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HISTORY OF BETHANY
Bethany, Illinois 61914
ILLINOIS HISTORICAL SURVEY
BETHANY WELCOMES YOU'
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The United States of America is celebrating it's Bicentennial in 1976. Bethany and Marrowbone Township has contributed much to the history of central Illinois in the past 100 years.
The Chamber of Commerce of Bethany decided to place Bethany's fine history in print to celebrate the Bicenten- nial. The Chamber is a diverse organization in member- ship. The business community as well as farmers, factory workers, housewives, and concerned residents are among the membership.
The Chamber members displayed a unified effort in making this book possible. The membership would like to thank all of the people who donated information and pic- tures. Special thanks go to Glenn Austin and Ruth Suddarth, who amassed the information needed for this book.
Gary Himstedt Chamber of Commerce President 1975
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977, 3675 Sco 84 h
A HISTORY OF BETHANY written by Jim Scott Published by Bethany Chamber of Commerce
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This book is dedicated to the forward-looking citizens of Marrowbone Township, both past and present, who have made Bethany a good place to live-and to rear children.
And my special thanks to all the persons who helped me in the preparation of this book.
-Jim Scott
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Chapter 1 The History of BETHANY
By Jim Scott
"We cannot escape history, we will be remembered in spite of ourselves."
-Abraham Lincoln
The Village's Genesis
Bethany in 1977 observed its Centennial, a hundred years of tranquility, marred only by four wars, which cost the lives of many of its young sons.
And that was the way the founders of the village en- visioned it: an agricultural community of quiet and happy contentment.
And, as the nation turned into the 1970's, when crime, wanton destruction and dissension rocked the cities of the land, Bethany remained true to its heritage, a haven for law-abiding citizens.
"The people I want to hear about are the people who took risks."
-Robert Frost
And, at the inception of Bethany, everyone was taking a risk. The land lay rich and inviting for crops, but equip- ment in those days required much muscle and endurance.
Throughout the 19th Century, the pioneers and their families continued to trek to Central Illinois from the crowded East and Southern states. In 1818, the Rev. D. W. McLin settled in Illinois. He organized the first regular congregation of the Cumberland Church in the state. At a camp meeting in 1819, Joel F. Knight was converted, and he later preached for the Bethany congregation.
There were many hardships in the formative days of the town. A great blizzard swept through the Eastern half of the United States in 1888. A far worse storm ravaged Moultrie County in 1830-31. The early settlers suffered un- told hardships for they were totally unprepared for it. The
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snow started falling the first of December and continued most of the winter. For weeks, the settlers were buried in their cabins. And their cattle perished of cold and starva- tion.
And a depression hit the Midwest in the early 1890s. In 1894, Jacob S. Coxy led 20,000 unemployed Midwestern men into Washington April 29, seeking jobs for all.
But inventions were opening up opportunities in the new nation. In 1894, Thomas A. Edison gave his kinetoscope to the public in a showing in New York City.
Automobiles began to appear across the land as the 20th Century dawned, and a motor car first crossed the nation, from San Francisco to New York, between May 23 and Aug. 1, 1903.
By 1915 you could talk coast-to-coast, thanks to the in- vention of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson.
The sweet smell of the countryside, and hum of the bees and the birdsongs cheered the first arrivals in Bethany in the 1820s. Many of the newcomers had only recently ar- rived from Europe, and they had complete faith in the in- scription on the Statue of Liberty, viz:
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free . . . the wretched refuse of your teaming shore . send these, the homeless, tempest- tossed to me. . I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
John Deere, a former Vermont blacksmith, in 1837 in- vented the steel plow that knifed through the sticky Illinois soil. He set up a plant at Moline to manufacture it and called it "The Prairie Queen."
Together with Cyrus Hall McCormick's reaper, manufactured in Chicago, it revolutionized agriculture. But it would be years before the Marrowbone farmers could afford one or both.
British soldiers took over Illinois in 1765. But, in 1778, George Rogers Clark and his 175 riflemen, came down the Ohio River to recapture the territory for the United States.
In 1829, the Black Hawks attempted to rally all the Western Indians into a confederation to stop the ad- vance of the Whites. The result was the Black Hawk War in 1832 that drove the Indians from Illinois.
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In 1818, Illinois joined the Union as the 21st state with Kaskaskia as its capital. Moultrie County was created Feb. 16, 1843, Marrowbone Township, Jan. 22, 1867.
Jacob McCune, a New Yorker, who was one of the heroes of the War of 1812, moved to Moultrie County in 1828 with his two eldest sons and their families. They soon en- countered a friend, John Wilborn, who had a cabin near Bethany.
In 1829, McCune and Jones Daniels were hunting along a creek in Marrowbone Township, as it later became known. At dusk, they lighted their campfire and feasted on venison roasted over the fire. After eating the meat, they broke the bones and consumed the marrow.
The next morning, as they prepared to leave, Daniels asked: "What shall we call this camp?"
McCune, looking around at the scattered bones, replied: "Let's call it Marrowbone!"
And that was Bethany's first name.
McCune died Aug. 16, 1866 and was buried in the Cam- field Cemetery, east of Kirksville.
When the first settlers arrived, there were still Kickapoo Indians around. They were friendly to the whites. But, as more settlers arrived, the Kickapoos, disliking crowds, pushed farther west.
After Marrowbone became the name of the township, G. W. and T. P. Logan got up a petition to change the village's name to Bethany, which they had read about in their Bible and the name was adopted.
Wild sounds were heard by the pioneers in those early days. Animals galloped over the prairie; the cry of hounds and of the wolf were heard as they pursued the deer; the gobble of the wild turkey in the spring; the crack of the rifle bringing down a deer or a turkey or killing rattlesnakes; the crack of the whip as two oxen hauled a big load of hickory wood; the thud of the flax-brake and the hum of the spin- ning wheel.
Abram L. Keller, arriving in 1832, killed 132 rattlesnakes in breaking 10 acres of land.
F. M. Perryman's dogs chased a bear off his holding in 1830. Finally the men chasing after the bear were able to shoot him.
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Andrew Bone and Elias Kennedy were the first families to arrive in Marrowbone, driving their wagons in from Tennessee in 1828. Kennedy's daughter, Elizabeth W., was born in February, 1829, the first birth in the township.
William C. Ward and his son, James, brought their families to Marrowbone in June of 1830. William Thomason and Allen Perryman soon followed.
The fall of 1830 saw the arrival of Jesse A. Walker from Kentucky, John Warren and Daniel Pound, both from Tennessee.
Bone was the first to go seriously into farming. He also constructed the first horse mill in Marrowbone in 1832. Bone died in 1835 and was the first to be buried in the cemetery east of Bethany.
Before year's end, Thomas D. Lansden, George Baxter and James Fruit and their families arrived from Kentucky. Fruit was a man of culture and he practiced medicine.
Robert Law built the first house in Bethany in 1834. In 1836, he also put up a horse mill and sold it immediately to A. N. Ashmore.
Lansden, who had been with Andrew Jackson at New Orleans in 1812, built the first blacksmith shop in the township. Lansden also built a water mill for William Foster in 1837.
George Thomason opened the first store in Marrowbone in 1840. The first steam saw and grist mill were built by John A. Strain in 1850, the machinery coming from Alton by wagon.
In those days, there were no bridges over streams. So enterprising young men began operating ferries.
In June. 1850, Thomas Young paid $2 for the rights to operate a ferry on the East Fork of the Okaw River. He was allowed to charge 5 cents to carry a single person, 10 cents for a horse and rider; 25 cents for a wagon and a pair of horses.
Near the ferries, taverns sprang up, where the weary traveler could get refreshments.
In 1857, a group of Irish Catholics migrated to Marrow- bone. In 1863. Father Vaught met with a number of Celts in the home of Edmund Brasman, three miles north of Bethany. and organized a Catholic congregation. The next year, they built a church near the site of the first meeting.
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Abram Souther put up a sawmill on the banks of the Okaw, run by water power, and he cut considerable lumber for the community.
In those days, land was cheap. It could be bought from the U.S. at $1.25 an acre. So farmers bought up all they could afford. Few farms were rented. At the death of the owner, the land was divided among his sons.
The first supervisors representing Marrowbone Township were John A. Freeland, 1867; William McGuire, 1868-1873; A. R. Scott, 1873-1875; T. Crowder, 1875-1877, and A. R. Scott, re-elected in 1877 served until 1880, followed by W. P. McGuire.
McGuire had two interesting meetings with Abraham Lincoln. The first occurred when he was only 16, and was involved in helping slaves of a local man run away. Brought to trial, he was defended successfully by Lincoln in what was the first decision by an Illinois court on slavery. McGuire later was a county delegate to the Republican State Convention held at the Wigwam in Decatur when he and others first suggested Lincoln as a candidate for President.
Many big families had arrived in Bethany. In January, 1838, at the age of 31, Robert Crowder, a farmer, brought his family from Missouri, including his wife, Barbara, and eight sons and two daughters. Robert, Jr. was killed in the battle of Chickamanga in June, 1863, and another son, Andrew, was slain in the siege of Vicksburg in the same month.
David Strain and his son, John, arrived from North Carolina in October, 1831. David soon became a justice of the peace. In 1832, came James Roney and sons, Joshua and Robert, from Kentucky, as well as George Mitchell. U. N. Kutch, a legendary hunter, killed 18 deer in his first three weeks in Bethany. He also had a taste for honey and often found as many as four bee trees a day.
In 1855, John Bushert, 33, and his wife, Catherine, came to Bethany from Ohio. Successful in farming and stock raising, he purchased a small farm in 1887 and erected a large home in which he retired in 1889. They had seven children.
John J. Freeland and his wife, Mary, arrived from North Carolina in 1856, the parents of five sons and six daughters.
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In 1882 the four sons of Jacob and Mary Wilkinson es- tablished the firm known as Wilkinson Brothers, dealers in lumber, tile and coal.
In 1869, Joseph H. McGuire, 33, of Tennessee and his wife, Mary, a native of Germany, came to Bethany to engage in the grocery business. He had served in the Union Army through the entire Civil War. In Bethany, he served as justice of peace for 16 years and later was in the fur- niture business until he was appointed postmaster.
Many families arrived between 1880 and 1885, some of them with 10 children.
Dr. J. D. Livesey, coming in 1854, became Bethany's first physician. He built a frame dwelling and storehouse, and, in partnership with Tomas Sowell, opened a general stock of goods for sale. This was the first frame building and it later was used as a wagon shop by Lantz and Mitchel.
The next frame house, put up by William P. McGuire, in April, 1857, was later owned by H. A. Smith. McGuire built another store in 1864 of brick, two stories, and later sold it to Thomas Noble.
Business in Bethany began to hum in 1880. Here were the stores at that time.
General store-A. R. Scott, A. H. Antrim.
Groceries-E. Hampton.
Restaurant-R. Hampton.
Harness-Edward Stables & Sons.
Furniture-J. G. Smutz.
Undertaker-C. C. Creech.
Wagon shop-Lentz & Mitchel.
Lumber and coal-G. W. Logan.
Blacksmith-McCord, Strain and Materson.
Shoe Shop-R. B. Utterback.
Barber Shop-E. Norton.
Butcher-R. Hampton.
Grain dealer-T. P. Logan.
Physicians-E. A. Pyatt, F. F. McMennamy.
Stock dealers-Scott and Little; J. McGuire.
Livery stable-Robert Lanum.
Carpenter Shop-Smith & Lansden.
Brick yard-William Mitchell.
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Soon another busy business was started in Bethany by Jacob Keim, who sold cemetery monuments for some 30 years.
Bethany has always been a most patriotic town. In the Bethany Cemetery, there is a monument that says: "This township furnished more soldiers for the Union Army in 1861 than it had voters. Of the 200 who enlisted, 58 were killed or died of sickness.
Soldiers Monument in Bethany Cemetery
The Robert Crowder family was especially hard hit by the Civil War, losing two of their sons.
And brother fought against brother in the Freeland fami- ly. Thomas J. and Capt. John Andrew Freeland's brother, William J., was a captain in the confederate Army who died in the war.
The horrible Andersonville Prison experiences of Dr. David L. Davidson of Todd's Point may have influenced him to study medicine.
At least, the end of the war brought two well-known doc- tors to Bethany, Dr. George Washington Hudson and Dr. Pyatt, both from the South, Hudson from Tennessee and
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Pyatt from North Carolina. However, Dr. Hudson was a Union doctor, serving with Sherman's troops on their march to the sea.
In World War I, some 75 joined the armed forces from Bethany and five perished.
While in Bethany in the summer of 1975, I tried to get the complete list of those killed in all wars, but none was available. In World War II, many died in foreign lands or on ships at sea and no record has been kept.
Bethany was well-organized even in its infancy. In 1877, when there were 321 living in town, the village board was composed of J. F. Knight, president; Andrew Bankson, David F. Kennedy, S. H. Sanner and B. F. McMennamy, trustees; G. T. Neill, clerk.
By April 28, 1888, the board was enlarged. Joseph H. McGuire was president; H. A. Smith, W. P. McGuire, Teague Ray, R. B. Wheeler, C. C. Creech, G. W. Logan were trustees; George T. Hill, was treasurer, and Bethany had added John W. Fortner, as constable, and Abner Ken- dall as street commissioner.
A relaxed atmosphere seems to grip Bethany in the hot summertime, especially was it so in the early days. Even the engineer on the freight trains passing through Bethany then would pull to a stop after sighting wild berries along the right-of-way, and he and his brakeman would get out and pick a sackful.
Horses seemed to have more fear of rattlesnakes than did the settlers.
Kutch was riding his horse through the prairie one day when he came upon several rattlesnakes. His horse rose on his hind legs in terror, as Kutch shot the snakes.
Next morning he was taking his young son on a ride on the same horse. While he was adjusting him in a rear seat, he let one of his long reins drop across the horses side. The horse apparently mistook it for a rattlesnake and reared up, spilling both Kutch and his son.
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Chapter 2
How People Lived and Dressed in Pioneer Days
As Moultrie County became more prosperous, bridges gradually replaced the ferries, as it doubled its population in the decade of the railroad boom, 1850-1860.
The majority of the early Marrowbone citizens were of southern stock, and they brought with them the habits of hard work, rough play, simple living, easy hospitality. Although most of them were poor, their poverty did not carry the sense of degradation known to the poor today. In those early days, it was hard to tell the poor from the rich.
The new settler brought with him the sharp axe and the rifle, indispensible to life in a new country, and, often, lit- tle else save seed for the first year's crop and a few household articles. His first labor was to erect a cabin, crudely made of logs. It was usually 14 by 14 feet square, and was often built without glass, nails, hinges or locks. Light for the cabin would be provided by leaving out a log along one side, and stretching over the opening sheets of strong paper, well greased with coon grease or bear oil. This type of cabin, of course, prevailed only in earliest times, before the saw mill came into being.
Horses were not much used at first except for riding. The common draft animal was the ox. In many instances, the carts and wagons, as well as the hoes and wooden plows, were made by the settler, who was his own carpenter, wheelwright and blacksmith.
The furniture was as primitive as the house itself. The tables and benches were made from puncheons with stakes driven in at the four corners for legs.
The bedsteads were made by lashing side poles to forked sticks driven into the earthen floor of the cabin and laying cross poles over them, on which were spread the feather beds, the home-spun sheets and coverlets and the quilts pieced together from scraps of women's dresses.
The table utensils consisted of a pack knife or butcher knife and some wooden spoons and vessels. The women made nearly all the clothing worn by the family from cloth spun and woven from homegrown cotton, flax and wool.
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Every house had its spinning wheel and loom.
In those primitive days, the settlers came over trails used by the Indians in going to and from their hunting grounds, and they in turn followed a path worn by the hooves of buf- falo and deer. These trails followed the contours of the land, crossing the stream where the fording would be easiest.
John Whitley, who arrived in Moultrie County late in 1826 with his wife and six sons, three daughters and a son- in-law, were all great sportsmen and kept a number of thoroughbred Kentucky race horses. Gambling in general seemed to be the chief diversion of this period.
The Waggoners, a family of German origin, established themselves in Whitley Creek. One of the sons, John, taught school, and, after moving to Sullivan, took over as publisher of the county's first newspaper.
Once several settlements were established, the problem of communications arose. By the time Moultrie County was created, a rudimentary road system had already been established in Shelby and Macon Counties.
The Commissioners' court of Moultrie, at its first meeting, in April, 1843, divided the county into 13 road districts and appointed a supervisor for each. At the same time, it was ordered that every able-bodied man would have to work on the roads in his neighborhood for four days.
In the 1830s, the settlers felt that the prairies were an un- cultivatable desert. The horrendous fires that swept over them in the fall when the grass was tinder-dry also was a strong deterrent. And there also was a lack of timber for buildings and fences. But the main problem was the dif- ficulty of breaking the tough prairie sod with the clumsy wooden plows. But this was gradually overcome as the farmers became affluent enough to buy the right machinery.
Transportation received a big help in 1851 when the Illinois Central, chartered by the state's General Assembly, was given 2,595,000 acres of land. The grant was in the form of six miles on both sides of the rail right of way.
The branch of the Illinois Central that ran through
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Bethany was first known as the Peoria, Decatur and Evansville, a consolidation of earlier companies, and was completed from Decatur to Mattoon in 1871.
The taxes paid by the railroad became an important part of the county's income. In 1880, the assessed valuation of the railroad property in Moultrie was $275,600. The railroads reached their peak in 1930, and after that they declined in importance.
Mothers and daughters of early settlers, after the sheep were sheered, marked, carded and spun the wool into yarn and then weaved it into material for bedclothes, dresses and other garments, according to Mrs. Raymond Scheer.
"Largely, women wore dark woolen clothes in winter," she said. "Some high school girls wore pastel colored cashmere blouses, called shirt-waists, for graduation, and they shocked a lot of people. They never had seen light colored clothes before.
"I remember one year a poor girl and a rich girl were in the same graduating class. The poor girl's mother could not afford light-colored fancy dresses that was then in style. So the poor girl said she would not graduate.
"So the rich girl, feeling sorry for the poor girl, said she wouldn't graduate, either, so that year they had no formal graduating exercises.
"In the early 1900s, we had women who worked for the public as dress-makers, such as Mrs. Mollie Hudson, Mrs. Mame Morrison, who married Mr. Lunsden, and Mrs. Roe (Mollie) Hogg. And a few continued with it much later un- til it became largely a task of alteration.
"We also had weavers of rag carpets, such as Mrs. Jim (Janie) Butts and Mrs. Mahan. They would tear up rags and sew them together then wind them into balls. Thus they had a reserve when someone wanted a carpet.
"Most of the colors were blue and white, but often other colors were added when available.
"The carpet was woven a yard wide and to the length of the room. The lengths were then sewed together. To wash the carpet, they would rip the strips apart and wash them. When they were dry, they would be sewed back together. Some put straw under their carpets for added warmth. Later, old newspapers were used.
"They also had a carpet strecher. The carpets would be
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tacked to the floor."
Mrs. Scheer leaned back into her rocking chair, and lifted her eyes as if the wondrous past was flashing before her and continued:
"Milliners later became most popular. I remember Mrs. J. A. (Anne Bone) Walton was one of the good milliners before 1890.
"They particularly enjoyed trimming hats. They would go to Chicago to a millinery school for two weeks in the spring and fall to learn what the new styles were.
"Logan's Department store had a large millinery depart- ment and always had a trained milliner from out of town to make or trim hats.
"Every woman had a summer and winter hat. A milliner could make an old hat look like a new one by adding flowers, ribbons, (velvet in winter) plumes and feathers and, sometimes, a buckle.
"I'm not sure when the milliners went out of business but I had a hat in 1912 made of straw (blue and white) over a wire frame."
Mrs. Scheer remembers many things that shocked the young town. For example, John Oliver Logan, 14, died of a heart attack after he was thought to have scarlet fever.
Babies started out in long dresses. Boys wore a "waist," a coat-style shirt but with broad starched collar. Near the bottom of the waist was a circle of buttons, to which the pants were attached. Stockings were always black and ex- tended above the knees, where they were anchored by a garter.
Children and milady always wore high buttoned shoes, and a buttonhook was always kept handy. Men worked in high leather boots, to protect themselves from snakes and sprained ankles. For work around the barn, they wore high rubber boots. In winter, they were felt lined for warmth.
Men also wore overalls and coarse blue shirts for outdoor work. For indoor work, ties were always ready-tied four-in- hands. In winter, men and boys wore woolen caps with flaps to pull down over the ears. In summer, they favored broad brimmed straw hats. The well-dressed man sported Derby hats on Sundays.
Cellars of nearly every home were always crammed full of Mason jars of peaches, raspberries, plums, gooseberries
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and tomatoes. In spring, housewives brought in lettuce, radishes, onions, peas, string beans, carrots, beets, cab- bage, cucumbers, squash and potatoes from the gardens.
The farmer took his wheat to the mill in Bethany to be ground into flour. Pancakes were a special breakfast treat, prepared three at a time on a big griddle. And there always was a nearby farmer who raised a little sorghum for syrup. Chicken not only provided eggs for breakfast but also a delicious Sunday noon meal.
Hogs were often butchered by the farmers. A big kettle full of water was placed over a fire outdoors. When the water boiled, the hog was hoisted by block and tackle, after being killed, and lowered into the kettle to be scalded so that its hair could be scraped off. Then the carcass was dis- membered. The hams, shoulders and bacon went to the smokehouse to be cured, spareribs were made ready for dinner. The lard was rendered in the kitchen and the rest of the good meat made into sausage. This was packed into gallon crocks, used for milk.
Crowder's in Bethany handled most of the calves. The butcher made the rounds of the town with his fresh meat twice a week.
Ice cream was always a Sunday treat, as well as for special parties. Mother mixed the cream, sugar and eggs and then father pushed the ice and rock salt into the freezer and, when it was filled, turned the crank until the ice cream was frozen.
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