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LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
977. 3793 P42h
Ilinois Historical Survey
HISTORY
OF
JEFFERSON COUNTY,
ILLINOIS.
EDITED BY WILLIAM HENRY PERRIN.
ILLUSTRATED.
CHICAGO : GLOBE PUBLISHING CO., HISTORICAL PUBLISHERS, IS3 LAKE STREET. 1883.
ulver page Boyne22. PRINTERS 18 & 120 MONROE ST
CHICAGO
977.3713 P+2h
PREFACE.
THE history of Jefferson County, after months of persistent toil and research, is now completed, and it is believed that no subject of universal public importance or interest has been omitted, save where protracted effort failed to secure reliable results. We are well aware of our inability to furnish a perfect history from meager public documents and num- berless conflicting traditions, but claim to have prepared a work fully up to the standard of our promises. Through the courtesy and assistance generously afforded by the residents of the county, we have been enabled to trace out and put on record the greater portion of the important events that have transpired in Jefferson up to the present time. And we feel assured that all thoughtful people in the county, now and in future, will recognize and appreciate the importance of the work and its permanent value. A dry statement of events has, as far as possible, been avoided, and incidents and anecdotes have been interwoven with facts and statistics, forming a narrative at once instructive and entertaining.
We are indebted to George M. Haynes, Esq., for his very able history of the Bench and Bar; to Dr. A. Clark Johnson for the history of Mount Vernon, and to other prominent citizens for interesting and important facts and data in the compilation of the work.
NOVEMBER, 1883.
THE PUBLISHERS.
987535
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
PART I.
PAGE. Northwest Territory 1 Early History of Illinois 51
PART II. GENERAL HISTORY.
CHAPTER I .- Introductory- Geology and Its Practical Value-How Thoroughly to Educate the Farmers- Why They Should Understand the Geological Forma- tions of the Land They Till-Age of the Earth Ae- cordiog to the Research of the Geologists-Local Ge- ology-Configuration -Soils and Timber - Minerals and Mineral Springs-Building Materials, etc ......... 101
CHAPTER II .- The Pre-historic Races-Mound-Builders- Their Occupation of the Country-Relics Left by Them-The Iodiaos-Speculations as to Their Origin -Ultimate Extinction of the Race-Something of the Tribes of Southern Illinois-What Became of Them- Local Traditions and Incidents - The Black Hawk War, etc., etc ... 110
CHAPTER III .- Settlement of the County hy White Peo- ple-Who the Pioneers Were, and Where They Came From-Andrew Moore-His Murder by the Indians- Moore's Prairie, and the People Who Settled It-The Wilkeys, {'renshaws, Atchisons, etc .- Settlement at Mount Vernon-Other Pioneers - Ihardships, Trials, Privations, Manners, { 'ustoms, etc., etc ... 121
CHAPTER IV .- Illinois a County of Virginia-Joho Todd, the First Civil Governor- Organization of Jefferson County-The Legislative Act Creating It-Location of the Seat of Justice-First Officials-The Courts-l'nb- lic Buildings-C'ensus-The County Divided Into Dis- tricts-County Officers-J. R. Satterfield -Towoship Organization, etc ... 130
( HAPTER V .- Some of the Pioneer Families of the County -The Caseys-Their Emigration to America-How They Served in the Revolution-Faets and Incidents of Their Residence Here-The Maxeys, Another Old Family-Their Welsh Desceot -Where and When They Settled-The Johnsons-They are ao Old Fam- ily, Too-Something of Them and Their Descendants -Other Pioneers-Iocidents, etc., etc. 142
CHAPTER VI .- The Beach and Bar-Supreme Court-Its Location at Mount Veroon-The Judges of the Same -Breeze and Scates-Other Luminarics-The Appel- late Court-Some of Its Great Lights-Circuit Court- Judge Favner aud Others-Early Cases fried in the Courts-Marshall, Baugh, etc .-- Present Members of the Bar, etc., etc. 153
CHAPTER VII .- Political History-Birth of the Whig and Democratic Organizations-Party Strife and Seramble for Office-Joel Pace, First Clerk of the County-Poli- ticians of the Times-Zadok ('asey-Ilis Life aod Official Services-Gov. Anderson-Sketch of His Pub- lic Career-Noah Johastoo and Other Distinguished Characters-Senators and Representatives, etc .. 179
CHAPTER VIII .- Something More About the Pioneers- Those Who Came In Later-Their Settlement-Game and Wild Animals-Pioneer Ioeideuts-Mrs. Robinson and the Paother-Some Rattling Snake Stories-Fe- quale Fashion aod Dress-Woman's Life io the Wilder- oess-Hard Times, Financial Difficulties, ete ........ 196
CHAPTER IX .- Internal Improvements-Early Roads and Trails-Salive and Walout Hill Road-The Vandalia Road-Other Highways aod Bridges-Railroads-How They Grew Out of the Old Improvement System-Jef- fersou Couoty's Efforts for Railroads-St. Louis South- eastern-The Air Line-Projected Roads, Some of which will be Built, etc ... 203
CHAPTER X .- Educational-Early Efforts at Free Schools -The Duncan Law-Education at Present-Statistics- The Press -- Editor John S. Bogan-First Newspapers- Mount Vernon a Newspaper Graveyard-The Press of To-day-Religious History-Old-Time Christianity- Pioneer Ministers-Churches Organized-Rev. Jeho Johoson, etc. 218
CHAPTER XI .- Agriculture-Its Rank Among
the Sciences-Ilow to Keep the Boys Upon the Farm-Edu- cate Them To It-Progress of Agriculture in the County -Some Statistical Information-County Fairs and Asso- ciations-Officials of the Same-Horticulture-Value of Fruit Growing-Statistics-The Forests, ete .................. 236
CHAPTER XII .- War History-The Revolution and the War of 1812-What We Gained By Them+The Mexican War-Jefferson County's Part in It-Her Officers and Soldiers-The Late Civil War-Sketches of the Regi- ments in which the County was Represented-Gen. Anderson, Col. Hicks and Other Veterans-Incidents, etc., ete ... 245
CHAPTER XIII .- Odds and Ends-De Omnibus Rebus Et Quibusdam Aliis-A Brief Retrospection-Millers and Mills-Blacksmiths and Other Mechanics -Births, Mar- riages, Deaths-A Batch of Incidents-Buck Casey Playing Bull Calf-Donnybrook Fights-Forest Fires- A Runaway Negro-Counterfeiting-The Poor Farm, etc., etc.
264
vi
CONTENTS.
PART III. HISTORY OF THE TOWNSHIPS.
PAGE.
CHAPTER I. - Mount Vernon Township - Description, Topography, etc .- Early Settlement -- Old Surveys and Land Entries A Closer Acquaintance With the Pio- neers -Who They Were and Where They Located - Their Good Traits and Peculiarities-The Selecting of a Site for a Town-Mount Vernon Chosen as the County Seat, etc ..... 275
CHAPTER II .~ City of Mount Vernon-The Laying-out and Beginning of the Town-Sale of Lots-Erection of Pub- lie Buildings-The First Court House-Stray Pound, Gaol and Clerk's Office-Stick Chimneys, Court House Lock, etc .- The Pioneers and First Settlers in the Town -Their Genealogical Trees, etc .. 283
CHAPTER III .- 'ity of Mount Vernon-More About Its Early Citizens - Some Pen Photographs-The Second Court House-Mount Vernon Froid 1824 to 1830-A Few of the Old llouses-Relics of a By-gone Period-More Township Items, and a Triple Wedding-Later Settlers -County Roads-The First Churches Outside of Town, etc., etc ... 290
CHAPTER 1V .- C'ity of Mount Vernon-The Decade From 1830 to 1840-Growth of the Town-New Buildings and New Business-A Look Beyond the Town-Brief Retro- spect-Another Court House -Some of the Business Men and What They Did-Still Another Court House- The Jail-Organization of Mount Vernon Township- Officials, etc. 300
CHAPTER V .- Mount Vernon-Its Religious History-The Methodists, the Pioneers of Christianity in the County -A List of Ministers-The First Church-Presbyterian Church-Baptists-('atholics and Other Denominations -Churches of the Township-Schools In and Out of the City, etc., etc. 310
CHAPTER VI .- Mount Vernon-Town Surveys and Addi- tions-" More Than Any Man Can Number " -- Casey's Addition-Green's, Strattan's and Several Others-The Number of Acres Covered by the City-Municipal Gov- ernment-City Officials, etc., etc. 326
CHAPTER VII .- Mount Vernon-Temperance Movements -Their Good Work in the Community-Village of East Mount Vernon-Mystic Orders -- Masons, Odd Fellows, etc .- Miscellaneous-Which Comprises Fires, Fire De- partment, and Many Other Local Items-Births, Deaths, etc., etc .... 335
CHAPTER VIII .- Shiloh Township-General Description -Topography and Boundaries-Early Settlement-Pio- neer Hardships and l'rivations-Mills, etc .- An Incident -Birthis, Deaths and Marriages-Roads and Bridges- Stock-raising-Schools and Churches-Woodlawn Vil- lage, etc., etc ... 3.44
CHAPTER IX .- Pendleton and Moore's Prairie Townships -General Description and Topography-The First Set- tlors Moore's Prairie a Historical Spot-Pioneer Hard- ships and Difficulties-Early Industries and Customs- Township Officers-Churches and Schools-Lynchburg -Belle Rive and Opdyke-Their Growth, Business, etc., etc .. 352
PAGE.
CHAPTER X :- Rome Township-Topographical and Phys- ical Features-Occupation by White People-Who the Pioneers Were-The Maxwells and Others-Hardships and Trials-Mills and Other Improvements-Township Officers - Schools and Churches - Village of Rome -- Growth, Improvement, etc. 360
CHAPTER XI .- Spring Garden Township-General De- scription and Topography-Settlement of the Whites- Their Early Trials and Tribulations-Roads, Mills, etc., etc .- Schools and Churches-Township Officials-Spring Garden Village-Its Growth, Development, etc., etc ........ 365
CHAPTER XII .- Wehher Township-Introduction and De- scription-Boundaries, Topography, etc .- Early Settle- ment-Pioneer Life and Trials-Pigeon Post Office-A Law Snit-Township Officials-Schools and Churches- Marlow, Bluford, etc .. etc. . 372
CHAPTER XIII-Elk Prairie Township-Topography and Physical Features-Coming of the ' Pale Faces-Inci- dents of their Settlement-Hard Times, etc .- Roads, Mills and Bridges-Schools and Schoolhouses-Churches, etc .- Township Officials-Villages, etc., etc .... 376
CHAPTER XIV .- Farrington Township-General Topog- raphy, Boundaries, etc .- Settlement of White People- Early Industries-Schools and Churches-Township Officers-Villages-Stock-raising, etc. 380
CHAPTER XV .- Grand Prairie Township-Boundaries and Topography-Early Settlement, Hardships of the People, etc .- First Mills and Roads-Birth, Death and Marriage -An Incident-First Voting Place-Township Officials, etc .- Schools and Schoolhouses-Churches, etc., etc ....... 387
CHAPTER XVI .- Mcclellan Township-Introduction and Description - Topography -Early Settlement -Trials, Hardships and Good Times-Pioneer Improvements- Roads, Bridges and Mills-Education, Schoolhouses and Teachers-Early Churches-Township Officials, etc., etc. 391
CHAPTER XVII .- Field Township-Topographical, Geo- graphical, Physical, etc -Settlement by White People- Lite on the Border-Educational Facilities-Churches and Church Buildings-An Incident-Township Officers -Summary, etc., etc ... 396
CHAPTER XVIII .- Casner Township-Topography and Physical Features-Early Settlement-Rough Fare of the Pioneers-Schools and Churches-List of Township Officers-Politics, etc .- Roachville Village, the Chicago of the County, etc., etc ... 399 CHAPTER XIX .- Dodds Township-Description and Topog- raphy-Coming of the Whites-Early Facts and Inci- dents-The Main Settlement-Roads-First Mills, etc .- Early Schools-Mode of Paying the Teachers- First Preachers and Churches-Township Officers, etc., etc ..... 405
CHAPTER XX .- Blissville Township-Description and To- pography-Knob Prairie-Settlement-How the People Lived-Name of Township, and Its List of Officials- Roads, Bridges, etc .- The Village of Williamsburg- Churches and Schools-Retrospection, etc., etc ........ .....
411
CHAPTER XXI .- Bald Hill Township-1ts Geographical and Physical Features-Advent of the Pioneers-Their Trials, Tribulations, etc. - Mills and Roads-Organiza- tion of the Township, and the List of Officials- Schools, Churches, etc., etc .. 416
vii
CONTENTS.
PART IV.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
PAGE.
Mount Vernon-City and Township ..
3
PORTRAITS.
Pendleton Township ..
45
Anderson, W. B. 259
Baldridge, J. C.
115
Webber Township ..
78
Bruce, M. D. 133
Rome Township
78
Carpenter, S. W
169
Dodds Township.
87
Dees, J. A.
187
Blissville Township.
93
Garrison, W. J
205
Spring Garden Township
102
Gilbert, Eli 223
241
Field Township.
119
Hicks, S. G.
151
Moore's Prairie Township.
123
Holland, T. G 295
Jones, G. D. 313
Moss, J. R ... 331
Norris, O. P
349
MeClellan Township.
144
Plummer, H. S.
277
Bald Hill Township ....
147
Sketch of C. T. Stratton
149
Shiloh Township.
62
Grand Prairie Township
111
HIails J. W.
Casner Township
130
Farrington Township.
135
Elk Prairie Township
138
PAGE.
APPENDIX.
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
INCLUDING A BRIEF
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.
W HEN the Northwestern Territory was ceded to the United States by Virginia in 1784, it embraced only the terri- tory lying between the Ohio and the Missis- sippi Rivers, and north to the northern lim- its of the United States. It coincided with the area now embraced in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and that portion of Minnesota lying on the east side of the Mississippi River. The United States itself at that period extended no farther west than the Mississippi River; but by the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, the western boundary of the United States was extended to the Rocky Mountains and the Northern Pacific Ocean. The new territory thus added to the National do- main, and subsequently opened to settle- ment, has been called the "New North- west," in contradistinction from the old "Northwestern Territory."
In comparison with the old Northwest this is a territory of vast magnitude. It includes an area of 1,887.850 square miles; being greater in extent than the united areas of all the Middle and Southern States, including Texas. Out of this magnificent
territory have been erected eleven sovereign States and eight Territories, with an aggre- gate population, at the present time, of 13,000,000 inhabitants, or nearly one-third of the entire population of the United States.
Its lakes are fresh-water seas, and the larger rivers of the continent flow for a. thousand miles through its rich alluvial val- leys and far-stretching prairies, more acres of which are arable and productive of the highest percentage of the cereals than of any other area of like extent on the globe.
For the last twenty years the increase of population in the Northwest has been about as three to one in any other portion of the United States.
EARLY EXPLORATIONS.
In the year 1541, De Soto first saw the Great West in the New World. IIe, how- ever, penetrated no farther north than the 35th parallel of latitude. The expedition resulted in his death and that of more than half his army, the remainder of whom found their way to Cuba, thence to Spain, in a famished and demoralized condition. De Soto founded no settlements, produced no results, and left no traces, unless it were
2
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
that he awakened the hostility of the red man against the white man, and disheart- ened such as might desire to follow up the career of discovery for better purposes. The French nation were eager and ready to seize upon any news from this extensive domain, and were the first to profit by De Soto's defeat. Yet it was more than a century before any adventurer took advan- tage of these discoveries.
In 1616, four years before the pilgrims " moored their bark on the wild New Eng- land shore," Le Caron, a French Franciscan, had penetrated through the Iroquois and and Wyandots (Hurons) to the streams which run into Lake Huron; and in 1634, two Jesuit missionaries founded the first mission among the lake tribes. It was just one hundred years from the discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto (1541) until the Canadian envoys met the savage nations of the Northwest at the Falls of St. Mary, be- low the outlet of Lake Superior. This visit led to no permanent result, yet it was not until 1659 that any of the adventurous fur traders attempted to spend a winter in the frozen wilds about the great lakes, nor was it until 1660 that a station was estab- lished upon their borders by Mesnard, who perished in the woods a few months after. In 1665, Claude Allonez built the earliest lasting habitation of the white man among the Indians of the Northwest. In 1668, Claude Dablon and James Marquette founded the mission of Sault Ste. Marie at the Falls of St. Mary, and two years after- ward, Nicholas Perrot, as agent for M. Talon, Governor General of Canada, ex- plored Lake Illinois (Michigan) as far south as the present City of Chicago, and invited the Indian nations to meet him at
a grand council at Sault Ste. Marie the following spring, where they were taken under the protection of the king, and formal possession was taken of the Northwest. This same year Marquette established a mission at Point St. Ignatius, where was founded the old town of town of Michilli- mackinac.
During M. Talon's explorations and Mar- quette's residence at St. Ignatius, they learned of a great river away to the west, and fancied-as all others did then-that upon its fertile banks whole tribes of God's children resided, to whom the sound of the Gospel had never come. Filled with a wish to go and preach to them, and in com- pliance with a request of M. Talon, who earnestly desired to extend the domain of his king, and to ascertain whether the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean. Marquette with Joliet, as commander of the expedition, prepared for the undertaking.
On the 13th of May, 1673, the explorers, accompanied by five assistant French Can- adians, set out from Mackinaw on their daring voyage of discovery. The Indians, who gathered to witness their departure, were astonished at the boldness of the undertaking, and endeavored to dissuade them from their purpose by representing the tribes on the Mississippi as exceedingly savage and cruel, and the river itself as full of all sorts of frightful monsters ready to swallow them and their canoes together. But, nothing daunted by these terrific de- scriptions, Marquette told them he was willing not only to encounter all the per- ils of the unknown region they were abont to explore, but to lay down his life in a cause in which the salvation of souls was
3
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
involved; and having prayed together they separated. Coasting along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, the adventurers entered Green Bay, and passed thenee up the Fox River and Lake Winnebago to a village of the Miamis and Kiekapoos. Here Marquette was delighted to find a beautiful eross planted in the middle of the town, ornamented with white skins, red gir- dles and bows and arrows, which these good people had offered to the great Man- itou, or God, to thank him for the pity he had bestowed on them during the winter in giving them an abundant "chase." This was the farthest outpost to which Dablon and Allouez had extended their missionary la- bors the year previous. Here Marquette drank mineral waters and was instructed in the secret of a root which eures the bite of the venomous rattlesnake. He assembled the chiefs and old men of the village, and, pointing to Joliet, said: " My friend is an envoy of France, to discover new coun- tries, and I am an ambassador from God to enlighten them with the truths of the Gos- pel." Two Miami guides were here for- nished to conduct them to the Wisconsin River, and they set out from the Indian village on the 10th of June, amidst a great crowd of natives who had assembled to witness their departure into a region where no white man had ever yet ventured. The guides, having conducted them across the portage, returned. The explorers lannehed their canoes upon the Wisconsin which they deseended to the Mississippi and pro- ceeded down its unknown waters. What emotions must have swelled their breasts as they struck out into the broadening eur- rent and became conscious that they were now upon the bosom of the Father of Wa-
ters. The mystery was about to be lifted from the long-sought river. The seenery in that locality is beautiful, and on that delightful seventeenth of June minst have been elad in all its primeval loveliness as it had been adorned by the hand of Nature. Drifting rapidly, it is said that the bold bluffs on either hand " reminded them of the castled shores of their own beautiful rivers of France." By-and-by, as they drifted along, great herds of butfalo ap- peared on the banks. On going to the heads of the valley they could see a conn- try of the greatest beauty and fertility, ap- parently destitute of inhabitants yet pre- senting the appearance of extensive man- ors, under the fastidious cultivation of lordly proprietors.
On June 25th, they went ashore and found some fresh traces of men upon the sand. and a path which led to the prairie. The men remained in the boat, and Marquette and Joliet followed the path till they dis- covered a village on the banks of a river, and two other villages on a hill, within a half league of the first, inhabited by Indians. They were received most hospitably by these natives, who had never before seen a white person. After remaining a few days they re-embarked and deseended the river to about latitude 33ยบ, where they found a village of the Arkansas, and being satisfied that the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, turned their course up the river, and ascending the stream to the month of the Illinois, rowed up that stream to its source, and procured guides from that point to the lakes. "No where on this journey," says Marquette, " did we see such grounds, meadows, woods, stags, buffaloes, deer, wildcats, bustards, swans, dueks, par-
4
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
roquets, and even beavers, as on the Illinois River." The party, without loss or injury, reached Green Bay in September, and re- ported their discovery-one of the most important of the age, but of which no record was preserved save Marquette's, Joliet losing his by the upsetting of his canoe on his way to Quebec. Afterward Marquette returned to the Illinois Indians by their request, and ministered to them until 1675. On the 18th of May, in that year, as he was passing the month of a stream-going with his boatmen up Lake Michigan-he asked to land at its mouth and celebrate mass. Leaving his men with the eanoe, he retired a shore distance and began his devotions. As much time passed and he did not return, his men went in search of him, and found him upon his knees, dead. He had peacefully passed away while at prayer. He was buried at this spot. Charlevoix, who visited the place fifty years after, found the waters had retreated from the grave, leaving the be- loved missionary to repose in peace. The river has since been called Marquette.
While Marquette and his companions were pursuing their labors in the West, two men, differing widely from him and each other, were preparing to follow in his footsteps and perfeet the discoveries so well begun by him. These were Robert de La Salle and Lonis Hennepin.
After La Salle's return from the discovery of the Ohio River (see the narrative else- where), he established himself again among the French trading posts in Canada. Here he mused long upon the pet projeet of those ages-a short way to China and the East, and was busily planning an expedi- tion up the great lakes, and so across
the continent to the Pacifie, when Mar- quette returned from the Mississippi. At once the vigorous mind of La Salle received from his and his companions' stories the idea that by following the Great River northward, or by turning up some of the numerous western tributaries, the object could easily be gained. He applied to Frontenac, Governor General of Canada, and laid before him the plan, dim but gigantie. Frontenac entered warmly into his plans, and saw that La Salle's idea to connect the great lakes by a chain of forts with the Gulf of Mexico would bind the country so wonderfully together, give un- measured power to Franee, and glory to himself, under whose administration he earnestly hoped all would be realized.
La Salle now repaired to France, laid his plans before the King, who warmly ap- proved of them, and made him a Chevalier. He also received from all the noblemen the warmest wishes for his success. The Chev- alier returned to Canada, and busily en- tered upon his work. He at once rebuilt Fort Frontenac and constructed the first ship to sail on these fresh-water seas. On the 7th of August, 1679, having been joined by Hennepin, he began his voyage in the Griffin up Lake Erie. He passed over this lake, through the straits beyond, up Lake St. Clair and into Huron. In this lake they encountered heavy storms. They were some time at Michillimackinac, where La Salle founded a fort, and passed on to Green Bay, the " Baie des Puans " of the French, where he found a large quantity of furs collected for him. He loaded the Griffin with these, and placing her under the care of a pilot and fourteen sailors, started her on her return voyage. The ves-
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