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Full text of "Past and present of Menard County, Illinois .."

L I E> RAR.Y 

OF THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF ILLINOIS 

977.355 
M61 



jywm nwwni SWTH 



PAST AND PRESENT 



OF 



MENARD COUNTY, ILLINOIS 



BY 



REV. R. D. MILLER 



ILLUSTRATED 



'A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never 

achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by 

remote generations." — Macaulay. 



CHICAGO : 

The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company 

190 5 



Deotcateo to tbe flMoneers of 
flDenaro Countp 



PREFACE 



It is an intuition in man to desire to know the events of the past. It is, also, a com- 
mendable trait in the race to desire to perpetuate their own good and praiseworth.3 acts for 
those who come after them. Who would not wish to know the history of the first inhabi- 
tants of this country — the Mound Builders:' But thai part of history, tl very-day routine, 

the ordinary affairs of life, are the ones that we most desire to know and are the very ones 
least likely to be preserved. A Local history — a liistory of a county, like this — is the mosl 
difficult to write. .Matters the most likely to interest and entertain a community are the 
hardest to write. More than twenty-five years ago, when writing a history of Menard county 
lor a company, I learned the fact that the very matter that the people would want was the ven. 

matter that the companj refused. So I began then t te down item- of interest and have 

kept it up ever since, expecting that at some time tins matter would he arranged, systema- 
tized and published. Speaking of the pas! of this country, what an interesting field opens 

before us. If some supernatural power would < liable s w. to give a correcl history of the 

events which have taken place just in the small territory of Menard county in all the past ages 
who would refuse to buy it. no matter the prici ? But these things are gone to eternal 

oblivion. Nothing is left hut the testi ly of a lew inanimate and dumb witnesses; yet with 

what eagerness and patient toil we strive ami si-arch m the effort to decipher the obscure 
hieroglyphics which dimly outline some of this dark past How men have sweat ami dun' and 
toiled in the lew small mounds of earth in this county. We unearth a stone ax, flint arrow- 
point or piece of hammered copper, and with a thrill in every nerve-fiber we grasp it with 
the thought that no human hand had touched n till ours since it was grasped by the swarthv 
hand of the long-departed Mound Builder. Then we wonder ami imagim concerning the 
condition of this country at that tune: the animals that roamed these prairies and wood-; 
the kind of people these beings were; and how main hundreds of years have rolled by since 
they gave place t<> the "noble red man.'" We know that they must have been numerous and 
powerful, and that the} mu-i have been organized m some wa\ o have performed the vasl 
amount of labor that was required to erect these \a-i monuments. Then came the Indians 
with their tribal wars and forays of murder and torture: how tin- ston would thrill with 
interest the hearts of men to-day. If all this is true, what a debt we owe to those who will 
come after us to leave 11 record of the events of the presenl that they may know to hi' reliably 
true. Events, commonplace in themselves, in the lives of our fathers and grandfathers will 
not onl\ he interesting, but they maj he of in stimable value in the years to come. Such 
has been the writer's aim to gather up facts of local interest; of family history; id' social, 
political and religious importance, which, in years to come, will give due credit to men for 
the part that they performed in the work of the development of tin country, socially, civilly, 
religiously and financially. No effort at display has been made; no effort to over-draw or 
exaggerate; hut the plain, simple truth ha- been aimed ai in even case. Bulwer says: "One 

of the mosl sub! ■ things in the world i- plain truth." Sydney Smith saj - s: "Truth is 

the handmaid of justice ; freedom is its child; peace it- companion ; safety walks in its sp.ps ; 
victory follow- in its train. It is the brightesl emanation of the gospel— if is the attribute 
of God." And Dryden said: "We find but Eew historians who have been diligent enough in 
their search for truth. It is their common method to take on trusi what they distribute to 

the public, by which mean- a false! 1 once received becomes traditional to the public." I 

have tried, in the following pages, to tell the plain, simple, unvarnished truth. 

R. 1). MILLER. 
February, 1905. 



82ol3 




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CA UfyfyU / ?f^< 



TJ^M 




HISTORICAL 



h is said that when Frederick the Greal 
,\ < ml.l have his secretary read history to him 
te would say: "Bring me my liar." Hut his- 
tory, to be such, must be the statement of 
facts, and where such is uot the ease it is ao1 

listery. General history \ be gathered and 

iompiled from various reliable sources, but the 
nstoiy of event- ami occurrences of a locality, 
is a county in Illinois, is a very different and. 
in fart, a more difficult thing, in olden times 
i g 1 man could wish no greater evil t<> be- 
fall an enemy than that he were compelled In 
write a book, for good old Job cried out m the 
anguish of his soul. "011. that mine enenrj 
would write a book," ami surely this should he 
enough to gratify the enmity of a much worse 
man than he of (Jz, especially it the hook was 
in he a detailed history of a county in Illinois, 
nrai-h one hundred years alter the county was 
settled. No doubt many important events, as 
well as the deeds of individuals, which are 
important items in the history of this count's 
are i ompletely Inst, but it is the aim of the 
writer to record all such facts as have been 
preserved, and to give nothing hut what he 
honestly believes is authentic and Inn 1 . The 
nliject of these pages is to record the known 
fads in the history of tin' past so as to pre- 
serve to those who come after us those fact-. 
events and individuals, that will serve to in- 
struct and influence for good those whom may 
read them. One especial aim is to do justice 
in ihose noble men and women who. though 
perhaps unlearned and unrefined in the modern 



sense of that term, were God's chosen agents in 
preparing the priceless heritage that they have 
left us in this land with its institutions and 
civilization. The;; made possible and gave in 
us tin- priceless boon. 

Immediately after the close of the war of 
1812, or at least as soon as the news of peace 
was confirmed through the country, the mass 
of the people was seized with a mania for west- 
ern emigration, and. although the sagacious 
editor of New York had not then given the 
advice in young men i,, go west and grow up 
with the country, yet thousands of both young 
and old were seized with the fever, and as a 
result, the "Western Territory" began to fill up 
very rapidly from the older settled portions of 
the country. During almost the whole of the 
eighteenth century the name of Illinois was 
applied to all the known region lying wesl of 
in,' Ohio river. A- earl] a- L673 French col- 
onies established themselves at Kaskaskia ami 
Cahokia. Jus! one hundred year- from the 
establishment of these colonies, the territory, of 

which tbe\ were the nucleus in conjunct 

with Canada, was ceded to Greal Britain. 
Tin- wa- transferred to the United States in 
L787. In the same year thai tin- territory was 
acquired Congress passed a law or ordinance 
that the territory lying west and north of the 
Ohio river was to lie divided into not less than 
three nor more than fi\' -late-. Congress also 
divided the region named into Ohio. Indiana 
and Illinois. When we remember that this 
legislation was only a little over a hundred 



PAST AMi PRESENT OF MENARD COUNTY 



years ago, we may smile a1 the short-sighted- 
ness of our statesmen, especially when we re- 
flecl thai the ten-iron was bounded on the north 
by the Bril ish possessions. 

Sn rapidly did this northwestern country 
fill up, that in 1810, the Illinois territory, 
which then included a part of Wisconsin and 
Minnesota, contained a population of twelve 
thousand two hundred and eighty-two. Mich- 
igan had !»': n formed into a separate territory 
in 1805, ami Indiana m L809. The reader 
i- perhaps acquainted with the history of the 
controversy with Wisconsin over the northern 
boundary of Illinois. I f the people of Wis- 
consin arc correct in their views of the matter, 
then Illinois has no northern limit save that 
firs! given to the territory, ami her area still 
extends to the British possessions i i Canada. 

Illinois, like other new territories, was at 
fiist divided into counties covering very large 
areas, in fact, the entire state was once "Illi- 
nois county," but as the country became more 
thickly settled these counties were subdivided 
and m inan\ eases re-divided a third and fourth 
time. Illustrative of this fact, it may be stated 
that mI the time of the admission of Illinois 
into the Union, it comprised only fifteen 
counties. As the settlemenl of the state began 
in the southern portion and extended north- 
ward, it is not at all surprising that in more 
than one case it would have been impossible 
to find the northern boundary of the county, 
unless it were considered as extending to the 
northern line of the state. A:' an illustra- 
tion of this subdivision of counties, it maj be 
stated ihat the city of Chicago, or at least the 
hind that it now stands on, was once in Fulton 
county: whereas the nearest point of Pulton 
comity to the city of Chicago is now one hun- 
dred ami fifty miles on an air line. Another il- 
lustration of this may be briefly given : If the 
reader will turn to the map of Illinois he will 
observe thai Crawford county is the eighth 
county south on the state line from Chicago. 
This county at firs! included Chicago; butwhen 
Clark was formed it embraced Chicago; and 
when Edgar was cul off of Chirk the "windy 
city" was in it: and then when Vermilion was 
formed from Edgar, Chicago fell in it: so that 



ii number of Illinois counties can boast that 
Chicago was once in their territory. 

In consideration of the fact that Menard 
county was stricken off from Sangamon, it be- 
comes necessary to give a brief outline of the 
latter. Ti e reader who is familiar with the 
history of Illinois will remember that portions 
of it were settled even before the close of the 
eighteenth century. Prior to the formation of 
the county of Sangamon, by act of the legisla- 
ture, approved January 30. 1821, the territory 
of which it was formed was included in the 
counties of Madison and Bond. Sangamon 
county, when first formed, included all of what 
is now Logan, Tazewell, Mason, Menard and 
Cass, and part of Morgan, McLean. Marshall. 
Woodford. Putnam and Christian. Its bound- 
ary remained thus till the year 182-4, when the 
legislature reduced its limits. It still, how- 
ever, extended to the Illinois river and in- 
eluded all of Menard and parts of Christian. 
Logan and Mason. The boundaries of Sanga- 
mon remained unchanged till the year 1839, 
when the legislature again subdivided it. cut- 
ting oil' Menard. Christian and Logan. The 

nan f Dane was at first given to it but later 

it wiis changed to Christian. 

During the session of the legislature of 
1838-9, Menard county was stricken off from 
Sangamon and named in honor of Colonel 
Pierre Menard, a Frenchman who settled at 
Kaskaskia. Illinois, in 1790. Menard was so 
popular in his day witli the people of Illinois 
territory that when the convention framed the 
constitution of the state a clause was included 
in the schedule to the constitution providing 
that "any citizen of the United States who had 
resided in the state for two rears might he 
eligible to the office of lieutenant governor/ 5 
This was done in order that Colonel Menard, 
who had only been naturalized a year or two 
at the time, might he made lieutenant governor, 
under Shadraeh Bond, first governor of Illi- 
nois after its formation into a state. As Me- 
nard county whs named after this popular 
Frenchman it may be interesting to the reader 
to give a brief account id' his life. Pierre 
Menard was horn in Quebec, Canada, in the 
year 1767. lie remained in his native city till 
liis nineteenth year, when his inherent spirit 



PAST AND PRESENT OF MENARD COUNTS 



iif adventure led him to seek his fortune in the 
territories watered bj the Mississippi and its 
tributaries, lie was, therefore, soon found in 
the town of Vincennes mi the Wabash river in 
the employ of a merchant, known as Colonel 
\ igo. I ii the year 1 I'm he formed a partner- 
ship with urn.' iMi Bois, a merchanl of Vin- 
cennes, and they removed their stock in Kas- 
ka-kia at the inniitli of the Kaskaskia river in 
Illinois. Menard, though possessed of bui a 
limited education, was a man of quick percep- 
tion an.l ni almosl unerring judgment. He 
was candid and honest, full of energy ami in- 
dustry, ami these qualities sunn marked him as 
a leader among the scattered population of his 

adopted home. For a i iber of years he was 

govemmenf agenl for the Indians, ami his 
candor ami integrity soon won I'm- him the 
esteem and friendship of the Indian tribes. 
This tact secured him great advantage as a mer- 
chanl as In' could buy their peltries for one-half 
as much as they could be bought by the "Long- 
knives." Hi' was a member of tin- lower house 
ni' the legislature while Illinois was under the 
[ndiana regime anil, from 1st'.' to 1818, he was 

a mber of tin' [llinois legislative council, 

being the presidenl of that body. He was 
lii'iiii'nani governor from IS18 to is?'.', and 
after that he declined to accepl further honors 
ai the bands of the people. He acquired a 
considerable fortune bui much of ii was Inst 
through his liberality in going security for his 
friends. He died in Tazewell county, Illinois, 
at the good "lil age of seventy-seven years. 
Such was tin' man I'm' whom Menard county 
was named. 

Menard count} i- near tin- center of the state 
of Illinois ami is approximately twenty miles 
square, li is bounded mi the north bj Sail 
creek ; on the wesl by Cass county ; mi the soutl 
by Sangamon, and mi the easl by Logan. Tin' 
entire area of the county is one hundred ami 
ninety seven thousand nine hundred ami sev- 
enty live acres, but it is estimated that the 
Sangamon river occupies an area of seven hun- 
dred acres in the limit- of the county, leaving 
an entire area of one hundred ami nine! j ever 
thousand two hundred and seventy five acres 

The Sanga n river flows through the county 

from smith to north, dividing it into two al si 



equal parts. A number of small streams tlnw 

into the Sangi i river, and Salt creek affords 

an abundance of fresh, pure water for all pur- 
poses. The surface of the country is gently 
undulating in the main, though for a mile or 
two back from the river it is somewhal broken. 
The greai portion of the land was. in its native 
stair, prairie, being covered with a luxuriant 
growth of nutritious grass, interspersed with a 
countless growth of wild flowers. Groves ami 
bodies of timber were interspersed all over the 
entire area ni the county, being abundant, had 
it been preserved, for all purposes of agricul- 
ture ami manufacture. Along the Sangamon 
river for a distance of a mile ami a half on 
either side there was formerly heav\ timber, 
while on Rock creek ami Indian creek are con- 
siderable bodies also. In the eastern pari of 
the county are Irish Grove, Bee Grove and 
Sugar Grove, each ni which is a considerable 
inil\ of timber. On the west side of the river 
are Little Grove ami Clary's Grove, formerly 

line hollies of llllliier. The tillllier eol n 1 1 1'isi 'S 

a number of varieties of oak, elm. ash. walnut. 
butternut, sycamore, linden or basswood, hick- 
ory, cottonwood, black ami honey locust, pecan, 
cherry, mulberry and maple, hard ami soft. 
There are several suli.-h' orchards in the vicin- 
it\ of Tallula ami Sweetwater. Near Tallula 
Messrs. Speer, Conover, Greene ami others have 
good orchards. Ground Sweetwater an' the 
orchards of Mr. Smoot, Alkires ami II. .1. 
Marbold, the la-t named having one thousand 
five hundred trees on an area of not more than 
eight: acres. 



AGRICULTURE. 



Tin' soil of this eoiinl\ i- a rich, dark loam, 
from "iir to five feel deep. This is the pre- 
\ ailing condii ton, bui in t he norl hern porl ion 
of the count} i here are considerable areas « here 
sand mounds exist, bu1 even these are surpris- 
ingly productive of a favorable season. These 
sand mounds produce melons and sweet-pota- 
toi - of the liin'-i quality and in profuse abund- 
ance. .More than ninety per cenl of the land 
of th" county is in nihil al ii m, in grass or 
planted in grain. 

The county is abundantly supplied with the 



1" 



PAST AND PEESENT OF MENAED COUNTY 



various kinds of stock, and for many years 
the farmers have taken great pride in trying 
to improve their quality, anil to this end the 

best breeds from all over the world have been 
imported till the finest breeds of horses, cattle, 
sheep and hogs may be seen on the rich pas- 
tures or in the comfortable barns of every farm- 
ing community. 

The soil produces abundant crops of corn. 
wheat, oats, rye. barley, millet, timothy, clover, 
potatoes, all kinds of vines and vegetables. 
Grapes and small fruits grow in luxuriant 
abundance, but while the large standard fruits 
in past year did well they are now practically 
a failure. Peaches are winter-killed at least 
four year- out of five, while apples and pears 
are almost a total failure mi account of the 
numerous fungoid and insect pests that attack 
them in countless hordes. 

Cattle, horses and hogs are raised in abund- 
ance, while poultry produces no insignificant 
part of the total income of the farmers. Farm- 
ing lands are worth from one hundred to one 
hundred and fifty dollars per acre. The farm- 
ers are. as a rule, well-to-do, many having 
grown rich by farming and stock-raising. We 
have farmers whose wealth i- fast approaching 
the million dollar mark, while estates of a 
quarter and half-million dollars are by no means 
rare. The last half decade has been an es- 
pecially prosperous period to the farmers, but 
as it is the writer's business to state facts and 
not theories he can not say whether this i> duo 
to the Almighty or to the administration: one 
of the two did it. "Hoch dor Kaiser!" 



MINEEAL RESOTJBCES. 

[nexhaustible beds of bituminous coal of the 
best quality underlie the eniire county and at 
such a depth that it can be mined at a trifling 
cost. This coal is deposited in three layers, 
or -trata. that have been worked to some ex- 
tent and the state geologist claims that in this 
part of Illinois the three strata will aggregate 
at least twenty-five feet in thickness. _\ toler- 
ably correct idea of the wealth laid up here may 
ne -.lined by considering the miners' estimate 
that in every foot of the vein, in thickness. 



there are twenfr) million bushels or one mil- 
lion tons to the square mile. Now, to say 
nothing of the twenty-live feet of strata, of 
which we are told, let the reader contemplate 
the wealth that i> stored up in the vein that is 
now being worked. This vein averages six feet 
in thickness. Tin- will give us five million 
ton- to every square mile. This alone is a 
source of inexhaustible wealth. A writer in 
the London Quarterly Review said a few years 
ago that no people can succeed in the arts of 
Christian civilization without a supply of coal, 
and this is undoubtedly true. When we reflect 
that manufacturers, commerce and the general 
enterprises of civilization can not he carried on 
without a dynamic agent, we see that the fore- 
going statement is not extravagant. In the 
sultry cycle- of the carboniferous period, the 
Almighty was laying up the crystalized sunshine 
in the form of these dusky diamonds in this, 
then unknown, world for coming Christianity 
to uncover and use as an energy to ]>le>s the 
world. The same writer, quoted above, says 
that tin- paddle-wheels of European civiliza- 
tion are constantly stirring up the dark waters 
of superstition in the east and every steamer 
that navigates those ocean- goes as a herald of 
Christian civilization and enlightenment, and 
thus we -ee that coal is becoming the mighty 
agent in the uplifting of humanity. Such 
were the -tore- of coal laid up in the bowels of 
England, and her supply so inexhaustible, as 
was supposed, that the expression, "carrying 
coals to Newcastle," has long been the manner 
of expressing the inexhaustibleness of the de- 
posit, out present indications hid fair for it to 
become literally true, and also that the coals 
(.in led to Newcastle shall he from America. 
This mighty force has slumbered for countless 
cycles under this soil and here is untold wealth 
tor Christian enterprise to utilize for the good 
of man. 

Stone of a good quality is also found in sev- 
eral places hi this county that might be made a 
source of great income. Considering all the 
natural advantages that we possess, we conclude 
that few localities have more or better facilities 
for manufacturing than we. Here is the tim- 
ber, the coal, the stone, the water, the sand and 
the agricultural products. Look at the vast 



PAST A\|i PRESENT OF MENARD COUNTY 



11 



sums of monej thai go out from here even year 
to pay for the verj things that we should make 
and sell to others— plows, reapers, planters, 
wagons, buggies, threshers, etc. II' our ad- 
vantages were utilized not only would nil the 

i i\ he kept in our midst bu1 other great 

advantages would accrue to us. A market 
would be created bere at home for all our 
surplus, a demand would lie made for greater 
quantities of coal, and this would call Tor a 
greater number of laborers; the erection ot 
factories would create a demand for stone, 
brick, sand ami lime; handling tin 1 -' things 
would make a demand for teams and laborers, 
and last, hut not least, tin- would bring me- 
chanics, and their families would build up the 

towns and Jill up the scl is ami furnish a 

market for all our surplus products. Surety 
iiui- people will nut remain blind to this matter 
many years longer. 

The population of Menard county, according 
to the last eensus. i- fourteen thousand three 
hundred ami thirty-six. Petersburg, the county 
seat, is situated on the Sangamon river, near 
the center of the county . ami ha- a populal ion 
of about three thousand four hundred. Two 
railroads run through the county. Tin- Chi- 
cago \ immigrants from Tennessee, Ken- 
tucky. Virginia and the Carolinas, with a small 
percent from the states farther north. These 
immigrants were of a class of men and women 
unsurpassed lor bravery, enterprise and de- 
termination. In fact, we have in the pi iers 

of Illinois ami other western states a wonderful 
type of men and women. The first settlers of 
America were of the best stock of the various 
European countries from which they came 
Those first emigrants from Europe to America 
were the most liberty-loving, most conscientious, 
brave ami determined of the lands the\ left. 



These people h\ intermarriage through the laws 
of heredity, and amalgamation have produced 
a new and improved type of the genus homo. 
We are no1 Engl ish or < lerman or French, but 
we are distinctively Americans. We are a peo- 
ple, a race, unique and distinct, adapted to the 
condition.- and needs of this new and unique 
country. It was the men and women of this 
new type who made this countn what it is to- 
day. \ ie dare to limit the achievements 

of this country in the future unless intermar- 
riage, idleness, ease ami luxury shall enervate, 
weaken and destroy the power of the people. I 
will relate one peculiar political incident ami 
with this close this chapter. Menard county 
has been Democratic in all its history, with the 
exception that in the first years of it- existena 
a- a county, it gave a majority to the old Whig 
party. It was cut oil' from Sangamon ami 
organized into a separate county in 1839. In 
1840 William II. Harrison was the Whig 
candidate for president, opposed h\ Martin 
Van Buren, the Democrat candidate. Menard 
county gave Harrison four hundred and thirty- 
four votes and Van Buren three hundred and 
seventy-four, hi 1844 we had a third candi- 
date lor president for the first tune: ('lav. 
Whig; Folk. I lernoi rat ; and Burney, Free- 
Soil. The county gave ('lav three hundred 
ami uinety-seven ; Polk, three hundred ami sev- 
enty-eight; and Mr. Burner got one. In 1848 
tin' candidates were Taylor. Democrat; Cass, 
Whig; and Van Buren, Free-Soil. The county 
gave Taylor six hundred ami five votes; Ca 
four hundred and eighty-eight ; ami Van Buren 
one. In 1852 the candidate- were Pierce, 
Democrat : Scott, Whig; and Hale. Abolitionist. 
The county gave Pierce six hundred and ninety- 
eight vote-: Scott, -ix hundred and forty-four; 
ami Hale one. The -nine old fellow, I -appose, 
cast that one lonely Abolition vote every time. 
This was a im discouraging beginning Eor 
Abolitionism, Ian see what perseverance in fol- 
lowing honest convictions will do. But "Won- 
ders never will -ease." Aristotle -aid. "II was 
through the fi eling of wonder that men. now 
and at first, began to philosophize." Bui I 
fear that no philosophy will ever solve this 
problem. "Little Menard" went Republican in 
the vear of grace, 1904 ' Yes, tic whole thing, 



1'-' PAST AND PRESENT OF MENAKD COUNTY 

lock, stock and barrel, went down in the gen- hammered out of native copper, was found in a 

era] crash. Was it "Teddy's" popularity or mound nine miles north of Petersburg, that 

Parker's telegram, that did it? Bennett, was eight feel under ground. Several eopp"i 

Lanning, Watkins, Clan ami Miller all sank arrow-points have been found in the county. 

to rise no i v. These ran be seen in the collection of II. J. 

Marbold. at Greenview. One kind of mound 
thai was not uncommon is worthy of descrip- 
tion: This was mi the bluff, four miles north 

ABORIGIN lis. , t> , . ,, , 

oi I etersburg. tsetore it was tampered with, 

A history of Menard county would be in- '' was about sis feei high and perhaps twelve 

perfect that did nol include some acconni of feet across. Some two and a half feei below 

the aboriginal inhabitants, [ndeed, to very the top of the mound two skeletons were found, 

many men no subjecl is more intenseh interest^ supposed to be of a male and a female, lying on 

ing than this. Little can be said of the In- c ' a 3 thai had been burned almost as hard as 

dian tribes of this locality, bui thai little will •' brick'. Careful examination indicated that a 

be given. bu1 another and far more interesting mound, some thr ir four feel high, had been 

people than the\ hum' held dominion here and buill and on top of this was formed a basin, 

roamed these prairies and woods. I refer to about the proportions of a soup-dish, lined with 

the "mound builders." This strange and un- clay, made into a mortar ami then thoroughly 

known | pie were once as numerous here, no burned. This basin was about six feet across 

doubt, as the present population, but unfortu- ; ""' eight or ten inches lower in the center than 

nately they left only enough mementoes of :,t the edge. That the bodies bad been placed 

their existence to arouse in lis a desire to know '" this basin, fuel piled on them and then 

more of them. Even here m this county burned was clearly evidenced by the fact that 

there are, or were a few \ - ears ago, abundant the upper surface of the bones were burned 

evidences of the teeming thousands thai lived away, the sides charred black and the under 

here. Unfortunately nearly all the monu- s ''l'' untouched by the fire. The whole skele- 

ments they left were the earth- nnds they tons, except the smaller bones which were 

built, at the expense of untold toil and per- burned up, showed us that this was the case, as 

serverance. Many of these, by rain and storm they were found mingled with the ashes and 

and tl rosive power of the plow, have been dead coals in the bottom of the basin. Several 

partially or entirely obliterated, but a quarter sueri mounds as this were opened by the writer, 
of a century ago they were plainly visible in After the body was burned three or four feel 
many localities. Along the bluffs overlooking "' earth was added to the mound. What are 
the Sangamon river they were to be seen in these, however, compared to the works easl of 
greal numbers. Years ago the writer opened a Sl - l-" llls - m Illinois, where there are over two 
number of those mounds and was amply re- hundred large mounds in the area of one town- 
warded for his labor. In manv nothing was ship, six miles square? These mounds are all 
found except the decayed bones of the buried large, bu1 the king of them all is Cahokia 
dead, inn others were rich in relies. Pipes, mound. It was surveyed by Chicago parties 
axes, spades, totems, etc.. were found in abund- several years ago and they found that it cov- 
ance. ami I have no doubt thai \ast numbers ered eleven acres of ground ami was ninety- 
are still hidden under the soil here thai may seven feet high, after all the past years id' 
never be seen by man. unless by some accidenl erosion by the elements. There is perfect evi- 
thev are unearthed. In digging a cistern, an donee that the earth was carried a distance of 
arrow-point was found at a depth of nine feet over four miles to build it. St. Louis bears the 
below tin' surface. A stone ax was found, in nickname of "Mound City'' from the immense 
digging a grave, five feci down. The writer mound that once stood in the very heart of the 
found a sand-stone ax. a half mile from Salem, city. Vast numbers of relies were obtained 
that was embedded in the shale. A chisel. from each of these, a number of which mav be 



PAST AND PRESENT OF MENARD COUNTY L3 

:en in Marbold's collection. The huge paint- and seeing this, galloped between her and the 

r . called "The Piasa Bird," thai was on the Indians, when one of them firing at him sent 

,,,,,,,111 face of the cliff above Alton, one hun- a ball entirely through Ins horse. However, the 

,v,l f ee i from the base and seventy-five feet horse did nol fall and the father, spurring him 

elow the top, was the work of these people, forward, reached the girl and seizing her by 

'his painting was there when Marquette and the- arm, bore her back I" the whites. The 

oliel wenl down the Mississippi river in 1C72, blood was spurting E i the wound in the 

ml remained there, bright and clear, till 1848, horse's vitals but the faithful animal, with his 

I,,.,, the cliff fell into the river. When we fast ebbing strength, bore her to safety and in 

ontemplate the huge piles of earth on almosl a short time died, in the retreat the Indians 

very bluff along the Mississippi, the Missouri, crossed the Sangamon river near where the 

he Ohio, the Illinois and. in fact, almosl all iron bridge, south of Petersburg, is located, and 

he rivers of the country, we may well wonder their pursuers, returning the same way, brought 

oncerning the strange people who built them, the young lady to a settler's cabin near Salis- 

'he "Ilini" Indians, as they called themselves, bury, leaving her there till she recovered. When 

fho lived at the mouth of Piasa creek, when the the first settlements were made in the limits 

irst white man visited this country, had no of this county the Indians had nearly all been 

nore idea of who painted tins picture than we removed; a few were still in the timber on 

kivc to-day. Their principal village was al- Indian creek, in the neighborhood of Indian 

nosl in a stonethrow of the painting but they Point; and two old men. with about a dozen 

.new nothing of its history. The pictun was of their relatives, remained for some time. 

n three colors, red. yellow and black. The body These were Shickshack and Shambolee. They 

vas as large as a cow. a face like a human, lived two or three years just south of the 

10 rns like a deer, teeth of great size, outspread residence of the late Judge Robert Clary, on the 

vin.us. like a bat, lour legs, each with four high lull overlooking the lake. They then re- 

errible claws, a huge tail, wrapped three times moved to a high hill within a mile of the site 

iroiind the body, and the whole body and tail of the present town of Chandlerville. Here 

sovered with scale-, like a fish. It was a ter- Shickshack died at a very advanced age and 

•ible looking picture. The Indian- had a was buried there, and the hill is still known as 

strange and weird tradition concerning it bu1 "Shickshaek's Bill." After his death the rest 

,ve have not space to record it here. of the little hand in sadness lefl the haunts of 

Of the Indians, in relation to this county. the pale-lace and were heard of no more. 
.iit little can be said. Aboiil the time that the There being no trouble with the Indian- in 

first settlers came to this county, the Indians this section after the first settlements here and 

,,.,,!,. a ra j,| ,,,, ||| ( . settlements south of here there being various forts near the frontiers, as 

nid after killing a citizen or two they stole a fort Clark at Peoria and at other points. 

young lady and started north with her. She there was never any need of any forts or block- 

was the daughter of a Captain Whitesides and houses in tins section of the state. The trouble 

the father and a company of citizens started in spoken of above, with a hand whose town was 

pursuit. The Indians wen- overtaken just this ai Elkhart Grove, was the last, and perhaps 

side of Elkhart Grove. There a fight occurred, the only trouble, that was ever in this im- 

The young lady was on a pony, which was led mediate part of the state. Further northeast, 

by an Indian, while a rope was tied around the al ^\>\ Town Timber, in McLean enuntv. and 

"irl's neck and held by her captor. When the over toward Fori (dark, now Peoria, there had 

fight began the Indian in the excitement drop- been considerable warfare. The Mound Build- 

ped the rope and the girl Sprang oil' the pony its are gone and the Indian- are gi and the 

and started to run back m the whiles. But Hie hill- and woods ami streams have no tongue to 

Indian, seeing- bis prize about to escape, threw tell the story of the past. All the record we 

his tomahawk at her. driving the Made into have is the chipped Hint, the polished stone-ax 

the small of her back. Her father being near and the curiously wrought pipe and banner- 



1 1 



PAST AND PKESEiSTT OF MENARD COUNTY 



stone to tell their strange story. How we long 
lo extort from these mute stones the story of 
those lone gone years. Imt our appeal is un- 
heard .'Hid the hook is sealed, only as we may 
imagine, guess ami wonder. 



EARIA 7 SETTLEMENTS. 

finite a number of settlements had been made 
in the territory of what is now Sangamon 
county some time before any were made in the 
hounds of what is now .Menard. The reader 
must bear in mind that this county had no ex- 
istence till the year 1839, hence the history 
of the settlement ami development of the county 
is connected with the history of Sangamon 
county. 

Although the white man had frequently vis- 
ited the "Sangamon country," as it was called. 
and had traveled over the beautiful prairies 
and explored the deep woods of this locality, 
vet we have no evidence that any one ever 
settled in the area of the count \ prior to April, 
1819. We have indisputable evidence that the 
first settler of the county was John Clary, who 
came with his family at the date above named. 
He settled in a grove in the southwest part of 
the county, near the present site of the tillage 
of Tallula. This grove was ever after known 
by tin' name of its first settler and it is to-day 
noticed on (he maps and known and spoken of 
far and near a- "Clary's Grove." Mr. Clary 
settled mi the southwest quarter of section :'.-.'. 
township is. range i : the land now- belonging 
to the heirs of George Spears, Sr. Mr. ('. 
Clary built what was known to the pioneers 
as a "three-raced" camp; that is. he built three 
walls, leaving one entire side open, as ample 
means of ingress and egress. These walls were 
luiilt ahouf seven feet high, then poles were 
lanl across about three feet apart and "clap- 
hoards" were laid on these for the roof, and as 
nails were not to hi' hail, "weight-poles" were 
laid on the hoards to hold them to their place. 

These 1 'ds were generally four feet in length 

ami from ten to fourteen inches in width. 
They were split out of oak timber, with an 
instrument, common in those days, called a 
"froe." No door was laid in the camp, nor 



was there any such thing as a window or door- 
shutter or chimney connected with the struc- 
ture. Now these are fads and we doubt not 
that the young people of to-day are skeptical 
mi the matter. The one side left out served 
as door, chimney, window ami all. Just in 
front of the open side, a huge log-heap was 
built, which served to furnish heat in cold 
weather and lor cooking all the year round, and 
gave what light they needed at night. We de- 
scribe this camp so particularly because in 
such dwellings as this, the early settlers all 
spent the first few years of their sojourn in 
the new country. Mr. Clary had a family when 
he lirsi came to the Grove, the late lamented 
. Indue Robert Clary being six weeks "hi when 
the family reached its wild home. The large 
ami respected family of Clarys now living in 
this county are all descendants of this hardy 
pioneer. Not long after Clary located in the 
Grove, Solomon Pratt with his family took up 
In- res dence in a cabin, which he built on sec- 
tion 3, township C range ;. this going near 
Mr. Clary. During the fall of 1819 and the 
spring of 1820 emigration came in pretty 
rapidly, hut there being no record kept of the 
order in which they came and the names of 
-oine being forgotten, it is impossible to give 
the detail correctly. About this time the 
Armstrongs, Greens and Spears came to the 
grove; a more detailed account of whom will 
he given in another place. It was slated 
above that the first settlement in the county 
was made at Clary's Grove. This we believe 
to lie true, hut there is great diversity of opin- 
ion on ibis subject among the oldest citizens 
who were alive thirty years ago. with whom 
the writer often talked the matter over. 
Amherry Rankin, late of Athens, in this county, 
was of the opinion that Judge Latham was 
the first white man to take up his abode in the 
limits of (he county, and it is a known fact that 
Sugar Grove, in the northeast part of the 
county, was settled very soon after Clary's 
Grove, if not at the very same time. From a 
document left by Charles Montgomery, de- 
ceased, and from statements made to the writer 
by Alexander Meadows, we gather some very 
important facts. These statements are fully 
reliable, as the gentlemen named were members 



PAST AND PRESENT OF MENARD COUNT'S 



15 



of the first party that settled on the east side 
of the Sangamon river. Jacob Boyer and 
James Meadows, who were brothers-in-law, came 
to Sugar Grove from the American bottom, near 
St. Louis, and located in that grove in the 
spring of 1819. They had lived one or two 
years on Woo, I river, in the American bottom, 
a few miles from Alton. Meadows brought 
with him a wagon, drawn by two horses, a 
yoke of yearling steers, which had been broken 
to wort when sucking calves, and some thirty 
head of hogs. Boyer brought three horses, two 
milk cows and perhaps a yoke of oxen. About 
the same day that Boyer and Meadows came, the 
lilane family, consisting of four brothers, one 
sister, and the mother, came to the same grove. 
This family was of Irish blood, and it was 
from them that "Irish Grove" got its name. 
The Blanes brought two two-horse teams and six 
or seven yoke of oxen. Boyer and Meadows 
erected a cabin on the south side of the grove, 
which was occupied by Boyer, and Meadow- put 
up a "three-faced camp" on the ground now 
occupied by the Sugar Grove cemetery. Be- 
fore the Blanes settled there they had camped 
for several days in the Grove, and i'; was this 
camping that gave the Grove the "Irish" pro- 
lix, and this make- it probable that they were 
camped there when Clary settled in Clary's 
Grove. 

Tin- Blanes at once took claims, erected 
cabins and began business in earnest. These 
were doubtless the first settlers on the east 
side of the Sangamon river. Before giving an 
account of the further settlemenl of Sugar 
Grove, it may not be amiss to relate an inci- 
dent in the early history id' tin- settlement, 
illustrating the fact thai human nature is ever 
the same and that even in this earl} 'lay men 
had need of civil courts. It will be neces- 
sary to explain that although the trouble be- 
gan when hut few families had settled there, 
it wa- some time before it culminated in a 
suit at law. as there were no courts of justice 
within reach till some time later. A- stated 
above, Meadows brought two horses, thirty head 
of hogs, ami two yearling calves with him to the 
grove. Not mam' months elapsed until both of 
the horses wore missing and the hogs had all 
strayed awav and were lost. Not a i^reat while 



after these misfortunes, one of his little oxen 
was found dead in the woods. Diligent search 
was made in every direction for the missing 
stock, as they could not be replaced without 
great trouble and expense, owing to the dis- 
tance from any older settlement. In his anxiety 
Mr. Meadows applied to a fortune-teller, who 
strolled through the new settlement practicing 
his art. as the ancient troubadour i\>^i] to stroll 
from village to village to rehearse the deeds of 
In- heroes. This seer told Mr. Meadows that 
his horses were m the possession of the [ndians 
ami that he would recover them after awhile. 
though hut one al a time. Sure enough, the 
horses were found in the hands of the Indians, 
who said that they had traded for them from 
a Frenchman. The hoi-.- v. : ;•, ,-,, jaded that 
they were of no service and soon after died. 
The hogs, iie was told, had gone down the 
Sangamon river, where one-half of them had 
been eaten by a "squatter" and the rest he would 
recover. Meadows faithfullj followed the di- 
rections given, found the cabin of the suspected 
settler hut found none of the hogs. He, how- 
ever, traded for a frying-pan from the worthy 
citizen, the mi,' that he supposed his hogs had 
been fried in. hut the remainder of the hogs 
were found as had been predicted. The for- 
tune-teller further said thai the steer had come 
to its death at the hand- of one of M r. Meadows' 
neighbors in the following manner: The 
neighbor was making rails in the timber, his 
coal lying mi a log near by, when the poor calf 
came browsing along, and spying the coat, con- 
cluded to make a meal of it. The laborer see- 
ing his coal about to he -wallowed by the calf. 
ran and struck the brute on lie loins with his 
maul, ami the blow proved sufficient to kill it 
on the spot. Although this was only the slaie- 
nient of a superstitious fortune-toller, yet it 
wa- believed strongly enough to induce Meadow* 
to begin a suit against the accused party, which 
was in the curls for several years, cost a vast 
sum of money, and cause,] a feud between the 
two families which lasted to the third or fourth 
iteiiiTatioii. This i- spoken of as the first law- 
suit of any importance in the county, and also 
as illustrating a superstitious belief in fori 11110- 
tellers. which at that lime was almost uni- 
\ ersal. 



l(i 



PAST \\h PRESENT OF MENARD COUNTY 



No1 long after the settlement "J' Boyer, 
Meadows and the Blanes, another caravan of 
immigrants came to the Grove. John Jamison, 
Mr. Hill and William McNabb, bis wife, son 
and daughter, wore of that company. James 
McNabb, son of William McNabb, above earned, 
was a surveyor and taught the first school that 
was ever taught in the Grove. A few years 
later he was drowned in the Sangamon river, 
which stream he was trying to swim, with his 
compass tied on his head. It is said that he 
had been drinking or he would not have made 
the attempt. A few months after the arrival 
of those last named, others came, among them 
Roland Grant and family. Benjamin Wilcos 
and Ward Benson. About the same time a Mr. 
Pentecost tame from Kentucky, bringing a 
family of four sons and three daughters. He 
settled near the presenl residence of Judge 
II. II. Marbold, near Greenview. Cavanis, for 
whom Cavanis creek was named, also came from 
Kentucky, about this time. The next to find 
their wa\ to this Grove was a company from 
Deer Creek. Ohio, composed of the Alkires and 
William Engle, all of whom in later years per- 
formed such an important part in the develop- 
ment of that wealthy portion of the county. 
No party of weary traveller- ever entered a 
new country that was destined to exert a strong- 
er influence on the future growth and prosper- 
ity of a community than tin- little hand. 
Leonard Alkire brought considerable means 
with him and invested it largely in "claims," 
which he entered later on. He purchased the 
claims of Meadows. Grant, Wilcox and the 
Blanes, which marked tin- beginning of change 
among the settlers of this grove. Hill, who 
was spoken of above, removed to St. J.ouis: 
John Jennison farmed for a year or two in the 
'■rove and then removed to Baker's Prairie, 
three miles southeast of Peti rsburg. Meadows 
moved to the lower end of the Grove, where 
he bought the claim of Pentecost McNabb and 
Wilcox also removed to Baker's Prairie, where 
they took claims, which they entered a- soon 
a- tlie land came into market. There they 
reared families ami many of their descendants 
were there for many years, hut almost all of 
them are now gone. Not long after the ar- 
rival of Alkire and Engle, Matthew Bracken 



came to the neighborhood, bringing a large 
family with him. and after him came Nicholas 
Propst : then Wallace and William Sweeney, 
Milton Reed, and Thomas and William Cald- 
well. From this tune the' tide of immigration 
constantly grew deeper and wider, pouring in 
its hosts of earnest, industrious and enterpris- 
ing men to develop this most highly favored 
body of country, and well did they perform 
their task. 

While the settlement was being made in this 
locality, the other portions of the county were 
not neglected. It is a remarkable fact, how- 
ever, thai no settler ventured out on the prairie 
lor a number oi years hut the groves of timber 
contained settlement and each became 
nucleus for a community. Of the more im- 
portant of the- ■ more will he -aid in the propel 
place. It may he of interest to the reader to 
Know that the first marriage in the count}', on 
the east side of the river, was John Jennison to 
Patsy McNabb; the second was Mr. Henman 
to Rosina Blane; and the third was William 
Engle to Melissa Blane. The last named 
couple were joined in wedlock by Harry Riggin, 
.1. P. Tiie :i -i death on tic east side of the 
river was an infant -on of Jacob Buyer, nan 
Henderson. The second death was Jacob Boy- 
cr: and the third was Joseph Kinney, who 
was thrown from a horse. He was brought 
home alive but -0011 afterward died. Kinney 
was buried in Sugar Grove cemetery, and soon 
after an elm tree came up out of the grave, 
almost from it- center, and it is now a largi . 
wide-spreading tree; and although its roots and 
stem have obliterated all signs of a grave yet 
it is a verdant monument to the memort of 
Joseph Kinney. 

The first -clio.illi.ai-, built in Sugar Grove 
was erected in 1822 by Meadows, Boyer. Wil- 
cox, McNabb and Grant. It was about six- 
teen feet square and was built of split logs. 
This house was furnished on a par with all 
the school houses in the earl] settling of the 
country. Covered with split hoards, held in 
place io weight-poles, the floor of puncheons. 
or -plit logs, the seats of half of a split log. 
with four legs, saplings, driven into auger- 
holes bored into the round side of the log. and 
window, if anv, was a log cut out of one 



PAST AN 



PRESENT OF MENARD COUNTS 



i; 



side of the wall. The writing desk was a 
puncheon placed on pins in the wall. The text- 

ks were few in numl er and the teacher 

made all the pens used oul of goose quills. 
The books used were the tfeu Testament for a 
reader, with now and thru a copy of the old 
English Reader; Pike's or Smiley's arithmetic, 
and Murray's or Kirkharu's grammar. The 
teacher who could "work through the single 
and double rule of three" was a genius whose 
services were always in demand. (We will say 
for the enlightenment of our school girls and 
boys thai the single and double rule of three 
mean! single and double proportion.) The 
books named above, with the indispensable 

Webster's spelling-1 k, were the texts that 

children had in those early days. Then the 
schools in those days were never held longer 
than three months, in mid-winter. These 
schools were all gotten up by private subscrip- 
tion, for ihc young people must bear in mind 
thai we had no free school system ai that time. 
I speak of these things particularly that the 
presenl generation may know the truth con- 
cerning the privations that their parents and 
grandparents experienecd in preparing the in- 
heritance that they left in them. 1 speak thus 
particularly id' the school privileges of those 
rail\ times, thai the young people may com- 
pare their own opportunities with those id' their 
ancestors. None of the statements concerning 
tin' early schools ami the helps of those times 
are exaggerated in the least, fur the writer at- 
tended such a school and used pari of the 
of the books named but could noi secure all 
m|' t la an. I f your parents accomplished w hat 
they did with such helps, what should you do 
with your opportunities? 

James McNabb, who was drowned in the 
Sangamon river, was the firsl teacher in Sugar 
Grove: he was followed by Daniel McCall ; and 

ho by one Mr. Templeman; then others ct i, 

and the count was lost. 

The firsl preaching in Sugar Grove was in 
i !i-' i abin of Roland < rrant, by one Elder I [en- 
derson, a preacher id' the "Nevi Light" faith, 
as it was then termed. The New-Lights and 
thr followers <>i' Alexander Campbell afterward 
united, forming what was at Brsl denominated 
"The Church of the Disciples," bui afterward 



changed to "The Church of Christ," sometimes 
called Campbellites. Of tins a more extended ac 
I'oiint will hr given under the head of Religious 
Denominations. When tin- settlemeni was first 
begun at Sugar Grove, and \'< love and the devotion of his "great big" 
heart. Could these inanimate things have 
tone ties, what stories they might tell! As you 
stand mi the hillside, you look down upon 
the fixer's hank where once the old watennill 
stood. Nothing is there to remind you that 
it ever existed save a part of the broken wall 
of the old foundation of the mill, and farther 
down some rotting timbers, half concealed in 
the hank', marie the location of the dam. over 



PAST AND PEESENT (IF M i: \ AIM) COUNTS 



L9 



which tin' mad waters were wont to pour, and 
you almost imagine that you hear, above the 
roar of the waters the shouts of the Clary's 
Grove boys as they and "honest Abe" engage 
in some rude sport. 

\ni a vestige is left of the once prosperous 
village of New Salem to tell where once it 
stood. The mill is long since gone; nothing 
remains of the dam, save a few blackened tim- 
bers, half buried in the soil; and where the 
nouses once stood and the streets ran. brush 
and briers grow in wild tangles. \<>l a single 
Location is pointed out, except the depression 
where the store, in which Lincoln sold goods, 
once stood, and oul of this old cellar two trees 
have grown— nature's monuments, rebuking the 
ingratitude of man. Not a sign of human life 
or labor is to be seen in half a mile. 

Settlements had been made in (bis neigh- 
bor! I several years before the laying oul of 

Salem. Green had settled southwest of there, 
while Armstrong, Potter, Jones, and others bad 
located not far away, with Lloyd and others 
farther up the Rock creek timber. Somewhere, 
about 1824 to L826, John Cameron and dames 
Rutledge erected a rude and primitive mill 
near the site, or perhaps on the very spot, where 
the later structure stood. A brush and stone 
dam was constructed across the river, a breast- 
wheel was put in and a pair of home-made 
buhrs were set to grinding corn for the hun- 
gry settlers. Notwithstanding tl xtreme sim- 
plicity of this mill, it was indeed a "big thing" 
in that early day. for mills were so scarce that 
people came from a distance of fifty and even 
a hundred miles in every direction to have their 
grain ground in this null. Such was the pat- 
ronage given tbis enterprise, that the propri- 
etors decided to lay out a town adjoining the 
mill property. Accordingly the surveyor, Reu- 
ben Earrison, was employed ami on the L3th 
da\ of October, L820, the town of Salem was 
duly and legallj laid oul. ( See plat. I 

The first improvements in the 'own were 
made by the proprietors. John Cameron and 
James Rutledge. Each of them began "inter- 
nal improvements" by building an up-to-date 
log cabin. The third building creeled was a 
storeroom which, when completed, wa- occupied 
b\ Samuel Hill and John MeXamar. These 



were, perhaps, the first rehants 111 the coun 

ty, except Harry Riggin and A. A. Rankin of 
Athens. At the time that Salem was laid oul 
there bad never been a postoffice in the limits 
of what is now Menard county, the people get- 
ting what little mail they received from Spring- 
field, then a mere village. A postoffice was 
at once established in Salem and Colonel Rog- 
ers was appointed the first postmaster. II i> 
duties, however, were not very arduous as news- 
papers were then scarcely known in the west, 
or in the east for thai matter, and but few- 
persons received letters. The youth of to-day 
can scarcely imagine how people lived in those 
days. To illustrate this postal system it ma\ 
he stated that while Illinois County was under 
the government of the state of Virginia, Colonel 
John Todd was appointed lieutenant command- 
ant of said county, with instructions to report 
to Governor Patrick Henry, id' Virginia, every 
month, and although Todd lived in Kentucky 
yet In- reports were often a month in reaching 
( tovernor Henry. 

Hill and MeXamar wire followed in the mer- 
cantile business by George Warburton, who soon 
became addicted to hard drink ami ended a 
wretched existence by suicide, throwing himself 
in the Sangamon river. Warburton was a 
shrewd business man. well educated, and of 
i genial, friendly turn, so much so that he 
had but one enemy, ami that was "John Barley- 
corn." lie was succeeded in the store by two 
brothers from Virginia, by the name id' Chris- 
man. bill they remained only a short time. 
following the "Star of empire" toward the west. 
About tbis time W. G. Greene, from Kentucky, 
and Dr. John Allen and his brother, both from 
the Green Mountain stale, came to Salem. Dr. 
Allen was a thorough Christian gentleman, and 
stood very high in the medical profession. It 
was through the influence of Dr. Allen that 
the first Sunday-school, and the first temper- 
ance societies were organized in the county. 
The meetings of both of these were held in a 
log cabin thai stood across the ravine (hat runs 
just south of Salem. Dr. Allen's brother soon 
tired of Salem ami removed to Minnesota, 
where he became very wealthy and doubtless 
long ago has none to his final home. The doc- 
tor remained in Salem till it began to go mt' 



20 



PAST AMi PRESENT OF MENARD COUNT! 



decline and then removed i" Petersburg, where 
he successfully followed li i^ profession for many 
years, bu1 i 'e than forty years ago tie re- 
moved where physicians are not in demand. 

In the spring of LS31 Abraham Lincoln was 
on his way to New Orleans with a flatboal load- 
ed with pork, lard, beeswax, etc., when the 
boat caught on the Salem mill-dam. It was 
here that the future president performed the 
wonderful feat of raising the sunken boat, 
by boring an auger hole in the bottom, thus 
letting the water out. (Till;- is an actual fact.) 
ilr. Lincoln was very much pleased with the 
country ami probably with the people about 
Salem, so in tin- summer or fall of that same 
year, on his return from New Orleans, he 
stopped at Salem and that place became his 
home for a number oi years. It is needless 
I'm- us t" enter into the storj oi his life and 
experiences here; already the world knows it 
by heart. It was here on this now lonely hill 
thai he sported with tho boys of the vicinity; 
it was here that he read and pondered over 
the dry and musty pages of Blackstone : and 
perhaps it was here that those conceptions of 
human liberty and human rights were con- 
ceived, cultivated, matured and made a part 
of his great soul. It was here too thai that 
other event occurred, which, ii may lie. influ- 
enced his whole after life: his first love epi- 
sode. It was sometime near the time of the 
Black Hawk war that Mr. Lincoln was first 
pierced by the darts of the cruel little blind 
god, Cupid. The "beautiful Anna Rutledge," 
.1- she was railed, was just then ripening into 
a lovely and perfect womanhood and Lincoln 
felt the force, as Lytton says, of "the revolution 
that turns all topsy-turvy — the revolution of 
love." It has been truthfully said that: 

"Love, like death. 
Levels all ranks, and lays the shepherd's crook 
Beside 1 he sceptre.' 3 

From the low old citizens who could remember 
these events distinctly and especially from old 
"Ann! .lane Berry," a younger sister of Anna 
Rutledge, I learned many facts concerning this 
evi nt in tho life of Mr. Lincoln that are inter- 
esting in themselves and go in establish the 
truth of the affection between him and Miss 
Rutledge but not of sufficient importance to 



he repeated here; suffice it to -a\ that there 
i- no doubi that if she had lived In- domestic 
history would have been different from what 
it was. 

Anna Rutledge was not a beauty in the 
modern sense of that word for brought up in 
this rural district and m total ignorance of 
tin- conventional follies of fashionable life, ac- 
customed from early childhood to out-door ex- 
ercise, and the rough, wild pastimes of the 
day in which -he lived, -he was stamped with 
a beauty entirely free from art and human 
skill— a beauty all the result of Nature's handi- 
work. That the young clerk was captivated is 
net surprising. It i- not our purpose to in- 
vade those hallowed precincts by describing 
i heir many stroll- along the margin of the 
river, or over the rugged bluffs m the vicinity 
of Salem. Suffice it to say that In- affection 
was fully reciprocated and the two were doubt- 
less pledged in the indissoluble bonds of mutual 
love, but in 1835 disease laid its cruel hand on 
the young girl and m spite id' the love o 
friends and the skill of the ablest physicians, 
on the 25th of August, 1835. death came to 
her relief, and as .Mr. Eerndon has said : "The 
heart id' Lincoln was buried in the grave of 
Anna Rutledge." He this literally true or not. 
..no thing i> sure, from that time a dark sha- 
dow seemed to hang over him. from which he 

never se* med to e rge. It is said by those 

having the means id' knowing, that even a 
this, whenever opportunity afforded, Lincoln 
would wander alone to the little hillock raised 
above her ashes, and >it for hour- pondering 
in sadness, doubtless thinking over the happy- 
hours spent with her at Salem. Notwithstand- 
ing hi- tall, ungainly form, and the abundance 
of his ever-ready humor, there was hidden in 
In- breast a heart as tender and full of sym- 
pathy as a woman's — a bean touched by every 
tale of sorrow and full to overflowing with the 
milk of human kindness. Anna Rutledge was 
buried at Concord, three mile- north of Peters- 
burg, and her remain- rested there during all 
the exciting days of Mr. Lincoln's political 
career, and through the dark and bloody times 
of the Civil war: and after he had slept for 
years under the monument at Springfield, Sam- 
uel Montgomery, of Petersburg, removed her 



PAST AND PRESENT OF MENARD COUNTY vi 

remains i<> Oakland cemetery, and there they people of to-day will wonder how the cooking 
etly rest with only a granite boulder, one was done. Meals to tempi the appetite of the 
of the transported relics of the glacial period, epicure were cooked in those days. Most house- 
marking her grave with the simple words, cut wives were equipped with a coffee-pot, a frying- 
deep into the solid stone, "Anna Rutledge." pan and a "flal oven," and with these the 

culinary work was done. And such meals as 

wen- cooked upon these three simple implements 

arc unknown ai the present day. The coffee- 

EARLY EXPERIENCES. |mi1 _ steaming ,,„ ., bed ,,,- livi " d CO als ,„, t ] ie 

The boys and -iris of to-day ran form qo dearth, the flat-oven, mired down in coals, the 

conception of the inconveniences and hardships Erying-pan, held over the blazing "fore-stick," 

of the pioneers of Illinois, nor do any of us produced the corn-dodger, the fried ham (from 

set a proper estimate on the worth of the men | 10 g s fattened on the mast) hissing in the pan 

and women who wrought out For us the -rand . m ,| ,| h . co fE e e, with all its rich aroma retained, 

inheritance that we now enjoy. I feel safe an ,| uull \ t , a mea ] that a king might desire, 

in saying that no grander type of men and There is no question that the victuals cooked 

« ii ever lived than those who opened up m this way and on these primitive utensils had 

the west lor settlement. They were not gen- a richer flavor than any of the products of 

erally educated in books— many of them being the present time, bu1 in the early days it was 

unable to read or write— yet they were edu- a se rious matter to keep the Family supplied 

cated in that higher and grander sense that a with bread-stuff. When Menard county was 

knowledge of books will never enable one to at- fj rs ( settled the settlers were obliged to go to 

tain. In rugged Nature's school they learned Edvardsville, in Madison county, for al or 

not the Follies and Frailties and vices of so- flour, or make some other shift, and as no 
called fashionable society, but they learned the wheat was raised at first, cornmeal was the 
more sublime lessons of justice, mercy and staple. In the late summer and early fall they 
love. In no period id' human history were men | lil( | recourse to the "gritter," as the grater was 
more just to their fellowmen, nor was there universally called. Every tin vessel was care- 
ever a time when professing Christian men in 1 1 \ preserved and ripped up to make this 

were more true to the prof, -ion l hey hail essential article of d stic use. This piece 

made. Men were religious then, not ■•for rev- f tin was punched full of holes, bent into the 

enue only." hut from principle. Ministers form of a -utter and nailed to a hoard, with 

preached not for the money there was in it. the rough side out. ami the ears of corn, just 

hut for the glory of God and from a sense of a ft,. r hardening from the roasting-ear state, or 

duty and for the -nod of their fellowman. at other times, after broiling the corn on the 

••Tin' groves were Cod's first temples," and cob till sufficiently soft, the com was -rated 

from them arose the incense of true devotion, oil' in the form of al by rubbing tin- car up 

and it was returned in the power of the Holy and down mi the "gritter." And 1 1 1 i ~ was no 

Spirit. Men rode circuits of hundreds of miles, play, as the writer can aver from sad expert 

preaching in the settlers' rude cabins or in the ence. It was a daily job, which gave notice to 

groves, slept upon pallet- and lived upon the all in the immediate vicinity by its "grating" 

homely Fare of the hospitable early settler and sound, that bread was on the way. And our 

received no salary whatever. At first the thers knew just how to make this bread ; and 

houses had no floors, except the din. tramped better or more healthful bread was never eaten 

hard by many feet: the logs were cut out in by man. lint in tin- case man did. indeed, 

one end of the cabin For a fireplace, with a "eat his bread by the sweat of his brow." The 

chimney built id' stick- ami plastered over with writer well remembers, when a little boy, h ■- 

mud — called "cat-and-clay" — was the means ing an old man from Tennessee, who had 

for keeping the home warm. Cooking stoves many days digging ginsang. say that he hi 

were unknown for manv Ion- vears. The young the time would soon come when he would never 



OB 



PAST AND PRESENT OF MENARD COUNTY 



more hear "the sound of a gritter, or the twang 
nt' a sang-hoe." B\ and by water mills were 
ljuilt on the streams, and these furnished corn- 
meal for the people, but it was a number of 
years before wheat was ground and flour was 
bolted in these mills. And this brings to mind 
a story told to the writer by Benjamin F. Ir- 
win, of Pleasant Plains, mere than thirty years 
ago, and it was written down in a diary at the 
time. Mr. Irwin said the story was told to hiin 
by the Rev. John M. Berry, the pioneer Cum- 
berland Presbyterian preacher of this pari of 
Illinois, and he vouched for the literal truth of 
the entire narrative. Mr. Berry would not give 
the names, but he knew the story was true. 
A party owned and operated a flouring mill on 
one of the streams in this vicinity. He was 
a devout Christian man. honest and benevolenl 
in all his relations to Ids Eellowmen. For 
some time lie thought that some ore was taking 
small amounts of flour from the chesl almost 
every week. Being convinced of the fact, he 
determined to watch ami see if he could not 
trap tin' intruder. So one nighl he concealed 
himself under the bolting-ehesl and patiently 
awaited developments. Sure enough, it was 
not long till a man entered the mill ami walked 
hesitatingly to the ehest. A moment's pause 
and tin' intruder kneeled down beside the flour 
chesl and in a low. hut earnest, voice began 
to pray. Astonished beyond measure at such 
seemingly contradictory conduct, the miller pa- 
tiently listened to the prayer. In low and 
trembling tones he begged the Lord to forgive 
him for what he mi- aboui to do. He told the 
Almighty how he had tried to get work — how 
his wife and little one- were hungering tor 
bread. Hi- pleading prayer finished, he arose, 
and taking a -mall amount of flour in a sacli 
which he carried, lie started to leave the mill, 
hut when he reached the door the miller called 
him by name, for lie had recognized him from 
the first, and started toward him. 'l'he in- 
truder made i Hon to escape, as a real thief 

Mould have done, hut turned and faced the 
miller. He told the miller the conditions at his 
home anil also -aid that he had taken small 
amounts of flour before. The miller made him 
go to the ehest and fill his saek. and after some 
conversation they separated and each went to 



his home. These men had hi en intimate 
friends before tin- occurrence, each having con- 
fidence in the honesty ami integrity of the 
other: nor did this break their friendship, but 
rather cemented it. The intruder and the mil- 
ler continued to live in that neighborhood for 
many years; the former, through industry and 
economy, prospered in wordly things and was 
respected and honored hv all who knew him 
as an honest Christian citizen, nor did the 
miller ever disclose his visitor's name, and the 
parties to the occurrence were never named. 

The people were far more sociable in those 
days than they are at the present time. The} 
were entirely satisfied if the} could -cure suf- 
ficient food and he comfortabl} clothed in their 
simple homespun attire Then the object was 
to live and enjoy the blessings of life: now the 
aim is i,. gel rich and live a selfish, unsocial 
life. Often one neighbor would hitch up his 
yoke of steers to the lumbering farm wagon — if 
he had one if not. a sled would do. even in the 
summer — put in some home-made, split-bottom 
chairs lor the older women, crowd in the whole 
family and drive several mile- to stay all night 
and have a good time. Then the hostess, be- 
side the eornbread and the savor} bacon, would 
bring out the crab-apple preserves i made with 
bone} i and the pumpkin pies, and they would 
feasl like lords. Perhaps there was hut one 
room, which served as kitchen, dining-room, 
parlor and bed-chamber, hut when bed time 
came the good housewife, not in the lea.-t con- 
fused, proceeded to prepare for the comfortable 
rest of all. ""Pallets"" were made on the floor 
of quilts and buffalo robes and 1 ear skins, and 
-non the floor was almost complete!} covered 
w till a mass of humanity, sleeping a- sweetly as 
if on beds of down. This picture is not in the 
least over-drawn, lor such -ecu,'- were of con- 
stant occurrence nor should anyone infer from 
this that there wa- any want of refinement mi 
the part of the people, lor purer society never 
existed any/where than among the pioneer- of 
this whole country. 



EARLY TIM. \l.s. 
The early settler- of Illinois — and Menard 
county as much as any other part — were sub- 



PAST AMi PRESENT OF MENARD COUNTY 

jected in an untold variety of trials and in- way of making our success possible. We are 
conveniences. Not only the labor connected sometimes almosl ashamed al the thought of 
with opening farms, clearing forests, erecting the want of refinemenl and rough exterior of 
dwellings, building bridges and highways, bu1 our fathers, forgetting that it was their fore- 
a greal variety of other annoyances were met sight and rugged philosophy that laid the solid 
"ii every hand. We spoke in another place of foundation, deep down mi the solid bed-rock 
the trouble in very early times of securing meal of all that we are ami hope in be, materially 
ami Sour ami of the ever annoying "gritter," morally and intellectually. They it was who 
as well as the want of implements and inaeliin- made possible all that we are and all that wo 
ery with which to cultivate the soil ; the wooden expect in be. One very prolific source of trou- 
mole-board plow, the sickle, and later the hie ami difficulty in the early pioneer,- was the 
scythe and cradle, with which the harvests were prevalence of disease of certain types thai pre- 
reaped. and the Sail for beating out the grain, vailed in earlv times. I will name hnt two of 
and later the more expeditious and more scien- these: bilious and malarial lexers, the latter 
tific method of tramping it nut with horses; taking the form of ague, as it was commonly 

and then, last hut not least. Hie interesting called, or chills and fever. Sonic called this 

means by which the grain was separated fr head disease the •■shakes." There was a vast 

the chaff. Two stout men would catch a c - at nt of decaying vegetation, especially in 

mon bed-sheet by the corners and while a third the fall of the year, and the vasi areas of un- 

I 1 'ed the grain, chaff and all from an elevated drained swamps ami lagoons that bred a mias- 

position, the winnowers would fan out the chaff matic poison which filled the air with lis poison- 

with the sheet. After going over it three or ous breath. True, it was not so often fatal. 

four times in this way, the grain would be fairly hut it was a living death — a Ion-- drawn-out 

well separated from the chaff. The making of agony that left just enough of life to realize 

clothing — spoken of more at length in another the bitterness of disease. One of the most ter- 

place -was an annoying hut essential part of fible features of it was its universal prevalence 

the household duties. In very early times in al -nine seasons of the year. Whole families 

Menard county cotton was raised to con ider- would be down, so that one was not able to 

able extent, while tla\ was also cultivated, and give another a drink of water, and entire com- 

every family raised sheep as extensively as the munities would he in this c litlon fur weeks. 

wolves would permit. All of these articles if not month-, at a tune. After it had preyed 
were carded by hand by the w in of the fain- upon its subject I'm- a lime, the liver wmihl be- 
lly. The ihi\ was grown in the fields, pulled come enlarged, the abdomen would assume un- 
by hand, watered, broken, skutched ami then wonted dimensions, the whole person would 
s l' lll > on the little wheel. The writer reiiiem- l» came bloated and a sickly sallow would per- 
bers distinctly to-day that when he awoke in vade all the saddened feature-. In many cases, 
the trundle bed, in the late hour- of the night, m seeming mockery, u would assume the form 
he would (d'ten hear the swish of the cards as of "the every-other-day ager," or the "third day 
bis widowed mother, prompted by maternal ager." ami return at its appointed time, as un- 
love, would ply those cards— often nil the hour erringly as the planets in their course. At the 
ol midnight — in order to clothe her fatherless appointed minute the premonitory pain.- would 
children. Ah. little do we realize the price begin to shoot up the hack, the sallow victim 
our parent- paid for the priceless heritage that would then begin to cape and yawn and the 
we enjoy. We will never know the privation, rigors of the polar zone- would seize his frame 

sacrifice, anxiety and toil that they endured in and then for fr i to two hour- the demon 

order that we might be what we are. We boast of malaria would seem to strive to shaki each 

of what we have done in the growth and devel- separate joint apart. Then came the raging 

opineut of this country, forgetting what our fever, the torturing headache and at last tin 

mothers and grandmothers in their home-spun disgusting -weat. as the sufferer reached onci 

attire and loving simplicity, accomplished in the more, the temperate zone, between the horrid 



\M 



PAST AND PEESENT <>F MFA'Al.'D COUNT!' 



expi riences that he had jusl passed through. 
Then the "well day" came, with its ravenous, 
unnatural appetite, demanding al] that reason 
or common sense would forbid. At first, before 
the physician came with Ins pill-bags, the rem- 
edies were "yarbs and leas." prescribed by ever] 
one, but Inter on same "Sappington's Pills. 
Fowler's Solution and Quinine." No mortal 
man. who never had "the chills," can form any 
jiim conception of its agony. Noi sick enough 
to be abed but a few hours a! a i ime, yel filled 
with agony, compared to which being confined 
in bed would be a solace and relief. Some 
poetaster, who knew the agony of the "ager," 
has parodied "Poe's Raven" as follows: 

Am] to-day, the swallows flitting 
Round my cabin, see me sitti ng 
Moodily within the sunshine, 
.1 usi inside my sileni door, 
Waiting for the "ager," seeming 
Like a man forever dreaming : 
Ami tlie sunlight on me si reaming 
Throws no shadow on the floor; 
For I am too thin and sallow 
To make shadows on the floor- 
Nan shadow any more. 

Bui as the prairies were broken, the ponds 
drained and the amounl ol stock increased to 
eat out the vegetation, the ague diminished 
until at last it left, to return no more, we trust 
forever. 



THE DEEP SNOW. 

One of the mosl conspicuous chronological 
landmarks in the histor] of Menard county, and 
nf all central Illinois for thai mailer, is the 
"Winter of the Deep Snow." old settlers, in 
fixing remote dates, use this as the average 
mother uses the birth of her children : she sa] r s. 
"11 was the spring thai John was born," and 
the old settler says, "11 was just after the deep 
-new." At the old settlers' annual meetings 
they have badges thai are worn by all who were 
here before L830, which are inscribed "Snow 
Bird." In the year 1830 ii rained Eot several 
davs in succession jusl before Christmas, and 
on Christmas day, as some say. and the day 
after, as others put it. ii began to snow. The 
sneu fell so rapidly thai in a fevt hours there 



was a depth of six inches mi the ground, but 
it did not cease to fall with this, bul continued 
to fall till at the very least three feet had 
fallen. Some claim thai there was more than 
this, noi a few placing it at four feet, but the 
most conservative estimate ii a1 three feel on a 
level all over the country. After tins snow had 
fallen there came a rain and this, freezing on 
the snow, formed a crust that would hoar the 
weighl of a man. After this other snow fell. 
adding to the depth. President Sturtevant, of 
Illinois College, who was here at the time, says 
thai as soon as the snow had fallen ii turned 
very cold and thai for two weeks the mercury 
never rose higher than twelve degrees below- 
zero. The ground was entirely covered from 
that time till the latter part of March. The 
settlers would break roads with ox-teams, but 
the snow would Mow in and again they had to 
he broken. Tins process packed the snow in 
i he roads till it formed a veritable ridge, ami 
these ridges remained after the -now elsewhere 
was all gone. The writer heard one old pioneer 
say that these ridges remained ami after the 
-■now was gone from the prairies they looked 
like silver threads winding across the country. 
The -now was so deep that it covered up the 
food that the wild animal- were accustomed 
to suhsisl on and thousands of them perished. 
The ernsl on the snow was strong enough to 
bear up a man. and the wolves and other like 
animals could travel in safety mi its surface, 
but the deer were noi so fortunate. As they 
run by a succession of leaps ami their hoofs 
being hard and sharp, jusl so soon as they 
started to run they broke through the crusl and 
thus they lay helpless mi the snow. On this 
aeeonni the deer were nearly all killed. I'm' the 
dogs and wolves soon learned that as soon as 
the (\^■(^Y started to run tiny would break 
through and then the] were an easy prey. The 
settlers experienced terribly hard times dur- 
ing that winter on account of the fact that the 
snow came so earl] that the] were caughl with 
their crops ungathered and they were in many 
ways unprepared for the winter. Another trou- 
ble was the scarcity of mills in the country. 
Many were from forty to sixty miles from the 
nearest mill, and, of course, it was impossible In 
go thai distance for breadstuff. As a conse- 



PAST AND PRESENT OF MENARD COUNTY 

quenee .-ill kinds of expedients were resorted his home here, thai there was a winter of ter- 

i". The inevitable "gritter" was called into rible suffering in .-ill this region on account of 

constant use and lye-hominy was a standard the deep snow and the long continued cold, 

article in every home. The game perished in They related thai early in the fall the snow 

such numbers thai i1 was never as plentiful began to fall and there were no warm davs to 

afterward. Unfortunately, the wild game was cause il to melt, but every few days fresh snows 

ii"i il nh thing that perished. During this would fall, and thus it continued to grow 

winter two men who resided near the south line deeper and deeper until, as they said, n wa- 
ul' what is now Menard count} perished in the deeper than the heighl of the tallest man. As 
snow. William Saxton started out hunting, and, a consequence, the game was nearh all starved 
not returning, the neighbors made search I'm' or frozen to death and many of the Indians per- 
him, luii failed to find him. The next spring ished from cold ami hunger. The early settlers 
his body and that of Ins horses were found noticed on the tall hills in the prairies there 
within a mile of his home. John Barnett started were vasi number of buffalo and deer bones in 
after a wolf while the snow was falling, but he an advanced stage of decay. The Indian- ex- 
did not return. Search was made for him. hut plained this by saying that during that winter. 
he was not found. The next spring the body as the .-now mew deeper in the low ground and 
of Barnett and that of hi- horse and dog were being blown off the higher ground, the game 
found forty miles from the point from which retreated to those spots of high ground and 
he started. It was supposed that the falling perished there from want of food and the in- 
-Mow blinded and bewildered him, and, losing tense cold. It appears that there are periods 
his bearings, he rushed on till his horse gave when the elements are "ou1 of joint"; times 
"in and horse and dog and man perished to- when the influence of the planets or of sun- 
gether. On Rock creek lived an old bachelor spots, or something else, brings about strange 
by the name of Stout, no n lati m to any of the and disastrous effects. Such was the case "the 
Stouts there now. however, who perished in the winter of the deep snow" the winter of 1830 
snow-, somewhere near where Pleasanl Plains 31. The deep -now began to fall between 
now stands. Christmas and the N"ew Year. It is a little re- 
Pages might be written of the -tone- told markable that the "sudden change" was a1 the 
by old pioneers of the privation and suffering of same season of the year. On the 20th day of 
that winter. There is no doubt thai it was the December, 1836, the sudden change came. The 
most severe winter that has ever been known weather up to this time had been mild and 
since the country was settled. The -now at plea-ant. There had been but little -now and 

three feet deep would have I r nothing re- no severe cold bail been experienced. The 

markable in the east, but it was unknown to ground was frozen to the depth of three or 

the people here, and, beside this, they were un- four inches. <)n thai morning, December 20th, 

prepared for such conditions, and the country s • time before i n, il began to rain and 

being new it is no wonder that there was great continued to ram till after noon. The rain 

inconvenience and suffering. II must have came from the northeast, and between twelve 

been a remarkable ti to mark a period that and ■ o'clock p. m. a very dark cloud ap- 

still stands as a chronological monument, mark- peared, low down in the northeast, and as it 

ing a period of time so abidingly as no1 to be came nearer a rumbling, roaring sound could 

erased by years. be heard, and in a few nts a strong wind 

swepl over the w I- and prairies and the cold 

became al once intense. Perhaps a more sud- 
den change was never experienced in this lati 

THE SUDDEN CHANGE. tude. Chickens and geese 1 their feet ca 

The Indians had a tradition, which they told in the suddenly congealed mud and water and 

to the early settlers of Illinois, that many, later had to be cut oul and their feet n 

many winters before the paleface came to make by thawing them out at the fire. I'.e 



V < . 



PAST AND PRESENT OE MENARD COUNTY 



cerning this change, as told by men of un- 
doubted veracity, are almost beyond belief. 
Alexander Montgomery, of Greenview, gives 
the following account, as told by his father, 
who then lived where II. II. Marbold now re- 
sides. West ni the bouse is a low piece of 
ground which had been tilled by the rain to the 
depth of eight or ten inches. West of this 
slough Mr. Montgomery had a lot of calves in 
a pen. and realizing the intensity if the cold 
he started a- soon as the change began to feed 
them. Pie waded across the slough, the water 
being almost to hi? boottops, and U:<\ the calves 
as quickly as he could, and return* d. as he said. 
in less than twenty minutes, and when he re- 
turned he crossed the slough on solid ice. Rev. 
Jos ah Porter, of ( lhatham, Illinois, was at that 
time a traveling evangelist and traveled over a 
large territory of Illinois. He relates a cir- 
cumstance that occurred in the vest part of 
Douglas county, near the corner of Piatt and 
Moultrie counties. Two men. brothers, by the 
name of Deeds, started out to cut a bee-tree, 
which they had found in the fall, and were 
overtaken by the cold of this sudden change. 
Not returning home, a search was instituted, 
hut they were not discovered for nearly two 
weeks, when thej were found frozen to death 
some three miles from their home-. Andrew 
Heredith, who was formerly a merchant, miller 
and pork-paeker in Cincinnati, having met with 
reverses, came to Illinois to retrieve his for- 
tune, lit- settled in Sangamon county, about 
three miles west of Loami, near Lick creek, and 
called the place Millville. He bought wheal 
and made flour, but seeing, as he thought, an 
opi uing for great wealth, he began buying hogs 
and driving them to the St. Louis market. His 
first ventures were very successful, so he de- 
cided to venture on a larger scale. So in the 
fall of 1836 he bought up a drove of twelve or 
fifteen hundred hogs and in December he 
started to drive Them to St. Louis. By the 
20th 'if December he had readied the prairie 
of Macoupin county. He had taken with him 
a number of wagons and teams for the purpose 
of hauling corn to feed the hogs on the way. 
\- -non a- tin 1 corn was fed out of a wagon 
it was utilized in hauling those hogs which 
wi re giving out. When the storm struck them 



Mr. lien dith at once realized its severity, and 
calling all the men to his aid they overturned 
the wagons and replacing the beds upon them 
they entered them and drove a- rapidly as pos- 
sible to the nearest residence, which, fortu- 
nately, was not far away. When they reached 
the farmhouse their clothing was frozen solid 
upon them and the men had their hands and 
feet and ears frozen. Tin- hogs crowded to- 
gether in order to keep warm, and as the cold 
grew more severe they literally piled up in 
piles, and as a result those in the center smoth- 
ered and those on the outside froze to death. 
Those that did not die outright scattered over 
the prairies and finally perished. Mr. Heredith 
returned home as soon as the state of the 
weather would permit, but the loss had broken 
his spirit and he pined away and in a year or 
two died. 

James II. Hihlreth and a young man by the 

nai I Frame started to Chicago on horseback 

and by the 20th of December they reached the 
region of Hickory creek, a tributary of the 
Iroquois river. Here tin- storm struck them. 
They wandered about till night overtook them 
and. seeing that they were doomed to perish, 
they killed one of their horses and. removing 
the entrails, they crawled into the carcass and 
remained there till about midnight, when the 
animal heat having been exhausted, the] came 
"in. determined to kill the other horse and 
utilize it in the same way. hut in their be- 
numbed condition the knife was dropped and 
could not be found. They stood around the 
living horse till two or three o'clock in the 
morning, when Frame became drowsy and 11 il- 
dreth was unable to keep him awake and he 
sank down and was soon beyond all human suf- 
fering. A- soon as light came Hihlreth mount- 
ed the remaining horse and after wandering for 
hours reached a cabin, where the inhuman 
wretch who inhabited it refused him aid. He 
finally recovered, with the loss of his hands 
and feet, and reared a family, the descendants 
of whom now live in Logan and DeWitt coun- 
ties. Henry and John live in Logan, and his 
daughter Sarah. (Mrs. William Weedman) 
lives in Farmer City. I can not leave this 
story without stating another fact in connec- 
tion with it. The wretch who refused Mr. 



PAST AND PRESENT OF MENARD COUNT!' 

llilihvtli aid in his dire extremity was named that time of the year. Late in the afternoon 

Benjamin Russ. The story of his inhuman a cloud appeared in the northwesl and came up 

treatment of Hildreth being circulated in the very rapidly. It was, perhaps, between five and 

settlement, the ire of the honest pioneers was six o'clock in the after >n when the storm 

aroused and they gathered to deal out sum- broke. It came with a very high wind and the 
mar) justice, but in seme way he go1 wind of rain fell in a perfeci torrent, accompanied l>\ 
what was in store for him and fled to more a hail storm such as was never witnessed before 
congenial climes and was seen there no move, by those who experienced it. In fact, the state- 
Many other and equalh remarkable incidents ments made by the most reliable men in the 
of the sudden change have been told the writer count) at the time, and in which they all agree, 
h\ men of undoubted veracity, hut the above are almost beyond belief. The hail stones were 
will serve to give an idea of its suddenness and large — many of them larger than a lion's egg — 
severity. It was the opinion of many of those ami they fell in such vast quantities that they 
who experienced this storm thai it traveled at lay to a depth of a foot at least on the level 
a rate <>f at least seventy miles per hour. prairies. Elder William Engle, a man of un- 

impeached veracity, told the writer that he and 

Uncle David Propsi gathered the hail stones 

HAIL STORM OF 1850. thirty-eighl days alter they fell and mad.' ice 

At irregular intervals of time strange and re- water of them to drink. This is Literally true, 

markable meteorological phenomena occur for as will be explained further on. Thehailsti - 

"huh n le can aeeount — whether they are were so large and came with such driving force 

caused bj sun-spots or planetary relation-, no from their momentum ami the force of the 
one can tell, for some continue bui a few hours. wind that it is strange that much greater dam- 
while others last through an entire season. age was not done. Main hogs and calves were 
The Indians have a tradition of a winter, per- killed outright, while all the poultry which was 
haps in the firs! half of the eighteenth century, not under shelter suffered a similar fate. The 
which far surpassed anything known since the wild birds, rabbits and other -mall animals in 
p. d.-l,,,. came west id' the Ohio river. It was the range id' the storm were entirely extermi- 
nndoiilitedh confined to the west, to, if it nated. It is a fact, authenticated beyond dis- 
had extended to the east we would have had a pute, tiiat a large amount of timber, especially 

record of it by the while man. The winter whit k. was killed. The leaves and smaller 

of ls:;ii-:;i was remarkable for its severity and limbs were beaten oil', the hark on the side nexl 

the depth of the snow, and it has long been the storm was peeled off, and scores of trees 

a chronological landmark ami old settlers count two feet and two feet si\ niches in diameter 

tune from -the winter of the deep -now": an- were killed ami stood for years as silent hut 

other was the awful "sudden change" on the unimpeachable witnesses of the severity of the 

•.'Dili of December, ls:!li; ami .-till later the de- storm. The crops were a total wreck, being 

struetive freeze on the 27th day of August, beaten into the earth. Corn, wheat, oats and 

1863, which many person- now living still even grass were a total loss. A Mr. Leach, then 

distinctly remember. The coin, winch was jus! living near Greenview, was a mile or two from 

in good roast ing-ear. was frozen hard and all I i horseback and was cauglrf in the storm, 

creation literally stunk with the rotting vegeta- ami being some distance from shelter he s i 

tipn, hut the event that 1 am going to relate realized that unless he got protection in some 

was confined to von narrow limits. It is the way he would a.-smedl\ perish. So. as quickly 

hail storm of May the 87th, 1850. It was as possible, he dismounted and ungirthing the 

confined to Menard county, being only seven .-addle he put n over In- head as a helmet, lie 

miles wide and only ten or twelve miles in told the writer, thirty years ago, thai even with 

length. Greenview and Sweetwater were near this protection he thought that he would as- 

the center of its destructive power. The daj suredly he killed. Now and then a stone of 

May 27, 1850 — had been extremelv warm for unusual size would strike the saddle with such 






PAST AN1> PRESENT OF MENARD COUNTY 



force as to stagger him and cause him to sei 
whole constellations of stars. The rain which 
fell with the hail, togethei with the melting 
hail stones, produced such a torrent of water 

that thi' small streams were s< 'aging floods. 

By these tin 1 hail was. in places, piled up to 
a depth of ten and fifteen feet. Grove creek, in 
Sugar Grove, became a raging river, piling up 
the hail in vast heaps and m many cases cover- 
ing n over with leaves and trash till a perfect 
ice-house was constructed. It was from one of 
these thai Engle and Propst, on the 4tl of July 
— thirty-eight days after the storm — got ice 
with which to make icewater for the people who 
were gathered together not far awaj to cele- 
brate the birthday of our independence. We 
have in tins story a line illustration id' the spirit 
of "grit, gumption and go-aheaditiveness" of 
our ancestors. With the fields as bare as in the 
midst of winter, the season's labor all di stroyed, 
with the ei-ops all beaten into the ground and 
the winter soon t" come, with biting, bitter 
blasl — with all this they gather together to 
spend a day in social converse, to renew ac- 
quaintance and to cultivate the spiril of patri- 
otic devotion to God and native land. Ah. that 
is what has made this land what it i> to-day! 
We boast what we have done, but we forget that 
that class of men and women who preceded us 
—our fathers and mothers — are the lone that 
made this country what it i- to-day. I verily 
believe that the world has oever known so 
grand a race of men and women as the pioneers 
of these western states. They come of the besl 
stock of the world. Out of rvery nation on 
earth, there came to this countn the most lib- 
erty-loving, the most independent, the bravest, 
the most self-reliant and determined people 
ever known, and by amalgamation and training 
they produced our fathers and mothers, who 
drove out the wild beasts, subdued the wild 
prairies ami forests, laid the foundations of 
education and of moral and religious training. 
leaving to us this glorious heritage that we pos- 
sess. Manx of them were not educated in books, 
or in the fashions and follies of some classes oi 
social life, hut they had that higher and nobler 
development of head ami heart, that titled them 
to the plant, the germs of which, under God, 
have grown into this, the grandest and greatesl 



nation mi earth. Will we preserve what they 
left to us? But I have gotten off the track. In 
my imagination i can see the people at that 
celebration. Uncle "'Bill" Engle was a promi- 
nent figure among them. True, the crop- were 
liinie, I and the prospect lor the coming winter 
was a little dark, hut what g 1 would fore- 
bodings and repinings do': I see him. with his 
kindly face and portly form, a- he tried to 
cheer up his disheartened neighbors and friends. 
With words of encouragement and cheer, he 
admonished them to look on the bright side 
and then, with an appropriate story, the whole 
company would he put in a good humor and. 
forgetting their troubles, all would go "merry 
as a marriage hell." As I spoke of "Uncle 
Bill" telling stories, I should explain that he 
was an expert story-teller. Like Lincoln, ho 
had an exhaustion -tore of "yarns" and anec- 
dotes and no one could surpass him in telling 
them. Out of thai rasl store lie could always 
find one just suited to the occasion, and when 
he told a story lie entered into the spirit of it 
as he preached — that i>. with his whole soul, 
lie and the martyred president, Abraham Lin- 
coln, had many a tilt at spinning yarns during 
i he terms of court in Petersburg. I f the old 
"Menard House" hail the power of speech it 
could entertain for days and week-, repeating 

the unnumbered "g 1 ones" that wore told 

when Lincoln, Engle and other home and im- 
ported talent spent an evening at that old-time 
hostelry. N"ot only the evenings were passed in 
this way. hut 1 have ii from the yen best 
authority of the time that on one occasion at 
least, when "Uncle Bill" had met a foeman 
"worthy of his steel," the battle raged, with 
varying fortune, until the rising of the sun 
ami even then the referees were compelled to 
declare it a -draw." Elder William Engle was 
a very remarkable man in many respects and 
left his impress upon all the enterprise- of this 
count)", an impress which will last for years 
to come. He performed a very important part 
in the development of the resources of the 
county; ho also aided largely in the elevation of 
social life, and to him we owe a lasting debt 
of gratitude for the part ho played in shaping 
the moral and religious sentiment of tin 

pie. 



PAST AND PRESENT OF MENARD COUNT 1 ! 39 

MANNERS AN l> CUSTOMS. the back and sides of this were I. mil up of logs, 

Hie young men and women of to-day have luak "' ;l " offse1 '" the "''" somewhal ^ke a 

do conception of the mode of life among the """ l "" ba >'"" ""'"" ■ anr1 this was l """ 1 with 

earh settlers of the countr 3 and when the story mud " '"' s '"""- "' " coulcl ll " had and " n " l! 

is truthfully told they can scarceh believe it. as a fire P lace - The c 'ney was built of sticks, 

h i- ■ object in this chapter to give a very over ffhlch ;l thlck r " :l,m - " r ll "" 1 Wii> s P read > 

brief bul absolutely true account of this. We '" keep ll "'"' ''' takin * ,i,v - This u;l ~ called 

feel thai the time will not be losl in doing this, ;l "''■'" , '"" 1 '''"•' <*>"""»• and wag the onh kind 

as the lesson will be a valuable and instructive '" L,se ''"' a -"' : " "'"'"'■ N >' cars - The door was 

one can scarceh imagine hov so great als afl ''. v cutting out logs, making an open- 

a change could have taken place in the space of ■"■" "' ""' desired size ' and the shutter " ;| - 

*ixt> to eighty-five vears, and when the sim " i; " ! '' "' boards l """ ri1 to crosspieces (for nails 

and truthful storv is heard by our young peo- ""' l ' 1 '"" ' '' ha' ears after the 

|)le they will h.old in higher esteem their grand- '"'"' settlements WL ' re ma de), and this was 

r s and grandmothers w -e those trials llung "" " Ien llin § es ' The door was fas " 

and throt gh them secured the ricl ritage , '''"'' 1 '" a "' ooden lateh ' " ll "' 1 ' eau § hl '" a 

thai wecnjw to-day. Ii will also lead them to "'"'"'"" ' k "" the " IM,lr ' A l,nl " " :| - l)ored 

hoi higher esteem those unpolished and '" li "' door above lllr latch - and a buckskin 

uncultivated people whom theA have been dis- stnng " :ls fastcnofl '" the lat, ' h and passed 

|tosed to look down upon. In' nothing are the |!,l '""- h thls ll "' 1 '- s ai "' "I"'" th< r from 

habits, manners and customs of the people like ''"' outs,de ;l " '"" liad '" do was "' l ulil ll "' 



what they were seventy or eightv years ago. 



string ami this would lifl 1 h< ■ latch mil of ihc 



We an al a loss where i gin so as to give °° k ''""' ""' '' ' vv 'P en - T " lock the 

the youth of the present anything like a jusi ''"'"' ; " " ■•"'" a]| thai was necessan «-as to 

idea of this matter. The diet, the clothing, the l '"" ""' ""'"'■- '"' Wi "'" ''"' latch-string hung 

dwellings, the social customs in fact, every- ""'""■- h ,l "' llole anyone coulcl open the door 

thing has undergone a coraplet. revolution. We l> "" 1 ""' outsi,le - This g ave the a of the 

spoke before of the "three-faced camp" in ex P ression " r liospitality by saying "the latch- 
which some of the earh settlers lived, I ii '""''"■- han ^ "'"•" We describe this thus mi- 
may be truthfully said that the dwellings in m "'' U tha1 ''"' •"""'- I I' 1 '' m:l - v understand 

which the pioneers lived for a number of years iU " ex P ression: """' latch-string is out." The 

were bul slightly in a, Kan,,, of these. The llil '"" mv '" ll "' ll0llge »as on a par with the 

house was invariably buill oi loss, the spaces ll0USe """' A '''" llome - ma de, split-bottomed 

betwe n the logs being filled with 'smaller pieces chair8; ; ' "'""'' bench '"' lw,,; a l "' llsll ' illi (in 

of n I, called chinks, and then daubed over '"'"" sc) '"'"'" l,v drivin S a fork in one 

with mortar made of clav. [f the floor was any- '""'"'' "' tlu ' cabin ' :|1 sh Pee1 from ll "' 

thing re than the earth tramped hard and "' a11 : ""' ''"' desired l " ,| -- hl for the bed = then 

- th.it was mad 'puncheons that is, logs l '" 1 ' " ni " tn '''"' ll " ;l " from this fork ' : "" 1 

were split and side was smoothed off with bo&Td * |jliU ' cd acroM made ""' Pra " E the 

an ax and these laid down for a floor The ' ' Hundreds of '"scaffold beds" were in 

openings between these puncheons were often T , ' '"' !? c " lj ~" Ui "''~ had "" ldtchen ' 

bo large thai the cats could pass in and out "" l'"' a * ,cl ? ''"' k, ?« J™™ " ''"" ""' 

,,,,. „ , ,, .... . . , simple as the furniture. A "flat-oven' or ski - 

through th, an. I he top Oi lh, cabin was drawn | , 

• f , , , ., let, a trying-pan, an iron poi or kettle, and co- 
rn, after the fashion of a boy's quail trap, and ..^i,,,,,^ ., IV , , 1,11 

,a>ionall\ a cottee-pol c(ini|)li'(i'd the millil m 



on the poles on top, clapboards, or, as the 
yankees calli ,1 them shakes, were laid on, and 



Ibis department of the besi fixed cabins. S 
wen ill, n ami fur many vears later entirely un- 



UrlL,|, '"l" ,,r - ,aid "" 1| "' 1 " to keep them in known, hence the cooking was done entirely on 
1,1:1,1 For a ^replace the logs were cul oui of the fireplace. The flat-oven was sei on a bed 
one side of the wall, six or eight feet wide, and of glowing coals, and the frugal housewife, 



30 



AST AX D 



ESEXT OF MENARD COUNTY 



taking as much stiff dough of Indian meal as 
she could conveniently hold in both hands, and 
deftly tossing it from hand to hand to mold it 
into the desired shape, tossed it into the oven, 
patting it with her hand to the desired thick- 
ness. About three of these "dodgers" filled the 
oven, when the ready-heated lid was placed upon 
the oven and the whole covered with glowing 
coals. As soon as the bread was done it was 
taken from the oven and placed upon a tin 
platter and set on the health near the tire to 
keep warm. Generally the prints of the fingers 
id' the cook were plainly visible on every dodger. 
In the oven from which the bread was taken 
the ham or venison was then fried and, in the 
fall of the year especially, the "lye-hominy," 
made of Indian corn, was seasoned in the grease 
tried on! of the meat. Thus the repast was 
prepared and sweeter bread or more savory 
meats were never eaten than were prepared on 
those rude fireplaces. As to sweetmeat- and 
ion feet ions, they were things entirely unknown. 
Sugar was entirely unknown, save in sections 
where sugar-maple abounded, hut nearly all 
of the pioneers had an ahundanee of the linest 

honey the year around, for the wild honey-1 

existed in great abundance wherever there was 
timbi ;■. Sometimes wild grapes, wild crabs and 
berries of various kinds were preserved in 
honey, hut these were only opened when the 
preacher visited or on some other great occa- 
sion. For many years alter the settlements 
were made, wheat bread was entirely unknown, 
from the fact that there were no mills in the 
country which were provided with facilities for 
"rinding the wheat or bolting the flour. In 
all the new settlements means of preparing 
grain for bread were matters of the very first 
concern. As already said, most, or we might 
say all. of the pioneers settled in the timber 
ami at almost every cabin a large -tump or 
block of wood sel on end was dm: or burned oul 
into the form of a mortar, ami a "spring-pole" 
with a heavy block of wood, in the form of a 
pestle, was suspended above this mortar, and 
in this the corn was pounded into meal. Bui a 
small amount of corn was put in the mortar at 
a time, and when this was reduced to meal, by 
working this pestle up ami down, then another 
small amount was put in. and so on till the re- 



quired amount was ground. This laborious 
task was to he repeated a- often as the meals 
were to be eaten, but the process was so -low- 
that in a large family the pestle must go almost 
incessantly or some of them would he placed 
on short rations. So important a matter was 
this of breadstuff that it overshadowed all 
others. To illustrate this we state the unde- 
niable fact that the first "milling" done for the 
settlement of Sugar drove was done b\ John 
Jennison and James Meadow-. These two men 
went in a canoe down the Sangamon to tin- 
Illinois river and then to the Mississippi, to 
Alton, and there got a canoe-load of breadstuff 
and brought it to Sugar Grove, consuming 
twenty-one days in the trip. Think of this! 
What labors were performed and what trials 
endured by our fathers and mothers to make 
tin- country what it is. Can we ever pay the 
debt of gratitude that we owe them? Even 
after those primitive mills were built — even 
after the Salem null was built — there was great 
trouble over the matter nf something of which 
to make bread. The Salem null, built by Cam- 
eron and Rutledge, though looked upon by the 
people as a marvel of mechanical skill and in- 
genuity, was incapable of overcoming all of 
these troubles. In those days the owners of 
mills made q rule like barbers have at the pres- 
ent tinu — that i-. that each one should take 
his turn. Persons would take a grisl of one 
or two bushels of corn to mill and they must 
wait till it was ground. Reliable men of Tal- 
lula told the writer that in the days of the old 
hand-mill at Petersburg that thej wen! there 
from Clary's Grovi — only eight miles — and 
using their utmost diligence it was midnight of 
the ninth day when they returned with their 
grinding. It was many years before the mills 
of the country could provide the facilities for 
making flour, and there are people still living 
who remember the time when the children 
longed for Sundaj to come, not from any spirit 
id' devotion or reverence lor the day. but be- 
cause they thought that they would have "cake" 
for breakfast Sunday morning. By "cake" they 
meant simple wheat bread or biscuits. 

Among the pioneers everything was, of neces- 
sity, plain, simple and in conformity with the 
strictest economv. This was true not onlv of 



PAST A.\l> PRESENT OF MENARD COUNTY 



31 



their dwellings, furniture and provisions, but 
of their clothing as well. In the verj early, 
early days, the men usually wore pants and 
hunting-shirts of buckskin and caps of coon or 
fox skin, while both men and women clothed 
their feet in moccasins. Cotton goods were 
thru extremely hard to get, for two reasons: 
first, because of the great distance that they had 
to be transported by private means; and, sec- 
ond, because the manufacture in this country 
was verj limited, almosl all of such goods be- 
ing manufactured in Europe. As a result the 
pioneer of the west found this one of the very 
hardest demands to meet. Man\ were the ex- 
pedients devised by them, especially by the fru- 
gal and anxious wives and mothers, for ever 
since the wonderful expedient of preparing an 
entire wardrobe from fig leaves, devised quite a 
number of years hack, woman has been verj 
gifted in laj'ing plans and devising expedients 
m the matter of dr< -- : but, unfortunately, for 
her skill and industry, the countn afforded 
nothing for the first fi w years of its occupancy 
that could be turned to much account in this 
direction. II cotton had been planted when 
they first came, n could not have been much to 
then- advantage, because of the fact that neither 
the -nil nor the climate were adapted to its 
cultivation and the seasons were so shorl that 
it hail to be planted so very early for it to ma- 
ture that it could uol be gotten in in time in 
sufficient quantity to justify its cultivation. 
And it was almost useless to take sheep into 
these frontier settlements on account of the 
number of prairie, black and gray wolves, for 
the\ would destroy an entire thick in a single 

night. Hence the | pie had to choose between 

adopting expedients and going forth in •'na- 
ture's light and airy garb," so in a vear or two 
the settlers adopted the expedient of sowing 
crops of hemp and flax, and this the women 
soon learned to manufacture by hand into a 

coarse bul g I and comfortable linen. Bui 

these practical and observing pioneers also ap- 
pealed tn nature in their need and tin- good 
dame is seldom applied to in vain. In various 
localities in central Illinois, when the country- 
was first settled, then 1 were vast areas covered 
with wild nettles. Sometimes there would be 
two or three acres together, covered v ith net- 



tles, growing as thick as wheat, and three and 
lour feet high. After these were killed by the 
frost and rotted by the elements, the\ produced 
a lint as -iron- as flax, hut much lighter and 
liner. This lint would bleach almost to snowy 
whiteness and it had more the appearance of 
silk than of cotton. Thousands of yards were 
woven and worn h\ the pioneers. Mrs. James 
Meadows, of Sugar Grove, actually spun and 
wove thirty yards of this nettle cloth one sea- 
son. But even alter the cultivation of flax ami 
the introduction of quite a number of sheep, the 
matter of clothing was the most formidable dif- 
ficulty in the way. The task of raising the flax 
or hemp, of cutting, rotting, breaking, hackling, 
skutching, spinning and weaving it was an 
Herculean task; or raising the sheep, protecting 
them from the wolves, shearing them and then 
spinning and weaving the wool into doth re- 
quired a vast amount of labor. Then, after all 
this, garments were to be cut and made, and 
-ocks and stockings were to be knit by hand 
for all the family. What a task! We wonder 
that our mothers did not despair, and they 
would had the fashions been then as now. but 
a balloon frame was not Then to be covered in 
by the skirt of the dress. Skirls were not wide 
then as now. On a certain occasion, under tin 
old "'blue laws" of Connecticut, a young lady 
was hauled before the magistrate, charged with 
jumping the brook on the Sabbath, which of- 
fense, if -he were proven guilty, would subject 
her to a heavy line. The o i r |" s mother came 
into court mi the day of trial ami lest ilieil that 
her daughter was piously on her way to church, 
and coming to the brook, on account of the nar- 
row ins- of her skirts, she was obliged to jump 
or step in the water. Our young gentlemen of 
the present, who have dressed in the very best 
ever >ince they could remember, would he sur- 
prised ami shocked at the scanty out in of the 
boys of thai day. The summer wear of the boys 
up lo teli and twelve years of age was very 
simple ami free from any effort at display, for 
it consisted of a long tow-linen shirt, "only 
this and nothing more." Willi this indispensa- 
ble ami convenient article they explored thi 
ests. traversed the prairies, thought about the 
o i ids ami built as many castles in the air as the 
of more favorable times ami n 



PAST AND PRESENT OF MENAED COUNTY 

ventional wardrobes. In the winter they were h therefore happened that some of the family 
supp] eil with buckskin or tow-linen pants, c- would have to wait till 



"The frosl was on the pumpkin 



easins or raw-hide shoes, and coats of jeans 

aftei ihi'\ began to raise sheep. This scarcity . , , , ■■ n n .' .' , - 

• Ami tbr todder in tin- shock 

ill clothing continued tor at least two decades, 

or even more. In summer time nearlj every before their feet were clad. We remember boys, 

one, both male and female, went barefoot and "'"' af terward achieved both wealth and dis- 

it was nothing uncommon to see young ladies tinc tion. uh " never g°< t 1 "'' 1 ' shoes till well on 

of the best families (mum- grandmother, per- T " Christmas, bin they went to scl I. if there 

haps, dear reader) on their way to church on " :l> an - v - ; "" 1 P la 3' ed with the othei '"'^ in 

foot, carrying their shoes in their hand till their bare feet. No scene can be imagined that 

mar the place of worship, when, carefully is re full of real happiness than the home of 

brushing the dnsl from their feet, they donned tl "' P ioneer > wheD '" t 1 "' evening all are en- 

their stockings and shoes and quietly mingled g a g' ed '" ,lu '"' work - A bright lilv burns on the 

with the throng. This continued to be com- u " l( ' hearth ancl the n " l,lv flame lea P s f;,r U P 

mon for nearly twenty years. After sheep could :l "' " '''" chimney, affording the only, but 



be protected from the wolves the people fared 



sufficient, lighl in the room. In one corner sits 

better in the matter of clothing. Flannel and the fatner > busily engaged in making shoes; 

linsey were wnm by the w< and children the mothcr •" her litll( ' u ' 1 "' 1 ' 1 bums a time in 

ami jeans was woven for the men. Fur want low harmony with its steady whirr, while in 

of other ami i, mre suitable dye-stuffs, the wool fl '"" 1 " r ll "' am P le fireplace the daughter trips 

for the jeans was almosl invariably colored with """ l,lv i,; "' k ancl fortL drawing out the long 

the -hunts of the walnut, beiiee the inevitable woolen threads, while the wheel, seeming to par- 

"butternut" worn so extensively in the west take of ll "' general happiness, swells out its 

for so many years. As a matter of course, each musical whir-r-r, which swells ami dies away 

family had to do its own spinning and weaving, "' regular ami harmonious cadence; the 

and for a Inn- term of years all the wool bad younger members of the household engaged in 

to he carded by hand mi a little pair of cards """"' aDSOrWri g pastime, all undisturbed by a 

nnt more than five by ten inches. Each family sin g le discordant ,,,,,,■. 

had its spinning-wheels, little and big reel. Boots were unknown I'm- mam years and 

winding-blades, warping bars, made by driving many of the old men never owned a pair in all 

pins into the wall of the house on the outside at their lives while none of tl e younger ones were 

some place where there was no door in the way, fortunate enough to boas! the possession of 

ami their wooden loom. These wen- indis- ' ls till they reached manhood. Boys of fif- 

pensable articles in almost every home, and teen t<> eighteen years of age never thought of 

during the Fall of the year the merrv whirr of wearing anything on their feet except for three 

the wheel and the regular "bat bat" of the loom or four months in the winter, while the nimi- 

was heard to a late hour of the night. Well her who were not so fortunate as In gel them 

dues the writ' r remember, when a little boy, as in winter was by no means small. Roys and 

be lay in the "trundle bed'" at night, of being men often went to church without shoes or 

aroused from sleep, tar on to midnight, of hear- stockings, hut what would the people of today 

in- the "swish swish" of the cards a