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HISTORIO MORGAN
LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
977. 346 E a 6 cop.2
TELIMOIS HISTORICAL SURVEY LIBRARY
..
10-
HISTORIC MORGAN
AND
CLASSIC JACKSONVILLE.
COMPILED IN 1884-85 BY
CHARLES M. EAMES,
"Editor and Proprietor of the Daily and Weekly Journal,)
WITH INTRODUCTION BY
PROF. HARVEY W. MILLIGAN, A M., M. D.,
OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE.
ILLUSTRATED.
JACKSONVILLE, ILL .: PRINTED AT THE DAILY JOURNAL STEAM JOB PRINTING OFFICE.
1885.
BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF THE CITY OF JACKSONVILLE, LOOKING EAST FROM COLLEGE HILL.
NOWYHAL
THIS BOOK IS
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
TO THE MEMORY OF
THE OLD SETTLERS OF MORGAN COUNTY.
BY THE COMPILER.
4
HISTORIC MORGAN AND CLASSIC JACKSONVILLE.
PREFACE.
I am reminded by the date of these final words, as the last form of "Historic Morgan" goes to press, that just a year has passed since, in a quiet way, I began the pleasant, self-imposed task of gathering material to supply, of course, "a long-felt want." The Journal files, extending back a quarter-of-century-not quite one-half the time, I wished to cover by an unpretentious historic compilation-occupied attention for months, and then came researches into other newspapers, stray copies of old-time Patriots, Sentinels, etc., records of societies and public meetings, interviews with the few surviving rescuers of this fair portion of Illinois, from aboriginal owners, rudeness and wild, un- broken prairie condition. Written recollections of early times claimed due considera- tion next. Encouragement came from the "Old Settlers' Associations" of Morgan and Cass and the "Jacksonville Historical Society." The material accumulated rapidly, for the field was fruitful, and the work grew more fascinating as it progressed. The size of the volume does not, to a casual observer, indicate extensive contents ; but when the size of type used and the "solid " character of many pages are properly considered, even without perusal, the examiner will realize that a vast amount of information is contained in its fourteen chapters. There has been no attempt at ornate writing, no space wasted in opinion-giving, and we lay no claim and take no credit for authorship. The lionor of painstaking in research and collecting, and faithfulness in chronicling all the noteworthy steps in the sixty years' progressive history of "my own, my native" city and county, the credit of publishing the most complete and accurate compilation of historical notes pertaining to "Old Morgan," is all that I ask of the present or future readers of the volume, if the work should have more than a transient existence.
One fact will, I hope, be evident, viz., that there is nothing of a money-making or advertising character to the editing or publishing of the book. Of course many enter- prises and individuals have been complimented, but no pecuniary consideration has biased a single line or sentence. Even the illustrations of business houses were insert- ed gratuitously, that there might be no charge of "paid puff" connected with the book. I am well aware, too, there must have been some omissions and possible misstatements, as it is absolutely impossible to furnish a perfect history of long past times with meager resources at command. My original plan, of strict chronological order from first to last, had to be abandoned, on account of the late securing of material bearing upon early times.
Due acknowledgement is made elsewhere of my indebtedness to various persons and papers for valuable aid.
It will be observed that I have made no attempt to follow up the history of the towns of the county, except Jacksonville, since the date of the incorporation of that place. I have not had access to the necessary information.
" My task is done."
" The torch shall be extinguished which has lit "
"The midnight lamp; and what is writ is writ."
"Would it were worthier !"
JACKSONVILLE, March 31, 1885,
THE COMPILER,
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HISTORIC MORGAN AND CLASSIC JACKSONVILLE.
7
E
INTRODUCTION.
Every community is born into an inheritance. This inheritance may be one of vir- tue or one of vice, of prudence or of folly, of health or of disease, of wealth or of poverty. The possession of wealth, health, prudence or virtue, or of an inherited ten- dency to secure those blessings, involves an obligation to those from whom such in- clination comes; while poverty, or vice, or folly, or disease, or even a tendency to those conditions, connects us no less intimately with our predecessors.
How may we cancel this obligation which has come down to us from the past ? Our ancestors are not here. If they were they would need no pay from us. But they are careless alike of praise or blame, of profit or of loss. It only remains to us to pay their heirs, who, fortunately, are also our heirs.
By what means shall we pay this debt to posterity ?
We may do this by informing those who are to come of the causes of present and past prosperity. We may show them that man in his political and social relations is subject to laws which are as imperative as the laws of the physical world. We may tell them that the greatest individual liberty which is consistent with the good of soci- ety must be allowed. We may prove to them that individual production of wealth must not be checked. We may declare that intelligence is one of the greatest causes of prosperity, and that morality and piety exalt any people. To enforce and illustrate such teachings we may refer to the contents of this volume.
We should also tell of the mistakes of the fathers to the end that similar errors may be avoided. Show that neglect of education postpones prosperity, that intemperance increases taxation, that natural obstructions to trade diminish profits, that unprofitable industries destroy wealth, that debt discourages enterprise. By such teachings, both in the way of encouragement and of warning, in things industrial, social, political, intellectual, moral and religious, we may, perhaps, cancel the debt we owe to our ances- tors by conferring a favor on posterity. To this end," Historic Morgan" is a means.
The following pages also have the advantage of teaching these principles by exam- ple, which is the most effective method of conveying truth. When we read that the Morganian Society, founded in 1823, and consisting of one hundred and twenty-five persons, adopted a constitution containing these words: " It is the declared design y and intention of this society to promote the public good by using all honorable means to prevent the introduction of slavery in this state," we feel little surprise that, forty years later, u citizen of Illinois, from the National office in Washington, should have signed the Emancipation Proclamation. What reform of political methods, or what { attainment of political good is impossible to a community which organized a Mor- 2 ganian society, and sustained an Abraham Lincoln ?
As we read in these pages the romantic and thrilling story of the " Regulators of " the Valley," we are reminded that justice is the end of society, and law is but one of
6
HISTORIC MORGAN AND CLASSIC JACKSONVILLE.
its means ; and that, in the emergencies of a new country, a short cut to the end may be both allowable and advisable.
It is hard for us, who order through a telephone, from a mile away, flour of the finest of wheat, to realize that sixty-five years ago, the nearest flour-mill was eighty. five long miles away. It is just as difficult to conceive of Huram Reeve's blacksmith- shop, or of Roe & Webster's grist-mill, or of the substitutes for cassimeres and broad- cloth, which, only three generations ago, our fathers and mothers made and wore.
It is bewildering to compare our present methods in agriculture with those de- scribed in this book. Our planters, our cultivators, our reapers are not only sources of wealth, but their invention constitutes our titles of nobility. But the log cabins, the linsey garments and the hand grist-mills were for our fathers as clear a title to as proud a nobility. Their industry and frugality, as herein portrayed, laid the foundation of our wealth and leisure and culture.
There are economical lessons to be learned from " Historic Morgan" concerning the development of manufactures among us. From the data given we may learn the fol- lowing principles : 1st, That a successful industry must have unsurpassed facilities for obtaining raw materials. 2nd, It must command a market second to none, for its manufactured goods. 3rd, It must be able to compete successfully with all other places in cheapness of labor. If, in the aggregate of these three elements of produc- tion, Morgan should fall behind other counties, it is inevitable that manufactures should fail here, and that the money invested should be lost, Unless we wish to be continually leaving our money into bottomless coal-holes, or wasting our wealth upon moribund car-works, we must heed these principles, and their illustrations as found in this volume.
And here also the record comes to our aid to show us what enterprises are profita- ble,-for that there are profitable industries here, five flourishing banks bear witness.
As we are living history, day by day; so also must we daily record that history for the benefit of posterity. " Historic Morgan" as it now appears, should be but the beginning of a series of recorded events to which some future historian, with a broader horizon than we behold, shall furnish the key. Without this record, enlarged and continued as it will be, a true history, showing the relation of causes and effects, would be impossible, and to a great degree past and present generations would have lived in vain. With it, posterity can profit both by our successes and by our mistakes. With it as data
"They may discern-unseen before-
" A path to higher destinies."
Let us greet then " Historic Morgan" as a means of utilizing the past for the bene- fit of the future.
H. W. MILLIGAN.
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HISTORIC MORGAN AND CLASSIC JACKSONVILLE.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. 1819-'24.
The First White Settlers-The Original Log-Cabins-The Explorers from New York- First Ground Broken -- Birthplace of Methodism in Morgan-Sixty Miles to Mill- An Anti-Slavery Society in 1823 - Itx Constitution and Signers-The County Cre- ated The First Birth and First Death, First Sermon and First Sunday-School- The First Courts and Elections According to Judge Thomas and Gen. MeConnel- Old Time Justices Judge Lockwood, Col. Joseph Morton, Judge Solomon, Uncle Johnny Jordan-Recollections-Beardstown and Meredoxia Founded. Page 9.
CHAPTER II .- 1819-24 .-- Continued.
"The Regulators of the Valley"-A Tragedy in Real Life-A Chapter of the Dark Side of Pioneer Days in the Mauvaisterre Country-Captain Pistol-The Wild Hunter- The First Grace on the Banks of Magee's Creek-The First Settlers of Cass-Sales of Public Lands in 1823-Venison, Blackberries and Milk. Page 20.
CHAPTER III .- 1819-24 .-- Concluded.
Covering the same Period as Chapters I and II, but with Greater Detail. Annals of the Earliest Years in Morgan, ux Published in the Illinois Sentinel in 1867, by J. R. Bailey, now deceuxed, and rouched for in 1884 by Huram Reeve, Esq., the oldest male resident of the county now living therein-Log Cabin Raising-Meal Grinding in Hand-mills-Honey Hunters-The First Tarern, Bridge and Steamboat-Greene and Sangamon County Settlements. Page 27.
CHAPTER IV .- 1825-29.
The Infant Town of Jacksonville-Locating the County Seat-The Early Settlers Arriv- ing-Churches, Schools and Colleges Founded-Judge Thomas' Arrival and Experi- encex-The Winnebago War-County Officers- Liquor in the Harvest Field-The First License-Recollections of early timex by Dr. Sturtevant, Anderson Foreman, John R. Harney, Murray McConnel and Judge Samuel Woods-First Court House, Jail and Poor Farm. Page 41
CHAPTER V .- 1830-36.
"College" and "Academy" Chartered and in Full Blast-Faculty and Graduate-Wed- dingx in Ye Olden Tyme-The Black Hawk War-Methodist, Presbyterian and Episcopal Church Growth-Old Settler's Testimony as to Business, Transportation, ('rime, de .- The Deep Snow and the Quick Freeze. Page 68.
CHAPTER VI .- 1837-'43.
The First Seeret Societies-Prospering Schools and Churches-Crime and Criminals- The Earliest Railroading in the West-The Incipient Wabash-County and Town Officers-The First State Charitable Institutions. Page 93.
CHAPTER VIL .- 1844-57.
Illinois Provides for her Deaf and Dumb, Blind and Insane-Illinois College Fire- Illinois Female College Founded-Arrical of Portuguese Colonists from Madeira- "The Forty-Ninerx" Start for California-City and County Officers-Church and Secret Society News-The Mexican War Volunteers-Death of Col. John J. Hardin -"Phi Alpha" Founded-The Northern Cross Railroad. Page 114.
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HISTORIC MORGAN AND CLASSIC JACKSONVILLE.
CHAPTER VIII.
Devoted to Politics in Old Morgan-The Early Political Career of Hon. Richard Yates-The Election Returns in 1856-Rocking the Cradle of Liberty in the West- Lovejoy, Beecher & Co .- " The Underground Railroad" had a Station at Jackson- ville, Conductors Snedeker, Irving, Henderson, Spencer, and others, Directors Wolcott, Reed, Carter, Willard, Melendy, et al .- Old Time Abolitionists-Forma- tion of the First Republican Club in the Nation-The "Free Democracy" of 1853 -The Missouri Compromise Discussion, Prince, McConnel, Dickens, Adams, Sturtevant, et al. Page 133.
CHAPTER IX .- 1858-'65.
The Business Men-Institution Appropriations-Churches and Preachers-Colleges and Sabbath Schools-Criminal Cases-Local Journalism-Epitomes of News -- "Just Before the Battle"-Grant's Regiment-Recruiting for the Union Army- The Pension Roll. Page 151.
CHAPTER X .- 1866-'73.
Jacksonville Incorporated as a City-Conservatory of Music and Oak Lawn Retreat Founded-City Waterworks Constructed-The Murder of Gen. McConnel-Mur- der Trials-New Societies-School for Feeble Minded. Page 171.
CHAPTER XI .- 1874-'80.
A Glance at what Jacksonville was Ten Years Ago-A City of Churches, Colleges, Schools and Benevolent Institutions-Also a Business and Manufacturing Center of Present and Prospective Importance-Literary and Aesthetic Societies-Munici- pal Statistics-Public Improvements-A live Railroad Point, a good Stock Market, a Great Place for Marrying and a Place where some People die-The Original Gar- den of Eden, with all the Modern Improvements. Page 192.
CHAPTER XII .- 1881-'84.
The Present Condition and Prospectx- City and County Officials-Churches and Schools -Criminal-Meteorology of 1883, Including the Disastrous Liter Tornado-Realty and Personal Property Values-Manufactures-Public Improvements. Page 209.
CHAPTER XIII.
Composed of a Series of Appendices-The Kelloggs and their Cabin-Postal Facilities in the Thirties-David Manchester's Life-Death of Dr. Willard with a Sketch of his Life-Reminiscences of 1837 by Miss Fayerweather-First Things by Anderson Fore- man-History of the Baptist Church-Roll of Honor of Old Settlers-The Pioneer Sewing Society-Its Benevolent Work-The Jacksonville Library-Mere Mention- Graphic Sketch of Judge John Leeper-Coming West Fifty Years Ago-A few Manufacturing Interests-School Matters in 1833-Correction of Errors, by Dr Sturtevant and the Compiler-Jacksonville News 1854-'59. Page 235.
CHAPTER XIV.
Cass County since the Separation from Morgan-Its Officials und Legislators-Laying off' of Towns-Modern Virginia-Its Officers, Schools, Opera Houses, Etc .- Sketches of Old Settlers-"The Three Mile Contest"-Population Growth. Page 271.
CHAPTER XV.
Biographical Sketches, with some Portraits of Prominent Citizens of Morgan County, including many now numbered with the deud. The Pioneers, the Cattle Kings, the Educators, the State Officials, the Politicians and the Business Men, such as Strawon, Alexander, King, Smith, Gillett, Carriel, Phillips, Bullard, Morrison, Duncan, Kirby, Tanner, Bailey, Yates, Glover, Turner, Thomas, Sturtevant, Morse, Short, Sanders, Moore, Tomlinson, Munroe, et al. Page 281.
HISTORIC MORGAN
AND
CLASSIC JACKSONVILLE.
COMPILED IN 1824 BY
CHARLES M. EAMES,
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR OF THE DAILY AND WEEKLY JOURNAL.
CHAPTER I .- 1819-'24.
The First White Settlers-The Original Log-Cabins-The Explorers from New York- First Ground Broken-Birthplace of Methodism in Morgan-Sixty Miles to Mill An Anti-Slavery Society in 1823-Its Constitution und Signers-The County Cra uted-The First Birth and First Death, First Sermon and First Sunday School- The First Courts and Elections According to Judge Thomas and Gen. MeConnel -- Old Time Justices-Judge Lockwood, Col. Joseph Morton, Judge Solomon, Unele Johnny Jordan-Recollections of Old Settlers-Beardstown und Meredosia Founded.
"Should auld acquaintance be forgot And never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forget And days o' lang syne ?"
S early as 1818, when the now great commonwealth of Illinois was admitted into the Union, most of the white inhabitants of this then emphatically Prairie State lived south of a line between the months of the Wabash and Illinois Rivers. That year Seymour Kellogg_ who was born on the 21st of March, 1779, and died April 13th, 1827-moved from New York State to Illinois. He had been in the war of 1812, and was familiarly known as Col. Kellogg. In the fall of 1819, with his brother Elisha, he moved to near the head of the Mauvaisterre, and thus, to the best of the knowledge of any living "oldest inhabitant," the Kellogg brothers became the first white settlers of Morgan. They built their log-cabin-the pioneer home in this county on the land later owned by Col. Samuel T. Matthews, in township 15 N., range 9 W. A grand-son of Elisha Kellogg afterwards married Mary Chamberlain and is now living at Santa Barbara, California. Another grand-son married Fannie Foster of this city.
10
THE FIRST CABIN HOMES.
Mrs. Asenath K. Mundy, daughter of Seymour Kellogg, writing from Brighton in 1879, says of her father and their frontier home :
"He then built a log cabin, clapboard roof and ground floor and no doors or win- dows, and twenty miles to any neighbors. Indians, wolves, wild turkeys and hogs were all around us. He stayed there one winter and came near freezing to death, having gone with two yoke of oxen twenty miles for a load of corn. A severe snow storm came and losing his way he lay out one night, and turned his oxen loose. They found their way home. Search was made at once by an uncle, who came out with us and my brother then 13 years old. They found my father with his feet frozen and had hard work getting him home, where he laid for months unable to walk. That spring we moved west of Jacksonville, near the creek. We caught fish from the Mauvaisterre, that ran over the prairie out near the high mound, where Mr. Strawn located a beauti- ful place. My father was appointed State surveyor, and he laid out the towns of Jack- sonville, Exeter, Naples, Beardstown, Meredosia, Perry, Griggsville and many other places. He kept the first store of Exeter, was P. M., J. P., and held other positions. While living at Exeter he went to St. Louis for goods, going in a wagon, for there was no rail in those days. One week after arriving there he was buried from the residence of Mr. Charles Collins, his son-in-law. * *
X * * * * The first preaching in Morgan county was at our house. The first school taught was by my sis- ter in a log cabin without any doors or windows, in 1821."
In January, 1820, the Kelloggs entertained three explorers from New York, David Berdan, (father of Judge James Berdan,) George Nixon, and Isaac Fort Roe ; and sold them corn for their horses, which had been wagoned from Madison county. Then there were neither churches or schools. People lived in tents and cabins. There were no roads or bridges, and most of the land was held by the general government. The man who settled on it did so at his peril of being tried for trespass. People risked considerable in those days, but no jury would find for the government in such a suit be- cause they thought the government should sell the land. The army was small then, and couldn't be sent to remove settlers.
On the 12th of October, 1819, an emigration society, organized in the city of New York, had appointed the three pioneers named above, a committee to explore the wes- tern states and select homesteads for its members. They left that city on the 15th of October, crossed the Wabash at Vincennes on the 26th of December and arrived at St. Louis January 1st, 1820, passed and named Diamond Grove, January 23d, in which Mr. Roe selected a place of residence, and in February he built a log cabin, in which he re- sided until his death, October 12, 1821, aged forty-eight years. He was the son of the Rev. Doctor Ozel Roe, of Woodbridge, N. J., and was never married. The county of Morgan has since removed the remains of Mr. Roe, as the first person who died in the county, to the Diamond Grove Cemetery, and placed a monument on the grave. The city of Jacksonville donated a suitable lot.
The venerable Judge Thomas, of our city, says that he has "often heard Jeddediah Webster, a soldier in the war of 1812, who had passed up the Illinois River to the mouth of the Mauvaisterre in the keel boat with his family, say, that he assisted in building the first log cabin in the county, (referring to this built by Roe.) Whilst at Kellogg's these three pioneers learned that a man named Stephen Olmstead was en- gaged building a shanty at the point of timber, afterwards called Swinnerton's Point. They employed him to pilot them to the mouth of the Mauvaisterre-there was a deep snow then on the ground-then passed from Kellogg's around the head of Mauvaisterre Creek to Diamond Grove, thence to Swinnerton's Point, and then following their pilot they set out for the Illinois River. After reaching the timber and hills south of the Manvaisterre, their pilot said he was lost, that he could not recognize the locations around him-they then returned to the shanty, where they remained until the next day, and from thence returned, by way of Kellogg to the head of Lick Creek, and from thence to Edwardsville."
The ranks of those who date back their residence in Morgan county "before the deep snow" are sadly thinned. Still fewer in number are those who can celebrate the "gollen" anniversary of their location upon these prairies. Remarkable, then, was that social reunion, in 1877, of the Reeve family, the dining together of six out of a family
11
THE SETTLERS OF 1820.
of nine, who came to this "neck of the woods" in 1820, fifty-seven years previous. The party consisted of Messrs. Lazarus, John, Isaac and Huram, and Miss Keren Reeve and their sister, Mrs. Martha Reeve Crain. It was at the house of the latter that they met and recalled the days gone by. Only three of the family now are living.
One of the little company tells us that in 1820, when Isaac Reeve, Sr., came to this locality with his wife and nine children, the county boundaries covered what is now Madison and all that lies between that county and this, and was called Madison. In coming, the party followed an Indian trail, they being about the first white people to track the prairies between what is now Alton and Jacksonville. They drove ahead of them, all the way, a sow and her shoats and two cows having bells upon them that they might not be lost in the wild woods. Reaching here a halt was made, their property dumped upon the ground, while Mr. Reeve, Sr., started at once to return to Edwards. ville for provisions. With the second load he brought a blacksmith's bellows, anvil and hammer. The former was swung between two saplings, a tree was felled and an anvil block made of the stump, logs were rolled up for the furnace and thus they began life in "Old Morgan." This first blacksmith shop was of great service to the emigrants, who began to settle in this region, for the sharpening of the plows with which the virgin sod of the "Prairie State" was to be upheaved. All provisions then had to be hauled one hundred miles.
Of Mr. Reeve's place of business, Rev. N. P. Heath has said in an historical address:
"It was a mammoth structure, as big as all out doors. Talk about your modern watch factories, and reaper factories, why the outside walls of Reeve's blacksmith shop extended as far as the lines of creation, to say nothing of the interior arrange- ments. This shop was the first for some time, and the only one in the county, in fact, it embraced all the county and more too. This soon became the headquarters of the county Here, like the Athenians of old, the settlers would meet from all parts, in order to tell and hear the news, and I have been informed that the first post office was opened at or near this place. And, from all that I can learn, they only lacked one thing of having a full grown town out on Sandy, and that was a doggery. However, the size of the blacksmith shop may account for that deficiency."
The first ground broken in the county for purposes of cultivation was in the spring of 1820. We have been furnished with the following names of persons who settled in the county during that spring: John Wyatt, William Wyatt, Isaac F. Roe, Jeddediah Webster, Isaac Reeve, James B. Crum, Isaac Dial, Thomas Smith, James Deaton, Robert James, Jesse Ruble, Ancil Cox, Joseph Buchanan, Samuel Scott, Isaac Edwards, Arch- ibakl Job, Stephen Olmstead, Michael Arthur, James Buckley, Aaron Wilson, Isaac Smith.
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