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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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


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