USA > Illinois > Brown County > Versailles > A history of the first white settlers in Versailles Township, Brown County, Illinois > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
977. 347 B64h
BOND, B.F.
A HISTORY OF THE FIRS WHITE SETTLERS IN VERSAILLES TOWNSHIP, BROWN CO. , ILL.
(1922 / 1960 reprint
LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
977.347 B64h
JULINOIS HISTORICAL SURVEY
...
A History
of the
FIRST WHITE SETTLERS
in
VERSAILLES TOWNSHIP
Brown County, Illinois
A HISTORY OF THE
FIRST WHITE SETTLERS IN VERSAILLES TOWNSHIP,
BROWN COUNTY.
Published in The Democrat-Message, Mt. Sterling, Illinois, in the summer of 1959, from clippings owned by W. R. Adams of Versailles, Illinois.
The story contained herein is the history of the first white settlers to homestead in Brown County, Illinois. The account was written by B. F. Bond and was published for the first time in the Versailles Senti- nel in 1922, 100 years following the events described.
Printed by THE DEMOCRAT-MESSAGE Mt. Sterling, Illinois 1960
A FIRST SETTLER'S CABIN-This picture was taken from a postcard acquired with other antiques by Miss Bertha Smith of Mt. Sterling. It is perhaps typical of the cabins of the Vandeventer-McFarland families. The picture is captioned "An Early Settler's Cabin in Brown County."
Page 3
HISTORY OF VERSAILLES TOWNSHIP
Preface
Early in the spring of 1901, N. J. Dawson, then publishing The Graphic, a weekly news- paper in Versailles, was solicit- ed by a number of citizens to have R. N. McFarland, the last survivor of that little band of sturdy pioneers who made the first permanent settlement in Versailles township and what is now Brown county, narrate for publication a series of reminis- cences of those early days as he saw them, realizing that his knowledge of these interesting events and incidents in the lives of our first settlers should be recorded in some manner in the history of the township for the benefit of coming genera- tions.
Mr. McFarland at that date was in his 83rd year, yet his mind and memory were as fer- tile as ever and nothing gave him greater pleasure than a re- cital of the adventures, hard- ships and incidents that daily went to make up the lives of this brave little band of Empire builders. Mr. Dawson entered heartily into the plan and Mr. McFarland immediately con- sented to give a full recital that would cover everything con- nected therewith that might prove of interest to the readers of that paper.
25 Noc 60 Bro-kg
Accordingly a purse was rais- ed to cover any expense that might occur in trips to the scenes of early historical points and in procuring data, etc. It was also agreed between Mr. McFarland and Mr. Dawson that I should accompany Mr. McFarland, write his narrative as he told it and assist in put- ting it in form for publication.
We spent a full day in the late spring of that year for this express purpose in the Vande- venter settlement and there Mr.
1 McFarland pointed out to nie the sites of the first cabins, early trails, Indian camps, etc.
With a recital of those early times, that to me was so vividly interesting, that at times I be- came so intent in his story that I would forget my part of the program and would stop writ- ing. After our return from this trip, I spent that evening until after midnight writing his nar- rative just as he told it. I did the same the following night and on the third night I read my notes to Mr. McFarland and he and I made such corrections as suited him. We had several meetings following this and I had, at the last reading with him completely filled a large tab of soft paper with his re- cital of these events and were it all printed now would make several lengthy newspaper articles.
Following this for first one reason and then another, we neglected "our narrative." Busi- ness reasons prevented me mak- ing another trip as "Uncle Nel- son" suggested and with the ad- dition of several pages would at different times when he would spend an afternoon with me in the post office that winter, our "historical narrative lay dor- mant, although we frequently talked of and planned for our next trip, we never made it. The Graphic suspended or changed hands and "Uncle Nelson" subsequently entered in- to his final rest.
The notes I preserved, and long after Mr. McFarland's death, or when Mr. Hedenberg and myself were engaged in our Souvenir Edition of The Sen- tinel, I discovered I had mis- placed them. Although every effort was made to locate them at that time, not until the sum- mer of 1922 were they found among a box of old papers. Dates of some incidents have become dim from age and mil- dew and a few names almost obliterated, but in preparing this article I will only attempt to give the parts plainly legible
2
Page 4
HISTORY OF VERSAILLES TOWNSHIP
and as were actually related to me by Mr. McFarland and at the different times we were en- gaged in preparing them.
Respectfully, B. F. Bond.
"We're Off"
A single horse and buggy from the livery barn was pre- pared for us and with a well filled lunch basket, a spade, a hoe and ax, taken by Mr. McFar- land, (Uncle Nelson, as I ad- dressed him), left Versailles bright and early on a beautiful morning in late May, 1901, to spend the day among scenes and surroundings made histor- ical by the first white settlers of what is now Brown county. Uncle Nelson was as a school boy as the spirited horse took up a brisk trot that was to carry us on our day's outing.
As we were descending the Vandeventer hill, Uncle Nelson commenced his narrative. "Right there," he pointed, "stood the first log school house and over yonder by those big trees in the meadow, is where Dr. Isaac Vandeventer built his first cabin and just around that, while we were engaged in a barn raising early in the spring of 1832, Black Hawk, the In- dian chief, paid us a visit." But he added, "Let's let all this go. We'll take a trip down that road the next time past the Hambaugh, Stone and Root set- tlements. I want to start
our story at the old cabin."
But still he couldn't refrain from pointing out places of in- terest, for we had just crossed the bridge over Camp creek when he said, "Right over there is where they buried 'Indian Tom,' yes sir, and they buried everything he owned with him. They even led his pony into the grave they had opened and knocked it in the head and it fell dead upon the
body of old 'Indian Tom' so he could have it for use in the 'Happy Hunting Ground'."
We now soon reached the Vandeventer school house where we unhitched our horse from the buggy and tied him to graze and prepared to spend the day on "the actual spot," as Uncle Nelson termed it, where stood the cabin home of Brown county's first white families.
Locating the Cabin Spot
"You follow on this flat up south of the grave yard," he said as he commenced the as- cent of the hill leading to the Vandeventer cemetery. He stop- ped at the stone marking the first grave in Brown county. Suddenly he called, "Go on East to that little clump of trees and stop."
He returned to the buggy and came to where I was standing with a spade in his hand. He quickly turned over a few shovelsful of earth, and there lay the outlines of the oid hearthstone of the Vandeven- ter-McFarland cabin erected in the spring of 1824. "I knew ex- actly where it stood," he said as he dropped the spade and found a seat on a grassy ledge and gazed silently across the newly plowed fields to where the blue mist from the old Illinois river arose to mingle with the rays of the morning sun.
Memories
For full five minutes he sat thus while memories of the misty past, no doubt were crowding his every thought.
"Old scenes bring back old memories, Uncle Nelson. Think only of the happier ones and you'll be happy in telling them," I said.
He was a boy again in an in- stant. "Proverbs say The mem- ory of the just is blessed.' Where will we start?" he re- plied.
Page 5
HISTORY OF VERSAILLES TOWNSHIP
"You came from Ohio. Let's tell of the trip out here and who made up your party, or weren't you born in Kentucky" "Yes," he replied, "I was the oldest of our family and was born in Harrison county, Ken- tucky, April 1, 1818, and I was only 612 years old when we reached here. But I can re- member many things that hap- pened before we left Ohio and I know I can remember every- thing that has happneed since," he stated with a happy laugh.
"Alright let's start from Ohio." "Cornelius Vandeventer and my father, William McFarland, were brothers-in-law; they mar- ried sisters, Elizabeth and Susan Myers. Well, they made plans in the fall of 1823 to
come West, bring their families and locate on the lands then open- ing for settlers in this state. It was agreed that my father and family were to come through overland and bring the stock and stop and spent the winter where Springfield now stands and Cornelius and family were to come by the way of the Ohio river and spend the winter with relatives in Shawneetown and join us in the early spring in our hunt for land. My father died that winter and left my mother with four young chil- dren, myself the oldest. So when Cornelius and family
earthy effects. He again cross- ed the river at Naples and the path followed across the river bottom, winding around the bluff to our cabin. It seemed an end- less journey. The oxen could at times only move with the joined us the next spring, it was decided best to leave us a'l wagons in the heavy soggy ground. At times the prairie grass would come way up on our wagons and several times we saw wolves dart across our way. there until he and his three oldest boys could come and lo- cate the land, put in a corn crop, build a cabin, and come back and get us. They did this and when they reached Naples or Columbia, it was called then, and stood on the high river bluff just this side of the present town of Naples, the settlers there told them where there was vacant land and directed them to this place.
"They found the six acres right here fronting us had been cleared and the charred logs of
a cabin that had burned right
on the spot where our first cabin stood. This improvement had been started the year pre- vious by a man by the name of Shepherd, a squatter, who had either been killed by the In- dians or gone off and left it. Well, at any rate they finished clearing this six acres, put in corn and built the cabin. They tended this crop and made as many improvement as they could and came back to where we
were near Springfield late in June. By the time Cornelius could make a trip to Edwards- ville to file on our land and re- pair the wagons and make
ready to return, it was the
fourth of September when all was in readiness for us to leave Springfield to take up our
abode in this little cabin in the wilderness with no neigh- bors, no friends, and prey pos- sibility for the Indians or wild beasts of the forest.
"Cornelius Vandeventer in a one horse wagon and leading a horse behind, led our caravan followed by two ox teams drawing the wagons with our two families and our little
"As we reached the heavy timber where we were to cross Camp Creek, we could see the Indians. Two Indian boys on a pony passed us in opened-eye wonder, as we approached the others,' they hid behind trees and in the underbrush. Several Indian bucks came toward us with their hands extended in welcome. We were all pretty badly excited when we reached
Page 6
HISTORY OF VERSAILLES TOWNSHIP
our cabin and many of the chil- dren were crying The women asked Cornelius if the Indians that greeted him were some he had met on the previous trip. He replied that he didn't know, all Indians looked alike to him. "But the cabin reached, all hands were soon engaged in un- packing the wagons and making ready for our first night in our little homes in the western wilds. Cornelius was surprised and happy to find everything unmolested, the corn crop a promising yield and as he told the women, 'Not an Indian track in the field'. He fully be- lieved all would be well."
"Our cabin was well made, but it had only one door and no windows and I think back now and wonder how we man- aged that first year. There were nine in Cornelius Vandeventer's family and my mother and her four children made 14 in all crowded into the 14x14 one room cabin, but we made it somehow. "Well, we were here, and after a good night's sleep we were all up the next morning bright and early, we children out the first thing to see if we could see the Indians and we didn't have long to wait. The women had washed some of our garments and hung them around on the bushes and the first thing we knew several Indian bucks were there in- specting them, and one fellow, we soon found out was the big chief, made known they wanted the buttons on the garments. They were made to understand they couldn't have them and presently they all left for camp. That afternoon here came their squaws, some of them carrying papooses, and by this time other garments were out for drying that had big bright buttons on them and it was hard work to keep the squaws from taking them.
"This Indian camp was down on the river at the old mouth
of Camp Creek where they would stay through the summer and when cold weather came or the river commenced to rise they would move back to the ravines along the bluff. Well, we soon got used to the Indians. While they were awful beggars and a terrible nuisance some- times, we put up with it be- cause we had to for they were our only neighbors you know.
"Cornelius, the boys and the women worked hard that fail getting things ready for the winter; shelter had to be pro- vided for the stock, the corn gathered and all things made ready for cold weather. I re- member hearing the older ones talk about how they dreaded the first winter. While it was a cold one for a time, it wasn't a bad winter and we got through it in good shape. We found plenty to live on, wild honey, more than we could use, all kinds of game and we lived on the fat of the land.
"We had made big plans through the winter what should be done the next spring and summer, and oh, my, how everybody did work. Well, Cor- nelius and the boys even the women working in the clearing every day they could the first winter, but when spring opened up it was from daylight till
dark. We expected other whites would come from the East that year, but none came. Some passed through but went on to Missouri.
Dies on the Way
"One evening in the month of April, a man and a woman driving a one-horse wagon and leading another horse behind, drove up to our cabin and said they wanted to camp there for the night. The woman was sick and our women folk wanted her to sleep in the cabin, but she claimed she was used to sleeping in the wagon and pre- ferred to do that rather than
Page 7
HISTORY OF VERSAILLES TOWNSHIP
trouble our people. In the night the man awoke us and said his wife was very sick. They car- ried her in the house and she died before daylight. Cornelius and her husband made a rude coffin and they buried her up there on the hill. The man re- mained for two or three days cutting a marker out of stone to place at her grave, but none ever came afterward to visit her grave. And there she sleeps, for- gotten I suppose, but only one of the many who lost in the bat- tle for life and a home in the then western wilderness."
As we sat there, Uncle Nel- son, living again those days then 77 years past and gone, I noticed the men were "turning out" of the fields below us for dinner and when his attention was called to the fact, he was as ready as myself to adjourn for lunch.
Before The Days of Volstead
We returned to our buggy and gave the horse his feed and water and went for our basket of lunch. While Uncle Nelson was busily engaged in prepar- ing a table on the ground, on which to spread our midday re- past, I was engaged in inspect- ing the grub basket prepared for us by the restaurant people, found therein a long necked bottle that I was, at first, at a loss to know as to what it con- tained. Thinking perhaps that "Uncle" had ordered it, I called to him: "What's in the long bottle Uncle?" "I'm sure I don't know," he replied, adding he never was able to tell what was in a bottle until he had sampled its contents. I lifted the cork, telling him
it looked like whiskey and tasting it, notified him it tasted like it; and passing it on to him, he sampled it, and said he believed it was and how he laughed. "The boys have put it in for an appetizer and to brighten our wits, but we'll touch it lightly," and when we
had finished, we had enough of the lunch and also the ap- petizer left for supper and we voted then and there that we would stay and drive home in the cool of the evening.
Taken Prisoner by the Indians
"One morning in the summer of 1825, we found our cabin surrounded by 15 or 20 Indian bucks and several more came marching Cornelius and the boys out of the field. They took us all, men, women and children to their camp down at the mouth of Camp Creek. None of us knew what had happened but realized that something out of the ordinary had and the women and we children were almost frightened to death. I guess if the truth was known Cornelius and the older boys were also badly excited.
"When we arrived at their camp, they put Cornelius and Elihu in two canoes and took them across the river and land- ed on Eagle island. They left them there and came back and took the two other older boys. By this time we were mighty badly excited because my mother and aunt were crying and so were most of the chil- dren. But they were not gone long before they brought them all back to this side of the river and our men told there was a dead Indian lying over there under a tree and they wanted to suspect that some of our people had killed him.
"They kept us there all day with nothing to eat; some of the squaws did offer the women folks food but they refused it. Cornelius nor none of the older boys knew what to do. The In- dians wouldn't talk, but were careful to keep us all enclosed in the circle they formed, chat- tering and grunting the live long day. Cornelius noticed and spoke to us about it that the Chief was not there and he seemed at a loss to understand this. But
Page 8
HISTORY OF VERSAILLES TOWNSHIP
late that afternoon he returned when the bucks all gathered around him and told him what happened. Then commenced the same precedure that had taken place that morning. Cornelius and the three boys were again taken across the river. They
were away about the same length of time, but we could tell before the returning canoes hit the river bank that the mystery had been cleared because Cornelius and the Chief were talking and Cornelius was smil- ing and waved his hands at us. As soon as they landed he said, "Come, let's go," and when we were out of sight of the Indian camp he told us the story.
"He said when the Chief saw the dead Indian he stepped back and looked up the tree, then he went forward, taking the dead Indian's head between his hands, he twisted his neck and grunted. Then he called to the other Indians and pointed to a dead squirrel in the forks of the tree under which the dead In- dian lay, at the same time telling them that he had shot
that squirrel, it had become lodged and that he had attempted to climb the tree by a dead grape vine that was still hanging
from the branches. This had broken and he said he had fallen and broken his neck. That in short, was 'his verdict,' and that was what had happened. That Chief made a friend of us all right there and he never asked for a favor at our cabin after that day but what he got it.
"This Indian chief was no doubt then, or had been, a prominent man among the In- dians. He was a Kickapoo, for he told Cornelius that he was one of the twenty-three Indian chiefs who had signed the treaty at Edwardsville in July, 1819, only five years then be- fore we came, ceding over 12 million acres in Illinois to the government. This treaty was
made at Edwardsville and this tract comprised the finest lands within the state, including all the prairies of the central part of the state, the Kickapoo's favorite hunting grounds, and which they claimed as their property by descent from their ancestors and by reason of in- terrupted possession of nearly sixty years. That these Indians signed this treaty under pro- test was evident by the bitter- ness with which this Chief told in his native way the proceed- ings that took place and led up to the evacuation. These 23 chiefs and their warriors with their plumes, beads and paint acting for their tribes, reluctant- ly made their scrawls and marks that forced them to give up
their homes and hunting
grounds forever to the hated whites, all for the sum of less than one-third cent per acre with the additional promise of lands beyond the Mississippi.
"I remember the chief better than all the other Indians," Uncle Nelson continued, "Not because he was chief-one thing maybe, he saved our lives -but there was something about him that made you like him, and at times fear him. He was the ugliest Indian I ever saw or the ugliest man for that matter. The Indians called him (name obliterated), translated in our language means 'Scare the World" and he was ugly enough to do it. I'll tell you more about him when we come to where Isaac Vandeventer build his cabin.
Some of The Hardships
"Of course our settlement was all covered with heavy timber, just like the thickets you have seen in the river timber, or some of it was like that. To clear this land seemed like an endless job and when it was done, there were the stumps to contend with and then to try to plow it 'with
Page 9
HISTORY OF VERSAILLES TOWNSHIP
a yoke of oxen' and a wooden mole-board plow in a patch of ground that would average from 100 to 200 stumps to the acre and that's not counting deaden- ed trees left standing in the patch. But down there along this bluff, around the edge of this prairie, it wasn't as bad as that.
"Land along these bluffs on the edge of this river bottom prairie was covered with a heavy growth of grass and weeds that in places grew so tall and rank that a man on horse back could hardly see over it and in places covered with flowers of every hue of the rainbow.
"Great fires swept these bot- toms almost every fall the In- dians told us. No doubt the In- dians set those fires to run out the wild game. This would des- troy all the vegetation and leave the ground blackened and char- red and no doubt, was the cause of these low lands having no more timber on them as these fires would extend into the for- ests hereabouts, burning the un- der bush, but for no great dis- tance, for one could hardly penetrate far into the timber when we first came here for the trees and brush were covered with grape vines. Virginia creep- ers, trumpet vines and wild ivy binding and tying the trees
and undergrowth together mak- ing it so dark and well nigh im- possible to work your way through any distance."
Wild Fowls and Animals
"These impenetrable forests and patches of underbrush fur- nished protection to the many wild animals that inhabited this country then. There were plenty of deer lots of wolves, panthers and wildcats, foxes, badgers, coons, oppossums, otters, minks, muskrats, skunks and varments such as these by the thousands; and snakes, the country was alive with 'em."
"How about ducks and geese,
Uncle Nelson?"
"Say, they were SO thick when you would scare them up down there in some of the marshes that when they raised up to fly, they made so much noise it sounded like a thunder storm; and wild pigeons, oh my! oh my! thousands and thousands of them. Would you believe it that sometimes when they came to their roosting places in the evening, they would alight in such swarms that they would break the limbs of the trees. Yes, that's the honest fact. But
pigeons weren't thicker than mosquitoes and all kinds of in- sects. My! My! I'll tell you Fred, the mosquitoes made life the sec- ond summer almost unbearable. Why some nights we wouldn't get a wink of sleep, particularly if the weather was warm and the air was damp. Smoke wouldn't stop 'em then, no sir; and the green flies, oh how they would cover the horses and oxen in the fields. Many's the day I have trudged along with a big willow brush fanning them off as the boys drove the oxen to the old mole board plow. And the first roll of mosquito net- ting we got, we did make that stretch out and cover a lot of sleeping quarters. No, that was many years before screens were ever dreamed of and a good many years after we came.
End of the Second Summer Death Comes to the Cabin
"The second year's harvest promised an abundant yield, corn, flax and vegetables, and we could look forward to the coming of the winter without so much dread and apprehen- sion. The summer was drawing to a close and it had been one of utter toil. We had all suffer- ed some sickness more malaria than anything else, until my Aunt Lizzie, Cornelius' wife, took sick. No doctor in miles of course then and only home
Page 10
HISTORY OF VERSAILLES TOWNSHIP
remedies. There was real sadness around this cabin then, for my mother and Cornelius realized the chances were all against her, and they couldn't hide their anxiety from us children when my poor mother moaned 'Oh, for neighbors and help now.' But I look back and wonder how they stood up under some of the trials they were called upon to under- go; it required a strong heart, yes indeed. But death came to our cabin on Sept. 5, 1825. My aunt passed away on that date and sadness and grief reigned upon us for days and weeks. They buried her up there just above the cabin, with only the members of our family about her open grave. She was the first to go, but others followed with- in the next few years. But here n the wilderness, it was a struggle with life and death al- ways, especially in those early years. But the winter was com- ing and all preparations were made to meet it and we car- ried our grief and were ready for it when it reached us."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.