USA > Illinois > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson County, Illinois, 1810-1962 > Part 1
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LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
977.3793 H67
WIINAIS HISTORICAL SURVEY
ILLINOIS HISTORY SURVEY- - LIBRARYY
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
http://archive.org/details/historyofjeffers00cont
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS
FAYETTE
JAPPH
BOND
MADISON
CLAY
CLINTON
MARION
ST. CLAIR
WAYNE
WASHINGTON
JEFFERSON
RANDOLPH
WHITE
FRANKUN
MT. VERNON
MALLINSON
SALINE KAUST
UNION
JOHNSON
POPE
MASSAC
CONTINENTAL HISTORICAL BUREAU
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY ILLINOIS 1810 -- 1962
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Compiled by CONTINENTAL HISTORICAL BUREAU Mt. Vernon, Illinois 1962
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INTRODUCTION
It has been a great pleasure, as well as quite an extensive task, to compile and edit this "History of Jefferson County, Illinois" for you. May we make a few remarks before you start reading it?
First, we should say that we feel that you may want to "browse through" this volume rather than to read straight through it. If you do browse, you will find a complete index in the back of the book in which there are place names and names of persons who have been mentioned. You may find one of your ancestors, a beloved friend, or even yourself in here! We did not compile this book by ourselves-it is an anthology rather than the work of a single person. One person could not do a book of this nature in his lifetime. He must have help, and let us say right now with great emphasis that we did have help. Many, many persons and organizations were instrumental in the writing of this book. You will find their names with the articles and sketches throughout the book-except that some modest persons who wrote the histories of their churches on organizations did not wish to take the credit to themselves and would not sign their names to their contributions and would not so much as place their return addresses on the envelope in which it was mailed.
You may find that your church on organization is not included. We advised everybody we saw and even advertised in the Mt. Vernon Register- News that histories of churches and organizations would be included free of change. We waited as long as we could before printing. However, people were becoming anxious to receive their books, and we finally de- cided to go ahead without them.
You will realize, we are sure, that in an effort of this scope there is chance for typographical error, though we have carefully proofread every page. There is also possibility that we on one of our contributors may have misspelled the name of some person on place which is very important to you. If this has happened, please change it to human error, as this certainly would never have occurred in any other way.
And now, enjoy yourself!
CONTINENTAL HISTORICAL BUREAU Mt. Vernon, Illinois
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EARLY HISTORY
In the year of 1818, Illinois, the "Prairie State, " was admitted to the federal union. Following this in the organization of political subdivisions came the organization of counties, townships, cities and villages.
The County of Jefferson was organized in 1819, a few months after Illinois became a state. The new county which bone the name of the author of the Declaration of Independence was to contain sixteen townships.
The next majon step aften establishing the boundaries of the county was to decide where the permanent seat of justice was to be. The decision that was to be made was to be permanent. The founding fathers decided that the capital of the newly organized county was to be where the city of lit. Vernon, Illinois, is now located. The indi- cations are that those who were responsible for the establishment of Jefferson County were fan-sighted, quick to act, and were "on the ball," so to speak.
It will be interesting to know that Jefferson County was organized much sooner than many of the other countries in Illinois. Marion County, which borders Jefferson County on the north, was not organized until 1823, five years after Congress had admitted the new state. This fact strongly indicates that the pioneer families of this anea were keenly interested in the formation of local government and quickly realized the necessity of converting a virgin community that was accustomed to noving Indians into a civilized society that would provide a haven for the new white settlers.
Mount Vernon has had two names. Founders of the newly established hamlet were desinous of giving their new town a name that in their opinion would sound beautiful, and they first named it "Mount Pleasant." The center of the hamlet was located on the summit of a slope, and it is believed that this is where they conceived the idea of using the word "Mount. " The slope mentioned is the Location of the Jefferson County Court House.
The name of George Washington has always been popular with the American people, and he is the idol of many. Following the War for Independence, the "Father of His Country" and his home at lit. Vernon,
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the Union occurred December 3, 1818; the County of Jefferson was organ- ized larch 26, 1819, a period of 113 days later. The official beginning Of lit. Vernon took place June 7, 1819, seventy three days after the organization; it was only 186 days after the state had officially been admitted to the Union until it. Vernon was officially born.
The procedure took place in the following mannen: After Illinois became the twenty-first state of the federal union and the legislature was in legal functioning onder, an Act of the Legislature was passed liarch 26, 1819, which created Jefferson County. The Act also provided for five Commissioners to select a permanent seat of justice and to designate it as such. These Commissioners were appointed! by the Legislature instead of the citizens of the county. The five who were authorized were; Ambrose Moulding, Lewis Banken, Robert Ship -. Ley, James Richardson and Richard Graham.
The Act was nathen specific in its provisions. It even pro- vided that the commissioners were to meet at the home of William Casey, a local resident of the new community. The house of William Casey, then, was the place where the King City had its official birth. Casey had offered to donate twenty acres of land to be used for the new seat of justice, and this acreage was to be sold in lots for the development of the new community. In the event the owner of the land did not make his proposed donation, the Commissioners were to seek land elsewhere for this purpose, but it was to be in some location that would be con- venient for the inhabitants. This new governing body did not have to seek land elsewhere, as Casey gladly made the donation of the twenty-acre tract.
The law set forth that the Commissioners were to meet at Casey's home "on the second filonday of May" to make their important decision of fixing the permanent seat of justice. This historic meeting was held on the designated date, which was hay 12, 1819.
In a country where a democracy is the controlling factor, the people have a night to express themselves and have the right to disagree with their fellow men. There was some disagreement among those who established the seat of justice in Jefferson County. Isaac Hicks wanted it close to him and offered a spot known as "Post Oak Hill." Another location which others thought suitable was between the homes of
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ins. Samuel Casey and a Mrs. Dodd. Lewis Banker, who was one of the Commissioners, was the father-in-law of William Casey, and some of the local residents believed that it was through his influence that the site was selected according to the wishes of the donor. There is no verification of this, and therefore there is to be no reflection on the characters of either Banker on Casey.
PIONEER FAMILIES OF JEFFERSON COUNTY
As stated in another section of this volume, Andrew Moore was the first white person to settle in this virgin territory. Six years later Carter Wilkey, a native of Georgia, came to the Illinois country; and shortly after that, Daniel Crenshaw and Robert Cook came to the same locality. All of these located in what is now libones Prairie Township.
Andrew Moore's cabin had been vacant for a few years, and Crenshaw occupied it. Wilkey was a single man and boarded with the Crenshaw family. Crenshaw began at once to nepain the Moone cabin, and Wilkey planted and grew a small crop. Cook settled a short dis- tance from where Jefferson County's first white burial occurred two years later.
According to records, William Crenshaw (this is believed actually to be Daniel (renshaw) acquired an eighty-acre tract of land from the Federal Government in Section 22 of libones Prairie on Nov- ember 15, 1816. Wilkey and Cook had come to liloones Prairie in 1815 as members of a surveying panty, but had not established residence until the following year.
Barton Atchison came to Moones Prairie in the autumn of 1816 and purchased the crop that Wilkey raised that year. Atchison settled close to where Cook had settled, which is about one and a half miles from (renshaw's new home.
On October 22, 1816, several more people arrived in the new settlement. They consisted of Carter Wilkey's mother, Carter's older. brother, lilaxey Wilkey, and his wife and child. Crenshaw had several cabins, and the newcomers spent the winter in one of these cabins, links. Wilkey was an aunt of lins. Crenshaw.
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l'axey Wilkey and Banton Atchison were veterans of the Wan 00 1012. Carter !ilkey, who was younger than l'axey, also served in the lar of 1012 for a short period; but due to the fact that he was too young for wan service, his mother succeeded in getting him Mischunged from the inmy.
Theophilus Cook, a native of South Carolina, moved with his family to Tennessee after the Revolutionary War and lived in that state until the winter of 1816-1817 when he moved with his family to libones Prairie, Illinois. Cook was mannied to Elizabeth Caldwell who was a native of Newberry County, South Carolina. He served two enlistments during the Wan of 1812, and he took part in the famous battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815.
fins. John Hicks came to Moores Prairie the same time that Theophilus Cook came. Mrs. Hicks was a sister of Canter ilkey and had been living in Georgia. Her husband was standing beside Theophilus Cook when he received his death wound during the battle of New Orleans.
Legend has it that Theophilus Cook and his family settled neon the former Bell Point School. Official records show that he ac- quired several tracts of land in Moores Prairie, but the first land. of which he became the owner of record was in Section Two, April 20, 1839, this land containing eighty acres. Cook continued to live in this area for the remainder of his life and passed away June 15, 1658. It is interesting to know that Cook was born on George Washington's birthday in the year 1788.
Barton Atchison apparently did not acquire any real estate Con about thinteen years after his removal to lisones Prairie. Records show that he purchased the east one half of the southeast quarter of Section 22 on January 26, 1829. This estate bondens the farm on which Andrew noone erected his cabin.
In the spring of 1818 six families made the journey from Tennessee to loures Prairie. They consisted of the families of William l'axey, James C. Davis, James Johnson, Nathanial Parker, John Wilkerson and Henry Burchett laxey. The last named was the father of the first white child buried in Jefferson County and also built the first dwelling house in lit. Vernon. These people came as a colony, which gave them more protection against Indians and other dangers. They loaded their
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wagons and left from William Maxey's home, which was about three miles from Gallitin, Tennessee, on April 20, 1818, and arrived in libones Prairie on May 9, 1818. This colony of people had the sad experience of buying William Perny Maxey, the ten month old son of Burchette l'axey, two days after they arrived in their new Location, The burial of this little child was the burial of Jefferson County's first white person.
Nathaniel Parken did not Like the county and moved to Allen County, Kentucky; but at a later date he moved back to Jefferson County where he spent the remainder of his life.
The Caseys who came to Jefferson County prior to 1820 made their new homes not far from where the King City is located. Isaac Casey and two of his sons, William and Thomas, came in the autumn of 1816 and did some exploring in this vicinity, but they returned to Cave-in-Rock where they lived out the winter. Isaac and some of his family came in the spring of 1817 to make this area their permanent home. Zadok Casey and his family also came in the spring of 1817 and remained. in the Mt. Vernon area until his death. Abraham P. Casey, an older brother of Zadok, came to Jefferson County in the spring of 1818. His son, Clank Casey, came with him and settled west of litt. Vernon on what was known as "ulbenny Hill."
Lewis Johnson, who is mentioned in the history of the Johnson family, came to and settled in Jefferson County in 1819.
There were other people who came to Jefferson County and then moved on to other areas and perhaps others who stayed who have not yet been mentioned, and who will be mentioned later in this book, but the ones mentioned above are the families that are most often credited with being the families that settled in the new county during its formative years and made this their permanent home.
MT. VERNON 1862 = MT. VERNON 1962
One century ago, litt. Vernon, Illinois, along with the rest of the nation, was engaged in one of the world's greatest civil wars. Local customs, social life and many other things were considerably different then, in comparison to what they are a century later. A large number of young men from Int. Vernon and Jefferson County were
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wearing military uniforms and were away from home serving in the armed forces. As is the case in all military conflicts, some of those men did not return to their home community.
"Time changes things, " and inconceivable changes have been made in the King City ant its surrounding area in the last one hundred years. 'le shall attempt to show some of the revolutionary changes that have occurred in this area during that period of time.
The year of 1862 was the second year of the Civil War, and both the North and the South were beginning to see that this was to be a long and bitter struggle,
A century ago the "men in blue" from lit. Vernon and Jefferson County were loading muskets by hand. That was a slow process, and a soldier could only get one on two shots at the Confederate troops, depending on whether he had a single on a double-barreled rifle. Cannons that were used by the artillery were also loaded and fined by- hand; this required several minutes time. Transportation of these heavy weapons across the fields had to be done with horses and mules. As medical science had not advanced, sanitation and hygiene were almost unknown in the armed forces.
Aviation was of course unknown, and wireless telegraphy had not come into general use; radio was unknown and so was the telephone. Therefore, communications were inadequate between the divisions of the troops. However, poisonous gases and "blockbuster" bombs had not come into existence, neither had germ warfare non torpedoes as we now know them. Beyond any doubt, numbers of Jefferson County men who were wounded on taken with disease died as a result of the lack of proper care and medication,
The muzzle-loading rifle and cannon have long since been replaced with fast-loading cartridges and shells that are prepared at the munitions plant and can be fined with greater effectiveness, The grandsons and great grandsons of Civil War veterans are equipped with jet planes, automatic rifles, sub-machine guns, regular machine guns, hand grenades, automatic pistols, intercontinental guided missiles, satellites, and other modern weapons that were unknown a hundred years ago.
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In mentally turning back the pages of time one century, we find the farmers of Jefferson County plowing, cultivating and harvesting fine crops with horses and mules. If the farmer owned a hundred acres of land he was considered a lange farmer and was considered to be a prosperous man.
The roads that the farmer had to travel from his home to his shopping center were made of dirt, often ungraded. During the winter months the roads were either frozen and rough on were knee deep in mud. The summer season saw the dust from the country roads and the town streets several inches deep. When the family drove to church on Sunday, they were sure to be covered with dust before they arrived at the "meetin'" house, on to become stuck in the mud if it happened to have nained in the last day on two. Most of the bridges were built of wood and could not canny much weight, and during rainy seasons when there would be a "gulley washer", many bridges would be completely washed away.
In 1862 such chones as husking conn, harvesting hay, digging potatoes, preparing fire wood for the family heating stove and the kitchen range, harvesting and threshing grain, and many other jobs were for the most part done by hand. Many farmers of Jefferson County drove hogs, cattle and geese on foot to St. Louis to market them. This was a long, and anduous journey which required from a week to ten days to make the round trip ..
A century ago, grandmother on the "hined girl" on both of them did the family washing on the wash board; that was a back breaking job. If the cistern was low and the water had to be conserved for drinking purposes, many times she had to carry water from the creek The family ironing had to be done with hand inons heated on the range. This meant that very few pensons of that day even dreamed of a complete change of clothing every day -- and how can we blame them?
The canning and packing of fruits and vegetables for the family for the following year was done at the home, and this required keeping the kitchen range fined all day in the hottest of weather. Peeling and slicing of fruits to be cooked and canned was performed with the paring knife. Apple butter was cooked in the autumn season in a large cast iron on copper kettle in the back yard, and it had to
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be stirred constantly until finished, a process which took all day and often went on fan into the night. Most housewives demanded that a number of silver dollars be put into the kettle as an aid to preventing the apple butter from sticking to the bottom of the kettle, Just why no other coin would do we cannot explain, except that the dollars were Langen and more easily found when the job was finally done. The handles of the paddle for stirring the apple butten were six to eight feet long -- otherwise the heat of the fine would have cooked grand- mother and the children as well as the apple button.
The school where the youngsters got their "readin', writin' and 'nithmetic" was almost always a one-room building. For"a number" of years the entire school term consisted of a period of five months of learning. At an earlier period, the school term was possibly three on four months of each calendar year. The children walked to school, and the distance was from a few hundred feet to three on four miles, depending on how far the family lived from the school.
During the winter months, many times the pupils had to wade snow knee deep during the school season. In the spring, farm work began before the school term ended, and boys of many families would be required to quit school and assist in putting out the crop. In most communities high school was unknown and colleges were few and often far away.
Sidney Hirons, former County Superintendent of Schools and present principal of the Waltonville High School, states that during the Civil War Mt. Vernon's only school closed down and did not neopen until after the war was over.
Social life in Jefferson County in the early 1360's among the rural people was devoted to visiting, playing checkers, "taf"y pullings, " conn husking bees, play parties at homes (where they played "snap" and similar games so that the boys not yet in military service could kiss the pretty maidens), pie suppers at local schools, sitting around the fireplace listening to grandfather tell some hunting story and in " comparing notes" as to the latest word from the war.
Attending worship services and strict adherence to the religious faith of their choice was a must with most farm families. libst of the churches were of the protestant faith in Jefferson County,
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and there was one in walking distance of nearly every home. Annual revival meetings were a common practice in this area, and in some groups the "protracted meeting" was held in a brush anbon it it was held during the summer season.
As wild game was plentiful in that day, much of their sports life was devoted to hunting and fish ing night in Jefferson County, usually within walking distance of the home place. It was considered great spont to see who could bag the most game in one day and to tell the entire community about one's wonderful skill as a marksman. (Have we changed much in a hundred years?)
Sitting around country stores and discussing politics was very much enjoyed by the local political prophets. Some arguments concerning politics climaxed in ill feelings, in some instances ending in a "free for all" fight. More than one fight started over arguments as to how President Lincoln and his generals ought to conduct the war, and we know of at least one killing in Jefferson County between a Confederate sympathizer and a Union soldier on Leave.
Today, after another century has gone into history, the farmers of Jefferson County have discontinued the use of horse-drawn vehicles and have turned to the motor. The plowing, cultivating and harvesting of crops is done with modern tractors. The average farmer feels that he needs several hundred acres of land to carry on profitable operations. There are many forms that do not have any horses on mules at all, last roads that the farmers of today travel over are "all weather." The buggies and surreys are no Longer used, and passenger cars and trucks have come to replace them, Farm people today can travel any place they desine every day of the year. The dust from country roads during summer has been almost eliminated due to the surfacing of nural roads. The bridges that were so commonly built of wood during grand- father's day have been largely replaced with bridges built of concrete and steel. These structures will carry a much heavier Load and the danger of their breaking down has been almost eliminated. As these bridges are so much stronger, the possibility of their being washed away during rainy seasons is also remote.
Harvesting legume crops in 1962 is performed by fast moving tractors that furnish power for large mowing machines, enabling the
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descendents of the farmers of 1862 to harvest a much larger quantity in the same period of time. Picking conn is done by mechanical conn pickers that remove the back breaking and time consuming job of picking by hand. Few farmers of today use wood for fuel. Most of them heat their homes and cook their meals with coal, gas, oil on electricity.
Livestock are now carried to the central market by motor trucks that make the round trip in one day. The family washing of today is performed with electric washers that take the drudgery out of performing the family laundry, and in many homes the ironing is done with an electric ironer. Drawing water with buckets is a thing of the past and the hand-operated water pump has almost vanished from the scene. The farm home of 1962 is supplied with modern water systems that pump the water to the house, and it is usually heated automatically with electric heaters. A large portion of home canning of fruits and vegetables has been discontinued, as many farmers purchase from groceries the products that have been packed in canning factories.
The nural schools and method of transportation of students have drastically changed since 1862. The one-room school is a thing of the past, as the schools have consolidated, and each school building has several departments. The curriculum has been enlarged, and the school year has been extended. The students are transported to and from school by busses. Modern high schools are within reach of every family, and our people are much better educated than they were a century ago,
Social life now in the rural areas consists of watching television, attending movies, visiting neighbors (though not as much as in grandfather's day), taking trips to distant cities, and in most ways the nunal citizen spends his leisure time in exactly the same way as his " city cousin. "
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