(logo)
(navigation image)
Home American Libraries | Canadian Libraries | Universal Library | Project Gutenberg | Children's Library | Biodiversity Heritage Library | Additional Collections

Search: Advanced Search

UploadAnonymous User (login or join us) 
See other formats

Full text of "History of Effingham county, Illinois"

LI E> R.ARY 

OF THL 

UNIVERSITY 

or ILLINOIS 

977. 379e 



liUuli lis^ioi stnif 



HI8T0EY 



EFFINGHAM COUNTY, 



IIaLINOIS. 



^EDITED BY WILLIAM HENf^Y PBRRIIsI.-:^ 
&\ __ i^ 



ILaLaUSXRATB.D. 



CHICAGO : 

O. L. BASKIN & CO., HISTORICAL PUBLISHERS, 

Lakeside Building. 
1883. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XVI.— Mason Town8liil>— Topographical and De- 
scriptive— Settlement — Broom, the Stewarts and other 
Pioneers — A Fourth of July Celebration^Schools and 
Churches— An Incident— Villages— Growth and Develop- 
ment of Mason— Its Business Importance- Kdgewood — 
Laid out as a Town — Stores, Shops, Churches and Socie- 
tiei 1^8 

CHAPTEE XVII.— Watson Township— Surface and Physical 
Features- Coming of the White Settlers— Their Loca- 
tions and Claims— Sketches of Some of the Noted Ones — 
Mills and Olher Pioneer Industries- Schools and School- 
houses— Churches— Village of Watson— Its Growth and 
Business 200 

CHAPTER XVIII.— Jackson Township— Introduction and Gen- 
eral Description — Topography, etc.— Settlement of White 
People — Pioneer Improvements and Busiuess Industries 
—Some Early Incidents— Births, Deaths and Marriages- 
Mills, Roads, etc.-^Schools and Churches— Villages, etc, 
etc 212 

CHAPTER XIX.— Union Township— Introductory — Bound- 
aries and Topography — White Settlement — Frederick 
Btockett— Other Pioneers— Incidents of Early Life— The 
First Roada—Educalional— Schooihouses— Churches, etc. 
Flemshurg Village— A Tragedy and its Results 220 

CHAPTER XX.— St. Francis Township — Description and Topog- 
raphy— The First Settlers and Their Hardships— A Trag- 
edy-Mills, Roads and Other Improvements— Early 
Religions History — Churches and Preachers — Schools, 
Schooihouses, etc. — The Village of Montrose— Its 
Growth, Development, etc 229 

CHAPTER XXI.— Liberty Township— Its Physical Features- 
Timber Growth, etc.— Early Settlement— Pioneer Hard- 
ships — Industries aud Improvements — The State of So- 
ciety — Educational and Religious — Beecher City— A Vil- 
lage of Large Pretensions — Its Business, Churches, 
Schools, Benevolent Societies, etc 238 

CHAPTER XXII.— Lucas Township— Introductory— Topogra- 
phy and Boundaries — Pioneer Occupation — Where the 
Settlers Came From— Their Early Life Here— Growth and 
Improvement of the Counlry— Mills, etc.— Educational 
Facilities— Churches and Preachers— Villages, etc., etc... 242 

CHAPTER XXIII.— TeutopoliB Township— Its Description and 
Formation — Topography— The Prairie and Timber Soils 
— German Emigrants — Village of Teutopolis — The Ger- 
man Colony— Growth of the Village— Schools—St. Jo- 
seph's College— Sisters of Notre Dame— The Church- 
Village Incorporation and Officers 250 

CHAPTER XXIV.— West Township— Introductory aud De- 
scriptive — Topography and Physical Features — The First 
Settlements — Pioneer Industries and Internal Improve- 
ments — An Incident— Schools, Churches, etc. — Village of 
Gilmore — War Record and Experience, etc 257 

CHAPTER XXV— Banner Townsbip— Topography, Timber 
Growth, etc. — The Settlement— Bingeman, Rentfrow and 
Other Pioneers — Wolf Hunts — Churches and Church In- 
fluences — Schools — Village of Shumway — Its Growth and 
Development — Religious aud Educational Facilities 2G'I 



CHAPTER XXVI.— Moccasin Townsbip — Configuration and 

Boundaries — Streams, Timber, etc— Pioneer Settlement 
— Early Life of the People — An Incident — Churches and 
Preachers — The First Schooihouse — Schools of the Pres- 
ent — Moccasin Village — Platted — General Business of the 
Place 27U 

CHAPTER XXVII —Bishop Township— Topography and Sur- 
face Features— Coming of the Pioneers — Their Hard 
Times and Vicissitudes — The Early Improvements in Liv- 
ing — Roads, Mills, etc. — Schools and Schooihouses — 
Religious History — Churches and Preachers — The Village 
of Elliottstown, etc., etc 274 



PART II. 

BIOGRAPHICAL. 

PAGE. 

Epfinqham City and Douglas Township 3 

Mound Township *"5 

Lucas Township 124 

Teutopolis Township 140 

Mason Township 148 

Jackson Township 1*79 

Liberty Township 196 

West Township 208 

Watson Township 217 

Moccasin Township 228 

Bishop Township 238 

St. Francis Township 244 

Union Township 261 

Banner Township 257 

Summit Township 261 

Addendum— Weiler 4 Meyer. 286 



PORTEAITS. 

PAGE. 

Beecher, H. L • 279 

Bernhard, U 1* 

Broom, John 1^9 

Dawson, Robert 32 

Field, L. J "1 

Gillenwaters, T. J 27 

Groves, John N l^^ 

Gwin, J.N *1 

Hoeny, John ^^ 

Kepley, Henry B 1" 

Le Crone, John 6* 

Leitb, David *8 

Mitchell, Calvin 135 

Rice, S. S 207 

Scolt, Owen '^ 

Stair, Jacob ^ 

Tennery, Thomas D •■• 1^1 

Williamson, D 243 

Wills, John 226 

Woody, John I'^l 

Wright, C. M 261 



PREFACE. 



AFTER several months of laborious research and persistent toil, the history of Bflins;- 
ham County is complete, and it is our hope and belief that no subject of general 
importance or interest has been overloolied or omitted, and even minor facts, when of sufficient 
note to be worthy of record, have been faithfully chronicled. In short, where protracted 
investigation promised results commensurate with the undertaking, matters not only of 
undoubted record but legendary lore, have been brought into requisition. We are well aware of 
the fact that it is next to impossible to furnish a perfect history from the meager resources at 
the command of the historian under ordinary circumstances, but claim to have prepared a work 
fully up to the standard of our engagements. Through the courtesy and assistance generously 
afforded, we iiave been enabled to trace out and put into systematic shape the greater portions 
of the events that ii;ive transpired in the county up to tlie present time, and we feel assured 
that all thouglitful persons interested in the matter will recognize and appreciate the importance 
of the work and its permanent value. A dry statement of facts has been avoided, so far as it 
was possible to do so, and anecdote and incident have been interwoven with plain recital and 
statistics, thereby forming a narrative at once instructive and entertaining. 

We are indebted to H. C. Bradsby, Esq., for his very able general history of the county 
comprised in the first nine chapters ; to B. F. Kagay, Esq., for the chapter on the " Bench and 
Bar f to Charles Evcrsman, Esq., for chapter on Tcutopolis, and to G. M. Le Crone, Esq.. and 
many other citizens of the county for material aid in making the proper compilation of facts 
embodied in the work. 

February, 1883. THE PUBLISHERS. 




tLLIJMOliS. 



ff.+.f 



R.S.E 



R.G.E. 




PART I 



STORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY, 



CHAPTER I.* 



INTRODUCTORY— THE FIRST PIONEER— GRIFFIN TIPSWORD— HIS SUPERSTITIOUS ECCENTRICITIES 
—THE FIFTY-ONE FAMILIES— TIMBER AND PRAIRIES— OBSTACLES TO SETTLEMENT- 
WILD BEASTS AND INSECTS— BEN CAMPBELL— MORALIZING ON PIONEER EXPERI- 
ENCE—SOME ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS OF CAMPBELL— HIS LAST 
MARRIAGE AND DEATH— REQUIESCAT IN PACE. 



" I stand alone, like some dim shaft which throws 
Its shadows on the desert waste, while they 
Who placed it there are gone — or like the tree 
Spared by the ax upon the mountain's cliff, 
Whose sap is dull, while it still wears the hue 
Of life upon its withered limbs." 

— The Aged Pioneer. 

TO rescue from fast-fading traditions the 
simple annals of the pioneer people of our 
county is a pleasing but a laborious task, not so 
laborious as perplexing, the annoyances arising 
from there being now no connected record of 
their official acts and doings. Many of the 
earliest and most important legal papers are 
gone beyond recovery; many of them were 
never put in a more permanent form than mere 
slips or scraps of unbound sheets of papers, 
stuck carelessly away, not even marked or 
filed; some not dated, and others again ad- 
dressed to no one. Then, in the burning the 
court house in ISHS. many were consumed or 
destro3-ed in being removed. 

•The Chaptera following on the history of the county at large 
are written by H. C. Bradsby, Eaq. 



To supply this loss of important papers, with 
their invaluable facts and statistics, is now 
largel}- fore\'er impossible. 

But to meet and converse with the few now 
living of these earl}' settlers — those who came 
here as children, or as veiy young men and 
women, and are now fast approaching or have 
passed the allotted threescore and ten, 
stooped with age, venerable patriarchs mosth'. 
and their white-haired " blessed mothers in 
Israel," companions and helpmeets — has been 
the most pleasing task of our life. 

To gather up the raveled threads of the 
strange but simple stories of their lives — now 
mostly broken threads — to catch these fleeting 
traditions and fireside histories, and hand them 
on to posterity, might well be the ambitious 
labor of any man's life. 

The importance thj^t attaches to the lives, 
character and work of these humble laborers in 
the cause of humanity and civilization will some 
daj' be better understood and appreciated than 
it is now. Thej- will^some time, by the pen of 



12 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



the wise historian, talie their proper place in the 
list of those immortals who havq helped to make 
this world wholesome with their toil and their 
sweat and their blood. Of them all the pioneer 
was the humblest, but uot the meanest nor the 
most insignificant. They laid the foundations 
on which rests the civilization of the Western 
Hemisphere.«- If the work was done well, then 
the edifice stands upon an enduring rock; if ill, 
then upon the sands; and when the winds and 
the rains beat upon it, it will tremble and fall. 

If great and beneficent results — results that 
endure and bless mankind — are the proper meas- 
ure of the good men do, then who is there in 
the world's history that may take their places 
above these hardy, early pioneers? 

To point out the waj', to make possible our 
present advancing civilization, its cheap and 
happ}- homes, its cheap food, its arts, sciences, 
inventions and discoveries, its education, litera- 
ture, culture, refinement and social life and joj', 
is to be the trnlj- great bcuefactor of all man- 
kind and for all time. This, indeed, was the 
great work of these adventurous pioneers. 

Grant it, captious friend, that the}' builded 
wiser than thej' knew; that few, if any of them', 
ever realized in the dimmest way the transcend- 
ant possibilities that rested upon their should- 
ers. Grant it that, as a rule, their lives were 
aimless and ambitionless, with little more of 
hope, or far-reaching purposes, than the savage 
or the wild beasts that were their neighbors. 
Yet there stands the supreme fact that they fol- 
lowed their restless impulses, took their lives 
in their hands, penetrated the desert wilderness, 
and with a patient energy, resolution and self- 
sacrifice that stands alone and unparalleled, 
they worked out their allotted tasks, and to-day 
we are here in the enjoyment of the fruitage of 
their labors. • 

Should we allow their names and their fame 
to pass into oblivion and contempt, the act 
would mark us as the degenerate sons of heroic 
sires, unworthy the inheritance they gave us. 



To say that in this work it is proposed to 
write the historj', in the broad and large mean- 
ing of that word, would be a careless use of 
language — would be promising more than it is 
possible for us to do; for history in its true 
sense is philosophy in its highest type, teach- 
ing by example. But to gather such facts, in- 
cidents, statistics and circumstances, trifling or 
important, as are left to us, and place tliem in 
a durable form, and transmit them, ready to 
hand, to the future and real historian, is all that 
one can attempt or hope to do in a manner at 
all satisfaetorj'. To tell their simple annals in 
their chronological order, to secure something 
of the substance ere the shadows wholly fade, 
IS enough to attempt now. 

In the year 1814 or 1815, Griffin Tipsword 
came to this part of Illinois and took up his 
abode with the Kickapoo Indians. These In- 
dians then occupied what is now parts of Fay- 
ette, Shelb}' and Effingham Counties. South of 
the Kickapoos were the Winnebagoes and Del- 
awares. At that time these Indians were peace- 
ably disposed, and, it seems, were indifferent as 
to the coming of the lone, straggling, white man. 

We make no doubt that Tipsword was the 
first white man that was ever here. He was a 
strange compound of white man by birth and 
Indian Ijy adoption. He was a self-exile from 
civilization in his native Virginia, and by choice 
a roving nomad, who sought the solitudes of 
pathless woods, the dreariness of the desert 
waste, in exchange for the trammels of civilized 
society. Of the latter, he could not endure its 
restraints, and he despised its comforts and 
pleasures. His soul j-earned for freedom — free- 
dom in its fullest sense, applied to all property, 
life and everj'thing, here and hereafter. He 
hunted in the Indian chase, talked in their dia- 
lect, danced their dances, and to show how fully 
he was for, them, with them and of thein, he 
gave them his oldest sou, who remained with 
them whoU}' for years, in order that he miglit 
be fully educated in their ways. 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



13 



Moses Dotj- was a nephew of Tipsword, and 
from him and the gnindsous of the old pioneer 
we learn that he left Virginia in the 3 ear 1812 
and came to Southern Illinois, where he re- 
mained for two or three years, and then came, 
witli liis wife and two children, to this part of 
the State; that he hrst lived in the northwest 
corner of this county, and in Shelby, and lived 
and hunted and migrated as far northwest as 
Quincy, and then would return to this place. 
The Indians did much the same in following 
the game and in searching for new and better 
hunting ground. 

For years after he came here he saw no hu- 
man face except the Indian. His people in Vir- 
ginia had no word of him for sixteen years after 
he left them. 

In many respects he was a remarkable man. 
He had gone West, cut loose from kith and kin, 
and he didn't burn the bridges behind him, be- 
cause there were none to burn. He was a pio- 
neer, a doctor, a missionar\' preacher, his own 
bishop, as well as his own committee on ways 
and means. He hunted, fished, cut bee-trees, 
and talked with the Indians in their way and 
fashion. He was as illiterate as they, and he 
told them In Indian the stor)' of Mount Calvary 
and the lake of fire and brimstone, and those 
who had no fears of an angry God had a healthy 
dread of his unerring ritte. Beneath God's first 
temples he pointed the way to heaven to these 
simple savages. In the trackless woods he met 
the bad Indian and slow him. He was notonlj' 
a physician for the poor soul, but he was a 
" medicine man," who could exorcise witches, 
conjure ghosts, remove "spells," make "silver 
tea " for cattle sick of the murrain or otherwise 
bewitched. He regulated the storms, stayed 
the angry lightning fiashes, and could appease 
the deep-mouthed thunders as they rolled across 
the darkened heavens in terrifying peals. He 
had much to do in his Protean capacity of a 
hunter, a half savage, a doctor, a preacher, and a 
pioneer, with no visible means of support except 



his rifle, and that he lived out u long life (it is 
supposed over a hundred years) is evidence that 
he was singularly well adapted to surrounding 
circumstances. 

His family name was Souards. He onlj- called 
himself Tipsword after he came here. It was 
only in the latter j-ears of his life that he told 
any one that he had changed his name. When 
asktd why he had done so, he would nod his 
head toward the south, where he had first lived 
among the Indians, and reply that he did not 
want to run his " head into the halter." From 
this and other hints that he gave out in his 
last years the inference may be drawn that, in 
his mind, it was much the same whether you 
saved a savage by preaching or b\- the rifle. 
He believed it was the Divine economy to save, 
and in one way or the other he did a livelj' 
business. 

It is not known what particular church ho 
belonged to — perhaps he did not himself know, 
but the records leave no doubt it was that 
broad, liberal Catholic faith and practice that 
gathered up with as much alacrity the Indian 
with a bullet hole through his head as the 
saint with finger nails two or three feet long. 
He was a well-armed drummer in the golden 
slipper trade, a "rustler" for the golden stairs. 

He could doctor the bod}' quite as well as 
the souls. The prevalent diseases of his daj-, it 
seems, were witches, spooks, spells and charms. 
He was as superstitious as his neighbors and 
quite as illiterate, and yet he must have played 
man}' tricks upon his savage followers to retain 
his power over them, and impress and awe 
them with a dread of his occult powers. His 
trade was not destroyed by the coming of the 
first whites and the migration from here of the 
Indians. lie continued to practice medicine, 
preach and hunt. He kept sacred Jiis witch- 
balls to the day of his death. These were 
made of doer's and cow's hair, were large, and 
held together by a long string. They consti- 
tuted his materia medica. 



14 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUXTY. 



Most people then believed implicity in 
witches and charms; some do now. All dis- 
eases were the work of witches, and so it was 
with their cattle. Ghosts could be seen an}' 
dark night in passing a grave or a graveyard. 

Hunters would sometimes be almost be- 
deviled out of their lives b}- witches that would 
appear to them in the woods as a beautiful 
deer, which would career and gallop around 
them in eas}- range and j-et, no matter how 
often he shot, he could not touch them. It 
came to be well known that a leaden bullet 
would not touch a witch, but a silver bullet car- 
ried death on its wings. When this kind of a 
ball was fired at a witch deer, if the aim was 
fatal, the deer would run home, return to its 
human form, go to bed and die. If the shot 
was not fatal, the witch would go to bed, be 
sick a long time, and no visitor would be al- 
lowed to see the wound, nor would the attend- 
ants tell them the particulars of the ailment. 

If cattle were sick, it was the witches and 
nothing would do them au}- good except " silver 
tea." This tea was made b}- boiling a silver 
coin in water for a long time and giving the 
water to the sick brute. 

When people were bewitched, thev would 
send for Tipsword or take the patient to him. 
He would doctor them bj' standing over them, 
moving about in a m3'sterious way his witch- 
balls and muttering a strange guttural jargon, 
and this was repeated from da}' to day until 
the witch would fly unseen away in sore agony 
and distress and the cure was complete. 

The good old John Knox, Presbyterian, of 
Scotland, never had more trouble with witches, 
or the devil, as he went prowling through 
the country, in the shape of a snake, a wild 
boar or some other unknown and unseen wild 
beast, than did these pioneers and Indians. 
Men who are now growing old, who were here 
as children, in the days of unbounded super- 
stition, can yet tell you how they have often sat 
around the loij fireside and heard the gathered 



neighbors tell over tiieir soul-harrowing stories 
of ghosts and witches. Poor, innocent, credu- 
lous children, listening, open mouthed, to 
superstitious fathers and mothers telling fright- 
ful stories — stories that would make these 
youngsters' hair stand out " like quills upon 
the fretted porcupine." If the story chanced 
to be too monstrous for even ignorant cre- 
dulity, then some crooning old granny, well 
known to the whole neighborhood, was always 
referred to as a living authority, who had been 
there and had seen or knew it all. 

These ignorant superstitious, sucked by the 
babes with the milk from the mother's beast, 
have done far more to beat back the cause of 
civilization among the common people than 
could all the swarms of greenhead flies, the 
murderous Indians, the poisonous snakes and 
wild beasts, the deadly malaria, disease and 
poverty. Their tendency was to breed igno- 
rance, to raise up a people that believed enor- 
mously, that never questioned, never doubted, 
but the more impossible the story the more 
implicitly they believed. 

Yet as widespread as were these beliefs in 
goblins and spells, there are to-day men and 
women in our county who grew up among such 
pernicious influences that will tell you of the 
terrifying beliefs of their childhood and laugh 
at them. We _note this fact with the greatest 
satisfaction. By their own strength of mind 
they have grown away from the faith of their 
fathers. A hard thing for any one to do — an 
impossible thing for the weak and slothful- 
minded to do. An ignorant man of large be- 
liefs rears his child very difl'erently from a man 
of large mind, or a man who often doubts aud 
always in^'estigates. The ignorant man takes 
charge of not only the body of his child which 
he guides with a rod of iron, but he is equally 
watchful for its mind aud soul and equally 
severe with his gibbets, chains and slavery 
upon the slighest signs of deviation from his 
precepts. He believes in education, provided 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



15 



the educator he employs is as ignorant and 
credulous as himself. He believes what his 
fathers believed, and, by the eternal, his chil- 
dren shall believe as he does. When the world 
was, or if it shall ever return to this condition 
of aflairs generally, it will have reached ca- 
lamities that will surpass all the afflictions of 
the sword. Are, disease, famines and pesti- 
lences. 

To some this may be regarded as wandering 
somewhat from our text, especially our sketch 
of Griffin Tipsward. It is not. To write the 
history of the pioneers, it is of the utmost im- 
portance to bring prominentl}' forward every 
circumstance, so tar as the}' can be discovered, 
that had any marked influence upon the prog- 
ress of the people. The reader will readilj' 
perceive that among all the calamities that befel 
the very earliest settlers and their children, a 
widespread belief in witches, ghosts, spells 
and goblins was the greatest of all. Tipsword 
carried with him to the day of his death many 
of the customs and characteristics of the In- 
dian. He was always reticent of speech, and a 
ringing, heart}- laugh — he had forgotton all 
about it. In approaching a neighbor's house, he 
would never be seen until standing in the door. 

He lived here a long time after the sparse 
settlements of whites had come and the Indian 
had gone. When the Indians first went awa}', 
it was not fleeing from the pale faces, but fol- 
lowing the game. The}- would, for some years, 
annually return, and often Tipsward would go 
with them and not return for a year or more. 

On one occasion, after the whites had settled 
in Shelby and Fayette Counties, the Indians 
warned them to leave in three days, or they 
would massacre all in the country between 
Shelbyville, by w.ay of Vandalia, to St. Louis. 
The warning came like a death knell to the 
poor defenseless whites — they were terror- 
stricken. Three days was too short a time in 
which to get away, yet it was too long a time 
to await in dread horror the cruel torture and 



death that they well knew that the red devils 
had in store for them. In the calmness that 
comes of despair, they talked over the situa- 
tion. A few, but very few, gathered their lit- 
tle families and fled, but the majority could 
only make a feeble attempt to put themselves 
upon the best defense of their household gods 
that they could. They had hoped at first that 
Tipsword could intercede for them, but when 
appealed to he could give them no hope, as he, 
too, was in the list of warned. On the after- 
noon of the third and last day the Indians held 
a general pow-wow in the woods, and Tipsword 
attended it as a spectator. He had friends 
among the chiefs and braves, and he had no 
doubt talked as much as he dared to them, and 
told them the certain consequences that would 
follow a general massacre of the whites. The 
first speakers urged that they adjourn the 
meeting, paint themselves, and at early dark 
commence the bloody work, and allow no pale 
face to escape. These sentiments met the ap- 
proving grunts of the braves. But late in the 
evening better informed Indians talked. They 
told their people that, while it was true they 
had it in their power to murder the whites, but 
suppose they did, would not the word go to 
the people of the States, and would not an 
army, numbering as the leaves of the forest, 
come here and kill every Indian in the Terri- 
tory. Such representations soon turned the 
attention of the Indians to questions of their 
own safety, and they determined to postpone 
the massacre. 

The settlers had been spared. How much 
they owed of this good fortune to Tipsword 
will never be known. 

GritHn Tipsword died in the year 1S45, and 
lies buried on the banks of Wolf Creek. He 
left surviving children — John, Isaac and 
Thomas. 

John Tipsword married, and was the father 
of Jackson, Griltin, Jerusha, James and Car- 
lin. These all married and had large families. 



Ifi 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



Isaac Tipsword married Nancj' Stanberry, 
and their children — Isaac, Ashby, Sallie, Ruth, 
Thomas, Martha. Marion, John, William, Re- 
becca and Mellissa — all married, and have 
reared large families. 

Thomas Tipsword was the father of Albert, 
Jonathan, Isaac, Jackson, Millie, Lydia, Mary 
and Bell, and from these there is another ex- 
tensive branch of the family. 

From the above it will be seen that the Tips- 
words were pioneers and the sons and daugh- 
ters of pioneers. They seemed to realize that 
the great want of a new country is people, and 
unflinchingly they responded to their country's 
call. 

No stone marks the spot where the old patri- 
arch of this numerous family sleeps. 

Of all the men now living we believe that 
Dr. John O. Scott was the first to kindle a 
camp fire within the confines of our county. 
There were a few who had been here before 
him, but none of them are now living. 

Fifty-seven years ago, 1825, Mr, Scott, in 
company with a man named Elliott, and his 
wife, traveled through this county on their way, 
moving from Wayne to Shelby County. They 
camped near Blue Point. In passing the tim- 
ber at the head of Brockett's Creek, a smoke 
was seen curling, up from a camp fire, a clear- 
ing, or a wooden chimney. Mr. Elliott, who 
had made the trip through here before, told 
him that it was smoke from the cabin or clear- 
ing of a man's place named Fancher. This 
was Isaac Fancher. That Fancher was here 
then is strouglj- corroborated by the oft-re- 
peated statements of Ben. Campbell to his 
stepson, Thomas Andrews, that when he 
(Campbell) came here in 182G he found the 
Fancher family here ; that he stopped with 
them for several weeks, and they put in their 
time hunting bee-trees, of which they found a 
great many. Campbell also stated that he 
tliought the Fulfers were here when he came, 
or that they came soon after. 



This brings up the record of early settlers to 
1826. It is brief and soon told. 

Griffin Tipsword and family, 1815. 

Isaac Fancher and family, 1825. 

Ben Campbell, and Jesse and Jack Fulfer, 
182G. 

And John 0. Scott, and Elliott and wife 
passing through here as movers in 1825. 

Fancher and Fulfer in 1834-35 moved away 
from here into Coles County, where they died 
yeai'S ago. With the exception of Mr. Scott, 
these, the earliest of the pioneers in our coun- 
ty, are all gone — sleeping peacefully in their 
unmarked graves. 

In 1828, Thomas I. Brockett and family, and 
Stephen Austin, Dick Robinson, John McCoy, 
Bob Moore and Richard Cohea came. 

In 1829 came John Broom, Jonathan Park- 
hurst, Ben Allen, Mrs. Charlotte Kepley, Jacob 
Nelson, Andrew Martin, Alexander Stewart, 
John Ingraham, John Trapp, Samuel Bratton, 
John Fairleigh, Alfred Warren, Amos Martin, 
and old Aunty Bratton, Andrew Lilley, Henry 
Tuckei-, William Stephens, Allec Stewart, Bill 
Stewart, and Jacob Nelson. 

In 1830, Jesse Surrells, T. J. Rentfro, James 
Turner, John Allen, Micajah Davidson, Henry 
P. Bailey, George Neavills, Alexander McWhor- 
ter, Jesse White, Enoch Neavills. 

In 1831, Jacob Slover, Isaac Slover, John 
Gallant, William Gallant, Seymour Powell. 
Thomas Loy, William J. Hankins, the Hutchi- 
sons, and John Galloway, the fiddler. 

Here were the fifty-one families that were here 
prior to February 15, 1831 — the date of the act 
of the Legislature organizing the county. Why 
did they come? What was it that stopped 
here this meager stream of emigration and 
fixed them permanently in this place? What 
i was there here to tempt and lure them to 
brave all, endure all, and cause them to fix 
here the nucleus around which all this present 
people, and their wealth and enjoyment has 
gathered? True, they could not see the toils 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



17 



anrl danger that lurked unseen upon every 
hand, j'et there was much to repel them that 
the}' could see, enough, one would think, to 
have settled the question, and forever have pre- 
vented them from tlj-ing in the face of dangers 
that they knew not of 

We can imagine nothing more dreary, lone- 
some or depressing than was the face of this 
boundless waste of cheerless solitude, where 
had sat through the ages silence and deso- 
lation. These vast prairie seas, with their 
long reaches of desert waste, their flat sur- 
face covered with tall, dank grass, often as 
high as a man's head on horseback. In the 
autumn when this grass became sear, it was 
burned, and the smoke from these fires filled 
the atmosphere for hundreds of miles with 
smoke that darkened the face of day and hung 
like mourning drapery upon the horizon. The 
prairies were wet, flat and marsh}'. Waters 
standing a goodly portion of the year on, per- 
haps, two-third's of the soil's surface. When the 
grass was freshly burned the weary eye 'could 
find no relief in tiie vast expanse save the 
crawfish chimneys that thickly dotted the face 
of nature. The water lay mostly where it fell, 
and could escape only by evaporation, and 
from this cause it is believed the rainfall then 
was greater than now. Kecalling these daj'S 
when monotonous solitude was all that was 
here, is to modern people but ringing the 
changes on the story of the " Lost Mariner," 
when the poet tells us he was 

" Alone, alone, all, all alone. 
Upon the wide, wide sea." 

The forests consisted of tall trees with no un- 
dergrowth of brush or vines. The annual fires 
that swept through them had done the work of 
the forester well It cleared awa}' the debris, 
burned most of the fallen trees, and trimmed 
smooth the sprouts and had trained the limbs 
not to grow out near the ground. You could 
ride anywhere through the woods, or, for that 
matter, drive a wagon with nearly the same 



ease that you could in an orchard. People 
now express great surprise that the pio- 
neers alwaj's settled in the timber, or close 
upon the edge of it ; and as a rule the first 
selections were the poorest land. There were 
good reasons for their acts. The face of the 
country was imraensel}' different then from 
now. Thej- were compelled to hunt out, first, 
for a spring where they could get water. The}- 
could find these anddr}' land only in the woods. 
They were, too, a people who knew little or 
nothing about the prairie. It was not then 
possible for man to live upon these treeless 
marshes, pools and bogs, fit only for the home 
of the " green heads," the poisonous insects, 
amphibious snakes and the more deadl}' ma- 
laria. The prairies were then mere lagoons 
filled with rotting grass and death, that was 
carried awaj' by the unobstructed winds to 
poison the pure air of heaven. Tliere was 
very little chance for the water to drain off the 
land, the topography of the country then 
being such as to hold it in its naturally formed 
basins. Mr. Joshua Bradley suggested to the 
writer the most plausible theory as to how these 
prairie basins were formed. His idea was that 
when the tall grass was burned, the fire that 
ti-aveled with the wind, burned everything as 
it went, but tiiat which burned against the 
wind traveled slowly and burned the grass at 
the roots always first, and when a strong wind 
prevailed it would carry the long stalks of this 
burned off grass into the burnt places and 
leave it there. In the spring the heavy rains 
would cause the water to float these off and 
they would lodge at points until they were 
piled there in great quantities, and in the long 
course of time they thus received accretions 
until the waters were held back, sod formed on 
the embankment and complete natural dams 
were made and a basin formed. It was the 
cows of the pioneers that first made beaten 
paths as they traveled to water or to the " late 
burns" to graze the tender and nutritious 



18 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



grasses, and these paths were the lead-way for 
the water to follow, and as the cows killed the 
sod the water could cut its own ditch, so 
stream was added to stream until strength was 
accumulated, and in the years the prairie 
swamps became comparatively drj', rich 
land. 

As gi'eat and numerous as were these ob- 
stacles that confronted the pioneer, they were 
not all. The hostile and treacherous savage 
was here. Jlilk-sick laj- in wait for man and 
beast along nearlj' all the streams in the south- 
ern part of the couutj". The horrible malaria 
freighted the air, as it floated out from its 
noisome lurking places, with its deadly poison. 
Howling and always hungrj- wolves, both 
prairie and timber wolves, made night hideous 
with their howls, and the blood-curdling scream 
of the soft-footed panther added a terrible 

'^warning to that of the wolves, that there was 
little hope of ever having any domestic animals 
here. The "green-head flies," in countless 
billions and as ravenous and voracious as the 
migrating ants of Africa, held undisputed pos- 
session of the prairies always during the hot 
summer months. Their business hours were 
between sunrise and sunset. And in a very 
short time the}' could kill a horse or a cow. 
The " green-head" alone made the prairies 

(wholly uninhabitable. Here, too, were all 
manner of beasts that devastate the poultry 
j-ards and break the good housewoman's heart 
in the destruction of chickens, geese and 
turkeys. Such, indeed, were the surroundings 
that poultry, sheep, hogs, calves, and, in fact, 
most of domestic animals would have been 
secure only in a fire and burglar proof safe, 
with a time lock to do duty while the house- 
hold slept. 

The galinipers, the mosquitos, the wood 
ticks, chiggers and lizzards, with "yaller 
jackets," bumble-bees and hornets and poison- 
ous insects were here and everjwhere and all 
hungry or angry at the approaching pioneers. 



The bald eagle, flanked by the hawks and egg 
devouring crows, screamed his defiance at civil- 
ization and swooped down upon the poultry, 
the pigs and the lambs in the sheep-fold. Here, 
too, was the snake — spotted with deadly 
beauty — but for snake stories, go to any of the 
old settlers, especialh- A. G. Hughes. For our 
part we are like Washington's hatchet, '■ I'd 
rather tell ten thousand lies than cut down a 
cherry-tree." 

When all these things are considered, and 
when it is further remembered that these earli- 
est pioneers were truly strangers in a strange 
land, with no aids of machinery or mechanical 
contrivances to help them, except their rifle, 
and wife and little ones ; no doctors, no medi- 
cine, no mills, no stores, no markets, no any- 
thing but appalling difficulties, is it not indeed 
a wonder that any one ever came here, or stayed 
after he did come, or lived to perpetuate his 
race and name. 

We have named the people that were here 
prior to 1831. They were in settlements, in 
Blue Point, on Fulfer Creek, the Wabash Riv- 
er, Brockett's Creek, and Union Township. 
The earliest and largest of these settlements 
were the neighbors of Thomas I- Brockett. 
While this was 3-et a part of Fayette County, a 
voting precinct was formed, the voting place 
generally at Thomas I. Brockett's house, but 
one year it was held at the house of James 
Turner. The last election had there while it 
was Faj-ette County, there were, we are told, 
thirteen votes, solid for Andy Jackson ; we do 
not doubt it. 

In this effort at pen pictures of the early 
settlers and the countj- when first the}' came, 
whenever we have found a stronglj' marked 
characteristic pioneer, we have told all we could 
learn of his leading traits, and tried to give the 
reader as perfect a drawing as we could as to 
what manner of man he was. In this connec- 
tion we deem it not inappropriate to close this 
chapter with a short sketch of Ben Campbell, 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



19 



a king among his liintl, a fine type of liis class, 
witli every trait abnormally developed. 

Since the memorable days of '49, when the 
discovery of gold on the Pacific slope set 
all the world agog, the pioneers, the men who 
skirt the outer confines of civilization on this 
continent, have entirely changed in their char- 
acteristics. They are now perhaps the most 
cosmopolitan people in the world, and we in- 
cline to the belief that the old Californians are 
the best practically educated people in the 
world, for they were suddenly gathered togeth- 
er in large numbers, representing every civil- 
ized people of the globe — many of the half 
civilized, and even ^ome of the totally barbar- 
ous. This heterogeneous gathering of such 
varieties of people resulted in the world's won- 
der of a public school. It rapidly educated 
men as they had never before been taught. It 
was not perfect in its moral symmetry, but it 
was wholly powerful in its rough strength, 
vigor and swiftness. It taught not of books, 
but of the mental and pliysical laws — the only 
fountain of real knowledge — of commerce, of 
cunning craft — it was iron to the nerves and a 
sleepless energy to the resolution. This was 
its field of labor — its free university. Here 
every people, every national prejudice, all the 
marked characteristics of men met its oppo- 
site, where there was no law to restrain or 
govern either, except that public judgment that 
was crystallized into a resistless force in this 
witches' caldron. This wonderful alembic, 
where were fused normal and abnormal human- 
ities, thoughts, false educations, prejudices, 
and pagan follies into a molten stream that 
glowed and scorched ignorance along its way 
as the volcanic eruption does the debris in its 
pathway. It was the uutrammeled school of 
attrition of every variety of mind with mind — 
the rough diamond that gleams and dazzles 
with beauty only when rubbed with diamond 
dust. The best school in the world for a thor- 
ough, practical education. Universal educa- 



tion — we mean real education and not " learned 
ignorance '' as Locke has aptly called it — is a 
leveler of the human mind. It's like the strug- 
gle for life, where only "the fittest survive" 
and the unfit perish. But its tendency is to 
lift up the average, to better mankind, to 
evolve the truth, and mercilessly gibbet in- 
grained ignorance and superstitious follies. 

Ben Campbell's pioneer school life was spent 
in a wholly different one from that just named. 
The surroundings of the Illinois pioneers dif- 
fered radically from that of the California 
" forty-niners." They did not come here in 
great rushing crowds, but alone or in meager 
squads, they had abandoned home and the 
signs of civilization and plunged into the vast 
solitudes. They settled ilown to live where 
language was almost a superfluity, and a smile 
or laugh were as lost arts. These sturdy, lone 
mariners of the desert were men of action and 
silence. Not very social in their nature, moody 
often, almost void of the imaginative faculty, 
with no longing for the Infinite, and seldom or 
never looking through nature up to nature's 
God. They simply whetted their instincts in 
the struggle for existence, against the wild 
o-ame, the ferocious beasts and the murderous 
savage. 

Such was Ben Campbell, and he was pre- 
eminently one of his kind. A man of tremen- 
dous physical organization, with coarse feat- 
ures, a sun-burned skin, that was covered with 
hair and unsightly " bumps " all over his face ; 
great scars upon his face and body, especially 
a frightful scar that ran down the whole left 
side of his cheek, injuring the muscles of the 
eye and giving it a strange expression. San- 
dy, coarse, stubby hair and beard, blue eyes, 
very large mouth, with thick lips, and teeth 
double-rowed and so large that ihey looked 
more like horse's than human teeth. Generally 
dressed in skins of animals he had slain, ex- 
cept a small, close-fitting red bonnet that was 
always on his head. Altogether a figure \\iell 



20 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



calculated to frighten children to death, and 
might even appall timid grown people when 
suddenly' beheld for the first time. 

While hunting one daj', he met an Indian 
who had a splendid fresh deer skin on his 
shoulder. 63* a strange coincidence Campbell 
had a bright silver half-dollar in his pocket. 
Campbell much wanted the skin and ^ the other 
coveted the money. Negotiations resulted, and 
the hide and half-dollar were placed together 
on a log, to be fought for by the two men. 

Campbell alwaj-s wound up his story b}- 
stating that for nearly an hour he could not, 
for the life of him, tell whetiier he was going 
to get the deer skin or loose tlie half-dollar. 
But he eventually got it and walked off with 
his trophy. 

At one time he went to Vandalia when the 
Legislature was in session. On his way he 
killed a fine fat turke^'-gobbler. This lie nego- 
tiated at the hotel for his dinner and horse 
feed, stipulating that he was to have his dinner 
earlier than the regular meal and to have some 
of the turkej-. When he sat down to the table 
he eat the entire turkey, as well as everything 
else that was on the table. Mother Maddox, 
the landlady, declared that she honored the 
guest that honored the food she put before 
them b3' eating heartily, and so she extended a 
life-time invitation to Campbell to always 
come, and, without money and without turke3's, 
to eat at her table free. 

This story is made the more plausible by an- 
other one, that has been vouched for b3' at least 
one-half of tiie old settlers. A part3' was out 
camping and hunting. Campbell had with him 
a favorite and worthless dog of the bench-leg 
kind — very fat, clumsy and lazy. It was fit for 
nothing in the chase, so it stayed at the camp- 
fire with the cook while its master would be 
hunting. On one occasion, Campbell had been 
gone all da3', and when he returned, tired and 
hungry, he anxiousl3' inquired what luck his 
companions had had in killing something to 



eat. To his joy he saw roasting over the fire 
what he supposed to be an enormousl3- large 
coon. Now, if there was one thing in the world 
that Campbell liked best of all, it was a coon, 
fat and cooked b3' a camp-fire. The coon was 
soon cooked to a turn, and Campbell's J03', 
when the otiiers announced that they had had 
supper, was sincere, for he knew his capacit3', 
and he wanted enough for himself Without 
bread, potatoes, coffee* or anything else but 
coon, he sat down to a repast fit for a king, par- 
ticularly in quantity, which was much in Camp- 
bell's eye. He picked a bone and called his dog, 
but the dog did not respond. He would pick 
another bone and whistle again and call his 
dog; the dog never came, and this went on 
until every bone was picked. The boys had 
killed and cooked the dog for a coon. 

Like Daniel Boone, he could boast of tasting 
about ever3-thing he could get hold of in the 
way of bird or beast in the country. When 
hungr3', he was willing to tr3-, without prejudice, 
anything he could get. In this world's wealth 
he was never able to try a horse, but those who 
knew him best would not have g.ambled a cent 
that he would have made a failure here. 

His capacit3' and love of eating wei-e only 
equaled by his love for whisky- and fighting. 
The prospect of a jolly big fight would take him 
to any part of the world. He was in the Nau- 
voo war, in the thickest of the fight, and here 
he got numerous of the scars that he carried to 
his grave. The ugly scar on his face was made 
by a man he found chopping in the woods one 
day. The man was a pioneer, too, who had 
concluded to stop and build a cabin. Camp- 
bell resented this, and leveled his gun at the 
stranger and ordered him not to trespass on his 
land. The wary stranger eventually got 
Campbell to put his gun down and enter into 
negotiations. He deceived the old hunter, and 
when he got between him and his gun, he sud- 
denl3' raised his ax and struck a wicked blow 
at his head. Campbell barely saved his life by 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



dodging back, but he did not dodge enougli to 
prevent the wound. 

Campbell was a man who was moved in ever}*- 
thing by his own promptings. He knew little 
or nothing of the rules of societv, and he cared 
less. He was an honest man, and as rough of 
speech as rough could be. He was crabbed, 
sullen and moody of temperament. A stranger 
seemed to affect him as a red flag does a mad 
bull. Such he would generally roughly insult 
without cause, and while he was slow of speech 
and his words were few, he could make his 
taunts sting terriblv. If the stranger, in igno- 
rance of the man, resented the insult, a fight was 
improvised at once; and in the old style of 
rough-aiid-tumble-knock-down-and-drag-out, he 
seldom met his match. Yet, the fight once 
over, he was ready to drink friends at his vic- 
tim's expense — get roaring drunk and savagel3' 
friendly. 

He lost his pioneer wife, and after awhile he 
made up his mind to marr^ again. He had 
heard of Robert Moore's widow in the north- 
west part of the county. He had never seen 
her, but, nothing daunted, he mounted his horse 
and rode to her house, called her to the door, and 
as he sat upon his horse, looking closely at the 
widow, he finallj- informed her that he had come 
to see her on business — that he wanted to mar- 
ry her — but thatsAe loouldn't do, and he turned 
his horse and rode off. He proceeded to an- 
other house, where there was also a widow, 
called her to the door, told her his business, 
and commanded her to mount behind him and 
go to the magistrate's and be married. The 
poor woman remonstrated and begged for time; 
but with oaths that fairly snapped as he uttered 
them, he told her to mount, and she mounted, 
and the cooing doves rode off and were mar- 
ried. 

His death, on Christmas Bay, 185G, was much 
after the manner of his life. He not onl}- died 
with his boots on, but on horseback. He had 
been to Freemanton all dav, and in the evening 



started home -one of the Higgs boys riding be- 
hind him. When the horse stopped in front of 
his cabin door, Campbell made no motion to- 
ward dismounting — he was dead. 

Bon Campbell has now l)een dead many years, 
with no lineal descendants surviving him. The 
above would be an. extravagant drawing of the 
pioneer generally; yet there is much in it that 
recalls a type and character of that day. He 
had been admirably trained, or had trained him- 
self, for his place in life, and in security and con- 
tent had lived out a long life and filled to full- 
ness his measure of ambition. He knew noth- 
ing of romance or sentiment, nothing of a gov- 
ernment of rigid laws and stern police regula- 
tions. Under these, he could neither have 
thrived nor lived. He was coarse, rude, un- 
gainlj- and wild, as were his worst surround- 
ings. He was brave, generous and strictly hon- 
est. He was illiterate, but not ignorant; but 
shrewd, active, alert, and rich in animal life and 
vigor, with the most of his natural faculties cul- 
tivated almost to the perfection of the smell of 
the Siberian bloodhound. Here was marvelous 
adaptations to extraordinary surroundings. 
Exactly such as he was he had to be, in order 
that he might blaze the way into the heart of 
the wilderness for the coming hosts of civiliza- 
tion. 

Rare old Ben Campbell ! Your times and 
your kind have passed away forever. You 
lived out j'our allotted term in your own proper 
and best way. You filled j'our mission in life, 
and died when it was best 3'ou should. Rest 
fore%'er in peace! For should you now " revisit 
the glimpses of the moon," and behold your de- 
generate successors, with no hunting-grounds, 
no moccasins, no leather breeches, no flint-lock 
guns, nor roasted coons, your great heart would 
wither and decay like a plucked flower. Aye, 
would not your big heart itself burst asunder 
upon seeing the men of this day, in plug hats 
and store clothes, riding in carriages and sleep- 
ing-cars, chasing no other game save the meta- 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



phorical tiger, upstaire, behind closed blinds 
and under bright gas-lights? 

The graves of these earlj' pioneers are un- 
marked and mostly unknown, and their fast re- 
ceding memories are unhonored and unsung. 
They deserve better than this. They deserve bet- 
ter than this from us. They wrought for us the 



richest and most enduring legacy in all the world. 
Jlay this poor Uower tlung upon the unknown 
graves arrest the attention and enlist some 
mind and pen that can render justice and award 
a meed of praise to those great lives whose 
works will ripen into the noblest civilization the 
world has ever known. 



CHAPTER II. 



TOPOGRAPHY AND PIIV.SICAL FEATURES— NORTHWESTERN ELEVATION OR MOUNDS— THE LITTLE 
WABASH BLUFFS— GEOLOGY— RELATIONS BETWEEN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND GEO- 
LOGICAL STRUCTURE— FORMATION OF ROCKS-NATURAL FORCES— THE FLORIDA 
REEFS— PETREF.iCTIONS— HUMAN RE.MAINS— COAL— IRON ORE AND BUILD- 
ING ROCK— MINERAL WATERS— ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES, ETC. 

miles across at its base, and a little over fifty 
feet high, descending very gradually for more 
than a mile to the flat level prairies, which are 
soon merged into post oak flats. 

"We are told by the State Geologist that the 
elevations in Northwestern Illinois known as 
the " mounds,' are no doubt the result of denud- 
ing forces acting upon the surface, which have 
swept away the surrounding strata, leaving 
these isolated hills as the only remaining indi- 
cations of the former level of the adjacent region. 

From Freeport southward, along the line of 
the Illinois Central Railroad, there is a gradual 
descent to the valley of tlie Big Muddy River, 
in Jackson County, where the level of the rail- 
road grade is only fifty-five feet above the river 
at Cairo. From this point there is a rapid rise 
toward the south, and at Cobden the railroad 
intersects a true mountain range that has an 
elevation of 500 to 600 feet. The geologist 
distinguishes this as a mountain ridge, because 
the evidences show there was here an uplift by 
forces acting from beneath, and not a washing 
away from the general level by the waters, as 
in the case of the northwestern mounds (no ref- 
erence to the so-called Indian mounds that 



EFFINGHAM COUNTY is bounded on the 
north by Shelby and Cumberland, on the 
east by Cumberland and Jasper, on the south by 
Clay and Fayette, and on the west by Fayette. It 
has an area of 486 square miles, of which more 
than one-half is timber. 

The Little Wabash River, passing southward- 
ly, nearly equally divides the county. Its tribu- 
taries are : On the east, Lucas, Big Bishop, with 
its forks, Little Bishop and Ramsey Creeks, 
Big and Little Salt Creeks. Brush Creek, Green 
Creek and Sugar Fork; on the west are Fulfer 
and Limestone, Big and Brockett's Creek, Sec- 
ond Creek, Funkhouser, Blue Point and Shoal 
Creek and Green Creek, and Moccasin Creek. 
The higher surface land is mostly flat prairie, 
or flat woodland, with some beautifully rolling 
lands in the northwestern part of the county. 
Above the flats are a few low mounds, not so 
abundant nor so elevated as in the counties 
west. One of these is in the eastern part of 
the county, another is Blue Mound, and there 
is a low ridge near Mason. The low woodlands 
contain many fine oak flats, that change to 
white and burr oaks, hickory and post oaks on 
the breaks. The ridge at Mason is about two 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



33 



cross the State from northeast to the south- j 
west). 

This Cobden ridge is the eastern extension 
of an axis of elevation or uplift, which brings 
the St. Peters sandstone of the Lower Silurian, 
above the surface at Bailey's Landing, on the 
west side of the Mississippi River, tilts up the 
Devonian limestone at the " Bake Oven," and 
" Bald Bluffs " in Jack-son County at an angle 
of about 25°, and after elevating the upper por- 
tion of the Lower Carboniferous limestone above 
the surface entirely across the southern portion of 
the State, finalli' crosses the Ohio in the vicinity 
of Shawneetown, and is lost beneath the coal 
measures of Kentuck}-. 

If the strata forming the elevation lie in their 
original horizontal position, the mountain owes 
its existence to the removal of the surround- 
ing strata b}- denuding forces, but if the strata 
are dislocated, and tilted at a high angle from 
their original horizontal position, then the ele- 
vation may be attributed to upheaving forces, 
or, as sometimes happens, to both causes. 
These upheavals, when they have occurred 
after the deposits of the coal measures, as at 
La Salle, Utica, Carbondale, St. Johns, and at 
other points, lift the St. Peters sandstone some- 
times from hundreds of feet below to the sur- 
face, and thus bringing the coal beds also up. 

Near the count}- line, the Little Wabash 
bluffs are sometimes eighty feet high; near the 
railroad bridge they are thirtj' to forty feet, 
near Ewington about the same, and fifty to 
eighty feet high near the north county line. 

The bottoms of the Wabash are an eighth to 
a quarter of a mile wide. 

The hills near Salt Creek are often quite 
abrupt, sometimes seventy-five feet high; its 
bottoms are low and generally narrow, with 
quicksand in many places in the crock bed. 
Near Sugar Creek, Shoal Creek and Green 
Creek, the hills are somewhat steep, bottoms 
very narrow, and beds of the streams very 
sandy. On all the other streams in the county 



the bottoms are much wider, and contain much 
excellent agricultural lands that is now being 
put in cultivation. The streams also possess 
the great advantage of much lower hills, and 
that are of a more gradual and easy ascent. 

The prairie in the western part of the county 
is not so flat as that in the eastern, yet it maj- 
be all pronounced flat prairie, with occasional 
ponds, on the margin of which may be found 
Cephalanthus occideiitalis and Iris versicolor. 
In the woods are post oak. pin oak, white oak, 
black oak, hickory, sugar, elm, laurel oak, sassa- 
fras, ash, hazel, sumach, iron wood, buckej'c, 
sycamore, red-bud. linden, hornbeam, Spanish 
oak, grape vines, plum, clematis, trumpet 
creeper, red birch, etc., etc. 
■ Geological Formations* — It is an anxiom of 
general application in geological science, that 
there is an intimate relationship existing be- 
tween the physical geography and the geolog- 
ical histor}- of every portion of the earth's sur- 
face, and in all cases the topographical features 
of a country are molded by, and therefore 
must be, to some extent at least, a reflection of 
its geological structure. 

If this geological axiom could but find its 
way to ever\' school-room, then would this 
chapter, provided it is a lair presentation of 
the geological and physical geography of the 
county, become the most interesting and use- 
ful book ever placed before either the children 
of the schools or the community at large. To 
the future farmer, and to all dependent upon 

• Throughout this chapter we have made free draftjj upju^he 
" Economical Geology of Illinois," by A. H. Worther, whoae inter- 
eating report of the geology of th.-* Stiite of Illinois is just now from 
the press, and na its title page says, " Puhlished by authority of the 
Legislature of Illinois," 1S82, and the changes it has undergone from 
the surface agencies of more modern times. The varied conditions 
of mountain and valley, deep goigo and level plain, ai-e not the re- 
sults of chance, but, ou the contrary, are just as much due to the 
operations of natural laws, m the rotations of the earth, or the 
growth and continued existence of the various species of animals 
and plants whiidi inhabit its surface. Moreover, all the varietl con- 
ditions of the soil and its productive capacities, which may be ob- 
served in different portions of our own State, are traceable to the 
causes existing in the geological history of that particu.ar region, 
and to the surface agencies which have served to modify the whole, 
and prepare the earth for the reception and sustenance of the exist- 
1 iiig races of beings. Hence, we see the geological history of a coun- 
' try determines its agricultural capacities, and also the amount of 
population which it may sustain, and the general avocation of ita 
1 inhabitants. 



34 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



him, an indispensable beginning of tlieir edu- 
cation will commonue with the investigation of 
these important subjects as they exist in their 
own count^v, tiieir own township and upon their 
individual farms. 

Tiie whole earth was once a globe of liquid 
fire. The radiation of heat from the surface 
resulted in the gradual cooling of the mass, 
and thus the first rocks were formed. Geology 
teaches that the earth has been in process of 
creation through countless ages, and has ar- 
rived at its present condition by regular stages 
of growth or development in some respects 
analogous to those which characterize the life 
of an animal; that these have been eflfeeted by 
the same general law of progressive develop- 
ment which characterizes every development 
of nature, and apply with equal force to the 
mineral, the vegetable and the animal king- 
doms, that all, from the minutest globule, as 
shown by the microscope, to the grandest world 
that revolves around its controlling central 
sun, is alike subject to the control of unchang- 
ing laws; that through these laws, order has 
been evolved and the earth finally fitted and 
prepared for the habitation of man. 

These changes have been going on forever; 
so long that the human mind utterly fails to 
grasp the immense duration of the earth's his- 
tory, that have preceded the coming of the 
now existing races of beings. You can no 
more enumerate these j'ears, periods and aeons 
than could you count the grains of sand re- 
(juired to form a solid globe like this, or the 
drops of water contained in all its waters, or 
the number of cubic inches in infinite .space. 
Geological time is measured onl}' by periods, 
and each period is measured by an immeasur- 
able number of years. 

The eternity of the past is as incomprehensi- 
ble as the eternit}- of the future; it is impos- 
sible to conceive when the material that con- 
stitutes this earth did not exist in some form, 
and equally impossible to conceive a period in 



the future when it will not exist ; nothing has 
ever been or ever will be anihilated. Nature's 
laws are eternal and unciiangeable, alwa3's pro- 
ducing like effects from like causes ; the law 
of change is the vast clock of God that ticks 
off the feons, that had no beginning, no end- 
ding. The organic being may die and the con- 
stitutional elements of which it is composed 
be returned to the earth and atmosphere from 
whence they came, but no portion is lost or 
destroyed in the process. 

Natural forces are manifested by motion, and 
various effects produced, such, for instance, as 
the attraction between particles of matter in 
solution, by which the}' are caused to assume 
a definite form of crystallization. Perhaps the 
thought may be a new and startling one to the 
reader, that the forces that give form to the 
cr3"stal are llcing forces, and that, in this sense, 
life really pervades all matter. Hence every 
mineral assumes its own peculiar form of crys- 
tallization, and that, too, with unerring cer- 
tainty. The formation of the crystal is the 
unmistakable effort and force of nature toward 
organic creation — the first results of a great 
law that has culminated in the creation of all 
tlie higher forms of organized beings. 

The time that has elapsed since the present 
race of beings were first here is much greater 
than the popular mind has been prepared to 
admit. Prof Agassiz, in a work on the coral 
reefs of Florida, clearly establishes the fact 
that this living species of coral have been at 
work on that coast for more than 70,000 ^ears. 
Capt. E. B. Hunt, of the United States Corps 
of Engineers, for many jears at Kej' West, in 
Florida, published in Silliman's Journal, the 
evidences that the existing corals that built 
the limestone formations of the Florida coast 
had been at work there for at least 5,400,000 
years. Sir Charles Ij3'ell admitted in his last 
work "Antiquity- of 3Ian," that there are clear 
evidences that the human race have inhabited 
this continent more than 100,000 vears. 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



25 



The earliest formed rocks having resulted from 
the cooling of mineral matter existing in a 
state of fusion, are termed' primary igneous 
rocks. 

When the surface of the earth had become 
sufHcientl3' cooled, the aqueous vapors of the 
atmosphere were condensed into water, and 
the oceans and streams were formed. The 
waters, bj- their solvent and eroding influence, 
aided bj- other atmospheric agencies, acted 
upon the hardened j'ocks, wearing them away; 
and the disintegrated material, being carried 
by the streams to the bottom of the ocean, 
were there deposited to form the _ stratified 
rocks. These two causes — Are and water — 
have given origin to all the rocky masses 
known. Sometimes the sedimentary or strati- 
lied rocks are subjected to heat or other agencies 
l)y wliich their original formation is changed. 
The}' then are called metamorphic rocks. 
Thus sandstone is converted into quartz or 
quartzite, and limestone into crystalline mar- 
ble, etc. These constitute, in the simplest 
form, the three classes of rock which enter 
into the formation of the earth's crust. 

The ancient oceans, like those of the present 
day, were filled with organized beings, and the 
shell of the mollusk, and the hard, calcareous 
habitation secreted by the coral, become im- 
bedded in the constantly accumulating sedi- 
ment at the bottom of the ocean; and when 
this sediment was hardened into rock, these 
organic remains were preserved in a fossilized 
condition, so perfect and entire that the general 
character and habits of these ancient animals 
may be studied and determined in a most sat- 
isfactory manner. These fossils, though be- 
longing to a species now extinct, and in many 
cases, to a genera tliat are no longer rep- 
resented among living species, are nevertheless 
referable to the four great sub-kingdoms of 
existing animals, and man^' of them to the 
same families, and sometimes the same genera. 

Some of the stratified rocks, especially the 



limestone, are composed almost entirel}' of the 
calcareous habitations and bony skeletons of 
the marine animals that lived in the ocean 
during the time these beds were in process of 
formation, with barel}' enough mineral matter 
to hold the organic materials together in a 
cemented mass. Thus we find that these simple 
types of life have pla^-ed an important part in 
the formation of the solid framework of the 
globe. The same process is now being re- 
peated, and in this way nature preserves her 
own records of succeeding creations, linking 
them all together by the unerring characteris- 
tics of a common origin and weaving them 
into one complete chain of organic existence, 
which beginning with the lowest and simplest 
form — Protozoa — culminates in the final ap- 
pearance of MAN, the highest and complete re- 
sult of creative energy. 

As before stated by these records of the 
rocks, it is established that upon this continent 
we find the traces of man ruinimg back 100,090 
years. To us these would certainly be " old 
settlers," but geology, paleontology and zoology 
hold suspended their judgment and patiently 
investigate, turning over the pages of stone and 
prying out the marvelous secrets that have 
been securely locked and guarded for us in the 
protecting bosom of mother earth for millions, 
perchance billions of years. The question of 
how these beings came here is answered by 
the beautiful and never-changing forces of 
nature. That prepotency of the natural forces 
that account for every " form and qualit}- of 
life." IIow they then came we substantially 
know. How they go is another and a more diffi- 
cult question. That the earth at regular re- 
curring periods is filled with vegetable and 
animal life that come and grow and flourish 
and pass away, leaving not a wrack behind. 
That the earth, but now vocal with life, is to- 
morrow a barren solitude locked in the noise- 
less sleep of death to commence again at the 
lowest beginnings of life — the yeast plant 



26 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



probably in the vegetable, the rliizopods, the 
humblest of the known in animal origin — and 
continue the upward circle until the earth is 
again re-habilitated, to be again desolated, are 
fields for the investigator and for speculation 
that are enough to appall the ordinary mind by 
their magnitude. 

The astronomer tells us of the astronomical 
day and night, that are in duration about 
twenty -one thousand 3-ears, and upon this the 
speculative scientists (some of them only) have 
constructed the plans of creation to be, that 
these recurring periods of life and solitude 
upon the earth correspond — the life with the 
astronomical day, the dead and barren with 
the astronomical night. 

In this work of life and death they agree 
that heat is, as well here as everj-where else, 
the motive power that produces life, while cold 
is the productive power of death. 

Evidences are found nearlj' all over Illinois 
of the presence here of glaciers, those rivers of 
moving ice, that slowly travel from the north 
and from one to five miles in thicliuess, and it 
is easy to conceive that in their track no life 
is left. In the rock beds of Lake Superior 
they gathered up and dropped here and there 
the bowlders that are so frequently found in 
our county. Some of these are found on the 
surface and others are deeply buried in the 
soil, presenting evidences that these glaciers 
came at different and repeated times, but how 
long between them cannot be known. 

One of these oval shaped bowlders was found 
in digging a well, near the Van Machine Shops, 
in this city, in 1870; it would weigh about 
two hundred and fifty pounds. Nearl}- one- 
third had been plained down, by the moving 
ice that had carried it from the Lake Superior 
regions, and presented a smooth and polished 
appearance. It was twenty-two and a half feet 
below the surface and the strata of earth 
above it gave no evidences of disturbance, but 
lav as they had lieen deposited in the long 



course of time; where it laj' it probabl}- was 
the surface when it was left there by the gla- 
cier. 

Petref actions. — Some very remarkable petre- 
factions were found in 1854, in the work of 
constructing the Illinois Central Railroad, 
when digging the "cut" through the hills of 
the Little Wabash, where the road crosses the 
river, and on this side of the river. 

In order to get dirt, to make a " fill " in the 
river bottom, they dug into the side of the hill 
from the cut, and down to about the general 
level of the road-bed. After drifting back a 
few feet, they found a strata of hard limestone 
rock about sixteen inches thick running horizon- 
tally into the hill, and this was six to eight 
feet above the level or bottom of their drift. 
The ascent of the hill was gradual from the 
road-bed, and when they had removed the dirt 
and stone until they were taking it some fifteen 
or twent}' feet below the hill surface, they 
found these petrefactions at the level of their 
drift and beneath the strata of rock mentioned. 
As the earth was cleared away, thej' found 
many evidences that they were following what 
had once been the earth's surface. They found 
the stumps and partially preserved bodies of 
trees that presented the appearance of having 
grown or fallen where they were found. 

They found specimens of petrified wood, that 
were piled out of the waj- of the workmen, 
making a pile as large as a cord of wood. 
One stump that had every appearance of still 
standing where it had grown, was perfecth" 
petrified, except the bark, and it was plainly 
marked by the ax that had been used in cutting 
the tree. At the root of the stump were per- 
fectl}' preserved chips — partiallj' petrified — 
that told again unmistakably of the use of the 
ax. In the claj' soil, on a level with the foot 
of the stump, was found the imprint of the 
fallen tree where it had lain and decayed. 

The rock was above the petrefactions, fifteen 
or twenty feet of earth above the rocks, and 







^jS- . >^ 



/-|r 



|~. 4^'-^''"* 



S^vw:^^^ 6^^^^^ 




HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



29 



upon all this was the great forest trees that 
had stood there for centuries. 

AVe are indebted to Joshua Bradl}- and 
H. B. Kepley for the facts just given. 

Human Remains. — All over the country have 
been found what are known as Indian relics, 
the most common being heart shaped flint 
rock, that were doubtlessh' used for pointing 
arrows, and were the savage's ammunition with 
which he warred and hunted; stone axes ai-e 
also found, but no authenticated specimens of 
pottery. We have in this count}- none of the 
works of the Mound-Builders. 

In the extreme southern part of the county 
along the Wabash River, but more especially- 
across in Clay County, in the heavily timbered 
bluffs and brakes of that stream, are many 
evidences of there once being an extensive 
burial ground of some unknown people. 

Beneath the big oak trees have been found the 
curious graves of which some are still well pre- 
served. Thej- were made by being dug down 
probably thirty inches, and the rude sarcoph- 
agus formed by placing a stone slab at each 
side of the vault, and was completed by 'a 
similar stone covering. In this stone bos, 
which generally is not over three feet square, 
was placed the body in a half sitting posture, 
the feet and head as near together as thej- 
could place them. 

Tlie surface geology of our county is one of 
the greatest importance to the farmer and to 
all classes dependant upon him. The time 
will come when the 3-oung chililrcn, and the 
old, too, most probably, will be taught these 
things until farming will be as much of a science 
as anything else. To understand the beds of 
superficial material that are spread unconform- 
ably upon the rocks, all over the State — the ac- 
cumulations of clay, sand and gravel, called 
drift — is now of the greatest importance to the 
farmer. By tliese can he know the wants and 
proper capabilities of his land — how to care 
for, protect and feed it and supply its impera- 



tive wants the same as he can now his calf or 
pig. The entire agricultural interests in the 
count}-, as well as the common intelligence of 
all our people, are interested here alike, because 
the soil is predicated upon this superficial 
detritus and owes its productive qualities, in 
part at least, to its homogeneous character. 

Our soils are mainly composed of mineral 
matter in a finely comminuted condition, to 
which is added, from year to year, the vege- 
table and animal matters which are accumu- 
lated upon the surface. If the superficial 
deposits are absent, the soil is formed by the 
decomposition of rocks, upon which it rests. 
If the rock is a sandstone, it will form a light 
sandy soil; if a clay shale or other argillaceous 
rock, a heavy clay soil will be the result; and 
if a limestone it will produce a calcareous soil, 
so there will be a marked change in the soil 
with every variation which occurs in the char- 
acter of the underlying rock strata. 

In the drift deposits will never be" found anv 
valuable mineral deposits. And the fragments 
of lead, copper, iron and lumps of coal that are 
sometimes found in this drift are often believed 
by the ignorant to be proofs of valuable mineral 
deposits, where there are none. in rare 
instances, minute particles of gold have been 
thus found and charlatans, professing to be 
geologists, have proclaimed these to be valuable 
gold or silver mines. 

These deposits, while so far they have been 
often used to play upon ignorant credulity, are 
by no means destitute of valuable materials 
for industrial use. They furnish the clay, brick, 
sand and tile that are so generally in use; they 
are the great reservoir that hold so secureh- 
the sweet, pure, cold water tliat supplies our 
w-ells; they are tlie agriculturist's bank of de- 
posit, where, when he learns to properly draw 
his check upon it, is supplied with inexhausti- 
ble wealth with which to honor all his drafts. 

State Geologist Worthen reports of Effing- 
ham Count}' as follows: 



30 



HISTORY or EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



West of the Little Wabash there is exposed 
in the National road four to six feet of brown 
cla}- resting on blue clay, with bowlders. 

On the bank of Green Creek, near the north 
county line, is exposed — 

Ft. 

1 Brown soil 1 

2 Brown sandy clay 6 

3 Brown sandstone 4 inches to 1 

4 Sand and pebbles 2 

In the railroad cut south of Watson — • 

Ft. 

, Brown clay (loess) 8 

Clay and sand with pebbles 20 

On Bishop's Creek — 

Ft. 

Brown and buff clay 13 

Blue clay and bowlders 15 

On Salt Creek— 

Ft. In. 
Brown and buff clay (thin) 

Sandy conglomerate 6 

Blue clay and bowlders 8 

In Sections 17 and 30, Township 8 north, 
Range 5 east, there are regular beds of ferrugi- 
nous drift conglomerate, two to three feet in 
thickness. 

A citizen of Efflngham (Wes. Stephenson), en- 
gaged in well-digging, reports the following gen- 
eral sections of wells: 

Ft. 

1 Soil and subsoil 1 

2 White, buff and blue clay (loess). ..... 10 

3 Red clay and j^cravel — hardpan.. 3 to 4 

4 Hardpan, blue-gray cla}' and 

gravel 12 to 24 

5 Sometimes black clay 3 to 6 

The sand and gravel that furnishes the abun- 
dant and excellent water all over the county, 
and especial!}' here in the city of Effingham, in 
inexhaustible quantities, is found from thirteen 
to twenty-four feet below the surface. 

On the prairies in the southeast, water is ob- 
tained from twelve to twenty feet; at Watson, 
sixteen feet; in the southwest, twent}'; at Mason, 
eighteen to thirtj-. The deepest wells known in 
the county are G. W. Nelson's, fifty feet, through 
clay and coal measure rocks to good limestone 



water, and at Jesse Newman's place in Mason, 
145 feet. This last had only a scant supply of 
water. 

Coal. — The State Geologist estimates that a 
coal-shaft at the cit}- of Effingham would have 
to go down 900 to 950 feet in order to reach 
Vein No. 5. Tliis is a five-foot coal vein. It 
lies below Coal No. 9, six inches; No. 8, three 
feet; No. 7, five to seven feet; and No. 6. two 
feet six inches. 

The onlj- remarkable bed of coal yet found or 
worked in the county is G. W. Nelson's, in Sec- 
tion 20, Township 6 nortii. Range 4 east. A pit 
was opened here and good coal procured. The 
vein was reported three feet thick, but six miles 
down the creek, at Mahon's, it was only ten 
inches thick, and on Limestone Creek, in Sec- 
tion 18, Township 6 north. Range 5 east, it is 
sixteen inches thick. These designated out- 
crops indicate a decided easterly dip. The 
same coal is also found on Big Creek, in Section 

25, Township 7 north. Range 4 east. The State 
Geologist catalogued this vein as No. 16, count- 
ing from the lowest upward. 

On Salt and Brush Creeks there is a six-inch 
seam of bituminous coal, which is catalogued 
as No. 17. Its sure guide is two thin even la}-- 
ers of gra}- limestone, occurring about four feet 
above, and abounding in Spirifer pJano-convexus. 
This has been reported sixteen inches to two 
feet thick, but it is probably an overestimate. 
A thin seam of coal was also found in Section 

26, Township 9 north, Range 5 east. 

Can coal be found here? This is now a ques- 
tion of deep interest to the people of the county. 
In the total absence of any definite knowledge 
upon the question, commendable but perhaps 
foolish struggles have been made and monej- 
and time expended to test the question. Men 
and their drills have been brought here, and a 
boring was made south of the depot a few years 
ago, and all an}- one learned was that their 
money went into a hole, where it will never 
come out. 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



31 



The people of Vamlalia made a much more 
expensive investigation a few 3ear3 ago than 
our people made. At immense expense, they 
carried a shaft (the water was here unusually 
strong) to the depth of 474 feet, and there 
stopped. 

The shaft at Centralia was sunk to the depth 
of .")7() feet, at which depth a seam of coal seven 
feet in thickness was found. This coal is 370 
feet l)elow the Carlinville limestone in that shaft, 
and if the strata retains the same thickness at 
Vandalia, thej- stopped eighty feet above the 
Centralia coal seam. These borings indicate a 
decided increase in thickness of the stone strata 
toward this part of the State, and therefore the 
coal will be deeper here than at Centralia in that 
proportion. 

Wiieu j'ou know what you have to do it is easy 
to prepare and do it. We make no doubt coal 
will be found here some day and worked to good 
profit, even if wo do have to go 900 or 1,000 feet 
to it. 

Iron Ore. — The drift conglomerate occur- 
ring in Section 17, Township 8 north, llange 5 
east, is three feet thick and contains a good 
deal of iron ore. It crops out on a point of 
the hillside extending for thirtj- feet across. A 
similar deposit occurs near the mouth of Big 
Creek, in Section 30, Township 8 north. Range 
5 east. Coal measure shales on Big Creek 
abound in man}- concretions of oxide and car- 
bonate of iron; there are also some in other 
localities, but the quantity is insufficient. 

The sandstone below Effingham, in the fos- 
siliferoiis portion, is very ferruginous. Red ox- 
ide of iron occurs on Beech Creek in sandstone 
over Coal No. 15. 

Buihling Rock. — On Sugar Fork, near its 
mouth, there is a good quarrj' of hard sand- 
stone, and one of silicious limestone on Green 
Creek above the mouth of Sugar Fork. 

Eversnian's quarry has furnished a firm, gra}- 
sandstone. This is two miles south of Effing- 
ham, on Salt Creek Bluff's. On M. V. Park's 



farm, adjoining the city of Effingham, is a 
quarrj- that has also furnished the most of the 
rock for foundations in the citj-. Very good 
sandstone, in thick beds, occurs in the bluff's of 
Shoal Creek near its mouth; on Fulfer Creek, 
iu Section 2, Township 6 north, Range 5 east, 
near Ilamsej' Creek, half a mile from its month, 
in Section 27, Township G nortii. Range G east, 
and on Big Creek, in Section 29, Township 9 
north. Range 5 east. 

There are good limestone quarries on Lime- 
stone Creek and on Fulfer Creek. A good deal 
of rock used on the National road was ob- 
tained here and at Mahon's on Fulfer Creek, 
and also on Big Creek. The best rock for the 
production of lime is found at Nelson's coal 
bank. 

Mineral Waters. — Few if an}' counties in 
the State are better supplied with medicinal 
waters than this. So far the}' are wholly un- 
developed sources of wealth and industry. 
Douglas, Watson, Mason and Jackson Town- 
ships have each springs that possess good min- 
eral qualities, some of them strong, and tliat 
some of these many waters when analyzed and 
once understood, will become widely popular 
and beneficial to mankind we make no doubt. 

In Jackson Township, on Sam Winter's land, 
Section 32, Township 6, Range 5, are two fine 
springs, and while they are not more than 
a rod apart, are wholly difl'erent iu their 
medical properties. These springs were once 
the favorite rendezvous of the Indians. Mr. 
Winters tells us that before these springs were 
fenced, cattle woUld come there for miles to 
drink of these waters, passing other drinking 
places in order to quench their thirst in these 
delicious waters. The neighbors have for a 
long time understood the value of these springs. 

In the same township, near James Larimer's 
and David Mitchell's, on Section 16, Township 
7, Range 5, southwest quarter of .southeast 
quarter, is a fine flowing spring, that has iron 
unquestionably, and probably sulpiuir. 



33 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



In Mason township, in Section 2, Township 

6, Range 5, about three miles north of the town 
of Mason, are three springs, known as Sulphur 
Springs. These have been estensivel}' inves- 
tigated by Dr. Slathcws, and the_y are already 
resorted to by a great many people. 

In Watson Township, Section 22, Township 

7, Range 6, on land op the I. C. R. R., near the 
farm of Andy Parks are still other and very 
fine springs. In the recent sale of tlie lands of 
the railroad, these springs were reserved, and it 
is said the road intends to improve and de- 
velop this health resort. 

The Origin, mid Formation of Prairies. — 
For many j-ears this subject has been under 
discussion by some of our most eminent men. 
Among the first to enter at any length upon 
the subject was Hon. Walter B. Scates, former- 
ly of the State Supreme Court, Prof Whitney, 
of the Geological Survey of Iowa, and Prof 
Winehell, the eminent geologist of Ann Arbor 
University, continued it at great length, and 
Prof Lesquereux joined also the investigation. 
Mr. Worthen, the State geologist, realizing the 
great importance of the people of Illinois of 
this subject, requested Prof Lesquereux to 
give his latest and best conclusions in refer- 
ence to it, after his recent discussions with 
other eminent geologists. 

The Professor holds that prairies are, at our 
time, in process of formation along the shores 
of our lakes — Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, etc., 
as also along the Mississippi and some of its 
affluents, especially the Minnesota River. The 
formation of these recent prairies, whose ex- 
tent is not comparable to that of the primitive 
ones, is peculiar, and has the greatest analogy 
with that of the peat bogs. Where the lake 
waves or currents strike the shores or the low 
grounds, and there heap materials —sand, peb- 
bles, mud, etc. — they build up more or less ele- 
vated dams or islands, which soon become cov- 
ered with trees. These dams are not always 
built along the shores; they do not even always 



follow their outline, but often inclose wide 
shallow basins, whose waters are thus shel- 
tered against any movement. Here the aquatic 
plants, sedges, rashes, grasses, etc., soon 
appear, these basins become swamps, and, as 
it can be seen near the borders of Lake Michi- 
gan, though the waters may surround them, 
the trees never invade them, never grow upon 
them, even when the swamps become drained 
by some natural or artificial cause. Along the 
Mississippi and the Minnesota Rivers the same 
phenomenon is observable, with a difference 
only in the process of operation. In time of 
flood, the heaviest particles of mud are depos- 
ited on both sides of the current, along the line 
of slack water, and b}- repeated deposits, dams 
are slowly formed and -upraised above the gen- 
eral surface of the bottom land. Thus, after a 
time, of course, the water thrown on the bot- 
toms b^' a flood is, at its subsidence, shut out 
from the river, and both sides of it are con- 
verted into swamps, sometimes of great extent. 
Seen from the high bluff's bordering its bottom 
land, the bed of the Minnesota River is, in the 
spring, marked for miles hy two narrow strips 
of timbered land, bordering the true channel 
of the river, and emerging like fringes iu the 
middle of a long, continuous narrow lake. In 
the summer, and viewed from the 'same point, 
the same bottoms are transformed into a green 
plain, whose undulating surface looks like im- 
mense fields of unripe wheat, but forms, in 
truth, impassible swamps, covered with rushes, 
sedges, etc. B^- successive inundations and 
their deposits of mud, and bj' the heaping of 
detritus of their luxuriant herbaceous vegeta- 
tion, these become, by and by, raised up above 
the level of the river. They then dry up in 
the summer, mostly by infiltration and evapor- 
ation, and when out of reach of flood, they be- 
come first wet, and afterward diy prairies. 
Prairie du Chein, Prairie la Fourche, Prairie la 
Crosse, etc., as their names indicate, a,r& towns 
located upon formations of this kind. These 



HISTOKY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



33 



splendid patches of prairie, though of a far 
more recent orgin than the immense plains 
above them, are, nevertheless, true prairies, 
bordered on one side b}' the high, timbered 
bimka of the bottoms, a fringe of trees separ- 
ate them still from the actual bed of the river; 
nevertheless, the trees do not invade them. 

This peculiarity of formation explains, first 
the peculiar nature of the soil of the prairies. 
It is neither peat nor humus, but a black, soft 
mold, impregnated with a large proportion of 
ulmic acid, produced b}' the slow decomposition, 
mostly under water, of aquatic plants, and thus 
partaking as much of the nature of the peat as 
(hat of the true humus. In all the depressions 
of the prairies where water is permanent and 
unmixed with particles of mineral matter, the 
ground is true peat. 

It is easy to understaml why trees cannot 
grow on such kind of ground. The germina- 
tion of seeds of arborescent plants needs the 
free access of oxj'gen for their development, 
and the trees especially in their youth absorb 
b3' their roots a great amount of air, and de- 
mand a solid point of attachment to fix them- 
selves. Moreover, the acid of this kind of soil 
by its particularly antiseptic property-, promotes 
the vegetation of a peculiar group of plants, 
mostlj' herbaceous. Of all our trees, the tam- 
arack is the only species which, in our northern 
climate, can grow on peaty ground; and this, 
even, happens onl^' under rare and favorable 
circumstances; that is, when stagnant water, 
remaining at a constant level, has been invaded 
b}' a kind of mosses, the Spliagnuin. 

To this the objection is made* that if the 
prairies are so formed they would be univer- 
sally flat and horizontal. And Winchell has 
replied to the objection that the assertion that 
it is not the peat in the prairie soil that keeps 
them prairies, because trees do grow and flour- 
ish upon them when planted there. 

* Atwater, in St/Ziman's Journdi, Volume I, page IIG, and Rouine 
same jiturnal, Volume II, page 30, both hold thatvriiirica originated 
from swamps. "While Winchell, Desce and others make the ohjec- 
tioD considered above. 



These apparently strong objections are an- 
swered by Prof. Lesquereux and others, that it 
is not proper to refute one assertion b}- another; 
that it is a well- settled fact in botanical physi- 
ology, that trees absorb by their roots a certain 
amount of oxj-gen necessary to their life. It 
is in accordance with this principle that trees, 
to thrive well, ought not to be planted too deep, 
that most of the species of trees perish when 
their roots are buried in a stratum of claj' im- 
permeable to the air, or underlaid bj* clay im- 
permeable to the water; that whenever the 
water is dammed to make a pond, all the trees 
are killed on the whole Hooded space; that still 
water always ^ills a tree, but there are .some 
trees with roots so formed into many and tine 
branches, that they maj' live in moving waters, 
or running streams. Thus, the bald eyprus 
and lupelo that, in the South, grow in the mid- 
dle of creeks and bayous, are enabled to get air 
from the waters that are moving and changing. 
De Candole, in his book on Vegetable Phj-si- 
ology, saj-s that a constant irrigation necessary 
for the rice culture in Lombard}^, was a great 
inconvenience, because the water penetrates 
the ground of the neighboring properties and 
kills the trees. That '• water left stagnant for 
a time on the ground rots the trees at their 
column, prevents the access of oxj'gen to the 
roots and kills them." That " in the low 
grounds of Holland the}' dig, for planting trees, 
deep holes, and fill the bottom with bundles of 
bushes, as a kind of drainage for surplus water, 
as long as the tree is youug enough to be killed 
by humidity." That " the true swamps and 
marshes have no3, a little west of Ewington. 
The bridge across the Little Wabash, although 
expensive, was a tumble-down affair. It was 
soon washed awaj', and the stone abutments 
were carried ofl' by the people to wall their 
wells and for foundations for their buildings. 

The new county was thus left much as na- 
ture had made it in regai'd to roads. A pony 
mail, at first weeldy, was carried from Terre 
Haute to St. Louis. Anotlier mail route, of 
the same kind, was from Fairfield to Shelby- 
ville. When the streams raged the mails 
stopped. But as there were few people here, 
and still fewer that could read and write, and 
as letter postage was 25 cents, and not 
prepaid at that, it was probably a blessing that 
tlie people were not smothered with our mod- 
ern avalanche of mail matter. Nevertheless, a 
crying want of the people — a want not yet 
wholly satisfied, although many thousands of 
dollars have been washed toward the Gulf in 
the form of bridges^was roads, and passable 
bridges across the streams. The Commission- 
ers made commendable efforts to supply this 
want. But the^' were not skilled civil engi- 
neers, nor were their contractors, apparently, 
that did the work. But they had this great 
advantage of the present. They built cheap 
structures, and when thej' floated away upon 
the muddy torrent, they left at least the conso- 
lation that they had not bankrupted tlie un- 
born generations to come. 

The court notified contractors to send in 



their bids for a number of contemplated 
bridges in the county. James Cartwright and 
T. W. Short, John Funkhouser and Gillen- 
waters, among others, seem to have been the 
principal builders. There were neither pens, 
paper nor circumlocution wasted in these im- 
portant business papers. For instance : " I 
will build the bridge across the Wabash at 
Brockett's for S588. (Signed) John Trapp." 
Or this : ■' I will dam the work agreeable to 
the present contract for one hundred and fiff- 
teeu dolls if high water dont prevent. T. J. 
Gillenwaters." 

Can tlie school-teacher improve on this : 
"James Cartwright, bid for Brig $h")8.00." 
Or, 

•' I will do the work at Ewington bridge for 
a dollar less than any responsible bidder. 

" JouN Funkhouser." 
These papers were not addressed to any 
person or tiling. They were without date or 
flourish of any kind. E plurihus unum. 

The next pressing, public necessity after- 
roads and bridges, seems to have been a county 
jail, induced probably by the following : On 
the 30lh July, 1833, John Cooper was ar- 
raigned before Esquires Gillespie and Han- 
kins for larceny. The preliminary examina- 
tion resulted in the following commitment : 
" it was adjudged by us that thar was proba- 
ble ground for his guilt and hes failed to give 
security for his appearance at the next cir 
court he was committed to the jail of Shelby 
county as there was no iail being provided in 
this county." To this incentive was soon after 
added the circumstance that one Charles Lewis 
was arrested for a horse-thief. And during 
1834-35, Sheriff Bailey certifies that nearly 
every able-bodied man in the county was paid 
in county orders for at one time or another 
guarding Lewis. The fact is, the expense of 
holding this man a prisoner for more than a 
year cost the county double all other county 
expenses except bridges. In 1833, a jail was 



40 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUXTY. 



built, made of logs, and was locked with a 
very fair padlock. There was not money 
enough, it seems, to bii}- the lock for some 
time, but as the door swung outside the Sheriff 
propped it good and fast with leaning poles 
and rails. We will do the court the justice 
to mention that this was intended onl}' as a 
temporary structure. It answered very well to 
hold men while they wore sleeping off their 
drunks. In fact, it did in its time keep safe 
sober criminals when it was constantly sur- 
rounded by well-armed, vigilant guards. The 
architect and superintendent of this public 
structure was T. W. Short. The county paid 
him $10 for his services. Levi Jordan and 
James Krai were paid $496 for building the 
jail. 

At the March term, 1834, appears the follow- 
ing order : " Ordered that the coart proceede 
to a point a county treasurer for the present 
Year. What a pon it a peared that John Loy 
and T. J. Gilenwaters was aplicants it apears 
that John Loj' is apointed." 

The election of a Treasurer being so sue- 
cessfally completed, the following county leg- 
islation was had : •' Ordered, That no Taveru- 
Keeper or Grocery Keeper in this County 
shall charge more than twenty five cents for a 
meals vituels and Twenty Five Cents for a 
Horse feed Lodging 12^ Cents. Twent}- five 
Cents for a quart of Whiskey and twelve and 
a half Cents for a pint of Whiskey, not exceed- I 
ing fifty cents a quart for Brand}-, Wine and j 
Gin and not exceeding eighteen and three 
fourths Cents per half pint for Brandy Wine 
and Gin Rum at the same as Brandy Wine 
and Gin." 

Bless their good old souls ! They gave no 
heed to those vile decoctions, lager beer, apple- 
jack and black strap ! 

The jail being ofl' the hands of the court, 
and a secure place provided for the surplus 
part of the communit}-, the following proceed- 
ings were had with a view to restraining the 



running at large of other stock : " Ordered, 
that the letting of the bilding of an Estraij 
Pon be let to lowes and mos responcible bider 
on the 13 day March in the town of Ewington 
to be sitawated on the north west corner of the 
Publick sqare of the following description to 
Wit Sixty fete Sqare the ponnells ten fete 
long the posts to be of Mulberry hewen eight 
inches sqare two feet in the groun and seven 
fete and ahalf above the two fete in the to 
Scorched the Railing to be of White Oak tim- 
ber such as will not spring either heweu Sawed 
or Split to be not over six inches wide nor 
under three thick oil of which shal be in com- 
plyance with Law regulatin the building of 
Bstray Pons and that the Clerk Advertise the 
sam b}' pasting written notices." 

At March term, 1835, contract made to build 
court house. Contract price S580.37i^. Built 
same year by Hankins & Cartwright. 

December 11, 1829, Robert Moore purchased 
at the Land Office in Vandalia the east half of 
the southeast quarter of Section 7, Township 8 
north, Range 5 east — the first land entr}- ever 
made within our county limits. 

July 9, 1830, Riley Howard entered the west 
half of the southwest quarter of Section 11, 
Township 7, Range 4. September 30 of the 
year, Robert Moore entered the east half of 
the northeast quarter of Section 18, Township 
8, Range 5. 

In 1831, there were four land entries — -R. 
Peebles and W. H. Brown in Section 7, 
Township 5 ; Alfred McDaniel the northeast 
quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 2, 
Township 6, Range 5, and some Polanders en- 
tered a half quarter-section in the northwest 
part of the county. There were no entries in 
1835. Several small tracts in 1833, then there 
were a verj* few scattering entries until 1838. 
This year and 1839, the land market was act- 
ive for this count}-, due to some extent that it 
was these two 3-ears that marked the advent of 
the Germans that have built up Teutopolis 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



41 



and now own a large portion of the surround- 
ing countr}-. 

Tlie first deed recorded in the county bears 
date February 27, 1833, Isaac Fancher and 
Amy Fancher, his wife (her mark), to T. J. 
Gilleuwaters; consideration $500, and conveys 
by quit claim east half of northwest quarter 
of Section 36, Townsliip 8 north, llangc 5 east. 
The officer vouches that he " examined the 
wife separtely," etc. Then follows a number 
of deeds by ditferent men and their wives in 
which there is nothing of special interest until 
one is reached that is signed by T. W. and 
Sally Short. Sally was the first woman that 
ever in an instrument of record in the Circuit 
Clerk's office who did not make " her mark." 
The land market continued esceediuglj- dull, 
and entries few and scattering over the county 
until 1852-53. Then people began to realize 
that a railroad was coming — coming like a raj- 
of light and hope. To this stimulant of tlie 
land market was added the enactment by Con- 
gress of what was known as the "Swamp 
Land Act," by which, upon proof by the coun- 
ties that certain land were •' swamp and over- 
flowed lands," the Government would give all 
such lands to the respective counties (reallj' 
first to the State and the State to the counties) 
that were not entered, and if entered, then the 
Government would refund the entry money in 
kind. 

In 1856, Congress had passed the " Bit 
Act." In other words, it said that all lands 
that had been a certain number of }-ears in the 
market could be entered for 12^ cents per acre, 
provided the applicant therefor made oath 
tliat he was buying for his own use and for 
actual settlement and cultivation. It is as- 
tonishing what a spontaneous uprising of actual 
and intended farmers this act made in a night, 
in and around Vandalia, of all classes of men, 
women and even school children. The act was 
a wise one, and it closed the Vandalia and all 
other land offices in Illinois, except Springfield, 



where the others were taken to. Thus all the 
lands became corporate and private property, 
and in one way or another have been made to 
contribute their share to the wealth of the 
country. 

In 1835, the Countj' Court removed Loy 
from the Treasurer's office and elected Sam 
Huston, and at the same time appointed Huston 
a Commissioner to take the county census. 
The enumeration of the people was carefully 
made and, from the best data now to be found 
(Huston's books being lost), the entire popula- 
tion was about one thousand or one thousand 
and eight in the year 1835. These settlements 
still were Blue Point, Ewington, on the Lower 
Wabash, on Fulfer and Second Creeks and in 
Union Township. 

Loy was County Treasurer in 1833 and 1834, 
and his 2 per cent for the funds for two years 
amounted to $8.S7A^. Or in other words, the 
entire funds the county possessed for two years 
was $443.75. 

From the organization of the county until 
some time in the " forties" the entire tax upon 
all property was five mills on the dollar. The 
whole revenue from taxes in the count}" the 
first year was $50. The next year it rose to $58 
The increase upon tliese figures was verj- 
gradual. Indeed, so much so, that in 1837 tlie 
total revenue collected in the county was 
$122.27. 

The heaviest taxpayer in 1837 in the county 
was John Funkhouser, $5. The next heaviest, 
Robert Moore, $3.25; John Martin, $3. Then 
• followed Joim McCoy, Presley Funkhouser, 
Riley Howard, W. J. Ilankins, Bartholomew 
McCann, William Freeman, C. Duncan and John 
Trapp, $2 each. T. J. Gillenwaters paid $1.75. 
There were 142 names on the tax book, and 
they averaged 86^ cents each. 

If there were any tax-record books before 
the year 1837 kept, which is very doubtful, 
they are lost now. The tax record of 1837 is 
a little book of ten pages, made for a school 



42 



HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 



copy book; has a paper back, on which is a 
wood-cut intended, probably, to represent a 
school room exhibition day. Tlie audience is 
represented by four or five grown people, all 
sitting straight as arrows and as flat against 
the paper as if they had been just taken out 
of a hydraulic tobacco press ; a like number of 
similar looking children are perched in a row 
on benches, and a putty-faced little Henry Clay 
is on the rostrum. His left hand and arm is 
pasted flat and tight to his leg, his right arm 
is stiff and straight at an angle of forty-five, 
and vou can almost hear his piping treble as 
he exclaims; 

" How large was Alexander's ^raio!" 
The cost of this record book could not have 
been less than five cents, because that was 
the smallest money they had in those days, 
and for the further reason that then it cost 
money to indulge in the decorative arts. It is 
said that the purchase of this book made a 
profound sensation throughout the county and 
became the ruling question in politics for some 
time, some contending it was too pretty a 
book to spoil by writing in it, others holding 
that such extravagance would be ruinous to 
all, and still others saying that they believed 
in the county keeping in the lead in the fine 
arts, even if it did cost money. This public 
discussion evidently taught the offleial a lesson, 
because the book for the next year was made 
at home, and consisted of foolscap paper cut 
and stitched. 

In 1838, W. J. Hankins certifies to the 
County Court the following as the total rev- 
enue of the county : 

Tax on personal property $162 57* 

Real estate for 1836-37-38 29 45 



Total $192 02i 

Marrying and Giving in Marringe. — There