it is quite as probable that the name
was attained from the numerous hills, upon
which the little city now sits as majestically as
did ancient Rome upon her seven hills.

The following incident is related in connec-
tion with the location of the county seat at
Hillsboro. The land upon which the town
stands, and which had been selected for the
capital, had not been entered at the time. The
Commissioners had heard of a man living in the
southern part of the county, of the name of
Newton Coffey, who was said to have fifty dol-
lars in money, something very unusual for a

pioneer citizen of Illinois at that day. So they
sent for him and prevailed upon him to enter
the land, as none else had monej' enough to do-
so. Coffey entered the land, made a donation
of the usual twenty acres for public buildings,
and proceeded to lay out the town of Hillsboro,
as will be fully detailed in succeeding chapters
of this work.

The Courts. — No public buildings, as we
have said, were erected at Hamilton, and the
first court of the newly-organized county wan
held at the house of Joseph McAdams, and
after the relocation of the county seat, at the
house of Luke Steel, until a building of a court
house at Hillsboro. The first term of the Cir-
cuit Court, as well as the County Commis-
sioners' Court, was held at McAdams', and was
presided over by Hon. John Reynolds, Judge ;
Hiram Rountree was Clerk, and Joel Wright
Sheriff. The grand jury were as follows : John
Seward, James Black, George W. Shipman,
David Bradford, William McDavid, John Beck,
James Card, George Davis, Elisha Freemen,
Henry Hill, Lewis Scribner, Hiram Reavis. James
Walker, Newton Coffey, Jarvis Forehand, John
Yoakum, John Elder and Thomas Robinson.
The first County Commissioners' Court was held
April 7. 1821, the Commissioners being John
Beck, John McAdams and John Seward. The
following county officers were appointed at this
term of courts, viz. : Hiram Rountree, Clerk ; '
John Tilson, Treasurer ; Joel Wright, Sheriff,
and E. M. Townsend, Probate Judge ; James
Wright and Daniel Meredith were appointed
first Constables of the county. Thus was the
civil machinery of the county set in motion, by
the organization of the different branches of the
court, and the appointment of the requisite
officers to properly administer the same. Some
of these early officers were men of ability, and
left their impress upon the history of the county,
as will be seen from sketches of their lives in
different departments of this work.
" As population increased, the county was laid

188

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

off into districts for the greater convenience of
the people and the better administration of the
laws. It was first divided into election pre-
cincts, and subdivided as occasion required.
The election precincts were continued until
within the last decade, when the county adopted
township organization, and the precincts were
changed into civil townships. There are now
eighteen townships in the count}-, viz.: Hills-
boro, North and South Litchfield, Zanesville,
Harvel, Pitman, Raymond, Bois D'Arc, Roun-
tree, Nokomis, Audubon, Witt, Fillmore, East
Fork, Irving, Butler Grove, Walshville and
Grisham. These are all full Congressional
townships, that is, comprise thirty-six sections,
except Harvel, Bois D Arc, Audubon, Fillmore,
East Fork and Grisham. Some of these have
been divided for election purposes, but other-
wise remain subject to the same township gov-
ernment. Under the old precinct system, the
court consisted of three Commissioners, elected
by the people, and all business relating to the
county was transacted by this court as it is
now done by the Board of Supervisors. The
system of township organization had its origin
in the United States, in the early history and
settlement of New England. " The root of this
form of local government," says a late writer,
" may be traced to the districting of England
into tithings by King Alfred, in the ninth cen-
tury, to crush the widespread local disorders
which disturbed his realms." Upon this an-
cient idea of tithing districts, the Puritans
grafted their great improved township system.
The count}' system originated in this country,
in Virginia, and is also of English origin. The
tobacco planters of the Old Dominion, owning
their laborers more completely than did the
Barons of England their vassals, lived isolated
and independent upon their large landed es-
tates, in imitation of the aristocracy of the
mother country. The}- also modeled their
county and municipal institutions, with certain
modifications, suitable to the condition of the

new country, after the same prototype ; whence
has spread the county system into all the South-
ern and many of the Northern States. All the
Northwest Territory, now constituting five
States, after the conquest of Clark, was, by
Virginia, in 1778, formed into one county under
jurisdiction (as already mentioned), called Illi-
nois. The county feature was after retained in
all the States carved out of this territory. The
county business in Illinois was transacted by
these Commissioners, in the respective counties,
who constituted a County Court, which, besides
the management of county affairs, had usually
other jurisdiction conferred upon it, such as that
of Justice of the Peace and Probate business.
By the constitution of 1848, owing to Eastern
or New England settlers in the northern part of
the State, township organization was author-
ized, leaving it optional for any county to adopt
or not the law to be enacted. In accordance
with the provision of that constitution, and in
obedience to a demand from the people in the
northern part of the State, who had observed
its practical workings in the Eastern States, the
first township organization act was passed by
the Legislature. But the law, in attempting to
put it into practical operation, disclosed radical
defects. It was revised and amended at the
session of 1851, substantially as it has existed
until the recent revision in 1871. The adop-
tion of the township system marks an era in
the management of fiscal affairs in many of the
counties of the State. Our township system is
not. however, closely modeled after the New
England States. There a Representative is
sent directly from each town to the Lower
House of the Legislature. In New York, owing
to her vast extent of territory, this was found
to be impracticable, and a county assembly de-
nominated a Board of Supervisors, composed
of a member from each town, was then estab-
lished. This modified system we have copied,
almost exactly, in Illinois.

" Townships are often compared to petty re-

LIBRARY

OF 1ME

UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

191

publics, possessing unlimited sovereignty in
matters of local concern ; and Boards of Su-
pervisors are often popularly supposed to be
vested with certain limited legislative powers.
Neither is the case. Both the County and the
Township Boards are the mere fiscal agents.
They hold the purse-strings of the counties ;
they may contract, incur debts, or create liabil-
ities — very great powers, it is true — but they
cannot prescribe or vary the duties, nor con-
trol in any manner the county or township of-
ficers authorized by law. While the County
Court of three members is a smaller, and, there-
fore, as a rule, more manageable, or control-
table body by outside influences, there is little
doubt that a Board of Supervisors is not only
more directly expressive, but also that a thou-
sand and one petty claims of every conceivable
character, having no foundation in law or jus-
tice, are constantly presented, and, being loose-
ly investigated and tacitly allowed, aggregate
no insignificant sum. A Board of Supervisors
also acts or is controlled more by partisan
feelings. There ought to be uniformity through-
out the State in the management of county af-
fairs. No little confusion seems to pervade the
laws at the present time relating to our two
classes of counties."

Whatever may be the opinion of the writer
of the foregoing, the system of township organ-
ization now in vogue in a majority of the coun-
ties of Illinois, is not without its merits. The
fact — a very potent one, too — is that, when
once adopted by any count}', it is never changed.
None have been known, as far as we have been
able to learn, though the attempt has often been
made, to recede from the position and return
to the old system. And, slowly as some of the
counties were to enter into it, yet when they
did finally adopt it, they have continued to
cling perseveringly to it. Montgomery, as we
have said, was late in adopting township organ-
ization, remaining under the old precinct organ-
ization until 1S73, when the new order of local

government was inaugurated. The most im-
portant township officers are a Supervisor,
Township Clerk, Assessor, Treasurer, etc. The
number and names of the townships of Mont-
gomery County have already been given in this
chapter.

The Poor Farm. — This is a county institu-
tion and deserves some mention in this connec-
tion. It is located in East Fork Township,
about three miles south of Hillsboro. The costs
of pauperage in this county- are but small com-
pared to those borne by the people of England
and some other European nations. The local
communities of Illinois give equally good care
to a few unfortunates who, by constantly re-
curring misfortunes, are at last brought to live
upon the county.

The first Poor Farm was in Irving Township,
and was known as " swamp land," which was
set apart for the purpose of a Poor Farm, but
was never used nor improved as such. It was
selected December 6, 1873, and was the northeast
quarter of Section 1, Township 9 (Irving), Range
3. A committee was appointed to prepare a
place for erecting buildings, etc., and March 27,
1874, a contract was let for $3,900 for that pur-
pose, but on the 29th of April, before work
commenced, the site was changed to the Black-
man farm, in East Fork Township. The con-
tractor was to put up the same buildings as
those designed in Irving Township. May 1,
1874, the east half of the northeast quarter of
Section 24 (eighty acres), and part of the east
half of the southeast quarter of the same sec-
tion (sixteen acres); west half of northwest
quarter of Section 19, and part of the west half
of the southwest quarter of same section, 172
acres, was purchased of 0. Blackmail, at 835
per acre, and a deed made to the Board of
Supervisors of Montgomery County. The
buildings, as originally designed, were com-
pleted and accepted September 9, 1874, by the
Board of Supervisors.

In a recent article upon the institution, Mr.

193

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Springer says : " The Poor House is shaded by
handsome forest trees, and flanked on the left
with a well-trained and productive orchard.
The care and comfort which its inmates, who
have in most instances some mental or phys-
ical defects, and often both, is far better than
they had met in earlier parts of their friendless
lives, and here they seem actually to enjoy an
existence, which to the rational visitor appears"
unenviable. The establishment has been satis-
factorily conducted ever since its removal here
from its first location in Irving Township, and
at an expense (under the management of Mr.
Staub) to the county, comparatively light. It
is part self-sustaining, the soil of the farm be-
ing productive under careful cultivation."

Political. — In the early history of Mont-
gomery County, there was but little strife
among political parties as compared to that of
a later day. The war of 1812, and the ac-
companying events, wiped out the old Federal
party that had so bitterly opposed Mr. Jeffer-
son, and for some years politics ran on
smoothly. The scramble for office in the early
period of the county was almost nothing to
what it is at present. The office sought the
man and not the man the office ; and an un-
faithful " steward " was rarely heard of. The
most lucrative offices were filled by appoint-
ment and not by popular election, and as a
general thing by faithful and competent men,
who discharged their duties without fear or
favor. Thus, Judge Rountree held several
important offices at the same time, for more
than twenty years — a pretty good proof that
he discharged his duties faithfully.

The appointing power, conferred by the
Legislature upon the court, although anti-re-
publican in principle, is believed by man}- to
be the best calculated to secure efficiency and
competency in office. Experience has proven,
in many instances, that the less frequently
changes are made, the better it is for the pub-
lic service. The early records of the County

show, under the appointing power, but few
changes — the case of Judge Rountree being an
example in point.

The Presidential election of 1S24 was at-
tended with unusual excitement. The candi-
dates for President were Henry Clay, Gen.
Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and William H.
Crawford. Mr. Clay carried his own State
but was overwhelmingly defeated. Neither of
the candidates had a majority of the votes in
the Electoral College, according to the Consti-
tutional rule, and upon the House of Repre-
sentatives devolved the duty of making choice
of President. Each State, by its Representa-
tives in Congress, cast one vote. Mr. Clay
was Speaker of the House of Representatives,
and it is supposed that, through his influence,
the Kentucky delegation cast the vote of that
State for Mr. Adams instead of for Gen. Jack-
son. By this coup d'etat Mr. Clay was instru-
mental in organizing political parties that
survived the generation in which he lived, and
ruled in turn the destines of the Republic for
more than a quarter of a century.

For several years after the political power
and official patronage had passed into the
hands of Old Hickory, parties were known
throughout the country as the Jackson and
anti-Jackson parties. These finally became
the Whig and Democratic parties, the latter of
which has retained its party organization down
to the present day, and is still one of the great
political parties of the time, and has ever
been the dominant part}- in Montgomery
County. During the existence of the Whig
party, the Democrats usually carried off the
spoils of office in the county ; and when the
Whig party died and was resurrected under
the title of Republican party, the ghost of
Andrew Jackson still led the old hero's ad-
herents on to victory, as he himself had led his
ragged militia to victory at New Orleans. It
is sometimes told of them, by way of derision
that many Democrats are still voting for him,

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

193

particularly in the south end of the county.
We were informed, however, by a gentleman
whose party predilections do not coincide with
them, that, from the amount of mail matter
which goes to that section, they have doubt-
less learned of his death ere this. But, with

all the slurs cast at the party, it is a significant
fact that the Democratic party, inaugurated
during the political career of Gen. Jackson,
still exists, and was never stronger or in a
more flourishing condition, with better show of
success, than at the present day.

194

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

CHAPTER IV.*

EARLY RELIGIOUS HISTORY — PIONEER PREACHERS — ORGANIZATION OF CHURCHES — EDUCA-
TIONAL— THE FIRST SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS— THE PIONEER SCHOOLHOUSES— PRESENT
EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES OF THE COUNTY — STATISTICS —COMPULSORY EDUCA-
TION AND ITS GENERAL EFFECTS— THE PRESS OF THE COUNTY, ETC., ETC.

IT^DUCATION and religion received the
-^ early attention of the pioneers of Mont-
gomery County. It is a fact highly com-
mendable to them that churches were estab-
lished while yet there was but a handful of
residents in the newly-settled community.
People in those earl}' days seem really to have
been more religious, more zealously devoted to
their church and the cause of their Master
than at the present day. Whether this result-
ed from their lonely life in the wilderness, beset
with toil and with danger as it was, or
whether they were more zealous Christians, we
will not attempt to say. But since we heard a
minister of the Gospel recently declare in
a sermon that some of the heathen countries
of the Globe, who, fifty years ago, had never
seen a Bible nor heard the story of the Cross,
now had more Christians in proportion to
their population than this enlightened country
of ours, we are forced to believe the pioneers
were more religious than their descendents.
Their religion was more simple, earnest, and
sincere, and possessed fewer forms and cere-
monies than that now in vogue. Religion, like
everything else, has kept up with the marvel-
ous march of civilization, and the genuine old
article, given us by "Him who spake as never
man spake," has been wonderfully improved
to adapt it to the lively wants of the nine-
teenth century.

The introduction of the Gospel into Mont-

*By W. H. Ptrrin.

gomery County was coeval with its settlement
by white people. The preachers came in reality
" as one crying in the wilderness," and where-
ever they could collect a few of the pioneers
together, the}' proclaimed the glad tidings of sal-
vation " without money and without price." The
first sermon preached within the present limits
of the county, is believed to have been
preached by Rev. James Street, in 1817, at the
house of David McCoy, one of the early set-
tlers of what is now Hillsboro Township. A
church was organized in 1820, the first Chris-
tian organization in the county, and in 1821 a
church edifice was erected. It was of the
pioneer type, built of logs, the cracks daubed
with mud and split logs formed the " pews," or,
in backwoods parlance, the " benches." A Bap-
tist Church was built in 1823, which was also a
rude log structure. Although Rev. Street
preached the first sermon, Rev. Henry Sears, it
is claimed, was the first resident minister.
The first resident Presbyterian minister was
Rev. Jesse Townsend. Rev. Daniel Scherer
organized the first Lutheran Church ; the
Presbyterians organized a church in East Fork
in 1830, of which Rev. Joel Knight and Rev.
John Barber were the first ministers.

Thus churches were organized and temples
of worship erected in the different settlements
as soon as the number of inhabitants would
permit. In the chapter devoted to the indi-
vidual townships, villages and cities, the history
of all the different denominations and churches

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

195

will be written. The subject is alluded to here,
merely to show the zeal of the early settlers
of the county hi religious matters and their
devotion to the cause of Christianity.

Education — The pioneers were quite as en-
ergetic in matters of education as in religion,
and schools were established as soon as the
settlements produced children enough to form
a school or pay for the employment of a teacher.
The first schools were taught on the subscrip-
tion plan and were as primitive as the cabins
in which they were held. The first school of
which we have any account was taught by a
man named Brazleton, in the winter of 1818-19,
in the present township of Hillsboro. It was
taught in a little cabin on Mr. Griffith's place,
and was a subscription school, each patron
paying at the rate of from $1.50 to S2 per
scholar, for a term of three mouths. During
the progress of this school Indian bo3's and
young squaws used to come and play with the
children at noon and at recess from their camps
in the vicinity. The first regular schoolhouse
built in this neighborhood was on Section 9,
in 1822, and was the usual small log cabin.
In 1S25, a schoolhouse was built in what is
now Fillmore Township, and in 182S the first
temple of worship was built in what is at pres-
ent East Fork Township. Mrs. Townseud
taught school in 1823, in the present township
of Butler Grove, in a small log cabin which
stood on Section 31, and which was the first
school in that neighborhood. The first school-
house built in Irving Township was in the
southwest corner in 1827, and the first school
taught in it by a man named Mclntire, then
seventy years of age. Henry Lower was an
early teacher of the county, and taught in a
room of his own house; John King and
Charles Turner were also early teachers.
Martha B. Cass was an early teacher in the
Raymond settlement, and taught in her own
house. The first schoolhouse was built there
in 1832, a small log building. A schoolhouse

— the firstin Walshville Township — was built in
1834, and a Mr. Clowsou was the first teacher
to occupy it. Other neighborhoods and settle-
ments inaugurated schools as soon as their
population required them.

The children now in school know little of the
school facilities their parents and grandparents
enjoyed. The sehoolhouses of fifty years ago
were log cabins — some with puncheon floors
and some with no other floor than the ground.
They were built mostly of round logs, the
cracks filled in with mud, a log taken out
across one end and the space filled with greased
paper. This served as a window, and under it
was placed the " writing bench," where the
entire school would repair to practice their
writing lesson, which was done with pens made
of goose-quills, and ink of home manufacture.
The books used in the schools were as primi-
tive as the houses wherein the schools were
taught. The New Testament was the usual
reader — a few had the " Pleasant Companion,"
the " Columbian Orator," and the " English
Reader." Kirkham's grammar and Pike's
arithmetic served to enlighten the pupil in
those branches, and the boy who could " cipher"
to the " rule of three," was considered a
prodigy in figures. There are hundreds now
living in Montgomery County to whom these
reflections will vividly recall their school days
— days when they sat ten hours out of each
twenty-four, on a split log for a seat, and
studied hard, with but an hour's intermission
during the day. To them the log schoolhouse
with its wide fire-place, its puncheon floors and
uneasy benches recall few pleasant memories.

School facilities have improved wonderfully,
however, since the period of which we write.
The log-cabin schoolhouse, with its rude fur-
nishing is a thing of the past, and the most
liberal schools and comfortable houses are now
the order of the time. The basis of the school
s_ystem of Illinois and the northwest was the
act of Congress, by which one thirty-sixth of

196

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

the public lands were donated to the several
Northwestern States for the purpose of aiding
a system of public free education. In the sur-
vey of the lands, thirty-six square miles or
sections, constituted a township, and the six-
teenth section of each township was designated
as the "school section." By the law of the
State of Illinois, each Congressional Township
was made to constitute a school township,
without regard to either county or other di-
vision lines. In many of the counties, espe-
cially in Northern Illinois, the county authorities
have made the lines of political townships
identical with the Congressional or school town-
ships, while in the central and southern por-
tions of the State many are smaller and others
larger. In many townships, the land was sold
at a comparatively early date, when land was
cheap, and therefore but little was realized,
the whole section in some instances being sold
at the Government price. The land would now
sell, perhaps, for $10 or $50 per acre. To sa}-
that any great mistake was made in thus dis-
posing of the lands at so early a date, would
be to cast a reflection on those having charge
of the same. In the early histoiy of the
county, the people were poor and were sadly
in need of the little revenue arising from so
small a principal. With schoolhouses to build
and teachers to pay, they found it no small
burden to make provision for the education of
their children. And then, again, it would have
taken no less than a prophet to predict that
within half a century this laud would double
in value five times over. Indeed, it was almost
universally conceded that the prairie lands
would never be occupied. The fund realized
from the sale of these lands is irreducible, being
loaned by law to responsible parties, the in-
terest only being used for the purpose of pay-
ing teachers' salaries.

The Legislature of the State, in 1855, passed
a law levying an annual school tax of 2 mills
on the dollar on all taxable property in the

State. This revenue is somewhat variable
with different years and different assessments,
increasing as the countiy grows wealthier.
These two funds constitute the nucleus of the
school system in this, as in the other couuties
of the State. Hy the law making these gener-
ous provisions for the education of the youth,
a provision was enacted making it obligatory
on the part of a district to support a school a
certain number of months in the year (formerly
six, but at present five), otherwise the district
receives no benefit from either fund.

This provision insures the co-operation of
district authorities in the support of schools ;
and as a consequence, none of the districts in
the county a*'e without the benefit of school
instruction. Under the old system, eveiy com-
munity claimed the privilege of managing the
schools without interference of other parties,
or modification by general laws. Teachers
were accountable only to their employers, and
no particular standard of qualification was
required. Schools were kept open only for
such a length of time, or not at all, as the
whims or prejudices of the people might dic-
tate. Consequently, while some of the more
wealth}" and intelligent neighborhoods were
well supplied with school facilities, others were
almost wholly without them. The following
facts, furnished bj- Mr. Thomas E. Harris,
County Superintendent of Schools, show the
present state of the common school system
for 1881, iu Montgomery Count}' :

Number of persons in the county under

twenty-one 14,274

Number of persons between six and

twenty-one 9,544

Number of school districts in the county. 136

Number of schoolhouses in the county. . 135
Number of districts having school Ave

months or more 132

Whole number of months school 1,155}

Whole number of pupils 7,15?

Male teachers employed 88

Female teachers employed ,... 131

Number of ungraded schools 127

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

197

Number of graded schools "

Number of private schools 1

Whole amount paid teachers. . .■ $39,727 68

Estimated value of school property 162.275 00

In conclusion of the educational history of
the county, a word upon compulsory education,
a subject attracting more or less attention now
in nearly every State of the Union, may not be
uninteresting to our readers. Concerning the
right of State or Government to pass and car-
ry into effect what are known as compulsory
laws, and require parents and guardians, even
against their will to send their children to
school, there does not appear to be much diver-
sity of opinion. But concerning such a policy,
dependent upon so many known and unknown
conditions, there is the widest diversity. That
a great good would be wrought is indisputa-
ble, if the wisdom of State government could
devise some means to strengthen and supple-
ment the powers of Boards of Education, and
enable them to prevent truancy, even if only
in cases where parents desire their children to
attend school regularly, but their authority is
too weak to secure that end. The instances
are not few in which parents would welcome
aid in this matter, knowing that truancy is
often the first step in a path which finally ends
in vagabondage and crimes. It is our liberal
system of free education that has preserved
our Government so far, and its perpetuation
depends upon the education and enlightenment
of the masses. With the most scrupulous care,
England fosters her great universities, that the
sons of her nobility may be properly trained
for their places in the House of Lords, in the
army, navy and church. Then, the character
of citizenship should be high indeed, where
every man is born a king and sovereign heir to
all the franchises and trusts of the State and
Republic. An ignorant people can be governed
but only an intelligent people can govern them-
selves ; and that is the experiment we are try-
ins to solve in these United States. " The

growth of agrarianism and communism has
appalled statesmenship, and alarmed the dull
ears of the people, who see in these twin broth-
ers of ignorance impending ruin. The great
army of tramps marching through the land,
disturbing our domestic tranquillity and moral
safety, furnish another element to the problem
confronting those who yearn for a solid and
stable peace, and seek for the security assured
by a permanent government. Intelligence wed-
ded to virtue constitute the palladium of the
union. Relaxation of vigor in the effort to
improve the quality of our citizenship, will re-
sult in certain ruin. From all the towers of
the Republic the watchmen cry, ' Educate !
Educate ! Educate !' "*

Viewing the subject from the above stand-
point, is one of the strongest arguments in
favor of compulsory education. Whatever may
be said to the contrary, or in opposition to
compulsory education, it is a fact apparent to
all, that the youthful idlers upon the streets of
towns and cities should be gathered up by
somebody and compelled to do something. If
they learn nothing else, there will be at least
this salutary lesson, that society is stronger
than they, and without injuring them, will use
its strength to protect itself. While reform
schools are being established for those who
have already started on the downward road, it
would be well to provide some way to rescue
those lingering upon the brink of ruin, and
there is no better way, perhaps, than by com-
pulsory education.

The Press. — The newspaper and the print-
ing press of the present day constitute one
of the most important features of the time and
of the country, and a chronicle that said noth-
ing of their power and influence would be, and
justly, too, considered very incomplete. The
daily paper, by the aid of the telegraph, gives
us to-day all the news that transpired yester-

♦Kentucky State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

198

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

day in the uttermost parts of the earth. And
the county press, the faithful exponent of the
county's interest, is the intellectual criterion
for the masses, and the most popular channel
for general information. It is furthermore a
true record of the county's history ; the very
advertisements in local papers eventually be-
come historical facts, and it is to be regretted
that so few persons seem to appreciate the val-
ue and importance of their county papers.

Montgomery County is well supplied with
local newspapers. In Hillsboro, Litchfield,
Nokomis and Raymond, papers are published
weekly, and it is but justice to them to say
that they are above the medium standard of
newspapers published in country towns. The
papers of each city and town will be fully writ-
ten up, as a part of the history of their respect-
ive places, and are only referred to here in a
general vtny.

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

199

CHAPTER V.*

AGRICULTURE— ITS GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT AS A SCIENCE— THE WAY OUR FATHERS
FARMED — IMPROVED METHODS AND IMPLEMENTS — COUNTY AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIA-
TION—OFFICES, FAIRGROUNDS, ETC— RAILROAD HISTORY— THE INDIANAPOLIS &
ST. LOUIS RAILROAD — DIFFICULTIES ATTENDING ITS CONSTRUCTION
—OTHER RAILROAD ENTERPRISES.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY has the reputa-
tion of being a fine farming section, and
without doubt its claim in this regard is well
founded. While some counties may show more
of rich soil, and while others may be better
adapted to some specialty, yet we believe uot a
county in the State can lay claim to all the ad-
vantages in climate, soil, water, timber and
healthfulness that are justly claimed for this.
While in some sections a certain advantage
may, with propriety, be claimed as peculiar, we
believe no other county combines so many nat-
ural advantages. In some of the more north-
ern counties we find larger crops of corn, and
in some of the more southern, a greater amount
of fruit ; but these specialties, even in the local-
ities named, are not always a certain crop. The
farmer's safest course is a diversity of products,
and .Montgomery County furnishes an example
of soil and climate which make it in an emi-
nent degree fitted for such pursuits.

For a number of years the natural advan-
tages of this region were scarcely appreciated,
as the farming was carried on in such a man-
ner as to obtain results far below those now
realized. Better farm machinery, better meth-
ods of planting and cultivation, and the adop-
tion of crops better suited to the soil have
wrought great changes. In an especial man-
ner is this true in regard to methods of plant-
ing, cultivating, harvesting and taking care of

*By W. H. Perrin.

products. The way that our fathers performed
their farming operations is so little known to
the present generation who depend much upon
farm machinery, and require the horses to do
all the work which men, women and children
formerly did, that a description of the old way,
gathered from conversations with those who
know whereof thej' speak, cannot but prove
interesting to the young farmer of the present
day. Banish all such modern implements as
reapers, mowers, corn-planters, sulky plows,
horse hay-rakes, threshing machines, riding-
cultivators, and some conception may be formed
of the primitive way of farming. The follow-
ing was the mode of planting corn. After the
ground had been plowed with a wooden mold-
board plow (which had to be cleaned every few
rods with a paddle carried for the purpose),
and had been scratched over with a harrow in
which wooden pins were used for teeth, the lit-
tle shovel plow and a single horse were used
for marking out both ways. After the mark-
ing was done, the children, big and little, the
men and the women went into the field, and
while the children with tin pails or small bas-
kets dropped the grains of corn in the crossings,
the others, with great heavy iron hoes covered
or " kivered " it with dirt. After the planting
came the hoeing, now superseded by the im-
proved cultivators. The tending by the single-
shovel plow was common until a few years ago.
But the single shovel plow has had to take its

2(1(1

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

place with the old spinning wheel and loom,
and the} - are now considered as relicts of a
past age.

Harvesting wheat, oats, rye and grass was
formerly a laborious process. Even within the
recollection of comparatively youug men of the
county, the scythe and cradle were counted as
improved implements of husbandry ; but the
reaper and mower, now in use, not only do a
better job, but transfer the hardest of the labor
to the horses. The manner of cleaning the
wheat from the chaff, after it had been tramped
out by horses or oxen, was by pouring it slow-
ly out of a bucket or half-bushel measure, for
the wind to blow the chaff away. Next came
the old "fan-mill," turned by hand. But now
the perfected thresher not only cleans and
separates the wheat from the chaff and straw,
but sacks and counts the number of bushels.

With corn at from 6 to 10 cents per bushel,
oats but little more, wheat at but 25 to 50
cents, and other products in proportion, with
the market at Chicago and St. Louis, it is a
matter of wonder that a farmer succeeded in
obtaining enough for his labor to pay for sav-
ing his crops. It is not difficult to understand
why so much of the county lay for so main-
years without occupants. Of course the
farmer in those days did not ride in carriages,
pay heavy taxes, wear fine clothes, or indulge
in many luxuries ; but they rode to meeting
on horseback or in the farm-wagon, wearing
their every-day apparel done up clean for Sun-
da}', and paid the preacher with a bag of corn
or potatoes, or not at all, as the}- felt able.
Yet, to say that they did not live comfortably
and independently would be a great mistake.
The rifle supplied venison and other game,
and the actual needs of life were all furnished,
though it would seem a great hardship to go
back to what some are pleased to call the
" good old times.''

Fairs. — The farmers of the county turned
their attention to the improvement of agricult-

ure and stock very early. To this end an
agricultural association was formed about the
year 1850, as nearly as can now be ascertained,
but as the records of this association have
been lost or destroyed, but little of it is known
beyond the fact that such an association ex-
isted, and was superseded by the present so-
ciety in 1857. Of the latter, the facts given
herewith are furnished by Mr. William K.
Jackson, Secretary of the association.

The Montgomery County Agricultural So-
ciety, as it is now known, was organized on
Friday, July 3, 1857, at a meeting of a requi-
site number of the legal voters of the county,
all of whom have a voice in the affairs of the
society. Of this meeting, Hiram Rountree
was Chairman, and John W. Kitchell, Secre-
tary. A committee was appointed, consisting
of Benjamin Sammons, A. S. Haskell and
Austin Whitten, to frame a constitution and
code of by-laws. The following gentlemen
were elected officers of the Society, to wit :
Morgan Blair, President ; J. W. Kitchell, Re-
cording Secretary; Solomon Harkey, Treasur-
er ; J. A. Kolston, Corresponding Secretary,
and the following Vice Presidents : Thomas
Standing, Hillsboro ; Robert Little, Audubon ;
James Kirk, Hurricane ; Easton Whitten, Jr.,
East Fork ; James McPavid. Bear Creek ; C.
V. Seymour, Walshville, and John A. Crab-
tree, Litchfield. The following General Com-
mittee was appointed : Henry Philips, William
C. Miller, Henry Richmond, Harrison Brown,
Hillsboro ; William Wright, Daniel Easterday,
Audubon ; Cleveland Coifey, Thomas L. Har-
vey, Hurricane ; Austin Whitten, Ezekiel Bo-
gart, East Fork ; John Price, William Cannon,
Bear Creek ; William Kingston, Joseph Price,
Walshville ; Elihu Boaii, Thomas Hughes,
Litchfield ; Edgar Smith. Benjamin Rogers,
Zanesville ; L. H. Thomas, P. De Witt, Bois
D'Arc. The following resolution was adopted
by the Executive Committee : "Resolved, That
we adopt and indorse as our own. all the pro-

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

201

ceedings of the incorporated association here-
tofore known as the ' Montgomery County Agri-
cultural Society,' and are responsible for all
debts heretofore contracted b} - the same." A
committee, consisting of Henry Richmond, J.
A. Watson and J. W. Kitehell, were appointed
to select and purchase suitable fair grounds for
the use of the society.

The fortune of the society has been some-
what checkered, and from the records it appears
never to have been attended with very great
prosperity as an agricultural association. It
owns very fine grounds southwest of town, and
which, with slight expense, could be so im-
proved, as to render them very beautiful, and
at the same time valuable to the society. But
the grounds and buildings have now a rather
dilapidated appearance, as though little atten-
tion was bestowed upon them.

The present officers are as follows : Moses
Berry, President; Robert Morell and A. G.
Butler, Vice Presidents ; William K. Jackson,
Secretary and Treasurer ; Directors — W. L.
Blackburn. William Brewer, Hillsboro ; A. T.
Withers, Walshville ; Miner S. Goring, Mor-
risonville, and James Young, Nokomis.

The Litchfield Fair. — Mr. Coolidge furnishes
us the following of the Litchfield Agricultural
and Mechanical Association : When, in 1S57,
the permanent location of the County Fair
was in suspense, it was officially announced
that the question would be decided by the
town offering the largest contribution to its
funds. At the specified time, Litchfield offered
a sum at least double any competing town.
But the authorities delayed their award and a
recess was taken. Before re-assembling, a
pledge, which it was well understood would
subsequently be released, was made by .Limes
M. Davis, of Hillsboro, to carry his town to the
top of the list. It was an accommodation
pledge, and was used to secure the location of
the fair at the county seat. The trick, to which
the fair authorities were parties, was remem-

bered when, in 1SG7-0S, Litchfield was re-
proached by a Hillsboro journal in coarse,
scurrilous terms, for not raising a large sum as
a gift to the County Agricultural Society. The
citizens, thus censured, gave reins to their
indignation by organizing the Litchfield Agri-
cultural and Mechanical Association. An
eligible tract of land was bought, near the
southeast corner of the town, and inclosed.
Cattle-pens and stalls were constructed, a half
mile speed-ring prepared, and an amphitheater
for a thousand persons erected, and in October,
1SG8, the first fair was held. John W. Daven-
port was President, P. B. Updike, Treasurer,
and H. A. Coolidge, Secretary. The weather
was of a rigorous character. The wind and
cold had a February ancestry, yet the attend-
ance was large and the fair was a success.
The premium list was liberal, and the awards
were paid. But the cost of the ground and
fencing and buildings remained a dead loss.
The association passed into the hands of
thirteen joint proprietors, who assumed the
debts, and went forward in their improvements.
Fairs were held each 3'ear until 1875, when a
fair was omitted. But the next year the last
one was held, and the association went into liq-
uidation, and the losses were paid by the pro-
prietors. The property was sold, and the con-
cern became a thing of the past. A succession
of vile weather Fair weeks, and the wearing off
of the novelty and the hard times, ate out its
prosperity. But its existence brought its
compensations. It advanced the reputation of
the city for enterprise and courage, and the
money sunk gained for the community char-
acter worth many times the sum swallowed up.
Railroads. — The earliest attempts to con-
struct railroads in the West originated in the
insane desire to enrich that great empire, as it
might be called, by the system of "internal
improvements." This fever of speculation broke
out in different parts of the United States about
the year 1S35, and soon after it appeared in

202

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, leav-
ing, when past, an enormous debt upon each mu-
nicipality or State Government. In Illinois, it
amounted to nearly $15,000,000, while in Penn-
sylvania it was more than double that amount,
and in Ohio and Indiana did not vary far from
it. Examination of the legislative acts of the
Prairie State, at that period, discloses an almost
unbroken line of acts for the construction of
some highway, which was destined to only par-
tially see the light of day in detached parcels,
some of which still remain as silent monuments
of a supreme legislative and popular folly.
When the collapse came in 1837, and work on
all was entirely suspended, only the old " North-
ern Cross Railroad," as it was called, now the
Wabash, was found in a condition fit to war-
rant completion, and that onty a short distance.
It was originally intended to extend from Mere-
dosia through Jacksonville to Springfield, De-
catur and Danville to the Eastern State line,
where it was expected it would be joined to
some road in Indiana, and be continued east-
ward. A vast quantity of old flat- bar rails
had been purchased in England by the agents
of the State, at an enormous expense, too ; and
quite a quantity had been brought to Meredosia,
preparatory to being laid on the track. In the
spring of 1838, some eight miles of this old
track were laid, and on the 8th day of Novem-
ber of that year, a small locomotive, the
" Rogers," made in England, and shipped here
in pieces, was put together, and made a trial
trip on the road. It was the first that ever
turned a wheel in the Mississippi Valley. The
first rail on this road had been laid, with im-
posing ceremonies, on the 9th of May preced-
ing, and on through the summer the work pro-
gressed slowly, until the locomotive made the
pioneer trial trip above described. Only twelve
years before had the first railroad train made
a trip in the new continent, and only a year or
two before this had the first application of
steam been successfully made in this manner
in England.

This pioneer railroad, as stated, is now a part
of the Wabash systeru, a division of which di-
verges from the main line at Decatur, and ex-
tends to St. Louis, passing through the western
part of this county, intersecting the townships
of Harvel, Raj-mond, Zauesville and North and
South Litchfield. It was completed through
in 1870. giving that portion of the county
through which it passes increased railroad
facilities, and forming a valuable improvement
in that section. Further particulars of it will
be found in the chapters on Litchfield.

The oldest railroad in Montgomery County
is the present Indianapolis & St. Louis Rail-
road, whose earliest inception may be traced to
the speculative fever of 1835. When the ap-
propriations for different roads were made, a
route from Terre Haute to Alton was one des-
ignated, and work performed on it in many
places. Contracts were let, portions of the
road were graded, and the workmen were paid
in State paper, which, when the internal im-
provement system began to decline, parti ink of
a downward tendency, and left the creditors in
rather a sad plight. The work dragged for a
time, and was at last wholly suspended as a
result of the hard times following the panic of
1S37. It was not until about 1849, that the
country was aroused from its dormant condi-
tion, when the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad
reached the east line of Illinois, and craved
permission to come in and cross the State on
its way to St. Louis, its western terminus. At
this point, however, it met with a check which
took it years to overcome. A " State Policy "
party sprang up, denying the right of any for-
eign corporation to cross the State, especially
when the effect would be to enrich the neigh-
boring city of St. Louis, a city Alton was
vainly endeavoring to outstrip in the march of
progress, and which she then vainly expected
to do. The " State Policy " party held several
rousing meetings in furtherance of their scheme,
a scheme delusive in its effects upon the State

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

203

at large, and confined mainly to the Alton in-
terest. Counter influences were aroused, meet-
ings were held, and an antagonistic party, much
the inferior at first, began to appear. The cul-
mination came when the Terre Haute, Yandalia
& St. Louis road asked for a charter. The
Baltimore & Ohio road had succeeded in their
endeavor to build their track across the State
mainly brought about by the press foreign to
the State. It had, with one voice, denounced
the " policy " as narrow, selfish, mean, con-
temptible and invidious. It was sustained by
the press in the northern parts of Illinois, and
had already begun to open the eyes of many
influential persons belonging to the policy
party. When the Yandalia road asked for their
charter, the policy party exerted themselves to
the utmost to defeat that, and for a time pre-
vailed.

While these affairs were agitating the State,
Congress had passed an act granting a mag-
nificent domain of land in aid of the Illinois
Central Railroad. The Senators in Congress
from Illinois wrote letters to many influential
men at home, urging upon them the necessity
of being more liberal in their acts to foreign
corporations, and not attempt to arrogate to the
State a right she could not expect to possess.
They further urged that the donation from the
General Government could not have been se-
cured had they not pledged their earnest effort
to wipe out this disgraceful policy. These in-
fluences had their effect. The " Brough" road,
so called from its principal projector, afterward
Governor of Ohio, gained a charter, and were
enabled to begin work on their proposed Yan-
dalia Line. In the meanwhile, influences were
working to build anew the projected roads of
the internal improvement period. The grade
on the old route from Terre Haute to Alton,
was, in many places, in a tolerably good condi-
tion, and only needed energy to push it to a
conclusion. A company was formed, the name
Terre Haute & Alton Railroad adopted, and

work began. Montgomery, in common with
other counties on the route, subscribed aid to
the enterprise. The road was completed from
the west end eastward some distance, and from
Terre Haute west to Mattoon, where it inter-
sected the Chicago Division of the Illinois Cen-
tral, then uncompleted, and in January follow-
ing the breach was closed, and a passenger
train made the entire trip from Terre Haute to
Alton. For awhile, it transferred freight and
passengers here to boats, and sent them to St.
Louis, so strong was the Alton interest against
that city. This, however, could not always en-
dure, and the coal road from one city to the
other was purchased, and trains run down on
that. That changed the name to the Terre
Haute, Alton & St. Louis Railroad. When the
route was extended eastward from Terre Haute
to Indianapolis, the name was again changed
to the Indianapolis & St. Louis Railroad, by
which it is now known.

Montgomery County subscribed $50,000 stock
in this road, while the city of Hillsboro also
took an active interest in it, as will be found in a
subsequent chapter. The county has sold her
stock to Eastern capitalists, the sale of the last
$25,000 having been recently made. The road
has become involved in late years, and is at the
present writing, we have been informed, upon
the eve of being sold. It has been for some
time controlled by the Bee Line — an Ohio road
— by which the latter makes its connections with
roads diverging from St. Louis for the West,
and of which system it will in all probability
eventually become a permanent division.

Another Montgomery County road, now in
course of construction, is the Jacksonville
Southeastern Railway. This project has been
in process of agitation some twelve or fifteen
years, and is now completed, and trains are
running from Jacksonville to Litchfield. The
original intention was to extend the road from
Jacksonville in a southeastern direction to Ceu-
tralia, or Mount Vernon, or some eligible point,

204

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

either on the Illinois Central Railroad, or in
that section of the State. Several routes have
been laid out and surveys made through this
and Bond Counties. Through some lukewarm-
ness or indifference on the part of the people or
cities, both Hillsboro and Greenville have failed
in obtaining this road, it passing a little west
of Hillsboro and crossing the Vandalia line at
Smithboro, some three miles west of Green-
ville. The road will, probably, be completed
though at no distant day, and if it does no
more, will become a valuable feeder to the East
and West roads which it crosses. The cities

which sat still and let it pass around them, per-
haps, know what they are doing, but to an out-
side looker on, their acts seem scarcely up to
the present standard of railroad enterprise.

A narrow-guage railroad is also in course of
construction through Bond and Montgomery,
passing near the line between the two counties.
But in this day of railroads and railroad enter-
prise, a narrow-guage road is hardly looked
upon as of sufficient importance to create even
a small ripple of excitement. Of this road we
learned but little, except that there is such an
enterprise in existence.

HISTOKY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

205

CHAPTER VI.*

WAR HISTORY — MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR — MUSTER ROLLS OF COM-
PANIES—THE MEXICAN WAR— SOLDIERS FROM THE COUNTY— THE GREAT CIVIL WAR
OF 1861— THE DIFFERENT REGIMENTS, OFFICERS, ETC.— LITCHFIELD'S
PARTICIPATION— INCIDENTS, ETC., ETC.

" Dufoe ct decorum fat pro patria mori."

ALL readers of American historj- are famil-
iar with the questions that led to our
Revolutionary struggle, and eventually culmi-
nated in the independence of the original thir-
teen colonies. The results of that war secured
to us the liberty and freedom we to-day enjoy.
Smarting under the humiliation of defeat, the
mother country lost few opportunities to oppress
and insult her former colonies and their people.
In resentment of these oft-repeated insults, fol-
lowed, what is known in our history, as the
" War of 1812," and another chastisement of
the British Lion. These wars occurred before
there were any white settlements made in the
present count}- of Montgomery. Many of the
pioneers, however, of the county, had partici-
pated in one or the other of these wars, and in
the Indian wars of the frontier. As boys, they
had fought savages with their mothers and
sisters in their cabins ; in youth and ripe man-
hood they had fought them in ambuscade and
in open fields, and felt themselves a match for
any foe, white or red. But it was several years
after the close of the war of 1812 before the
whites took possession of what is now Mont-
gomery County, and hence it cannot be said
that the county participated in our last war
with Great Britain.

The Black Hawk. — This was the first conflict
in which the people of Montgomery County
were called upon the take part. As soon as

* By. W. H. Perrin.

the war had assumed a serious aspect, Col.
Stillman led a small force against the savages,
but was signally defeated by overwhelming
numbers. Upon the defeat of Stillman, Gov.
Reynolds deemed it expedient to call out troops
to defend the more exposed settlements of his
State, and at the same time check the operation
of Black Hawk. He called for volunteers to
rendezvous at Peru, in La Salle Count}-, and in
response, Dr. Levi D. Boone, a scion of the old
Daniel Boone stock, recruited a compan} r in
Montgomery County, and was sworn into service
April 20, 1832. From the " Rountree Letters "
published in the Hillsboro Democrat, we eopy
the muster-roll of this company, and of a com-
pany made up subsequently by Capt. Rountree.
The roll of Boone's company is as follows :

Levi D. Boone, Captain ; James G. Human,
First Lieutenant ; Absalom Cress. Second
Lieutenant ; C. B. Blockberger, First Sergeant ;
M. H. Walker, Second Sergeant ; Israel Fogle-
man, Third Sergeant ; William McDavid,
Fourth Sergeant ; J. Prater, First Corporal ;
A. T. Williams, Second Corporal ; C. S. Coffey,
Third Corporal ; Newton Street, Fourth Corpo-
ral.

Privates — William D. Shirley, Peter Cress,
George E. Ludwick, George W. Conyers, A. H.
Knapp, J. B. Williams, John Crabtree, Eastin
Whitten, Samuel Peacock, Michael Ternan,
Robert A. Long, E. Kilpatrick, Daniel Steel,
Thomas J. Todd, Johnson Hampton, Stephen
Killingworth, McKenzie Turner, Samuel Ish-

206

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

rnael, James Brown, Samuel Briggs, James
Hawkins, Harrison Brown, Benjamin R. Will-
iams, Eli Robb, James Young, John K. Mc-
Williams, James M. Rutledge, Thomas Mans-
field, William Griffith, James Grisham, Benja-
min Holbrook, William Jordon, William Rob-
erts, Barnabas Michaels, Joshua Hunt and
Hiram C. Bennett. They served through the
campaign for which they volunteered (one
mouth) and were mustered out May 28, 1832,
at the mouth of Fox River. The Indians being
still far from subdued, the Governor made
another call for troops, and under this second
call, Hiram Rountree raised a company in this
county, of which the following is the roll :

Hiram Roundtree, Captain ; John Kirkpat-
rick. First Lieutenant ; Thomas Philips, Second
Lieutenant ; A. K. Gray, First Sergeant ; John
Stine, Second Sergeant ; Samuel Jackson, Third

Sergeant ; Fourth Sergeant ;

Spartan Grisham, First Corporal ; Malachi
Smith, Second Corporal ; Thomas McAdams,
Third Corporal ; Thomas Edwards, Fourth Cor-
poral.

Privates — Luke Lee Steel, Thomas Sturtevant,
George Harkej', Jacob Rhodes, John McCurry,
Malcom McPhail, A. Forehand, John M. Holmes,
John K. Long, Joseph Burke, William Harkey,
Alfred Johnson, David T. McCullock, Samuel
Paisley, William Young, William Jones, Thomas
Evans, J. M. McWilliams, John Hanna, John
Brown, Jesse Johnson, Samuel Bennett, (Quar-
termaster), C. C. Aydelot, Thomas Wood, Thomas
Johnson, A. McCullock, James Cardwell. Thos.
Early, Willis Rose, Zeb. Shirley, W. S. Williams,
Thomas C. Hughes, John Hart, S. W. Booher,
Alexander Gray, Thomas W. Heady, John
( lorlew, Harace Mansfield, Thomas Potter, John
Briggs, J. W. Wilson, D. M. Williams. David
Copeland, James Potter, James Wilson, Thomas
Gray, James M. Berry, John Slater, Thomas
Williford, James Lockerman, Robert McCul-
lock, John Duncan, Levi D. Boone (Surgeon),
William Griffith, Cleveland Coffey aud William

McDavid. The men, so far as they were able
furnished their own arms, horses and other ac-
couterments. and marched to the place of ren-
dezvous near Peru, where they arrived about the
20th of June, 1832. The company continued
in the service until the defeat of Black Hawk,
at Bad Ax, which terminated the war.

The Mexican War. — After the close of the
Black Hawk war, Montgomery County remained
at peace with all mankind until Mexico ruffled
the feathers of the American Eagle. The war
with Mexico grew out of the annexation of
Texas, formerly a province of Mexico, to the
United States. Texas had revolted from Mexico,
and at the battle of San Jacinto, where her army
had captured Santa Anna, then Commander-in-
chief of Mexico, and most of his army had forced
him to acknowledge her independence. Mexico,
however, paid no attention to this acknowledg-
ment, but contiuued the guerrilla warfare, and
used every means to annoy the Texans. Many
people from the States had settled in Texas, and
propositions from this time on were made by
them to admit Texas into the Union. These
propositions were favored by the Democratic
party, but strongly opposed by the Whigs. In
the Presidential campaign of 1844, the annexa-
tion of Texas was made one of the chief issues
of the contest, and Mr. Polk, the Democratic
Candidate, was elected. This was taken as an
endorsement of the question by the people, and
early in the year 1S45, Texas was admitted into
the sisterhood of States. Mexico at once broke
off all diplomatic relations with the United
States, called home her minister and prepared
for war, which soon followed.

Illinois, with that spirit of patriotism that
has always characterized her, responded heart-
ily to the call for troops. Under an act of Con-
gress, the President was authorized to order
out 50,000 men, and Illinois was required to
furnish three regiments. These were made up
without delay, and rendezvoused at Alton.
The First regiment was commanded by the

^inn^UD

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

209

brave Col. John J. Hardin, of Jacksonville,
who fell in the battle of Bueua Vista, in the
same charge with the lamented Clay and Mc-
Kee, of Kentucky. The Second regiment was
commanded by Col. Bissell of the southern
part of the State, and contained a large propor-
tion of Germans, while the Third regiment was
commanded by Col. Foreman, of Vandalia. It
contained a Company from Montgomery Coun-
ty ninety-six strong, under the following
commissioned officers : James C. McAdams,
Captain ; Thomas Rhodes, First Lieutenant;
John Burk, Second Lieutenant ; and John Cur-
lew, Third Lieutenant. The names of the pri-
vate and non-commissioned officers cannot now
be given. Many of them are dead, and others
have moved away and are forgotten. Under
the second call for troops, Illinois furnished
another regiment, which was commanded by
Col. Baker, of Cairo. These four regiments
comprise the quota of Illinois in the Mexican
war, and formed the starting point for the
numbering of her regiments in the late civil
war — her first regimeut being known as the
Fifth Infantry.

As stated, it is impossible now to give the
names of all those who went into the Mexican
war from Montgomery County Man}' are now
dead, and others have moved away and are for-
gotten. Many have also moved into the coun-
ty, who went into the service from other States,
and other counties of this State. Suffice it,
they did their duty as Illinois soldiers always
have done, before, as well as since.

The Civil War. — After the close of the Mexi-
can war. the country remained in comparative
peace for more than a decade.

A storm, however, had been gathering, and
more than once had threatened to burst in fury
upon the country, but after spending itself in
low-muttered thunder, had passed over. But
the political atmosphere was still heavy and
oppressive, and it required no prophet to foresee

the approaching tempest. The great question
of slavery, which had been in agitation for a
quarter of a century, culminated in the election
of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency in 1860,
by a party supposed to be hostile to Southern
institutions, and the result was the " Great Re-
bellion" — a civil war without parallel in the
annals of history. To go into the details of
this war, would be to open afresh wounds now
rapidly healing ; but a history of a county,
which said nothing of its war history, would, at
least, be incomplete, and hence, a brief space in
this chapter will be devoted to the part taken
by Montgomery County in the late war be-
tween the States. Upon the fall of Fort Sum-
ter, a blaze of excitement swept over the
loyal States, and aroused the people to instant
action. The roll of the drum was heard in
every city, town and hamlet, and the sturdy yeo-
manry rushed to the defense of their coun-
try.

"The herds without a keeper strayed.
The plow was in mid-furrow stayed,"

while the men, imbued with the spirit of
their Revolutionary sires, gave themselves to
the service of the Government.

The Ninth Illinois Infantry, was the first
regiment that drew on Montgomery for troops.
Company C, of the Ninth, was made up aimost
entirely in this county, and the Lieutenant Col-
onel of the regiment, Judge J. J. Philips, is too
well known to our readers to require any eulo-
gy here. The commissioned officers of Compa-
ny C were Jacob Miller, Captain ; A. J. Shel-
don, First Lieutenant ; and George Short, Sec-
ond Lieutenant. The latter was killed in bat-
tle November 23, 1864, and John Droesch pro-
moted to Second Lieutenant. Capt. Miller,
Lieut. Sheldon and Droesch, were mustered out
with the regiment July 0, 1865.

The Ninth Infantry was one of the six regi-
ments which was allotted to Illinois under the
President's first call for 75,000 men for three

210

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

months.* It was organized at Springfield, and
mustered into the service April 28, 1861, when
it was ordered to Cairo, and brigaded under
Gen. B. M. Prentiss. At the end of its three-
months' service, about five hundred of its men
re-enlisted for three years, and on the 26th of Ju-
ly, 1861, was mustered into the United States'
service. The zeal with which recruiting was
kept up during the summer of 1861 enabled
the Ninth to number 1,040 men by the 1st of
September. The regiment was ordered to
Paducah. Ky., where it passed the winter, en-
gaging in numerous expeditions in Western
and Southern Kentucky. In February, it moved
up the Tennessee River, and, as a part of Col.
McArthur's brigade, participated in the battle
of Fort Donelsou, in which it lost thirty-five
men killed, and had 166 wounded. March 6,
1S62, it embarked for Paducah, from Nashville,
where it had been for some time, and proceed-
ed to Pittsburg Landing. It engaged in the
battle of Shiloh April 6, and sustained a loss of
sixty-one killed and 287 wounded. Out of the
twenty-six commissioned officers who went
into action, twenty-one were either killed or
wounded.

The Ninth, during the advance on Corinth,
formed a part of the brigade commanded by
Brig. Gen. R. J. Oglesby, and on the evacua-
tion of Corinth, was attached to the Third Ar-
my Corps, under the command of Maj. Gen.
John Pope, and pursued the retreating enemy
to Booneville. In the battle of Corinth, Oc-
tober 3 and 4, it lost nineteen killed and eighty-
two wounded and fifty-two prisoners. After
this the regiment served mostly in Mississippi,
where it performed the most arduous service.
The Adjutant General's report of the State,
from which these facts are gleaned, sets down

* Under the three months' service, the Montgomery County Com ■
pany was H, and was officered as follows : J. J. Philips, Captaiu ; J.
W. Kitchell, First Lieutenant, and William F. Armstrong, Second
Lieutenant. Philips was promoted to Major, during its three
months' service, and, on its organization for three years, to Lieuten-
ant Colonel. Kitchell was promoted Captain in the place of Philips
and James Munn became First Lieutenant. Armstrong entered
another regiment at the close of the three-months' service, where
he served faithfully, and rose to the rank of Major.

the number of battles and skirmishes, in which
the Ninth participated, at 110, beginning with
Saratoga. Ky., October 15, 1861, and ending
with "near" Neuse River, N. C, April 10,
1865. The regiment was mustered out of the
service July 9, 1865. and discharged.

The One Hundred and Seventeenth Illinois In-
fantry received a company from the county,
principally from Hillsboro, and the immediate
vicinity. This was Company B, and was offi-
cered as follows : Robert Mc Williams, Captain:
Frank H. Gillmore, First Lieutenant, and
George W. Potter, Second Lieutenant. Mc-
Williams was promoted to Major, and resigned
January 29, 1865. Gillmore was promoted to
Captain, Potter to first Lieutenant, James M.
Truitt to Second Lieutenant, and all mustered
out with the regiment August 5, 1865.

The One Hundred and Seventeenth was or-
ganized at Camp Butler, in September, 1862,
by Col. R. M. Moore, and mustered into the
service by Capt. Washington, of the United
States Army, on the 19th of the same month.
It left Camp Butler on the 11th of November
for Memphis, Tenu., where it arrived on the
17th, and where it remained until July, 1863,
when it was sent to Helena, Ark., but soon af-
ter returned. It was next (in December) sent
against Gen. Forrest in Western Tennessee, and,
in a skirmish with him at La Fayette, lost three
men killed. It was engaged in the operations
around Vicksburg, and served in Mississippi.
Louisaua and Arkansas, and September 19,
1864, arrived at Jefferson Barracks. For two
months it operated in Missouri, returning to St.
Louis November 19, when it embarked for
Nashville, Tenn., and took position in the works
there December 1, 1864. It was engaged in
the battle of Nashville December 15 and 16,
and took part in the pursuit of Hood's army.
Afterward it proceeded to New Orleans, where
it arrived January 17, 1865. It participated in
a number of battles and skirmishes, ending in
the capture of Blakely on the 9th of April.

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

211

It marched for Montgomery April 13, and then
to Camp Butler, 111., where it was mustered out
of service August 3, 1S65, by Capt. James A.
Hall.

The regiment, during its term of service,
traveled by rail 778 miles ; by water, C,191
miles, and marched 2,307 miles.

The One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Illinois
Infantry had also a company from this county.
Daniel W. Munn, of Hillsboro, was Adjutant
of the regiment, and Company D was from
Montgomery County, and went out with the
following commissioned officers: L. R. Slaugh-
ter, Captain; E. T. Somers, First Lieutenant,
and J. W. Newberry, Second Lieutenant.
Slaughter resigned July 23. 186-4. and Somers
promoted to Captain in his place, and as such
mustered out with the regiment July 12, 1SG5.
Louis Wagner was promoted to First Lieuten-
ant, in the place of Somers, and mustered out
as such. Second Lieut. Newberry died Sep-
tember 3, 1863, when James M. Boone became
Second Lieutenant, and was mustered out with
the regiment.

This regiment was organized at Alton, and
mustered into service September 4, 1862, by
Col. Richmond, who served as its Colonel until
March 3, 1S64, when he resigned. It served
in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, and
participated in the siege of Yicksburg. It took
part in the capture of Little Rock, Ark., and in
the fight at Clarendon, Ark., June 26, 1864.
It was in active service from the time of its
enlistment until the close of the war, and on
the 12th of July, 1865, it was uuistered out
and discharged.

The One Hundred aud Forty-third Infantry,
enlisted for one hundred days, contained a
company (H) from Montgomery, which was
officered as follows: James G. Seward, Captain;
William R. Truesdell, First Lieutenant, and
George P. Fowler, Second Lieutenant. The
regiment was organized at Mattoon, and mus-
tered into service June 11, 1864, for one hun-

dred days, under the command of Col. IX C.
Smith. It served in Tennessee and Arkansas,
aud on the 10th of September returned to Mat-
toon, where, on the 26th, it was mustered out
of service.

The First Illinois Cavalry was represented
by a company from this county, viz.: Company
E. Its commissioned officers were as follows:
Paul Walters, Captain; Isaac Skillman. First
Lieutenant, and Morgan Blair, Second Lieuten-
ant, all of whom were mustered out with their
regiment. The First Cavalry was organized
July 1, 1861, and entered the service for one
year. Of its operations we have no account,
as the Adjutant General's Report of the State
gives none, beyond its muster-roll, and that it
was mustered out July 12, 1S62, at the close
of its term of service.

Additional to the foregoing, Mr. Coolidge
furnishes us the following, as the '-war history' 1
of Litchfield and immediate vicinity:

•• News of the firing on Fort Sumter was
caught from the wires on Sundaj' evening, and
the fuller details came the next day in the
morning dailies. A call was instantly issued
for a public meeting in the evening, at Empire
Hall. The hall was crowded with men.
Speaker after speaker was called to address his
fellow-citizens, aud declare his sentiments as to
the Republic. There was but one opinion.
War had begun. Force must be repelled De-
force, and fort}' men responded that evening to
the call for 75,000 troops to preserve the
Union. In three daj"s, the company had a hun-
dred and twenty rank and file, and with B. M.
.Munn as Captain, and E. Southworth and M.
P. Miller as Lieutenants, had departed to
Springfield to become a part of the first Illinois
regiment raised. For a few weeks the regiment
was quartered at Alton, then ordered to Cairo,
where Gen. Graut was in command. It com-
pleted its extended period of enlistment at
Mound City. The company saw no hostile
Hag, and heard no hostile bullet. Only the

212

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Captain and a few of his men re-enlisted for
three years. The first exaltation of feeling was
over, and the soldiers came home, some to
enter other organizations, and the most to labor
for daily bread, for no county can long keep on
the field over four per cent of its population.

" The three months' volunteers being in the
field, steps were taken to enlist a company for
three years. The attempt was speedily success-
ful, and under Delos Van Deuzen, Captain, and
L. G. Perley and P. G. Galvin, Lieutenants, and
R. W. Short, First Sergeant, the company was
mustered into service at St. Louis June 1G,
1861, as Company H, Sixth Missouri Volun-
teers, Col. Blood commanding. No regiment
was then forming in Illinois. This Litchfield
preferred to go into a foreign regiment, if it
was necessary, in order to gain a recognized
military status. Guarding Pilot Knob until
November, the regiment then proceeded to
Springfield, via St. Louis and Tipton, forming
a part of the army under Fremont, which
this leader marched to fight Gen. Price, but
which Hunter led into pacific quarters, under
the shelter of St. Louis. Wintering at Otter-
ville, the Sixth, in April, departed for Pitts-
burg Landing, and joined the army before
Corinth, being the First of the First Brigade,
Second Division, Fifteenth Army Corps, com-
manded in succession by Sherman, Blair and
Logan, went down the railroad to Memphis.
The regiment preserved this position through
its campaigns.

" In December, 1862, the Sixth bore a bloody
part in the assault on Chickasaw Bayou, leav-
ing eighty men dead before the walls. This
was the first sharp affair in which it partici-
pated. Then it assisted at the capture of
Arkansas Post, and, returning, was detained by
high water at Young's Point, opposite Vicks-
burg, until May, 1863, when it crossed the
Mississippi thirty miles below, and advanced
on Jackson. That town taken, the regiment
bore its flag through the battles which sent

Johnson whirling to the rear, and cleared the
way to the successful investment of Pembertou
in his stronghold. When Vicksburg surren-
dered, the regiment assisted in the recapture
of Jackson, and it was stationed in winter quar-
ters on Black River until ordered to move to
the relief of Chattanooga. The Sixth was the
first regiment to cross the river against Mis-
sion Ridge, and was on picket duty for
sixty consecutive hours. In November, the
regiment marched to the aid of Burnside,
beleaguered at Knoxville, going light, without
baggage or provisions, and foraging for food
while advancing forty- miles a day. In the
springoflS64.it re-enlisted as veterans, and
were furloughed home for sixty days, and Capt.
Van Deuzen went back as Lieutenant Colonel,
commanding the regiment. Lieut. Galvin was
promoted to Major, and Sergeant R. M. Short
was made Captain of his company. A portion
of the winter, the regiment lay at Huntsville.
In May, 1864, the advance on Atlanta began,
and Company H saw bloody service at Resaca,
Dallas and Kenesaw Mountain. July 22, 1864,
its depleted ranks fought on the field where
McPherson fell, and six clays later burnt powder
at Jonesboro, and Atlanta was fairly taken.
Hood, throwing himself on Sherman's commu-
nications, the latter marched to the north until
his antagonist was beyond the Tennessee, and
too far from his base of supplies to be trouble-
some. Then leaving him to the stern mercies
of Gen. Thomas, Shermau disappeared in the
direction of the sea, to reach tide-water about
Christmas. The Sixth, led the sharp assault
of Fort McAlister, whose capture restored the
connection between the army and the fleet sent
to meet it with indispensable supplies.

"The regiment was a Columbia, and win-
ning fields by rapid marching even more than
by fighting; fired its last shot on Goldsboro,
and was present at the surrender of Johnston
at Raleigh; having kept step to the music of
the Union in a hundred fights in nine States,

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

213

and marched in proud triumph in the grand
review at Washington, the regiment was hon-
orably mustered out of service at St. Louis, in
September, 1865, only a remnant having sur-
vived the perils of battle and the more deadly
camp.

" Many Litchfield men enlisted in companies
recruited elsewhere. Some of them were with
Zagonyi in his mad charge at Springfield, one
against ten — a dash indefensible by military
rules, but in its consequences hardly less val-
uable than a battle gained. Others were sur-
rendered at Lexington. They fought at Pea
Ridge ; they did Garrison duty at St. Louis and
Camp Butler ; they were in the gunboat serv-
ice; they bled at Fort Donelson and suffered
and lived through the horrors of Andersonville.

" In August, 1861 , half a company of cavalry
was enlisted here, and being refused admission
to an Illinois regiment, completed an informal
organization and became Company C, First
Missouri Cavalry. While at St. Louis, the com-
pany received recruits from home until the
ranks were full. James Barrett was elected
Captain, a position from which he retired in a
few months, on account of deafness. The regi-
ment took possession of Lexington on Gen.
Price's retreat to avoid Fremont, and joined
the latter's army at Warsaw. His body guard
and two companies of the First Regiment were
sent forward to disperse a small force at
Springfield, and Company C in Zagonyi's fa-
mous charge learned they were one against ten.
The company wintered at Leavenworth, and for
two years were fighting Quantrell and the
guerrillas. At Pleasant Hill, Quantrell lost
seventy-five men, while the Federals were weak-
ened by about a dozen killed and wounded.
In 1863, the regiment entered Davidson's Di-
vision at Clarendon, back of Helena, and slowly
approached Little Rock, which was captured
with slight loss. In 1864, the regiment then
dismounted, formed the advance guard of
Steele's army to co-operate with Banks' Red

River expedition. The First Missouri was
under fire forty days of the forty-one, while
absent ; on five days in severe battles. At
the last one, at the crossing of the Saline,
Kirby Smith lost his artillery, and Steele sac-
rificed 1,200 wagons on his retreat. In August,
1864, the regiment was discharged on the ex-
piration of its term of enlistment. There re-
remained in the city and its neighborhood only-
four or five of the riders who fought Quantrell.
" In 1862, E. Southworth began to raise the
fourth entire company in the city. Isaac Skill-
man soon co-operated with him, and when the
ranks were full, was elected Captain ; M. Pack
and J. Reubart, Lieutenants. The company
was assigned the post of honor in the Ninety-
first Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Col. Day com-
manding, and being ordered to Kentucky, was
captured by John Morgan, at Elizabethtown.
and paroled and sent home. Being at length
exchanged, the regiment was sent South and'
put on outpost duty near Galveston. Thence,
in 1865, it was ordered to New Orleans, and
saw active service at Mobile, where it bore an
honorable part in the capture of Fort Blakely.

" Three entire companies raised here were
incorporated in Missouri regiments, in addition
to several detachments enlisted here, by Lieu-
tenants Gurney, Henderson, Perkins and others.
Lieut. Perley was promoted to the Captaincy
of Company K, and was killed by falling from
a window in Memphis. Lieutenants White
and Henderson, Pack and Reubart, and Ser-
geants Short, V. Hoffman, and private W. Ed-
gar, rose to Captaincies.

" While the city thus sent her hundreds into
the field, the men who could not go had an
onerous duty to perform at home. A member
of the Golden Circle visited a friend here in
the critical time when trouble was apprehended
in this county. ' I understand,' said he, ' that
you have 4,000 stand of arms at the service of
the Union League.' ' Certainly. I will show
you a specimen of our guns,' and going to a

214

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

neighbor be borrowed his Ballard rifle. ' This,'
said he, ' is a specimen of one-half our sup-
ply,' and producing a sixteen-shooter Henry
rifle and explaining its construction and ef-
ficiency, ' this is the pattern of the other half.'
The euiissaiy of the Golden Circle was dis-
mayed, and bis report to the Order was in-
structive, and bore an obvious moral. Before
this incident, parts of the Circle had been
established in this county, and for a short time
one met in the city. Military reviews or drills
were held in the close neighborhood. At least
three public addresses were made here by its
orators, usually by way of a surprise, and the
local speakers still live under an immeasurable
weight of public odium. A Democratic Club
was formed, which met each evening to hear
read the latest war news, and an invitation was
sought to address it by the Colonel of the Golden
Circle regiment, which, in military array, had
stalked through Hillsboro. The invitation was
refused, and only by an abuse of authority and
courtesy was he permitted to ascend its plat-
form. The club was so deeply offended that it
never met again. It was about this date that
no one was permitted to call himself a Demo-
crat unless he was hostile to the further prose-
cution of the war. The writer saw and suf-
fered from the zeal and malevolence of the
disloyal element. But it is true that in pro-
portion to their numbers, as many Democrats
enlisted and served in the war as Republicans.
Three of the four captains who raised com-
panies here were Democrats, as were a majority
of the rank and file.

"Isaac Skillman, in the spring of 1861, en-
listed half a company of cavalry which be-
came a part of an Illinois regiment. The

command was taken prisoners at Lexing-
ton, paroled and sent home. D. W. Hender-
son, Belmont Perkins, Al Gurnee and others
enlisted men here who were mustered into
Missouri regiments. For a time the fervor for
enlisting was such that volunteers, being re-
fused in Illinois, went into Missouri regiments.
At least COO men were raised here, quite one-
half the entire force supplied by the county,
and the city, in draft times, received no credit
for its sons fighting under the flags of other
States .

" Litchfield responded promptly to each call
for troops, and what sort of men she furnished
can be seen in her record of pensioners, and on
the headstones of national cemeteries. She
did her duty — no town could do more — and
the Divine thing, which is duty, is always great,
and always equally great. It is as great in the
sentinel, pacing at midnight his narrow round,
as in the General who gains his fame by hurl-
ing redoubtable squadrons against intrepid
foes to whom the day of battle is a time of
of joy."

This comprises a very brief, and, perhaps,
imperfect sketch of Montgomery County's war
history — a history that runs through three
wars. How many men the county furnished to
the national armies, in the late civil war, it is
impossible to say, as many enlisted in regi-
ments organized in other States, and for whom
Montgomery County received no credit. Those
who survived the conflict, have their reward in
the knowledge that the old flag still floats over
all the States ; those who fell in the fight, and
rest in soldier's graves, are embalmed in the
nation's history.

HILLSBORO TOWNSHIP.

215

CHAPTER VTL*

HILLSBORO TOWNSHIP— DESCRIPTION, BOUNDARIES AND TOPOGRAPHY— ITS EARLY SETTLEMENT
—THE McADAMSES, RUTLEDGES, BOONES, AND OTHER PIONEERS— HARD LIFE OF THE
PEOPLE— THEIR ROUGH HABITS, COARSE FARE AND SEVERE DUTY— THE PRIMI-
TIVE CABIN AND ITS COMFORTS— MILLS, ROADS AND BRIDGES-
EARLY SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, ETC., ETC.

"Our grandmothers long have reposed in the tomb;
With a strong, healthy race they have peopled
the land;
They worked with the spindle, they toiled at the
loom,
Nor lazily brought up their babies by band."

— Eugene Hall.

TT^AR across the dense woodlands of Indiana,
-L beyond where Ohio's placid waters roll
onward toward the Mississippi, and yet still
farther on. among the grand old forests and
gushing springs and fertile plains of Kentucky,
Tennessee and North Carolina, came the pio-
neers of this section of the county. Many of
them left homes of comfort behind them, others
but a small farm upon which they lived and
rented by the year, and which barely gave them
a support. All came to better their condition,
to secure cheap lands, and to finally enable
them to give their children a start in the world.
Their journey hither was a hard one, and well
calculated to discourage men of lesser energy.
To those who settled the territory, now em-
braced in Hillsboro Township, their trials and
hardships, their toils and dangers, the pages
following are inscribed.

The township of Hillsboro occupies a posi-
tion a little south of the center of the county,
and is bounded on the north by Butler Grove
Township, on the east by East Fork Township
on the south by Grisham Township, and on the
west by South Litchfield Township. It is most-

»By W. H. Pen-in.

ly of uneven surface, rolling and somewhat hilly
along the water-courses, breaking, in places, in-
to bluffs, and when first seen by white men, the
larger portion was covered with timber. Nearly
all of it, however, is susceptible of cultivation,
and produces fine crops of corn, oats and wheat.
The timber is principally oak, sugar-maple, Cot-
tonwood, elm, walnut, ash, pecan, hickory, etc.,
etc. The land is drained by Shoal Creek and
its tributaries. Middle Fork of Shoal Creek
passes nearly through the center of the town-
ship in an almost southwest direction, while the
West Fork flows through the western part to
the southward, and unites with Middle Fork
near the south line. Brush Creek is a small
stream in the northwest corner and empties in-
to the West Fork, while there are several other
insignificant streams that are nameless on the
maps. Hillsboro, since the date of township
organization (1873) has corresponded in size
with the Congressional survey, embracing with-
in its limits thirty -six sections of land lying in
a square.

The settlement of Hillsboro Township dates
back to 1817 or 1818, and was among the first
settlements made in the county. Look at the
dates, 1817—1882! Sixty-five years stands
between these milestones. Half that number
is the average of a generation's lifetime, and
hence, two generations have come and gone
since the beginning of the settlement in what
now forms Hillsboro Township. Among its
early pioneers we may mention the names of

216

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

the Killpatricks, Joseph McAdams, Jarvis
Forehand, William Clark. Dr. Levi D. Boone
James Rutledge, Solomon Prewitt, John Till-
son, David McCoy, Nicholas Lockerman, the
Wrights, Benjamin Rose, Hiram Rountreev
Alexander McWilliams, Roland Shepherd, John
Norton, D. B. Jackson, Gordon B. Crandall,
Joel Smith and a number of others whose
names cannot be recalled.

Joseph McAdams, the progenitor of the Mc-
Adams family, at whose house the first courts
were held, settled some three miles southwest
of the present town of Hillsboro. The Mc-
Adams family was a prominent one, and many
descendants of the patriarch, whose name is
mentioned above, still reside in the count}*, and
are useful and worth}' citizens. Joseph Mc-
Adams raised a family of nine sons and three
daughters, and it is a remarkable fact that not
one of them — father, mother, sons and daugh-
ters — but are dead, and, with perhaps, a single
exception, the husbands and wives are also
dead.

"The mother that infant's affection approved,
The husband that mother and infant who blessed,
Each, all, are away to their dwellings of rest."

All were prominent citizens, but John only
held office, and was one of the first County
Commissioners. Joseph, the patriarch of the
family, died many years ago, leaving a name
untarnished. He was the first Coroner of Mont-
gomery County, but never aspired to office ;
one of his sons died on a place settled by Will-
iam Clark, mentioned above as one of the early
settlers of the township. But our space will
not admit of a detailed sketch of this large
family.

About two miles west of Hillsboro, and near
where the first county seat (Hamilton) was laid
out, David Killpatrick settled. He was of Irish
descent, well educated, and said to be one of
the finest mathematicians of his day in the
county. A man of stern integrity, useful and
intelligent, he was often elected to the office of

the Justice of the Peace. He. too, raised a
large family, and has many descendants living
in the county. It was a daughter of his,
Martha Killpatrick, who married Dr. Garner,
the first doctor that ever practiced medicine in
the county. Near Killpatrick, Joel Smith set-
tled. He was the step-father of David B. Starr,
who is prominently mentioned elsewhere in this
work. David B. Jackson and James Rutledge
settled where Hillsboro now stands, and were
early hotel-keepers. They are more especially
noticed in connection with the earl}' history of
the city. Of Mr. Rutledge we extract the fol-
lowing from the Rountree Letters : " In an
early day, he cut a conspicuous figure in our
county, having served as Constable for many
years, and incidentally as Deputy Sheriff, and
many times have we seen him ' cheek by jowl'
with some horse-thief or other violator of the law,
We remember one fact of him, that he put in our
old log jail the first prisoners we ever saw go
to jail, a couple of horse thieves, by the names
of Parks and Means. ' Uncle Jimmy ' also
served in the Legislature as a Representative
from this county. Indeed it may be remarked
of him that he always took a large interest in
the welfare of our county and our people. He
was always at their service, and ever free to
express his opinions on all subjects."

Benjamin Rose was an early settler south of
Hillsboro, near where the old woolen factory
stands. He married a widow, who had two
children by a former husband, William and
Charles Linxwiler, whom he raised, and who
became well-known citizens. He afterward set-
tled a place known as the " Linn Knoll," near
Brush Creek. He had two brothers, who were
also early settlers, and both of whom are now
dead. Other settlers soon flocked around
" Linn Knoll," among whom were George H.
Anderson, Robert Mann, Mark Rutledge, Will-
iam Knight, John Bostick, James Grantham,
James Wiley, etc., etc., all excellent men and
citizens. Anderson had a large family ; most

HILLSBORO TOWNSHIP.

217

of those living reside in Christian Count}'.
His wife was a daughter of Robert Mann, who
is long since dead. Knight and his wife and
most of their family are dead. John Bostick
and his aged father, Ezra, a soldier of the
Revolutionary war, have likewise gone to that
land, " whose sands bear the marks of no re-
turning footprints." James Wiley and his good
old father, Aquilla Wiley, have followed them.
Thus the pioneers have passed away, leaving
but few of their number who stand "like the
scattered stalks that remain in the field when
the tempest has swept over it."

Dr. Boone was one of the early physicians,
a contemporary of Dr. Garner, believed to be
the first physician in the county. He was a
man of intelligence, of the old Daniel Boone
stock, and personally very popular. He com-
manded a company of Montgomery County
boys in the Black Hawk war, and when he
served out his term re-enlisted as Surgeon iii
Capt. Rountree's company, and served to the
close of the war. Afterward he removed to
Chicago, grew rich, became President of a
bank, was elected Mayor, and was a man of
much prominence. During the late war, he got
into trouble, because his whole-souled generos-
ity prompted him to provide comforts for the
Confederate prisoners confined in Camp Doug-
las, and he was arrested by the Federals for
thus succoring those upon whom the fortune
of war had frowned, and many of whom were
sons of his old Kentucky friends. Hiram
Rountree and John Tillson, two men, perhaps,
more prominently connected with the county
than any others, will receive further mention in
the chapters devoted to the town and city. Al-
exander McWilliams settled about four miles
west of Hillsboro, on what was afterward
known as the Zimmerman place. John Mc-
Williams was a son, a man of excellent quali-
ties, and one of the early business men of
Litchfield. Lockerman settled in the western
part of the present township. C. B. Blockber-

ger settled in Hillsboro when it consisted of
but a few log houses. He was a tinsmith, and
opened the first tin shop in the county. He
was a public-spirited man, made himself very
useful to the early settlers, kept a general
store ; made brick ; kept a hotel, and was sev-
eral times elected to the Legislature. He was
Deputy United States Marshal in 1840, after-
ward Postmaster, also served as Probate Judge ,
and held several military offices. He was
chiefly instrumental in organizing the first
Masonic lodge in Hillsboro, and the first in the
county, to which he was greatly devoted.
When he died he was buried with Masonic
honors, Gen. Shields officiating.

The Cannons were early settlers, locating
here as early as 1824. There were three
brothers — William, John and Charles — all of
whom settled near Hillsboro, and some of them
in the town. William raised thirteen children
out of fifteen born to him. Says Mr. Roun-
tree in his sketches : " He is now nearly three-
score and ten, and is quite a patriarch. He
counts his descendants as follows : Children,
15, of whom are living, 13 ; grandchildren,
99, of whom are living, 90 ; great-grand child-
ren, all living, 13, making 127 descendants, of
whom 116 are now living." But our space
will not admit of further details of the early
settlement of the township. We have endeav-
ored to trace its settlement from the beginning
down to a period within the memory of those
still living, giving the names and facts of the
early history of the more prominent of its pi-
oneers. Though doubtless the names of many
are overlooked who are entitled to honorable
mention among these pioneer fathers, yet no
pains have been spared to make the list full
and complete.

The early life of the pioneers was one not to
be envied, and one that could scarcely .be en-
dured or borne by their more tenderly-nurtured
descendants. The early settlers as we have
said came here to better their condition, and

21S

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY,

make homes for themselves and families. Their
, first duty was to provide shelter, and their
cabins were hastily built, the cracks between
the logs rudely daubed with mud ; the floors
were often mother earth, or of rough punch-
eons, and the bedsteads and tables, with a chair
or two, were almost the sole furniture. Pew-
ter plates were common, and the big fire-places
surrounded by pots, skillets, ovens, pans, etc.,
were used for cooking instead of stoves. Bis-
cuits and corn-dodgers baked in an oven or skil-
let, and " johnny cake" baked on a board before
the fire, were considered diet fit for the gods.
Game was plenty, and hence meat was never
scarce, but the facilities for obtaining meal and
flour were very limited. Mills for flour came
after years with other improvements, but hand-
mills, run not by steam, horses or oxen, but
by the women and children, were the chief
means of getting meal. New corn was often
grated by hand for immediate use. Fruit
could only be obtained from abroad, and with
great difficulty, except such as grew wild.
Honey was abundant, and could be had for the
simple cutting down of the bee trees, so com-
mon in the woods.

The clothing was cheap and primitive as that
of the cabin and its surroundings. That for
both sexes was made at home, going through
all the processes from the time of leaving the
sheep's back until placed upon the back of the
wearer. All the members of the household,
male and female, men, women and children,
were usually employed in some parts, if not in
all parts of its manufacture. The men and
boys often wore clothing made of the dressed
skins of animals ; boots were unknown, and
shoes indulged in only as a luxury by the
grown people, while moccasins made at home
sufficed for the smaller members of the family.
Says Mr. Rountree : '-We wonder if the boys
of our day are curious to kuow what kind of
hair oil and neck-ties, what shaped collars and
cuffs were the fashion then ? We wonder if

our girls are curious to know what sort of dress
trimmings, what shape were the bonnets and
hats, and if they wore paniers and bustles,
sacks and overskirts, and whether they wore
furs, muffs, cuffs, etc., etc., and when fully in-
formed upon the subject no doubt their looks
of incredulity would be refreshing. There are
doubtless many now living in the county who
can tell of the long linen shirts, home-made,
that were the only summer garments worn by
boys and children, and of the moccasins and
buckskin clothing. There were many who
never wore a pair of boots until they were men,
and others who never even saw a pair until
nearly grown." It is still a mystery how the
people lived and prospered in those early days.
The manner of cultivating the crops was so
simple, the tools so different and rude, and the
distance to market so great, and the prices so
incredibly low, that we wonder how any one,
even with the strictest economy, could prosper
at all. The farmers of to-day, who have re-
duced agriculture to a science, and cultivate
their lauds almost wholly with machinery, kuow
little of what that same work required here
fifty or sixty years ago. But times have
changed, and the world, or the people have
grown wiser as they have grown older.

Among the amusements of the early citizens
of the community, was that of fishing iu the
classic waters of Shoal Creek. The numerous
Shoal Creeks, East, West and Middle Forks,
afforded ample " fishing grounds " for the pio-
neer fathers. A rural bard thus sings of its
glory, and of those who fished and swam in its
tranquil waters " forty years ago." He says, or
sings :

"How many times I wander back,
In pensive mood, on mem'ry's track
To thy green banks, thou dear old stream,
Where in my youth, so like a dream
My days were passed, that toil and strife,
No shadow cast upon my life.
"E'en now with memory's eye I see
Thy waters gliding bright and free.

HILLSBORO TOWNSHIP.

210

O'er shining sands and pebbly beds,

Where bass, and perch, and knotty heads,

Pursued the minnows, that essayed

To steal the eggs that they had laid

On pebbly heaps. With crooked pin,

Tied on a thread, I've waded in,

And coaxed, and coaxed, with all my might,

Those finny ones to take a bite —

One little bite of angling worm,

That on my hook did twist and squirm.

' As dear as Jordan to the Jew,
Or Ganges to the grave Hindoo,
Has ever been thy name to me;
And this my sole excuse must be,
For pouring out this flood of rhymes,
In mem'ry of those happy times
I've spent, in angling on thy shores,
Or 'mong thy hills in gathering stores
Of nuts to crack in winter nights;
An entertainment whose delights
No boy or girl can e'er forget
Till mem'ry 's sun iu death has set.

"How often I in mem'ry meet,
And with a hearty welcome greet
The friends of yore who roamed with me
Along thy banks in mirth and glee,
*********

"But, oh ! what changes time has brought !
What havoc has that monster wrought,
Whose hungry jaws still cry for more,
Devouring alike the rich and poor.
Upou the brow of yonder bluff,
With face so jagged and so rough,
I see e'en now the resting place
Of many, who began the race
Of life with me, who fished and swam,
From Wilejf's ford to Lemon's dam ;
And gained with me their stock of lore,
In log schoolhouses, where the floor
Was naked earth, with weight-pole roof,
That seldom proved quite water-proof ;
With slabs for seats, with rough split-pegs,
In two-inch auger-holes, for legs.
I see with retrospection's eye,
Upon yon hill so steep and high
[Where J. M. Rutledge now resides],
A cabin rude, where many a day
I passed the tedious hours away,
In picking up the little store
That I possess of useful lore ;
Exciting many times the ire
Of poor auld Bobby Mclntire ;

A native of the Emerald Sod,
Whose scepter was the hazel rod.
How often in Hibernian brogue.
He called me ' spalpeen,' or a rogue !
And vowed when I some mischief did.
That he would ' cut me to the rid!'
At noon we often truant played,
In thy cool flood to swim or wade,
Forgetting how the moment's sped,
Until the time for ' books ' had fled,
And then crept back with some excuse,
Though poor, intended to induce,
The auld Hibernian to forgo

The punishment we dreaded so.
*********

"I sometimes meet those Nimrods* here.
Who once pursued the wolf and deer
Among thy hills, or traced the bee
To where, in some old hollow tree,
Its luscious stores were hoarded up,
In many a little waxen cup.
Of all those Nimrods, none remain,
With gun in hand to scour the plain.
The wolf and deer are seen no more
Among the woods along the shore ;
And where was heard the panther's scream,
The farmer drives his patient team.
Where once the Indian wigwam stood
Upon the border of some wood
The stately mansion now is seen
Amid broad fields and pastures green.

"But I have neither space nor time
Tii put the feelings into rhyme,
That rise, while I, in mem'ry roam,
O'er scenes about my childhood's home,
Then, dear old stream, you'll pardon me,
For thus apostrophizing thee,
And grant me leave at any time,
To talk to thee in rambling rhyme."

The foregoing lines, from the pen of J. N.
Wilson, of Springfield, contain quite a little
history in themselves, and will doubtless call
up pleasant reminiscences in the minds of many
of our readers. Shoal Creek was early utilized
for mills, as well as for " fishing and swimming "
purposes. These are mentioned more fully,
however, in subsequent chapters. The " Pep-
per " mill, as it was called, was an early insti-
tution, and was southwest of Hillsboro some

*Yoakunis, Crease?, W'ilBuiis, NussuiatiB, etc.

220

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

three or four miles. But it has long since gone
to decay, and few people in Hillsboro remem-
ber anything about it.

The early roads were trails over the country,
man} 7 originally made by the Indians, and
afterward improved by the people and made
into roads. One of the first in the township —
and but very little of it was in the present
township of Hillsboro — was the Hillsboro &
Springfield road. Another was the Hillsboro
& St. Louis road, which runs out by the Fail-
Grounds. When first laid out, there were no
bridges where these roads cross the streams,
and hence, in time of high water, travel was
suspended. Now there are substantial bridges
where all the principal roads cross the streams,
so that high waters are no impediment now to
travel.

The first school taught in the township was
in Hillsboro, and will be more especially
noticed under the head of the city. There are
now sis schoolhouses, all comfortable build-
ings, in the township, outside of Hillsboro,
which afford ample facilities to the people for
the education of their children.

Hamilton, the first county seat, was in Hills-
boro Township, some three miles southwest of
Hillsboro. It was laid out as a town after
being selected for the seat of justice. , Lots
were sold, and a few houses built, though no
court house or other public buildings were
erected. John Tillson opened a store there,
but as soon as Hillsboro was selected as the
county seat, he moved to the new town. The
changing of the location of the county seat, of
course, was the death-knell of Hamilton, and it
soon became another " Goldsmith's Deserted
Village." From its ruins, however, arose

eventually, the village of Woodsboro, which
was laid out very near if not at the same place
where Hamilton had formerly stood.

Woodsboro was laid out about 1S48, by
William Wood, a man of the most untiring
energy and industry. He first settled six miles
southwest of Hillsboro, where he opened a
store, and about 1837 he commenced improve-
ments on the " Woodsboro farm," and removed
his store there. He succeeded, in 1848, in get-
ting a post office, of which he was Postmaster.
He laid out the town where the Springfield &
Greenville road crossed the Hillsboro & St.
Louis road, and, as we have said, it was some
three miles southwest of Hillsboro. It was at
one time a place of considerable business. Mr.
Wood, in addition to his store, was instru-
mental in having a wagon shop, blacksmith
shop, cooper shop and tin shop opened in his
town, and, in 1851, he built a steam saw and
grist mill, which he ran for several years. So
Woodsboro flourished until the completion of
the Indianapolis & St. Louis Railroad, when
most of the town went to Butler, Mr. Wood,
himself, having moved to that place, and took
an active part in building it up. He contin-
ued an active business man until his death,
which occurred in 1873. A church of the
Methodist denomination was built at Woods-
boro, which is still in use, and comprises about
all of the town there is left.

Some two miles south of Woodsboro stands
the Presbyterian Church of Wavelaud, an off-
shoot of the Presbyterian Church of Woodsboro.
This and the Methodist Church at Hillsboro
are the only churches, we believe, in the town-
ship, outside of the city.

CITY OF HILLSBORO.

221

CHAPTER VIII.*

CITY OF HILLSBORO — LAID OUT AS THE COUNTY SEAT — ITS LOCATION, ETC. — FIRST SALE OF
LOTS— STREETS AND ADDITIONS-THE FIRST INHABITANT— JUDGE ROUNTREE— OTHER
riONEERS— FIRST FRAME AND FIRST BRICK HOUSE— STORES, SHOPS, MILLS, ETC.
—AN INCIDENT— MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES — THE GRAIN TRADE
AND RAILROAD — COURT HOUSES AND JAILS-
INCORPORATION OF THE CITY, ETC.

" Full sixty years have come and gone

Since we commenced life's rugged way-
Facing December's fleecy snows,
And plucking flowers that grew in May,"

THE events which led to the birth of Hills-
boro originated in the general dissatis-
faction of the people of the first seat of jus-
tice of Montgomery County, as noted in a
preceding chapter. Hence, an act was passed
by the Legislature, January 30, 1823, author-
izing the relocation of the county seat, and
appointing three Commissioners, viz. : New-
ton Coffey, Maj. James Wilson and Harris
Reavis, for that purpose. The site selected
by them was that of the present city of Hills-
boro, the land of which was at the time owned
by Newton Coffey, one of the Commissioners.
In conformity with the provisions of the act,
he executed a deed for twenty acres of land,
June 30, 1823, for the purpose of defraying
the expense of erecting public buildings.
Upon this twenty acres, the original town of
Hillsboro 1 was laid out, and the sale of lots
took place August 12, 1823. In another
twelve months, the city may celebrate its three
score years.

Hillsboro is beautifully situated on high
rolling ground, commanding a fine view of
the surrounding country, and on the Indian-
apolis & St. Louis Railroad, some sixty-five

* By W. H. Perrin.

miles nearly northeast of St. Louis, and about
two hundred miles southwest of Chicago, the
great commercial metropolis of Illinois and
the Northwest. It is a city of about two
thousand inhabitants, and is noted for its in
telligent and enterprising inhabitants, for its
excellent schools and handsome and spacious
churches. It is a healthy place — what might
be termed by enterprising physicians " dis-
tressingly healthy " — its high and dry loca-
tion being a safeguard against the malarial
fevers prevalent in early times in the lower
lands.

The area embraced within the limits of the
present city of Hillsboro is sufficient for a
place of 20,000 inhabitants. To the stranger
it would appear that the town was laid out
without shape or design, and this, we learn,
is to some extent true. Says Mr. Rountree:
" The territory was of such shape, being filled
up with hills and hollows, springs and run-
ning streams, it was deemed almost impossi-
ble that the streets could ever become har-
monious by labor, the hollows filled up and
the space economized, and, even if it could,
there would never be no necessity for it, the ori-
ginal town being only north of Col. Walters'
hotel (now the American House) on each side
of Main street, and ending south of the pub-
lic schoolhouse. The distance east and west
being from the section line to Hamilton

222

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

street, and this embraced almost all the level
land, and even then there was a deep hollow
running southwardly from George Brown's
house through the Eccles and Col. Walters'
property; also, there was, and still is, in part,
a series of hollows along Hamilton street.
To avoid one hollow, John Tillson, in making
his addition east and south of Col. Walters'
hotel, made a jog (seemingly necessary then)
to find good ground there for streets. Cress
and Wright afterward laid out a few lots
south and west of Solomon Harkey's prop-
erty, running the lots far down the hill, while
Hiram Rountree made an addition on the
north, which was relaid out by Harry Wilton.
The other additions were made many years
later. "

The first settler upon the site of Hillsboro
was a German, named John Nussman. The
land was owned, or, rather, was entered for
the purpose of laying out a town, by Newton
Coffey, who had first settled in the southern
part of the county. Previously, however,
Nussman, who had emigrated from North
Carolina, had settled upon it. His cabin
stood upon the ground occupied by the resi-
dence of the late A. H. H. Rountree, and
where Mrs. Rountree now lives. Mr. Nuss-
man raised a large family of children, some
of whom are, we believe, still citizens of the
city and county. He was also one of Hills-
boro' s early mechanics, and carried on a
wagon shop — the first, perhaps, in Montgom-
ery County. Among other early settlers of
the town of Hillsboro were the "Wrights, Jo-
seph Miller, John Tillson, Lloyd Martin,
David B. Jackson, Hiram Rountree, James
Rutledge, and others now forgotten. Jack-
son built the first frame house in Hillsboro,
which is now a portion of the old American
House. He was quite an enterprising man
in his day — an early merchant, a tavern-
keeper, surveyor, saw-mill, etc., etc., and an

energetic business man generally. He has a
son, William K. Jackson, still living in the
town.

Judge Hiram Rountree was a ruling spirit
in Hillsboro for many years, exerting a greater
influence than any man, perhaps, that has
ever lived in the place, and deserves more than
a mere passing notice in these pages. He
was a native of North Carolina, where he was
born December 22, 17U4, but his early life
was spent mostly in Kentucky. He was a
soldier of the war of IS] 2, under Gen. Shelby,
the first Governor of Kentucky, and who was
a Revolutionary officer, and the hero of King's
Mountain. He studied law in Bowling Green,
Ky. , and, in 1S17, removed to Edwardsville,
111., where he taught school for two years.
He afterward removed to Fayette County.
when the capital of the State was at Yanda-
lia, and for several sessions was Enrolling
Clerk of the House of Representatives. In
1S21, he removed to Montgomery County,
and, as Circuit Clerk, organized it. The re-
mainder of his life was spent in the county,
and there were few positions of importance
but what he held at some time during his
lontr and useful life. His official career has
been so often alluded to in these pages that
it is unnecessary to repeat it here. Suffice
it, for forty-eight years in succession he
served the county in an official capacity. He
was a zealous member of the Methodist
Church from the year ISIS to the time of his
death, March 5, 1873, and his Christian life
is still familiar to many residents of the city
and county.

Joel Wright was the first Sheriff of the
county, and was from one of the Eastern
States. He served as Sheriff from 1821 until
1S26. James Wright was the son of a widow
lady, known as "Granny" Wright, who lived
in a cabin in Hillsboro, on the place recently
occupied by Henry Haller. The following

CITY OF HILLSBORO.

223

incident is related of "Granny" Wright, who
is described as an "estimable woman, of
strong, good sense and ardent friendships."
She, it is said, always had corn to sell, and
would demand a very high price for it. In
measuring it, however, she always told them
to " heap it tip, to heap it up as long as it
would lie on; that if the old boy ever got
her, it should be for high prices, and not for
scant measure.'' The manner of measure-
ment, she intended, should bring the price
clown about fair.

John Tillson, prominently mentioned in
connection with the church and school his-
tory, was the first Treasurer of Montgomery
County. He first settled on the Scherer
place, some three miles southwest of Hi 11s-
boro, and was originally from Boston, Mass. ,
but emigrated West while still a bachelor.
He went back to Boston and married, brought
his wife to his new settlement, where he re-
sided till after Hillsboro was made the county
seat, when he removed to the town and built
the first brick house ever erected in Hillsboro.
The house was a large, massive, two- story
edifice, and was built under the supervision
of John Nickerson and David Eddy. Nick-
erson also made the brick, but they were not
of a good quality, and hence the house was
not thought to be a success. It stood for
many years, however, anl was finally torn
down, and the brick used in buildings erected
down near the railroad.

Mr. Tillson was also the first Postmaster of
Hillsboro, likewise the first merchant, and
one of Hillsboro's most energetic and useful
citizens. He engaged largely in land specu-
lations in this as well as in other counties,
and handled large sums of money. In the
early struggles of the State to build railroads,
which proved so disastrous to Illinois finan-
ces, he was one of the Fund Commissioners,
and prospered well until the great crash of

2837, from which he never inlly recovered
financially. By that he lost largely, and
soon after disposed of his landed property
here, and was no more identified with the
county. He raised quite a large family of
children, none of whom live here now. Gen.
Tillson, of Quincy, who attained considerable
distinction in the late civil war, was his son.
Mr. Tillson died suddenly, of apoplexy, in
Peoria.

James Rutledge came to Hillsboro about
the year 1825, and settled on a lot recently
occupied by George Paisley. He was one of
the first, if not the first, tavern-keeper in the
town. He raised a large family of children,
among whom may be mentioned Thomas J.
Rutledge, an attorney, and Dr. H. R. Rut-
ledge, dentist, both now of Hillsboro.

Our space, however, will not admit of ex-
tended sketches of the early settlers and bus-
iness men of Hillsboro, but in the biograph-
ical department of this volume, such sketches
will be more fully given. We might fill
many chapters with sketches and incidents
of the pioneers of the town, but must confine
our work to historical facts.

The village was now laid out and perman-
ently established, as we might say. It was
the county seat, and the commercial center of
a rich area of country. This brought mer-
chants, mechanics and tradesmen to the place,
with the intention of entering into active
business life. We have stated already that
John Tillson opened the first store in Hills-
boro, and that he was the first merchant in
the county, having first opened a store at his
residence before Hillsboro was laid out, and
then removing it to the town.

The second store in Hillsboro is believed
to have been opened by John Prentice, about
the year 1825. He came from St. Clair
County to Hillsboro and lived in the
"Granny Wright cabin," as it was called.

224

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

There were but few houses in the town at that
time, and Mr. Prentice opened his store in a
log cabin which stood near the present Rals-
ton brick storehouse. The following is told
of his settlement in Hillsboro. Before mov-
ing here, ho came on a prospecting tour, and
for the purpose of consulting with the citi-
zens as to the propriety of locating here. He
asked them if they thought he could sell on
an average $5 worth of goods a day, to which
he received a most decided "No'' in response.
He then asked if he could sell an average of
$4 worth a day. Upon this proposition, the
testimony was divided, when he asked if he
could sell an average of $3 a day. They be-
lieved unanimously that he could. With this
encouraging prospect ahead of him — the sell-
ing of $3 worth of goods per day on an aver-
age — he decided to locate in Hillsboro. His
store was a general country store, and con-
tained iron, nails, salt, sugar, molasses,
whisky, dry goods, axes, common cutlery, dye
stuffs, etc., etc. He brought on a few hun-
dred dollars' worth of goods and opened out
his store in full blast, but made no grand
display, such as now attends the opening of a
new mercantile establishment, such as flam-
ing posters, newspaper puffs, fine show win-
dows, etc. Mr. Prentice kept his goods on
his shelves, behind and under his counters,
and in front, but inside the building. He
continued long in the business in Hillsboro,
but his family all scattered off to other local-
ities, and none now live even in this county.
Another of the early mercantile establish-
ments of Hillsboro was that of Charles
Holmes. He opened his first stock of goods
in a log house where Union Block now stands,
about 1832 or 1S33. John S. Hayward, from
Boston, became a partner. Mr. Tillson was
also a silent partner for a time. About 1842,
they dissolved, and Holmes and Tillson re-
tired. Holmes went to St. Louis, amassed a

fortune and died there. Tillson had embar-
rassed himself in hi6 land speculations, and
with him Mr. Hayward. The crash of 1837
had paralyzed all enterprises, and the hold-
ing and paying taxes on land became burden-
some. Hayward by some means released
himself from his entanglements with Mr.
Tillson, and, seeing his way clear, and, by
years of residence in Illinois, became satis-
fied that lands would eventually be valuable,
he sold out his store and engaged in land
agencies. He commenced the purchase of the
lands held by Eastern land companies at very
low figures, and, through his friends in the
East, was enabled to hold them until the real
prosperity returned, when he sold them at
advanced prices, re- invested his funds and
finally became very wealthy. He was a dis-
creet man, public -spirited, and took an active
part in securing the railroad to Hillsboro.
Somewhat late in life, he married Miss Har-
riet F. Comstock, a daughter of Deacon Corn-
stock, of whom Mr. Rountree, in his remin-
iscences, relates the following incident:

Deacon Comstock had an exceptionally
long nose, and, having the end of his nose
skinned on one occasion, he applied a circu-
lar piece of black court plaster to it. "While
officiating in church one day in that condi-
tion, he saw on the floor what he thought was
the court plaster, and, picking it up, moist-
ened it and placed it upon his nose, quietly
took his seat and engaged in pious meditation.
But smiles and nudges, nods and winks all
around him convinced him that his neighbors
were otherwise engaged. All of his pious
frowns and dignity could not reduce them to
order. Merriment and fun had possessed
them, even of his own large, well-trained
family. He was horrified and shocked at
their ill-timed levity. But his daughter
pointed to the end of his nose, where he had
placed what he took to be court plaster, but

..-.'■'"■

(Ir?^>o~i*s-<s^ CX^A

LIBRARY

Of 1HE
UNIVERSITY a ILLINOIS

CITY OF HILLSBORO.

227

what was really the ticket of one of the
"Coates' Spools," which, in beautiful gilt
letters, was "warranted 200 yards," and
which, being placed upon the end of a very
long nose, seemed to the congregation to be
peculiarly applicable. The good Deacon was
never able to escape the joke as long as he
lived.

Other merchants came to Hillsboro and
opened stores, but to follow them in detail
would be tedious. Other branches of busi-
ness, in the meantime, were established in
the town. Hotels were built and accommo-
dations for "man and beast" offered to the
wayfaring man who came along. We have
already alluded to the taverns built by Jack-
son and Kutledge. Mr. Rountree says of the
latter: "His was the first old-fashioned tav-
ern sign we ever saw, embodying, as it did, a
large tiger on a white ground, surrounded by
his name and occupation. His, as well as
Mr. Jackson's, were houses of entertainment,
and not houses for the sale of liquors, though
they both came under the same law. Any
one who kept a grocery for the sale of liquor
was compelled to take out a tavern-keeper's
license, ranging from $5 to $20, and were
under bonds to keep sufficient room and bed-
ding for the entertainment of at least two
persons, with sufficient provender and sta-
bling for their horses. It was optional with
them whether they sold liquors, and, though
they may have kept them for the use of their
guests, we cannot remember ever to have
heard of them selling otherwise than in a j:>ri-
vate way." Other taverns were opened by
enterprising people in the new town.

Hillsboro flourished in a moderate, old-fogy
way, growing slowly but somewhat surely.
Merchants, mechanics, etc. , came in and gave
the town a healthy impetus. Among the ear-
liest citizens were mechanics, who proved ex-
cellent citizens. Nussman, the first inhabit-

ant, was a wagon-maker, and also established
a distillery in an early day. The distillation
of whisky then was not a disreputable busi-
ness, as it is now; neither was the drinking
of it so strongly condemned. Indeed, it was
deemed essential in a new country like this
was. His distillery was carried on for some
time, when it gave place to a tan-yard, a
business more honorable, if less profitable.
Joseph Miller carried on a tan-yard also, as
one of the very early industries of Hillsboro.
Jacob Wilson was one of the earliest shoe-
makers, and used to go from house to house,
making up shoes for the entire family. John
Slater was another of the pioneer shoemakers.
So was Deacon Alexander Scott. The fol-
lowing incident is related of the good Dea-
con's wife. She survived him some years,
and, when near her end, but still able to be
around, she had a dream so vivid and life-like
that she accepted it as an omen, and prepared
herself accordingly. She dreamed that her
husband came to her, not as he left her, an
old man, but young and handsome as when
he visited her as a lover, and told her he
wanted them to be married early in October.
This she accepted as an omen that she would
then depart and be again united to him. She
visited her friends for the last time, as she
maintained, made all her perparations, and,
when all was done, she sickened, and, early in
October, she died, having steadily refused all
remedies looking to her recovery. This ro-
mance was so contrary to her natural dispo-
sition that she firmly believed that the spirit
of her husband had warned her of her ap-
proaching dissolution.

Among the early blacksmiths of Hillsboro
were Nathan and Burton Harmon and a Mi-.
Hutchinson. W. A. Morrison and Kimball
Prince were the next blacksmiths, perhaps,
who located in the town. Fred Hillsabeck
was also an early blacksmith. Another of

228

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

the early blacksmiths was Ned Gossage, as he
was called. He lived in a small log cabin,
with no floor but the ground, and his shop
was a similar structure. Mr. Wesley Sey-
mour is supposed to be the next wagon-maker
to Nussman. John Meisenheimer was also a
wagon-maker and a carpenter. John Dicker-
son, David Eddy, Ira Boone and Hudson
Berry were the first brick-makers of the town.
William Brewer established a turning-lathe
very early, and manufactured furniture,
working in wood work generally. Thomas
Sturtevant, Alfred Durant, E. B. Hubbell
and James Blackman were of the same trade,
and followed the business for years.

The first steam mill in the town was built
by John Tillson. It was originally started
by David B. Jackson as an ox tread-mill for
sawing lumber. But Tillson enlarged it,
supplied steam and made a flouring and saw
mill, which was of great benefit to the town
and community. It was burned down about
1840. No town in Central or Southern Illi-
nois is better supplied with mills than Hi 11s-
boro is at the present day. That of Glenn
Bros, is a very paragon of excellence, while
there are several mills in town, quite as good,
but of smaller capacity.

Hillsboro has never made any pretentions
toward manufactories. A few rather small
ones, such as Gunning's, which was burned
early in 1873, and the woolen factory in the
south end of town, a few small wagon and
carriage factories, comprise her manufactur-
ing ventures. She has never aspired to any-
thing beyond being a quiet, retail business
town. The grain trade is perhaps the largest
business carried on in the town Since the
opening of the I. & St. L. B. R., in 1855,
Hillsboro has become the center of a large
grain trade. An immense quantity of corn,
oats and wheat, is annually shipped from this
point. Enterprising buyers are always on

hand in the grain season, who keep up with
the market price and always pay the very
best figures. The completion of the railroad
gave the town quite an impetus, and from
that time it grew more rapidly in population
than it ever had before. Persons often won-
der, particularly strangers, why the depot is
away down under the hill where it is, instead
of being east from the court house. The
principal reason, we have been informed, was
in consequence of a little game of " logger-
heads," played between the railroad people
and the citizens of the town. The railroad
people wanted to run their road through the
south end of the town, a route the citizens
very rightly objected to. Hence, to gratify
a little malice, the railroad people then placed
their depot as far off as possible and in the
most inconvenient location. But with the
depot in an out-of-the-way place and the road
down under the hill, it has been the crowning
event in the history of Hillsboro, and given
her an increase of business, prosperity and
importance she had never known before.

The first court house built in Montgomery
was in Hillsboro, as the general dissatisfac-
tion of Hamilton as the county seat had pre-
vented the erection of a court house at that
place. But when Hillsboro was selected as
the future seat of justice, it was believed the
selection would remain permanent, and there-
fore arrangements were at once entered into
for the building of a court house. It was of
simple architecture and material, but up to
the spirit of the times in which it was built.
It was twenty-five feet square, a story and a
half high, of hewed logs, the cracks well
chinked, two glass windows of 8x10 glass,
one for the room below and one above. The
floors were of plank, as well as the doors, in-
stead of puncheons and clapboards, and the
roof was of shingles. Primitive as thisbuild-
fng may appear, when compared to Hills-

CITY OF HILLSBORO.

229

boro's present temple of justice, it was, in
that early day, by far the most pretentious
building in the embryonic city, and a great
improvement on the residences of the people.
It was situated on the southeast corner of the
square, where it did duty until the next one
was built — 1836-37. When the log house
was finally removed, the logs were used in a
small building still standing back of the pho-
tograph gallery. The first Clerk's office was
also built of logs, and is, or was until recent-
ly, standing, a solitary relic of the pioneer
period, near the Methodist Church.

The original jail was a log structure, and
a very formidable prison for that early period,
when criminals were not so smart as they are
now, nor so thoroughly educated in crime as
they are in this fast age. It was of hewed
logs and the walls were of three thicknesses
— two horizontal and one perpendicular tier.
When torn down to give place to a more mod-
em "bastile,'' many of the logs were used
for street crossings, thus displaying a spirit
of economy worthy of imitation in these lat-
ter days.

The old log court house faithfully served
its day and generation, and was used in other
capacities than meting out justice to the
offenders of the law. It was used by most of
the religious denominations until they built
church edifices and for all public meetings.
The first term of court held in it was on the
17th and 18th of June, 1824, Judge Thomas
Reynolds presiding. Joel Wright was Sher-
iff; Jarvis Forehand, Coroner, and Hiram
Rountree, Clerk. As an item of interest to
the present Clerks of the Court, it might be
well to state that the fees of Hiram Rountree
were $8 for the first year he held the office of
Clerk. The following incident related of
Mr. Rountree, and the first term of the Cir-
cuit Court held in Montgomery County, is
given here as illustrative of the primitive

days of the county. The first term of the
Circuit Court was held at Joseph McAdams,'
before the county seat had been located at
Hillsboro. Hiram Rountree, with his family,
was residing at the house of Joseph McAdams,
a cabin of two rooms, and in one of them the
cotu-t was held, while Mrs. Rountree retired
to the other with her two children until court
should adjourn. Judge Reynolds very calmly
and dignifiedly, it. is saifl, reposed his " ju-
ducial honor" on the side of the bed. Mr.
Rountree sat in a splint^bottomed chair — the
only one in the room, by the side of a walnut
table made of puncheons, smoothed off with
the ax, both chair and table his own manu
facture, and, with a goose- quill pen, kept the
records and administered the oaths, etc.

Somewhere about the year 1836 or 1837, a
new court house was built, and the old log
structure was removed. This second build-
ing was a frame, and was a square edifice,
two stories high, the lower story the coiut-
robm, and the upper story divided into
offices. The court -room being below, about
two-thirds of the floor was mother earth; the
remainder was laid of plank and was two or
three feet above the ground, with a railing or
banisters around it. And inside of this rail-
ing was the Judge's stand, Clerk's desk, law-
yers' tables, etc., etc. The spectators and
lookers-on remained outside of the railing,
where they could sjfit their tobacco juice in
the dust without any lynx-eyed officer " to mo-
lest or make them afraid.'' During the re-
cesses of the court, the hogs occupied the room,
and made a bed-chamber under the floor,
which, as we have said, was two or three feet
above the ground This small square, frame
building, with roof running up to a point in the
center, with a small cupola set on top, very
much resembling a chicken-coop, was used as
a court house until about 1854, when it was
displaced by a brick building, at a cost of

230

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

sosie $5,000. It was a two-story house, with
large columns in front supporting a portico,
something in the style of the present acad-
emy building. Some years later, a wing was
added to it, the upper story of which formed
the jail and the lower story the jury-room,
etc. This building is still standing and serv-
ing the county as a court house, though it
has been considerably repaired since the late
war. It stood, however, until 1868, without
material change, when it was very substan-
tially repaired and transformed into its pres-
ent magnificence.

The court house as it now stands is but the
old one remodeled. As is the case in many
other counties in Illinois, there has been
quite a contest between Hillsboro and Litch-
field in regard to the county seat — on the
part of Litchfield to possess it and on that of
Hillsboro to hold it. It is said that " posses-
sion is nine points in law," and hence Hills-
boro holds " nine points " againnt Litchfield
in the contest. When the subject came up,
soon after the close of the war, as to the pro-
priety of building a new court house, the
qiiestion of removal to Litchfield was feared
by those opposed to removal, if the project
was undertaken to build a new house out and
out, and hence it was finally resolved to
merely " rejuvenate " the old one, and thereby
save the county the expense of erecting a new
and costly building. The sequel proved that
the improvement of old buildings was not
wholly devoid of cost. After deciding upon
repairing the old court house, an architect
was brought down from Chicago, who drew
plans and designs for the work, and from
them the present building was made out of
the old one, at a cost of something like $120,-
000 and §15,000 or $20,000 more for finish-
ing the jail. In order to carry out the origi-
nal design of repairing the old building, some
half dozen or so of the old brick were left in

the new house, which, notwithstanding all
that has been said, or may be said about it,
is a handsome and imposing structure and a
credit to the county and the people. When
we look at the sum expended on it, it appears
to be a rather costly edifice, but the difference
in the price of material and labor then and
now considered, perhaps the cost is not ex-
travagant. It is a comfortable and conven-
ient house, as well as an imposing one.
The court-room, which will comfortably seat
about 500 persons, is in the second story, to-
gether with jury -rooms, consultation-rooms,
etc., while the first story is taken up with
offices, comprising those of County and Cir-
cuit Clerk, County Judge, Recorder, Sheriff
and County Superintendent of Schools.

The jail and the Sheriff's residence is in
the north end or side of the building, and is
quite a convenient part of the designs. The
jail is in the top story, while the Sheriff's
. residence is in the second, the house being
three stories high on this side. The prison
portion is finished up in the most safe and
substantial manner, and is intended to keep
an evil-doer, when once incarcerated in it, un-
til he is taken out by the proper authorities.
The court house is situated on the highest
ground within the city's limits, and stands
as a way-mark to the passing traveler, and is
usually the first object observable when ap-
proaching the town. From the lofty tower
which ascends skyward from the southwest
corner, a fine view can be had of the country
for miles around. Indeed, one with a good
pair of eyes, on a clear morning, may look
away to the West, across the States of Mis-
souri and Arkansas, and see the buffalo graz-
ing on the prairies of Texas. Fact! The
handsome court house, with its spacious
court-room elegantly furnished, conveniently
arranged offices, substantial jail and Sheriff's
comfortable residence, taken all together.

CITY OF HILLSBORO.

231

present quite a contrast to the old log build-
ings of fifty years ago.

Hillsboro was laid out as a village, as we
have seen, in 1S23. It was incorporated as a
town under the State law, and was governed
by a Board of Trustees, with the necessary
officers for the proper administration of its
affairs. It remained under this style of gov-
ernment until 1S69, when it was incorporated
as a city, by an act of the Legislature ap-
proved March 30 of that year. It was, under
its charter as a city, divided into four wards,
represented by members in a Common Coun-
cil, of which the Mayor was and is the pre-
siding officer. Since its organization as a
city, the following gentlemen have served as
Mayor, viz., John T. Maddux, 1869; Fred
Noterman, 1870; Paul Walters, 1871; Fred
Noterman, 1872; A. H. Brown, 1873; A. H.
H. Rountree, 1874; E. S. Burns, 1875; John
F. Glenn, 1876; M. M Walsh, 1877; George
H. Blackwelder, 1878; William Conklin,
1879; Charles B.Ehoads, 1880; Ben E.John-
son, 1881; BenE. Johnson, 1882.

In March, 1882, the city was re-organized
under a special State law regulating the mu-
nicipal government of cities. This order of
things necessitated a new division of the city
into districts or wards. Hitherto, under the
old regime, the city was divided into four
wards, but when re-organized and redivided,
it was laid off into three wards. Each of
these are represented in the Common Council
by two members, who, with the Mayor and
Clerk, comprise the municipal government.
The present Council (1882) is as follows: W.
L. Blackburn, J. M. Cress, members from the
First Ward; A. H. May, B. Philips, members
from the Second Ward; J. M. Truitt W. M.
Neff, members from the Third Ward, with
Simon Kahn, City Clerk; C. H Witherspoon,
City Treasurer, and Ben E. Johnson, Mayor.

The streets, buildings (residences and busi-

ness houses) of Hillsboro are as good, if not
better, than are to be found in the majority
of cities of her size and wealth in the State.
It is true that the people generally of Illinois
towns and cities do not take as much pains,
nor spend as much money in beautifying
their streets, parks, etc., as some of the older
States farther east. The streets of Hills-
boro are beautifully shaded with trees, and,
with a little care and taste, might be made ex-
ceedingly attractive. Many handsome resi-
dences and grounds are an ornament to the
city, and show a refinement of taste that
should extend to the beautifying of the
streets and the purchasing and laying-out of
a park. Young people recpure a summer re-
sort and a promenade, and the addition to
Hillsboro of a public park would be a ju-
dicious investment by the city authorities,
and relieve the railroad depot of crowds of
idle visitors. The business houses, as a class,
are good, of modern style and arrangements,
and every class of retail business is repre-
sented, from the banking house and first-class
store, down to the most ordinary shops, and
the annual trade of the city will compare fa-
vorably with that of any of its sister cities.

In looking back over the sixty years that
have come and gone, we see the few log cabins
that stood upon the crest of a hill, grown and
expanded into a flom-ishing little city, in-
stinct with life and the bustle of business.
We have traced its growth and development
in trade and traffic briefly for the sixty years
that have elapsed since it was selected as the
seat of justice of Montgomery County. We
have seen how its first inhabitants settled
down in the proverbial log cabin, and, by
honest toil and strict integrity in their daily
life and transactions, became prosperous and
happy. And now we close the record of its
growth, development and business, and, in
the chapters succeeding, take up other branch-
es of its history.

232

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

CHAPTER IX.*

HILLSBORO— ITS RELIGIOUS HISTORY— THE METHODIST CHURCH— ORGANIZATION, MEMBERS
AND PREACHERS— THE PRESBYTERIANS— THEIR CHURCH— OTHER RELIGIOUS ORGANIZA-
TIONS—BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS— THE MASONS— ODD FELLOWS, ETC., ETC.

"God attributes to place
No sanctity, if none be thither brought
By men who there frequent. — Milton.

THE Rev. N. S. Dickey, in his address upon
the semi-centennial of the Presbyterian
Church of Hillsboro, said : " The good seed
carried by emigrants is usually sufficient to
begin the work of raising society to a higher
level of civilization, and their transforming
power counteracts those demoralizing influences
which tend to social degeneration and disrup-
tion. These Christian influences are active in
their conflicts with evil and attractive in social
power ; and they usually act as a nucleus
around which will gather those influences
necessary to carr}- society onward to a state of
comparative perfection. We may see by com-
parison with the past how much has been done
in this respect. The progress and triumph of
Christian truth, the superstructure on which
every society which approximates perfection
must rest, is also made apparent. It is thus
seen that no other power but Christian truth
can vitalize, expand, harmonize, direct and con-
trol the forces which underlie and build up the
great fabric of society." This was true of the
early settlers of Hillsboro and vicinity. It is
much to their credit that they were mostly a
Christian people, and laid the foundation of
religious organizations in an early period of
their occupation of the country. The Method-
ist circuit-riders, the forerunners of Christian-
ity, as John was of the Master, were the first
heralds of the Cross in the wilderness of Illi-

*By W. H. Perriu.

nois. They traveled over the country on horse-
back, gathering the scattered settlers together,
preaching the Gospel to them, and forming
them into religious societies. As early as
1820, they made their regular visits to the
neighborhood and preached in private houses.
Jesse Walker, Peter Cartwright, Samuel Thomp-
son, Charles Holliday, Joshua Barnes and
Thomas Randall, pioneer Methodist preachers,
were in the county from 1820 to 1823, and
preached frequently in the settlers' cabins, and
later, Bishops Morris and Ames preached in
the old log court house and schoolhouse in
Hillsboro. Thus was the introduction of Chris-
tianity coeval with the settlement of the coun-
try by white people.

The Methodist Church. — The organization of
the Methodist Church of Hillsboro dates back
to about 1824-25. Says Mr. Rountree : " It
worshiped mainly in one old log schoolhouse,
while for more general annual worship a camp
ground was established on land now owned,
and perhaps then, by Wesley Seymour, near
his house, but across the road in the brush."
Among the regular ministers who preached at
at Hillsboro, in that early day, were Revs.
John Dew, John Benson, James Mitchell and
his brother, John T. Mitchell. Rev. N. S. Bas-
tian, now of the Christian Church, is said to
have preached his first sermon on the Hillsboro
Circuit. Among the early members of the
church were Benjamin and Joseph Miller, Mr.
Stout, John Prentice, Hiram Rountree, Samuel
Bennett and others of the pioneers of the
neighborhood. " Though much zeal was mani-

CITY OF HILLSBORO.

23;?

fested, it was at a much later day before an
effort was made to build a church edifice. A
frame building was commenced and partially
inclosed about 1834-35, on the lot now used
as the Methodist parsonage. Being, however,
unable to finish it for want of means, at the
suggestion of John Tillson, who promised to
largely assist them in completing it, they moved
it to South Hillsboro, on ground known since
as the Wyman lot, where it stood in an unfin-
ished state for several years, being only used
in summer when the weather was pleasant.*

The great financial panic that swept over the
country in 1837-38, so paralyzed the people
that this building was never completed. About
1840, a combined effort was made to build a
church, and all denominations united together,
the result of which was the final completion of
the old Methodist Church that stood upon the
corner of the square, and which was completed
during the administration of Rev. N. S. Bas-
tian. It was informally dedicated by a revival
of religion which increased the membership of
the church to over one hundred. Following
Mr. Bastian. Rev. John Van Cleve came — a
man of the highest order of talents and piety,
as well as of usefulness in the church. Mr.
Ro un tree gives the following as the manner in
which these early preachers were paid for their
services as pastor : "It was often amusing to
cast up accounts and see how they were paid.
For instance, few could pay nione}' — nearly all
paid in truck or traffic. One would send, say,
twenty-five bushels of corn, at 12£ cents a
bushel; another, ten bushels of wheat, at 37 J
cents a bushel ; another, fifty pounds of side
bacon, at 3 cents a pound, or hams at 4 cents;
while whole hogs of fresh pork would be at the
rate of 1£ to 2 cents a pound. Again, one
would furnish clothing, say, jeans, at 50 cents
per yard, or linsey, at 25 cents, besides articles,
such as gloves, socks, etc., at similar low prices.
It was a mystery then, and is still a mystery,

*Rountree Letters.

how they lived ; but they did live, and that,
too, when it was fashionable to have large fam-
ilies, and to educate them at their own expense.
They did live, and generally within their in-
come, if their pay could be called income."
The problem of how they lived may be solved
in the simple statement that the good old-fash-
ioned Gospel of that day was not so expensive
an article as that served out to us at the pres-
ent time, by the Beechers, Talmages and other
silk-stockinged divines of the country, who
proclaim the word from marbled desks to
audiences arrayed in silks and broadcloths,
who doze away the time in softly-cushioned
pews, laid with Brussels carpets."

Rev. John Van Cleve was followed by Rev.
RobertBlackwell, and he by Rev. Samuel Elliott,
who, the next year, was succeeded by the Rev.
D. J. Snow. The Methodists differ from most
other denominations, in that they change their
ministers every two or three years. Rev. Mr.
Elliott is represented as a preacher who won
greaf popularity while pastor of the church at
Hillsboro, and was almost unanimously peti-
tioned for again, but from some cause the Con-
ference saw fit not to grant the petition, and
sent him elsewhere, which somewhat excited
the indignation of the Hillsboro Church, and
Rev. Snow found grim visages and sour faces
confronting him upon his " first appearance."
He seemed to comprehend the situation at once,
or had had an inkling of how matters stood,
and took for his text, upon the occasion of
preaching his first sermon, the following words
from Matthew, xi, 3 : " Art thou he that should
come, or do we look for another?" The an-
nouncement of his text is said to have brought
to the countenances of many of his hearers
feeble smiles, and the manner in which he ban
died it. and the application he made, restored
all to good humor, and lie finally became a pop-
ular and beloved pastor. He was succeeded
the next year by Bev. S. Shinn, and he by Rev.
T. YV. Jones. Next came Rev. Preston Wood ;

234

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

he was followed by Rev. James Crane, and he
by Rev. William Pallet, who died in 1873. Rev.
B. C. Wood was the next pastor, succeeded by
Rev. D. Bardrick, who remained two years ; he
was followed by Rev. Green McElfresh, he by
Rev. B. Hungerford, and he by Rev. McCaskell,
who did not stay, and the place was filled by
Rev. W. C. Lacy, followed the next year by
Rev. A. C. Vanderwater. Rev. S. S. Meginniss
came next, remaining two years, and under his
administration the present church was built,
and the old one on the corner sold.

Of this building, which was erected in 1863,
Mr. Rountree says : " Though money enough
was subscribed to nearly pay for its erection,
still a debt was created, that with the debt on
the parsonage, remained an incubus over the
church for ten years, and was paid up in full
this year (1873) leaving the church free from
debt, with a building worth some $15,000 and
a parsonage worth about $3,000, and some one
hundred and fifty members with sufficient abili-
ty to support a first-class preacher." Since the
above was written by Mr. Rountree (in 1873),
the church under the pastorate of Rev. Mr.
Hoffman, experienced quite a revival and in-
crease of membership. He remained with the
church for three years. The present pastor is
Rev. Thomas I. Coultiss, a preacher of great
ability, a pleasing speaker, and a natural orator.
He is now (1S82) serving his first year with
the church, and his accomplishments as a pas-
tor should endear him to his congregation.

The Methodist Church of Hillsboro, almost
from its original organization has maintained a
Sunday school. At present it is large and
flourishing under the superintendence of Mr.
Burns.

The Presbyterian Church. — Prom a sermon
delivered March 10, 1878, upon its semi-cen-
tennial anniversary, by Rev. N. S. Dickey, at
the time pastor, we compile the following-
sketch of the Presbyterian Church of Hills-
boro : Hillsboro, March 10, 1828.— Rev. John

M. Ellis met several people of Hillsboro and
vicinity, at the house of John Tillson, Jr., and
formed a church, to be known by the name of
the " Presbyterian Church of Hillsboro." John
Tillson, Jr., was received on certificate, and
Mrs. Margaret Seward on examination ; John
Tillson, Jr., was ordained as Ruling Elder. It
thus appears that this church began with two
members, one of whom was made Ruling Elder.
From the organization, March 10, 1828, to Sep-
tember 28, 1828, Rev. Solomon Hardy occa-
sionally moderated the session and supplied
the pulpit, or rather preached in the school-
house and the court house, for there was no
house of worship nor pulpit in Hillsboro. Four
persons were added to the church under these
labors, two on examination and two by letter,
making a total of six. For more than a year
after this there is no record, and report says
the church only had occasional preaching from
passing clergymen. From April, 1830, to Octo-
ber, 1841, a period of seven years and six
months, Rev. Thomas A. Spillman was the
stated supply of the church. The first record-
ed report of the church was made to the Pres-
bytery of Central Illinois, April 2, 1830, a little
more than two years after its organization, and
was as follows : :I Total in communion, per
last report, six ; added on certificate, one ; to-
tal now in communion, seven. Funds for Com-
missioner to General Assembly, $1." In Octo-
ber of the same year, another report was made
to the same Presbytery, when the communi-
cants had doubled. October 11. 1830, the rec-
ords of the church were first presented to the
Presbyter}-, and with slight exceptions were ap-
proved. The approval was signed by Rev.
Benjamin F. Spillman, Moderator of the Pres-
bytery.

The next report, April 1, 1831, was made to
the Presbytery of Sangamon, holding its ses-
sion at Springfield, when the membership had
again doubled, being twenty-eight ; $3 was
given to the Commissioner's fund. In 1832,

CITY OF HILLSBOEO.

235

the membership was fifty-three, and $3 was
contributed for Assembly's fund. According
to the report made April, 1837, the member-
ship was sixty-four, $3 was given to the Com-
missioner's fund, and 141 to education. These
$41 are the first given by the church to any
benevolent cause, and shows that the fathers
were wise in providing for future pupils of the
church.

During the ministry of Mr. Spilman,
138 persons were received to the member-
ship, forty on examination, and ninety-nine
by certificate ; thirty-three died, and sixteen
were dismissed. The church under this minis-
try contributed 8215 to missions, $60 for edu-
cation and $39 for Commissioner's fund. No
report of contributions for the last two years of
Mr. Spilman's ministry is recorded, though no
doubt collections were taken as usual. What
was paid for salarj and congregational expenses
is not recorded. The average yearly additions
to the church under his labors were fourteen.
Mr. Spilman was a faithful pastor, and did
much toward laying a good foundation for build-
ing up a successful church. Under his minis-
try the Sabbath school was a union one, and
usually all denominations worshiped with his
congregation. The first house of worship was
built during this time. Rev. T. E. Spilman,
of Butler, and Rev. J. H. Spilman, of Bethel,
honored and useful ministers of Jesus Christ,
are his sons. During the fall of 1841, and the win-
ter of 1842, Rev. James Stafford, pastor of the
Greenville church, is recorded as having mod-
erated the session several times, when twent}--
three persons were received into the church. Mr.
Stafford supplied the pulpit for a few Sabbaths
and held a protracted meeting during this time,
when the Spirit was poured out upon the peo-
ple.

Rev. Archibald C. Allen received a unani-
mous call to the pastorate of the church, March
24, 1842, at a salary of $500. He was installed
pastor by the Kaskaskia Presbytery, June 11,
1S42. Rev. James Stafford presided, put the

the constitutional questions, and delivered the
charges to pastor and people. Rev. Thomas
A. Spilman preached the installation sermon.
During Mr. Allen's ministry of two years, fifty
persons were added to the church, forty-two on
examination and eight by letter ; fifteen were
dismissed and six died. In these years the
church gave for benevolent work, $56 — $28 per
year. The average yearly increase during this
pastorate was twenty-five. The church was
vacant from May, 1844, until March, 1846.
During this time Rev. C. C. Riggs supplied the
pulpit a Sabbath or two, aud was invited to be-
come pastor. The records for this period, near-
ly two years, are meager. John Tillson and
wife, and five other persons, were dismissed.
John Paisley and Margaret W. Paden died, and
Benjamin S. McCord was received into the
church on profession of his faith in Christ.
Rev. Alexander Ewing moderating the session.
February, 21. 1846, Rev. T. W. Hynes, for
some time a Professor in Hanover College. In-
diana, was unanimously chosen to supply the
pulpit, at a salary of $400. He accepted aud
entered upon his work in the spring of 1846.
The report to Presbytery from April, 1845, to
March, 1846, gives the total in communion as
one hundred and one, five having died and
nine having been dismissed. Mr. Hynes' name
appears upon the records as Moderator of ses-
sions up to August 3, 1851, a period of about
five aud a half years. During his pastorate,
forty-one persons were received into the church,
and sixteen were dismissed. Robert Paisley,
Henry Tibbets, William Brown, Joseph T. Ec-
cles, Thomas Sturtevant, were elected and in-
stalled Ruling Elders. From September, 1851,
to August, 1853, the church seems to have been
without a pastor. September 24, 1851, the ses-
sion was moderated by Rev. J. Smith, D. D.,
and six persons were received on examination
to the fellowship of the church. June 21, 1852,
Rev. Mr. Hamilton presided over the session,
and two names were enrolled, one by letter anil
one on examination.

236

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

On the 12th of August, 1853, Rev. R. M.
Roberts was called to the pastorate of the
church, at a salary of $400. He accepted the
call, and continued to sustain this relation un-
til it was dissolved at his request, and the
church declared vacant, October 30, 1859. Mr.
Roberts served the church a little more than
six years. During his ministry, one hundred
and sixteen persons were received, an average
of nineteen per year. Resolutions highly com-
plimentary to Mr. Roberts, and indorsing him
as a Christian gentleman, and commending the
fidelity of his labors, were passed by the con-
gregation at the time of his withdrawal. No-
vember 12, 1859, twenty-one persons were dis-
missed to form the Hillsboro Congregational
Church. Rev. William L. Mitchell acting as
Moderator of the session.

On the 20th of December, 1859, Rev. William
L. Mitchell was called as pastor of the church,
at a salary of $500, and on December 23,
1859, was ordained and installed by the Pres-
bytery of Hillsboro. He continued this rela-
tion with acceptance and success, until his la-
mented death, February 23, 1864 — a period of
a little more than five 3-ears. During this time
seventy-one names were added to the roll, forty-
six on examination, and twenty-five by letter —
an average of fourteen per year ; twenty-nine
were dismissed. Mr. Mitchel's remains are
buried in the city cemetery. After Mr. Mitchell's
death, Rev. Julius A. Spencer, of St. Louis,
supplied the pulpit for several weeks. March
1, 1865, Rev. J. R. Brown was invited to sup-
ply the pulpit. He at once entered upon his
labors and continued to serve the church until
March 22, 1870, a period of five years. Fifty
persons were added to the church during his
pastorate, on examination, and sixty-five by
letter — a total of one hundred and fifteen — an
average of twenty-three per year ; twenty-nine
persons were dismissed.

From the close of Mr. Brown's labors until
the beginning of the next year, about nine

months, the church was vacant. August 24'
1870, Rev. J. H. Spilmau acted as Moderator
of the session, and Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus David-
son were received into the church by letter, and
three were dismissed.

Rev. S. A. Whitcomb seems to have com-
menced his labors about the beginning of the
vear 1871. He served the church two years,
at a salary of $1,000 per year, and free use of
the parsonage. Rev. W. W. Williams was, by
a unanimous vote of the congregation, April
27, 1873, invited to supply the church for one
year, at a salary of $1,000, to be paid quarter-
ly in advance, and also the free use of the par-
sonage. Mr. Williams worked with energy and
acceptance for nearly nine months, directing
his efforts to the completion of the audience
room of the house of worship. The first services
help therein, still in an incompleted state, was
the funeral of the pastor. Resolutions of com-
mendation were passed by the congregation, in
reference to Mr. Williams, after his death. Af-
ter this, the church was vacant for several
mouths. In September, 1874, Rev. Charles
Fueller was invited to supply the pulpit at a
salary of $1,000, and use of the parsonage. He
served the church for three years, during which
time fifty-nine persons were added. Mr. Fueller
labored earnestly to lift the debt off the house
of worship. Under his lead furnaces, at a cost
of $346, and cushions, at about the same cost,
were placed in the church, besides what was
done to lift the encumbrance from the building.
He ceased to serve the church October 1, 1877,
aud January 1, following, Rev. N. S. Dickey,
entered upon his work as stated supply. At
the present writing (1882) the pastor is Rev.
S. C. Dickey, a son of the above, and a young
man of rare promise.

During the half century just closed, ten
ministers have acted as stated supply or pas-
tor. Seven others are recorded as having act-
ed as Moderator, once or oftener, of the session,
including those who organized the church. The

CITY OF H1LLSBORO.

2-',7

whole number of members received since the
organization is 669 — 321 on examination, and
348 by letter. This is an average of about
fourteen per year, nearly equally divided by
letter and on examination.

At a meeting of the congregation, held Au-
gust 7, 1859, it was resolved to build a new
and larger house of worship, taking down the
old one and working the material into the new
— provided sufficient funds could be raised.
Rev. R. M. Roberts was appointed to canvass
the congregation and take subscriptions and
report at another meeting. Success did not
crown this effort, and the old church was used
until 1860, when it gave place to the present
edifice, the basement being used in the fall of
that year. During construction the congrega-
tion worshiped in the Unitarian Church, and in
Clotfelter's Hall. According to the report of
the building committee, made by Judge J. T.
Eccles, the cost of the edifice and furnaces was
§13,758.31 ; of this sum the ladies paid $663.-
43. Furnaces were put in the first year of Mr.
Fueller's pastorate, at a cost of §346. Cush-
ioning the seats cost nearly $400 more, so
that the whole cost of the house in its present
state was about $14,500. For some years a
debt rested upon the house of worship. April
25, 1875, Judge Eccles donated $2,602.18, prin-
cipal and interest due him for money paid up-
on the building. This noble example stimulat-
ed others ; Mr. James Paden donated several
hundred dollars due him, and under the lead
of the pastor, Mr. Fueller, the whole debt was
paid except a few hundred dollars, for which
the parsonage is held. A united effort and
this no doubt could be very easily paid.

October 15, 1857, during the Rev. R. M. Rob-
ert's pastorate, at a meeting over which Joseph
T. Eccles presided, William Brown, William
Witherspoon, D. S. and A. L. Clotfelter, and
L. H. Thorn were appointed a committee to
make estimates of the cost of a parsonage. A
lot was bought for $300, and the present house
was built at a cost of about $1,200.

The Sabbath school has not been neglected.
A number of years before the organization of
the church, a school was maintained by the
Tillson family, in their residence. In the early
years of the church, all denominations repre-
sented in the town patronized the school, and,
though it was under the supervision of the ses-
sion, it was carried on as a union school. In
later ^years, the other denominations drew off
and established their own schools. According
to rules adopted by the church, the Superinten-
dent and Vice Superintendent are to be chosen
at a congregational meeting appointed for the
purpose, the election to be by ballot, all the
members of the church, in good standing, hav-
ing a right to vote. The Superintendent thus
chosen, with the advice and consent of the ses-
sion, is to appoint the teachers; "keeping al-
ways in view Christian character, and aptness
to teach." The records of the school, until re-
cently, have not been preserved. The interest,
for a few months past, has been growing, but
many of the officers, and many of the church
members, do not attend the school, nor show
that interest in it essential to its growth and
highest growth and usefulness. Every mem-
ber of the church, young or old, should, if
practicable, be connected with the Sabbath
school, as teacher or learner. That church which
does not take care of the spiritual interests of
the rising race must, in time, fail of success.

In addition to the church Sabbath school,
several interesting neighborhood schools, un-
der the supervision of some of our people, have
been and are maintained in the country, a few
miles from the city.

The Congregational Church. — This church is
an offshoot of the Presbyterian Church of Hills-
boro, and, as we have seen, was organized hy a
number of persons, who were dismissed for that
purpose. In the fall of 1859, they organized
themselves into the Congregational Church of
Hillsboro, or became the nucleus of the organ-
ization. From Dr. Washburn, who communi-
cated to us the principal facts connected with

238

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

the history of this church, we learn that there
was a large Eastern element here at that time
who had not identified themselves with any
church, and these, with the twenty-one persons
from the Presbyterian Church, formed a mem-
bership of about forty. The auspices seemed
favorable for building up a large church, and
up to the civil war everything in connection
with it seemed prosperous. At the call for
volunteers, a large proportion of its membership
and congregation enlisted. Some never returned
from the war; some of the members moved
away, aud others died. In the meantime, the
Old and New School Presbyterians united, a
fact familiar to all readers of their history.

At the close of the war, in 1865, the present
brick church was built, at a cost of over $7,000.
Services were continued and good congrega-
tions were kept up for several years. A com-
fortable parsonage was built in 1878, and the
society was free of debt. However, removals,
and the death of some of its best members,
gradually reduced its strength and its financial
ability, and since the beginning of the present
year (1882) no services have been held. Its
future usefulness and prosperity, at this time,
seems somewhat in doubt. " The rapid growth
of the town might infuse new life and continue
its existence, but at present it would seem as
well that thej' should become associated with
the other Protestant churches of the place,
rather than drag out a feeble existence."
Though no preaching is had now at the church,
a Sunday school is maintained.

Lutheran Church. — The early history of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hillsboro is
somewhat obscure, and the best efforts to ob-
tain the first written records of the society have
proved of no avail. The}' have disappeared
from the archives of the church, when or how,
no one seems to know, and hence we are
obliged to glean its early history from other aud,
perhaps, less reliable sources. Mr. Springer
furnishes us the following of this church:

The Lutheran denomination was particularly
strong in North Carolina, whence had come
many of the prominent families of Hillsboro
and vicinity. It was one of their first acts to
provide themselves a church and a pastor in
order to continue in the forms of worship
familiar and dear to them. The Rev. David
Scherer was the father of the Lutheran Church
at Hillsboro, and organized it about the spring
of 1833. The society worshiped for the first
two years in the old log court house, and then
commenced the erection of a comfortable frame
church building on the sight of the present edi-
fice. '■ Father Scherer," as he was called, and
is now referred to, served the church for six or
seven years, and was followed by the Kev. A.
A. Trimper, and he, in 1847, by Rev. Francis
Springer; he by Rev. J. J. Lovengood, in 1852;
he by Rev. George A. Bowen; he by Rev. J.
M. Cromer, and he by Rev. C. A. Gelwick, the
present pastor.

The congregation, at a meeting held in Feb-
ruarv, 1856, resolved to build a new house of
worship, and $1,700 were at once subscribed.
Work was commenced, and the result was the
present building, which was finally completed.
It is a brick structure, with basement, and
auditorium above, and is handsomely finished
and furnished within. Among the officers of
the church, as Elders and Deacons, in its ear-
lier days, were Jacob "W. Scherer, Alfred
Miller, Henry Meisenheimer, Caleb T. Sifford,
John Ritchie, Simeon Scherer, E. B. Hubbell,
Henry Walter, Richard McFarland, Jacob
Cress, Sr., Jacob Cress, Jr., and Edmund Miller,
about half of whom are yet residents of the
county. The church has always been one of
great influence for good in the community,
having many liberal-hearted workers in its
membership, and being favored in general with
ministers of energy and high literary attain-
ments. The church has long carried on and
supported an interesting Sunday school.

The Unitarians were an early religious organ-

CITY OF HILL8BORO.

239

ization of Hillsboro. Their old church build-
ing is one of the relics of the past, and few of
the rising generation, perhaps, know that such
a church ever existed in the city. The old
building, now occupied by Mr. Cress as an
agricultural implement depot, south of the
American House on the main street, was the
temple of worship of the Unitarians thirty or
fortj' years ago. But, as the old aud promi-
nent members died off, or moved away, the
church diminished in numbers, and eventually
became extinct. There has been no Unitarian
service in the town, we believe, since the war,
but the old church building still stands, a mon-
ument to their former zeal and influence.

The Cumberland Presbyterians organized a
church in Hillsboro, prior to the late civil war.
Rev. Mr. Logan, at the time editor of a religious
paper at Alton, was chiefly instrumental in its
organization, and was present at the time the
church was constituted. A number of persons
of the Cumberland Presbyterian faith united
with the society here, and for several 3'ears the
organization was kept up. Meetings were held
in the old Unitarian Church building for a time,
and arrangements were attempted for the erec-
tion of a building of their own, but the move-
ment was unsuccessful. The membership in-
creased but slowly, the effects of the war were
experienced, and the " Ship of Zion " was finally
abandoned. Some of the members united with
the Cumberland Presbyterians at McDavid's
Point, and at other places, while others cast in
their lots with some of the churches in the city,
mostly with the Presbyterian Church.

The Baptists have an organized society in
Hillsboro. but have no church building. The
society was organized a few years ago, and
arrangements made for occasional preaching,
its limited number of members not admitting
of its paying a regular pastor. The organiza-
tion is still kept up, and administered to now
aud then by visiting preachers.

The Catholics. — St. Agnes' Roman Catholic

Church represents that denomination in Hills-
boro. The first Catholic services in the city
were held in private houses from about the
year 1854 to 1859, by traveling rnissionai'ies,
especially by Father T. Cusack, now of Ship-
man, 111. From 1859 to 1870, the Catholics of
Hillsboro were attended from Litchfield. It
was not until the latter year that the building
of a church in Hillsboro was encouraged, and
for that purpose a subscription was commenced
by Father L. Hiussen, now of Belleville, 111.
The church was placed under the patronage of
St. Agnes, and has since been known as the
" St. Agnes' Roman Catholic Church." It was
built under the supervision aud management
of R. H. Stewart, of this city, costing, when
completed, about $6, 0(11), and to its construc-
tion both Catholics and non-Catholics contrib-
uted with equal liberality. The building is
40x60 feet in dimensions, and the membership
at present is between fifty and sixty families.
The regular pastors of the church have been,
since its organization, Rev. G-r. Lohmau, from
1871 to 1876, now of Aviston, Clinton County,
111.; Rev. P. J. Virsink, from 1876 to 1882,
now at St. Marie, Jasper County, 111. Present
pastor is Rev. J. Storp, and to him we are in-
debted for the above facts.

The colored people, of whom there are quite
a number in Hillsboro, hold services every Sun-
day afternoon in the basement of the Lutheran
Church. The}- have no regular pastor, and
only enjoy occasional preaching by minister's
from abroad.

Secret Orders. — In conclusion of the chapter
on the church history of Hillsboro, it is not
inappropriate to devote a brief space to those
benevolent organizations, which, in their quiet
way, exert as widespread influence almost as
the church itself. The good accomplished by
these institutions cannot be estimated. There
is nothing more wonderful in Freemasonry, the
most ancient of these honorable and charitable
fraternities, than its perpetual youth. Human

240

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

governments flourish and then disappear, leav-
ing only desolation in the places where their
glory used to shine. But the institution of
Freemasonry, originating so long ago that the
oldest history tells nothing of its beginning,
has survived the decay of dynasties, and the
revolutions of races, and kept pace with the
marvelous march of civilization and Chris-
tianity. Freemasonry was established in Hills-
boro at an early day by the formation of a
lodge of the order, and has existed with more
or less zeal ever since.

The first lodge organized here was known as
Hillsboro Lodge, No. 33. A., F. & A. M„ and
was formed under the authority of the Grand
Lodge of Missouri, by which grand body its
charter was issued, under date of October 9,
1840. Among the charter members were C. B.
Blockberger, H. Kingsley, M. Kingsley and M.
V. Nickerson. Of these, the first three (in the
order named), constituted the first Master and
Wardens. The lodge continued to work under
the Grand Lodge of Missouri until the forma-
tion of the Grand Lodge of Illinois, when it
was rechartered and re-organized.

Mount Moriah Lodge, No. 51, A., F. & A. M.,
was chartered October 4, 1848, and was but a
re-organization of the original Hillsboro Lodge,
under the Grand Lodge of Illinois. Its char-
ter members were Ira Millard, Ira Boone, Jer-
emiah Hart, John S. Hillis, J. H. Ralston, M.
J. Blockberger, M. Turner, Jacob Lingafelter,
and their charter was signed by William Lave-
ly, Grand Master, and William Mitchell, Grand
Secretary. The first officers were Ira Millard;
Master ; Ira Boone, Senior Warden, and Jere-
miah Hart, Junior Warden. The lodge has a
nourishing membership, and is at present offi-
cered as follows : M. W. Miller, Master ; C.
L. Bartlett, Senior Warden ; J. B. Atterbury,
Junior Warden ; J. W. Edwards, Treasurer ;
Benjamin E. Johnson, Secretarj' ; J. M. Smith,
Senior Deacon ; J B. Dreyhur, Junior Deacon,
and W. R. Truesdell, Tiler.

The lodge formerly met in the upper story
of a building used by Gunning as a blacksmith
shop. Afterward, in connection with the Odd
Fellows, they built a hall on Main street, near
the court house. Finally, they sold out and
built their present hall. They own the third
story of a large brick building on the Main
street, and have it handsomely fitted up and
furnished.

Montgomery Chapter, No. 63, Royal Arch
Masons, was organized several years ago, by
the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Illinois.
For a time it worked zealously, then the mem-
bers seemed to become lukewarm, meetings
were less frequent, and finally ceased altogether.
The charter has been surrendered to the Grand
Chapter, and Montgomery Chapter is, for the
time at least, extinct. " It is not dead, but
sleepeth," and may revive again when the com-
panions awake from their present Rip Van
Winkle sleep.

Hermon Chapter, No. 46, of the Order of the
Eastern Star, was chartered by the Supreme
Grand Chapter of Adoptive Masonry of Illi-
nois, January 18, 1871. The first officers were
Isaac Shimer, a Master Mason, Worthy Pa-
tron ; Sister Augusta D. Marshall, Worthy
Matron, and Sister Eveline C. Harris, Associ-
ate Matron. For several years an active inter-
est was taken by the ladies of Hillsboro in the
Order of the Eastern Star, and at one time their
chapter was one of the most flourishing in the
State. But of late their zeal has flagged, and
they have suffered it to become almost entirely
dormant.

Montgomery Lodge, No. 40. I. 0. 0. F., was
instituted in Hillsboro May 30. 1848, by WiH-
iam M. Parker, of Belleville, Grand Master.
The following persons were initiated into the
order on that occasion, viz.: David B. Jackson,
A. S. Haskell, Hiram Brown, William K. Jack-
son, John Burnap, George Blackmail, George
J. Brooks, J. L. Whitmore, and John R. Pais-
ley. The first officers were : Henry Richmond

CITY OF HILLSBORO.

241

(now of Litchfield). Noble Grand ; David B.
Jackson, Vice Grand ; William K. Jackson.
Secretary, and John Burnap, Treasurer. They
met regularly in the hall then owned and oc-
cupied bj- the Masonic lodge, being the second
story of Gunning's blacksmith shop. In 1S55,
in connection with the Masons, they built the
hall already referred to. This was completed
and dedicated on the 13th day of June. 1S56.
Afterward they bought out the Masons, and in
October, 1867, deemed it advisable to sell their
hall and build a new one on the opposite side of
the street. The corner-stone of this building
was laid on the 23d of October of that year,
and the building completed earl}- in 1868, when
the lodge moved into it, and still occupies it.
The present officers are: Wilbur B. Ralston,
Noble Grand ; J. L. McHeury, Vice Grand ;
William K. Jackson, Secretary ; C. L. Bartlett,
Treasurer ; William K. Jackson, District Dep-
uty Grand Master.

The Encampment branch of the order was
instituted by Charles Trumbull, of Alton, Jan-
uary 16, 1857, and the following officers elected

and installed, viz.: D. B. Jackson, Chief Priest ;
G. G. Withington, High Priest; William K.
Jackson, Senior Warden; J. W. Cassaday,
Scribe ; A. S. Haskell. Treasurer, and A. II.
Brown, Junior Warden. The membership of
this body lias never been large.

Hillsboro Lodge. No. 265, I. 0. G. T., was
organized February 11, 1881, with some thirty -
culd members. The present officers are as fol-
lows : A. G. Taylor. W. C. T.; Mrs. Tirzah
Depuy, W. V. T; Jacob Beck, P. W. C. T ;
James Lynch, W. S.; Mrs. Man- Johnson. W.
F. S.; J. J. Miller. W. T.; C. W. Taylor. W. M.;
Mrs. M. H. Johnson, W. D. M.; Libbie Horton,
W. A. S.; Dudley Depuy, W. S.; Meda Hanna,
R. H. S. ; Lucy Robb, L. H. S.; Rev. S. C.
Dickey. W. C. The lodge is small in num-
bers, but stong in faith, and inspired with
the lofty aims of the cause in which they are
engaged ; the members, though few, work none
the less zealously. That they have accom-
plished much, none can den} - , but the field is
still large for the exercise of their good
work.

242

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

CHAPTER X.*

HILLSBORO— EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS— EARLY SCHOOLS AND THE OLD LOG SCHOOLHOUSE-

HILLSBORO ACADEMY— ITS COLLEGE CAREER— THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS — NEWSPAPERS—

THE FIRST PAPERS OF THE TOWN — UPS AND DOWNS OF THE BUSINESS— THE

"NEWS" AND THE "JOURNAL" OF TO-DAY, ETC.

"A little learning is a dangerous thing,
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring."

AMID the various conflicting opinions on
moral, political and religious subjects,
there is need of charity and forbearance, con-
cession and compromise. Citizenship is of no
avail unless we imbibe the liberal spirit of our
laws and institutions. Through the medium of
the common schools are the rising generation of
all nationalities assimilated readiby and thor-
oughly forming the great American people.
The common schools are alike open to the rich
and the poor, the citizen and the stranger. It
is the duty of those to whom the administra-
tion of the schools is confided, to discharge it
with magnanimous liberality and Christian
kindness. Diligent care should be taken by
instructors, to- impress upon the minds of chil-
dren and youth committed to their care, the
principles of morality and justice, and a sacred
regard to truth, love of their country, humanity
and universal benevolence, sobriety, industry
and frugality, chastity, moderation and temper-
ance, and all other virtues which are the orna-
ments to society.

The people of Hillsboro displayed an early
interest in educating their children, and among
the pioneer institutions of the town, may be
noted the old log schoolhouse, already fre-
quently mentioned in these pages. Says Mr.
Rountree. in his early reminiscences of Hills-
boro : " It is a remarkable fact that Hillsboro,

*By W. H. Perria.

like Jacksonville, was a kind of Athens of Illi-
nois. The early citizens, coming as they did
from the older States, where education was the
rule, the great mass of them were intelligent,
well educated men and women. One of the
earliest school teachers in Hillsboro was Nancy
Crumba, who was a sister of the first wife of
David B. Jackson. She taught frequent^' in
Hillsboro, and was a refined, cultivated lady —
so much so, that girls and young women were
sent from abroad — Vandalia, Carlyle and Ed-
wardsville, to her, that she might put on the
finishing to the education that they had re-
ceived at home."

Another of the early teachers of Hillsboro
was Rosetta Townsend, who was raised on the
place known as Rose Hill. She afterward mar-
ried Andrew M. Braley, an old sailor and sur-
veyor, and died earl}', leaving one child, Ann
Eliza, who also taught in Hillsboro years after
John C. Terret was another early teacher, and
the first who taught the classics in a school in
the town. Many other good and efficient
teachers taught in Hillsboro up to the time of
building the academy.

The first schoolhouse ever built in Hillsboro
was in the winter of 1825. It was of round
logs twenty-five feet square, chinked and daubed
with mud ; the fire-place occupied nearly one
whole side of the house, its jambs of mud, and
chiuiney of sticks covered with the same mate-
rial. A log was sawed out on two sides of the
room, and the long space filled with sash and
glass, while on the fourth side was the door,

JdL> , yj( c t $0^-1^ , A—

LI13RARY

Of int

UNlVthsil r «t Illinois

CITY OF HILLSBORO.

245

■with shutter made of clapboards. The floor
was of puncheons, the benches of split logs,
with legs in the round side, and the upper side
somewhat smoothed with axes. There was no
loft or ceiling ; a few shelves on pegs, etc. The
roof was of clapboards held to their places with
weight-poles. Two writing desks made of punch-
eons, perhaps a chair, a water " piggin," no
andirons except rocks, no tongs, a clapboard
shovel, wooden fire-poker, a mud hearth, and a
few " peep-holes " through the chinks or cracks.
This was the first temple of learning with which
the youth of Hillsboro became acquainted, and
in the unpretending structure, the foundation
of the education of some of Illinois' great men
were laid. This early schoolhouse stood on the
crest of the hill above the natural spring at
Rountree's pasture, in the eastern part of what
is now the main city. Of the teachers who in-
structed in this old house, it may be said, that
they were men and women of culture, some of
whom arose to eminence. Of these we may
mention Maj. Campbell, of Carlisle; Maj. John
* H. Rountree, a prominent politician and legis-
lator ; Hon. James M. Bradford, who held
various offices, and John Hays, Mr. Springer,
W.L.Jenkins, Frank Dickson and many others.
There are man}' of the citizens of the town and
count} - received their education wholly or in
part, viz. : the Cresses, Rutledges, Blackber-
gers, Seymours, Boones, Grubbs, Rountrees,
etc., etc., also Revs. R. J. Nail and W. S. Pren-
tice, prominent Methodist preachers ; James
and Sidney Harkey and Jacob Scherer, of the
Lutheran Church, and Gen. Tillson, of Quiney,
whoso part in the late civil war highly distin-
guished him. Indeed many persons of distinc-
tion taught, or were taught in that old build-
ing, Hillsboro's first schoolhouse.

No doubt the memories connected with it,
s:iys Mr. Rountree, are warm in their hearts,
but the old house is gone. Other buildings
have been erected to take its place. Our tine
brick free schoolhouse is an ornament and well

worthy of our pride. The old academy still
flourishes. But it is a question if they are more
useful in their day than the log houses for simi-
lar purposes were in the pioneer days. Of the
new brick schoolhouse, it is a comfortable and
commodious structure, standing on a beautiful
lot north of the court house. It is built after
the usual style of architecture of the modern
schoolhouses, and is finished and furnished in
the latest improved manner.

The Academy. — About the year 1836, the
people united together and built the Hillsboro
Academy. At the time of its erection it was
one of the most magnificent temples of learning
in the State. John Tillson was the moving-
spirit in its construction and endowment, and
to him, more than to any other single individual
is the community indebted for the high reputa-
tion of the institution. Young men and boys
came from all the surrounding country to re-
ceive academic and collegiate training at Hills-
boro Academy, and afterward College. Here
the energy of Mr. Tillson shone out. He
brought the first Superintendent, Prof. Isaac
Wetherill, from the East, and his wife for asso-
ciate in the female department, with Prof. Ed-
ward Wyman associate in the male department,
and Miss E. F. Hadley, teacher of instrumental
music. The first session commenced the first
Wednesday in November, 1837, and was liber-
ally patronized for years. It gave Hillsboro so
great a reputation for education and morality
that no other public school building was erected
until the present brick edifice alluded to above.

The Academy was changed to a college ami
carried on several years as such by the Lu-
therans, but was abandoned by them in 1852,
when they removed their institution to Spring-
field. The building then became the property
of the common schools, and has since been used
by the city as the high school department. It
has lost nothing in this capacity from the high
standard of excellence it occupied, and is still
an educational institution of more than ordinary

•ua

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

merit. It stands in the most pleasant part of
the city, near the center of a gently rolling
piece of ground, whose rich, grassy carpet is
shaded with a profusion of fine old forest trees
of a century's growth. In a word, no city of its
size and population possesses better facilities
than Hillsboro for a good common-school edu-
cation.

The Press. — The newspapers of Hillsboro
next claim our attention, and in connection with
the educational history their mention is pecu-
liarly appropriate, as the press has always been
deemed a zealous friend and advocate of learn-
ing. From the " Rountree Letters," so freely
quoted from in these pages, we gather the early
history of the press of Hillsboro, and no man,
perhaps, was more capable than Mr. Rountree
of doing the subject justice.

The Prairie Beacon was the first paper pub-
lished in Hillsboro, and was established about
the year 1838, by a stock company. It was
published in the upper story of Hayward &
Holmes' old storehouse, and Aaron Clapp, Esq.,
was its editor. He is described as a tall,
straight, red-haired man, badly cross-eyed, but
a fine scholar, fresh from an Eastern college,
and a friend and college-mate of Prof. Isaac
Wetherill, then Principal of the Hillsboro
Academy. The Prairie Beacon proved a poor
and unprofitable investment, and after strug-
gling on for about a year and a half it ceased
publication. The press, type and fixtures were
sold to some parties in Platteville, Wis., where
it was used in the publication of a paper called
The Northern Badger. So disastrous was the
failure of the Prairie Beacon that some years
elapsed before another attempt was made to es-
tablish a paper at Hillsboro. In 1850, Frank
and Cyrus Gilrnore established the Prairie
Mirror, with Rev. Francis Springer as editor.
The boys, for the}' were but boys at the time,
did all the office work themselves. In national
politics the Mirror was Whig, but upon home
affairs it advocated " State policy," which by

its success staved off the building of a number
of other railroads until the building of Hills-
boro's road. The Gilmore boys sold out to
William K. Jackson in 1851, who became its
proprietor, with C. P. Pickerson as editor. In
the reconstruction of political parties the Mir-
ror became the exponent of the Know-Nothing
party. Pickerson bought out Mr. Jackson in
1854, and carried it ou himself until 1S56, when
he changed ittothc Montgomery County Herald;
afterward sold it to James Blackmail. Jr., and
removed from Hillsboro.

The Herald was continued by Mr. Blackmail
as a Know-Nothing paper until 1858, when he
sold out to J. W. Kitchell and F. H. Gilmore,
who ran it as an independent paper until t,he
opening of the campaign of 1860. They then
sold it to Bavis, Turner & Co., who published
it through the campaign as a Pemocratic paper,
and late in the season sold it to F. H. Gilmore,
who continued it as a Pemocratic paper. In
1862. he sold it to E. J. Ellis, a refugee from
Missouri. Mr. Ellis was an old editor, and
after the war returned to Missouri, where, at
the last account of him, he was publishing a
paper called the Montgomery Standard. He
sold the Herald to Ed. L. Reynolds and Wilbur
F. Stoddard. They coutinued it as a Pemo-
cratic paper until 1867, when they sold it to
William McEweu and John Auginbaugh, who,
the next year (1868), sold it to E. J. C.
Alexander. Mr. Alexander continued the
paper as Pemocratic, but changed its name to
the Hillsboro Democrat. " He so run the paper,"
says Mr. Rountree, " as to make a fortune and
elect himself to the State Legislature, where he
is now (1873-74) serving his constituents. While
it claims to be a Pemocratic paper, it is only
negatively so ; and it is in full accord with the
' Farmer movement,' as against both political
parties, hanging with the Pemocrats in their
fight with the Republicans." With the issue
of April 29, 1874, Mr. Alexander changed the
name of the Democrat to that of The Anti-

CITY OF HILLSBORO.

247

Monopolist, and became the zealous exponent
of the farmer or grange movement. Still he
was not happy, and another change came over
his paper. This time he called it the Hillsboro
Blade, and changed its politics to Republican.
He then sold it to James L. Slack, who again
changed its name, calling it the Hillsboro Jour-
nal. Slack sold itto Charles R. Truitt in 1881,
the present editor and publisher. It is a hand-
some eight-page paper, neatly and tastefully
printed, ably edited, and is the Republican
organ of Montgomery County.

About the year 1S59 or 1860, the Illinois
Free Press was established in Hillsboro, as the
advocate of the views of the Republican party.
It was published by a stock company composed
of the leading Republicans of Hillsboro and
Butler, and Mr. D. W. Mann was its editor.
Later it was in charge of J. B. Hutchinson and
James Munn. Hutchinson afterward moved to
Iowa, and Munn was slightly wounded at
Ponelson, Tenn., when he retired from the
army, and finally returned East, whence he had
come, and where he was lost sight of. The
Free Press was never a financial success, and
suspended publication, but was resurrected
again in 1863 by John W. Kitchell, and the
name changed to the Union Monitor. D. W.
Munn had become sole proprietor previous to
the sale to Mr. Kitchell. It was next bought
by Mr. Thomas J. Russell, Mr. Kitchell remain-
ing as editor, until he was drafted into the
army in the spring of 1865, when Mr. J. E.
Henry, a native of Bond County, a good writer
and an able man, became editor. He afterward
removed to St. Joseph, Mo. Mr. Alexander,
afterward editor and proprietor of the !>■ mo-
crat, became, in May, 1867, proprietor of the
Monitor, as the Republican organ, but becom-
ing a little "tender-footed," as be expressed, it

on the negro question, he sold out to B. S.
Hood, of Litchfield, a man of fine abilities, but
not being acquainted with the modus operandi
of running a newspaper, did not make a fortune
out of his investment. It was removed to
Litchfield, and for a time was run by a stock
company, Messrs. Bangs & Gray finally be-
came the purchasers, who, after a little while,
divided the office, and from this division sprung
the News Letter of Hillsboro, conducted by C.
L. and E. T. Bangs. The remainder was sold
to Taylor & Kimball, of Belleville, who con-
ducted the Monitor a few mouths by agents,
and then transferred it to Coolidge & Litch-
field, and it became what is now the Litchfield
Monitor.

The News Letter was sold to Slack & Tobin,
and the name changed to the Hillsboro Journal.
Mr. Tobin sold out to Slack, who sold to John-
son & Tobin in 1875. Up to this time it had
been Republican in politics, but Johnson &
Tobin changed its name to Montgomery N< irs,
and its politics to Democrat. In 1876, Johnson
sold his interest to George W. Paisley, ami
February 6, 1S82, Paisley & Tobin sold the
paper to Benjamin E. Johnsou, who is the
present owner and editor. The News is the
official organ of the Democracy of Montgomery
County, and is a large eight-page paper, well
edited by Col. Johnson, a man of considerable
newspaper ability, experience and enterprise.

The press of Hillsboro at the present time
is second to that of no town of its importance
in Southern Illinois, and the people should be
justly proud of it, and extend to it the support
and patronage it so richly merits. No town
can prosper without live, enterprising news-
papers, and such papers cannot exist without
liberal patronage.

248

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

CHAPTER XI.*

NORTH LITCHFIELD TOWNSHIP— DESCRIPTION AND TOPOGRAPHY— CHARACTER OF SOIL— EARLY

SETTLEMENTS— THE BRIGGS FAMILY— OTHER PIONEERS— THE FIRST PREACHERS AND

CHURCHES— SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS— PIONEER INCIDENTS— TAX RECEIPTS, ETC.

—EARLY DISEASES AND DEATHS — EFFECTS OF THE WAR, ETC.. ETC

THIS township, lying on the west side of the the prairie and much of the timber is fenced,
county, is south of Zanesville, west of and this has led to the adoption of a stock

law.

Iu 1816, Robert Briggs, born east of the Blue
Ridge, and emigrating to Ohio en route to Ed-
wardsville, where he dwelt in the fort, and
where children were born to him, located on
Lake Fork in Walshville. He built a cabin
and began a farm. Two years later, the land
was bought from under him by Government
entry, and Mr. Briggs, leaving his cribs filled
with corn, removed in 1818 to a point nearly a
third of a mile east of Martin Ritchie's house,
and began anew. His old neighbors relieved
himof hiscribbed corn, and he had no new neigh-
bors in the modern meaning of the word. A
few miles to the north, a family settled a little
later, and five miles to the south were two or
three families. The region abounded iu gray
wolves, tall, fierce, gaunt fellows, and occasion-
ally a black one was seen. Muskrats were nu-
merous in the shallow ponds, and skunks were
met everywhere. The few sheep Mr. Briggs
owned were penned each night to protect them
from beasts of prey, for black bears and painters
were not quite unknown. Grapes grew in the
woods, and " bee trees" yielded their delicious
sweets to the pioneer. Wagons were not in
use ; in place of them rude ox carts were in
creneral use, frequently made without iron.
Cattle were the exclusively draft animals ;
horses were employed only under the saddle,
and to plow corn. In dry weather an ox cart
in motion was the equal in noise to a Chinese

^HIS township, lying on the west side of the
county, is south of Zanesville, west of
Butler, and north of South Litchfield. The
west fork of Shoal Creek passes from north to
south through the east side, and is fringed with
timber for nearly a mile on each side. The
west two-thirds of the township are prairie.
The west and north portions discharge their
surplus waters through a branch into the creek,
while the southwestern sections send their
drainage into the Cahokia, and the southeastern
sections lie on Rocky Branch, an affluent of the
west fork of Shoal Creek. For three miles the
Indianapolis & St. Louis railroad divides it
from South Litchfield. The Jacksonville road
enters at the northwest corner and leaves it two
miles east of the southwest corner. The St.
Louis branch of the Wabash, going north, en-
ters the township two miles from the county
line and leaves it two miles west of the north-
east corner. It thus contains nearly sixteen
miles of railroad.

The soil along the creek is white and better
for straw grain than for corn. In the prairie
the soil is black, glutinous and deep. The sur-
face iu the prairie region requires artificial drain-
age, which has been in part supplied by the con-
struction of railroads, and a more careful at-
tention to the location and improvement of
ordinary highways. In the farms along the
timber, rail fences are the rule ; iu other and
more recently cultivated farms board fences
are common, and many hedges are found. All

llv II. A. Ooolidge

NORTH LITCHFIELD TOWNSHIP.

249

orchestra. Oxen wrought in the ordinary yoke,
but horses had wooden hames on shuck collars,
made by some neighbors and connected to the
whippletree with chains, supported by a strip
of raw hide over the horse's back.

The cattle were natives, small and hardy. A
fattened animal which weighed dressed half a
thousand pounds was a monster. The horses
were usually about fifteen hands high, and of
light weight. In a few years after Mr. Briggs'
settlement, the Archy stock was introduced
from North Carolina and was highly esteemed
for the saddle. All travel was on horseback,
and a steed, sure-footed, hardy, and with a
swift, easy pace, was a possession keenly appre-
ciated. Swine of the baser breed prevailed.
They were not inclined to take on flesh, were
fleet of foot and insatiable in appetite, and pug-
nacious. The few sheep were kept for the
wool. Quail and gray squirrels and wild
turkeys, water fowl and herds of deer, made the
country a valuable game region. Of song
birds the pioneers do not speak ; they came in
with the cessation of the annual burning of the
prairie, and the appearance of orchards and
trees around human habitations.

For several years Mr. Briggs grew cotton for
home clothing. When picked, it was ginned by
hand, and then prepared on hand cards in the
house for the spinning wheel. Sometimes wool
was mingled with the "batts" for spinning.
The cotton was carded, spun, wove and dyed at
home, and the cloth fashioned into garments
by the housewife's shears and needle. Nearly
ever} - home contained a spinning wheel and
loom and a variety of saddles. The children
tasted neither tea nor coffee. Sassafras tea or
crust coffee does not tempt a healthy or a ca-
pricious thirst. The johnny cake board was as
necessary in a well regulated family as knives
and forks, and the corn meal was brought from
Elm Point or the " Pepper Mill." The meal,
wetted with water and salted and baked on a
board set sloping before the fire, and eaten with

milk, was a healthful food, and the children
throve on it.

The Briggs family went to Old Ripley, in
Bond County, for meal, and their meat was
wild game ; the forest yielded them grapes and
plums ; their garden Irish potatoes and sweet
ones. The father tanned each year, imper-
fectly, leather in a trough, and from the product,
which had the properties of rawhide, he made
shoes for his children. When wet these shoes
were a world too wide ! When dried on the
feet they shrank until they bound like com-
presses.

The first school his children attended was in
a log schoolhouse, two miles and a half east of
home, and probably in Butler Grove Town-
ship. The second school was taught in the first
schoolhouse in the township, a few rods due
north of the home of E. K. Austin. Religious
meetings were first held at private houses, but,
when schools were introduced, the school-room
dining the week was the church on Sunday.
The first sermon, so far as known, was perhaps
delivered by Bennett Woods, a Hardshell Bap-
tist, of whom our informant narrates several
amusing incidents. The preacher had on one
occasion forgotten his glasses, and when he
arose to give out the hymn — which it was the
custom to "deacon" in consequence of the
want of hymn books — he began :

" My eyes ai - e dim ; I cannot see,
I've left my specs at home."

The leader of the singing immediately raised
the tune and the congregation began to sing !
" Stop, stop ! That is not the hymn ; I meant
to say I forgot my spectacles and will not read
a hymn this morning."

On another occasion a mother was carrying
her wailing infant out of the house to avoid
disturbing the congregation. " Sister Sally, if
3'ou go out, you will not hear the sermon."
■ Vis. I will ; I will sit near the house, and will
hear every word." In a few moments Mr.
Woods went to an open window, and thrusting

I>50

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNT!'.

out his head and shoulders continued his dis-
course, in order that " Sister Sally " should uot
lose the benefit of it.

The first church in the township was erected
near the southeast corner of the west half of
the northwest corner of Section 33, or just west
of State street, and half a mile north of the In-
dianapolis & St. Louis railroad. It was used
jointly by the Lutherans and Presbyterians.
This is the popular opinion which has found
a place in local histories, but a log church near
Honey Bend was built many years earlier,
which long since decayed to a ruin, but the site
can be identified just over the line in Zanes-
ville Township. Near it several hundred In-
dians were encamped in huts of pawpaw. The
unwelcome visitors were energetically pressed
to move on, and their shelters perished by nat-
ural decay. This church belonged to the Hard-
shell Baptists — a sect which believes in unsal-
aried preachers and in paying their debts. The
second religious body was the Williams Society
of Methodists near Honey Bend. William
Williams, the founder, is still spoken of as a
godly man, whese piety was ardent and con-
sistent.

Isaiah Hurley was the first school teacher, a
mild, inoffensive person. The Wilkinson boys
were his especial tormentors.

The Briggs family at first ate from pewter
plates and drank from gourds or tin cups. The
light at evening was the wood fire, or, if there
was any grease to be had, a saucer was filled
with it, in which a wick floated. Hickory bark
or dry branches of trees were used as light
wood to illuminate the cabins, and the boys
spelled out their bibles or books by their flick-
ering flame. Sometimes buttonwood balls were
gathered, and, when dried, soaked in fat and
lighted. They afforded good light, but were
speedily consumed.

Their earlier neighbors were the Mathews
family, living a couple furlongs to the west.
That family went west of the river during the

" twenties," leaving no representative here, but
a remembrance older than the oldest living in-
habitant of the township.

About the earliest physician was Dr. Hillis,
of Hillsboro, lately deceased. The people did
not " allow " to become ill, and midwives at-
tended to women in labor.

The scenes of Indian warfare are quite all
outside the county, but the early settlers had
seen their portion of these horrors. Robert
Briggs' maternal grandfather, living in the
Fort at Edwardsville, rescued a daughter from
the savages, and, while bearing her home to
the fort, began bleeding at the nose and died
from loss of blood. Samuel Briggs, the eldest
son, born in 1809, was a soldier in the Black
Hawk war, and Stephen R., the second son,
born in 1812, was for eleven months a ranger.

As late as 1S30, only a few families had set-
tled in the township. Mathews had removed ;
Wilkinson and Lockerman remained, and Will-
iams and the Woods and Ash had located along
the Three-Mile Branch.

The polls for the earlier elections were held
at " Tennis' School-house " in Zanesville Town-
ship, and when the west side of the county was
divided into three election precincts the polls
of Long Branch Precinct, which included North
Litchfield, were opened at- John A. Crabtree's
house in South Litchfield. The poll lists con-
tain few names ; from a dozen to twenty votes
would be received. As the population of North
Litchfield by the last census was, outside of the
city of Litchfield, only 951 on thirty-foursquare
miles, and contains neither mill nor shop save
at Litchfield and Honey Bend, it is credible
that the township attracted population slowly.
Nearly all the people are of Southern birth or
origin.

The elder ones still relate many homely in-
cidents of the early days. When a family ar-
rived and it was understood that they wanted a
house, the settlers assembled, and some cut logs
and built the walls, while others split shooks for

NORTH LITCHFIELD TOWNSHIP.

231

the roof, and others hewed puncheons for a floor
and another portion erected the chimney. They
did not cease until the house was ready. If
the supply of meal gave out, and high water or
the state of the trails prevented a journey to
Old Ripley, corn was bruised in a hollow block
of wood with an iron wedge or a wooden pestle.
The liner portions were used for bread, and the
coarser part was converted into honiiny. Scant
time had the settlers for social visits, but when
one was paid the party came on horseback, the
wife en croupe behind her husband.

An annual visit to Mr. Briggs by Mr. White-
side, the partisan ranger, well known for his
prowess in Indian warfare, was the signal for
renewed confabs on the incidents of border
life. Whiteside, Robert Briggs, Sr., and his son
Samuel were the center of the group, and the
children would huddle into the corner terrified
by their tales. Bits of description in their stories
were of high merit for their graphic literaluess.
What the good wives talked of is beyond con-
jecture. He is a bold man who will venture an
opinion as to the topics in a woman's palaver.

The inquisitorial list of questions in the as-
sessor's blanks, prepared in the early history of
the State is inferential evidence as to the con-
dition of the Illinois homes. But we have seen
tax receipts of thQse relatively far-off days, in
which the taxes on six hundred acres of land
were $2.1(1. and on eighty acres, 12£ cents, and
these receipts were given to early settlers of
North Litchfield and its sister township, South
Litchfield. The wages of a stout, willing boy
were a " bit " a day during the summer, and a
good harvest hand was paid as high as half a
dollar, or the exact price of a pound of coffee.
''Hired girls " had not become a class ; in case
of illness some young woman would leave
home for a few days to care for the afflicted
household, but her services were not rendered
for the pay she received. The discharge of the
sacred duty to care for the sick was the motive,
and it was never neglected. The accepted life

of a woman was to marry, bear and rear chil-
dren, prepare the household food, spin, weave
and make the garments for the family. Her
whole life was the grand simple poem of rug-
ged, toilsome duty bravely and uncomplaining-
ly done. She lived history, and her descend-
ants write and read it with a proud thrill, such
as visits the pilgrim when at Arlington he
stands at the base of the monument which cov-
ers the bones of 4,000 nameless men who gave
their blood to preserve their country. Her
work lives, but her name is whispered onl}- in
a few homes. Holy in death, it is too sacred for
open speech.

Some of these cheerful dames still live, and
seem to regret the times which will never come
again. One of them says the floor of her cabin
was so uneven that she placed rude wedges un-
der her table legs to keep it steady, and when
a heavy rain fell the water which came down
the chimney formed a pool in the depression
called a hearth, and she baled out the water
with her skillet. Gourds were used for drink-
ing cups, milk pails, dippers and receptacles
for lard, some of them held half a bushel. When
she became the owner of a stone pitcher, she
felt rich, and at the table no person could have
a knife and fork ; if he had the former, the lat-
ter fell to another, and often the same knife
answered the table needs of two or three.

Until 1828, the whole county voted at Hills-
boro, and there was the post office, store and
physician. In 1830, twelve years after its set-
tlement, but seven families had located in the
township — Robert Briggs, Thomas Briggs,
Aaron Roberts, Mathews, Wilkinson and Lock-
erman, and possibly T. C. Hughes. A war trail
from the timber at the head of the Cahokia to
the timber on Shoal Creek ran along the south-
eastern sections, and the Indian-fighter, White-
side, and his rangers, pursued a band of war-
riors along this, and brought on an action near
the southeast corner of the southwest quarter
of Section 26. Whiteside, 3'ears after the bat-

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

tie. pointed out the site. Flint arrow-heads and
tomahawks have been found there. Tradition
has preserved no details of the fight, save that
the savages suffered from the shotguns. White-
sides was a laborious slaver of Indians, but
wrote no detailed history of his exploits on the
trail. The early settlers lived in fear of Indians,
though no incidents are preserved of any out-
rage here later than 1815.

Bennett Woods settled in the township east
of Shoal Creek, and found that in addition to
those previously mentioned, Aaron Roberts had
preceded him. Of this Mr. Roberts, we can learn
only that he was a man of great humor, and
was not of kin to John C. or James S. Roberts,
long well-known residents of " Roberts' Settle-
ment," the earlier name of Honey Bend. Thom-
as C. Hughes settled in 1829, on the farm now
owned by Martin Ritchie. Thomas Briggs, a
brother of Robert Briggs, lived about a mile
south of Hughes. The farm afterward passed
into the hands of Samuel Kirkpatriek, brother
of the famous Sheriff.

When 1830 dawned, the settlers lived at the
edge of the timber— Bennett Woods east of
the Creek, Aaron Roberts, the third set-
ler, on the creek, and Mr. Hughes and the two
Briggs west of it. Mathews had vanished and
there is no mention of Lockerman or Wilkin-
son. There were certainly five families, and
possibly seven in the township. Mrs. Bennett
Woods died in 1829, and was the first death.
The first marriage was Joshua Martin to Sarah
Briggs, eldest daughter of Robert Briggs. The
first sermon was preached at the house of Ben-
nett Woods, by James Street or Larkin Craig
—probably the fromer. They belonged to the
Missionary Baptists, and their earliest house of
worship was a log chapel, a few rods over the
line, on Section 35, in Zanesville — the venera-
ble John Woods is able to fix its location. This
decaying in 1865, Little Flock Church was built
at Honey Bend. The Cherry Grove Chapel, in
Butler Grove, was the primitive church for the

Methodists of several townships. Being near
the line, the Methodists had no place of wor-
ship in this township until 1855, when the Hard-
insburgh Chapel was drawn to Litchfield. Some
of the early Methodists attended at Asbury
Chapel, Raymond ; some at Cheriy Grove, in
Butler Grove, and some at the Hardinsburgh
Chapel.

The Baptists first attended the log church
near J. Woods,' but by the subdivisions in
which that denomination rejoices, there are-
now four houses for their occupation.

The first burial place was the Bennett Wood's
Graveyard. There were laid away Robert Briggs
in May, 1857, and his wife in 1850, Mrs. Bennett
Woods and other pioneers. The Crabtree Grave-
yard was perhaps the second one, though it is
in South Litchfield. We were not curious
enough about mortuary matters to seek to know
these things in their grim minuteness. The
fact that a cemetery was found near each church
or regular preaching place, points with great
clearness to the fact that no funeral was thought
to be properly conducted without a sermon, and
the exposure of the face of the dead for a last
look by the spectators, though the Baptists —
almost the sole religious denomination — dis-
countenanced funeral sermons or mortuary serv-
ices at a church. The dead were lovingly borne
from the house to the place of burial and there
left to the awful care of the grave.

The coffin was the handiwork of a home
workman ; the dead was arrayed in the chill
simplicity of a shroud. It was unknown that
a dead person was buried in the dress worn in
life, or in such a dress as living people wear.
The defense of an}- custom is its utility, and
the records of the pulpit contain little evidence
of abiding religious impressions from the fu-
neral sermons. Perhaps they are the Protest-
ant form of praying for the dead.

The diseases were chiefly fever and chills ;
at times nearly every home contained more or
less sick members. We have visited neighbor-

NORTH LITCHFIELD TOWNSHIP.

253

hoods in which every house had its sick in-
mates. The first physician was Dr. Moore, of
Woodboro, and North Litchfield was the home
of no physician until 1854.

In 1832, Israel Fogleman occupied his
life-long homestead, though he brought no
■wife to his cabin for six years. Peter Black-
welder had settled half a mile west, and
Aaron Kean a couple of miles north. The
Striplings were in the north part of the
town, and in 1840 the township contained
ten or twelve families. Alfred Blackwelder
settled south of S. A. Paden's. Some chil-
dren of the first settlers married and settled
near the ancestral home.

The Bandys and Pete Thompson, Jesse
and Israel Ash, John C. and James Roberts,
Isaac Weaver, Ahart Pierce, C. W. Sapp and
Ralph and Jacob Scherer and Elihu Boan
came, and, in 1850, there was one school-
house, near the site of the brick one, just
west of Mr. Austin's. In 1852, the Terre
Haute & Alton railroad was located on the
south line of the township, and, with the lay-
ing out of Litchfield and the opening of a
market for grain, and the consequent appre-
ciation of land, a new era dawned. The
vacant prairie began to be fenced and brought
into tillage. The salient feature of this de-
cade was the creation of the village of Litch-
field, with a population of 1,500, many of
them of different nationality, and widely dif-
fering in manners and customs. The orig-
inal settlers were conservative in habits and
modes of thought. Litchfield was a good
place to buy and sell in ; it was a conven-
ience ; but socially and politically it was
looked upon with coldness. If a Litchfield
man wanted a county or town office, he failed
to secure it.

When the war was in its earlier stages,
various parties proposed to resist what they
erroneously supposed was in contemplation.

Their fears were soon dissipated, and gather-
ings of armed men at private houses, and
armed sentinels around, were omitted. But
men did meet at night for instruction in the
military art, but they soon became ashamed
of their untoward zeal, which had been stim-
ulated by the presence of disloyal refugees
from the States in rebellion. The result
was an immediate feeling of unquietness, but
no one imagined that this spasmodic moment
of feeling would glut itself in action. It
evaporated in fast riding and loud, boastful
talk.

On an evening in February, 1864, three
men called at the house of William Gk Por-
ter, five miles north of the city, and knocked
for admittance. They said they were neigh
bors on their way home, and had broken their
wagon, and desired a hammer and nails to
repair the injury. Mr. Porter and his wife
were alone and had retired for the night.
He went to the door with the nails, when he
was seized, and a demand made for his
money. Mr. Porter showed fight in his
nightdress. One person stood guard and two
dealt with Mr. Porter and his wife. He re-
ceived a slashing blow from a pistol, which
laid open a long wound, and was shot in the
head, the bullet plowing into the skull, where
it remains. Porter made a lively fight, and
foiled the robbers. But help was coming,
and the robbers fled. No arrest was made,
as the assailants were masked. Their pur-
pose was simple robbery, and no political
meaning was attached to the affair. But in
October of the same year, three persons, about
7:40 P. M., visited the house of John C. Rob-
erts, of Honey Bend, on an errand of plun-
dei\ Each had two revolvers, and the fam-
ily were wholly defenseless. They obtained
a gold watch, §150 in money and the family
silver. One of the robbers, being lame,
walked on the side of his foot, and was

254

in STORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

tracked to Litchfield. Arrests were made,
but as they were refugees from Missouri, a
presumptive alibi was made out, and they
were released. There was, in the selection
of the family and the undoubted character of
the robbers, a political element in this crime.
Thonrpson Williams, a half-mile west of Mr.
Roberts, was robbed of a gun the same night,
but it was afterward found in a field where
the robbers had cast it away.

These three events comprise the criminal his-
tory of North Litchfield for sixty-four years,
for the plundering of chicken roosts and the
occasional relief of a smoke-house, were inci-
dents not unknown in all frontier settlements,
and were accepted at their real significance.

In 1870, the St. Louis Division of the Wa-
bash road was built, and a station was located
at Honey Bend. A town was laid out, and a
post office established, J. E. Hickman, Postmas-
ter, who also opened a store there. The place
has neither passenger nor freight depot, but the
shipments of cattle and grain have been noticed
in the decrease of shipments from Litchfield.
The village contains a church, schoolhouse and
several shops, and about twenty neat dwellings.

The adoption of township organization in
1872, and a judicious road law, have wrought
marvelous changes in the condition of the high-
wa3 - s. The chief roads have been ditched and
graded. Safe bridges and culverts were placed
at the water courses. Of course taxation in-
creased, and whether the consumption of iron
be the test of civilization or not, no one will
deny that increase in taxation marks the his-
tory of our settlements. With the growth of
wants comes a more rapid increase of taxation :
and organized and regulated benevolence and
administration of law, have superseded the ac-
tion of individuals who took care that no de-
serving persons suffered for food or shelter, or
set at defiance the laws of mine and thine.

There are now five school districts in the
township, all with good houses in which schools

are maintained for at least eight months in the
year. For the convenience of those who had
worshiped at Cherry Grove, or Asbury Chapel
or Litchfield, Phillips Chapel, about two miles
south of Honey Bend, was erected in 1872, and
this house and the one in the Bend, are the
onl}- religious houses in the township, outside
of the city.

A brick-yard is in operation a mile east of
State street, and the margin of Shoal Creek af-
fords an abundance of compact, crystalized
limestone. Burned into lime it yields a superior
article, which has been found especially useful in
building the abutments of bridges and culverts.

The pioneers of sixt} - years ago are repre-
sented by gray-haired men and faded-tressed
women. The ox cart has utterly perished ; the
wooden plow, the winning shot, the sheep folds,
exist only in imagination. The log cabin has
gone, the flax and cotton fields are no longer
tilled, the music of the spinning wheel and the
beat of the loom are silent ; sidesaddles are out
of date. And we have written of things which
were the familiar sights and sounds of our
3'outh, that those in the morning of life may
learn what was only sixty years since.

Our rural friends are incredulous as to the
wonders of the telephone, and to the child on
our streets to-day, the history we have written
will be incredible : but that it is of modern
times we have been speaking, he would class us
among the weather prophets. Evidence wins
assent, but experience commands belief, and we
chide not the lad for believing .only what is
confined to his own experience, when eminent
men contemptuously reject whatever their poor
reason cannot compress or fathom.

We have tried to bring back to the reader
the time which is now purely historical in North
Litchfield. The prevailing peace and quiet of
the people have been due to their own strong,
simple, sturdy, high hearted characters, and to
the auspicious fact that the law and the customs
of their age were on a level with the average
strong working moral quality of the people.

SOUTH LITCHFIELD TOWNSHIP.

255

CHAPTER XII*

SOUTH LITCHFIELD TOWNSHIP— ITS DESCRIPTION, BOUNDARIES AND GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY
SETTLEMENT OF WHITE PEOPLE — THEIR EARLY HABITS AND INDUSTRIES— FACTS AND
INCIDENTS— EDUCATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS— MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS, ETC.. ETC

THE northeast third of this township was
originally well timbered, and forest is
found on one or two sections on its south bor-
der. The surface is generally well-drained by
Long Branch, Shoal Creek, Lake Fork and its
three northern affluents. The northwestern
sections discharge their surplus waters into the
Cahokia. The center and west portions of the
township are not as fairly drained as the other
divisions, and may be called flat. The soil
obeys the general law of change and decrease
in depth, as one travels south. The black,
clinging soil, peculiar to the prairie, loses its
nortlu'i n depth. White soil is more frequently
met. But there is as much in the cultivator
as in the soil, and farmers in South Litchfield
arc among the solid men of the county. Brick
clay is found near the town and down by
Shoal Creek. Stone is quarried along the
Creek and down Rock}' Branch.

The township is exclusively agricultural.
There is no shop or store or mill now nearer
than Walshville and the city of Litchfield; and
but two churches — a German Lutheran in the
south, and a union house in the east. The
people are all farmers. Three railroads, the
original Terre Haute & Alton, the St. Louis
Division of the Wabash, and the Jacksonville &
Southeastern — the last one just opened — con-
nect the township with the wide, wide world.

It was originally settled in 1816, by Nicholas
Lockerman, who occupied the east half of the
southeast quarter of Section 15. now the prop-

*By H. A. Coolidge.

erty of John A. Briggs. The first settlement
in the county was at the Clear Spring Church,
in Hillsboro Township, about two miles east of
South Litchfield, and the early settlers located
in the neighborhood, along the West Fork of
Shoal Creek. Lockerman was not a desirable
neighbor. His life was a scandal. He had a
natural, but no legal wife, and Rev. James
Street, finding him and the mother of his three
children one day in the corn-field, lectured him
so sharply and effectively that he coerced him
to marry the woman, and the ceremony was
performed in the field. It was the first mar-
riage in the county. One of his sons settled on
the Davenport place, in the city of Litchfield,
and another one on or near the Martin Ritchie
farm in North Litchfield. He was killed, many
years since, at Zanesville, by Andy Nash. The
family long ago became extinct in this region.
Probably Mr. Street settled at Clear Spring in
1814, as we have seen a tax receipt given him,
in this county, dated that year. If this be con-
clusive as to the date, the settlement of the
county must be set back a year or two.

The Indian trail, from the timber on the
Cahokia to Shoal Creek, crossed the northwest
corner of the county. So well was it used that
the path, hard beaten, is still accurately re-
membered, and flint arrow-heads were frequently
found on the prairie, by the older settlers. The
existence of '• buffalo wallows " seems to indi-
cate the fact, or at least the belief, that buffalo
once roamed this region, and an occasional
bear or panther was seen by frightened fam-

856

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

ilies peering into their homes. The fear of
Indians was not unknown, and the trampling
of a man's horse around the house has sent
the trembling inmates into the loft, to shiver
in fright until a new day banished their terrors
by disclosing the cause.

The political condition of a people depends
on the tenure of land. If a settler could call
land his, in the sense that a horse or a rifle
was his, the region could not be retarded in its
development, or such grave embarrassments
arise as have been witnessed in older States.
The land tenures of the Northwest were per-
fect, and hence its peace was placed on a solid
basis. The sole contingent blemish in the titles
is the right of eminent domain. The land in
this region was put in market for the benefit of
the State by attracting settlements. There
were no " land grants " in those days, when the
price of land was put up to enrich the seller.
The worth of a State is its people and their
condition, and it is yet a question whether the
people which feed the world or the one which
clothes the world ; the people who produce or
the people who traffic, will, in the long run, be
the world's arbiters.

We have been moderately curious as to the
motives which set journeying hither so many
from the States south of the Ohio. Most of the
emigrants had not reached life's meridian.
They were young, hopeful, courageous, and
poor in actual worth, but rich in possibilities.
Illinois was a Territory, reposing under the
noble provisions of the famous Dane Ordinance
of 1787. Not a few of the pioneers have left
their record that they sought homes here be-
cause the land would not be blemished by
negro slavery, and civil and social distinctions
would be yielded only to those who owned
"niggers." A fat soil ready for the plow,
cheap lands and a temperate climate, were not
peculiar to Illinois or South Litchfield. For
the grand simplicity, the sturdy virtue of
their lives, they got recognition and fame as

Enoch Arden did — after death. And though
few families in South Litchfield are descend-
ants of the pioneers, 3-et these few retain their
pre-eminence, and from them are selected with
rare assent of unanimity, the guardians of the
orphans, the administrators of estates and the
servants of the public in township or county
offices.

We cannot write history as a blind man goes
about the streets, feeling his way with a stick.
The facts are transparent, and through them we
catch gleams of other facts, as the raindrop
catches light, and the beholder sees the splen-
dor of a rainbow. We are to speak of common
men whose lot was to plant civilization here,
and who, in doing it. displa3'ed the virtues
which render modem civilization a boast and
a blessing. These early times cannot be repro-
duced by anj' prose of a historian. They had
a thousand years behind them, and in their
little space of time they made greater progress
than ten centuries had witnessed. Theirs was
a full life. The work thirty generations had
not done, they did, and the abyss between us
of to-day and the men of sixty years ago is
wider and more profound than the chasm be-
tween 1815 and the battle of Hastings. They
did so much that it is hard to recognize the
doers. They had a genius for doing great
things. That olive leaf in the dove's beak per-
ished as do other leaves, but the story it told
is immortal. Of their constancy, one can judge
by the fact that not one of them went back to
the ancestral South.

The only history worth writing is the histoiy
of civilization, of the processes which make a
State. For men are but as coral, feeble, insig-
nificant, working out of sight, but the} - trans-
mit some occult quality or power, upheave
society, until from the moral and intellectual
plateau rises, as Saul above his fellows, a
Shakespeare, a Phidias or a Hamilton, the
royal interpreters of the finest sense in poeti^-,
in art and statesmanship. At the last, years

SOUTH LITCHFIELD TOWNSHI.P

257

color life more than centuries had, as the sun
rises in an instant, though he had been hours
in hastening to this moment.

As the county, in 1830, contained but 2,953
inhabitants, in 1840, only 4,490, and ten years
later 6,277, it will be understood that the bor-
der townships, separated from Hillsboro, the po-
litical and commercial capital, by the deep val-
leys of Shoal Creek and its West Fork, must
have gained slowly in population. Lockerman's
cabin was the nucleus of the earliest settle-
ment. Melchoir Foglemau located south of him
just over the line in Walshville, and slowly pio-
neers planted themselves between their homes.

In 1821, Melchoir Fogleman, John Norton
and James Bland, his son-in-law, had their
homes ill South Litchfield. It is not possible
to determine the order of their arrival. It ap-
pears plainly that they located about the same
time. There could have been only a few days
or weeks difference in dates. Fogleman was a
blacksmith, and brought from his North Caro-
lina home the remarkable sum of $800 to Illi-
nois, and after a stay of two years in South
Litchfield, he removed to the neighborhood of
Clear Spring, and in 1824 the Pepper Mill was
built, the first water-mill in the region. Nor-
ton and Bland disappeared from the local his-
tory, leaving only their names. Spartan Gris-
ham and Theodore Jordan lived with Fogleman,
and were members of his family. Their descen-
dants are still among us. Thus in 1820, Lock-
erman's was the sole family in the township,
and the population of the county is estimated at
100 — nearly all in Hillsboro, and East Fork
Townships. Lockermau lived on the southeast
quarter of Section 15, near the spring. In the
ten years ending with 1830, six families had
settled in the township — four have been named
and a Mr. Macaffee had settled where Newton
Street now lives, and James Penter on Section
25, between 1825 and 1830.

Anthony Street, brother to James Street, made
the gunpowder for the settlers at the Pepper-

Mill, and Spartan Grisham and Theodore Jor-
dan had modest distilleries near b} r . and made
whisky, which passed as a legal tender at 50
cents a gallon. Before the Pepper Mill was
built in 1824, the people went to Old Ripley,
or Edwardsville, to mill, and if those places
could not be reached, corn was grated on the
lower side of a tin sieve, or it was shaved off by
a plane, or rudely crashed in a bowl, burned
out in the top of a stump, by means of a wood-
en pestle, suspended from a spring-pole.

The few families were within two miles of the
east line of the township. In 1830, or 1831,
John A. Crabtree located on the farm, where he
lived in honor and usefulness until his death, a
lew years since. Wholly uneducated in books
he possessed the masculine average common
sense of his times, and like all other pioneers,
was a life-long Democrat.

It has not been possible to determine the
date of the arrival of Jesse Horn, but it is
possible it was prior to 1830. Several young
unmarried men were domiciled with the earlier
families. The} - were sojourners rather than set-
tlers, and a portion of them were but the spume
which crested the tide of advancing settlements.
and having a large region where to choose,
drifted to other neighborhoods. Some of their
names are remembered, but their history has
been forgotten.

The James Copeland family appeared in the
township about 1832, and the Forehands moved
from Clear Spring to the bluff southwest of
Truitt's Ford, not earlier than 1830. We can
hear of no family here which did not come from
south of the Ohio, and the earliest ones were
from North Carolina.

About 1838, the first schoolhouse was built
a hundred and twenty rods east of J. N. MoEl-
vain's. The first teachers are not remembered,
but in 1843 John Fogleman taught one term.
The usual terms were $2 per pupil for three
months, payable in grain, pigs, a young steer or
heifer, or wood, and sometimes in money. All

258

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

the children attended. If their parents could
pay, it was well. If they could not, nothing
was said about it. Fogleman received about
$40 for his school, and, after paying his board,
had $30. The State had no public school sys-
tem, and private schools alone were known
here. The sessions opened in the morning and
continued until night. The pupils were dis-
missed in season to reach home before dark.
The teacher's hours were the same as a farm
laborer's — from sunrise to sunset, and if the
school was not up to the " graded " standard,
just consider how much there was of it. People
were not afraid their children would injure their
health with hard study.

John Corlew moved into the township in
1836. He was a commissioned officer in the
Mexican war, and was elected Sheriff in 1848,
and again in 1852, and since the adoption of
township organization, has been almost contin-
uously Supervisor. William Simpson was an
early settler in the southeast part of the town-
ship. He was Count} - Treasurer in 1871-73,
but with this exception has attended strictly to
the care of his farm. He came in 1S31. By
1840, the township contained about eight or
ten families. This year John Fogleman settled
on his present homestead. Lewis McWilliams
arrived in 1843, and his brother Thomas in
1849, and a third brother, John M., probably
about the same time. Ezra Tyler located with-
in the city limits in 1849.

Newton Street settled on his present farm in
1833, and has restricted himself to agricultural
pursuits. About 1S52, himself and John M.
Paden had a steam saw-mill near his house.
He feels the incurable illness of old age, but is
still glad in his conversation to live over again
the half a centur}* he has been an inhabitant of
South Litchfield.

The first burial-ground was the Crabtree Cem-
etery, now in parts thickly crowded with graves,
and there rest the early forefathers. There
beneath noticeable monuments lie buried Ste-

phen R. Briggs, long a Judge of the County
Commissioners' Court ; Israel Fogleman, the
general guardian and administrator, and John
A. Crabtree, the model of consistent firmness
and average working good sense. The ceme-
tery was laid out in 1S43. and the first inter-
ment was Julia Parmelee, wife of John Young.
The first church was the Union Church, near
John Fogleman's, in 1S53, and a burial-place is
near it. The third church was the German
Lutheran, near Henry Nemires, built about
fifteen years since. The Methodist Chapel, at
Hardinsburg, was the second one, erected in
1853 or 1854, and subsequently removed to the
village of Litchfield.

At the close of this .decade, the township
may have contained thirty families, chiefly in
the east half. The high road from Hillsboro
to Altou, ran along the south line of the first
six sections, and a mile from the county line,
the village of Hardinsburg was planned on
Section 7. Seventeen blocks, of eight lots each,
were laid out and several families had homes
there. James Cummings kept the public house
and afterward built a store and was appointed
Postmaster. It was the only village between
Woodboro and Bunker Hill, and was founded
before the hope was entertained of a railroad
in the vicinity. With the founding of Litch-
field, its growth ceased. A part of its buildings
were removed to the new town, and in two
years the site of Hardinsburg was a plowed
field again. In local history it still retains its
place as a village, as the town plat has not per-
haps been legally vacated. But the passer-by-
sees nothing to instruct him that this was once
designed to be the metropolis of the west side
of the count}'.

Few of the early settlers came direct from
the South. The Foglemans, the Streets, the
Padens, the Forehands and the Corlews
paused near Clear Spring or Woodboro for a
few years, before coming west of Shoal Creek-
Brokaw and J. N. McElvain. David Lav and

SOUTH LITCHFIELD TOWNSHIP.

259

W. Meisenheimer came during Fillmore's ad-
ministration. Mount Olive, in Macoupin Coun-
ty, a short distance from the count}- line, was a
German settlement, and Germans began to buy
lands in South Litchfield. They never sell, |
but keep adding acre to acre, and to-day are the
owners of the southwest part of the township.

The four events which have marked deepest
the development of the township are the con-
struction of the Alton & Terre Haute Railroad
in 1854 ; the city of Litchfield ; the Free School
law, and the road law. The first put the
people in easy communication with the river
cities ; the second afforded a local market ; the
third ministered to the better worth of the
growing citizens, and the last has improved
drainage and given safe highways.

The Litchfield coal mine, the oil wells and
brickyards, are in the north part of the town-

ship, where are also the water works and huge
ice houses.

During the war, a few residents proposed to
nullify all laws for re-enforcing the army by a
conscription. They made furtive visits and
urged a neighbor to accept the leadership of
the enterprise. They did not desire the draft
enforced, as then they might have occasion to
see Canada. The neighbor declined their over-
ture, and the scheme was abandoned, and the
authors went on voting the same old ticket from
the force of habit. Wheat at $3.50 per bushel
satisfied their loyalty.

The population of the township outside the
city, is nine hundred and forty nearly, and
the wide stretches of open land, which only a
few years since were numerous, have now been
reclaimed, and the last acre of speculators' real
estate has passed into the hands of residents.

260

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

CHAPTER XIII.*

THE CITY OF LITCHFIELD— ITS FIRST SETTLERS— LAYING OUT A TOWN— GROWTH AND DEVEL-
OPMENT—PUBLIC SALE OF LOTS — CITY IMPROVEMENTS AND INCREASE OF BUSINESS-
POPULATION IN 18.:,?— LITCHFIELD'S FIRST CIRCUS— SOME OK THE PIONEER BUSI-
NESS MEN— THE MACHINE SHOP AND MILL OF BEACH— LIFE AND
CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE OF EARLY LITCHFIELD, ETC., ETC.

" A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. v
The city of Litchfield, lying two-thirds in
North Litchfield Township and one-third in
South Litchfield, and two miles from the west
line of the county, is forty-two miles due
south of Springfield, and twenty-six miles
east, and thirty-four miles north of St. Louis.
It is 310 feet above St. Louis, and is popu-
larly held to be the highest point on the rail-
road between Alton and Terre Haute. Its
waters of drainage flow in three cardinal di-
rections and find their way to the Mississippi
through Cahokia Creek and the Kaskaskia
River. The town site is nearly level, one or
two gentle mounds alone breaking the mo-
notonous level.

The first settler within the limits of the
town was Isaac Weaver, who in 1842 occu-
pied a cabin at or near the entrance to the
public square. But in 1835, Evan Stephen-
son entered the southwest quarter of Section
4, in South Litchfield, and in 1836, Joseph
Gillespie entered the east half of the south-
east quarter of the section. In 1838, G. B.
Yenowine entered the west half and the south
half of the east, half of the northwest quarter
of the section, and Isaac Ross entered what
remained of the northwest quarter and all the
northeast quarter, while not until 1849 did
John Waldrori and Ezra Tyler enter the west
half of the southeast quarter of the section,
Tyler taking the south forty acres.

*By H. A. Coolidge.

But Weaver's cabin was the first building,
though, in 1847, Royal Scherer had a cabin
on the southeast slope of the mound now
owned by W. S. Palmer. Scherer was un-
married and did not occupy his hut. This
year Ezra Tyler settled on his land, and the
nest year Ahart Pierce moved into his log
house, placed on the mound, partly on the
street and partly on the grounds of W. H.
Fisher. In 1849, Mr. Pierce and Caleb W.
Sapp entered the southwest quarter of Sec-
tion 34, in North Litchfield, the south half,
of which became the nucleus of the
present city. Weaver's rights of pos-
session were extinguished by purchase, and
Sapp and Pierce divided their purchase, the
former becoming the owner of the south half,
which extended from the Wabash Railroad
half a mile east along the Iudianapolis and
St. Louis Road, with a uniform width of a
quarter of a mile. Ezra Tyler had the east
half of this tract in September, 1850, which
in May, 1861, passed to J. Y. McManus, who
also bought the west half. This extinguish-
ed Sapp's title, who had built him a house on
the south side of the public square, and the
remains of his well are still easy to recog-
nize.

In April, 1852, Nelson Cline bought the
east forty of the Sapp purchase, and a year
later he sold the west six acres to Y. S. Etter.
who also purchased the forty acres lying imme-
diately west of them. The same year George

WrrUO 5C c/ft &frs£+r*

l/r\^

LIBRARY

OF 1HE

UNIVERSITY oflUmOU

CITY OF LITCHFIELD.

263

F. Pretlow bought out Etter, aud when the
initial plat of Litchfield was laid out in the
fall of 1853, it covered only Pretlow' s forty-
six acres and the thirty-four acres recently
owned by Oline.

In the summer of 1853, residents of the
present city were Alfred Blackwelder, near
the site of the Weipert House, burned in 1880;
Jacob Scherer, on the mound in the north-
western quarter of the city ; his brother, Kalph
Scherer, a quarter of a mile east of him;
Nelson Cline, two doors east of Fred Stahl's;
Ahart Pierce, on the schoolhouse mound; J.
Y. Etter, between Martin Haney's restaurant
and the Wabash Railway; O. M. Roach in
a diminutive room in Cummings & McWill-
iams' addition; Ezra Tyler, in the southeast
part of town, and J. W. Andrews on the
Davenport estate. The site of the town laid
out for building purposes was a corn field,
and when Simeon Ryder and Hon. Robert
Smith, of Alton, Hon. Joseph Gillespie, of
Edwardsville, Philander G. Huggins, of
Bunker Hill, Josiah Hunt, Chief Engineer
of the lerre Haute & Alton Railway, and
John B. Kirkham, formed a syndicate to pur-
chase the sites of prospective stations along
the line of the road then in process of con-
struction, they bought out Mr. Cline. They
agreed to lay out a town on the eighty acres
owned by Pretlow and Cline, and after
reserving the land needed for streets, public
squares, and railroad uses, to reconvey to
Pretlow one-half the lots and blocks on his
forty-six acres, in full payment for the
remainder. Mr. Kirkham was made the
agent of the syndicate, but in a few
days he was replaced by P. C. Hug-
gins, who retained his position through suc-
cessive purchases of .additional land to be
laid out in village lots, until E. B. Litchfield,
of Brooklyn, N. Y., became the sole owner of
the company's interest in the city. The rail-

road was completed no farther than Bunker
Hill from the western end, when Thomas A.
Gray, County Surveyor, in October, 1853,
laid out among the standing corn the origi-
nal plat of the town. Gillespie was also laid
out and Messrs. R. W. O'Bannon, T. W.
Elliott, H. E. Appleton, James W. Jefferis
and J. P. Bayless, and W. S. Palmer, of
Ridgely, Madison County, having decided
to remove to a point on the proposed road,
drew straws to determine whether to locate at
Gillespie or Litchfield. The fates willed in
favor of the latter town. Accordingly, in Janu-
ary, 1854, Mr. O'Bannon bought the east half
of the block facing on State Street and lying
between Ryder and Kirkham streets for $120,
on time. Any part of the east front would
now be a bargain at that price for a single
foot. This was the first purchase in the pro-
posed town. He at once began arrangements
to build a store on the southeast corner of
his purchase. Mr. Jefferis appears to have
been the second purchaser, and Mr. Appleton
and Mr. Palmer must have secured lots soon
after. Mr. O'Bannon obtained lumber for the
frame of his store in the neighborhood, but
the other lumber was obtained at Carlinville.
His store was completed and occupied April
24, 1854, and Mr. Jefferis had his dwelling,
now the south part of the George B. Litch-
field House, nearly ready for his family; but
Mr. Elliott, by bringing here the material of
his home at Ridgely, managed to get his
family placed in it May 5, 1854, and thus he
was the pioneer settler of the town, though
his home was antedated by the Jefferis house.
Mr. Jefferis' family came three days later than
Mr. Elliott, whose home stood nearly on the
ground now covered by the Parlor Shoe Store.
The fourth building was a rude blacksmith
shop, on Mr. Southworth's corner. W. S.
Palmer, in May, began the erection of the
west half of the building the first door above

264

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

L. Hoffman's bakery, but as Mr. Palmer went
to the woods and hewed out the framing tim-
mer, he did not finish his store until fall.
The next building was erected by E. Tyler,
for a grain warehouse, on the side of the
"0. K." Mill.

There was not time to build houses, and
rude structures and small buildings were
drawn over the slimy prairies on runners
from other points. Thus J. P. Bayless
brought here on rollers one-half of what had
been a blacksmith shop at Hardinsburg. It
had no door, floor or window He placed it
on the corner north of Mr. E. Burdett's shop
and made it do for a home for several years.
Up to this date Mr. Tyler supplied meals and
lodging to the men who were founding the
town. As to roads, the great highway from
Hillsboro to Bunker Hill ran a mile south of
the town, and the route from Edwardsville
by way of Stanton to Taylorville, entered the
town near its present southwest corner, and
ran diagonally to the half-section line of
Section 34, in North Litchfield. The road
was laid out by striking a furrow on one side
for several miles and then returning with a
furrow on the opposite side. The road lay
between these shallow ditches, and marked
the route well enough for the few people who
were condemned to use it.

Mr. Pretlow dying in the spring of 1S54,
the lots owned by him were kept out of mar-
ket for a whole year. Mr. O'Bannon, wishing
a quiet home, bought a couple of acres of Mr.
Pierce on State street, between Division and
Third streets, and built his present home on
the gentle swell, diu-ing the summer of 1854,
and placed his family in it during the fall,
while it was unfinished.

Mr. Appleton built a wagon shop just in
the rear of Jefferis' blacksmith shop, during
the fall, and used the rear portion as a dwell-
ing. Mr. Palmer and Mr. Mayo, his

brother-in-law, put a stock of general
merchandise in the store just built by
the former, and the east end was also
his family residence. There had plant-
ed themselves here by the latter part of 1854,
six families, and the town consisted of about
a dozen buildings, of which one was a wagon
shop, one a blacksmith shop, and two were
stores. By November, 1855, the number of
dwelling-houses had increased to eleven, and
the town seen under a December sky had an
uninviting aspect. The population must
have been at least one hundred, for when
need comes, folks can be compacted together
as close above ground as in it.

By October, the railroad was opened as far
as Clyde, and in January the Pretlow estate
was sold by his executor. The sale was held
in the store of W. T. Elliott (the firm of E.
W. O'Bannon and W. T. Elliott was so ad-
vertised by a sign over the door) and the day
is still widely remembered for the dense rain
which prevailed. The embankment for the
railroad had formed a dike across State street,
and interrupted its drainage. A miniature
lake was formed, and it was the policy of
parties owning land just west of the town
plat, to have the dyke maintained, in order
to force the location of the passenger station
in their vicinity, where, in anticipation of a
decision in their favor, a side-track had al-
ready been graded. Mr. O'Bannon, Mr. Bay-
less, and others, cut the dike, and thus averted
the location of the passenger house a quarter
of a mile to the westward.

The earlier sales of lots on State street had
been made at the rate of $30 for sixty-six feet
front. The price in May, 1854, was increased
to $50. There were no apparent natural ad-
vantages for the creation of a prosperous
town. It was not known that the railroad
shops would be located here. Shoal Creek
was a serious barrier to communication with

CITY OF LITCHFIELD.

265

the country to the east ; and, on other sides,
the prairie still spread, with here and there a
settler who was toilsomely breaking, breaking
the virgin sod. The site of the plat had been
bought in midsummer, 1853, at S8 or 810 per
acre, and the plat gave two acres to eight lots
and the surrounding streets. At the Pretlow
sale one half the lots in the west part of the
town were sold by public outcry, and it is in-
structive to note the purchasers and the prices
paid. But few of the buyers have represen-
tatives in the city. The terms were one-third
down and the balance in one year. The Pret-
low estate, after the original plot had been re-
corded, consisted of Blocks 6, 8, 10, 12, '22,
24, 26, 28, the west half of Block 20, Lots 2
and 3, Block 4, Lot 10, Block 3, and Lots 2,
4, 6 and 8, in Block 33. One familiar with
their location will readily understand how
sadly the withholding this real estate from
sale and improvement delayed the growth of
the town. The influence of this was fully
seen in the two years immediately following
the sale.

PURCHASERS.

Lt'T.

Block.

PltTCE.

W. T. Elliott & Co

3 \- 4
5
6

7
8
1
o

4
5
6
7
8
2
4
6
8
1
2
3
4
5
6

28
28
28
28

28
28
28
26

:;;

37
37
37
37
37
37
33
33
33
33
22
22
32

22
22

$164 00
100 oo

200 on

T. C. Kirkland

140 00

J. W. Andrews

IIS 1-0

T. C. Kirkland

160 50

loo oo

S. C. Simmons

56 25

Addison M'Lain

:;r oo

William Holloway

26 00

David Corlew

12 on

R. II. Cline

(iii 25

Peter Shore

"ill llll

T. C. Kirkland

66 on
127 25

W. C. Henderson

loo no

L. Sweet

57 00

80 00

L. Sweet

52 00

James Camming*

92 nn

James Cummings

60 00

T. L. Van Dorn

I' 1 -Mi

A. MeLain

54 no

Benjamin Hargraves

77 nn

T. L. Van Dorn

PURCHASERS.

J. W. Andrews

John M. Mc Williams.

T. C. Kirkland

L. F. McWilliams. ...

John S. Roberts

J. W. Wade

P. Shore

H. II. Hood

T. L. Van Dorn

John S. Stewart

O. F. Jones

W. M. Bronson

H. II. Hood

Charles Davis

[saac Baker

J. B. Kirkland

Peter Thompson

John P. Bayless

A. J. Thompson

J. h. Wallis

A. J. Thompson

R. M. Gamble

W. II. Furdown

William Allen

.1. W. Jefferis

Samuel Harris

Joseph Davis

J. W. Jefferis

John C. Hughes

R. II. Clin,-.

T. D. Whiteside

J. P. Bayless

Don Wade

W. H. Furdown

S. ('. Simmons

J. C. Hughes

Lot.

Block.

3(1

Pbice.

67 00
100 50
111 00

8 >

86 no
155 on
60 00
51 no
77 00
60 00
41 00
55 00
50 00
50 00
i:;; 50
83 on
31 00
20 00
39 00

36 00
:;:, 50

37 00
28 00
is .-,()
17 no

16 ;:>

17 50

15 oo

17 00

16 50
15 00
13 50
20 nn
20 00
20 25
20 25
20 50

i; 75
23 25

38 50

One of the lots would to-day sell for 300
per cent more than the sixty-six did at that
sale, which was at least four times greater
than the value of half tho town site before it
was laid out.

In 1854, •"Nigger Dan," from Carlinville,
built a hotel which is now the east part of
the Phosnix House. He was able only to in-
close the building, and such as it was, it was
the first house of entertainment in the town.
The next year, E. W. Litchfield supplied
means to finish it. I have not been able to
learn his real name or subsequent history.
Dr. Gamble was the first physician, and lived

360

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

on a lialf-floored house west of the Methodist
Church. Dr. H. H. Hood, who first opened
an office at Hardinsburg, was the second one,
and had his office (in August) at J. M. Mc-
Willianis store, which was between the Phoe-
nix House and the Central Hotel. On No-
vember 24, of this year, the railroad was
opened to Litchfield and the sale of the Pret-
low property soon following, the town received
an impetus which it has not since lost, though
panics, fires, the war, and the removal of the
railroad shops, have each given a breathing
time to lay wiser plans and build its prosperi-
ty on a more stable basis.

By the close of the year, eight or nine fam-
ilies had homes in the city in addition to six
or seven families on farm lands when the
town was surveyed. We can enumerate R.
W. O'Bannon, W. T. Elliott, H. E. Appleton,
J as. Jefferis, J. P. Bayless, W. S. Palmer,
"Nigger Dan," and probably G. Evans. T.
G. Kessinger came in not much later. In
the spring of 1855, Messrs. E. W. Litchfield,
E. E. Litchfield, E. S. Litchfield, George H.
Hull, and the three Dix brothers, and C. P.
How, came from Central or Western Now
York; all related to E. C. Litchfield, who had
become practically the owner of the town site.
Several additions to the town were laid out.
James Cummings removed his store and con-
tents from Hardinsburg, and placed it just
west of the cigar factory on Ryder street.
He was the first Postmaster. The original
plat of the town which bore the name of
Huntsville was never recorded. It was the
purpose to have the name of the post office
the same as the name of the town, and as
there was a post office called Huntsville in
Schuyler County, the name of the town was
changed to Litchfield in honor of its virtual
proprietor. Up to this date, the present
townships of North Litchfield and South
Litchfield were a part of Long Branch (Elec-

tion Precinct), and I have heard an early resi-
dent say, that a dozen ballots would be cast
at an election.

The railroad being open to Alton, Messrs.
E. W. Litchfield and C. F. How began tim-
idly the sale of lumber, buying a carload or
two at Alton and unloading it where State
street crosses the railroad. E. E. Litchfield
bought the Tyler grain warehouse, and, remov-
ing it to the site of D. Davis' grocery store,
converted it into a store and began the sale
of dry goods. A year or two later, he went
out of dry goods and became a hardware mer-
chant. James and William Macpherson
erected a flouring or grist mill and a residence
just north of the Planet Mills' office. These
were the first buildings south of the railroad.
In the fall, ground was broken for the railroad
shops, but when S. E. Alden arrived in No-
vember, there were but eleven dwellings and
a few shops or stores in the place. W. T.
Bacon, from Adrian, Mich., had formed a
partnership with Messrs. How & Litchfield to
deal in lumber, and had projected a planiug-
mill. The winter of 1855-56 was an open
one, and the tide of emigration setting in
deep and steady, building went on during the
entire season, and a hundred dwellings and
other buildings were put up by the close of
1856. The passenger station had been com-
pleted and the round-house with thirteen stalls
had been inclosed, and the foundation laid for
the machine-shops. The town had been incor-
porated as a village; R. W. O'Bannon, Presi-
dent of the Board of Trustees. The public
houses had increased to four ; The Mont-
gomery House, now the Phoenix, by A. C.
Paxson ; the Litchfield House, opposite Wood-
man's lumber-yard, by Mr. Johnson, the nu-
cleus of the Central Hotel, by J. Hawkins,
and the beginning of the Palace Hotel, by R.
Chism. The Methodist and Presbyterian
Churches were built, but not quite completed.

CITY OF LITCHFIELD.

2C7

Hood & Bro., and Dr. Grinsted, had drug
stores, the first adjoining O'Bannon's store
on the north, and the second in the building
now occupied by G. B. Litchfield as a restau-
rant. Bagby & Corrington had succeeded
McWilliams & R. N. Paden in the State
Street store south of the public square.
O'Bannon & Elliott and Palmer & Jefferies, in
their own buildings, continued to sell dry
goods and clothing ; and Henderson, Hull &
Hawkins had a store across the street south
of Woodman's lumber-yard. Til. Shore sold
stoves and hardware in the Harris Building,
below Brewer & Grubb's Bank, which he had
erected in 1855; E. E. Litchfield was in the
same line on his corner; James Cummings &
Son were merchants in the Cummings Build-
ing, opposite the Central Hotel; John Mc-
Ginnis sold clothing and groceries where Ju-
lius Machler's saloon now is. John P. Bay-
less had succeeded James Cunmrings in the
post office, which was in O'Bannon's store.
There was one saloon open a part of the time
where Peter Kane dispensed, and B. C. Beards-
ly had begun business in Litchfield's store.
There were two physicians, Hood and Grinsted,
but no lawyer; one schoolmaster, and no resi-
dent preacher.

When the railroad was opened as far east
as Litchfield, John P. Bay less was appointed
the first agent, and his office was among the
foundation timbers of the water tank, which
stood near the southwest corner of the car
works office, while a sister tank stood about
on the site of the present one R. E. Burton
was the painter and photographer; John P.
Davis & Brothers, the plasterers ; William
Downey, the brick-layer. Farrar & Sinclair
had the livery stable where Griswold's stable
is. P. J. Weipert made and sold horse fur-
niture, and C. Hoog made boots and shoes,
and J. W. Cassiday was the one sufficient
tailor. Mr. Johnson and his sons, with saws

and bucks, cut the fuel for the locomotives.
G. W. Nelson — " Fiddler George ' ' — was the
Constable, and L. D. Palmer, the Justice of
the Peace. J. L. Hood sold furniture in the
Cummings' building for Olcott & Co., of
Alton ; and W. B. Charles — " Captain
Charles"— -in his old age had deserted the
river steamer, and had a little stock of cloth-
ing in the same building. Carpenters were
counted by the score, and their wages were
high.

The population had, by 1857, risen to six
or seven hundred. The earliest residents
were chiefly from the slave states, Kentucky
or North Carolina. Messrs. Appleton, Grin-
sted, and Mr. Long, his assistant, and a
Mr. Thomas, were of English birth. Messrs.
Hoog and Weipert were Germans. A few
came from Ohio, and there was a liberal in-
fusion of persons from the State of New
York, and the Irish brogue was heard con-
stantly.

The spring of 1857 opened late with rain
and cold. The streets were gorged by the
depth of black, unctions, tenacious mud.
Sidewalks there were none. The second
block east of State street was a shallow pond r
much visited in the season by water fowl.
Drains and sewers were unknown, and the
rainfalls skulked and dodged through grass
and rubbish to the heads of the water chan-
nels which begin half a mile or more distant.
A few dwellings boasted more than two
rooms. The people stayed here, comforting
themselves with hopes of improved futures
and release from narrow surroundings. The
railroad had been opened to Terre Haute the
previous year. Edwin C. Dix had succeeded
Mr. Bayless as station agent. And occasion-
ally some merchant would tell that he had,
the previous year, shipped several car-loads
of grain in sacks to St. Louis. The nom-
inal village organization was kept up, E. C.

268

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Dix being its President. Some ordinances
were adopted, but not enforced. The town
was the common fighting ground for the sur-
rounding county. A group of bullies would
ride into town, hre their courage with whisky,
if they could get it, and then gallop through
the streets, shouting and carrying clubs or
weapons, seeking a fight. On such occasions,
" Old Shake," foreseeing their purpose, would
usually lock his door, and disappear for the
day, under the pretense of hunting or fishing,
though a thinner excuse than fishing could
not be imagined.

The first circus tent spread here drew not
less than five thousand persons to town, peo-
ple coming as much as forty miles to witness
the moral horsemanship, and be astonished
at the wit of the clown, and admire the frisky
mules. Still the religious impressions of the
performances in the ring have not yet been
observed, or, if so, have failed of a chron-
icler, though the town is not wholly ignorant
of preachers who thought the noblest passage
in the Bible was Job's description of ahorse.
There have been circuses here since, but not
to arouse the excitement of that first one, and
men are said to have gone fishing, but no
one with so good a purpose as "Old Shake,"
or equally commendable results. The most
noticeable effect observed has been the repu-
tation of the fishermen for accuracy of state-
ment. Had the fish been bigger, their repu-
tation would have acquired the rudiments of
a moral quality.

At length — it was in 1855 — the domination of
bullydom came to inglorious grief. Bullies
had paraded the town nearly the entire day
putting quiet citizens to great fear of per-
sonal violence. At last one of the gang stood
up a citizen against Palmer's store and cursed
him with Satanic eloquence and energy. He
hoped to tempt him to some act of resistance.
A crisis was imminent, when a preacher of the

Christian Church, just risen from a sick bed,
came down the street. He comprehended the
situation and said it was time to push things.
A local preacher of the Methodist's coincided,
aud, saying he had in his store a basket of fine
savory eggs well matured for use in such a
case, brought them forward. The eggs were
thrown at the bully with malignant precision,
the missiles as they crushed on his face and
against his person emitted a pungent odor. It
was afterward thought the eggs were addled ; no
one knew ; there were none left to experiment
with. The gang fled, but the crowd, in antici-
pation of this had taken possession of a pile of
spalls at the railroad crossing, and as the odor-
ous bully and his confederate came up a volley
of stones was hurled at them with convincing
effect. He never recovered from his injuries,
but died a few years later of consumption. One
other event completed the subjugation of the
rowdy* element. In 1S87, the same element
proposed to " run" the town for a day ; the plan
— a rough one — prospered until evening ; when
the shopmen were going home to supper, the
opportunity was too rich for county blood ; a
demonstration was made on a workman, and
incontinently, the aggressor, was the worst
whipped man in Central Illinois. The victory-
was complete, the town had conquered a peace.
Thenceforward there was amity between town
and county rowdy, and no town of the State of
equal population since that event shows a bet-
ter record as to breaches of the peace.

Manufactures. — At the founding of the city
the only manufactories of the neighborhood
were a blacksmith shop at Hardinsburg, a
tread-wheel carding machine near Wilson Mei-
senlieimer's, a steam saw-mill near Newton
Street's, a second one near Judge Briggs' home,
and perhaps a grain mill at Truitt's ford.

In 1S54, James Macphersou, aud William,
his brother, built a grain mill and residence on
the site of the Planet Mill, and these were the
first buildings south of the railroad, after the

CITY OF LITCHFIELD.

269

laying-out of the town. The mill would be
called a humble affair to-day, but then it was
ample for local wants. The next year R. H.
Peall and J. M. McWilliams became the owners,
and enlarged it and added expensive machinery.
McWilliams dying in 1857, the mill, under the
operation of law, fell into the hands of Ezra
Tyler, who ran it with the aid of his sons until
1860, when he sold it to M. J. Gage. He at
once put in a new engine and sets of buhrs,
and other needed machinery, fully doubling its
size and capacity. Practically, he made the
mill anew one. He subsequently admitted his
son to a partnership, and when he sold it, in
1866, he had paid his indebtedness and was
the possessor of a moderate fortune. Best &
Sparks, the purchasers, leased it first to E. A.
Cooley and John Best, and then to A. W. Sam-
son. While the latter was the lessee, the own-
ers planned to replace the wooden structure by
a brick mill. The main building was erected,
when, in 1870, an evening fire destroyed the
mill, and the project of replacing it was first
deferred and finally abandoned. For ten years,
at least, it was a flouring-mill, and shipped its
goods to Eastern markets.

A second flouring-mill was completed in
1860, half a mile up State street, by John C.
Reed and James Macpherson. In the spring
of 1863, this, in an unknown manner, was also
destroyed by fire. The attempt to connect its
destruction with military and political troubles
had no sufficient basis. Perhaps some card-
playing youths knew more than they told. The
mill was not rebuilt.

Wesley Best and David R. Sparks, from
Staunton, completed a 300-barrel mill, on the
railroad a quarter of a mile west of State street
The mill was twice enlarged, and its goods
achieved a flattering reputation. It, too, was
burned, in Februarj-, 1879, and arrangements
were made to rebuild it in 1881. bat when the
walls were fairly begun, the property was sold
to D. L. Wing & Co., who demolished what had

been built, and the barren site is to-day the
sole memorial of what was one of the best old
style mills in Central Illinois. As long as it
stood, the city maintained its pre-eminence as
a local market for wheat, and its destruction
was a general calamity.

Peter Boxberger, in 1S68, built a flouring-
mill on the railroad, a quarter of a mile east of
State street. Three years later he sold it to
Daniel McLenan, in whose charge it was when
destroyed by Are in 1873, bringing financial
ruin to its owner. About this time, T. G. Kes-
singer had a custom mill opposite Best &
Sparks' mill, but it was not kept up long. In
1871, Mr. Boxberger changed the furniture
factory of Whitaker & Rogers into a grist and
flouring mill, and held it for two years, when
L. G. Hicks and T. G. Kessinger obtained pos-
session of it. The}' remained in control as long
as possible. Whitaker & Rogers ultimately
regained it by litigation, and the junior mem-
ber of the firm still runs it. In 1873, Mr. Box-
berger built the flouring-mill near the Indian-
apolis & St. Louis depot. Becoming embar-
rassed, he formed a partnership with Julius
Machler, and the firm failed. The mill was
sold, and for a year it was operated by L. Whit-
aker, but in 18S1 J. W. Thynne came into
control, and it is now run under his manage-
ment. All the mills used buhr stones, and
completed the manufacture of flour in two
grindings. Their capacity was limited, and un-
til the opening of the coal mines and the intro-
duction of water works, they struggled under
formidable difficulties. But in the spring of
1881, Messrs. D. L. Wing & Co., of Springfield,
Mass., began the erection of the Planet Mill,
which by reason of its capacity and the new
system of converting wheat into flour and the
character and completeness of its appointments
will bear a rapid description.

The mill building proper is 50x100 feet, and
five stories high, exclusive of basement and
texas. The basement contains shafting and main

270

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

driving pulley, elevators, fans and wheat sink.
The main floor contains seven reduction mills for
grinding middlings, and nine sets of smooth
and corrugated rolls, fifteen purifiers, six bolt-
in l: chests and flour chests, packers and clean-
ing machines. It may be of interest to know
that flour-making consists of about thirty oper-
ations. A barrel of flour is made every two
minutes and a half. The motive power is
given by a 300- horse-power engine. The grain
elevator has a capacity of 100,000 bushels.
There are six buildings belonging to the mill,
and the out and the in business is equal to
twelve car loads per day. Sixty-five men are
employed. The cost of the mill was §200,000;
W. N. Hewitt, Superintendent. The mill went
into operation in November, 1881, and the
wheat is nearly all obtained from the close
neighborhood. The O. K. Mill was put in op-
eration about 1873, and is owned by Perley,
Beach & Co. In 1881, Mr. Whitnall opened
tile works on the east margin of the city. His
wares are for the most part shipped to other
counties.

The foundry and machine shop of H. H.
Beach & Co. was built in 1857, and operated as
a separate interest until 1876, when by sale
they were consolidated with the car works.
The original concern for years supplied the
railroad repair shop with castings, and was
largely engaged in the manufacture of engines
and mill machinery. The concern worked an
average of fifty men. The work is kept up by
the new company.

As early as 1856 a planing- rnill was running
where is now Weigreffe's lumber yard. In a
few years it was dismantled, and in 1867, Mr.
Weigreffe built his sash, door and blind fac-
tory, which was discontinued in 1876, and the
machinery removed. L. Hoffman had a brew-
ery where the coal shaft is, and finding the bus-
iness ruinous abandoned it. J. E. Gay had a
carriage factory, working twenty hands. He had
no capital, and went into the bankrupt class.

The railroad shops were removed to Mattoon
in 1870-71, and the spacious buildings stood
tenantless and silent. Those who imagined
that the permanent welfare of the city depended
on retaining the shops, began to look for the
signs of decay. The mystery of cause and
effect, is insoluble, but as a sequence, the city's
gift of $50,000 to the Decatur & East St. Louis
Railroad was followed closely by the removal
of the shops, and when that decision was made
public the population had sunk to the lowest
point touched in twenty years. It was learned
that the shops could be obtained on a long
lease for a low sum. They could quickly and
cheaply be turned into car works, and the
scheme was elaborated to orgauize a stock
company to build railway cars and coaches.
Parties from the East offered to conduct the
business if Litchfield would supply the capital.
The proposal was declined without thanks. In
the winter of 1871-72, the company was formed
and in May work was begun. A year later a
fire from the cupola destroyed the foundry and
machine shop. This portion of the works was
rebuilt. In a few years the company's patron-
izing roads were unable to meet their engage-
ments and the company obtained an extension
on its own paper, and at the appointed dates
honored all its obligations. The company re-
organized in 1877 with a diminished capital
stock, but in effect with enlarged resources, and
has been prosperous. Last year the pay-roll
bore over 400 names, and the monthly pay
sheet exceeded $19,000. The coal mine and
the car works employed nearly six hundred
and fifty men and the monthly wages were
83(1.(100.

The influence of manufactures on population
can be learned from a comparison of the census
returns for a series of years, with the condition
of our industrial enterprises. For 1870 and
1880, the Federal census is given; for the other
years the school census is used :

CITY OF LITCHFIELD.

271

1869.
1870.
1871.
1872.
1873.
1874.

4036

1875

3750

1876

3837

1877

4289

1878

4432

1879

4358

1880

4100

4135

3730

3685

3959

4343

In 1877 and 1878, the car works were re-
suming business, and but few workmen were
employed. The full consequences of the panic
of 1873 had reached the climax. The fluctua-
tions in the census accurately measures the ac-
tivity in productive industries. In 1881, the
population reached 5,250, and over a hundred
dwellings were constructed.

We herewith give a statement of the busi-
ness done in the Litchfield Post Office, during
the past five years ending June 30, 1882 :

GROSS RECEIPTS.

July 1, 1877. to June 30, 1878 $3,266 88

July 1, 1878, to June 30, 1879 3,496 41

July 1, 1879, to June 30, 1880 3,865 17

July 1, 1880, to June 30, 1881 4,572 69

July 1, 1881, to June 30, 1882 5,279 35

SAT.ES OF DOMESTIC MONET ORDERS.

July 1, 1877. t:> June 30, 1878 $2,117 00

July 1, 1878, to June 30, 1879 2,303 00

July 1. 1879, to June 30, 1880 2,083 00

July 1, 1880, to June 30, 1881 3,088 00

July 1, 1881, to June 30, 1882 3,301 00

The sales of international money orders during
the past live years amount to $450, and there have
been registered in the same period 2,057 letters and
parcels, against 1,188 for the eight years previous to
June 15, 1877.

, Perhaps the growth of local or city taxation
for school and city purposes may bear on this
question of manufactures and growth of the
city. For 1859, the taxes given are for the
levy of that year ; then until 1872, the taxes
are the sum called for by the Collector's war-
rant, which includes the yearly lev3 - and all
back takes. Until 1865, the City Council served
without pay. Subsequently the members were
paid :

Tear. Tax.

1867 $19,098 94

1868 22,307 23

1869 22,802 63

1S7U 27,114 62

1871 19,936 75

1872 18.457 29

Tear. Tax.

1859 $2,187 89

1861 1,511 93

1862 1,531 59

1863 2,000 19

1864 2,149 39

1865 11,547 91

1866 18,146 53

The sum of $4,000 should be added to the
figures for 1871-72 for interest on railroad
bonds, which is collected as a part of the State
tax.

Until 1873, the city taxes were levied on the
assessment made by the City Assessor, and
were collected by the City Collector. From
that year the taxes for the city were levied by
the State authorities in part, by the School
Board in part, by the City Council in part, and
in part by the citizens of North Litchfield and
South Litchfield in town meeting. For five
years the School Board and the City Council
was the same body, but acting in two capaci-
ties.

It appears proper to give a more detailed
statement of local taxes from 1873 inclusive,
representing only the amounts extended on the
tax books, but having nothing to do with the
amounts collected, and nothing to do with the
expenditures of each year for current purposes.

Tear. Mayor. Assessments. Local Taxes.

I City $9,447 98

School 7,500 00

1873 W. S. Palmer 81,485,868 \ City Bond 3,394 74

[ Total 820,342 72

fCity 814,646 70

| School 15,602 29

1874 S. M.Grubbs 12,239,894 \ City Bond 4,409 42

[ Total $37,716 42

I City $14,439 18
School 10,436 74
Bond 5,217 18
Total $30,093 10

(City $11,157 20
School 5,157 47
Bond 5,487 89

.D. Davis 1,106,379..

1877 W. Best-

Total $21,802 56

fCitv $7,218 11

School 4,088 54

Bond 4,765 13

Total $16,071 78

272

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Tear.

Mayor.

Assessments.

1878 P. B. Updike..

.' — , 1 ■ . > .

Local Taxes.

"City $5,358 74

School 3,534 14

Bond 4.7U7 09

1879 D. Davis..

,R. F. Beuu.tt 394,235..

.E. .Southward 433,927..

Total $13,599 97

f City $4,1)42 64

| School 3,021 45

429,958 '. Bond 4,308 09

[ Total $11,372 18

fCity $3,514 88

I School 4,025 20

.J Bond 8,158 17

|_ Total $10,698 25

f City $3,917 18

School 7,170 34

. j Boud 3,G50 26

I Sinking Fund 2,259 70

[ Total $16,997 48

During each year the city was in the re-
ceipt of a revenue from miscellaneous sources
of at least $6,000, which with the taxes col-
lected represent the total yearly expenditure
for city purposes. The era of high taxes rep-
resents the years of building the new school-
house, and the quickly abandoned policy of pay-
ing oil floating and bonded indebtedness.

We make no attempt to explain the decrease
in the assessed valuation of the city, nor the
wonderful sums yearly spent under the ambig-
uous heading of city expenses.

In April, 1857, the first number of the Litch
field Journal appeared, of which a fuller account
will be found in a subsequent chapter. In
March, M. B. Savage, of Brooklyn, N. Y., ap-
peared here to become a partner of E. E.
Litchfield ; J. W. Haggart succeeded E. C. Dix.
as railroad agent. J. L. Childs had, a few weeks
earlier, become the successor of E. W. Litch-
field in the lumber firm. Mathew Cyrus fol-
lowed Mr. Paxson in the Montgomery house,
and in May or June, H. W. Beach and D. C.
Amsden arrived to begin the erection of a
foundry and machine shop. This was made
the terminal point of the division of the
railroad, and work was begun on railroad
machine shop. Messrs. O'Bannou, E. W,
Litchfield and E. L. Dix opened a lumber
yard where the Ballweg elevator stands. The
railroad employes abounded, and railroad

talk drowned politics. Shore's steam saw-mill,
on Rocky Branch, after sawing three cuts had
settled down to permanent idleness, and the
ruin of its owner. This year the railroad en-
gine house, machine shop and blacksmith shop
were built and supplied with machinery, and
there was a sudden increase of population —
the families of mechanics and laborers in the
shops. John S. Miller was the master mechanic.
The road was not prosperous, only one freight
train each way per day. and the train as low as
three cars. Pay day was irregular and, with
the panic which set in with tremendous severi-
ty, and low wages, the profits of labor were
scanty. O'Bannon and Litchfield's lumber
yard was sold to Perley & Co., a firm consist-
ing only of R. G. Perley. The year went out
in gloom and various helps to discouragement.
A second saloon had been opened, a billiard
table set up, two more physicians had settled
here, and a couple of lawyers had an office ; of
these brief mention should be made, for they
were conspicuous persons for a few years.

B. M. Munn, a young man, came here
from Charleston. He was a man of untiring
industry, a gentleman in dress, temper and
manners, ambitious and hospitable. But he
was poor and impatient to become rich. He
borrowed money and his plans did not prosper.
He lost public confidence, went out as a three
month's man at the beginning of the war, and
drifted to Cairo and ceased to be a member of
the county bar.

He had hardly opened his office in the fall,
when T. N. Marron, a native of Lewis County
N. Y., in some way lounged into town, nearly
or quite penniless, and with but an apology for
personal baggage. He said he had during the
summer been engaged iu the survey of railroads
in Iowa, and had tailed to receive his pay.
Mr. Munn tendered him a desk in his office,
shared his slender purse with him, and sought
to aid him in securing legal business. But
Marron was a Bohemian lawyer and no student.

CITY OF LITCHFIELD.

273

He was, however, dignified and impressive in
his manners, and soon was noted for the con-
densed energy of his conversation. Though
quick of resentments, he delighted in festive
scenes and noise. Whatever his theory as to
the adequacy of statute law and legal prece-
dents as a good substitute for principles founded
on Christian morals, he failed to win clients,
and in the second year of the war he disap-
peared, and was afterward seen in Cairo, where
former acquaintances deemed it proper not to
covet his society. His will acted in whirls
and side currents, and he was as poor a friend
to himself as he was to others. He was a man
of impulses, jealous of others' success, ignobly
poor, with tastes which a fortune alone could
gratify ; he neglected the patient industry in-
dispensible to a lawyer who would rise in his
profession.

If the year ended in omens of disaster, judged
by the usual but fallacious standards adopted
elsewhere, there was no time for despondency.
The better wealth of the town lay in the
character and temper of its people. Messrs.
Hood & Fields, of Michigan, had built and
occupied a grocery store on the lot immediately
north of Litchfield's hardware store. Burr Rob-
bins, of circus fame, and his brother began a
saloon on the next business lot, and the brother
dying the property was bought by C. W. Ward,
who enlarged the building and carried out the
design of the original owners. In May, D. C.
Amsden and family arrived from Wisconsin,
and the next month was joined by H. H. Beach,
his brother-in-law. Mr. Beach brought the en-
gines and equipment for a machine shop and
foundry, and running up a huge barn-like
structure, put the furnace in blast two months
afterward, and then as resident partner and
manager of the firm of Williams. Angel & Beach,
entered upon a career of brilliant usefulness
and prosperity as a mechanic and citizen. He
was in the forenoon of life, and fully trained in
practical mechanics and railroad work. He

may have been worth a thousand dollars in his
own right, but had a sound, healthy intelligence
in his profession. He built his shops for the
future, and then awaited the developments of
business. He had the only foundry and ma-
chine shop between Alton and Terre Haute.
Soon after kindling his fires, the dread panic
desolated the country, paralyzing enterprise,
and bringing financial ruin to many, and hard-
ship to all. For weeks Mr. Beach was on the
brink of failure. Only by his popularity and
personal influence could he get money to keep
his shops open. The age of iron — the badge of
power and industrial development — was about
to dawn here, and its harbinger was the inevita-
ble train of disaster which preceded the estab-
lishment of a radical change in the methods
and implements, and machines in the world of
production and trade. The hour for an expe-
dient had come. He bought on credit a mill
for corn meal, and placing it in the loft over
his machine shop. Mr. Amsden to his other
incongruous duties added the care of the mill.
Corn was abundant and cheap, and meal was
high. Each week a shipment to St. Louis
brought in money to keep affairs in order, and
by spring the crisis in his fortunes was
fairly over. The year had tested men. Who-
ever could see the end from the beginning,
could then have predicted the future of the
town.

Its history is but the simple monotonous
story of the life of a little community, which
had no startling or exceptionable incidents. If
life here was quiet, it was intense and stern.
All commercial and industrial facilities had
been made the most of. It was not quite a fron-
tier or pioneer town, but when it was founded
the region around was sparsely settled, and
large tractsof land were uninclosed and untitled .
The people were rich in the prospective appre-
ciation of their lands, but poor in actual wealth.
They had clung to the timber along the streams,
and the more sanguine had excited the deri-

274

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

sion of their neighbors by saying that in half a
centufy settlement might advance several miles
into the prairie. Wheat sold at Alton for 20
cents a bushel above the incidental expenses of
transportation on wagons. The best wealth of
the town was the sort of people who gave it
tone and character. No one hoped to get on
by pulling a neighbor down. The latest arrival
was welcomed and helped to make a start.
Competing tradesmen were warm personal
friends. There was a broad public sentiment
which attracted population. There was prompt
co-operation in each new enterprise. Each man
thought he would best benefit himself by con-
tributing to the common weal. Life was a
good, earnest, manly fight with narrow fortunes.
It was won by character, intelligence, industry,
prudence and courage. And it needed to be

so. A greater progress than had cheered the
last century was to be crowded into twenty
years ; the full work of four generations of an
earlier day, was now flung on one. A better
Thermopylae was here, but the myriad Helots
who died on Persian swords to lend deathless
fame to their three hundred masters, had no
representatives. Only a few men could do
much, but all did what was possible. Through
that year and subsequent ones, can be traced
like a fairy ring, the example and influence of
a few men from the East, who being full of go,
sent their fieiy energy and daring through the
community. Their positive incisive traits were
as strong as passions and beautiful as hope.
They came to succeed and stay, and, believing in
themselves, they did.

CITY OF LITCHFIELD.

275

CHAPTER XIV.*

LITCHFIELD— INCREASE OF POPULATION— EARLY POLITICS— POLITICIANS AND POLITICAL QUES-
TIONS—THE JOURNALS— DOUGLAS AND LINCOLN— INCORPORATION OF LITCHFIELD AS A
CITY— THE FIRST MAYOR — SOME OF THE LATER BUSINESS MEN — PHYSICIANS-
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF I860 AND ITS RESULTS— THE CITY DURING THE
WAR— FIRES— REMOVAL OF RAILROAD SHOPS— RECAPITULATION, ETC.

were gathered Thomas C. Hughes, Elihu

" Recollection is the only paradise from which we
cannot be turned out." — Richter.

BY the beginning of 1858, the population
of Litchfield might have been a thous-
and, nearly all drawn hither from a distance.
They were poor, if reckoned by material stan-
dards, but young, earnest, pushing, resolute,
and able and willing to make favorable cir-
cumstances if they could not rind them.
Their true power and wealth lay in their ca-
pacity to work and their skill in their callings,
and their readiness to multiply themselves by
doing so many unlike things well. They had
to succeed. The population was a busy one,
and splendidly in earnest. Somehow they
tore their way upward. The same man was
in the course of the day a coal dealer, super-
intendent of the foundry, melting three tons
at a heat; ran a corn-mill, carrying the corn
in the ear on his back to the second story,
shelling it and sifting the meal by hand,
sacking it for shipment; keej>ing the books of
the firm, taking the time of the workmen, at-
tending to the correspondence, and in the in-
tervals doing the " chores " around the estab-
lishment.

Everybody, not a railroadman, talked pol-
itics, if not with wide knowledge, yet with
zeal and earnestness. The Democratic head-
quarters were at O'Bannon's store, and there
on rainy days as well at sundry other times

* By H. A. Cuolidge.

Boan, Stephen R. Briggs, Israel Fogleman,
John A. Crabtree, with " Uncle Dick" as Mod-
erator, smoking amicable pipes and turning
over their oft-expressed opinions as to the is-
sues then prominent in Kansas. All these
had been born and reared in slave States,
and cherished the views peculiar to the South.

They believed as tneir party believed, and
small forbearance had they for any one who
uttered to-day what the party would not utter
until to-morrow. Next to being an Aboli-
tionist, was the effrontery of believing any-
thing until the party believed it, unless he
was in Congress or had owned a "nigger."
It was all the force of habit, and an endless
diversion.

The Republicans were few but conspicuous.
Andrew Miller, H. H. Hood, D. C. Amsden,
W. S. Palmer and H. H. Beach could not be
overlooked in any community. They held
caucuses, voted a straight ticket, and were
uniformly beaten. Mr. Miller was suspected
of being a train dispatcher on the Under-
ground Railroad. Dr. Hood alone was an
Abolitionist, and it was no festive thing to
be an Abolitionist where one of your neighbors
had been one of the hunters of fugitive slaves
for the lowest motive men dare to acknowl-
edge, and which if good, will excuse Arnold's
meditated betrayal of West Point. Poli-
tics or self love had no little to do with a

276

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

condition of things which ultimately was no
disadvantage. For twenty years the town
had only forlorn friends beyond its own limits.
There was a unanimous discrimination against
its citizens in business and matters political,
and for a quarter of a century, though Litch-
field contained one-fifth the population, it saw
but one of its citizens elevated to a cotmty
office. The noble consequence was that no
one here was spoiled or made a bench loafer
by seeking or holding an office.

In April, 1857, was begun the publication
of the Litchfield Journal. The office was
brought hither from Central New York, on
representations and assurances which were
coolly repudiated when they had served their
purpose. The paper had a small circulation
and little other patronage. The publisher did
not grow quickly rich, and seven years after-
ward he sold out and turned his attention to
other things. He was so poor that no one
would give him credit. He thus kept out of
debt, though his subscribers did not, and the
statute of limitation long since restored his
books to white paper, or something even less
valuable.

The spring of 1858 was phenomenal for
mud and bad roads. Even good intentions
will not pave a prairie road in March. The
cars ran ricocheting along the iron rails, and
the rain fell dense day after day. Farm work
was delayed. In January the highways were
hard and dusty, and many a plow was stir-
ring. The frostless nights ushered in delicious
days, and winter was side-tracked up North.
February brought a change, and it was long
ere we saw hard ground or a clear or warm
day. Not a few improved the weather by
falling ill, and potion glasses were a relief
from the drip and mud. We learned in the
schools which fools patronize, the mysteries
of a Western winter. During the summer
the car shop and the paint shop were built,

the Montgomery House enlarged, and the
railroad continued its monthly issues of scrip
in jocular payment of its employes. The
Linder Brothers gave up business; Cum-
mings & Son failed to meet their engage-
ments; Henderson, Hull and Hawkins were
embarrassed, and E. E. Litchfield owed more
than he could pay. E. W. Litchfield built
Empire Hall, and a brass band was formed.
Our sorrows came not alone, but in battalions.
Senator Douglas, whose official term was
about to expire, was a candidate for re-elec-
tion. A chasm had opened between him and
his party. Illinois had gone Republican at
the State election two years before, and he
could hope for no aid from the National Ad-
ministration, and had grounds for anticipat-
ing its hostility, whether covert or open.
On the Legislature to be chosen in the fall
depended his hopes, and if he would not fail,
he deemed it essential that he should make a
popular canvass. The central counties were
the debatable region, and on their political
complexion rested the prospect of success.
Mi-. Lincoln, the Republican candidate op-
posed to him, gained the initiative before
his return from Washington. And soon af-
ter Douglas began his popular efforts, the
terms of the famous forensic contest between
them were settled. Their joint debate re-
duced to the plainness of axioms the pending
issues in the irrepressible conflict. Trumbull
also entered the canvass, and in an address
at Chicago, spoke of cramming the lie down
Douglas' throat. Douglas' readiness and
anxiety to meet his accuser on the hustings
for a reply to this insult was well understood.
The day that Trumbull spoke here, Douglas
had an appointment at Gillespie. John M.
Palmer was aunounced to follow Trumbull in
the evening, from the Republican stand at
the southwest corner of the public square.
Several Democrats visited Gillespie to invite

CITY OF LITCHFIELD.

i77

Douglas here to speak in the evening. A
rude stand was improvised against the north
side of Empire Hall, where there was an open
space about fifty feet by one hundred, thickly
strewn with brick-bats. Douglas came, and
proclamation was made that he would speak.
When the hour came, no one was at the Re-
publican stand, and several hundred persons
were at the other one. Trumbull was not in
the crowd, but a few rods away, where he
could hear. Douglas knowing this, replied
to the boast made in Chicago: his remarks
were not reported, but it would be a charity
to pretend that his language was parliamen-
tary. It was vigorous, and uttered with a
fiery vehemence and passion which manifested
its earnestness. When he concluded, the
Democrats shouted for Dick Merrick, who
accompanied Douglas. The Republicans
yelled for Palmer. The former claimed the
stand; the latter clamored for fair play.
They wanted Douglas to draw a crowd for
their side. The shouting went on. If there
was a lull, it was only to take breath. The
brick-bats were suggestive. Some of the
people laughed at the confusion, and some
grew red in the face with anger or excite-
ment. Finally, Judge Weir mounted the
stand, and in a few sentences brought the
meeting to a close. The Republicans ad-
mitted the provocation under which Douglas
spoke, and the boisterous display of feeling
when he sat down, led to no serious results.
A few days later was election, and the total
vote of the Litchfield Precinct, and the 359
majority for the Douglas candidates for the
Legislature, were so unexpected that the le-
gality of the vote was questioned at Spring-
field in an unofficial way, and the suspicion
was removed only by the aggregate of the city
election the following spring. During the
year the removal of John P. Bayless, Post-
master, was attempted on a charge of virtual

Abolitionism. Had the allegation been sus-
tained, his official sin would have been unpar-
donable. He was invited to reply to the
charge, which he accomplished to the satis-
faction of the Department, and he was not
again molested in his office until Lincoln was
seated in the White House.

The village organization had been dissolved,
and in November a special charter was draft-
ed, for presentation to the Legislature about
to convene for the incorporation of the town
as city. At a series of public meetings this
draft was submitted to the citizens, and, be-
ing approved, B. M. Munn went to the cap-
ital to urge its passage. On the 19th of Feb-
ruary, 1859, it became a law, and at the first
election under it, in April, W. E. Bacon was
chosen Mayor, and C. W. Ward City Clerk,
and James Kellogg Street Commissioner.
The next year Mr. Bacon was re-elected

The new city had an onerous task. An
entire code of ordinances was to be framed
and adopted, and public opinion to be edu-
cated to the knowledge and obedience to
wholesome municipal regulations. The
Council served with no compensation. The
City Clerk received $60 a year; all other offi-
cers accepted their fees in full of salaries,
and sidewalks were laid at the expense of real
estate thus improved. The first year a tax
of $2,200 was levied for schools and munici-
pal purposes, and at the close of the year the
Treasury contained a few hundred dollars to
the credit of the next twelve months.

The first stage of the transition period had
been reached. The business fever of the
day when people wore daily arriving with
their little accumulations to buy or bui Id
homes, was passing, and the hope of the peo-
ple lay in their daily wages and employments
here. Corn in the fall of 1859 sold at 10
cents a bushel, and the railroad continued its
payment of " scrip," which was worthless in

278

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

the city mai - ket. Debt was universal; but as
frost pulverizes the earth for a future crop,
so adversity prepared the people for a sounder
prosperity. The class of adventurers, the
Jeremy Diddlers, was weeded out. The men
who could not pay and would not work,
drifted to other places.

A telegraph line had been built, and George
H. Smith appointed operator. An effort to
secure the location of the County Fair was
unsuccessful, through a dishonesty not to be
extenuated. The commercial influence of the
town was rapidly fostering political impor-
tance. A big Democratic majority in Litch-
field was something bound to be respected,
especially as the party was run by men who
three years before were Henry Clay Whigs,
and a fervent class not to be moderate in
views or zeal.

In 1859, E. Southworth, wearied of failure
to gain a livelihood on a farm where some
calamity robbed him each year of the expect-
ed fruits of his labor, and judging the future
by the past, came to the city to become a
lawyer. He had crossed the plains on foot
to be. a miner in California; had taught
school and tried farming. Here he read law
fifteen hours a day. He preserved the hon-
esty of common life, and circumstances bowed
down to his energy. He was an officer at the
beginning of the war; has served as Alder-
man and Mayor, and been State Senator. He
rose to the leading position at the city bar,
and looks for promotion.

William A. Holmes, formerly of Morris-
ville, N. Y.,but later of Platteville, Wis.,caine
here about the same date, in the vain hope
that the milder climate of Central Illinois
would stay, if not heal, the pulmonary dis-
ease of his invalid wife. A man of social
tastes, of warm sensibility, and ardent affec-
tions, he never rallied after her death a year
after his arrival. For a time he sought legal

business, but though a dozen years before
distinguished by forensic ability, he shunned
the court room and became distinctively an
office lawyer, and confined himself to the
preparation of court business. In the sus-
pension of litigation which accompanied the
war, he failed to improve his fortunes, and
sought to dispel the gloom in which his days
were shrouded by irregular indulgences. He
died on that terrible New Year's day of 1864,
in the absence of the early friend who alone
here knew the secret of his earlier life, and
had been glad and proud of his friendship.
By temperament born to suffer, and in his
pride strong to keep silence, he lost no friend
and made no enemy.

Messrs. D. and O. Quick came here in 186< I,
and remained but a few mouths. They did
not distinguish themselves at the bar. Lit-
igation was of the simpler kind and afforded
but small opportunity for lawyers. Hugh
Colton, a young Irishman, needed toning
down. He was impulsive, and had not learned
that an orator at the bar succeeds quite as
surely by being a profound lawyer as by his
rhetoric. His stay here was not a long one.

George L. Zink passed from a lawyer's office
in Steubenville, Ohio, to a pedagogue's chair
in Gillespie, and in 1865, came here to begin
the practice of his profession, bringing his
political principles from the sanguinary field
of Perryville. He had the legal cast of
mind, was a hard student and a forcible
speaker. When he became associated with
E. McWilliams, he entered at once on a lu-
crative practice. Subsequently, he was a
member of the legal firm of Southworth &
Zink, and on its dissolution opened an office in
his own rooms. In 1868, he was a delegate
to the Republican National Convention, and
four years later went into the Greeley party,
and in 1878 was sent by the Democrats to the
Legislature.

U3RAHY

CITY OF LITCHFIELD.

281

Eobert McWilliains flitted from Shelby -
ville to Hillsboro, when J. M. Davis was most
intolerant of the presence of a second lawyer
in the county. Whether from constitution
or abstemiousness, the plan of drinking him
out of the county was a failure, and Mc Will-
iams had clients and success in the courts.
He was a Republican, and the time came
when he re-enforced his exhortations by en-
listing and raising a company and going into
the field. At his own request, he was relieved
from service just prior to the battle of Nash-
ville; but his Irish temperament would not
let him come home until he fought through
that decisive affair. About 18(36, he removed
to Litchfield, and asserted himself at the bar,
in real estate operations and politics. He
has just closed a term as a member of the
Legislature, and the charity of the reader
will not deem this much of a stain on a lawyer.
Somebody must go to the Legislature and be
misreported.

George A. Talley, who completed his legal
studies in McWilliams' office, and on his ad-
mission to the bar became his partner, re-
mained a few years, and then removed to
Chicago. Though young in his profession,
he had earned a high reputation for honesty
and thoroughness. He had the aptitude of
a student. He learned to know before decid-
ing or giving opinions. He knew the law
that others knew, and much that they did not.
He cherished an honest judgment, and his
departure was sincerely regretted.

There is an inevitable meanness in every
grand event, and homeliness of detail in each
heroic life which time does not wholly erase.
We go a thousand miles away to get the
mountain's height, and we are too near the men
and things of which we write. The present
tense is the fit one for our task. A fine ear
would still detect the echoes of the first ham-
mer strokes in the town. The writer was a

part of what he writes, and as the sentences
grow, the events return in their freshness,
and he is moved by his recollections as he
was moved by the events themselves, and he
cannot compose a history of the city on per-
spective, and, like a Chinese draughtsman,
leave the background and shadow out. Any
one can be wise for yesterday, for he has re-
sults to guide his judgment. But Litchfield
scarcely has a yesterday. Its history still
retains the morning freshness of to-day. The
incidents of its first years are as freely can-
vassed as those of the present. Each feeling
and prejudice has been mused to keep it
warm.

Dr. Gamble was the first physician. He
dwelt in a log cabin half floored, a couple of
blocks west of the Methodist Church, and left
but a faint record. H. H. Hood transferred
his office from Hardinsburg to Litchfield in
the summer of 1854. A man of decided
opinions, active, persistent and inflexible, he
is familiarly known to all. Dr. John Grin-
sted came in 1856, from Woodburn, and,
opening a drug store, practiced as a physician
until advancing years compelled his retire-
ment. In 1S57, Drs. Strafford and Speers
located here from St. Louis. Speers so-
journed but a short time, but Dr. Stafford,
much reduced in health, remains here. He
never gained the position to which, by his
skill, he might properly have aspired. Dr.
Ash was here a year or two, but the field was
too unpromising, and he removed to Brigh-
ton. Dr. John Skillman, from Alton, sought
employment here, and then returned to Alton,
but came back to die. His history is com-
prised in his Alton life.

Dr. R. F. Bennett located here in 1862,
and has gained a large practice, and possesses
a modest fortune. He has been twice May-
or, and twice an Alderman. Of Dr. Neff it

is proper to say that he is better remembered

282

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

for his financial transactions than for his pro-
fessional successes. Dr. Colt, forced by the
failure of his health from service in the gun-
boat fleet, came here in 18(33, and has reached
an enviable rank in his prof ession. He loves
the science of medicine, and the rod and gun,
when he can steal a day with them. Dr.
Backwelder went with Sherman to the sea,
and finally settled here, and has a large list
of patients Dr. Clearwater was for many
years the country physician. His practice
was enormous, and hiB fees would have been
large had he exacted them. His reputation
is built on his success in healing his patients.
Dr. James, after serving in Price's army,
came here. He lost his health, tried farming,
and went to Virginia to die, but regained his
health, and now attends to professional duties.
Dr. Leach was the first homeopathist, and
since his removal, ten or twelve years ago,
has not been seen here.

Early in the " sixties," Ben Davis, the
" snapping doctor, "made semi-monthly visits.
His audience room in the Cummings Build-
ing contained several backless benches, on
which were seated a score or two of patients,
as grave and silent and patient as "mourners"
at a religious assembly. Davis circulated
about the apartment, snapping his fingers
like castanets, and professing to heal diseases
by occult magnetic influences inijnarted from
himself. The cures did not follow. His
visits have been nearly forgotten, and the
burly Ben is dimly remembered.

Only by an effort can the names of several
other physicians who tarried here be recalled.

In the long, honorable list but three names
have fallen to the ground. Drs. Alexander,
Skillman and Grinsted have died. It is the
best evidence of their worth and skill that, with
the increase of population, the bills of mortal-
ity in 1881 were but little larger than in 1857,
with only one-eighth of the present population.

In 1860, Litchfield was a microcosm. Not
a speech at Washington, not an editorial by
Greeley or Medary, or an utterance of the
Charleston Courier, which was not re-echoed
here. Not a general interest could be touched
and not affect some business here. Politics
was a study for each one. Supreme attention
was paid to the presidential canvass, and
there was much whistling to keep up a show
of courage and hopefulness. Lincoln was
elected, and the outlook was toward clouds
and darkness. All classes here desired peace,
and petitioned for the passage of the Critten-
den resolutions.

For some reason as inscrutable as a prize
conundrum, a delegate Democratic State
Convention was called to meet at Springfield
to deliberate on public affairs and offer sug-
gestions. A county convention was accord-
ingly held to appoint delegates. The writer
drafted and presented resolutions to the
effect that as the Republicans already were
in power in the State, and were about to go
into power in the nation, and, therefore,
would be responsible for the administration
of public affairs, it would be time enough for
Democrats to give advice when it was asked
for; as the Democratic party when in power
had not averted the present danger, it was not
clear how any advice they could give would
now meet it; and hence the county should
send no delegates to the proposed State Con-
vention. Every member save Jesse M. Phillips
and B. M. Munn, was in favor of peace and
a peaceful policy. Those two gent'emen
breathed war and battle. The resolutions
were adopted and fully met the views of the
people — a fact whose significance became ap-
parent within a few years.

The Peace Congress was held, and accom-
plished nothing it was convened to accom-
plish, and much that was not anticipated.

Wrongs it mijjht have redressed, but it

CITY OF LITCHFIELD.

283

could not change the fixed purpose of the
South, which, by dividing the party, had
caused the election of Lincoln, and then plead
the consequences of its own act as a pretext
for the consummation of a policy pursued for
years. The Southern members of that Con-
gress did not seek means of pacification.
Their solicitude was to learn if the Yankees
would fight. The answer covered more than
the question. We quote the verbal version of
it. as told by a member of the body :

" If, on a summer morning, in the season,
you visit the wharf of any of the little sea-
ports near Boston, you will see many little
undecked boats newly arrived from the fish-
ing-ground with their night's catch. The
owners are marine farmers. They gain their
livelihood by fishing. The sea and their
boats are their patrimony. Enter into con-
versation with the fisherman who is tossiner
his catch on the wharf. Dispute his asser-
tions; call him a liar. 'Mister, I can prove
what I say.' Spit in his face, and, as he
wipes off the saliva with his brown arm, he
will reply: 'Mister, look out!' Abuse his
State, and ' Mister, my State supplies your
shi es, your clothes and your markets.' You
cannot anger him or provoke him to a breach
of the peace. You conclude he has no spirit.
But touch one of hie fish, and in a moment
he'll thrash yuu within an inch of your life. "
The Southerner stood on the principle of per-
sonal honor, a shadowy thing, while the
Northerner stood by the rights of property.

The one was a chimera; the other is the
foundation of States and the iEgis of civiliza-
tion. The news of the attack and capture
of Fort Sumter was known here dimly on
Sunday afternoon. The next mornin"- the
daily papers brought the details, and the hu-
miliation of the policy which would not be-
lieve or act. A call was at once made for a
public meeting in the evening. Empire Hall

was packed, and R. W. O'Bannon presided.
Several brief, pointed speeches were made.
The sentiment was that as war had actually
begun, force must be met with force, National
supremacy be maintained, National property
protected, and the Union preserved. The
hour for debate had gone by. Action was
the alternative, and forty persons that even-
ing enlisted to tender their services to
the General Government. In two days more
the ranks were filled, and on the third day
the company departed for Camp Yates, at
Springfield, to be mustered into service in
the first regiment raised in the war.

By association and early residence, this re-
gion was friendly to the South. But her
conduct startled the people to a comparison
of the claims of duty against the glamour of
sentiment. Everybody lost his feet, and
bowed to the whirlwind of feeling in behalf
of the Union. At a later day, a lower set of
principles came into prominence, and men
gave to party what belonged to the country.

The history of the city during the war be-
longs in part to a distinct chapter. But as
the value of slavery as a preponderating sec-
tional issue flung off disguises which misled
no one who did not wish to be misled, and its
disappearance, by changing public policy,
consigned a proud party to disaster and a
minimum of influence, a changed attitude
was assumed by not a few. A lodge of the
Golden Circle met in the city. Men met by
moonlight for military drill. Speeches were
made on the main streets, exhorting the peo-
ple to resist the draft. Men left the station
for Ohio to vote for Vallandigham. Others
departed for Chicago to co-operate in St.
Leger's conspiracy to capture Camp Doug-
lass. Refugees from Slave States led furtive
lives here, and used a freedom of speecn not
permitted at home. The war was denounced,
because in camp the " Democrat boys" became

284

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Republicans. Both the Democratic papers in
the county were conducted by war-Democrats,
and the elements of hostility to the war lacked
coherence for want of leadership and public
expression. About this time one B. F. Bur-
nett came to town to gain a livelihood by so-
liciting legal business. His success as a law-
yer was not great, but he prated dolorously
of the misery of war, the sorrow it brought
to uncounted families, and the blessings of
peace. He knew some law, and might have
been a reputable citizen if he had not. He
became a nucleus for disloyal manifestations
— a fit office for a loose-tongued scoundrel.
Secret organization provoked a rival organi-
zation, and in the spring of 1863, a Union
League Lodge was established here, meeting
in the engine house of the car shops. The
League decided to seek control of the city
government, and all the measures were quietly
made. A messenger was sent on Sunday to
Alton to procure ballots, and the printer was
taken from church to provide them. The
messenger could not return until nearly noon
of election day. The Democrats were igno-
rant of what was devised, and only themselves
attended the polls, and few ballots were
offered. The Republicans seemed to have
lost their interest in civil affairs. The train
came in from the west, and with electric
quickness the ballots were distributed, and
by evening were in the ballot boxes. The
result indicated that about half of them had
been dejjosited by former Democrats, and the
League ticket had a tremendous majority.
The Democrats were dumb with amazement,
and the Leaguers, delighted by their success,
celebrated the result in a manner which left
headaches the next morning. The astound-
ing change in public sentiment was not fruit-
less. Numerous volunteer associations arose
to aid the Sanitary Commission, and in vari-
ous ways to remember the boys in blue. But

here, as in all popular effervescences, the
worst elements came uppermost. Efforts
were made to hurry the League into measures
to gratify personal malignancy, and they
were promptly discountenanced and their
authors vanished. Rixmor magnified the
strength and purposes of the League. About
the county, measures were concerted for forci-
ble resistance to a draft. A military organi-
zation was maintained for the purpose. But
it was known that boxes of Ballard rifles had
been procured by the Leaguers to preserve
the peace and the supremacy of the law.
Bounty- jumpers skulked along the streets.

An emissary of the Golden Circle paid a
visit to a Leaguer who was his personal
friend. He said that he had heard that 5,000
stand of arms were in Litchfield. His
friend gave an ambiguous assent. He exhib-
ited to him a Ballard rifle as a sample of half
the weapons, and then producing a Henry
rifle, or a sixteen shooter, affirmed the second
half of the arms were of that pattern. What
report was made to the Circle has not been
made public, but there was no longer danger
that Litchfield would be molested, or the
draft resisted.

The town was startled by fires, clearly the
result of gross carelessness or incendiarism,
and there was a disposition to connect them
with political troubles. That pretence was
speedily abandoned The disappearance of
specie as a circulating medium, the deprecia-
tion of greenbacks, and the augmentation of
the paper currency, inflamed prices and the
city rushed into public improvements. Taxes
went up like a rocket. A city hall was built,
a schoolhouse was built, and the money was
in good part borrowed at 15 per cent. The
city was drunk on the excellence of its credit.
Population rose to 4,300; wheat was $3.50,
and corn 95 cents a bushel; sugar, four
pounds for $1; muslin, 40 cents a yard, and

CITY OF LITCHFIELD.

285

flour $19 per barrel. Those were good times,
but they did not last. The people went wild
on railroads. The sum of $50,000 was voted
to the stock of a railroad west to Louisiana,
Mo. ; the same amount to the St. Louis divis-
ion of the Wabash, and $75, 000 to the Spring-
field & St. Louis road. Fortunately, only
the second one was built, and the other sub-
scriptions lapsed. The town gradually
adapted itself to the changed conditions pre-
vailing since the war. Population had fallen
ofl', the decadence of prices was established,
and the Granger element was about to begin
its by-play.

The removal of the railroad shops was com-
pleted in 1871, and the leading market for
labor was closed. The spacious shops stood
silent and tenantless. The city's opportunity
had come; difficulty was but a goad to spur
it on. Several parties here organized a com-
pany to lease the shops for the manufacture
of rolling-stock for railways. The stock was
eagerly taken, and in 1872 the fires were
lighted and the machinery set in motion.
The new enterprise soon disclosed that it
would do more for the city than railroad shops
had done. But within two years a series of
fires, not all accidental, perhaps, had raged
on State street. The schoolhouse, the pride
of the community, had gone down in flame
and ruin, and now a conflagration burst forth
in the car works. Fortunately, most of the
works were saved, but the loss of property
and time was still serious. The town was
brought face to face with the imperative want
of water for industrial and fire purposes.

It is proper to be specific by way of reca-
pitulation. In April, 1867, a fire kindled in
the rear of the hardware store near the south-
west angle of the public square, had humbled
to ashes three stores and most of their con-
tents, bringing financial ruin to two of the
owners, and causing a total loss of $25,000.

Fires mysteriously appeared in the rear of
other business houses, and were discovered in
season to avoid damage. In the fall of 1871,
the alarm of fire again startled the town. A
crown of flame rested on the Journal build-
ing, and the rear rooms glowed with the yel-
low radiance of a fire fed by dry pine. Five
buildings crumbled to blackness in a couple
of hours, and the losses were not light to bear.
A year or two later, fire bells summoned the
people to witness the conflagration of six bus-
iness places, from the O'Bannon corner north
on State street. The Criterion Mill, in the
early morning, went down in smoke and flame,
and the Gage Mill on a Sunday afternoon lay
under a pillar of smoke. Pale flames trav-
eled through the interior. The blaze broke
white through the roof, and for a few mo-
ments the people forgot the disaster in the
presence of the magnificent spectack In
1873, the car works had their baptism of fire.
Brick walls and earnest labor checked the
flames when their fury was but half glutted.
All these fires, most of them compressed in-
to two years, had touched only individuals,
and any philosopher can maintain his equa-
nimity in the presence of his neighbor's ca-
lamity. The vagueness of each one's per-
sonal interest in the general welfare, and it
is only personal interest which moves the
common mind, provoked only unsubstantial
regrets. The losses did not directly touch
the purses of the many. In whatever the
public undertakes, it is seldom indifferent to
its own advantage. It was so in Litchfield.
But this complacency at the prevalence of
fires was rudely shattered. The spacious
schoolhouse, overlooking the city, and in its
designs and proportions as beautiful as a
poem, was the pride and the object of the
personal affection of every citizen. For sev-
eral days the teachers and their 800 pupils
had been choking with the acrid odor of

2 Q 6

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

smoldering wood. Like a gangrene, the
perfume clung to the rooms. No smoke was
seen, no fire discovered. A superficial survey
detected no cause for the poison which had
insinuated itself throughout the building. It
was a Monday evening, about 6:30. A young
married woman lay dying in the neighbor-
hood. A lambent flame was seen quivering
on the roof near the south chimney. Black
smoke crowned the summit. Pale tongues of
fire lapped at the woodwork. All the city
rushed to the school grounds. The house
burned like a flambeau. Nothing could be
done to stop its destruction, and the people
stood in speechless sorrow and saw the tire
crawl downward from floor to floor, and ex-
pire in the cellar for want of fuel. Each one
knew the tire brought financial loss to him,
and that with proper water-works $40,000
would have been saved the city.

The frequent recurring fires, and the extent
of the losses, gave emphasis to a desire for
protection from further losses of a similar
character. Protection was better and cheaper
than insurance. There was forced or hurried
eagerness to meet this general demand. Va-
rious schemes were considered. The cost of
providing cisterns and a fire engine was com-
puted, and the annual outlay of the system
was found to be 10 per cent on the cost of a
different system which would afford greater
protection, and in addition produce a revenue
from its value to shops, mills and households.
In ltSTH, the car works brought water here
by railroad. Best & Sparks paid $1,000 to
teams to draw water four miles to their mill.
The desirability of a water supply was not
questioned, and there was a unanimous desire
to fling a strong dike across Long Branch, a
mile south of the city, and from the capaaious
reservoir thus created, send water into the
heart of the town, under conditions which
would meet our varied requirements.

Th e sort of works demanded was in substance
the Holly system, or the system of direct pres-
sure on the mains equal to the maintenance of a
column of water 400 feet high, and through 100
feet of hose would project a stream upward of
100 feet into the air. Estimates of the cost of
such a system were made to include only the
dike, the mains and the pumping machinery,
and this estimato was promulgated as a fair
statement by experts of the cost of the water-
works. We make no excuse for the error in
simple multiplication, which affected the cost
of the dike 100 per cent. We have no comment
on the suppression in the exhibit submitted
to the citizens of numerous expensive items
of cost, which, in the aggregate, were truly
formidable. The facts speak for themselves.
A few citizens knew the water-works could
not be built within $25,000 of the explained
estimates, and their voices were overruled
and they reduced to silence. They would,
at the proper hour, have appealed to <he
courts to prohibit the issue of bonds byalleg-
ing a want of power to legalize them. They
could not be blind to the mendacity or want
of rudimentary capacity to make simple cal-
culations on the part of those who held that
it was none of the tax payers' business how
they run things. Again, it was a matter of
law against expediency, as if it can be expe-
dient to do wrong.

People are easily deceived when they want
to be deceived. There was no uncertainty as
to the value of water-works, none as to the
ability of the city to build them, but there
was a broad, explicit prohibition of law
against going into debt beyond 5 per cent of
the last assessed valuation of property, and
our municipal debt was at that time within
$12,000 of that limit. But the debt was in
great part nominal, and not virtual. Since
the completion of the Wabash road, in aid of
which the debt was created, the assessed val-

CITY OF LITCHFIELD.

287

nation of property had increased $800,000,
and by the Railroad Aid Law, the State
taxes on that amount were appropriated to
paying the debt. This tax met annual inter-
est, and left an excess of several thousand
dollars as a sinking fund which would quite
extinguish the principal at maturity. It
was this law which alone induced the city to
issue $50,000 in bonds to secure the road.
The bonds were against the city, but the
State agreed to pay them. This debt then
was treated as virtually canceled, and taking
this view, and listening to the vehement as-
surances of men in power that the water- works
completed could not cost more than $42,000,
or by adopting the higher plan, $55,000, and
there was no intention of doing this, the citi-
zens in various ways expressed their enthus-
isatic approval of the project at an extreme
cost of $45,000.

This was the plan approved by the com-
munity, under the knowledge that the opera-
tion of the Railroad Aid Law released them
from liability for the bonds granted to a
railroad.

True, in letter, they were bound ; but in
fact, the debt was to be paid not at their
charges. But when, after expending nearly
$20,000 on the ground dike anl facing walls,
the authorities ordered the preparation of
bonds for $50,000 additional, framed so as to
give full effect to the legal inhibition against
their issue, and so as to give the city ground to
content their payment, because issued in viola-
tion of law; and the omission in the recital
which was to do this was passed over in silence
— the thing became too flagrant. Yet at home
complaints came too late. Nothing could be
done to stop the authorities, and soon there
was a wide suspicion that private objects
were sought under guise of zeal for public
ends. The works were completed by contract,
and as well and economically as the public

is usually served by contractors. The work
was done when labor and material were one-
fourth dearer than two or three years later,
when by comparison with the reduced prices,
men, having their own aggrandizement only
in view, bellowed about the town vague ac-
cusations of fraud and veritable peculation.

Not one of these fellows could be induced
to make and stand to a single specific charge.
They proved their statement by numberless
repetitions — a sort of evidence better for a
certain class than positive proof.

The works cost $77,000 against the $45, -
000 they were to have been built for. But
they stand, and have not in eight years failed
in their duty for an hour. They are worth
all they cost, and more, and the clamor about
them which had no higher origin than a per-
sonal difference about matters disconnected
with public affairs, would have died away
had it not been kept alive by the city's repu-
diation of her bonds. Noisy advocates for
the works refused to pay taxes to meet any
part of the indebtedness, and the Council,
by resolution, refused the payment of interest.
Suit was instituted, and in the court of last re-
sort a decision was obtained that the issue of
the bonds was illegal. The vast majority of
the citizens desire their payment, and the de-
cision defeats their wishes.

This narrative of our shame had not been
written or been true, had not the opinion
crept into officers that their delegated powers
were a franchise to be exercised according to
their caprice. They forgot their represen-
tative position, and spurned conference or
opinions from a tax payer. They never for-
got self, and no offense was so great as the
assertion that the people had any rights not
vested in them.

In 1870, the population had fallen below
three thousand seven hundred. The variance
in population is the exact criterion of the in-

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

dustries of the town. In 1880, the total was
reported at 4,343, and this was known to be
too small. In 1881, the Jacksonville road
had been extended to the city, a second coal
shaft had been opened, oil had been found,
the Planet Mill was in course of construction,

the car works were over-crowded with work,
and 100 buildings were erected, as the pop-
ulation had risen to 5,250, and the city had
again rehearsed the old lesson that the peo-
ple are the city, and that their future would
be what they willed it to be.

CITY OF LITCHFIELD.

280

CHAPTER XV.*

LITCHFIELD— EDUCATIONAL HISTORY— THE CITY SCHOOLS— GRAMMAR SCHOOLS— BOARDS, PRIN-
CIPALS, TEACHERS, ETC. — THE PRESS— ESTABLISHMENT OF THE •' JOURNAL" —THE
"MONITOR" AND OTHER PAPERS— BANKS AND BANKING— COAL INTERESTS OF
LITCHFIELD— THE DIFFERENT SHAFTS AND THEIR EXTENT AND CAPACITY
—THE SANITARY CONDITION OF THE CITY.

A SCHOOL fails in its office if its educa-
-^— *- tional value to its pupils is not greater
than the wages paid its teacher. If it be
true, as the wise affirm, that education is the
awakening of the mind to think and reason
correctly, rapidly and persistently, to improve
the heart and enlarge the understanding, the
office of a school has specific limitations.
All its instruction should be subordinate to
education. Whatever be the amount of knowl-
edge imparted in scholastic studies, it is true
that the only positive instruction obtained in
a school, which, under all circumstances is
available and used precisely as it was learned,
is reading and the multiplication table.
The lumber of text-book rules becomes in
actual life dry and pithless. They teach
only to swim on dry land. The man needs
the result of scholastic training; the proc-
esses are but as the scaffolding to a builder.
At last education makes a man more valuable
to his community than to himself.

The city north of the railroad was included
in School District No. 1, of North Litchfield;
the territory south of it belonged to the Crab-
tree District, in South Litchfield, whose
schoolhouse stood a few rods south of the
residence of Samuel Stratton. District No.
1 used the Lutheran Church, near the south-
east corner of Scherer's Addition, for a school-

*By H. A. Coolidga.

room, and here B. S. Hood, of Jerseyville,
taught a school for six months, in the sum-
mer of 1854. Lusk Wilson taught there — a
winter term in 1854-55 and a summer term
of 1855. The Cummings building was erect-
ed in 1856, and the west half of the second
floor, was the schoolroom for several years,
and H A. Wells opened there the winter term
of 185(1-57. He continued in charge of the
public school until 1800. Julia Palmer was
first assistant in the Scott & Long building,
then standing on the north side of Division
street, a few yards east of Jackson. Hannah
Skillman was the second assistant in the
house two or three doors below the store of
Thorp & Leach. For a term of six months.
Mr. Wells received $360 and his assistants
each $200. This was the first school of the
Litchfield School District, created by the city
charter, the Council exercising the combiued
powers of Trustees and Directors.

In the summer of 18(50, Mr. Wells sudden-
ly disappeared, leaving his bills uncollected
and his few debts unpaid. The next year,
he as suddenly reappeared. In explanation
of his flight, he professed forgetfulness of his
departure. His life was a blank to him. He
had a lucid moment at Niagara Falls and was
astonished to find himself there; then he
again became unconscious of his movements
for an unknown period. When reason returned

290

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

to him, he was in mid- ocean on a vessel bound
to England. Friends told him that he sought
their party at the Falls; he journeyed with
them to Quebec, and when they said they
were going to England, he declared that he,
too, would go. He was transferred to a
homeward bound ship, and came to America.
Of his wanderings for a year after he landed
on native soil, he gave no clear account. He
arrived here in the fall of 1862, coming from
the West. He said he had just been dis-
charged from military service. His subse-
quent conduct throws much doubt on his ver-
sion of the history of his flight.

In the fall of 1860, the grammar school
was opened with two departments. Samuel
Taylor, of Terre Haute, was elected Principal,
and Sarah G. Perrot, assistant; the three
ward schools were conducted by Hannah
Skillman. Julia P. Palmer and Mary Gill-
ham. The schools were notoriously insuffi-
cient for the instruction of the children in
the city. This fact was very widely re-
gretted, and the schools were not distin-
guished for educational value.

The Litchfield School District had vainly
tried to obtain possession of the avails of the
levy made in 1857, by District No. 1, to
build a schoolhouse on the northwest coiner
of Block 68, where L. Settlemire's residence
stands, the site having been given by E. B.
Litchfield for that purpose. The Litchfield
School District contained nearly 95 per cent
of the property of the present district, and
the holder of the school funds — not the
Township Treasurer — declined to recognize
the legality of the claim. An act of the
Legislature was obtained on the joint re-
quest of all parties apportioning that build-
ing fund to the City School District and
District No. 1, in proportion to the amount
raised by each, and, after some delay, the
parties who had borrowed it liquidated their

indebtedness, and the city district used its
share to support its schools.

For 1861-62 — and the public schools were
maintained only six months in the year, the
summer schools being private ones — the
wages of the Principal were fixed at $45 per
month, while his four assistants were allowed
$27. George C. Mack was chosen Principal
and Mrs. Abby Paxton, now Mrs. H. H. Hood,
was his assistant, and two teachers in each
ward school. All applicants for positions in
the schools were specially examined by Prof.
Miller, of Hillsboro, at the request of the
School Board, and it was thought Litchfield
school officers were becoming particular when
the certificate of the County Superintendent
was not a sufficient guarantee of pedagogical
qualifications. But the board was not content
with the learn-as-you-please style of teaching.

Mrs. Paden declining her appointment,
Mrs. Stevenson was elected to fill the vacancy.
The disbursements during this school year
were $1,863.76, which included $780.24 for
seats, repairs and payments on grammar
school building, and the liabilities amounted
to $2,097.71, chiefly for teachers and balance
due on house and loans from the general
fund. The fiscal statements were made up
in March of each year, before the close of the
schools and before the receipt of the school
tax or the State fund.

For 1862-63, Mr. Mack was again employed
as Principal. Miss J. N. Lauder was his as-
sistant and five teachers were employed for
the three ward schools; two of the five were
termed assistant teachers, and their wages
were fixed at $15 per month. Mr. Mack did
not complete his term and a Mr. Morrison
was appointed in his place. Miss Lauder ap-
pears not to have accepted her appointment,
as Mrs. Stevenson's name is borne on the
rolls as assistant in the grammar school. The
disbursement from the school treasury for the

CITY OF LITCHFIELD.

291

year, for school purposes, was $1,622.41, and
$511.50 were drawn from it and expended on
the streets, and the district liabilities were
$2,028.61. Probably the School Board be-
lieved the money would do more good on the
streets than on schools. Like matrimony,
the schools were accepted " for better or
worse," and if it was illegal to use school
funds to improve streets, no one objected to it.

For 1863-64, eight teachers were employed
in the four schools. P. H. Pope, Principal,
and Miss Hyde, his assistant. The expendi-
tures were $1,470; liabilities, $1,493, and
the treasury showed a balance in its favor of
$2,078.24.

The following year, the grammar school
was closed and two teachers were placed in
each of the three ward schools. Among these
were Blanche Keating, now Mrs. D. Davis;
Mrs. Elizabeth Burton, now Mrs. G. P.
Hanks; Miss Kate Hyde, and Julia P. Palmer,
now Mrs. George Stevens, of Jacksonville.
The expenditure amounted to $1,547.97; the
liabilities were $14.35 and the balance on
hand, $591.60. When the average man buys
a piano, another farm, or goes to the White
Mountains, he finds it necessary to " retrench"
by having school only half the time and cut-
ting down teachers' wages.

By the summer of 1865, the population of
the city had, from temporary causes, risen to
4,300, money was abundant and the city had
no debt. The time had arrived to place the
schools on a higher plane. The School Board
informally decided to erect a house for a
graded school large enough for the present
and prospective wants of the district. By
several purchases from B. H. Hargraves,
' Wilder W. Davis and Ahart Pierce, an en-
tire block was obtained on the west slope of
Pierce's mound, on which to built the school-
house, at a contemplated cost of $15,000,
though a proper house should be built even if

it cost a third more. In July of this year,
Messrs D. R. Sparks, Thomas G. Kessinger
and W. S. Palmer, of the School Board, were
appointed a committee to select a plan and
estimate of the cost of the desired house, for
the consideration of the Board and definite
action. The committee chose the design pre-
pared by George P. Randall, of Chicago; the
board confirmed their selection and the con-
tract was given to W. P. Bushnell, of Men-
dota, for the building above the stone base-
ment, at the outside figure of $28,000. His
contract was $5,500 higher than the architect's
estimate, yet did not include seating or heating
apparatus.

In September, 1865, six teachers were em-
ployed for the three ward schools, half of
them at $35 per month and half at $30. The
grammar school building did fairly well for
the Second Ward, but the other houses were
tolerated only for the reason that no better
ones could be leased. Not much was expect
ed. and the public expectation was not disap-
pointed.

The expenditures for this fiscal year were
$4,526.90, and $1,992.02 were, in effect,
loaned to defray the expenses of the city gov-
ernment. Nearly half the disbursements for
school objects was applied on the new school-
house. The increase of taxation was to meet
the demands of the contractor.

In March, 1867, Mr. Bushnell was at his
request released from his contract, as it was
evident that he could not fulfill it. An expert
was employed to examine the work up to date,
and his report confirmed the opinion that in
all respects it was satisfactory. During the
spring and summer, the house was completed
and furnished under the direct orders of the
board, the price of labor and material being
something frightful; the cost of the property
was swelled to $48,000; a large debt was in-
curred, bearing usurious interest.

292

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

The School Board containing such men as
D. C. Amsden, D. R. Sparks, John L. Hink-
ley and S. M. Keithly and David Davis, pro-
posed that a new era should dawn on the city
with the opening of the graded school.
Much anxiety was manifested to secure an
accomplished and efficient Principal. Confi-
dential inquiries were made, and Mr. A. J.
Blanchard, of the Sycamore Graded School
was unanimously selected, at a salary of $1,-
500 for a term of forty weeks, and he was re-
quested to select his assistants, with a view
of securing harmony in the corps of instruc-
tion and a fair trial of his system in school.
Mr. Blanchard, a man tall, well proportioned,
muscular, in the meridian of life and of great
intensity of character, began his preparation
of re-organizing the school, by approving the
selection of such teachers as Misses Fanny
E. Tower, Kimberly, Dustin, Lauder. Lyon
and Mrs. Abby Paden and Hull. The house
he was about to enter was a three-story brick
edifice, heated by furnaces and seated in the
best manner. The twelve rooms had a seat-
ing capacity for 800 pupils. New test-books
had been adopted. Six of his eleven assist-
ants were from abroad, and, at the close of
the winter session, no more than two home
teachers remained in the school. New rules
of government and new modes of instruction
were introduced, and the teachers had good
wages and they earned them. There was a
tremendous amount of application to study,
and, for the first time in our school history
the capacity of the pupil was not underesti-
mated, nor his comprehension of former stud-
ies exaggerated. The Principal put double
energy and industry into the school, and
sought only the educational welfare of his
pupils. He made it his chief business to see
that each teacher did her utmost for the true
benefit of those under her charge. He be-
lieved in good teaching; he believed equally

well in good study. He handled young men
as other teachers handle children: he subju-
gated the vicious and willful; stimulated the
languid and idle; punished the insubordi-
nate and controlled the mischievous.

Of course, this could not be done without
raising issues, which, though not forgotten,
it is not wise to revive. Mr. Blanchard
thought to maintain himself by success
in the schoolroom alone. He failed just
as others have who relied on the same
merit. Outside dissatisfaction, by the close
of the winter term, had grown until it
was in doubt whether the school must not
be closed. At the decisive moment, a
county teachers' institute was held in the
house, and several of the teachers consented
to illustrate the methods of study and teach-
ing pursued in the school by having their
classes recite in the presence of the institute.
The examples exemplified how lessons were
learned and how recited, and the result of
the double process, as shown by the rapid ad-
vancement of their pupils. The spectators,
and among them were not a few of the opin-
ion-makers of the town, were amazed and de-
lighted. They saw what could be done in
school with competent teachers and correct
methods, and the fate of the Litchfield school,
which had been in fearful jeopardy was set-
tled at once and for many years. The entire
term was completed and Mr. Blanchard de-
clining a re-engagement, Mr. P. K. Kider,
now of the Missouri Normal School, of Cape
Girardeau, became his successor. Wages and
salary were reduced, and seven home teachers
were engaged. Then began the policy of
employing teachers because they lived here
instead of on account of their success in the
schoolroom.

The next year, B. F. Hedges, proposing to
take sole charge of the high school, was em-
ployed as Principal, but when elected, earnest-

CITY OF LITCHFIELD.

293

ly solicited an assistant. Mrs. Lockwood, of
Alton, was selected. A German department
was added. The total enrollment exceeded a
thousand. Mr. Hedges remained two years.

In 1871- 73, W. C. Catherwood, from Jackson-
ville, was the Principal — a thorough teacher
and hardly an apology for a Superintendent.
The tax bills for those years are conclusive
as to the existence of a public school. Early
in April, 1872, the schoolhouse caught fire in
the roof, and, in the presence of thousands,
burned like a candle down to the basement.
A portion of the seats and the library were
saved. The insurance covered two-thirds the
loss. This misfortune closed the public
school, and private schools were speedily
opened in different parts of the city.

Contracts for rebuilding the house were
made with John D. Carson, with no avoidable
delay, on a modification of the original de-
sign. Pending its completion, public schools
were resumed in the fall in the several build-
ings around the public square.

The second schoolhouse was occupied in
the fall of 1873, under the super intendency
of L. M. Hastings, from Iowa, at a yearly
salary of SI, 650, for a term of thirty-six
weeks. The five assistants who accompanied
him from that State were a valuable addition.
One of them, Miss Mary Fredericks, is fondly
remembered as a teacher of wonderful quali-
fication, aptitude and success. By the fail-
ure of her voice near the end of her fifth ses-
sion, she was compelled to retire for a season
from the schoolroom. On her return to her
profession in Iowa, the deplorable fret and
wear of teaching, lessened her usefulness by
inducing a nervous condition of irritability
and peevishness. The harmony of the school
was sadly violated by the controversy with
Mrs. Johnson. The affair is too recent for
description, though the district records are
voluminous on one side of the trouble. Mr.

Hastings' management of the school and the
character of the teaching, were in brilliant
contrast with the previous five years and the
succeeding ones.

J. N. Dewell, of Pike County, was the
Principal for 1875-77, and, under his care,
there were no complaints of over study or
rigid school duties. The first year, a Board
of School Inspectors were appointed, but their
powers and duties not being clearly settled
by usage, the Council soon supplanted them.
The Inspectors retired. Thus ingloriously
ended this honest attempt to take the school
out of politics and favoritism. It was, per-
haps, significant, that our Council usually
begins its reformatory measures just as a
majority are going out of office, and thus
leave them to be carried out by their succes-
sors.

The school year was reduced to eight
months, or thirty-six weeks, and George C.
Boss, of Jackson County, remained at the
head of the school for a year at a salary of
$1,000. An unseemly struggle in the School
Board over the election of teachers, during
which the value of the applicants in school
work was subordinated to personal feeling,
was followed by the inevitable result. The
school was a general and profound disap-
pointment.

For the last three years, Thomas J. Charles
has been the Principal.

The Press. — At the solicitation of E. B.
Litchfield, the proprietor of the town site, and
on his assurance of a large and profitable line
of work — an assurance which was wholly il-
lusory. H. A. Coolidge, in February, 1857,
removed his printing office from Cazenovia,
N. Y., to Litchfield. Mi-. Litchfield, in antici-
pation of his arrival, erected him an office, on
Jackson street, better known as the grammar
school building. Here he issued the first
number of the Litchfield Journal, in April

294

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

though dated in May. The paper was a four-
page, six-column sheet, set in long primer
and minion, and, as there were then no " pat-
ent insides," the editor and his assistants
were busy in the mechanical department.
The circulation did not exceed 200, and,
during the six years of his control, never rose
to 400. The paper was welcomed, but the
town was too small and the neighborhood
too scanty in population to afford the venture
an adequate support. Those were the days
of credit, and the payment of subscriptions
was frequently omitted. The county was
Democratic and intensely pro-slavery and the
political views of the Journal not altogether
satisfactory to the arbiters of local opinion.
The attitude of men on the " Kansas Ques-
tion," where the doctrine of popular sov-
ereignty was exemplified by open war and the
mockery of political rights, was the crucial
test of his party fealty. The Journal dared,
in May, to announce the views held by Doug-
las in the following December in the Senate,
and, for its temerity in disseminating opin-
ions in advance of an utterance by a party
leader, it fell under a suspicion of unsound-
ness, and there is no forgiveness in politics.
Success alone condones offenses, and the
Journal received late toleration. It sup-
ported Douglas for Senator in 1858, and for
President two years later.

The panic of 1857 nearly caused its sus-
pension. For sixteen consecutive days in the
February following, its total receipts were
half a dollar. Somehow the paper lived,
and in mechanical appearance has not been
excelled in the county. The editor was a
Yankee with an odor of books, and to be a
Yankee here was to lead no popular life.

Lincoln entered the White House, and in
April the war of the rebellion began at Charles-
ton. The evening after the heavy news
was received, a public meeting was held at

Empire Hall, and the editor briefly urged
that the integrity of the Union must be pre-
served and force be repelled by force. The
Journal, foreseeing the influence of the war
on parties, continued to advocate and sustain
the policy of military coercion. Arms had
been selected by the South as the arbiter of
its pretensions, and the Journal accepted
the arbitrament. By degrees a large section
of the local Democracy first deprecated this
policy, and then actively connived to thwart
the Union arms and openly " sympathized "
with the South. The patrons of the office
fell away, income dwindled, and at one time
a rush was made to wreck it for alleged
" copperheadism. " The attempt was de-
feated by the Union men of the city.

In 1863, the office was leased to a Mr.
Cook, and then to John Harris, now of Clyde,
and Thomas B. Fuller, of Calhoun. The
publishers changed the name to Litchfield
Democrat, and placed its editorial manage-
ment in the hands of B. F. Burnett, Esq.,
who well understood the art of writing with-
out saying anything, but week by week in
the thick coming news of Union victories,
prated dolefully of the horrors of war and
the woe of desolated families, and the beau-
ties of peace. He was the perpetual Chair-
man of the standing committee of dissent.
He had' principles, but would have been a
better citizen if he had not.

The next year Mr. Coolidge sold the office,
which for four years had been located in the
Journal building on State street, to E. J.
Ellis, a refugee from Troy, Mo., whose cli-
mate had become pernicious to his health
.since bushwhacking ceased to pay in that re-
gion. He called his paper the Prairie City
Advocate. He toiled assiduously and was
repaid for his labor. The war being over, he
desired to retire to the congenial wilds of
Missouri, and sold, October, 1S65. his office

CITY OF LITCHFIELD.

205

to E. J. C. Alexander, from Greenville, who
changed the name again to the Litchfield
News, and declared it a Republican journal.
He did not meet with distinguished success.

In April of the following year, the ma-
terial of the Union Monitor, of Hillsboro,
was, to evade a seizure by the Sheriff, con-
veyed to him and the publication of a news-
paper in Litchfield was discontinued until
the last of 1867, The News office was kept
open for job work and advertisements, which
were sent in type to Hillsboro. The Monitor
was regularly dated at Hillsboro, T. J. Rus-
sell, editor, on the first page, while the third
page was headed Litchfield News, dated at
Litchfield, E. J. C. Alexander, editor.

In a short time the second head disap-
peared from the third page, but when the
Hillsboro editor of the Monitor was struck
off, the head and date line were changed to
Litchfield News, and half a dozen quires
were printed for the Litchfield folks.

From April, lNtiO, to December, 1S6T, no
newspaper was printed in the town, with a
population four thousand. This was not
satisfactory— Alexander was " not the man for
Galway." Steps were taken in 1867 to re-
establish a home paper, and it became cer-
tain that B. S. Hood would be the editor.
Money was furnished, and Alexander learn-
ing what had been done, and what was con-
templated, changed his politics one day while
crossing the street, and sold out to Mr. Hood,
who began in the basement of Masonic
Block the publication of the Republican
Monitor, which in four months became the
Litchfield Union Monitor. From these sub-
terranean quarters he removed the office to
Ferguson's Hall, enlarged to eight pages
with "patent insides," and late in 1870, with
more experience than profit from his venture,
transferred the office to Messrs. C. L. Bangs
and Ed. Gray, of Carlinville, both excel-

lent printers. In the spring of 1871, J. H.
C. Irwin was selected as editor and the
Monitor had in addition C. L. Bangs and
Emma Bangs as editorial writers, and B. S.
Hood as local editor. Irwin excelled in
" memories of the future,'' Bangs para-
graphed en woman's rights, and Hood did
the city locals. The paper was too rich for
common blood, and in October, 1871, Bangs
& Gray disposed of the Monitor to Kimball
& Taylor, of Belleville. William Fithian, a
graduate of the Carlinville Democrat office,
was put in the office as editor and manager. In
a year, the proprietors sunk a couple of thou-
sand dollars and sold out at heavy loss to H.
A. Coolidge, who thus found himself again
in the editorial chair with the press and
much of the printing material he had brought
West fifteen years earlier. His absence for
eight years from the newspaper world had
taught him the value of a journal to the
community where it is published. He was
now to learn that this value was quite dis-
tinct from any value to its publisher.

He admitted G. B. Litchfield as a partner.
The office was removed to Empire Hall until
the fall of 1874 when it again began its
wanderings. Litchfield withdrew, 1874, to
begin the Montgomery County Democrat, and
Coolidge for a year managed to conduct the
Monitor without the handicap of a partner.
In 1876, F. O. Martin became his pa tner — a
good printer — and remained until 1878, when
the paper was sold to Charles Walker and B.
S. Hood. Walker went out of the concern
in three months, and Mr. Hood in the spring
of 1881 put in a Campbell press and took in
J. G. Campbell as a partner. The circula-
tion under his management rose to 1,100 or
nearly double what any predecessor had been
able to obtain.

In the fall of 1861, a Union ticket for
county officers was presented as a rallying

296

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

point for such as cared most for the country.
To aid the design involved in the ticket, the
Campaigner was founded by J. P. Bayless,
with whom Dr. H. H. Hood was associated.
It was intended to maintain it only until the
fall election, and was issued from the Jour-
nal office. Not a copy of it is known to
exist.

About May, 1SG2, the Illinois Free Press
was removed here from Hillsboro, J. B.
Hutchinson, editor. It found a home in the
Cummings Building, and after languishing a
few weeks, ceased to exist. In June, 1871,
Messrs. Kimball & Taylor bought G. B.
Litchfield' s printing material in the Elliott
Building and began the publication of the
Independent, an eight column quarto sheet,
three pages of which came ready printed.
H. A. Coolidge was the salaried editor.
The paper went up like a rocket. No such
prosperity had attended a paper in this re-
gion. It began without a subscriber, and on
its consolidation, by purchase, with the Moni-
tor, had two-thirds its circulation. Only
fifteen numbers were issued until it was lost
in its ancient neighbor.

Mr. Fithian having ceased to be editor of
the Monitor, in the late summer of 1872. pur-
chased a newspaper outfit and began the
publication of the Review, George B. Litch-
field, printer. The 5th of the following
December, Mr. Litchfield retired from the
Review, which thereupon suspended, and
subsequently, the material was sold to
Messrs. Coolidge & Litchfield of the Monitor.
In November, 1874, Mr. Litchfield and
Robert S. Young issued the first number of
the Montgomery County Democrat in a room
over Beach, Davis & Co.'s Bank. Mr.
Young, the editor, owning none of the ma-
terial, was in a few months out of the edi-
torial chair, and Mr. Litchfield assumed the
sole management. For a year, embracing a

portion of 1879-80, Col. Beu. E. Johnson, of
Hillsboro, was associated with Mr. Litch-
field as editor and business manager of the
Democrat. On his retirement, Mr. Litchfield
again became editor and proprietor until Au-
gust, 1881, when he sold to Charles Tobin,
late of the Hillsboro News. Mr. Tobin. in
March following, enlarged the paper wdiich
he renamed the Litchfield Advocate, to a six-
column folio, and is doing a prosperous busi-
ness, increasing his list of readers and hur-
ried by job work.

Quite a thousand copies of the Monitor
and Advocate are taken at the home post
office. Both attend chiefly to local matters
and leave editorials proper to the imagination
of their subscribers. The papers are con-
ducted on business principles, and like news-
papers generally are more valuable to the
town than to their proprietors.

Banking.— In 1862, Haskell, Davis & Co.,
of Hillsboro, opened a private bank in a
wood building, whose site is now occupied
by Updike's hardware store, Thomas F. Sey-
mour being clerk or manager. Five years
later, the name of the firm was Haskell,
Seymour & Co., Mr. Davis being succeeded by
Mr. Seymour. Mr. Haskell had removed to
Alton, and in December, 1869, his interest
appears to have been purchased by Judge
Brewer, of Hillsboro, and the firm became
Brewer, Seymour & Co., and S. M. Grubbs
entered the bank as Teller. The following
year the present banking house was built,
and for ten years the firm remained unchanged.
Then Mr. Seymour's sight failing, he was
forced to retire from business, and the firm
became Brewer & Grubbs. The house passed
through the panic of 1873 with unimpaired
credit and resources, as whatever its nominal
capital, its virtual capital was twenty times
greater. Its solvency was not for a moment
in doubt. Its present officers are: S. M.

LIBRARY

UNivasinr Illinois

CITY OF LITCHFIELD.

2D9

Grubbs, Manager, and T. F. Davis, Book-
keeper. The volume of business transacted
over its counter must be left to conjecture,
as all information on this point is refused.

In 1860-61, John W. Haggart opened a
bank in Beardsley's jewelry store, and dealt
in exchange and occasional loans. He was
not believed to control sufficient capital, and
did but a meager businesi. His " bank" soon
ceased, and its funds were easily transferred
to a vest pocket, and the "banker" departed
to another State.

Under a special charter, the Litchfield Bank,
Nathan Kenyon, President, and N. P. B.
"Wells, Cashier, opened in July, 1S70, with a
paid-up capital of £20,000. The officers
were from Brockport, N. Y. , and held half
the stock; the balance was held here. Fi-
nancially, the institution was not fortunate,
and ere the first year was over, Kenyon sold
his stock and retired from the house. Thir-
teen of the original stockholders formed a
partnership under the name of Beach, Davis
& Co., and, dissolving the corporation, con-
tinued the business with D. Davis, Manager,
and D. Yaa Deusen, Cashier. The bank was
located in Hoog"s Building, where Mr. Smith,
now is. The new firm began business in
their proper name in May. 1871. Two years
later, the articles of partnership were revised,
three new partners admitted, and the paid-up
capital increased quite fourfold. The bus-
iness had been remarkably prosperous, and
the stock was hold firmly.

When the panic came, and the balances
held in foreign banks became unavailable by
reason of closing their doors, a meeting of
the partners was held in the bank parlor, and
the situation was rapidly considered. A rush
on the bank was anticipated, but in a few
hours the current funds bad been increased
threefold, and all paper was met, and no en-
gagement was delayed or abandoned. The
bank pays regular dividends.

The Coal Mine.— From 1817 to 1855. wood
was the only fuel in use in this county for
household and heating purposes. Until 185S,
the nearest coal mine was thirty miles to the
southwest, and not until the railway was
opened for traffic was it expedient to change
to coal for shops or mechanical uses. In
1858, there was not a coal-burning locomotive
on the railroad. Fitful attempts to find coal
in this neighborhood were prosecuted in the
mid "50's," and to no purpose.

As early as 1856-57, coal from the Wood
River Mine was bought at a cost of !?17
freight for a car load, and closed out from
the car at 15 cents a bushel, the buyer pay-
ing for draying and weighing. Gradually
the price fell to eight bushels for the dollar,
though if, as not unfrequently happened,
the supply ran short, the price leaped up
to 18 and 22 cents a bushel. The flouring
mills and car shops were large consumers,
the annual consumption being estimated at
300,000 bushels per year. If the supply at
any time failed, the writer is afraid to recol-
lect the fabidous sum he gladly paid for
wood.

In the first part of 1867, Andrew Howard,
of Bunker Hill, a practical coal-miner, pro-
posed to Messrs. Beach & Amsden and Best
& Sparks, that for a bonus of $2,000 he would
sink a coal-shaft 350 feet, and these firms
guaranteed its acceptance. Howard's capi-
tal consisted chiefly in his skill, energy, hope-
fulness and a high-shouldered mule. A few
acres of land were bought on Rocky Branch,
just outside the corporation, and in March.
1867, he began work. Mi-. Howard's purse
was soon exhausted, but he persevered,
being effectually aided by the late M. C.
Manly. The bonus was expended and Mr.
Manly was unable to defray the expenses
of the work. A few citizens deeply in-
terested in discovering coal here, and

300

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

opening and working a coal mine, were
convened, and Mr. Howard requested the
formation of a mining company, with a
capital of $20,000, into which he would enter,
putting in the unfinished shaft at $5,000, to
continue the work. His request was prompt-
ly acceded to, a company was formed and
incorporated, officers chosen, with R. W.
O'Bannon, President; D. R. Sparks, Treas-
urer, and H. A. Coolidge, Secretary. The
stock was taken by nearly fifteen persons,
Arnsden & Beach and Best & Sparks sub-
scribing largely, and others according to
their ability. The shaft went down slowly;
the cost was nearly $5( ) per foot, and when,
in December, 1868, a thirty-two inch vein of
coal was reached at a depth of 416 feet, the
entire capital had been consumed, and
no one was willing to contribute more
capital to open and work the vein. Some
debts had been incurred, and in the summer
of 1869 the mine was sold at auction to pay
debts, and was bid in by Warder Cummings,
acting in behalf of a new organization inside
the mining company. A new company was
at once legally organized. The stock of the
old one was worth only five per cent, and
most of the stockholders did not receive even
that pitiful legacy. The capital of 'the new
company was $10,000. Mr. Howard was dis-
discharged, and Messrs. Green & Little, of
Moro, 111., took the contract to finish sinking
the shaft. A third vein of coal was reached
at a depth of 500 feet, and then the company
learned to their consternation that it costs as
much to open a mine as for sinking the shaft.
The operatives wanted lawyers' wages; $20,-
000 beyond the capital stock was expended,
and still the mine was not prepared to put
out coal.

In this emergency, Messrs. D. C. Amsden,
H. H. Beach, James W. Jefi'eris, J. Smith
Tally, Charles E. Benton and Warder Cum-

mings formed a partnership and leased the
mine, and assumed the payment of the debt
from the lease money. In 1874, these part-
ners had become possessed of the entire shares
of the mining company, which was thereupon
dissolved, as its predecessor had been, and
the Litchfield Coal Company organized, with
a nominal capital of $10,000, but with a
property which had cost six times that
amount. This third company still operates
the mines, and by prudent management has
reduced the expense of mining so that coal
is delivered to local buyers at 10 cents a
bushel, and yet satisfactory profits have been
gathered. The price of mining was at one
time such that miners received upward of
$30 a week.

In 1878, a second shaft was sunk at one-
half the cost of the first one, and the output
rose to 5,000 bushels a day in the busy season.
At the foot of the second shaft a boring-rod
was sent down about a hundred and fifty feet,
to develop the character of the underlying
strata, and coal oil was reached. The aston-
ishment of the miners was unbounded. The
news was received with incredulity. But the
oil rose to the bottom of the mine and over-
flowed the floor. A few barrels of it were
collected and the well carefully closed in
order to the safety of the mine.

Secret Societies. — Whether it be from the dis-
position of the human mind which would pry
into a knowledge of the paintings on the left-
hand side of the temple of Paphos, or from the
absence of the joys of home, or from a desire to
draw closer the ties of brotherhood, or from
purposes streaked with self- hood, secret socie-
ties were early planted in Litchfield, and have
flourished in undecayed vigor and influence
and usefulness.

The list of secret organizations of a temper-
ance character is long, and the history of each
one is brief and uneventful. They were each

CITY OF LITCHFIELD.

301

short lived, and, like the " Murphy movement,"
have died and left no sign or contingent memo-
rial. Total abstinence organizations are not
unknown here, but none of them are secret.

Until 1857, the Masonic fraternity had no
lodge nearer than Hillsboro. But, on the 4th
of March in that year, a dispensation was
granted to <;. (i. Withington, W. S. Palmer, W.
H. Curamings, R. H. Peall, James Thalls, Sam-
uel Boothe, S. W. McDonald and C. W. Parish,
who instituted Charter Oak Lodge in the city,
and the first regular communication was held
on that date, W. S. Palmer, Master. The lodge
met in the texas of Cummings' building, which
was occupied jointly with the Odd Fellows un-
til 1865.

R. H. Peall was the second Master. In 1850,
W. H. Cummings was Master, and then in suc-
cession came J. T. Duff, W. T. Elliott (for two
years). C. W. Parish, W. T. Elliott and D. C.
Anisdeu. In 1865. the lodge removed to the
Elliott corner, State and Kirkham streets.
Mr. Amsden was re-elected in December, 1866,
and ( r, M. Loughmiller in 1867. James Rogers
was chosen Master in 1868, and Gr. W. Amsden
in 1869, and James Gowenloek in 1870. G.
M. Loughmiller was Master 1871, 1S72, 1873,
1 374 and 1S75. But in 1876, G. W. Hathaway
was Master, though in 1877, 1878, 1879,andl880
G. M. Loughmiller was Master. In December,
1881, the usual time of election, J. W. Hose was
chosen Master. In 1S68, the lodge moved to
the third floor of Masonic Block, across the
street from its previous rooms.

St. Omer Commandery, No. 30, Knights Tem-
plar, was organized under dispensation Septem-
ber 3, 1868, H. W. Hubbard acting as Eminent
Commander, assisted by several Knights from
Alton. On November 6, 1868, the charter was
granted to Sirs George H. Pomeroy, S. P. Kirk-
patriek, George M. Raymond, James Rogers,
George W. Amsden, Wesley Best, P. B. Up-
dike, D. R. Sparks, B. C. Beardsley and Janus
Davie. George H. Pomeroy served as Eminent

Commander the first year, since which, George
M. Raymond has continuously filled the office,
James Rogers has been the constant Secretary,
and B. C. Beardsley, the Treasurer. The Com-
mandery has fifty members.

August 9, IS67, a dispensation was granted
to G. M. Raymond, W. E. Bacon, S. D. Kirk-
patrick, James W. Davenport, H. C. Watson,
C. W. Parish, S. S. Tyler, George A. Stoddard,
John B. Hall, N. C. Alexander and Wesley
Best for a second lodge here, which was to be
called Litchfield Lodge. September 3, 1867,
the regular charter was received and G. M. Ray-
mond was chosen Master, and re-elected the
following year, when he was followed by W. E.
Bacon, and lie in turn ljy George A. Stoddard.
By years, the successive Masters have been :
1S71, G. A. Stoddard; 1872, G. M. Raymond ;
1873, G. W. Goodell ; 1874, G. W. Goodell ;
1875, W. E. Bacon ; 1876, W. E. Bacon ; 1877,
A. T. Keithley ; 1878, W. E. Bacon ; 1879,
W. E. Bacon ; 1880, W. E. Bacon ; 1881. W.
E. Bacon ; 18S2, A. T. Keithley.

Of Elliot Chapter, No. 120, no facts have
been learned beyond the facts of its existence
and that George W. Amsden has for ten con-
secutive years been High Priest.

Litchfield Lodge, No. 202, of Odd Fellows,
was instituted by D. B. Jackson, of Hillsboro,
March 28, 1856, with the following charter
members : R. N. Paden, S. W. McDonald, E. R.
White, E. W. Miller and John P. Davis. Mr.
Miller was the first presiding officer.

Until 1866, the lodge met in the Cummings
building. Fur three years it met at Cheap
Cornel', and. since, has occupied a hall on the
third door of the .Masonic building.

Jackson Encampment, No. 88, of Odd 1V1-
• was instituted by D. B. Jackson, July 22,
1S6S. The charter members were J. K. Milnor,
H. M. Langley, William M. Beindorf, R. Ochli r,
Joseph F. Chuse, Louis Turner and M. P.
Thompson. Louis Turner was the first presid-
I in"' officer.

302

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

White Cross Lodge, No. G6, Knights of Pyth-
ias, was founded April 27, 1876, by W. T. Van-
dever, of Taylorville. The charter members
were Joseph Lawrence, J. R. Blackwell, G. W.
Rattenbury, E. C. Thorp, L. G. Tyler, J. W.
Steen, T. J. Cox, C. Paullis, Jr., George S. Webb,
Ben. C. Best, George Kilmer, H. G. Tuttle and
A. J. Reubart. Mr. Rattenbury was the chief
officer.

February 14, 1875, Augusta Lodge, No. 507,
of Odd Fellows, was instituted. This is a Ger-
man lodge, and the ritual and the proceedings
are in that language. They had a separate
lodge room here, initiated thirty-eight members,
and received eleven by card. Three members
here died, and fifteen have terminated their
membership by removal or otherwise. The
present list contains the names of forty-four
members. The lodge has had peace and pros-
perity within its gates.

Sanitary. — As early as 1854, cholera ap-
peared in South Litchfield, by importation
from a river town. Several cases terminated
fatally, but the disease did not visit the scanty
population of the village.

In 1857 or 1858, a case of small-pox was
declared in Litchfield ; the patient, a man
named Johnson, was removed to a pest house
a mile from State street, where he died. A
few of the citizens were attacked, but they
recovered. In later years, sporadic cases
were exhibited. There is no tradition as to
their origin. No alarm was manifested; suit-
able precautions were observed, and no fatal
results followed. But in the winter of
1881-82, the loathsome contagion gained here
a determined lodgment. It was a sequence
of immigration or railroad travel. Notwith-
standing the prompt adoption of preventive
or remedial measures, the fearful plague con-
tinued its insidious advances until forty-four
persons had been smitten, of whom nine died.

The mortality might have been less had all
the sick refrained from grossly imprudent
courses. General vaccination was enforced,
and the disease starved out.

In the summer of 1867, five members of a
circus company were seized with cholera the
same night while at a hotel. The patients
rallied enough to be removed to Pana, where
it is believed they died. The pestilence
spread, and several citizens fell its victims.
Seven years later, the conditions were favor-
able for its re- appearance. The heated teim
was intense and protracted, and sanitary mat-
ters were generously suffered to run them-
selves. An elderly couple from Tennessee
came in on the railroad, ill with cholera.
They were removed to a private house, and
within twenty- four hours were dead. Other
persons were speedily attacked, and in a few
hours were moribund. On two occasions, the
deaths were four per day. The total number
of cases was nearly ninety, and the deaths
were reported to be thirty-nine. The stroke
was swift. Men in apparent sound health at
night would be dead in the morning.

In each visitation of cholera, the disease
was plainly of a foreign origin, and if the
contagion theory be well-founded, the ravages
here have been only such as may be appre-
hended in any town so placed that careless or
infected strangers are constantly on its streets
or stopping at its hotels.

The average annual mortality cannot be
accurately given. The usual record of inter-
ments is of no use here; as for family reasons,
sepulture is in distant cemeteries, while the
city cemeteries are used by town and city
alike. It is certain that the ratio of mortal-
ity in the city is as low as in the country,
and last year did not exceed two per cent.
With a population exceeding five thousand,
the total deaths were about eighty.

NOKOMIS TOWNSHIP.

303

CHAPTER XVI.*

TOWNSHIP OF NOKOMIS— POSITION AND BOUNDARIES— SURFACE, SOIL, STREAMS, ETC.— FOREST
GROWTHS— AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIONS— EARLY SETTLEMENTS— ROADS— SCHOOLS,

CHURCHES, ETC.

" Once o'er all this favored land,
Savage wilds and darkness spread."

^VTOKOMIS occupies a scope of territory
-L^ lying in the northeastern part of Mont-
gomery County, west of Audubon and east of
Rountree Township. It borders on Christian
County on the north, Witt Township on the
south, and is admirably located with reference
to railroad and other accommodations. Its
close proximity to the flourishing towns of
Hillsboro, Morrisonville, and other equally good
market places, affords many advantages to the
citizens which they have not been slow to avail
themselves of, as is shown by the increased
prosperity of the agricultural interests through-
out its territory. The distinguishing charac-
teristics of Nokomis are its fine, undulating
prairie lands, which, in point of fertility and
productiveness, are unsurpassed by any other
similar amount of territory in the State. The
northern portion is somewhat flat, and in certain
places contains some low, marshy land, but the
great majority of its acres are susceptible of a
high degree of cultivation, as is attested by
the rank which the township takes as an agri-
cultural district. In the southern part, along
the several water-courses and among the wooded
portions, the surface is more rolling, but in no
place is it too broken or uneven for tillage.
The soil is generally a fine quality of loam,
mixed with clay in certain localities, and sand
in the low places along the creeks. The town-
ship is sufficiently well watered for agricultural
purposes and stock-raising, with several beau-

*By G. N. Berry.

tiful streams traversing it in different directions,
the chief of which is the East Fork of Shoal
Creek. This is a stream of considerable size
and importance in the southern townships of
the countj', and has its source in Section 1,
from whence it flows in a southwesterly direc-
tion through Sections 22, 28 and 33. A small
stream flows through the northeastern part of
the township, draining that portion, and receiv-
ing in its course a number of rivulets which are
not designated by any particular names.

Originally, about one-sixth of the township's
area consisted of timbered land, the wooded
districts lying chiefly in the southern and south-
western parts. The productions of these forests
were at one time the source of considerable
wealth to those who settled in the timber and
made the lumber business a specialty. At the
head of these forest products stands the black
walnut, a tree unequaled in the United States
for its many uses in cabinet-making. It is be-
coming scarce in this part of the country on
account of its wide demand, and owing also to
the prodigal manner in which much of it was
destroyed by many of the pioneer settlers.
Next in value is the oak, of which several va-
rieties are to be found growing in the forests of
this township. It affords the principal amount
of lumber for all practical purposes to the
farmers in this section of the country, and con-
siderable quantities of it have been shipped to
other localities. Another of the forest mon-
archs is the elm, which grows to gigantic sizes
in the low lands skirting the water-courses.
There are several different kinds of maple to

304

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

be seen here, all of which are much used for
artificial groves, on account of their hardiness
and rapid growth. These species are highly
ornamental, delighting the eye of the most
careless, and giving a charm to the most unin-
viting prospect. Hickory is found in certain
localities, and is much used in the manufacture
of carriages, sleighs, and almost all agricultural
implements made in the different factories
throughout the State. Besides the different
varieties already enumerated, there are many
trees and shrubs of smaller growth known as
underbrush, much of which has been cleared
away of late years.

Of the farm products we can speak only in
a general way, as no statistical information
concerning them was obtained. Agricultural
productions of every kind indigenous to this
latitude are certain of a rapid growth and large
returns. As is shown by the vast wealth that
has been drawn from the bosom of the soil
during the thirty years that have passed — a
wealth that has covered its surface with beau-
tiful homes, and contributed toward feeding the
hungry millions of other lands. Wheat is and
has been the staple product of Nokomis, to
which its soil seems peculiarly adapted, and
has been known to yield as high as thirty-five
and forty bushels per acre in favorable seasons
although its average production is much less.
Other cereals are raised in the same proportion,
particularly oats and rye, which return abund-
ant and well-paying harvests almost every year-
As a corn district, this part of the country will
compare favorably with anj 7 other locality in
the county, as the land in the main is sufficient-
ly rolling to render drainage eas} - . While other
townships in the county suffered more or less
severely during the drought of 1881, the farmers
of Nokomis raised a sufficient amount of corn
for home consumption and some for market
also. Apple orchards are beginning to be ex-
tensively cultivated, and fruits of the finest
and hardiest varieties yield abundantly, and are

being produced in large quantities, while the
already large area of orchards receives yearly
additions. This product alone in a few years
will form one of the principal articles of sale
during its season.

The early settlement of Nokomis is so inter-
woven with the pioneer settlements of the ad-
joining townships that their history is, in the
main, almost identical. The same difficulties
were experienced, the same hardships endured
by the pioneers of Nokomis that for years re-
tarded the development and advancement of
older municipalities. There were no roads, so
to speak, no stores nor mills nearer than Gris-
ham and Butler Townships, a distance of twen-
tj- or thirty miles ; no school buildings except
of a very primitive character, and no places of
worship except the houses of the pioneers.
These and other experiences of a similar char-
acter were what the first settlers of Nokomis
had to contend with in the days of its infancy,
but, thanks to the energy and thrift with which
the earl}' settlers were characterized, all these
difficulties have been successfully overcome, and
on every hand are to be seen well-tilled farms,
elegant private residences, good roads, hand-
some church edifices, commodious school-build-
ings, and other evidences of prosperity, which
combine to make this part of the county a de-
sirable locality.

The first permanent settler in Nokomis Town-
ship, as it is now designated, was one Bluford
Shaw, the exact date of whose arrival could not
be ascertained, although it is supposed to have
been prior to the year 1840. In the year 1S43,
Hugh Hightower. a name familiar in the north-
ern part of the county, came to Illinois and
settled on a piece of laud lying in Section 33.
Here he erected the first house ever built within
the boundaries of the township, traces of which
still remain. For the space of three 3 - ears,
Hightower was the only resident in this part of
the county, his nearest neighbors living at a
distance of at least ten miles awav. John

NOKOMIS TOWNSHIP.

305

Heury located here iu 1846, securing land in
Section 26, which he improved quite exten-
sively. After him came John Lower, John
Nichols, Mason Jewett and an old man, by
name Redden, all of whom located near the site
of the present city of Nokomis. In the year
1854, a number of settlers located in the north-
ern part of the township, where they founded
quite an extensive cominuuity. Among this
number can be mentioned the names of Royal
N. Lee, John Wetmore, William Bonton, Ab-
salom Van Hooser, William Lee and Andrew
Coiner, several of whom are still living on the
farms they settled, and numerous descendants
are scattered over different parts of the county.
The northeastern part of the township was set-
tled principally bj- an intelligent and thrifty
class of Germans, who have improved that lo-
cality until it is now one among the very best
farmed sections of country in the township, and
in point of improvements, as houses, barns, etc.,
it will compare favorably with any other com-
munity within the limits of the county.

It has been asserted, and wisely so, that the
avenues of communication are an undoubted
evidence of the state of society. The history
of this planet from its earliest days furnish in-
disputable proof of this now universally admit-
ted truth. As civilization progresses, intercom-
munication increases, and the channels of trade
are improved, while the conveyance of products
and the movements of armies require an unob-
structed highway. Of the Eastern nations who
comprehended the truth of this great principle,
the chief were the Romans, whose broad high-
way s and ruined arches still survive to remind
us of the former power and greatness of those
masters of the world. While in the Western
Hemisphere, Mexican causeways and Peruvian
stone roads attest the vigor of a national life
centuries departed. But the trails across the
prairies and through the forests of this part of
the country — ample for the aborigines of
Illinois, and withal equal to their capacity, have

given place iu turn to a network of highways,
while not comparable to the military roads of
the Romans or ancient Mexicans, and perhaps
far inferior to the turnpikes to be seen in older
States, arc at least equal to the requirements of
a highly civilized people. The first road estab-
lished in Nokomis passed through the township
in a northeasterly direction, and was known as
the Hillsboro and Nokomis road. Its original
course has been changed, although it is still

j one of the important highways in the northern
part of the county. A road leading from the
town of Nokomis to Irving was laid out and
improved in an early day, but does not appear
to have been properly established until several
years later. One of the most important high-
ways passes through the central part of the
township from north to south, and is rather ex-
tensively traveled. The greater number of
roads which traverse the township in all direc-

| tions have been established in recent years, and

j are well improved. Like the highways in all
parts of Central and Southern Illinois, these
thoroughfares, during certain seasons of the

[ year, become well-nigh impassable, owing to
their muddy condition. The porous nature of
the soil, however, causes this mud to dry up
quite rapidly, and in a comparatively short
time after the frost leaves the ground in the
spring, the roads improve and remain in good
traveling order until the following winter.

Passing through the southeast corner is the
Indianapolis & St. Louis Railroad, which has
promoted the material interests of the town-
ship more than any or all other improvements
combined. In its course, it passes through
Sections 32, 28, 22, 14 and 12. intersecting the
southern boundary at a point about one and one-
half miles from the Rountree Township line,
and the eastern boundary two miles south of
Christian County. The city of Nokomis owes
much of its prosperity to this road, as does
also the township at large.

It is a fact which the splendid educational

306

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

institutions of the present make it difficult for
us to-day to comprehend, that in the early set-
tlement of the country, one of the greatest dis-
advantages under which the pioneer labored
was the almost entire absence of facilities for
the education of his children. When the ques-
tion of keeping soul and body together had
once been solved by the constantly increasing
acreage of farm land, and the corn waved over
the spot which required toil and perseverance
to conquer from its primitive natural state, and
bountiful harvests told of no more immediate
wants, then the pioneer's attention was called
to the necessity of schools, and means of sup-
plying the want were most earnestly sought.
A man by the name of Henry Lower, an excel-
lent teacher by the way, is said to have taught
the first school in the township, at his private
residence, about the year 1848. It was attend-
ed by the boys and girls in the new settlement
and supported by subscriptions, as were all the
early schools in the county. The first house
erected for educational purposes was built on
Section 27, and is still in use. There are a num-
ber of good frame sehoolhouses in the township,
and the citizens can point with pride to their
educational institutions, which, for efficiency
and thoroughness of work, are unsurpassed by
any in the county. Many facts relating to
educational matters of the township, belong
properly to the town of Nokomis, and will be
spoken of in connection with the history of that
place in the next chapter.

One of the first public officials of the town-

ship was John J. "Wetmore, who was elected
Justice of the Peace in an early day, although
we are unable to give the date. About the
same time, J. W. Hancock was elected Con-
stable, in which capacity he served the town-
ship several years. His marriage to Miss
Margaret Meratt was the first event of the kind
ever solemnized in Nokomis. Several healthy
religious organizations, with as many substan-
tial temples of worship, are the most convincing
evidence of the existence of high moral princi-
ples, and a sense of religious duty on the part
of the people. The Methodists organized the
first church in the township, and their ministers
were the first to find their way to the cabins of
the pioneers, and preach the everlasting truths
of the Gospel to the early inhabitants. Rev. J.
L. Crane conducted the first religious services,
and assisted in the organization of several
churches of his denomination, in the township
and town of Nokomis. The first church edifice
was built by the Lutherans, in the town of No-
komis, and will be more particularly spoken of
in the chapter devoted to that place. The Luth-
erans and Methodists have several good societies
in the township, whose congregations are in
excellent condition, and destined to accomplish
a great amount of good in their respective com-
munities. For want of particulars concerning
the various churches, the writer is obliged to
give them the above very brief notice. For
further church history, see the following chap-
ter on city of Nokomis.

TOWN OF NOKOMIS.

307

CHAPTER XVIL*

TOWN OF NOKOMIS— ITS LOCATION AND SETTLEMENT— THE FIRST STORES, MILLS AND OTHER
BUSINESS— GRAIN TRADE OF NOKOMIS— MANUFACTURE OF AGRICULTURAL IMPLE-
MENTS— SCHOOLHOUSES, ETC.— THE PRESS-RELIGIOUS HISTORY— THE
DIFFERENT CHURCHES, PREACHERS, ETC., ETC

"History enriches the mind, gratifies a worthy-
desire to be informed on past events, and enables us
to avail ourselves of the experience of our prede-
cessors."

IT is not expected that the simple narrative
of these pages will be anything more than
a mere record of events that have occurred
within the limits of this quiet little town. To
sketch its progress and improvement from the
building of the first cabin to its present growth
and prosperity, is the extent of our aim in this
chapter. In the preceding chapter, the history
of Nokomis Township has been given by another
writer, and hence the village only will occupy
our attention. In gathering statistics concern-
ing early settlements, organization of churches,
etc., it is sometimes difficult to find records
which will give, with certainty and accuracy,
the information wanted. While we have taken
pains to secure facts, it is possible that in the
following pages there are inaccuracies.

The town of Nokomis was settled as a village
about the year 1 855. It was laid out by T. C.
Huggins, of Bunker Hill, 111., and Capt. Simeon
Ryder, of Alton, 111., and it is beautifully situ-
ated on the Indianapolis & St. Louis Railroad,
about twenty miles northeast of Hillsboro, the
county seat. It was incorporated as a village
March 9, 18G7, and has since been incorporated
as a town under special charter. It is the third
town in the county in size of population, and is
a place of considerable business, having a large
grain trade.

* By Rev. T. E. Spilman.

The first store in the village was owned by
Oliver Boutwell. He was bought out by H. F.
Rood, who built another store in the year 1859.
The first hotel was built by a Mr. Hart, and is
the same building, which, witli recent improve-
ments, is now called the Eureka House, and
stands north of the railroad. The second hotel
was built by James Bone, in the year 1865,
and burned down in 1881. The first physician
locating in Nokomis was Dr. James Welch, who
came to the place about the year 1859.

A flouring-mill was built in 1857, by Jewett
& Wetmore. This mill, as well as the third
one, which was built by Mulkey & Gamble,
burned down. The second mill built, which is
the one now standing, and doing good work,
was built by Rhoades & Boxberger. It is now
owned and operated by Hobson & Hartsock.

The first schoolhouse in Nokomis was a
one-story rame, built in the year 1858, and
served the wants of the town for educational
purposes until the present handsome brick
building, containing seven rooms, was erected
in the year 1871. This edifice cost a little
over 113,000, and is finished and furnished
in the latest improved style.

The Nokomis Post Office was probably
opened about the year 1856, and had for
Postmaster Oliver Boutwell. In 1858, Mr.
H. F. Rood took the position of Postmaster.
He was followed about the year 1861 by W.

F. Mulkey. Mr. Mulkey held the situation

probably something less than a year, when

308

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

the office came again into the hands of Mr.
Rood, who conducted it until probably about
the year 18(34, when it came into the hands
of Thomas Judson. The present Postmaster,
D. P. Broj>hy, came into possession of the
office in the year 1865, and is a faithful and
efficient officer.

The grain trade was commenced in Noko-
mis probably as early as the year 18(30, by
H. F. Rood. In 1868, there were four par-
ties buying grain; at the present time there
are three. The country in the vicinity of
Nokomis is a fine one for agriculture, and the
grain market is good.

The oldest dwelling house standing in the
town is probably the small building, made of
logs, now boarded upon the outside, stand-
ing south of the lumber yard.

Nokomis has never been much of a manu-
facturing town, but has paid most of ber at-
tention to grain and merchandise. J. C.
Runge & Bro. commenced the manufacture
of agricultural implements about the year
1868. Their factory is now worked by a
steam engine, of about eighteen-horse-power.
They do quite a large business.

The Nokomis National Bank had its origin
in the year 1872. Its Directors were James
Pennington, A. E. McKinney, J. H. Beatty,
T. Ernst, Jacob Haller, John Johns and C.
W. Townsend. Its President was J. W.
Beatty; Vice President, John Johns, and its
Cashier, B. F. Culp. It commenced business
with a capital of $50,000. It now has a sur-
plus of $10,000. The President of the bank
at this time is H. F. Rood; Vice President,
George Tayloi - , and Cashier. Alfred Griffin.

Secret and benevolent institutions are rep-
resented in Nokomis by Masons, Odd Fellows
and Knights of Honor. The society of Free-
masons was organized in the year 1856, the
Odd Fellows in 1866, and the Knights of
Honor February 6, 1879. These organiza-

tions have comfortable halls, and appear to
be in a nourishing condition.

Newspapers. — The first newspaper pub-
lished in Nokomis was the Nokomis Adver-
tiser, edited and published by Draper & Hen-
derson. It was established in the year 1868,
and had a free circulation. It was devoted
largely to the land interest of the country.

About the year 1871, Messrs. Picket &
White came to the place and commenced
the publication of the Gazette. At this time
the Advertiser was suspended, and the whole
field given to the Gazette. The expenses of
publication being greater than were antici-
pated, the concern was sold to meet encum-
brances. A. H. Draper then, in 1873, com-
menced the publication of the Bulletin. Its
career was closed in 1876.

After a time, the publication of the Bulle-
tin was resumed, taken up at first by H. F.
White, one of its former proprietors, and
afterward passed through the hands of sev-
eral successive publishers.

In 1877, E. M. Hulburt entered upon the
publication of the Free Press, and in March,
1878, it was consolidated with the Gazette,
and took the name of the Free Press- Gazi ll< .
the consolidated paper being edited and pub-
lished by E. M. Hulburt.

In 1880, H. M. Graden commenced the
publication of the Nokomis Atlas, which
closed its career in 1881.

In December, 1SS0, E. M. Hulburt began
to publish a paper in the German language,
called the Deutsch Amerikaner.

In the year 1881, Mr. Hulburt purchased,
and has now in successful operation, a Camp-
bell cylinder press.

The Free Press-Gazette, and the Deutsch
Amerikaner, under the control of Mr. Hul-
burt, are the only papers now published in
the town of Nokomis.

Churches. — In the year 1855, St. Mark's

TOWN OF NOKOMIS.

309

Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized
at the village of Audubon, seven miles east
from the present site of Nokomis. and was
called Zion's Evangelical Lutheran Clmrch.
Sometime afterward, an organization of th9
Lutheran Church was formed in Nokomis.
A house of worship was built, being the first
house of worship erected in Nokomis, the
cost being about $4,500. This house was
dedicated to the worship of God by the Luth-
eran Church October 21, 1866, the dedicatory
sermon being preached by Rev. M. M. Bar-
tholomew. The two churches, the one at
Audubon, and the one at Nokomis, were or-
ganized into one October 22, 1866, and called
St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church.
The names of those who signed the Constitu-
tion of this new organization were as follows:
Christian Easterday, Anna M. Easterday,
Daniel Easterday, Jane Easterday, Leonard
Leas. Mary Leas, George Culp, Elizabeth
Culp. Stephen L. Latimer, Joseph Miller,
Isabella Miller, Solomon Miller, Samuel
Friend. Martin V. Easterday, J. W. Russell,
Martha B. Russell, Isaac F. Strider, Amos W.
Easterday, Anna M. Easterday, Hannah M.
Easterday, Benjamin F. Culp, Barbara A.
Culp, Sophia Graden. The first pastor chosen
by this church was Rev. M. M. Bartholomew.
His successors have been Revs. John Rugan,
M. L. Kunkelman, J. C. Wesner, D. M. Henkle,
D. D. , and John Booher, the present supply,
a student not yet having completed his theo-
logical studies.

The first Elders chosen by the church were
Leonard Leas and Joseph Miller. The first
Deacons were S. L. Latimer and J. W. Rus-
sell. The church has a membership at pres-
ent of fifty, and maintains a good Sunday
school.

The Baptist Church of Nokomis was organ-
ized in the year 1856, by Rev. Mr. Hutsen,
at a schoolhouse in what was known as Cot-

tingham's Grove. The following are the
names of those who at that time entered in-
to the organization: Mason Jewett, Royal W.
Lee, Christopher Jewett, Polly Lee, Jane
Jewett, Melvina Wetmore, Mary Jewett and
Marcusia Smith. The house of worship now
occupied by this church in the town of No-
komis was built in 1870, and the first seiwice
held in it was on the 9th of July of the same
year. The following ministers have been
supplies of this church: Revs. R. R. Coon,
Jacob V. Hopper, E. Jones, J. H. Mize and
the present supply, Rev. S. G. Duff. The
present membership is probably near fifty.

The Methodist Episcopal Church of Noko-
mis had an imperfect organization as early as
about the year 1857, and appointed as its
Class-Leader James Watson. In the year
1860, the society was more perfectly organ-
ized by Rev. John E. Lindley, at that time
supplying the Irving Circuit. About the
year 1S73, Mr. Lindley was appointed to the
Nokomis Circuit, and died while in charge,
February 19, 1S75. His remains were buried
in the cemetery near the town. The first
sermon preached in Nokomis Township was
by James L. Crane, a Methodist minister,
about the year 1848. The house of worship
now occupied by the Methodist Church was
built in 1869, and dedicated November 14 of
the same year.

The pulpit of the Methodist Church has
been regularly sujjplied by the following
ministers: Revs. Taylor, Kershner, John E.
Lindley, P. Honnold, E. E. Copperthwait, S.
H. Whitlock, Martin Miller, George Miller,
J. M. West, T. M. Dillon, L. T. Janes, and
the present pastor, J. W. Crane.

The roll of the original members has been
imperfectly kept; but the following is prob-
ably nearly correct: Mr. Taylor, Jonathan
G. Fellers, Margaret Fellers, Nancy Rood,
Horace Graves, Ann Graves, Elias P. Baxter,

310

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Elizabeth Baxter, James Watson, Mary Wat-
son, Solomon Smith, Mary F. Bone, Susan
Brophy, John Hancock, Margaret Hancock,
Alexander Vanhauten, Martha Jane Vanhau-
ten, Stephen B. Waples. The present mem-
bership of the church is probably about one
hundred and fifteen. A Sunday school is
carried on the year round.

The Christian Church of Nokomis was or-
ganized by Rev. William Vanhooser in the
spring of 1861, with the following members:
John Lower, Mrs. Magdalena Lower, Miss
Diana Lower. A B. Vanhooser, Mrs. Mary
Vanhooser, Mrs. Mary Swords, F. M. Osborn.
Mrs. E. C. Osborn, E. M. Thompson, Mrs.
Ann Thompson, Miss Malissa Thompson,
Rev. William Vanhooser, Mrs. Jane Van-
hooser, W. F. Mulkey, Mrs. M. A. Mulkey,
Milliam R. Vanhooser, J. A. Vanhooser, Miss
R. A. Vanhooser, Miss N. E. Vanhooser, T.
Patterson, Mrs. M. J. Patterson and Mrs.
Maria Lant. At the time of organization,
the congregation worshiped in the public
schoolhouse. The present house of worship.
at a cost of about $4,000, was completed and
opened for worship in 1863. Rev. A. D.
Northcut preached the dedicatory sermon,
assisted in the service by Rev. Newton Mul-
key.

The following ministers have been regu-

larly employed as Pastors of the church:
Revs. William Vanhooser, Abraham Martin,
John Friend and James Ament. Rev. Will-
iam Vanhooser has been re-employed, and is
at present the Pastor of the church. Several
other brethren have, for a few months at a
time, also been supplies of the pulpit. The
church has at present a membership of about
fifty. Only five of the original members are
now residents of the town.

The Presbyterian Church of Nokomis was
organized by Rev. Joseph Gordon, in June,
1862, with the following members: Thomas
Derr, David Nickey, Wilson Sible, Jane
Nickey, Rebecca Matkin, Eglantine Stridor,
Rebecca Sible, Phcebe D. Derr, Nellie A.
Derr, Irene B. Derr, Amanda E. Matkin,
Nancy Yarnell. David Nickey was chosen
Ruling Elder. Rev. Joseph Gordon was the
first regular supply of the pulpit. His suc-
cessors have been Revs. Gideon C. Clark, C.
K. Smoyer, N. Williams, J. P. Mills, James
Lafferty, D. L. Gear, and the present supply,
T. E. Spilman.

This comprises a brief sketch of the town
of Nokomis from its laying-out as a village to
the present time. As both time and space
were limited, we have confined ourself to a
brief statement of facts, avoiding all unnec-
essary embellishments.

mMm^m

EAST FORK TOWNSHIP.

311

CHAPTER XVIII.*

EAST FORK TOWNSHIP— BOUNDARIES— WATER-COURSES— EARLY SETTLERS— MILLS AND CATTLE-
RAISING— ROADS— CHURCHES, SCHOOLS AND SECRET SOCIETIES.

the best townships in the county. The north-
ern boundary is Irving ; eastern, Fillmore ; its
southern boundary is La Grange Township, of

" Like the race of leaves is that of human kind.

Upon the ground the winds stir one year's growth,

The sprouting grove puts forth another brood that

Sport and grow in the spring season.

So is it with man,

One generation grows while one decays." — Mad.

|~T is difficult to realize as we travel along
J- the highways that traverse this beautiful
prairie township, and note the broad, fertile
acres of well-tilled soil and the stately farm-
houses, where the happy husbandman lives in
the midst of plenty and contentment, that
scarcely three-quarters of a century ago these
luxuriant plains were peopled by a few wan-
dering savages and formed part of a vast, un-
broken wild, which gave but little promise of
the high state of civilization it has since at-
tained. ■ Instead of the primitive log cabin
and diminutive board shanty, we now see dot-
ting the prairie in all directions comfortable
and elegantly formed mansions of the latest
style of architecture, graceful, substantial and
convenient. We see also the bosom of the
country decked with church structures of all
religious denominations and well-built school-
houses at proper intervals. Her fields are laden
with the choicest cereals, her pastures all alive
with numerous herds of the finest breeds of
stock, and everything bespeaks the thrift and
prosperity with which the farmer in this fertile
division of the county is blessed. East Fork
is one of the southern townships of Montgomery
County, and is also one of the largest, being ten
miles in extent from north to south and six miles
from east to west. It contains sixty square
miles of land, and is, in many respects, one of

•By G. N. Berry.

Bond County. It is bounded on the west by
Hillsboro and Grisham Townships. The area
embraces one township and a half, the northern
part being designated as Township 8 north,
Range 3 west, while that division lying south of
the dividing line is known as Township 7 north,
of Range 3 west. The township is well drained
by a number of small creeks and their tribu-
taries, which meander through the prairie in
many different directions. The most prominent
of these are McDavid's Branch, in the south-
eastern part, and the East Fork of Shoal Creek,
near the eastern boundary. The first named
rises near the northeastern corner of the town-
ship, flows in a zigzag channel toward the
southwest, to within a mile of the county line
where it empties into Shoal Creek.

East Fork, the largest and most important
water-course, flows in a southerly direction
through the eastern part of the township, and
affords an excellent system of natural drainage
plenty of stock water and is indispensable to
the success of the farmer and grazier in this
region. Bear Creek is a stream of considerable
size in the western portion. It receives many
small tributaries, which frequently flood the
lands through which they flow during very rainy
seasons. Brush Creek flows in a northwest-
erly direction and intersects the northern bound-
ary at a point about one half mile east of Hills-
boro Township. Wolf Pen Branch and Indian
Camp Branch arc small streams in the western
part, but are of no considerable importance.
The greater part of the surface of East Fork

•312

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

consists of undulating and gently rolling prai-
rie lands, of the very best and most fertile soil
in the county. In the southern and southeast-
ern parts, for about three miles along Bear
Creek and McDavid'a Branch, the surface is
broken and in some places hilly. The soil on
these high places differs very materially from
that of the prairies, being thinner and more
sandy, but nevertheless very productive.

The greater amount of timber is in the
southern part of the township, adjacent to the
creeks already named. There are also small
strips of woodland in the eastern and north-
eastern parts," but the most of this has been
cleared and put in cultivation. Like the tim-
ber in the other townships of the county, the
varieties consist of elm along the water-courses,
hickory, oak and walnut on the uplands. The
best of the timber was cut years ago, what is
left being merely a new growth, which has made
its appearance since the country was settled.
On McDavid's Branch, in the western part of
the township, is a large, beautiful spring, where
the Fox Indians, in j-ears gone by, made their
home. Near this spring numerous relics have
been found, such as beads, flint spear heads,
silver trinkets of various kinds, pipes, stone
axes, etc. These Indians did not remain long
after the white man made his appearance, but
left for parts unknown in the year 1828. Scat-
tered bauds frequently visited the scene of th< ir
former camping grounds in after years, but
they never remained for any great length of
time. These visits were finally discontinued,
and no Indians have been seen in East Fork
since 1835. The first settler in this township
was William Me David, who came to Illinois
from Tennessee as long ago as the year 1820,
and entered a piece of land lying in Seel ion
34, near the place now known as McDavid'a
Point. He came in company with one Jesse
Johnson, who stopped at the little settlement
in Grrisharn Township, near where the village
of Donnellson now stands.

At the time McDavid settled in East Fork,
there was no house nearer than five miles, and
for several months his neighbors were few
and scattering. Time, however, makes great
changes, and within a few years the little set-
tlement became one of the most thrifty and
flourishing communities in the county. Mo-
David lived in the place where he first settled
exactly forty-six years. He died the 14th day
of February, 1800. His wife is still living,
having reached the ripe old age of eighty-two
years. The old homestead is now owned by
his son, T. W. McDavid, who has added to it
much of the surrounding land. His farm is
one of the largest in the county. Another son,
W. C. McDavid, lives on the farm adjoining
that of his brother. He was the first white
person born in the township, and his whole life
has been passed within its borders. The next
settler of whom anything definite is known was
James Card. He found his way into the wilds
of East Fork in the year 1821, and located the
farm now owned by Daniel Cress in Section 4.
Here he erected a cabin and lived one year,
when his wife died, after which he returned to
his former home in Kentucky. In the 3-ear
1823, he came back to Illinois and settled in
the northern part of East Fork, near the Irving
Township line, where he remained for two
years. He moved from this last place to Fill-
more Township. Card came from the mount-
ains of North Carolina, and was in many re-
spects a remarkable man. Daring, intrepid
and intensely religious, he knew no such word
as fail, and all his undertakings were crowned
with success. He made the first journey from
this township to St. Louis for flour for the set-
tlement, a task at that day attended by no little
trouble and inconvenience, as there were no
roads in the country. He directed his course
across the almost trackless prairies by means
of a pocket compass, cut his own roads in the
woods through which he was obliged to pass, and
readied his destination after many weary days'

EAST FORK TOAVNSHIP.

313

traveling with his slow ox team. The return
trip was made in face of fully as man}- difficul-
ties, as he was more heavily loaded, and the
way was made almost impassable in some
places by the heavy rainfall. Several sons of
Mr. Card are living in Illinois, one of them
being a business man of Hillsboro. A number
of settlers located in the southern part of the
township between the years 1821 and 1826,
among whom were the following: Joseph
Williams, John Kirkpatrick, E. Ghiin, Henry
Rowe and David Bradford. Williams settled
on the farm where Riley Hampton now lives.
Kirkpatrick located in the southwest comer of
the township near the village of Donnellson.
The places on which the other three settled is
not known, nor could the dates of their deaths
be ascertained. The earliest settler in the
northern part of East Fork was Benjamin
Rhodes. He came here from Southern Indiana
in the year 182G and located a farm in Section
8, about two and a half miles east of Hillsboro.
Aside from the little settlement at McDavid's
Point already alluded to, Rhodes' cabin was
the only house in the township at this time.
He died in 1877. William R. Linxwiler, a step-
son of the preceding, came to East Fork while
very young, and has lived here ever since. His
whole life has been identified with the growth
and development of his township in which he
takes a deep interest. He has lived on the
farm which he now owns for the last thirty
years, and is one of the oldest citizens in East
Fork.

Among the first settlers was Jordan Williford,
a Tennessean, who came in an early day and
rented a small piece of land lying in the central
part of the township. This was in the year
1825. The following year, he located on Mc-
David's Branch, where he lived for three years.
when he sold his farm to William McDavid,
and moved farther west on Shoal Creek. Here
he purchased an extensive tract of land, which
was his home till the year 1856, at which time

he disposed of all his possessions in this State
and moved to Arkansas.

He was a man of sterling integrity, high,
moral character and unbounded hospitality.
No one was ever allowed to leave his pioneer
home in need of anything which his liberal
hand could supply. He raised a family of
eleven children of whom seven are still living.
Andrew J. Williford, one of the sons of Jordan
Williford, can be called an early settler, as he
came here with his father when but eleven
years old, and has been a resident of the town-
ship ever since. He is a Baptist preacher, and,
like his father before him, is a man universally
respected by the community in which he has
resided. Robert and Joseph Mann, two broth-
ers, were among the first settlers in the north-
ern part of East Fork. Little is known defi-
nitely about them, as to where they came from
or how long they remained, but they are spoken
of as good citizens, and were well thought of.
Just south of the place where the Mann broth-
ers settled, James Wiler located, though how
long he remained was not learned. The Aliens
were also an old family of East Fork, and set-
tled here prior to the year 1830. Many repre-
sentatives of this family are still living in the
county.

Prominently identified with the early history
of this township was one Samuel Haller, who
settled near the northeast corner on a large
tract of land known as the, old Haller farm.
Here he built his little cabin, and raised a
goodly family of children, who figured largely
in the early settlement of the county. One of
these, T. B. Haller, is now one of the leading
physicians of the State, and is located at Van-
dalia. Many privations were experienced by
the early settlers, among which was the diffi-
culty of obtaining flour. In order to obtain
this, they were obliged to go to St. Louis or Ed-
wardsville, which required a great deal of time,
as there were but few if any good roads in those
early days. For a number of years, the mill at

314

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Edwardsville and the little mill on Shoal Creek,
in Grisbam Township, were the only places
where breadstuff's could be obtained. The first
mill in the township was built by G. W. Tray-
lor in the southeastern part, about the year
1830, as near as could be ascertained. This
was a steam mill with saw attached, and was in
operation about twenty-five years. Another
mill run by steam was that of D. M. Williams,
in the southern part. This mill was in opera-
tion as early as the year 1840, but at just what
date it was erected, and how long it was run,
was information which the writer was unable to
obtain. A. M. Miller built a mill in 1867, which
is still in operation. This is a steam mill with
saw attached, and is doing a good business.
The Brown Mill was moved into this township
about the year 1875, and operated till 1877,
when it was torn down, and taken to Fillmore
Township, a few miles away, where it is still
standing.

C. C. Root has a saw-mill in operation in the
southern part of the township, which is doing a
large and paying business. There have been
several portable mills in the township at vari-
ous times, but none of them did business on a
very extensive scale. The} - have all been re-
moved, and, at the present time, there ai - e but
the two mills already mentioned in operation
in this section of the county.

The stock business, breeding, raising and
shipping stock, receives considerable attention
from the citizens of East Fork, and a number
of large farms are to be seen where large herds
of fine cattle and sheep are kept.

Prominent among those who make the stock
business a specialty are J. B. McDavid, William
H. Wilson and Thomas H. Wilson. McDavid
owns one of the most extensive tracts of land
in the county, there being in his farm over one
thousand acres. Here can be seen some very
fine cattle that have been bought and reared
with no little expense.

The farm of W. II. Wilson contains nine

hundred and twenty acres of choice land,
which is well stocked. Thomas H. Wilson
owns some six hundred and forty acres of
land in the best part of the township, aud
has some very fine breeds of cattle and
sheep. The first stock-markets were reached
by driving the cattle overland to St. Louis, but
! the presence of railroads in the county brings
the market nearer home. The first roads through
East Fork were probably better than the early
roads in any other part of the county, as there
are but few hills to cross and little woods to go
through. The township is now well supplied
with good roads passing through it or along its
boundaries.

The oldest road through the township is the
Vandalia and Hillsboro road, which connects
those two places, aud is one of the most im-
portant highways in the county. It intersects
the eastern boundary of the township at a point
about one mile and a half southeast of Hillsboro,
and passes through the township in a south-
easterly direction. Its course varies but little
till within a couple of miles from the line which
separates the township from Fillmore, where it
bears southward for a short distance. The Hills-
boro and Fillmore road passes through the
northern part of the township from east to west,
and is one of the early roads of the county. It
was laid out in the year 1823, and established
in 1S27. Among the first roads laid out in
the township was the Irving road which runs
through the western part from north to south.
It intersects the Fillmore and Hillsboro road
at right angles, about one-half mile from the
Irving line and the Vandalia and Hillsboro
road at McDavid's Point in the southern part
of the township. The Hillsboro aud Greenville
road runs in a southerly direction from Hills-
boro and forms part of the boundary between
East Fork and Grisham Townships. These
roads are all kept in good condition, and are
among the best highways in the country.
Many roads of minor importance traverse the

L'C^?^<X<4

LIBRARY

Of 1HE

UNIVf-Kbll Y ut ILLINOIS

EAST FORK TOAVNSHIP.

317

township in different directions and intersect
each other at various points, but they are known
by no particular names.

The early pioneers of East Fork were a
moral and religious people as is evidenced in
the fact of a church being established as far
back as the year 1830. The Bethel Regular
Baptist Church dates its organization from this
year, though there had been religious services
held at different places in the township several
yars previous to that time. The first sermon
was preached by Elder James Street, in a pri-
vate dwelling house. He was assisted in the
services by Elder Jordan, and together they
organized the church already named some time
afterward.

The first meetings of this church were held
in private dwellings of the members in cold ami
inclement weather, and in the groves, " God's
first temples," when the weather would admit
of out-door services. Among the first mem-
bers of this church were the following : Eleanore
Freeman, Mary Goodwin, James Card, Mr. and
Mrs. Colbert Blair, not one of whom is now
living. James Street was the first pastor, in
which capacity he acted for about twenty-five
years. He was succeeded by Elder Larkin
Craig, of Kentucky, who ministered unto the
church for a period of about forty years.
Craig was a fine pulpit orator and a man of
more than ordinary vitality and energy. He
would frequently travel twenty-five miles on
Saturday, preach Saturday night, Sunday
morning, afternoon and evening, and be at
home in time to do the greater part of a day's
work the following Monday. Elder Scars
assisted Craig for several years, preaching in the
latter's absence.

Willis Dodson had charge of the church for
five years. He was succeeded by Elder Peter
Long, who preached for the congregation a long
time. The present pastor, A. J. Williford, has
been preaching for the church during the last
twenty years. The house in which the church

was organized belonged to Elisha Freeman,
and stood in the southeast part of the town-
ship. This was the principal place of worship
for about ten years. The first church edifice
was built of logs and stood one mile north of
the place where the church was organized. It
served as a place of worship about six years,
when the organization was moved farther west
and the meeting place changed to a little school-
house on Shoal Creek. The congregation met
at this place until the year 1855, at which time
the building in which they now worship, was
erected. This house stands on an acre of
ground which was donated the church by
Samuel Brockman. The house was remodeled
in the year 1880, and is a very pleasant and
comfortable house of worship. The church
has decreased somewhat in membership through
deaths and removals, having at present only
about thirty names on the books. The
Presbyterians organized a society in the j'ear
1833, under the auspices of Revs. Joel Knight
and John Barber. The original membership
was about ten or twelve in number, mostly
from other churches in the county. Their first
building was of logs, and stood on Section 4,
in the northern part of the township. For a
number of years public services were conduct-
ed at this place, but the organization was
finally abandoned or moved to some other place.
Nothing definite concerning this church could
be learned.

The Methodists have an organization in the
southern part of the township, where for years
a faithful band of Christians have met to wor-
ship. This church is no longer the stronghold
that it used to be, many of the members hav-
ing died and many moved to distant places.

The writer was unable to obtain any facts or
data concerning this society, and much to his
regret was obliged to pass it by with the fore-
going brief notice.

The Presbyterians organized a society, known
as the McDavid's Point Cumberland Presbyte-

318

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

rian Church, in the year 1857. The organiza-
tion was brought about by the labors of Revs.
Joel Knight and Joseph Bone.

The records of the church give the names of
ten persons as constituting the original mem-
bership, most of them being from the church at
Donnellson. We eive some of their names as
follows : William Linxwiler and wife. J. B. Mc-
David and wife, Mrs. Elizabeth McDavid. Many^
of the best citizens from time to time been mem-
bers of this church. The first building used for
a place of worship was the schoolhouse, where
the congregation met for almost three 3 _ ears.
As the church increased in numbers, a larger
bouse was required, and their present com-
modious structure was erected in the year 1S60.
This building is 30x40 feet frame, and will com-
fortably seat three hundred and fifty persons.
It cost the sum of $2,000 and is one of the most
comfortable and substantial church edifices in
the county. It was dedicated in the year 1861,
by Rev. J. B. Logan. A flourishing Sunday-
school is maintained in connection with the
church, and like the congregation, is in splendid
working order. Rev. J. B. Logan was the first
pastor of the church. He was succeeded by L.
P. Dutheridge, who ministered in the congre-
gation for several years, and was in turn suc-
ceeded by Rev. T. W. McDavid.

Revs. Daniel Bell, E. R. Jones and E. R.
Rogers have preached for the church at different
times, though not as regular pastors. At pres-
ent the congregation is without a pastor. The
Walnut Grove Free Methodist Church is located
in the southern part of the township, and was
organized in the spring of 1880 by F. H. Ash-
croft, with a membership of twenty-nine.

For six months after the organization, all the
public services of the society were held in the
barn and private dwelling of William Neal.
The house in which the congregation now wor-
ships was built in the fall of 1880. This is a
very tastefully arranged little building, and cost
about $000. The first sermon was preached in

the new house by Rev. E. Outlander. The first
pastor of the church was Rev. C. A. Flemming.
Present membership, about thirty ; services are
held every Sabbath ; prayer-meetings every
Wednesday evening. It is impossible to esti-
mate the great good done by these religious so-
cieties, in the communities where the}' are to
be found. They have had a tendency to elevate
the morals and strengthen the nobler instincts
of life. Many vices have been shunned through
their influence, and the result is an abundant
harvest of pure lives. May the churches con-
tinue their well-begun work until

"All crimes shall cease, anil ancient frauds shall fail
Returning justice lift aloft her scale.
Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend,
And white-robed innocence from Heaven descend."

The early school history of the township is
almost wholly lost in the shadows of the past.
and many dates and interesting incidents relat-
ing thereto, have been forgotten long since,
hence, we cannot hope to give it with perfect
correctness. The first schoolhouse, as near as
can be learned, was built in the year 1828, on
Section 8. This was a diminutive log cabin, of
the most primitive kind, no vestige of which re-
mains to show the exact spot where it stood.
One of the first schools was taught by Lewis
Cass, in the year 1829. The house in which
Cass wielded the birch stood near McDavid's
Branch, and was similar in rnauy respects to
most of the schoolhouses of that day. having
neither floor nor chimne^y. A log removed from
the side of the building left a considerable open-
ing, over which greased paper was pasted, thus
affording a very fair substitute for a window.
Fires were built in one end of the room, the
smoke finding its way out through a large open-
ing in the roof the best way it could. The fur-
niture was of the simplest kind, consisting of
a few benches made of hewed logs, and a broad
writing-desk, fastened to the wall by means of
several long pins. These early schools were all
supported by subscription, and were attended by

EAST FORK TOWNSHIP.

319

the children of the settlers from miles around.
The first public school was taught by A. J.
Williford, in a little house which stood near the
county line. This school was taught in 1839,
and lasted but three months. Michael Walker
was one of the early teachers of East Fork, hav-
ing taught a school in the western part of the
township in the year 1830.

The first frame schoolhouse was built in 1843,
on McDavid's Branch. There are now seven good
schoolhouses in the township, five of them frame
and two brick. The school board is composed
of the following gentlemen, viz., John Fath, W.
S. Barry, A. C. Williams, Trustees ; George
Linxwiler. Treasurer.

The East Fork Post Office was established in
the year 1873, with S. H. Smith as Postmaster.
This office was kept in Smith's store, in the
western part of the township. It was discon-
tinued several years since.

The first store in the township was kept by a
Mr. Cockerel, whose stock of merchandise con-
sisted of groceries, boots, shoes, dry goods and
whisky. His place of business was in the
southern part of the township, and was the
scene of many knockdowns and riots, occa-
sioned by a too free use of the fire-water. One
evening a man stopped here, on his way, as he
said, to Kentucky. He drank heavily, and did
not take his departure until a late hour in the
night. The next morning his dead body was
found a short distance below, oil which were
marks indicating the fact that he had been
choked to death. The supposition was that he
had been followed, robbed and murdered by
some unknown parties who had been on his
track for the purpose. No clew to the mystery
was ever found. The body was buried near the
spot where it was found, according to the law
of that day.

A man by name of Rutter was killed near
this place in the year 1838, by a certain Jack

Wood. It seems that the two had some diffi-
culty, during which Rutter became very abus-
ive, and wanted to fight Wood. The latter
tried to get away, and begged to be let alone,
as he wanted no trouble. Rutter, however,
would not be pacified, but continued to follow
Wood up, and finally struck him. Wood re-
turned the blow, and struck Rutter on the neck
just below the ear. The blow was fatal. Rut-
ter dropped and died instantly. Nothing was
ever done with Wood for the killing.

A part of the village of Donnellson lies
in East Fork, though none of the original
plat of the town. There is one good store
here kept by R. C. Clark, whose stock of
merchandise represents a capital of several
thousand dollars. M. N. Allen keeps an agri-
cultural store in connection with his blacksmith
shop, and is doing a veiy fair business.

Over Clark's storeroom is a nice, commodious
Hall, where Lodge No. 255, A., F. & A. M., holds
its meetings. This lodge was established Octo-
ber 8, 1858, by Most Worshipful Master Harri-
son Dill, with a membership of seven. Their
names are as follows : William Gordon, M. S.
Davenport, J. C. Banner, P. S. Davenport,
Casba Hawkins, Tipton Cox and James H.
Moss. The first officers were : William Gordon,
W. M.; M. S. Davenport, S. W.; J. C. Hanner,
J. W. The hall was built in the year 1861.
Present officers of the Lodge are : M. N. Allen,
W. M.; R. C. Clark. S. W.; F. W. Kummell, J.
W.; J. B. Casy, S. D.; H. S. Hanner, J. D.; B. F.
McLain, Sec; William Williams, Treas.; Henry
Walkerline, Tiler. Present membership, 35.
At one time, this was one of the strongest
lodges in the county, but of late years the
un'iniii'i'ship has decreased to a considerable ex-
tent.

Several granges and farmers' clubs have
been organized throughout the township, but
at present there are none in existence.

320

HISTOKY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

CHAPTER XI.X*

FILLMORE TOWNSHIP— BOUNDARIES— FIRST GROWTH— PIONEERS— MILLS— SCHOOLS-
CHURCHES, ETC.

•• To the West, to the West, there is wealth to be
won ;
The prairie to break is the work to be done —
We'll try it, we'll do it, and never despair
While there's light in the sunshine and breath in

the air ;
The bold independence that labor shall buy,
Shall strengthen our hands and forbid us to sigh.
Away, far away. let us hope for the best,
And build up new homes in the land of the West."

— Mackay,

THE great rapidity with which certain
portions of the Western States have been
explored, mapped out and settled, and the
numerous changes that have been made by
bringing the vast fertile prairies, but a few
years ago the roving grounds of savage In-
dians and vast hereis of deer and buffalo, into
cultivation, furnishing happy homes for hun-
dreds of the restless population of the South
and East, have excited the wonder and admi-
ration of the entire country. Especially is
this true of that portion of Montgomery
County to which this chapter is devoted; al-
though settled in a very early day, it is, com-
paratively speaking, a new country. Fill-
more is situated in the southeastern part of
the county, and extends from Witt Township
on the north to Bond County on the 'south, a
distance of ten miles. Shelby and Fayette
Counties form its eastern, while East Fork
Township forms its western boundary. It is
drained chiefly by the East Fork of Shoal
Creek, a stream of some size, flowing in a
southerly direction, near the western part.
A stream of considerable importance has

"By (;. s. wry.

its source in Section 10, and flows in a south-
easterly direction, chaining that part of the
township. Hurricane Creek and Dry Fork
are the principal water-courses in the south-
ern portion, and along which the first settle-
ments of the county were made. The surface
is undulating and gently rolling in the north-
ern half, while along the course of Shoal
Creek the land is more broken, being consid-
erably hilly in some localities. The soil like
that of the greater part of the county, is a
rich, dark loam, sand mixed in certain places
near the streams, and very fertile. Clay un-
derlies a great deal of the surface, making it
easily drained. Gravel beds and sand banks
of considerable extent are found in the vicin-
ity of Shoal Creek and other water-courses,
sufficient for building roads and all other
practical purposes. The southern part was
at one time covered with a dense growth of
deciduous timber, among which was a very
large proportion of walnut, maple, oak, hick-
ory and other valuable varieties. Much of
this was used for rails, and destroyed by the
early settlers in clearing their lands, as they
then had no adequate idea of its value. Some
years since, many thousand feet of black wal-
nut were exported annually, besides immense
quantities of oak, maple and sycamore lum-
ber. There is still a good supply left, which,
by judicious management, will supply all de-
mands for lumber for many years to come.

The forest productions in Fillmore are not
excelled in quantity or quality by any other
township in Montgomery County.

FILLMORE TOWNSHIP.

321

The principal crops to which the farmer
looks for his maintenance are wheat, to which
the soil seems peculiarly adapted; corn, rye,
oats, hay, vegetables, fruits — in short, all the
productions common to Southern Illinois.

The first settlements in what is now known
as Fillmore Township were made by a small
band of pioneers from the State of Kentucky,
as early as the year 1817. The previous year
had been spent by them within the present
limits of Bond County, although at that time
there were no civil divisions, Illinois being a
Territory.

Being considerably harassed by Indians,
they were compelled to fortify, which they
did by building a block- house, where the en-
tire company took refuge. Several attacks
were made at different times on this fort, but
so obstinately was it defended by the brave
little garrison that the savages, finding they
could accomplish nothing by their hostility,
finally withdrew, and gave the settlers no fur-
ther trouble. Parties from this little settle-
ment passed through the southern part of the
present township of Fillmore in one of their
hunting excursions, and, being favorably im-
jiressed with the appearance of a tract of land
on Hurricane Creek, induced the company to
locate there, which they did in the sj)ring of
1817. This was the first settlement by white
men in Montgomery County. Among this
little band of pioneers were Harris Revis,
Henry Hill, Levi Casey, Aaron Casey, John
Lee, and a number of others whose names
have faded from memory. Their little cabins
were built in a group around a large spring,
from which each family obtained its supply
of water. The Indians at that time had un-
disputed sway, but caused the settlers no an-
noyance after they located in this locality.
Bears aud wolves infested the woods in great
numbers, proving very destructive to the live
stock, which had to be closely watched to in-

sure safety. It required will, nerve and a
determined resolution to successfully grapple
with the many serious obstacles presented;
yet, despite all the hardships and trials
through which they were called to pass, the
pioneers flourished and were happy. As time
passed, the different members of the little
community selected the lands destined for
their future homes.

Revis located his claim on Dry Fork Creek,
near the southeast corner of the township,
where he lived until the year 1840, at which
time he died. Several grandchildren are liv-
ing in Fillmore and adjoining townships.
Henry Hill entered a piece of land adjoining
that on which Revis settled.

Both of these places are now owned by
Samuel Hill, a grandson of Henry Hill, and
one of the well-to-do citizens of Fillmore.

John Hill improved a farm in the vicinity,
which is still in the possession of his descend-
ants.

Levi Casey settled on the place since known
as the Briggs farm. He sold the place in
1837, and. with his family, moved to Shelby
County, where he afterward died.

Aaron Casey, a son-in-law of Revis, settled
on a part of the Samuel Hill farm, which
was his home for twenty-three years. A por-
tion of this place was improved by John Lee,
also, who purchased it about one year after
its settlement by Revis. Joseph Wright was
one of the little community. The place which
was selected for his home is now owned by
his son, Jarrett Wright, a prominent citizen
of the township. A part of the Wright farm
was improved by Henry Piatt, who came to
the State in the year 1818. He was an up-
right, honorable man, and one of the leading
citizens in the community. He became the
possessor of a considerable tract of land, and
a number of his grandchildren are now liv-
ing in the county. One of the most promi-

322

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

neut pioneers of Fillmore, and one who did
as much, if not more, than any other man to
advance its material interests, was Newton
Coffee, father of Cleveland S. Coffee. Iden-
tified with the early history of the county, his
life demands more than a mere passing no-
tice. He was born among the hills of Ken-
tucky, where were passed his youth and early
manhood in those rugged out-door pursuits
which so well fitted him for a pioneer. When
he came to Illinois, the terrritoy now embraced
in Montgomery County wan a wilderness, into
which but few white men had penetrated.
The one small settlement already referred to
was the only spot within its borders cheered
by the presence of civilization, and of this
little community he had no knowledge until
nearly one year passed away. He built a
little cabin in the timber near the Bond
County line, and lived there for several years,
with no neighbors nearer than eight miles.
This was in the fall of 1817. After locating
his place here, he went farther north and en-
tered the land where Hillsboro now stands,
twenty acres of which he afterward donated
for the county seat. He died in the year
1 8 lit. at a good old age. The place where he
settled lies in Section 18, South Fillmore,
and is at present owned by his son, Cleveland
S. Coffee. A number of early settlers locat-
ed in the vicinity of the Coffee farm in 1819
and 1820, among whom were Easton Whitten,
Colbert Blair. Thomas Beck and Stephen
White. They were all Kentuckians. Whit-
ten bought a tract of land on Dry Fork,
which he improved the year after coming to
the State. The place is now in possession of
his son, Thomas Whitten. Beck settled an
eighty-acre lot lying just north of Coffee's
farm. This comprises the early settlement
of the southern part of the township, as far
as we have been able to learn its history.
Other early settlers there probably were whose

names properly belong to the foregoing list,
but in- oxvc research we have been unable to
obtain any particulars concerning them. The
northern part of the township was settled by
emigrants from Kentucky, Tennessee and
North Carolina, but it was a number of years
after the settlements already referred to were
made. Among the first to locate and improve
farms in North Fillmore were James Card,
T. J. Todd, John Alexander and M. Mason.

The oldest settler now living in the county
is Cleveland S. Coffey. He was fifteen years of
age when his father came to this part of the
State, and for sixty-five years has been a res-
ident of Fillmore Township. He is still a
vigorous man for his years, and in possession
of all his mental faculties. The writer will
always remember the pleasant hours passed
under the hospitable roof of this stanch old
pioneer while gleaning the facts of history
contained in these pages.

For many years during the early history of
this section of the country, the lives of the
pioneers were not enviable ones. Their trials
were numerous, and the hardships they were
called upon to encounter would discourage the
bravest-hearted of the present day. Hard as
was the life in the wilderness, it had its seasons
of recreation, when the pioneers would meet,
recount various incidents, talk over old times,
and thus relieve the monotony of their iso-
lated situation. Light hearts, good health
and clear consciences made the toilsome hours
pass pleasantly, and old men now living whose
youth was passed amid the stirring scenes of
those times look back with pleasure to the
old days as the most enjoyable period of their
existence. The nearest market where grocer-
ies could be obtained was St. Louis, then but
a mere village, fifty-five miles distant. Flour
aud meal were obtained at Pad's Mill, about
ten miles nearer. Many of the early families
manufactured their own meal. Cleveland Cof-

FILLMORE TOWNSHIP

323

fey gives the following description of a primi-
tive hand-mill used by his father : ' ' The top of
a solid hickory stump was hollowed out to the
depth of about eight or ten inches. Over this
was suspended a heavy iron wedge made fast to
a pole, after the manner of an old-fashioned
well-sweep. By working this up and down
with considerable force, the corn in the hol-
low could be crushed and a very good meal
obtained." Wild meat of all kinds was
plenty, on which the pioneer's family fared
sumptuously. Tanned deer-skins formed the
wearing apparel of the men, while the women
clothed themselves with a coarse cloth manu-
factured from cotton, of which each settler
raised a goodly patch. The first mill in Fill-
more was erected in the year 1825, by John
Beck. This was merely a tread-mill, which
the proprietor operated with a yoke of oxen,
and. although an insignificant affair, it aU-
swered the purpose for which it was intend-
ed, and for a number of years did all the
grinding for the entire neighborhood. New
machinery was afterward supplied, and, alto-
gether, the mill was in operation about twenty
years. Benjamin Rose built a little horse-
mill in Section 18 about the year 1838, and
operated it ten years, when he sold it to a
man by the name of Austin. Austin kept the
machinery running several years, and did a
very nourishing business.

The next mill of which we have any knowl-
edge was a steam-mill, built by John Hill,
near where the village of Van Burensburg
now 6tands, in 1840. The mill had but one
buhr, and was kept running almost constantly
in order to supply the increasing demand for
its products. It was sold to Harris Wright
and James Kirk in 1842, and by them operat-
ed until the year 1846. It was torn down a
number of years ago. The first lumber man-
ufactured in the county was sawed by hand
with a whip-saw, and used in the construction

of Newton Coffey's dwelling house. Some
of this lumber can still be seen in the kitchen
of Cleveland Coffey's residence.

A saw-mill was built by John Fuller, in
Fuller's Grove, about four miles west of Van
Burensburg, in the year 1840. It was in oper-
ation a little more than one year, when it
was sold and removed from the township. A
steam saw-mill was built on Shoal Creek,
near where the Vandalia road crosses that
stream, many years ago. It was in operation
but a very short time. A great amount of
lumber has been sawn in the forests skirting
the several creeks, by portable mills, at differ-
ent times. Several of these mills are in oper-
ation at the present time, and the lumber
business still continues to be an important
industry.

In educational matters, Fillmore is not be-
hind her sister townships in the county.
Her citizens have always taken special inter-
est and pride in the public schools, which
have been well sustained and patronized. Its
school history begins with the year 1825, or
with the advent of Mr. Hatchett, the first
teacher. This gentleman taught school in a
little log house that had formerly been used
as a residence by the family of Aaron Casey.
It was situated in the southeast corner of the
township, on Hurricane Creek.

The following winter, Benjamin Bobbins
taught school in a cabin that stood on the
east bank of Shoal Creek, near the eastern
boundary. Josiah Whitten was one of the
pioneer teachers of the county, having taught
several terms in the southern part of Fillmore,
when the early settlements were in the infancy
of their existence.

In these early schools, nothing but the
simplest elementary instruction was imparted,
as many of the first teachers were men of lim-
ited intellectual attainments. Reading, writ-
ing, spelling, and the rudiments of arithmetic,

324

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

comprised the sum total of branches taught.

The first schoolhouses were built of round
logs, undressed, with chunks in the cracks
and daubed with mud. Puncheon at the bot-
tom and split sticks at the top> were the chim-
ney material, with pounded dirt jambs and
packed mud hearths. No floors were laid;
the earth being smoothed off by constant use,
became in time very compact.

There were puncheon and plank seats, with-
out backs. A long window around the room,
with a rough writing-desk against the wall,
complete the picture of one of these primitive
college buildings. This may be taken as a
sample and general description of the condi-
tion of the schoolhouses in this part of the
county from the year 1820 to 1845.

The first frame schoolhouse was built about
the year 1845, near the little village of Van
Burensburg, and was known as the Easley
Schoolhouse. The township has a number of
good, substantial frame schoolhouses, all well
furnished with patent seats and desks, globes,
maps, charts, and other necessary requisites
to education. The old cramped ideas of in-
struction have long since been abandoned,
and the schools are now enlivened by an in-
vasion of fresh ideas and methods, which have
been well received throughout the township.
Near the Dry Fork of Hurricane Creek, a
burial-ground was staked off in the year 1821.
This graveyard is the site of an old battle-
field, where at one time, many years before,
an encounter took place between a detach-
ment of United States troops and a band of
hostile Indians. Many human bones, musket
balls, spear-heads, knives, etc., have been
brought to the surface at different times,
while graves were being digged. The first
interment in this cemetery was that of Ste-
phen White, who died in the summer of 1 82 1 .
The first marriage in what is now Fillmore
Township took place in 1822, the contracting

parties being'John Revis, son of Harris Re vis,
and Patsey, daughter of Newton Coffey. The
ceremony was performed by Squire Levi Casey.
A daughter of John Beck was the first white
child born in the county. This birth oc-
curred in 1819, the same year that the fam-
ily came to the State.

As the country increased in population,
good roads became a necessity, and many of
the old crooked by-ways were abandoned.
The Vandalia road, which passes through the
township in a southeasterly direction, was the
first regularly established highway. A county
road was surveyed and established through
the southern part of the township in an early
day, the exact date of which was not learned.
Many other roads were laid out and improved
as the settlements increased, but, as none of
them were roads of much importance, a f urther
description is unnecessary.

Van Burensburg is a small village, situated
near the southwest corner of the township,
about fifteen miles from the city of Hillsboro.
It was founded by Joshua White, in the year
1842, who kept a store there for several years.
There are now one store, post office, black-
smith shop and two churches. The post office
was established about the year 1837, with
Benjamin Roberts as Postmaster. The sec-
ond Postmaster was Robert White. It is
kept at present by a maD by the name of
Bookstrock. One of the first stores in the
place was kept by a Mr. Eddy, whose stock
of merchandise consisted of groceries, a few
dry goods and a plentiful supply of whisky.
A man by the name of Nathan Harmon was
killed at this pi ace shortly after Eddy started
his saloon, under the following circumstances:
It appears that Harmon was a dissipated,
worthless character, and, when under the
influence of whisky, very quarrelsome and
abusive. Upon the occasion referred to, he
had been drinking rather freely, and, seeing

FILLMORE TOWNSHIP.

835

a stranger pass the door of the saloon, made
some insulting remark to h im. To this speech
the stranger paid no attention, but kept on
his way, whereupon Harmon became very fu-
rious, and started in pursuit, for the purpose,
he said, of killing the "damned scoundrel.''
The stranger tried hard to avoid having any
difficulty with the drunken man, but Harmon,
with many fearful oaths, sprang upon him.
Calmly the stranger met him, turned aside
his high, wild thrusts, and, in return, struck
him several well-directed and crushing blows
on the chest and head. Harmon fell, and in
a short time expired. The citizens regarded
it as a just punishment, and no arrest was
made.

The early pioneers were not derelict in
their religious duties, as is proved by the fact
that devotional exercises were conducted in
the. little settlement on Hurricane Creek the
first year in which it was founded. These
social meetings were held as often as circum-
stances would admit, in the houses of differ-
ent members of the community, and were led
by some one selected on account of his pecu-
liar fitness. The first church established was in
1820 or 1821, by the Regular Baptists, who
were more numerous than any other religious
denomination. This church was organized
under the pastoral labors of Elder James
Street, a preacher who figures rather promi-
nently in the early church history of Mont-
gomery County. He was a man of strong
powers of intellect, to which were added fair
scholastic attainments and a persuasive power
of oratory rarely excelled. He assisted in
the organization of all the early churches of
his sect in the county, and of him it can truly
be said, ' ' his life was spent in traveling about
doing good. "

The first congregation was known as the
Hurricane Creek Regular Baptist Church, to
which nearly all the early settlers on Dry

Fork and Hurricane Creek belonged. For
several years, public services were held in
private dwelling houses, but in course of time
a log church was built, which stood until the
year 1862. At that date, a frame edifice was
erected, in which the congregation has wor-
shiped until the present time. Among the
pastors of this church were the following:

Henry Sayers, James Street, Prather

and Jackson Williford.

The Methodists held meetings at several
different places in the township during the
early days of its history, as did also the Pres-
byterians. Among the pioneer preachers of
the latter denomination can be named Revs.
Knight, Barlow and Finley. The Shiloh
Cumberland Presbyterian Church was in ex-
istence as early as the year 1837. It was
organized by the Rev. William Finley, in the
little village of Van Burensburg, with a con-
siderable membership. The first ordained
Elders were John Blair, James R. Abell and
Benjamin Rose. Since its organization, the
church has had seventeen ordained Elders.
The church was re-organized several years
ago, and the place of meeting changed from
Van Burensburg to a point about four miles
west, where a neat house of worship was
erected. The following preachers have min-
istered to the congregation: Joseph Barlow,
Joel Knight, Smith, William Hutchin-
son, Williain Turner, J. B. Mitchell,

Linxwiler, Porterfield, Deather-

idge, Reppito and T. W. McDavid.

The Methodist Church, known as Fuller's
Chapel, was organized at Fuller's Grove many
years ago. A house of worship stood a little
north of the grove. It was burned in the year
1880, and since that time the congregation
have met for worship in different places. The
Lutherans have an organization in the east-
ern part of the township, but nothing was
learned concerning this church.

326

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

The United Baptist Church was organized
by Elder Richard Keel in the year I860, at
the East Fork Schoolhouse. The first mem-
bers of this congregation were the following:
Richard Blackburn and wife, George Black-
burn, Cyrus Whitten and wife, Cleveland S.
Coffey, Moses Fuller, Malinda Hurd, Anna
Whitten and Betsey Evans.

Richard Keel was the first pastor, in which
capacity he acted for two years. Richard
Gregg succeeded Keel, and preached about
eighteen years. He was followed by David
Barber, who had charge of the congregation
two years. Newton Coffey has preached
for the church about six months. Their pres-
ent church edifice is situated about one mile
and a half northeast of Fuller's Grove, and
was built in the year 1861.

The Methodist Church at Van Burensburg
was organised about the year 1877. They
have a good house of worship, which cost
about $1,200.

In addition to the churches already enu-
merated, there are two other organizations in
the township, of which no particulars were
obtained bv the writer.

Fillmore's war record stands out untar-
nished. She might risk her reputation on the
evidences of loyalty she exhibited during
those dark hours when the gallant ship of
state was almost stranded upon the rugged
rocks of disunion. She furnished her full
quota of volunteers, and more. Indeed, Fill-
more could not have done otherwise, as loy-
alty is a ruling passion among her sons. But
few firesides were unrepresented where age
would permit. Those remaining at home con-
tributed freely and generously of their means,

i whereby they sought to reward the brave boys
who donned the blue. We should be pleased

! to name each volunteer from this township,
and point out his destiny, but space forbids.
Broken firesides ever remind us that many a
brave boy who responded to his country's call,
went, but never returned; and, although no
towering shaft nor storied urn marks their
last resting-place, a grateful Republic and a
grateful people will cherish their memory,

; and the nation's fame and greatness will be

t their appropriate monument.

" Their swords are rust ; their good steeds dust ;
Their souls are with the saints, we trust."

BUTLER GROVE TOWNSHIP.

327

CHAPTER XX.*

BUTLER GROVE TOWNSHIP— BOUNDARIES— SOIL— TIMBER— EARLY SETTLERS— ROADS— EDUCA-
TIONAL AND RELIGIOUS-VILLAGE OF BUTLER— BUSINESS INTERESTS— SECRET

SOCIETIES, ETC.

IN obtaining the fragments of history con-
tained in the following pages, we bave
been obliged to rely largely for much of the
information upon persons who have long
been residents of the township, and whose
lives have been identified with its develop-
ment. It may be that some of the facts and
dates which are given are only approxima-
tions to the truth ; other facts of interest may
be omitted, while others still may not be ac-
curately recorded, jet we believe that the fol-
lowing statements can be relied upon as a
brief synopsis of history free from any seri-
ous errors.

Butler Grove was one of the first settled
townships of Montgomery County, and was
surveyed in the year 1819, at which date
there was but one white family living with-
in its boundaries. It lies in the central part
of the county, with the following townships
as boundaries: Raymond on the onrth, Irving
on the east, Hillsboroonthe south, and North
Litchfield on the west. Like the greater
part of the county, Butler Grove is composed
of fine, fertile prairie lands, interspersed with
numerous groves and thickly wooded mounds.
There are no very large hills, although the
southern part is somewhat broken. But lit-
tle of the land, however, is too broken for
cultivation. The most extensive wooded
districts are in the northern, northeastern
and southern parts. There is also a grove of

* By G. N. Berry.

many acres in the central part of the town-
ship, known as Ware's Grove, having derived
its name from an old settler, who formerly
resided there. It is estimated that the wood-
land of this township comprises about one-
tenth of its area, the remainder being rich, roll -
ing prairie, and contains some of the finest
farming lands of Southern Illiuois. The qual-
ity of the soil on the uplands, in the southern
part, is rather inferior for agricultural pur-
poses, although, by proper tillage, remuner-
ative crops are often obtained. The timber
is composed mainly of the following varieties:
Black oak, white oak. hickory, walnut and
cottonwood on the upland, while skirting the
creeks on either side are large willows and
gigantic sycamore. The best timber has dis-
appeared long since, as the lumber business
was carried on quite extensively at an early
date.

This township is watered and drained by
Brush Creek, the Middle Fork of Shoal Creek,
and their tributaries. The former has its
source in the northern part, and flows in a
southwesterly direction, crossing the town-
ship line about one mile west of the village
of Butler. Shoal Creek flows in a south-
easterly direction through the southeast cor-
ner of the township, and receives as a tribu-
tary the East Fork of Brush Creek about one
half mile north of the township line. There
is a small creek in the northern part which
flows in a northerly direction, but it is an in.

328

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

significant stream, being dry the greater
part of the warm season. Aside from the
creeks enumerated, there are no other streams
of importance in the township. During very
rainy seasons these creeks frequently overflow
their banks and do considerable damage to
the farms through which they run, often
times carrying away many rods of fencing,
and sweeping away entire fields of grain.

The early pioneers of this section found no
royal pathway to affluence, and have prob-
ably witnessed as great changes wrought by
the onward march of civilization as any with-
in the limits of the entire State. They came
here when Illinois was in its infancy as a
State and when the great West, particularly
that portion lying west of the Mississippi,
was occupied almost wholly by wild Indian
tribes. They have heard and seen the dy-
ing away of the voyager's song upon our
western waters. They have seen proud cities
rear their regal heads upon the favorite hunt-
ing grounds of the red men, and the iron
horse, the modern civilizer, dart with the
speed of the hurricane along the paths beaten
into the prairie by the hoofs of the buffalo
ages before the white man ever dreamed of
battling with the wilderness of the unknown
West. All these and many other changes
have these hardy pioneers witnessed since
they first made their appearance in this part
of the Mississippi Valley, and opened up its
broad acres to the world's traffic.

The first white settler of Butler Township
was Jacob Cress, whe moved here with his
family during the early part of the year
1818, and located the farm known as the
" Old Cress Farm," now owned by Jacob
Scherer in Section 34. Mr. Cress was from
Indiana, but originally from North Carolina,
from which State he moved in the year 1815.
The journey of this hardy old pioneer to his
new home in the West was replete with many

interesting incidents and stirring adventures,
and many days were required to reach his
destination. It was during the hottest part
of the year that this journey was made, and
the emigrants found it impossible to travel
during the day, owing to the excessive heat
and the immense swarms of flies, which proved
a serious hindrance to the live stock which
Mr. Cress brought with him. At that early
date there was not a regularly laid out road
in the southern part of Illinois, all roads be-
ing mere trails or buffalo paths across the
prairies; so Mr. Cress had nothing by which
to direct his course but these trails and the
stars.

Mr. Cress brought a great deal of live
stock with him to Illinois, part of which con-
sisted of a large drove of hogs. To keep
them from being lost on the prairie, he had
bells put upon them, so the loneliness of
their night journeyings was relieved some-
what by the tinkling music never before
heard in this western country. Mr. Cress
died in the year 1865, full of years and ripe
with honors. By his industry and many
sterling qualities, he did much toward de-
veloping the resources of his township and
bringing it up to its present high standard of
civilization. Of the children of Mr. Cress
there are living at this time one son and four
daughters, all of whom are residents of But-
ler Township.

The next settler was Israel Seward, who
moved from Hamilton County, Ohio, in the
year 1819, and located his home upon what
is known as " Seward's Hill," about one half
mile south of the village of Butler. Mr.
Seward was a noble type of the pioneer, a
man of more than ordinary powers of intel-
lect, and a devoted Christian. Though dead,
he still lives in the influence which he for-
merly exerted upon the community that he
was instrumental in founding. The exact

15VTLER GROVE TOWNSHIP.

329

date of Mr. Seward's death was not obtained.
William Seward, a son, was born in Indiana
one year before the family moved to Illinois.
He was for a number of years mail carrier
between the cities of Hillsboro and Jackson-
ville. His whole life has been identified
with the history of the township and he is
justly considered one of its most prominent
citizens. The original home of Israel Sew-
ard is now owned by his son George C. Sew-
ard, the first white child born in Butler Grove
Township. He was born October 11, 1821,
and has resided at the home he now occupies
for the last thirty-six years. One incident in
the life of Mr. Seward is remembered with
interest by his friends. It was his lot in his
younger days to carry the mails, as we have
stated, between Jacksonville and Hillsboro,
and also between Hillsboro and Alton. At
one time there came a freshet which raised
the waters of Shoal Creek to an immense
height. Mr. Seward tried to cross the creek
with a two horse conveyance, but a part of
the bridge being carried away by the flood,
he found that his vehicle could not with-
stand the force of the current; so driver, car-
riage and horses were carried a considerable
distance down the stream. Mr. Seward got
out of the carriage, and, stepping upon one of
the horses, caught hold of a small elm tree,
which, after becoming thoroughly wet, he
succeeded in climbing. The stream at that
time was about three-fourths of a mile wide,
and the current baffled their efforts to reach
the tree. The logs which were being car-
ried down by the stream would strike the
tree with such foice that he found it ex-
tremely difficult to maintain his hold on the
branches. From his lofty perch he could
see and hear his friends, which served to be-
guile the long, weary hours he was compelled
to pass in his airy prison. He remained in
his uncomfortable quarters all night, and it

was not until 9 o'clock the next day that his
friends succeeded in rescuing him by means
of long poles and a horse trough.

A daughter of Israel Seward. Mrs. Mc-
Gowan, lives in the village of Butler, where
she has resided tbe greater part of her life.
Israel Seward was a cousin of the late Will-
iam H. Seward, who served as Secretary of
State during the administration of President
Lincoln, and whose name is among the
brightest upon the pages of American his-
tory.

Prominent among the early settlers of But-
ler Grove was Obadiah Ware, who came to
Montgomery County in 1823, locating the
west half of the northwest quarter, and the
west half of the northwest quarter of Section
15, upon which land he resided during a
period of fifty-one years. The life of this
good man demands more than a passing no-
tice in these pages. Mr. Ware was a native
of New Hampshire, where he was born in the
year 17'.).j. Beared upon a farm, his early
life was passed in the usual routine of farm
labor, and he grew to rugged manhood amid
the bracing airs of his mountain home, where
he was taught the dignity and nobility of la-
bor, and those lessons of economy and fru-
gality which so well fitted him to encounter
the difficulties incident to the life of a pio-
neer. In 1821, after his marriage, he and
his young bride started for the Far West to
secure a home. Across the great States that
stretched away in unbroken and uninter-
rupted grandeur from the Mississippi east-
ward, they journeyed until they reached the
then diminutive city of St. Louis. He lo-
cated near that city temporarily, remaining
two years, where he engaged in farming.
Having a determination to remove to a point
where land could be entered, he visited Mont-
gomery County, where he entered the land
before referred to. At his home, after a long

330

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

lih'e of usefulness, his wife died in the year
1858. Mr. Ware survived her twenty-eight
years, dying September 24, 1876. The fol-
lowing testimonial appears in biographical
sketches of citizens of Montgomery County,
from which many of the above facts have
been gleaned. " Mr. Ware has been a lead-
ing and influential member of the Lutheran
Church for nineteen years, during which
time he has given liberally of his means for
the dissemination of Gospel truths, and for
the building of houses dedicated to the wor-
ship of God. Educational matters have also
elicited considerable attention from him, and
he has ever been active and generous in his
assistance to every project looking to the ad-
vancement of educational facilities. He
placed a proper and very correct estimate
upon the value of our common school system,
regarding it as invaluable to the State and
the surest bulwark of constitutional liberty."
A very eloquent funeral oration was delivered
over the remains of Mr. Ware by the Rev.
John Hamilton, which has been published
and extensively circulated. Two daughters
and one son of Mr. Ware are still living —
Mrs. Hulda Harris, Elizabeth Wescott and
Benjamin Ware. The old Ware farm is now
owned by William A. Young.

Benjamin Ware, a brother of Obadiah. was
also among the early settlers of the township,
locating upon land adjoining that of his
brother's. Like the former, he was one of
the substantial citizens of the county, and
left a reputation upon which no one dared
cast a single aspersion. A son, Justus Ware,
occupies the farm formerly owned by his
father.

Many other early settlers, additional to
those already mentioned, are entitled to a
notice in these pages. Among these were
William Townsend, who located in the
southern part of the township as early as the

year 1824. He remained here as a citizen
for a number of years. The exact date of his
death could not be ascertained, and none of
his children are living in this part of the
State.

William H. Cass came to the county in the
year 1824, and settled in the northwestern
part of the township, on Section 5. Many
other names could be added to the list al-
ready given, but the dates of their settlement,
and the facts concerning their early life
have been obscured by the lapse of time.

Thus many of the old pioneers who were
prominently identified with the early history
of the township have passed away " as a tale
that is told," many being scattered to other
lands, but by far the greater number have
passed to " that mysterious bourn from which
no traveler ever returns." The first improve-
ment of importance to the pioneer after he
has erected a shelter for himself and family,
is a mill, an industry that always advances
with civilization. The early settlers of
Montgomery County were obliged to go to
St. Louis for their breadstuff's, and several
days were often required to complete the
journey. As early as the year 1823, a mill
was built at Edwardsville, a distance of
thirty-five miles from Hillsboro, which con-
tinued to be the source of supplies during
the following two years. The first mill in
the township was built by Jacob Cress, in
the year 1825, and was known throughout
the entire country as the " horse mill," horses
supplying the power by which the machinery
was run. This mill was kept running day
and night, and supplied flour and meal to
the country within a radius of twelve miles
around, people often coming much farther
and remaining several days in order to get
their grinding done. At that early date, the
threshing machine was unknown, wheat be-
ing tramped out by horses and sifted by hand

BUTLER GROVE TOWNSHIP.

331

at the mill through the large seive made for
that purpose. The mill was run in this way
until 1845, when the old machinery was taken
out, the building remodeled, and new ma-
chinery put in, run by steam. One year
later, a saw was attached. The mill was kept
running a great many years, until the ma-
chinery was worn out. The engine was re-
moved in the year 1881, and taken to the
village of Butler. The old building is still
standing, a monument of the days that were.
The next mill was built by a Mr. Seward,
about one-half mile south of the town of
Butler. This was a combination mill also,
steam supplying the power. It was erected
in the year 1839, birt did not prove a finan-
cial success, as it was built upon a scale too
extensive for the country at that time. In
the enterprise, Mr. Seward became financially
embarrassed, and the mill was in operation
but a short time. Mr. Seward left the mill
standing idle, and went to California, where
he remained for several years, amassing quite
a fortune in the meantime. He afterward
returned home, satisfied his creditors, and
disposed of the mill, which was torn down
and the machinery removed to the village of
Butler.

Another flouring-mill was built by Mr.
Hoffman west of the town of Butler, but the
exact date of its erection could not be ascer-
tained. It was the only mill of its kind in
the township for several years, and was torn
down in 1881.

At the present writing there is a very ex-
tensive mill in process of construction just
north of the village of Butler, which, when
completed, will be one of the most complete
mills in the county. The building is of
brick, 23x30 feet, the engine room 40x18
feet, and was erected at a cost of $4,500.
This mill will have three run of stone, and
a capacity of about thirty-six barrels of flour

per day. The aggregate cost of the mill will
probably reach $6,000. It is owned by J. S.
Emery, late of Ohio, a man who has spent
his life in the milling business.

An extensive creamery was built in the
town of Butler, in the year 1875, at a cost of
$3,500; the apparatus cost $1,600. This fac-
tory was owned by a stock company, and was
known as the Monte Cabonne Creamery Com-
pany. The enterprise proved very remuner-
ative, but was in operation only two years,
being completely destroyed by fire in the year
1877. The loss occasioned by this fire ag-
gregated about $6,000. There have been
several planing-mills in the township at dif-
ferent times, but none of them did business on
a very large scale. D. W. Manners built
and operated a planing mill one-half mile
west of the town of Butler, but it is not in
operation, it having been injured by fire some
time since. Aside from the industries re-
ferred to, there have been no others deserv-
ing of particular mention in the township.

The first roads through Butler Grove were
not laid out with any reference to section
lines. Each settler took the shortest route
across the prairie in order to arrive at his
destination as quickly as possible, and, as a
result, there are a great many zigzag roads,
which have been a source of considerable an-
noyance to the land-owners through whose
farms they pass. Efforts are being made,
however, to have the roads properly estab-
lished, and in' time it will be effected. The
first road that was extensively traveled in
this part of the county was the old Spring-
field road, which passes through Butler Grove
from northeast to southwest. As early as
the year 1825, this was one of the principal
thoroughfares of Southern Illinois. The
Taylorville road runs through the southeast
corner of the township, and intersects the St.
Louis road at a point not far from the south-

332

HISTOKY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

ern township line, near the city of Hillsboro.
The St. Louis mad forms part of the southern
boundary of this township, and is probably
the oldest road in the county.

The township in the main is well supplied
with good roads, which are kept in good con-
dition, as the citizens are alive to all public
improvements. There are no pikes in the
township, owing to a scarcity of gravel.

During the early spring seasons many of
tho roads become well-nigh impassable, es-
pecially those which run through the low
prairie lands, and there seems to be no way
of obviating the difficulty.

There is one railroad that passes through
this township, the Indianapolis & St. Louis,
which affords ample means for farmers to
ship their agricultural products and live
stock. This railroad passes through the
southern part, running northeast to the vil-
lage of Butler, where it describes a curve,
then bears southeast, crossing the southern
boundary line at a point near the Shoal Creek
bridge. This railroad has aided largely in
the development of the township, although
it has had a tendency to affect the business
interests of the town of Butler in such a way
as to discourage business men from locating
th ore, the greater amount of traffic being
taken to the cities of Litchfield and Hills-
boro.

A great deal of attention is given to the
cause of education in this township, and the
schools are among the very best in the State.
" The opportunities for acquiring an educa-
tion in the early pioneer times were scarce,
and books were limited," although a school
was organized as early as the year .1823.
This school was taught in a little log cabin,
located on Section 31. The length of the
term was three months, and the school was
supported by subscription. The name of the
teacher was Mrs. Mary Towusend. The first

schoolhouse was originally a part of the resi-
dence of Capt. Thomas Philips, situated on
Section 29. Reuben Boss assisted Mr.
Philips in fitting it up for school purposes.
This was the only schoolhouse in the south-
western part of the township for a number
of years. The next schoolhouse was a log
cabin built in the year 1839, near where the
Montgomery Schoolhouse now stands, on Sec-
tion 12. The first school taught in this house
was by Miss Mary Burnap. the year after it
was built. One among the first buildings
used for school purposes was part of the res-
idence of Mr. Seward, near the village of
Butler. This building was torn down and
moved to the town many years ago, and now
forms part of the residence of Mr. Crowley.

Butler Grove now has seven schoolhouses,
all good, substantial buildings, five of them
frame, and two of them brick. There are six
whole districts, and five union districts in the
township, and six schools outside of the town
of Butler.

The following-named gentlemen comprise
the present Board of Township Trustees:
William A. Young. Isaac Doyle, Charles W.
Jenkins aiid Kobt. Bryce, the last named being
Township Treasurer and Clerk of the Board.
The school year begins the first Monday in
October, and the average length of the term
is about six and one-half months.

The neat little village of Butler is situated
in the southern part of the township, on the
Indianapolis & St. Louis Ealiroad, and was
at one time one of the most thriving business
points in the county. The growing cities of
Hillsboro and Litchfield, on either side, and
within a few minutes' ride, have affected its
business interests to such an extent that its
traffic is no longer of auy great importance,
although there are several firms that are do-
me a verv fair of amount of business. This
town derived its name from the fact that a

//^.^f^r^A.

LIBRARY

Of 1HE
UNtVEKbl f V ut ILLINOIS

BUTLER GROVE TOWNSHIP.

335

great many of ito early settlers came from
Butler County, Ohio. The village was built
upon land formerly belonging to William
Seward, and was laid out by him in the year
1853. The first survey of lots was made by
James Starr, who surveyed eighty-six lots
and within a short time afterward the re-
maining lots were surveyed and laid out by
a Mr. Bayless. The first store was kept by
Williain Wood, who built a very large and
substantial brick building upon the east side
of the principal street, about one square north
of the railroad. Mr. W T ood kept a general
stock of merchandise in his store, and was
for a number of years one of the leading
merchants of Montgomery County. This
store building was completely destroyed by
fire during the conflagration which swept
away the greater part of the town, and of
which a more extended notice will be given
further on in these pages. There were a
number of other business houses built and
operated successfully, but the writer was un-
able to obtain any authentic facts concerning
them. At one time in the history of this
town there was more grain aud live stock
handled here than there was at any other
town in the county outside of the city of
Litchfield. The grain trade is still an im-
portant industry, and is carried on by the
Brown Bros. , who own the warehouse, and
buy and ship grain during the entire year.
The town was incorporated in the year
1865. The first schoolhouse built in the vil-
lage was erected iii the year 1857, by John
McGowan; an addition was put to it eight
years after, so that it consisted of two rooms.
When there were more pupils than the house
could accommodate, the deficiency was met
by securing t e use of rooms in private dwell-
ing houses. In the year 1863, the present
handsome and commodious school building
was erected. It is a two-story brick build-

ing, containing four large and handsomely
furnished school rooms, and is siu - mounted
by a lofty steeple. The location is an emi-
nence on the eastern slope of Seward's Hill,
in the southwestern part of the town, and
commands an extensive view of the surround-
ing country. This building was erected at
a cost of $11,000, and is one of the finest and
most completely furnished schoolhouses in
Montgomery County. The first school in the
village was taught by Charles Seward, in the
year 1S57. This school lasted but two
months, and was supported by subscription.
Among the early teachers were George Pais-
ley, Edmund Keeler, Charles Parks, Jesse

Barrett, Rev. Daniel Lee and Rev. Mize.

The last named was a Baptist preacher of
considerable ability, and, in addition to his
duties as teacher, he ministered to the Bap-
tist Church during the time that he remained
in the village. The schools are, at the pres-
ent writing, under the efficient management
of Prof. Nathan T. Veatch, A. M., assisted
by Lucy Stuckey, Josephine Wilson and
Grace Bryce. The average attendance dur-
ing the past year was 135. The citizens of
Butler are justly proud of their schools,
which, in point of discipline and thorough-
ness of the work done, will compare favorably
with the best conducted schools in the State.
The first physician to locate in Butler was
Charles Harper, who came to Illinois in
company with his early friend, ex-Gov. Bis-
sell, with whom he practiced his profession
for a number of years. He is not at present
a practicing physician, having retired from
the profession several years ago on account
of his advanced age and infirmities incidenl
thereto. The date of his location in Butler
was the year 1857, and he is still a residenl
of the village.

The following list comprises the physicians
who have practiced medicine in Butler at

336

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

different times: Sargent, J. B. White,

Jesse Stick, C. R. Ross, Daniel Schadron,
P. L. Brown, Benjamin Perlee, J. H. Kes-
ler, A. Gifford. The present physician is
Dr. M. L. Moyer, of whom a more extended
notice will be given in the biographical de-
partment of this work.

Henry Richmond was the first Postmaster
of the town. The office was established
sometime in the year 1856, and was the first
post office in the township.

Bryant McReynolds kept the first hotel in
the Butler House in the year 1858. This
house is still standing, and is kept at present
by Henderson Howard, who has been in the
hotel business here for a number of years
past. The business of Butler is represented
by the^following parties and firms :

J. W. Weisner, M. D. , druggist and dealer
in groceries, notions and fancy articles.
Dr. Weisner keeps a very complete stock of
goods, and reports his business good.

Hoes & Bros., is the leading dry goods
house in the town. They also keep a line of
boots and shoes, hats and caps, and ready-
made clothing. Their business is in a pros-
perous condition, and their stock represents
capital to the amount of several thousand
dollars.

H. Boss keeps a shoe-shop and restau-
rant.

N. J. Rhodes, dealer in dry goods, boots,
shoes and groceries.

Webber, merchant tailor.

Robert Bryce, blacksmith and dealer in ag-
ricultural implements.

Brown & Bro. , grain buyers and stock
dealers. This firm is one of the strongest
grain firms in the county, owning warehouses
here, and a large elevator in Hillsboro.

Robert Henderson, barber.

J. C. Sammons and Conrad Hentus, black-
smiths.

William N. Brookman, Henry Wilson,
Hiram Nail and James White, carpenters.

J. C. Emery, miller.

H. Howard, veterinary surgeon.

The Odd Fellows and the Masonic fratern-
ities both have lodges in Butler. Butler
Lodge, No. 617, I. O O. F., was organized
in the year 1865, with the following-named
persons as charter members: Henry Rich-
mond, G. W. Brown, Jr., W. B. McReynolds,
Samuel Berry, Alexander Gray, William
Williamson and George Grassell. The char-
ter was issued October 11, of the above year,
by A. S. Barry, G. M. The present officers
of this lodge are as follows: Daniel Pope,
N. G. ; A. D. Washburne, V. G. : George
Sharpe, Secretary; George W. Brown, Treas-
urer; William N. Brookman, Warden; Fred
Luddcke, I. G. ; R. B. Hough, O. G. ; S. M.
Stuckey, Conductor; C. O. Brown, R. S. N.
G. ; W. A. Weisner, L. S. N. G. ; James
Duke, R. S. V. G. ; A. H. Brown. L. S. V.
G. ; T. S. Hoes, R. S. S. : M. L. Moyer, L. S. S. ;
W. A. Weisner, M. L. Moyer, Fred Luddcke,
F. S. Hoes, R. B. Hough, Trustees. The
lodge numbers about forty members, and
meets every Saturday night in the hall which
they own in connection with the Masonic
fraternity.

Butler Lodge, No. 459, A., F. & A. M.,
was established in 1865, with nine charter
members. The first officers of this lodge
were Samuel Holmes, W. M. ; James Rogers,
S. W. ; J. A. Roth. J. W.; C. M. Ross, Sec-
retary; William Wood, Treasurer; J. Judd,
S. D.; M. Helm, J. D.; G. W. Van Sandt,
Tiler. The first petition was presented Aug-
ust 1. 1865, by Thomas T. Eliman. The
present officers are: G. W. Brown, Jr.,
W. M.; M. M. Stuckey, S. W.; Isaac Doyle,
J. W. ; Charles O. Brown, Secretary; H. S.
Stanley, Treasurer; W. G. Diddle, S. D.;
William Eliman, J. D. ; John Van Dorn,

BUTLER GROVE TOWNSHIP

337

Tiler. There are about forty-five members
of this lodge, and it is in good working con-
dition. The hall in which both lodges meet
is very nicely furnished, and is situated on
the main street of the village. It was built
in the year 1866.

Several very destructive fires for so small a
place have visited Butler at different periods
dm-ing its history. In 1866, the large store
building occupied by J. R. Roth, near the
railroad, and the saloon adjoining it, were to-
tally destroyed by fire, entailing a very
heavy loss upon the owners of the property.
The planing-mill of D. W. Manners, located
in the western part of the town, was burned
to the ground in the year 1867. In the
spring of 1875, the dwelling belonging to
William Van Sandt, in the northern part of
the village, adjoining the blacksmith shop of
Robert Bryce. took fire, and, before the
flames could be checked, the building was al-
most entirely consumed. The most destruc-
tive fire that ever visited Butler was the con-
flagration of 1877, which swept away an en-
tire block of buildings on the east side of
the main street, opposite the Butler House.
Concerning this fire we copy the following
account from the revised village ordinance of
December, 1871. " On the night of the first
or the morning of the second day of October,
1877, a fire broke out in the building adjoin-
ing Seward's Hall and continued its destruc-
tive work until the building and the hall,
containing all the village records, papers
and other property belonging to the village
were consumed by the devouring elements
against all the attempts made to save them."
Later, in the same year, the creamery was
burned, but to this fire we have already re-
ferred.

The religious history of this township dates
from tho first settlement, although there were
no churches organized for a number of years

later. Religious services were held from
house to house, and it was o,uito a number
of years before any of the denominations
gained sufficient strength to erect places of
public worship. The first regularly organ-
ized church, of which there is any authentic
record, is the Montgomery Methodist Episco-
pal Church, about five miles north of Hills-
boro, and about the same distance northeast
of Butler. This church was organized in the
year 1836, and consisted of the following
members: James Osborne and wife, Michael
Webber, Mrs. Sarah Webber, Henry Nichols,
Mrs. Ellen Nichols, Joseph Webber, Mrs.
Eunice L. Webber, James Wiley, Mrs. Sarah
Wiley, Nicholas Webber, Albert Dryer and
Mrs. Eunice Dryer. The church was organ-
ized under the ministerial labors of the Rev.
Hall. For a number of years the con-
gregation worshiped in a schoolhouse near
where their church building now stands.
The neat and comfortable house in which the
congregation now worship was built in the
year 1872. The building is frame, 40x60 feet,
and was erected at a cost of $2,000. It was
dedicated the latter part of the year 1872,
by the Rev. C. P. Baldwin. It belongs to
the Irving and Butler Circuit, and is at pres-
ent ministered to by Rev. W. C. Howard, of
the latter place. The Cherry Grove Method-
ist Episcopal Church, situated about three
and a half miles northwest of Butler, was es-
tablished as early as the year 1838, at which
time it had a considerable membership, the
names of whom were not obtained, as the
early records of the church have been lost.
From some cause or other, this church so
declined that in a few years after its organi-
zation there remained of it but a few scat-
tered families. It was re-organized in the
year 1851, when the church for the first time
elected Trustees, and assumed the name of
Cherry Grove Church. The following are

338

HISTORY OF MONTGOA1ERY COUNTY.

the names of those who assumed membership
at. its re-organization: John Nail, Mrs. Martha
Nail, Nathan Nail. Mrs. Sarah Nail, Mrs.
Susan Williams, Anderson Walker and wife,
Manasseh Camp and wife, William Williams
and wife, James Roberts and wife and Mrs.
Sarah Baker. The congregation originally
worshiped in a private dwelling house, upon
the farm now belonging to D. C. Burr is.
Their present house of worship was erected
in the year 1856, at a cost of about $1,600.
This church is one of the points on the But-
ler and Irving Circuit, and is at present en-
joying the pastoral labors of Rev. W. C.
Howard.

In the year 1856, the Butler Methodist
Episcopal Church was organized by Rev.
Boon. This was the first church estab-
lished in Butler, and consisted of the follow-
ing members: Mrs. Alexander Gray, Moses
Berry, Mrs. Eliza Berry, Mrs. J. M. Ghas-
ton, Thomas Wood, William Williamson,
James Wood and wife and Mrs. Benaiah
Kelly. The first preacher who ministered
to the congregation was the Rev. J. E. Lind-
ley. Since its organization it has had the

services of the following pastors: Revs.

Aldridge, Calric, R. W. Travis. T. S.

Johnson. O. E. Orr. J. H. Holloway, W. F.
Lowe, M. M. Cooper, J. D. Bodkin, R. M.
Beech, J. W. Lapham, E. D. Randall and
W. C. Howard. Their house of worsihp is
a very neat, substantial frame building, lo-
cated in the western part of the village, and
cost the sum of $2,500. It was built in the
year 1867, and dedicated the year following.
The present membership of this church is
about seventy-five or eighty, a number con-
siderably smaller than it was several years
ago, many families who once belonged hav-
ing removed from the village.

The Presbyterian Church of Butler was
organized in the year 1858, in the old school-

house, by a committee, consisting of -the fol-
lowing persons: Rev. R. M. Roberts, minis-
ter; F. W. Washbume, M. D., and J. F.
Ecklfs, Elders. The names of the original
members are as follows: Mrs. W. H. Harper,
Mrs. Catharine Coudy, Israel Seward, Will-
iam Seward, Mrs. Mary Cunningham, Mrs.
Martha Bumap, Robert Bryce. S. M.
Hedges, Mrs. Deliverance Hugg, Mrs. Mary
McReynolds, Mrs. Steere and Mrs. Sarah
Ware. The first pastor who ministered to
the church was Rev. R. W. Roberts. Since
then the following ministers have preached

for the church: Rev. W. L. Mitchell,

Todd, Mr. Cornelius V. Canfort, licentiate,
Rev. Lougheed, Mr. Moses Paisley, licen-
tiate, and Rev. J. E. Spillman. The last-
named minister had charge of the church
from 1872 until the year 1881, and was a
man of a high order of intellect and a writer
of considerable note. The pastor who has
charge of the church at present is Rev. A. S.
Hughey, a recent graduate from Wabash Col-
lege, Ind. The membership numbers about
sixty-five. The house of worship in which
the congregation meets is a beautiful frame
building located in the southwestern part of
the village. It was built in the year 1864,
and was dedicated July 3 of the same year,
Rev. T. W. Hynes preaching the dedication
sermon, R. M. Robinson assisting in the serv-
ices. The house cost about $2,200. A
Sunday school is maintained the entire year,
with an average attendance of 100 scholars.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church, known
as Ware's Grove Church, was organized De-
cember 24, 1S60, by Rev. J. Livingood, with
a membership of five persons — Jacob W.
Scherer, Henry Meisenheimer, Mrs. Rachel
Meisenheimer, Mrs. Mary Scherer and Mrs.
Rebecca Cress. Their present membership
is forty-five, among whom are some of the
first citizens of the township. The congrega-

BUTLER GROVE TOWNSHIP.

339

tiun built the house in which they now wor-
ship, in the year 1862. It was dedicated in
December of the same year, the dedication
sermon being preached by Rev. George A.
Bowers.

A society known as the Farmers' Club was
organized in the year 1879, for the purpose
of a mutual interchange of views relating to
agriculture, stock raising, fruit growing,
and all the subjects pertaining to the farmer's
occupation. The exercises were frequently
varied by a literary programme, music and
original essays upon a variety of topics. The
meetings were held weekly, to which the pub-
lic were invited, and any one who so desired
could participate in the exercises. The offi-
cers consisted of a President, Vice President,
Secretary and Treasurer. This society was
finally merged into the Grange, a lodge of
which was organized at Butler in the year
1871. This lodge ceased to exist several
years since, and facts concerning its organ-
ization, first officers and length of time it
lasted could not be obtained.

Butler Township has a war record of which
her citizens feel justly proud, having sent
eighty men to the front to do battle for the
country during the dark days of the rebell-
ion. Of this number sixty-six returned at
the close of the war, twelve having been
killed in battle, and two lost, of whom noth-
ing has ever been heard.

There has never been a nnvrder committed
in the township, and but one suicide, as far
as known. The facts concerning this suicide
were related to the writer by Jacob Cress,
and are as follows: Mr. Cress, when but a
boy, met a man by the name of Stewart in the
highway, near the home of the former.
Cress had been hunting, and carried a guti,
which Stewart asked him for, as he said he
wished to look at it. Cress at once handed
him the gun; but no sooner had Stewart
gotten hold of it than he placed the muzzle
to his forehead and tried to discharge it with
a long stick. He failed in this attempt to
take his life, being foiled by Cress, who tried
to take the gun away from him. Finding
that he could not succeed in taking his life
by shooting himself, he took from his pocket
a large, dull knife, and deliberately cut and
mangled his throat in such a horrible manner
that he died the next morning. It appeared
that Stewart was insane, though he regained
consciousness before he died.

We have, in the foregoing pages, tried to
give a brief and impartial history of Butler
Grove Township from its earliest settlement
up to the present time. We are indebted for
many of the facts and dates to Jacob Cress,
Charles Jenkius and Justus Ware, to each of
whom the thanks of the writer are due for
the courteous and gentlemanly manner in
which the desired information was given.

340

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

RAYMOND TOWNSHIP

CHAPTER XXI.*

BOUNDARIES — EARLY SETTLEMENT— SCHOOLS— CHURCHES— BUSINESS
INTERESTS— THE FIRE— SECRET SOCIETIES.

RECURRENCES to the past, with the rec-
ollections and associations which make
it pass, in life-like review, before our mental
vision, will continue to be, as of yore, a source
of satisfaction, especially when they connect
themselves with incidents reflected back from
our own experiences. These reminders van-
ish with the life of the participants, when no
landmarks remain to save us the pictures
faintly delineated on the tablets of memory,
the impressions of which are only retraeings
from the modelings of others. To preserve
these from forgetfulness before they have lost
their distinguishing originality is the work
devolved upon the writer of history. History
fails in its mission when it fails to preserve
the life features of the subjects committed to
its trust. Local history, more than any other,
commands the most interested attention, for
the reason that it is a record of our own, with
the experiences of others, who, in times gone
by, traveled the thorny pathway of life as our
companions, acquaintances, friends and rela-
tives. The township of Raymond, to which
this chapter is devoted, is an excellent body
of land, composed of thirty-six sections, sit-
uated adjoining the county line and Harvel
Township on the north, Rountree Township
on the east, Butler Grove on the south, and
Zanesville Township on the west. It was
named in honor of Thomas Raymond, at one
time Vice President of the St. Louis Division
of the Wabash & Pacific Railroad.
The surface of this township is consider -

*By G.N. Berry.

ably varied, being rolling, and, in certain
places in the southern and western parts,
along the different water-courses, broken and
somewhat hilly; while in the central and
northern portions the land consists of a broad
stretch of level prairie, interspersed with
numerous small groves, both natural and arti-
ficial, at different places. The West Fork of
Shoal Creek, with its tributaries, and Blue
Grass Creek, are its water- courses, along the
banks of which, for considerable distances,
the land is covered with a goodly growth of
timber, the most prominent varieties being
elm, oak, walnut, maple, sycamore, etc. Pre-
vious to the year 1830, the country along the
southern boundary was in the main a dense
forest, containing much valuable timber, the
greater part of which has been worked into
lumber, rails, etc., and much of it ruthlessly
destroyed by the early settlers. The soil, like
that found in other parts of the county, differs
in different places; near the streams the sandy
element predominates; on the high grounds,
it is of a clay mixture; while the lower por-
tions and level prairie lands in the central
and northern parts is a deep, rich black loam.
Generally speaking, it is a choice body of
land, very fertile, and capable of producing,
in a high degree, all the cereals raised.
Fruits of all varieties common to this latitude
are grown in abundance, as are also vegeta-
bles, small fruits, grass, etc., etc.

The date of settlement by the whites goes
back to the year 1S30, when the first pioneers
came into the township and commenced to

RAYMOND TOWNSHIP.

341

improve farms. Pioneer life in all time has
been characterized by incidents peculiar either
to the locality or the make-up of the pioneers
themselves. Western pioneer life has been
subjected to conditions common to the expe-
rience of all early settlers. The primary ele-
ments in the composition of those who have
taken their lives in their hands and battled
successfully with the privations and hardships
incident to settlements in the wilderness,
without companions, save their "household
gods," away from the echoes of civilization,
depending for subsistence upon their own
good right arms — were will-power, physical
vigor and energy. Thus endowed, the brave
pioneer boldly cuts loose from the moorings of
civilization, turns his face toward the wild,
unknown West, and, after days and weeks,
perhaps months, of weary journeying over
trackless prairies, tangled woodland, rocky
steeps and through rushing torrents, at last
determines the spot where his future home
shall be, at once makes a start by erecting a
little cabin, breaking a small patch of ground.
Soon he is joined by others, and the little
settlement becomes the foundation of those
communities which are to-day the pride and
boast of our country. But we are digressing
from the more specific part of our subject.
The first permanent settler to brave the soli-
tude of nature in Raymond was Butler Sew-
ard, who came to Illinois from Ohio in the
year 1829, and located near Seward's Grove,
in Butler Grove Township, from which place
he moved into what is now Raymond the fol-
lowing year. The place where he settled in
this township is known as Seward's Point,
near the southern part, and is now in posses-
sion of Elias Miller. Several descendants of
this excellent man still reside in the county,
among whom can be Darned Oscar Seward
and John Cass, the oldest living settlers of
this township. Shortly after Seward had lo-

cated and commenced to improve, he was
joined by Matthew Mitchell, who entered a
tract of land in the vicinity on Section 30.
Mitchell came from Ohio also, and was a
man of prominence in the little community.
He sold the land on which he settled to David
Scherer, another pioneer, shortly after the
first improvements were made, and moved to
another locality. The farm is now owned
and occupied by Fred Mundhenk Seward
and Scherer having done so well in their new
home, others were induced to follow them,
and the next year saw several families mov-
ing into the little community, among whom
were James Baker and a man by the name of
Conyer. Baker improved the farm where
Oscar Seward now lives, in Section 30, while
Conyer selected his home near by, in Section
33, on a place which he afterward sold
to John J. Cass. The foregoing were the
only permanent settlers in the territory
of Raymond up to the year 1833. In
that year, John Cass moved into the town-
ship and purchased the Conyer farm, on
which he resided until the year 1S36. at
which time he died. He was an industrious,
exemplary man, and true Christian, who car-
ried his Christianity into the actions of every-
day life. Two daughters and one son are liv-
ing at the present time. The latter, to whom
we have already referred, is one of the lead-
ing citizens of the township. Oscar Seward,
son of Butler Seward, can be called an early
settler, as he came here as early as the year
1835, and has been a prominent resident ever
since. He purchesed the Mitchell farm of
David Scherer, which property he still owns.
He is the oldest settler now living in Ray-
mond, and has seen many wonderful improve-
ments wrought by the busy hand of time.
(For further particulars concerning Seward,
we refer the reader to his biography, which
appears elsewhere.) John Huffman and fam-

342

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

ily were among the settlers who came in the
year 1835, as were also a number of others
whose names were not learned by the writer.
Huffman settled in the southeast corner of
the township, near the Irving boundary line.
The prairies in the central and northeastern
parts were not taken up until several years
had elapsed from the first settlements along
the southern border. Among the first settlers
on these prairie lands were Thomas Thomp-
son, David Huffman and Brookston Lewis,
all three of whom settled on land near the
present town of Raymond. Samuel Quinton
settled north of Raymond, on the Ishmaol
McGown farm. Simpson Finley bought the
land on the opposite side of the road from
where William Bowles now lives, a short dis-
tance northwest of Raymond. William Gray
was an early settler, having purchased a tract
of land near the Chapman farm a short time
after it came into market. Among those who
came in at an early date and shared in the
privations and hardships of pioneer life, but
whose dates cannot be correctly ascertained
at present, were John W. Guthrie, Lemuel
Mays, William Costley, Morgan Costley, R.
W. Grimm, John W. Hitchings and Orson
Young. One of the prominent settlers near
the town of Raymond was William Chapman
(see portrait and biography), who bought the
place where he now resides about the year
1851. He was one of the chief movers in the
organization of the township, and can be
classed among her well-to-do and wealthy
farmers.

This comprises the early settlement of Ray-
mond Township as far as we have been able
to learn its history. The early struggle of
the pioneers with hardships, trials and other
objects calculated to deter them is but a re-
petition of those experienced by all other set-
tlers in a new and uninhabited country.
Many daring deeds by many unknown heroes

have passed into oblivion, and many of na-
ture's great men, who won signal victories in
the hard-fought battles with nature in the
wilderreso, now lie in obscure and uuknown
graves. The first year was generally the most
difficult, as the little stock of provisions fre-
quently gave out, and many hardships were
endured in order to obtain the necessaries of
life; but after the first crop was harvested,
there was generally a sufficiency for home
consumption stored away and husbanded with
scrupulous care. The deficiencies were pro-
cured from older settlements. The forests
and prairie generally supplied the meat from
the bountiful store of game, in quantity and
quality according to demands. As settlers
increased in numbers, a common cause was
made in meeting the wants of each other,
helping for help again. The idea of assist-
ing another for a pecuniary consideration
never obtruded itself into the mind of the
pioneer in those early days. No greater in-
sult could have been offered than a hint that
money was to pay for a neighbor's help. If
a cabin was to be raised, all the occasion de-
manded of the neighbors far and near was a
knowledge of the time and place; distance
was nothing, and other less pressing engage-
ments had to succumb in order to render the
needed assistance. Those old days are gone,
buried in the dead past, but with them are
gone a world of happy memories. The senti-
ment expressed in the old ballad, repeated in
the writer's hearing by an early pioneer,

"For I am one of the olden times, and may be

thought too slow,
But give to me those good old days of fifty years

ago,"

is the sentiment entertained by all the frosty-
headed veterans whose early lives were passed
amid the stirring scenes of those early times.
The first impulse of the people, upon whom
devolved the responsibility of giving form

RAYMOND TOWNSHIP.

343

and character to society in primitive Ray-
mond, was to inaugurate a system of educa-
tion which should in the future insure a safe
foundation for permanent prosperity. Hence,
schools were established at an early date, well
sustained and patronized. The first sessions
were held in private dwellings, but, as the
population increased, more roomy buildings
were required, and a number of log school-
houses were erected in different localities.

The first term of school was taught by Mrs.
Martha J. Cass, mother of John Cass, in a
room of her residence, in the year 1S35. This
school numbered perhaps eight or ten pupils,
was supported by subscription, and lasted
about two and a balf months.

The first building set apart especially for
school purposes was a small structure, which
stood on Oscar Seward's farm, and had for-
merly been used by his family as a residence.
Seward fitted up the house, fiu-nished and
donated it, and for several years it was the
only school building in the township. The
second schoolhouse, according to the most au-
thentic information, was built a short distance
northeast of the town of Raymond. It was
built by Ishmael McGown and William Ault
but the date of its erection was not ascer-
tained. This was, we believe, the first frame
schoolhouse in the township. It is still stand-
ing. At present there are a number of good
frame schoolhouses in the township, in which
schools are taught the greater part of the year.
The results of the teaching done in the schools
have been immense, and is the pride of the
people. There is one large graded school
building, two stories high, in the town of Ray-
mond, but of this building and schools taught
therein we will speak more fully further on
in these pages. Among the early industries
of the township were several saw-mills, locat-
ed at different points on Shoal Creek, which
were in operation until nearly all of the best

timber was sawn into lumber. These mills
have been removed long since, and at the
present time there are no mills of any kind
in the township outside the town limits of
Raymond. The first settlers obtained their
flour, meal, etc., from Hillsboro and the mills
situated in different parts of the county.
There were no early flouring-mills in Ray-
mond.

Amid the toils and privations of pioneer
life, the first settlers found time to look after
those higher and holier duties which they
owed to their Creator. Pure religion and
fervent piety flourished in those times in a
very marked degree, long before any relig-
ious society had an organization, but, as soon
as time and means would permit, church edi-
fices were erected and societies of various de-
nominations established, so that all could
worship God according to the dictates of their
own consciences. The original settlers in
the southern part of the township were nearly
all members of churches in Butler Grove,
Litchfield and Irving Townships, farther
south, and it was not until many years after-
ward that a permanent religious organization
was effected in what is now Raymond. The
Methodists had a flourishing society about one
mile south of the town of Raymond, which
was, according to the best information at hand,
the first church organization in the township.
This was a number of years ago, but, as the
early records could not be found, but little
satisfaction was obtained in looking up its
early history. Public services were held at
this place until about eight or ten years ago,
when the congregation decided to remove the
organization and building to the town of Ray-
mond, which was accordingly done. Previous
to its removal, the church was known as Ash-
ery Chapel, and numbered about eighty mem-
bers. The building was moved and remod-
eled at a cost of about $S00. It is now a

344

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

handsome edifice, capable of seating 350 per-
sons comfortably, and is valued at $1,500.
The following pastors have, at stated times,
ministered to the congregation: Bar-
rett, John Eoberts, E. M. Pitcher, Alk-

ier, A. D. Beckhart and John Slater; present
pastor is Elijah Haley. In connection with
the church services is a large, flourishing
Sunday school, at present under the efficient
superintendency of David Colvin, with an
average attendance of over one hundred schol-
ars. The church membership at present ex-
ceeds one hundred, among whom are some of
the best and most highly respected citizens
of the town and surrounding country. The
United Baptist congregation, known as the
Blue Mound Church, was organized in a
schoolhouse situated about three miles south-
east of Raymond, in the year 1871, Elder
John Barbee officiating at the first meeting.
The original membership was about twenty,
but quite a number of others were added to
the church during the meetings which fol-
lowed its organization. The present edifice
which the congregation occupies is situated
near the place where the church was organ-
ized, in Section 19. It is a frame build-
ing, and was erected in the year 1870, at a
cost of $1,000. Among the regular pastors
and stated supplies of this church may be

mentioned Thomas Jones, Culp,

Hanks. There are now about forty-five names
on the chmch records. George Fry is Super-
intendent of the Sunday school, which is in
good condition and well attended. Rhodes
Chapel M. E. Church dates its history from
the year 1872. Their house of worship is a
neat frame building, situated near the Blue
Mound Church, in Section 19, and was built
in the year 1876. The church has continued,
with varied success, from its organization un-
til the present time, the membership now be-
ing about forty. A Sunday school is main-

tained during the greater part of the year,
and is reported in good condition. The pres-
ent Pastor of the church is Rev. Elijah Haley.
The remaining churches of the township are in
the town of Raymond, and will be spoken of in
connection with the history of that village f ur-
ther on in this chapter. The first ground conse-
crated to the burial of the dead was laid out on
the farm belonging to John Cass, and is still
known as the Cass Graveyard. The first in-
terment made in this cemetery was in 1S52.
The name of the person buried was James
Crosse. The St. Louis Division of the Wa-
bash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad runs
through the northwestern corner of the town-
ship, intersecting the northern boundary about
two miles from the Pitman line and the west-
ern boundary at a point near the west central
part of the township. This road has been a
decided advantage to the farmers of this sec-
tion of the country, furnishing them an easy
means of transportation for their farni prod-
ucts and live stock. The township's develop-
ment has been very marked since the comple-
tion of this road. The town of Raymond is
situated on this road, about one mile east of
the Zanesville line, in the western part of the
township, and is one of the live business
places of Montgomeiy County. Its popula-
tion is estimated at about nine hundred. The
ground on which the principal part of the
town stands was formerly owned by Ishmael
McGown and Nimrod McElroy. who had it
surveyed into lots in the year 1870. The
lines were run by an experienced civil engi-
neer by the name of Bass. The first house
in the place was a residence erected by James
Sanders, shortly after the survey was made.
A few weeks later, another house was in pro-
cess of erection, belonging to Thomas Fahey.
A business house was erected the same year,
by David Hoffman, and rented to Messrs. Van
Dorn & Van Evor, who stocked it with a

RAYMOND TOWNSHIP.

345

general assortment of merchandise, and did a
large, flouriskimig trade for three years.
This building is at present occupied by the
drv goods and grocery store of Brown & Co.
In connection with their mercantile business,
Van Dorn & Van Evor built a large warehouse
near the central part of the village in the fall
of 1S70, and handled an immense amount of
grain during the next two years. Encouraged
by the success which attended the business
venture of the foregoing, other business men
came to the village shortly afterward, and,
finding it a safe place for capital, several
stores and different kinds of shops were
started.

The second store building was erected in
the western part of the town, in the spring of
1871, by Charles Davis, who did a good bus-
iness for four years, when he disposed of the
stock to W. P. Carter. The latter continued
the business at the same stand for three years,
when, meeting with several financial reverses,
he concluded to retire from the store, which
resolution he put into effect a short time
afterward.

In the fall of 1871, a third store was
started, by Parrot & Scott. Like other stores
in the place, their stock consisted of a gen-
eral assortment of merchandise. The name '
of the firm was afterward changed to that of
Scott & Nevins. The entire stock was finally
pm-chased by Nimrod McElroy, who for some
time conducted a business with a stock rep-
resenting several thousand dollars. One of
the first merchants of the town was A. W.
Marshall. The first brick building was
erected in the year 1876, by John O'Bannon.
This was a large storeroom. A. Henn erected
a brick store-house the same year, also. D.
J. Parrot built the large elevator near the
railroad crossing in 1N74, and still operates
it. This is one of the largest and most ex-
tensive elevators on the line of the St. Louis

Division of the Wabash road, and many
thousand bushels of grain of all kindg are
handled and shipped yearly. Another eleva-
tor was erected in the year 18S0, by E. R.
Carter, who sold it soon after.

Frank Hicks was the first physician of the
town. He located here shortly after the town
was laid out, and is still one of the practic-
ing physicians of the place. Dr. Barton
came next. Dr. Hermon was one of the early
physicians of the township, where he has a
large and lucrative practice. He moved into
the town several years since, where he still
resides. Drs. Easley, Wheeler and Blevins
are located here, all of whom are regularly
graduated M. D.'s of the different schools of
medicine.

The Raymond Post Office was established in
the year 1871, with Charles Davis as Post-
master. The office is now kept in the hard-
ware store of Thomas Kissinger. The first
blacksmith to locate in the village was Will
iam Develin, who started a shop in the year
1871. W. H. Pepper built the second black-
smith shop the same year. The citizens,
realizing that " 'tis education that forms the
common mind," turned their attention, dur-
ing the early days of the village, to the ne-
cessity of erecting a schoolhouse large enough
to meet the demands of the increasing 2>opu-
lation. A building was erected in the year
1874. It is two stories high, contains four
large-sized, comfortable rooms, all of which
are well finished and furnished, and the
building, as a whole, does credit to the town
and townshiji. It is situated in the north-
eastern part of the town, and surmounted by
a large bell-tower, from the top of which an
extended view of the surrounding country for
many miles can be obtained. The first schools
in this building were taught by Misses Hattie
Wood and Bettie Street, in 1875. The next
Year, the schools had so increased in size that

346

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

a third teacher was required, when they were
placed under the able supervision of Prof.
James Young, who gave a new impetus to the
educational interests of Raymond. Prof. S.
A. Moore had charge of the schools during
the years 1877 and 1S78; George Bowers, in
1880. The present corps of teachers consists
of the following: Prof. C. E. Cook, Princi-
pal; C. J. Lapp, Louisa Watson and Hetty
C. Doer, assistants. The schools have been
brought up to a high standard of usefulness
under the successful management of the dif-
ferent Principals, and are now enjoying well-
earned and well-merited prosperity. The
Board of Education is composed of the fol-
lowing gentlemen: William Bowles, Presi-
dent; D. J. Parrott, Vice President; P. J.
Hermon, Clerk. The schools last eight
months of the year, and have an average at-
tendance of about two hundred pupils.

The Raymond Steam Flouring-Mill was
built in the year 1875, by Montgomery Range,
and has been operated by him ever since. It
has three run of stone, and a capacity of about
thirty barrels of flour per day. George H.
Hooser built a steam merchant mill in 1880,
at a cost of $6,000. This mill has three buhrs,
and does a large and lucrative business.

The first hotel in the place was erected by
John Brusaw, in 1872, and by him sold to J ames
Sanders six months later. It is known as the
Central House, and is at present kept by T. J.
Kissinger. B. R. Hubbard built a hotel in
1875. It was purchased by Mrs. Pallard, who
kept it about three years, when it was com-
pletely destroyed by fire in the general con-
flagration which visited the town in 1881.
The Raymond House was built in 1881, by
Louisa Chism, and is at present under the
management of her brother, Robert Chism,
who keeps one'of the best hotels in the county.

A small sheet, the Raymond Reporter, was
started in the year 1877, by T. M. Snedley,

and issued semi-monthly for about six months.
The Raymond Independent, a weekly news-
paper, was established by J. W. Potts in the
year 1881. It is conducted with considerable
energy and success, and has reached a circu-
lation of over five hundred. The office and
composing rooms are the best in the county,
and the editor, Mr. Potts, has won many fa-
vorable opinions from his brethren of the
quill for the fearless and able manner with
which he treats the subjects of the day. The
paper is in every respect independent, and
promises to remain one of the permanent fix-
tures of the town.

The Raymond Bank was established in
1881, by John Green. It is an individual
concern, and, for the amount of capital in-
vested, is doing a flourishing business.

The town was incorporated in 1871. The
first officers elected were the following: R.
M. Van Dorn, President of the Board; E. A.
Hanna, Clerk; and W. P. Carter, Treasurer.
The present officers are: William Fitzger-
ald, President; E. R. Day, Clerk; W. A.
Maxey, Treasurer; P. J. Harmon, George
Hooser, D. C. Kelley and D. J. Parrott,
Trustees.

A most destructive fire visited the town in
the month of August, 1881, during the prog-
ress of which the best part of the improve-
ments were completely burned to the ground.
The fire originated in the livery stable of
Noah Moore, on the east side of Main street,
from which it spread to the west side, and
caught in the butcher-shop of Paul Zink.
From this building the flames leaped with
lightning- like rapidity from house to house,
and, before the fire could be checked, all the
buildings in Block 13, with the exception of
two small structures situated in the north-
west and southwest corners respectively, were
a smoldering mass of ruins. Every effort that
could be desired was resorted to in order to

RAYMOND TOAVNSHIP.

347

check the devouring element, but all attempts
were futile. The buildings destroyed by the
conflagration were the following : Barber
shop and family residence of Paul Zink; liv-
ery stable belonging to Noah Moore; hotel of
Susan Chism; store and restaurant belonging
to the Harvel heirs; storeroom and stock of
goods of George Zimmerman; Frank Grain-
er's saddler shop; Zink's meat-shop; Colvin
& Son's store: Costley's livery stable; agri-
cultural warehouse of E. R. Day; store build-
ing occupied by "William Fitzgerald; Maxey
& Roberts' grocery store; Anderson's restau-
rant; Piggot's blacksmith shop; dwelling and
ice-house belonging to George Zimmerman;
barn belonging to David Huggins; and the
store and stock of Deer, Morrison & Co The
loss caused by this devouring tire is estimated
at $35,000, of which amount $11,000 were re-
alized by insurance. The citizens soon ral-
lied from the effects of this terrible visitation,
and many new buildings were pushed rapidly
forward. The large and elegant brick build-
ings situated on the east side of Broad street,
and known as the Union Block, were erected
the latter part of the year 1S81, as was also
the fine storeroom belonging to Paul Zink,
situated on the opposite side of the street.
The present business character of Raymond
may be estimated froni the following list:
There are five dry goods and grocery stores,
two hardware stores, one cabinet and furni-
ture store, two drug stores, two stores that
make groceries a specialty, two boot and shoe
stores, two barber shops, one harness shop,
two millinery establishments, one agricultural
store, two lumber yards, two blacksmith shops,
one cooper shop and one wagon shop.

There are four religious organizations,
with as many houses of worship, the oldest of
which is the Raymond M. E. Church. Its
history we have already given in a previous
page.

The Presbyterian Church was organized in
the year 1871, by a committee appointed by
the Alton Presbytery, of which Rev. Thomas
E. Spilman was Chairman. This committee
met in the office of Dr. Ira Barton, and the
following names were recorded as members:
John H. Barton, Mary N. Barton, William P.
Hamilton, Mary B. Hamilton, William Ken-
nedy and Dr. Ira Barton. At this meeting,
the following Elders were selected: John H.
Barton and William P. Hamilton. The first
public services were held in the Independent
Schoolhouse. The house now in use is a
frame building; is the first one erected by the
congregation, and will seat about three hun-
dred persons. It is a nicely furnished edi-
fice, and is valued at $1,500. The first min-
ister was Rev. R. Walker. The following
ministers have had charge of the church at
different times: Revs. E. R. Rankin, A. H
Parks, — - Reynolds, Adam Simpson, James
Lafferty, Solomon Dickey, and M. C. Butler,
the present pastor; present membership,
about thirty; Sunday school is under the
charge of S. A. Merriwether.

The Raymond Christian Church commenced
its history in the year 1874, with a member-
ship of thirty, who assembled at times for
worship in the vacant storeroom belonging to
W. D. Moore. The organization was effected
under the energetic labors of Elder Corwin,
of Macoupin County. The first regular Pas-
tor was Elder J. W. Balinger. In the fall of
1874, the congregation bought a lot, and,
shortly after, commenced the erection of the
present church edifice, which was dedicated
in the spring of 1875, the dedicatory sermon
being delivered by Elder J. H. Garrison, of
St. Louis. The building is frame, and, as it
stands, is valued at $2,200. J.. W. Balinger
labored earnestly for the congregation one
year, and was succeeded by L. L. Norton,
who exercised a pastorate of five months' du-

348

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

ration. H. R. Trickett and S. B. Lindsley
were the next pastors. J. J. Cathcart
preached one year. Elders Standley and Van
Hoosier conducted a series of meetings in the
year 1881, during the progress of which
twenty-one additions were made to the con-
gregation. At present, the church is without
a regular pastor, although devotional exer-
cises are conducted each Lord's Day. The
membership is about one hundred and fifteen.
Their Sunday school is large and well at-
tended, with an average of 120 scholars, and
is under the efficient management of D. J.
Parrott. Superintendent.

St. Raymond's Roman Catholic Church
was organized about the year 1S73. It was
re-organized in 1880, by Rev. Father Vircna,
and the present handsome building erected.
This edifice is the largest house of worship
in the town, and can be ranked among the
best in the county. Its dimensions are 34x56
feet; will comfortably seat 400 persons, and
cost the sum of $5,000. The number of mem-
bers is estimated at five hundred. Public
services are held every third Sunday, by the
pastor, Rev. John Gezenhauser, of Bartholto.
There are two flourishing secret societies in
the town — Masons and Odd Fellows.

Raymond Lodge, No. 692, A., F. & A. M.,
was established under dispensation in 1871.
Their charter was granted in 1872, by De
Witt C. Cregier, G. M. On this charter
appear the following names: George A.
Vannever, Robert M. Van Dorn, J. R. M.
Wilder, Samuel S. Peebles, Edward Grimes,
William Chapman, S. S. Wertz, James R.
Williams, John King, E. A. Hanna, Osman
White, D. J. Parrott, P. J. Hermon, Isaac
Eldridge, John G. Moore, Alvis Sharpe, C.
P. Kerns and John Dowdle. First officers
were :

George Vannever, W. M.; Robert Van
Dorn, S. W.; J. R. Wilder, J. W. ; William

Chapman, Treasurer ;S. S. Peebles, Secretary;
E. A. Hanna, S. D.; O. White, J. D.; Isaac
Elledge, Tiler. Present officers : John Kidd,
W. M. ; John Green, S. W. ; F. C. Hitchings,
J. W. ; Jacob Guller. Trensurer; James A.
Bradley, Secretary; Edward Grimes, S. D. ;
Harrison Sharpe, J. D. ; Sylvester Keplinger,
Tiler; D. J. Parrott, Chaplain. Member-
ship, at present, thirty-two.

Raymond Lodge, No. 476, I. O. O. F.. was
organized October 8, 1872, with the follow-
ing charter members: Norris Crane, Nimrod
McElroy, G. W. McAtee, Elias R. Day,
George A. Vannever, James N. Guthrie, Wal-.
ker Gunn, James Sanders. The first officers
of the lodge were the following: James San-
ders, N. G. ; Norris Crane, V. G. ; G. A. Van-
never, Secretary; Nimrod McElroy, Treasurer.
The different offices are filled at present by
the following: F. B. Wood, N. G: J. F.
Laller, V. G. : M. G. Sisson, Secretary: W.
A. Maxey, Permanent Secretary ; R.N. Long,
Treasurer; A. H. Johnson, Warden; B. F.
Query, Conductor; Corder Jones, ChajJain;
W. S. Richie, I, G. ; James Norris, O. G.

The hall in which these lodges meet is
owned jointly by them. Both organizations
are reported in good working order.

The part taken by Raymond in the great
war of the rebellion does credit to a township
of her population. Scarcely had it been an-
nounced that Sumter had been fired upon
before the spirit of war commanded the
thoughts and actions of her citizens. The re-
sponse was as ready as the impulse was de-
termined, and the history of the part taken
by our brave boys in the various encounters
that mark the progress of the war presents a
record as creditable, perhaps, as that of any
other township in the county. We would
gladly give a list of the boys in blue who
went from Raymond, but the limits of our
space forbids.

RAYMOND TOWNSHIP.

349

For information concerning the early his-
tory of the town and township of Eaymond
the writer is indebted to Ishmael McGowen,
Dr. P. J. Hermon, E. K. Carter, William

Chapman and John Cass. They have his
most sincere thanks for the courteous and
gentlemanly manner with which the desired
information was given.

350

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

CHAPTER XXII.*

IRVING TOWNSHIP— BOURDARIES— SOIL— PIONEER SETTLERS— SCHOOLS— CHURCHES-
PHYSICIANS AND MERCHANTS.

It is not claimed that the statements con-
tained in the following pages are in strict har-
mony with the truth in every particular, as
much of the information concerning the early
history of this township is a matter of mere
conjecture. Traditions are numerous, but are
very unsatisfactory sources from which to ob-
tain correct and definite statements. And
" perfectly reliable history written from con-
flicting accounts is an absolute impossibility."
No two men who are questioned will give similar
accounts of the same transaction or event, thus
adding much to the perplexity of the writer or
placing the question beyond a correct solution.
Seventy years ago, this division of Montgomery
County was a wilderness, whose only inhabi-
tants were a few scattered savages and their
wild companions, the wolf, deer and buffalo.
Occasional hunting parties of white men had
passed through it long before any permanent
settlement had been made, but its history prop-
erly begins with the year 1826, at which time
the first pioneer made his appearance and lo-
cated his humble home in the wilderness.
Since then there has been a constant influx of
population, until now it is one of the most
thickly settled and enterprising townships in
the count}'. Irving consists of thirty-six
square miles of territory, lying near the cen-
tral part of the county, and is designated as
Township 9, north of Range 3 west. It lies
between Butler Grove and Witt, the former
being the western boundary and the latter the
eastern. The township lying north is Roun-
tree, while East Fort Township forms the

►By G. N. Berry.

southern boundary. The general character of
the land is what might be termed rolling, but
in the western part it verges into the broken,
some of the higher portions being called hills.
The eastern and northern parts exhibit a roll-
ing and undulating surface, possessing a rich,
fertile soil, consisting of a dark loam with a
clay subsoil. This soil is very rich, and pro-
duces abundant crops of grain, vegetables of all
kinds, and many fine varieties of fruits. The
soil in the western and southwestern parts is
not so well adapted to agriculture, being some-
what thin, and largely composed of clay and
gravel. The best cultivated parts of the town-
ship are in the northern and eastern portions,
where can be seen some of the finest and best
improved farms in the county. The principal
streams, by which this region is watered and
drained, are the Middle Fork of Shoal Creek,
a stream of considerable size and importance,
which runs through the western part, from
north to south, and Long Branch, a tributary
of the former, which flows in a northwesterly
direction through the southwest corner. The
land along these creeks is composed of a rich,
black, mucky soil, and was originally covered
with a dense growth of timber. Much of this
timber has been cut off, and from the land thus
brought into cultivation, some of the largest
and best paying crops are produced. About
one-half of the area of the township was
formerly timbered, much of which has been
cleared of late years, until now the woodland
comprises only about one-third of the area.
The timber still standing consists mostly of
hickory, elm, oak of several varieties, syca-

LIBRARY

Of IMt

UNIVERSIir «t ILLINOIS

IRVING TOWNSHIP.

353

more and walnut. But little of the latter is
left, the greater part haviug been bought up by
agents of the Indianapolis Furniture Company,
several years ago. Many farmers in the north-
ern and eastern parts of the township are giv-
ing considerable attention to the cultivation of
artificial groves, and within a few years the
timber thus produced will afford a suffieienc}-
for all practical purposes. The early settle-
ment of Irving Township cannot be given with
perfect accuracy, as many of the statements
concerning the pioneer settlers are vague and
unsatisfactory. It is safe to say, however, that
the first white settler was one Lawrence Frank-
lin, who moved to Illinois from Kentucky in
the year 1826, and settled in the southwestern
part of Irving, on the farm now owned by Mr.
Hughes, in Section 29. It was here that the
first cabin was erected, which stood till a few
years ago. Some of the old timbers of which
it was composed can still be seen near the spot
which it formerly occupied.

A brief description of this primitive domi-
cile may, perhaps, be of interest to some
reader whose life has been passed in more com-
fortable and commodious quarters. The di-
mensions of the structure were about fifteen by
eighteen feet. One room was the sum total of
apartments it contained, which answered the
four-fold purpose of kitchen, bedroom, dining-
room and parlor. The floor was made of split
logs, called puncheons. These had been
smoothed off with a common chopping-ax
until they composed a surface which was tol-
erably level. A large, open-mouthed fireplace,
capable of receiving a log of almost any di-
mensions, occupied very nearly an entire end
of the building. The furniture of the room
was of the most primitive kind, and in perfect
harmony with the interior of the apartment,
as we have described it.

Yet from this humble cabin home no way-
worn traveler was permitted to go hungry or
sleepy. A place was always allotted the

stranger at the frugal board, and a shelter for
the night assured him if desired. Hospitality
was a trait cultivated to a high degree of per-
fection by the early pioneer, and a part of his
religion was to welcome with open doors any
wayfarer who might happen to wander near
his little mansion. With Shell} - he could say
to the stranger,

"You must come home with me and be m_v guest,
You will give joy to me, and I will do
All that is in my power to honor you."

Mr. Franklin resided upon the farm he settled
till the year 1858, when he sold the place to
Mr. Hughes, and moved to the city of Hillsboro,
where he died the following year. Several sons
of Mr. Franklin still reside in the county, all
of whom have been prominently identified
with the growth and development of the town-
ship. Ezra Bastick, another early settler of
Irving, came from Illinois to Kentucky some
time prior to the year 1824, in company with
his two sons-in-law, William and Joel Knight,
They stopped for a couple of years in the
southern part of the county, near where the
little village of Donnellson now stands, in East
Fork Township. Mr. Bastick settled in Irving
in the year 1826", but at just what place could
not be learned. He was au old revolutionary
soldier, and many were the thrilling stories he
told of that memorable struggle while seated
with his grandchildren around the blazing
hearth of the little cabin home. He was in
nearly all the battles of the war, and received
a severe wound in one engagement, which so
disabled him that he remained a cripple during
the rest of his life.

Joel Knight, who accompanied Bastick to
Illinois, located the farm known as the Harmon
place, about two and one-half miles northeast
of Hillsboro, in Section 29. He was a Presby-
terian preacher of considerable ability and
assisted in the organization of nearly all the
early churches of his denomination through-
out the count}-. He traveled extensivelv from

354

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

settlement to settlement, preaching in groves,
barns and in private dwellings, aud man}- are
the stories told of the wonderful power of his
eloquence and logic over the audiences that
used to assemble to greet him on his regular
preaching tours through the country. In the
year 1877, Mr. Knight died at a ripe old age,
and was buried in the old Bear Creek Ceme-
tery, near the place where he first settled.

" An old age, serene and bright,
And lovely as a Lapland night,
Led him to an honored grave."

Two brothers, Mark and James M. Rutledge,
came into this township some time in the year
1826, and settled in the western part, near the
boundary line. The farm on which they built
their first house is now owned by Mrs. Hogsett,
whose husband purchased it the same year in
which James died. Mark did not remain a
great while in Irving, but moved to Hillsboro
Township in 1827, and bought a farm, on which
he resided until the year 1858, at which time
he disposed of his land and moved to the city
of Hillsboro, where he died a few years ago.

John Lipe settled in the northern part of the
township as early as the year 1 828. He was a
stanch old German, well fitted to encounter
the many hardships which beset the pioneer
settler in a new country. Lipe came to this
State from North Carolina in company with
quite a number of German families that located
in different places throughout the county. The
farm on which he first settled is in Section 3,
and is at present owned by Trimper HerHey,
a relative, who purchased it shortly after Mr.
Lipe died. The date of this old pioneer's
death was not ascertained, though it occurred
a number of years ago. His wife survived
him many 3-ears. She died in 1881, and was
followed to the grave by over four hundred
descendants and relatives, probably the largest
number of relations that ever attended the
funeral of any one person in the State. James

Kelly was one among the earliest settlers, and
located on Section 27 in the year 1829.

Just how long Mr. Kelly lived in the town-
ship is not known, though it can be said that
he lived long enough to see the wilderness
where he first located his humble home changed
tO a very garden. Six sons of Kelly are now
living, five of them in this State and one in
Utah.

Andrew King was prominent among the first
settlers of Irving, but in what year he came
into the township is not known, though we may
be safe in saying that it was prior to the year
1 830. He came from Tennessee, from whence
came many of the early settlers of Southern
Illinois, and located on Locust Fork, about one
and a half miles northwest of the town of Irv-
ing, in Section 16. The land on which King
settled was prairie, covered with a thick growth
of sedge grass. This grass furnished the ma-
terial out of which the first brooms used by
the early settlers were made. King died in the
year 1862. His descendants living are two
sons, S. F. and William T., both of whom re-
side in the village of Irving. The Berrys are
also an old fatniby of this township, and were
among the first settlers of Montgomery Coun-
ty. James M. Beny moved here in 1829, and
improved the farm in Section 16, now owned by
Thomas Black. He owned the greater part of
the land where the town of Irving now stands,
and was one of the principal projectors of that
village, which he helped to lay out in the year
1856. He moved into the town a number of
years ago, where he has since resided. He is
one of the oldest citizens of the township. His
brother, William S. Berry, though not an actual
settler in Irving, was among the first pioneers
of the county, having settled in Hillsboro when
it was but a mere niche in the surrounding for-
est. He moved to this township a number of
years ago, and purchased a fine tract of land.
His son is one of the leading business men of
the town of Irving.

IRVING TOWNSHIP.

355

John Christian was also an old settler, who |
emigrated from Kentucky, and settled in Irving
Township in the year 1830. The original
homestead of Christian is at present owned by
a Mr. Mitz. Christian was one of the first Bap-
tist preachers in this part of the State. He as-
sisted in the first religious services ever con-
ducted in the township, and was instrumental
in founding several churches of his denomina-
tion in the county.

In 1830, John Grantham also appeared, and
purchased a farm in the southwestern part of |
the township. This farm now belongs to Seth j
Washburne.

Grantham was a Methodist preacher, and for
a number of years supplied the pulpit of the
Hopewell Church, of which he was an original
member. He died in the year 1842. Three
sons are still living in the township, all of whom
are prominent members of the Methodist
Church of Irving.

Many other early settlers of this township
might be mentioned in connection with those
already named, but the date of their settlement
and facts connected therewith have been for-
gotten, and they have long since passed into
that silent palace of the dead whose doors open
not outward. To the energy and perseverance
of these sturdy, strong-handed pioneers is the
township indebted for much of its present
prosperity.

The early settlers in this township, like the
first settlers in many other parts of the county,
were obliged to go long distances to obtain
flour and meal. The nearest mill for several
years was the little rude affair in the southern
part of the county known as Pogleman's pepper-
mill. This mill ground so slow that many went
by it to Edwardsville, a distance of thirty-five
or forty miles. A mill was built in Butler
Grove Township, in an early day, by Jacob
Cress. This mill was extensively patronized
by the first settlers of Irving till one was erect-
ed nearer home. James T. I'adcn built a mill

in the year 1831, about three and a half miles
southwest of the village of Irving, on the Hills-
boro road. The machinery of this mill was
operated by horse power, ground both corn and
wheat, and was patronized by the citizens of
this and the adjoining townships of Witt and
East Fork. This mill was purchased by Ezc-
kiel Grantham, after it had been run about eight
years, remodeled and supplied new machinery.
The machinery was removed a short time after-
ward to the town of Irving, and used in the
construction of a mill at that place. The old
building was torn down and hauled away about
two years ago.

A saw-mill was built in the southwestern
part of the township, in an early da}', by a Mr.
Hickman. It was situated on Shoal Creek,
from which it received the power that operated
it. This mill was run but a very short time,
and does not appear to have done a very exten-
sive business. The first steam mill was built
b\ r Kelly & Harris in the year 1864, at a place
two miles southwest of the town of Irving.
They sold it in the following year to a man by
name of Stevens, who in turn disposed of it to
H. M. Kelly two years afterward. Kelly
moved the mill to the town of Irving, and op-
erated it several years. The machinery was
finally taken out and used in the construction
of another mill at that place, of which we will
speak more fully further on. The old building
was purchased by S. P. King, who moved it on
his lot, where it answers the purpose of a barn.

Schools were opened in Montgomery County
in an early day, and the necessity of educating
the pioneer children forced itself upon the
minds of the first settlers, and many schools
were at once established. The first building
used for school purposes in this township was
a small cabin in the southern part, built as early
as the year 1827. It was used as a meeting-
house also. The room was furnished with a
few rough benches made of small logs split
once, and hewed smooth with a common chop-

356

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

ping as. These rested upon a dirt floor that
required no sweeping. A broad board ex- !
tended around the apartment next to the wall,
and served the purpose of a writing desk dur-
ing certain hours of the daj'. A large fire-
place occupied the greater part of one end of
the building, in the construction of which
neither brick nor stone were used ; a bank of
earth being merely thrown up against the logs to
keep them from taking fire. A small rough
stand was provided for the teacher near the
center of the room, from which he could issue
his decrees, give his commands or mete out
condign punishment to any juvenile offender
who had the temerity to violate an}' of the iron-
clad rules of the school.

The first pedagogue who wielded the birch
in this primitive college was Joseph McEntire,
an old man of three-score and fifteen years,
though possessed of a wonderful amount of
vitality and strength, as many unruly urchins
learned to their sorrow. In those days, it re-
quired muscle as well as brain to conduct a
school successfully, and Mr. McEntire seems
to have given universal satisfaction, as he could
strike as hard a blow as many younger brethren
of the profession. This school was supported
by voluntary subscription, and lasted but three
months. The teacher " boarded around," as
was the custom of that clay, and received $1.50
per scholar for his compensation. Among the
first schools in the township was one taught by
John Grantham in the Hopewell Church house,
shortly after the building had been erected.
No preparation had been made for this school
in the way of fitting up the room, and there
were neither desks nor seats for the pupils.
No floor had been laid, nor fireplace built.
The room was warmed by a fire in the center of
the dirt floor, around which the scholars seated
themselves upon the sleepers of the building.
In the spring the house was abandoned for a
grove, where the school was continued during
fair weather. When it rained, the exercises

were couducted in a large tent which Mr.
Grantham had prepared for that purpose.

The first frame schoolhouse was built in 1848.
on Locust Fork, near the place where the resi-
dence of Mr. Ault now stands. This house is
still standing in the town of Irving, where it
was moved in 1860. It is still used for school
purposes.

The first public school of the township was
taught in this building by William F. King, in
the years 1848 and 1849. As time passed, the
number of schoolhouses increased. The little
log cabins disappeared, or were replaced by the
more comfortable and commodious brick and
frame buildings. There are at present seven
schools in the township outside of the town of
Irving. The schoolhouses are all well built,
and furnished with latest improved furniture
and fixtures. Four of these houses are frame,
and three brick. The present school board is
composed of the following gentlemen : Joseph
Platte, W. W. Webber and J. E. Knight, Trus-
tees ; A. J. Huestis, Township Treasurer and
Clerk of the Board. The schools last about
seven mouths in the year.

One of the first essentials of civilization is a
well-defined roadway. The first roads through
this section were mere trails over the prairies,
or winding byways among the hills and through
the woods. These zig-zag roads were laid out
with a view to benefit the greatest number of
settlers with the smallest amount of inconven-
ience. The first road of any importance in this
township was the Hillsboro and Shelbyville
road, which was established in the year 1830.
It passes through the township from east to
west, and is extensively traveled. Another
road was established about the same time,
known as the Hillsboro and Nokomis road. This
was one of the first roads laid out in the east-
ern part of the count}', and is still the principal
thoroughfare between those two cities. It in-
tersects the eastern boundary line at a point
about one-half mile north of the Indianapolis &

IRVING TOWNSHIP.

357

St. Louis Railroad, in Section 1, runs west three
miles, where its course is abruptly changed
southward. Within half a mile of Irving, the
course is again changed to the west. It inter-
sects the western boundary of the township
near the Middle Fork bridge. One of the first
roads established in Irving was the old north
road, which ran through the northern part of
the township from east to west. The east road
in the eastern part is also an old road, and one
of the most important highways in the town-
ship. A number of roads intersect each other
at various places throughout the township, but
are not designated by any particular names.

The Indianapolis & St. Louis Railroad passes
through Irving in a northeasterly direction. It
makes one small curve in the southern part ;
the remainder of its course is very straight.
In all there are about ten miles of this road in
the township. It has been a great benefit to
the country through which it passes, and has
done more than anything else toward the devel-
opment of the township. The town of Irving
dates its origin from the year in which this road
was completed.

The early church history of Irving is in-
volved in considerable obscurity, and many
dates and interesting facts relating thereto
have faded away from the memory of the old-
est inhabitants. The early settlers were mem.
bers of different denominations, and held their
public services from house to house for several
years. At these early meetings, all met on a
common level, and left their denominational
peculiarities at home. The Presbyterian, Meth-
odist, Baptist and Lutheran all united in these
meetings without regard to creed or doctrine,
and worshiped together the same God in uni-
son and harmony. Many of the early itinerant
preachers were men singularly gifted with a
powerful eloquence which fired the hearts of
the pioneers, and many converts were gathered
into the different churches. It is not positive-
ly known who preached the first sermon in the

township, but, as near as can be ascertained, it
was a Baptist preacher by the name of Jordan.
He conducted a series of meetings in a grove
near the southwest comer of the township in
the year 1829, but nothing definite could be
learned concerning him.

The first church organized in the township
was the Hopewell Methodist Episcopal Church.
The organization was effected in the year 1829,
by Revs. Benson and Bastian, two itinerant
preachers who came into the county several
years before.

Among the original members of this church
were the following : John Grantham, Thomas
Christian, Elizabeth Grantham, James Gran-
tham and wife, Isaiah Grantham and wife, Silas
Kelly and wife, Madison Berry and wife. Mad-
ison Bern - is the only one of the original
members now living. John Grantham was a
local preacher. Thomas Christian was the Hist
class leader. The first pastor who had charge
of the church was Rev. Lowry, who preachd
for the congregation two years. He was suc-
ceeded by Rev. John Dew, the exact leugth of
whose pastorate was not learned, as the early
records of the church could not be found. For
two years, the congregation held their public
services in groves, private dwelling houses and
barns. These meetings were attended by all
from miles around. In the year 1830, a house
of worship was erected on Locust Fork, in the
western part of the township, and was named
the Hopewell Church. Here the congregation
worshiped till the year 185G, at which time
the organization was moved to a place about
one mile northeast of the village of Irving.
For twelve years, the exercises of the church
were conducted at this place. In the year
1868, it was decided by the congregation to
move the church into the town of Irving,
which was accordingly done. A reorganization
was effected the same year, and the name of
the church changed. It has since been known
as the Irving Methodist Episcopal Church. In

358

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

the year 1860. the propriety of erecting a new
house of worship was discussed by the congre-
gation, and it was decided to begin the build-
ing at once. Work was commenced on the
new house in the spring of 1861, and it was
completed the following autumn. This build-
ing is frame, dimensions about 36 by 56 feet,
and will comfortably seat three hundred and
fifty persons. It represents a capital of about
$3,000. It was dedicated by Rev. J. H. Ald-
ridge in the year 1861. Since the reorganiza-
tion of the church, the following pastors have
preached for the congregation : William Tay-
lor, Hutchinson, J. E. Lindlay, James

Calric, J. P. Holloway, W. F. Lowe, A. E. Orr,

— Rhodes, D. H. Stubblefield, J. W. Lapham,

Schwartz, William Birks, Hamill

and W. R. Howard, present pastor. The mem-
bership will number at present about two hun-
dred and sixty, one hundred of whom were
added to the church during a great revival,
conducted by Rev. J. W. Lapham, while he
was pastor.

A good Sunday school is supported, and the
church is reported in excellent working order.

The Presbyterians were prominent among
the pioneer churches, and had a flourishing
organization at a very early day. This church
was organized by Rev. Joel Knight, who was
the only preacher for a number of years. The
old organization was maintained for a consid-
erable length of time, but owing to deaths,
removals and other causes, it was finally aban-
doned. In the year 1866, the society known
as the United Congregation of the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church was organized in the town
of Irving with about fifty members. The first
pastor was Rev. L. P. Deatheridge, a man of
brilliant attainments and wonderful eloquence.
He did as much if not more than any other
man toward establishing the church upon the
firm footing that it at present maintains. He
was succeeded by Rev. Joel Knight, one of the
pioneer preachers of the county, and founder

of the congregation of 1830. He was followed
by Rev. Mr. Barber, who labored with the con-
gregation for several years. Revs. W. J.
McDavid and T. W. McDavid have also
preached for the church at stated intervals.
The congregation worshiped for three years in
the Lutheran Church of Irving. The house
in which the church now worships was built in
the year 1869, at a cost of $5,000. It is a
brick building and contains the largest audi-
ence room in the township.

A Sunday school is maintained in connection
with the church, with an average attendance of
100 scholars. The St. John's Lutheran
Church was organized in the year 1842, and
has a present membership of about sixty-five.
Rev. Daniel Trimper was the first preacher,
and it was under his labors that the church
was organized. The following names appear
on the old church records as original members:
Henry Carriker, Mary Carriker, Tillman Hefrley,

Hefrley, Nancy Lipe, John Lipe, Rachel

Lipe. Rev. Trimper was a man of remarkable
force of character, and under his administra-
tion the church grew to be a power for good in
the community. The first house used b} 7 the
congregation for public worship was built in
1845. Twenty-seven years afterward, their
present edifice was erected. This is a frame
building, 28x30 feet, and was built at a cost of
$1,200. It was dedicated in the year 1872 by
Rev. George Bowers. Rev. J. Livingood, Rev.
— . Scherer, Rev. — . Schwartz, Rev. John
Cromer and Rev. George Hammer have beeu
pastors of this church.

The Irving Lutheran Church is an offshoot
of the East Fork Church, one of the oldest
organizations in the county. The Irving
Church was organized in the year 1858, by
Rev. Isaac Short, who was its first pastor.
The records, now in possession of David Greg-
ory, show the following names of original mem-
bers : H. M. Neisler, Isaac Lewey, George
File, Reuben Lingle, Elizabeth Neisler, David

IRVING TOWNSHIP.

359

Gregory, Susan File, Catherine Lewey, Re-
becca Gregory, William Newcomb, Samuel
T. Bartlett, Mary Newcomb and Patsy
Bartlett. Since its organization, the church
has been administered to by the follow-
ing pastors in the order named : J. B.
Cromer, Martin Miller, Hiram Gregory,
Francis Springer, L. C. Groseclose, George
Hammer, and J. M. Lingle, present pastor. The
congregation continued to meet with the East
Fork Church till 1860, when their neat, com-
fortable building was erected. The building is
frame, the aggregate cost of which was about
$1,500. Their Sunday school has an average
attendance of about sixty, and is superintended
by E. P. Cromer. Public services are held
every alternate Lord's day, and prayer meet-
ing every Wednesday evening. Is one of the
aggressive churches of the town.

The Christian Church of Irving was organ-
ized about the year 1856, by Elders J. G.
Ward and J. M. Taulbee. For several years,
this church was in flourishing circumstances,
but just previous to the war the members be-
came scattered, and the organization was
finally abandoned. It was reorganized in the
year of 1876, by Elders J. M. Taulbee and B.
R. Gilbert. The first pastor was Elder L. M.
Linn. The following pastors have had charge
of the church at stated intervals : L. Wood,
— Muman, — Price, A. C. Layman and J. M.
Taulbee. The congregation held their public
services, during the year 1876, in the room
beneath Masonic Hall. The handsome house
in which they now meet was built in 1877.
This building is frame, and is one of the
neatest and most comfortable houses of wor-
ship in the town. It cost about $1,400.

The membership of the church is now about
sixty.

The town of Irving is situated in the south-
eastern part of this township, on the I. & St. L.
R. R., and is one of the growing towns of the
county. The first house erected here was a

store building. It was built by William S
Berry and T. G. Black in the year 1846. This
was the first store in the township, and repre-
sented a capital of several hundred dollars.
One year later, another store house was erected
by Edwards & Petrie. Both of these stores
did a very flourishing business for several
years, and as the population of the village in-
creased, their trade increased also, until more
room was required, hence their buildings were
enlarged. Quite a number of families moved
into the village and built houses, iu the years
1846 and 1847. The first dwelling house was
built by J. M. Taulbee. The town dates its
growth from the year 1856, at which time it
was laid off into lots by Messrs. Huggins &
Rider. The survey was made by J. M. Taul-
bee. Huggins & Rider sold out to R. W.
Davis and Madison Berry the year following,
who at once commenced to improve the town.
The first brick store-building was built in 1856,
by H. J. Huestis. This building stands just
north of the depot, and is at present occupied
by the store of Knight & McDavid.

Among the first buildings erected was the
blacksmith shop of — Sanford, which was
built in the year 1856. This was the first shop
of the kind in the township. It was sold to
Jacob Bird, two years after it was built, who
continued to work at the trade till within a
very recent date. The first school in the vil-
lage was taught by a Mr. Frink, in the old
Hopewell meeting-house, which had been
moved to the town in the latter part of the
year 1856. The next school was taught by J.
W. King. John Franklin and George Baker
were among the first teachers in the village.
The little frame building was the only school-
house iu the town for several years. When
there were more pupils than it could accommo-
date, rooms in private dwelling houses were
fitted up for the surplus scholars. In the year
1866, the present school building was erected
at a cost of S2,000. This house is of brick, two

360

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

stories high, and contains two large -sized
school rooms. These rooms are not sufficient-
ly large to accommodate all the pupils of the
schools, and the propriety of enlarging the
building is being discussed.

The schools are at present under the super-
intendency of Prof. M. T. Miller, assisted by
W. C. Hobson. Miss Means and Miss Hogshett.
The first post office was established in the year
1856, with W. W. Wiley as Postmaster. The
office was kept in the building now used by
Beny & Grantham as a restaurant. A steam
flouring-mill was erected in 1856, by Kelly &
Wiley. Part of the machinery used in the
construction of this mill was taken from the
old Kelly mill, which formerly stood in the
western part of the township, near Shoal Creek.
A mill was built in 1868, by Hanners & Will-
iams. This was a steam mill, also. It burned
down in the year 1870, but has since been re-
built, and at present is the only mill in the
town. It has two run of buhrs and a capacity
of about twenty-five barrels of flour per day.
Two large elevators were built in the town in
the years 1870 and 1871, only one of which is
now operated. The large hotel which stands in
the eastern part of the town was erected in the
year 1868, by W. J. McClure, at a cost of
$7,000.

Dr. J. H. Spears was the first physician who
practiced medicine in Irving. He came here in
the year 1858 and remained till 1863. Since
1S58, the following physicians have been located
here : W. F. Linn, Elias Petre, J. P. Murphy,
W. H. Hobson, B. F. Burries, — Hart, — Tuck,
— Nicholby, J. F. Whitten, — Sweet, W. B.
Sprinkle. Joseph Cobb, Vincent Parkhill. J.
W. Parkhill, A. B. Ault and Isaac Short.
The best growth of the town has been since the
year 1878. The large brick building occupied
by the stores of Kelly & Berry, Thomas H.
Padgett and A. W. Kelly, was built in the year
1880, as was also the brick building in which
the stores of James McDavid and S. D. Bartlett

are kept. Bartol Leon built the large house
which he and his son occupy as a place of
business in the 3'ear 1881. Several fine dwell-
ing houses have been erected during the past
two years, and quite a number of others are in
process of erection at the present time. The
town was incorporated in the 3'ear 1868, under
a special charter. In 1873, it came in under
the general law, when the ordinances were all
revised by S. F. King and published. The
present officers of the town are the following :
John T. McDavid. President of the Board ; Au-
gustus McDavid, Clerk ; M. D. L. Cannon,
George Rarer, James M. Taulbee, Hiram J.
Huestis, W. S. Berry, Jr., Trustees. An Odd
Fellows Lodge was organized in the town at an
earl)' day, but of late years has not met. Noth-
ing concerning the organization could be ascer-
tained. Irving Lodge, No. 455, A. F. & A. M.,
was instituted in the year 1865, with the follow-
ing charter members : B. F. Barnes, E. B. Ran-
dle, W. B. Van Horn, B. F. Pitts, H. J. Huestis,
William M. Cox, George M. Davenport, Bartol
Leon, John E. Lindley, Ryland Tuck and John B.
Cox. The first officers of the lodge were Ben-
jamin F. Barnes, W. M.; Edward B. Randle. S.
W.; George M. Davenport, J. W. The present
officers are the following : John T. Carriker,
W. M.; Thomas Padgett, S. W.; H. J. Bowtell,
J. W.; William S. Berry, Treasurer ; A. A. Rine-
hart, Secretary ; D. H. Luther, S. D.; Palmer
Yemens, J. D.; B. T. McClure, Tiler. The
membership is about thirty-two. The hall in
which the lodge holds its meetings was built in
the year 1868. It is owned by the organiza-
tion.

A temperance organization known as the
Royal Templars of Temperance was established
here in the year 1879. The meetings are held
semi-monthly. This organization is secret, and
has the following officers : Select Councilor
Vice Councilor, Past Councilor, Secretary,
Treasurer, Herald, Guard, Sentinel and Deputy
Herald.

IKYING TOWNSHIP.

3f!l

The Irving Coal Company was recently in-
corporated with a capital of several thousand
dollars. They have erected machinery in the
western part of the town, where they are pros-
pecting for coal and oil. We conclude this
article on Irving with the following list of busi-
ness men and the particular business in which
they are engaged :

Kelly & Beny keep a large dry goods store,
also au extensive line of ready-made clothing,
boots, shoes and groceries. They represent a
capital of perhaps $7,000, and are doing a flour-
ishing business.

S. F. King makes groceries a specialty.

S. T. Bartlett & Son, James McDavid and

Knight & McDavid also keep stores whose
stocks consist, of a general assortment.

Berry & Grantham, restaurant and bakery.

James M. Taulbee, feed and provision store.

Mrs. A. E. Newberry, milliner.

Williams Sisters, milliners.

There are three drug stores kept by the fol-
lowing persons : Thomas H. Padgett, Sprinkle
& Brother, Bartol, Leon & Son. D. D. Boutlett
& Co., hardware ; D. H. Luther, A. M. Edwards
and J. Scherer, blacksmiths ; George Barer,
wagon-maker : M. D. L. Cannon, cabinet-maker
and undertaker; C. B. Wiley, livery stable ; J.
T .Manlbee, Jr., and I. G. Dawson, barbers.

362

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

CHAPTER XXIII *

ZAXESYILLE TOWNSHIP— POSITION— BOUNDARIES, ETC. — SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS— CREEKS AND

TIMBER— PIONEER SETTLEMENTS— ROADS AND MILLS — FIRST ELECTION AND FIRST

BIRTH— EARLY SCHOOLS— CHURCHES— VILLAGE OF ZANESVILLE— ITS

GROWTH AND DECAY— INCIDENTS, ETC.

r | ^HE original Zanesville Precinct included
*- within its area the townships of Pitman
and Bois D'Arc, and was reduced to its jsres-
ent dimensions as an independent division in
the year 1873, when the township organiza-
tions throughout the county were called into
effect. It lies in the western part of the
county, south of Pitman, north of North Litch-
field and west of Raymond Township, with Ma-
coupin County as its western boundary, and
contains a fraction over thirty-four sections
of choice tillable land, which, in point of
fertility and productiveness, is second to
none in this part of the State. Topograjih-
ically, the country may be described as prin-
cipally of an even face, in the central and
northern portions, with occasional undulation
of a somewhat irregular character in the
southern part, while in the southeast cor-
ner the land is more uneven, though in
no place is it too rolling for farming pur-
poses. The soil is similar to that of the
surrounding townships, being the rich black
prairie loam common to this part of the
country and everywhere noted for its fer-
tility. This township lies in the great wheat
belt of Illinois, and that cereal is the princi-
pal staple, although corn, rye, oats, Has, bar-
l e y> together with the root crops usually
found growing in this part of the State, are
raised here in abundance, while nowhere in
Montgomery County is there better encour-

*Bj G. N. Berry.

agement offered to the fruit-grower. A soil
of peculiar adaptability and a climate equally
favorable, insure a large yield almost every
year, facts of which many of the citizens
have taken advantage, as is evinced by the
numerous orchards to be seen in different
parts of the township. The country is suffi-
ciently well watered and drained for farming
purposes by several streams that wind through-
out the township and numerous small tribu-
taries flowing into them from many points.
The largest of these water-courses is the West
Fork of Shoal Creek, which has its rise in
Section 30, from whence it takes a devious
course, flowing in a northeasterly direction
about one mile, and then a southeasterly di-
rection, passing through Sections 28, 27, 26,
35 and 36 before leaving the township.
There is a small creek in the northern part,
flowing through Sections 7 and 8, which
affords stock water and drainage to that lo-
cality the greater part of the year. During
the early spring months, these streams are
hardly sufficient to carry off the immense
quantities of water which spread over certain
parts of the country, and from mere rivulets
they become raging torrents, overflowing their
banks for considerable distances on either
side, and sometimes doing a great deal of in-
jury to the farms through which they pass.
From the head of Shoal Creek to the southern
boundary of the township are several strips
of timber of the varieties usually found in

ZANESVILLE TOWNSHIP.

363

the woods of Central Illinois — walnut, hick-
ory, elm, sycamore, maple and oak predomi-
nating. The original timber has disappeared
long since before the ax of the lumberman, a
character who made his appearance coeval
with the first settler, and that which is now
standing is, comparatively speaking, of recent
growth. Much attention is given to the
growing of timber and many farmers have
surrounding their dwellings and outbuildings
groves of considerable magnitude, which, in
a few years, will furnish them not only with
lumber for all practical purposes, but with
fuel as well. That this part of the county
was at one time in the dim and remote past
inhabited by a prehistoric race possessed of
many of the attributes of what we term a
high degree of enlightenment, is probable,
from the existence of several mounds at differ-
ent places throughout its territory and nu-
merous strange relics that have been un-
earthed in several localities. Who were
these strange people? Whence came they?
Whither did they go ? These questions must
forever remain to form a melancholy interest
in the wondrous past, and a mystery which
neither time nor circumstance, nor science,
nor the more wondrous future, may reveal.
But since their time, another race, mighty in
numbers, has come and gone from their an-
cient homes and favorite hunting-grounds,
though yet not quite extinct. When the
white man made his first appearance in what
is now the territory of Zanesville, it was a
favorite hunting-ground and retreat of several
tribes of savages, notably among which were
the Kickapoos and Pottawatomies. Their
camping-grounds were usually selected near
the source of Shoal Creek and in the timber
skirting Macoupin Creek, a small stream just
across the line in the adjoining county.
When the white settlers began to increase in
numbers, these Indians moved farther west,

though at different intervals for several years
re-visited the scenes of their former camping-
places, but never to do any mischief.

These visits were discontinued about the
year 1830, and since that period no Indians
have been seen in the northern part of Mont-
gomery County. We have no data from
which to give an exact statement, as to either
the time the first settlement of the township
was made or the individuals who made it. It
is known, however, that a man by the name
of Robert Palmer settled near the site of the
present village of Zanesville, where he kept
a hotel as early as the year 1824. His place
was a stopping-point for travelers, on the road
leading from Springfield to Vandalia, being
one of the first public houses in the county.
Palmer proved to be a notorious gambler,
blackleg and a very bad character generally.
His house was a rendezvous of a gang of
thieves and rowdies as bad as himself, and
the place became noted throughout the country
as a dangerous locality. Several daring rob-
beries having been committed in the neigh-
boring towns and settlements, and the evi-
dence being very plain against Palmer as the
perpetrator, he left the country rather uncere-
moniously and tied for parts unknown. It
was afterward ascertained that he went to
Iowa, where he was arrested for complicity
in a brutal murder, convicted and hanged.
So much for the first pioneer of Zanesville.
Several transient settlers located in the vi-
cinity of Palmer's tavern shortly after it was
erected, but none of them appear to have
taken up land or in any way improve the
country. The next actual settler of whom
we could learn anything definite was one
George Brewer, who entered the land where
Zanesville Village now stands, which he laid
off into town lots about the year 1828.
Through his efforts, a post office was estab-
lished, which, together with the town, was

364

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY,

called Leesburg. after Robert E. Lee, a
wholesale merchant of St. Louis, in whose
name the land was entered. Brewer appears
to have been a man of considerable public
spirit, and, seeing an opportunity, as he sup-
posed, of making a fortune in the town which
could not help but grow, expended quite an
amount of money in various improvements,
among which was a good-sized store building.
This building was stocked with a miscella-
neous assortment of merchandise, purchased
at the house of Lee in St. Louis, from which
place it was transported in wagons, a distance
of about seventy-five miles. Soon other par-
ties, attracted by the promising opening which
the village presented, or by the fertile lands
in the vicinity, came in, and, by the year
1830, there was a thrifty and enterprising
community on the high road to prosperity.
The town grew apace; lots were sold rapidly
at good round sums; shops of various kinds
were established; a school was organized,
other storerooms erected, and business of all
kinds increased to such an extent that the
village at one time was considered the second
place of importance in the county. In the
year 1829, a settlement was made in the south-
west corner of the township by immigrants
from the South, among whom can be named
Isaac Bailey, James Crawford, Thomas Will-
iams and Zebedee Williams. These were all
men of consequence in the early settlement
of the townshij), and left the impress of their
characters on their descendants, many of
whom still reside in the community which
their ancestors founded.

A prominent settler in the same locality
was Robert Allen, who came in a little later,
and who, for a number of years, appears to
have been a leading and respected citizen of
the township. Between the years 1835 and
1840, Beatty Burke, George Burroughs,
Dores D. Shumway and a man by the name

of Chastine entered and improved lands near
the village of Zanesville. Those early pio-
neers are all dead or have moved to other lo-
calities, as the writer was unable to learn any
facts concerning them in his canvass for in-
formation among the old settlers of the town-
ship. From 1840 to 1848. a settlement was
made around the head of Shoal Creek and a
number of farms improved. The principal
men connected with this settlement were Wal-
ker Williams, Elgin Smith, Jeff Parrott and
.Moses Martin, allot' whom had formerly re-
sided in the South. Among other prominent
settlers were Joseph Vignos, a Frenchman,
who located near the central part of the town-
ship: Dr. Caldwell, one of the earliest phy-
sicians of Zanesville, and S. Smitherman, a
noted farmer and stock-raiser, who purchased
land near the village, all three of whom are
still living. The northeastern portion of the
township has been settled more recently, yet
in point of progress and improvements it is
behind no other locality, and, in many re-
spects, is far superior to some. Since the
year 1848, the settlements in different parts
of the township have been so simultaneous
that a mention of names of early settlers en-
titled to a notice in these pages would trans-
cend the limits of our space. Suffice it to
say, however, that they are justly entitled to
all the honors accorded them as founders of
a community which occupies a prominent
place in the galaxy of townships forming
Montgomery County. There was a regularly
laid out road through Zanesville Township as
early as the year 1830, known as the Jack-
sonville & Yandalia road, as it connected
those two places. It is still traveled, and its
direction, though slightly devious, is on the
whole pretty direct, the general course being
northwest and southeast, and differing but
little from the original route. Another early
road which was pretty generally traveled was

ZANESVILLE TOWNSHIP.

3G5

the oue leading from Carlinville to Taylor -
ville. Its course through this township was
from northeast to southwest, though its di-
rection has been greatly changed of late
years, and it is no longer the important thor-
oughfare that it was during the early days of
the county. Among other early established
highways were the St. Louis road, which
passed through the township in a northwest-
erly direction ; the Girard road, which crossed
through the western part of the township,
from north to south, and the Zanesville &
Litchfield road, connecting these two points
an ! running in a southeasterly direction from
the former place. There are many other
roads traversing the township and intersect-
ing each other at different points, but, like
other roads of the county, are deserving
of no particular description. Among the
pioneer industries of Zanesville was the little
horse-mill erected by Edward Crawford, in
the western part, about the year 1838. This
primitive mill was the only one aside from
the present mill at the town of Zanesville
ever erected in the township, and. for a num-
ber of years, was operated almost constantly
in order to supply the demands of the neigh-
bors for flour and meal. It was torn down
several years ago. and at present there re-
mains no vestige to mark the spot it formerly
occupied. The Zanesville Mill was built in
the year 186 ( J, by Messrs. Sharpe, Johnson
& Berry, at a cost of $ L6,0l 10 It is operated
by steam, has three run of buhrs, and, when
kept running all the time, can grind about
100 barrels of flour per day. From 186 ( J to
1872, it did an enormous amount of custom
and merchant work, and returned to the pro-
prietors a large per cent on the capital in-
vested. JohnsoQ sold his interest to Samuel
Caldwell in 1872, who in turn, disposed of
the same to Sharpe & Berry the same year.
The latter parties becoming financially em-

barrassed on account of various speculations,
sold the mill to S. Smitherman and Clark Sin-
clair, in the year 1873, and since that time
from some cause unknown to the writer, the
machinery has stood idle, much to the regret
of the farmers of the surrounding country.
The first election in the township, of which
we have any reliable record, was held in the
year 1835, when George Brewer and James
Crawford were chosen Justices of the Peace,
offices which they held uninterruptedly for
several consecutive years. Stephen Craw-
ford, son of James Crawford, was the
first white child born in Zanesville, the
date of his birth being the 13th of No-
vember, 1831, the same night of the great
meteoric display known as the falling stars.
The early educational history of the township
is somewhat vague and disjointed, although
sufficient information has been gleaned " to
warrant the assumption that schools were not
established until several years had elajised
from the date of the first settlements. We
of the present day with our pleasantly lo-
cated common schools, normal institutes and
colleges, can scarce realize the vast difference,
when even scenes depicted in that popular
and much-perused work, "The Hoosier
Schoolmaster,'' would have been looked npon
as a wonderful advancement toward what
might now be termed the extravagances of a
higher education. For several years after the
advance guard of the early pioneers who
made Zanesville what it is to-day, first came
into this part of the country, schools and in-
tellectual training were thought of only as
adjuncts of that civilizati n which they had
left behind — things to be desired but hardly
to be hoped for. It was for some time simply
a question of keeping body and soul to-
gether by laborious toil, aDd the hardships
endured in procuring the bare necessities of
life, precluded the possibility of looking far

3«6

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

for intellectual improvement. But as the
farm lands broadened, the little settlements
grew more numerous, and the labors of the
inhabitants had, by the favor of a kind Provi-
dence, placed them beyond immediate want,
they bethought themselves of their duty to
their little ones, and scheols were established.
The names of the early teachers cannot be
given with that accuracy which we term re-
liable, although it is generally conceded that
the first pedagogue was Henry Mayer, who
taught in the southern part of the township
about the year 1833.

This school was attended by about fifteen
children, and, like all early schools, was sup-
ported by subscription, the teacher being
compelled to collect the tuition fees. The
first schoolhouse was built by Edward Craw-
ford and others in the southwest corner of
the township. The land on which the build-
ing stood was afterward entered and the
house lost before it was occupied as desig-
nated. Another house was built of logs the
same year, on Section 26, in which the school
already mentioned was taught. The second
term was taught near the village of Zanes-
ville by a teacher whose name was not learned.
In educational matters at present, Zanesville
is not behind her sister townships of the
county, as is proved by the presence of six
neat frame schoolhouses, furnished with all
the modern improvements. Teachers skilled
in their profession are the only ones em-
ployed by the efficient School Board. The
term lasts eight months of the year, and gen-
erally begins the first Monday in October.

Among the early pioneers of Zanesville
were many persons in whom the fear of God
was a predominant element and their relig-
ious duties were at no time neglected. The
first public services were conducted by the
veteran pioneer preacher, Elder James Street,
at the residence of Jacob Baker, about the

year 1830. The first church was a society of
the United Baptists, which was organized at
the head of Shoal Creek, where the organiza-
tion is still maintained. They have a sub-
stantial temple of worship, a progressive mem-
bership and are doing much good in the com-
munity where the church is located. The
disciples or Christians organized a church a
number of years ago, which is still a promi-
nent society, numbering among its members
some of the leading and substantial citizens
of the country. A very handsome and com-
modious house, situated in the southeastern
part of the township, serves the congregation
as a place of worship. The Methodists main-
tained a flourishing organization at the vil-
lage of Zanesville for a number of years, but
the society was finally merged into churches
at other points, and at present there is no
class at that place. The village of Zanes-
ville, to which we have already referred in
the opening of this chapter, is situated in the
northwest corner of the township, about two
and a half miles .east of the county line, and
is but a mere shadow of its former self.
During the early years of the county, it was
a prominent business point, a reputation it
sustained uutil the year 1869, at which time
there were four large stores, all doing a good
business, one grocery, three blacksmith shops,
two wagon shops, two hotels, cooper shop and
two plague spots in the shape of whisky sa-
loons. Among the merchants who did busi-
ness here at different times were the follow-
ing: Harvey Madison. Joseph Vignos,

Sharpe, William Street, Joseph Booth, James
Little, John McNiel, John Hamilton & Son
and Emert & Son. The earliest physicians
in the place were George Mayfield, J. W.
Wheeler and G W. Caldwell, the last named
being still in the village. Strong efforts
wore made by the citizens of the village and
surrounding country to induce the Wabash

ZANESVILLE TOWNSHIP.

367

Kailway Company to run their road through
the town, but without avail. The road was
built two and a half miles west, and, together
with the growing town of Litchfield, proved
a death blow to the business interest of Zanes-
ville, as it began to wane from that time.
The merchants moved their stores to more
eligible places, shops were closed, mechanics
sought more remunerative fields of labor and
a general decay fastened itself upon the once
prosperous village. The post office was taken
away in the year 1881. George Hamilton
was the last Postmaster.

The business of the place at present is
represented by one small grocery store and a
blacksmith shop. What few buildings re-
main are