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F. 547 W23 H67++ 1976
F 547 W23 H67++ 1976
CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
WILLARD FISKE ENDOWMENT
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F 547.W23H67 1976
Comell University Library History of Washington County, Ilinois :
3 1924 009 453 832 cần ove2
OLIN LIBRARY - CIRCULATION DATE DUE
GAYLORD
PRINTED IN U.S.A.
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HISTORY OF
WASHINGTON COUNTY,
ILLINOIS.
Lith AIllustrations
DESCRIPTIVE OF ITS SCENERY,
Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers. AND
PUBLISHED BY BRINK, MCDONOUGH & CO., PHILADELPHIA.
CORRESPONDING OFFICE, EDWARDSVILLE, ILL.
1879.
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A Reproduction by UNIGRAPHIC, INC. 1401 North Fares Avenue Evansville, Indiana 47711 nineteen hundred and seventy-six
251 SK
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PREFACE.
O THE CITIZENS OF WASHINGTON COUNTY :- Who have so generously aided us in various ways, in our efforts to collect reliable data for the compilation of this history, we desire to express our grateful thanks. Especially are we under obligations to Hon. Amos Watts, W. S. and C. M. Forman, M. G. Faulkner, James M. McElhanon, Hon. Geo. T. Hoke, W. W. Hutchings, J. C. Burns, Esq., Jacob May. Hon. F. E. W. Brink, Hon. L. M. Phillips, Reuben Wheelis, R. P. Carter, Wm. Woodrome, J. W. Hudson, Superintendent of Schools ; George Vernor, County Judge, James Rountree, States Attorney ; W. S. Hisey, Circuit Clerk; H. F. Reuter, County Clerk, Wm. Lane, Sheriff ; James Garvin, Major John White, Hon. P. E. Hosmer, H. Holbrook, Samuel Anderson, D. R. Spencer, and many others, whose names space will not permit us to mention.
From the press we have received that aid which members of the profession so cheerfully render to each other. To the clergymen of the various denominations, we express our thanks for information cheerfully given relative to the histories of their churches.
We have confined ourselves, as nearly as possible, to
the original materials furnished. The public is aware of the difficulty attending the compilation of a work of this character ; not so much from a want of material, as from the vast mass and incongruity of it, rendering it difficult to make a proper selection. The material has been classified as carefully as possible, and will be a great help to the public as a reference book as to the past of the county,-its Geography and resources, its Topography and all subjects that go to make up the character of the county.
Criticism is expected. The world is full of critics.
" He that writes,
Or makes a feast, more certainly invites His judges, than his friends ; there's not a guest But will find something wanting, or ill-drest."
All we ask is that it be made charitably, after weigh- ing all contingencies, obstacles and hindrances ; for when the difficulties of harmonizing inharmonious memories, and reconciling perverse dates, and localizing events that are attributed to different localities, are taken into consideration, they can readily perceive the impossibility of perfection in a work of this kind. Trusting to a generous public, who can appreciate the imperfections that necessarily belong to any work, but that of the perfect God, we await their verdict.
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CONTENTS.
HISTORY OF COUNTY.
PAGE
Business Notices
79
Hibbard, J. T. 70
Hinckley, Hon. T. Duane
72
Hoffman, Henry F. W. 53
Partial List of Patrons 83
Hoke, George T. . 64
Hudson, James H. 60
Hutchings, Wesley W. 75
Constitution af the United States . 95 Huff, Edward 57
CHAPTER IV .- Geology. 22
CHAPTER V .- Civil History . 23
Krughoff, Col. Louis
49
CHAPTER VI .- The Bench and Bar 26
CHAPTER VII .- Patriotism 28
30
CHAPTER IX .- The Press 32
Merker, Leonard
53
CHAPTER X .- Common Schools . 34
CHAPTER XI .- Ecclesiastical History
37
Adams, Lieut. James .
55
Adama, Hugh 76
Phillips, Lewis M.
51
Anderson, James J. 52
Pierce, Dr. Wm. M. 74
Ardrey, Wm. 71 Pitcher, Dr. Wm. H. 54
Balderston, Timothy
55
Berneuter, Dr. C. .
56
Runk, Jacob L. 54
Boucher Family 54
Schmidt, Charles F. A. 74
Brink, Hon. F. E. W.
72
Sabert, J. H. . 77
Burns, John C. 53 Sawyer, James H. 48
Carter, Dr. Wm. D. 55 Schmidt, Dr. H. D. 52
Carter, Joel G. (deceased)
61 Smith, James 60
Carter, Robert P. . 61
Spencer, Daniel R. 65
Chesney, Alexander 74
Schwind, J. Wm. .
66
Richview
63
Dubois-
66
Duecker, John Henry . 57
Tilley, John W.
66
Okawville 67
Durant, Mark
Troutt, Dr. James J.
56
Elkton
Forman Brothers
Tindale, John S. .
55
Hoyleton
71
Gerstkemper, Charles
Vernon, Hon. George
48
Plum Hill .
73
Pilot Knob
75
Hammond, C. E. . 61
Wlecke, Henry
68
Covington . 76
Harr, Henry 8. 73
Wassell, Charles D.
52
Lively Grove
77
Harryman, Job 69
Zetsche, Julius F.
68
Venedy
78
Harbin, Green P. 69
Watts, Hon. Amos
47
ILLUSTRATIONS.
VIEWS.
Holbrook, Henry .
. FACING PAGE 66
School Desks
FACING PAGE 36
Jones, Morgan
66
Tate, William
62
Babb E. S.
FACING PAGE 58
4
53
Bieser, John
64
May, Capt. Jacob
52
Chesney, Alex.
74
Merker, Leonard
-
58
Co. Maps
9
Marlin, John 62
=
66
Eade, Mrs. Ann
70
Needles, Hon. T. B.
54
Garvin, James
72
= Public Buildings 24
Rountree, James M. 48
May, Capt. Jacob
. FACING PAGE 51
May, Mrs. Elizabeth C.
51
Hoffman, Henry F. W.
4
52
Runk, J. L.
=
60
Rountree, James M. 48
Rountree, Mrs. James M.
48
Hoke, George T.
64
Spencer, D. R. ± Son
66
Sawyer, J. H. 50
Hilderbrand, F.
70
Schwind, John W.
4
70
Vernor, Judge George
48
Her, H. S. 62 Schulze, Herman . 74 Watts, Hon. Amos.
47
.
PRECINCT HISTORIES.
PAGE
City and Precinct of Nashville 43
Town and Precinct of Ashley
57
Irvington .
62
Dickey, Samuel 78
Schulze, Herman
69
66
50
Hahne, Henry .
70
White, D. A ..
64
Vernor, Z. H. . 72
Liese, F. E.
64
Wiese, William
64
«
PORTRAITS.
Hughs, Robert
68
=
72
Reither, P. H. H.
3
54
Hassinger, J. M.
56
Stonecipher, James A.
4
66
=
PAGE
PAGE
CHAPTER I .- Brief Historical Sketch of Illinois 9
Roster of Enlisted Men
80
List of those who Died in the Late Rebellion 82
CHAPTER II .- Pioneers and Early Settlers. In- cidents and Anecdotes 15
CHAPTER III. - The Geographical Features, Commercial Interests and Agricultural Re- sources 19
Declaration of Independence . 94
Hugha, Robert 69
Lane, Wm. 51
May, Capt. Jacob .
51
Marz, Leopold 56
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
PAGE
Morgan, Judge H. P. H.
68
Mcclurkin, James B. . 71
Rountree, Hon. Jas. M. 48
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Kennedy, Wm.
70
Brink, Hon. F. E. W.
Carter, J. D.
58
McCarry, John
M
Hinckley, Hon. T. D.
56
CHAPTER VIII .- Fauna and Flora
Revised Constitution of Illinois 87
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INTRODUCTION.
LJEW studies are more interesting and profitable to mankind than that of the past experiences, deeds, thoughts and trials of the human race.
The civilized man and the untutored savage alike desire to know the deeds and lives of their ancestors, and strive .to perpetuate their story. National patriotism and literary pride have prompted many, in all times, to write and preserve the annals of particular peoples. But narrow prejudice and selfish interests too often have availed to suppress the truth or to distort facts.
It is the aim of this work to collect and preserve in enduring and popu- lar form some of the facts of the early settlement and subsequent growth of a great county of a grand State. The families whose ancestors were early on the ground, and whose members have made the county what it is, are worthy of remembrance; and their difficulties and sorrows, customs, labors and patriotism, should not be allowed to fall into oblivion. By a knowledge of these the present generation will be instructed, and the future will be guided.
All history, if properly written, is interesting ; and there is not a country, or a city, or a hamlet,-nay, we might say, not a family or an individual on the globe,-whose history might not be more or less valuable to posterity.
From the ancient days, away back in the dim and shadowy past, when the human race first arrived at a state of intelligence sufficient to enable them to transmit a traditionary or written account of themselves, all along down the teeming ages,. our progenitors have left in various ways, and by different means, information, more or less mythical, of the age and generation in which they played their ephemeral part on the world's ever-changing theatre of action. It is graven in bronze on the wonderful works of the central nations of Africa, around those " dim fountains of the Nile;" the gray old pyramids in the valley of "twenty thousand cities" are covered with the hieroglyphical language of the "shadowy past." The vast and mighty "palaces and piles stupendous," hoary with the dust of unknown centuries, that bewilder the traveler 'mid Egypt's drifting sands, upon the plains of the Euphrates, and hidden away in the tiger-hunted jungles of the "farthest Ind;" the gigantic ruins of Southern and Central America, under the snow-capped Cordilleras and among the wondrous forests of Yucatan ; the seamed and wrinkled pyramids of the Aztecs, in Mexico and California, and the ten thousand crumbling evidences of a powerful civilization scattered throughout
the great valley of the Mississippi, all bear testimony of countless attempts to trausmit knowledge to posterity.
The written history of the American Continent dates back scarcely four centuries, yet within that comparatively short period its pages have garnered from her hills and mountains, from her grand rivers and mighty inland seas, valuable additions to the world's stock of knowledge.
Like the Eastern Continent, our own has its historic points,-it's nuclei around which cluster the memories of heroic deeds, the story of martyrs, and the legends of a barbarous past. St. Augustine, Jamestown, Plymouth Rock, Quebec, Montreal, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Detroit, are localities about which gather volumes of history.
The advance of civilization on the North American Continent has been more rapid than in any other portion of the globe; and, within the memory of living men, the fairest and richest portions have been wrested from the dominion of the wilderness and the savage, and changed into a highly-cultivated region, filled with a race of industrious and thriving people. Prominent among the localities rich in historic lore is the region around the Mississippi river. It early claimed the attention of two of the most powerful nations of Europe, whose pioneers and avant couriers were boldly pushing into the then unknown countries lying towards the "Great South Sea," eagerly looking for gold and precious stones, for fabled Eldora- dos, and fertile lands.
Dim traditions, fragmentary legends, stories of bloody warfare, of disaster and defeat ; essays, letters, and public documents, all bearing more or less upon the history of the county have been carefully examined.
To collect and arrange in one volume these various fragments, this abund- ant material, and to give the cream of all the best authors who have treated the subject, together with all additional information it was possible to obtain, and present it in readable form, has been the object of the publishers of the present work.
We know, full well, the task is not . a light one; the contemplated work is by no means a holiday frolic. Hard, steady, close application and untiring energy are necessary to accomplish it. and we have approached the subject with the greatest diffidence, not unmindful of our shortcomings, yet, at the same time, fully determined to do our best, and trust a generous and discrim- inating public to do us justice, hoping and believing that our labors shall not have been wholly in vain.
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INTRODUCTION.
The utmost pains has been taken to read thoroughly and compare care- fully the various writers, and to sift out and reconcile discrepancies, for historians not unfrequently disagree upon minor points. The work of read- ing and comparing has been no ordinary one, and the difficulty has not been so much in collecting as in making. a judicious and truthful use of the abundant material at hand.
The traditions of the Indians, as given by Heckewelder and others, have been quoted quite extensively, and as an important factor in the sum total of knowledge concerning this region ; and the early discoveries of Marquette, La Salle, Hennepin, and other French adventurers in the valley of the Mis- sissippi and the basin of the great lakes of the Northwest, have also de- manded a large share of attention. as preliminary to the troubles which grew out of the conflicting claims of the French and English crowns, result- ing in a contest for supremacy, and in which not only all the contiguous region, but the entire French and English possessions in America, a large share of Europe, and immense regions in Asia and the islands of the sea, were interested and involved.
Another object to be gained by this work, is to bring to the notice of the people, the immense resources which a bountiful Providence has bestowed upon them, and which it becomes, not merely a privilege to use, but a duty to improve. How little is now known of these treasures, and how greatly profitable such information may be, needs only a thought to comprehend. Our fertile soils, our noble timber trees, our genial climate, our inexhaustible mineral treasures, and our easy facilities for commerce, are, in a great degree, unknown even to our own population. This volume seeks to develop an ap- preciation of them, and to stimulate a desire to improve and extend them.
Then, local customs, old family traits and anecdotes are so rich in interest and so full of instruction to the young, that they ought never to be for- gotten. These, so many as time and diligence could gather, are here recorded and will be found to form no unimportant or uninstructive portion of this volume.
Among the most influential agencies in building a nation, and in establish- ing a character for its people, are the efforts of its citizens to educate their 'children and to provide for social religious worship. These two interests will, therefore, show most accurately the tastes, the habits and aspirations of a community.
Hence they have been made prominent in the ensuing narrative, and it is confidently hoped that they will not only interest readers, but will be studied and appreciated.
The work will be found embellished with views of public and private property, in various parts of the County, and with portraits and biographies of many of the prominent men of the past and present.
The chapter on the early history of the State, will be found interesting and instructive.
The Constitution of the United States and of this State, and a roster of . the soldiers of the late war, have been inserted with a view to make the work more creditable, alike to the publishers and people of the county.
The work may be incomplete in some particulars. Nor indeed is it possible for it to be otherwise ; but we hope so far as it goes it is truthful and accurate.
We trust, however, that it will be the means of preserving from the empire of decay a host of incidents, of recollections, and of anecdotes, relating to the hardy pioneers and first settlers of the county, which, in the estimation of the historian and student of history, are of priceless value, but which otherwise would soon fade from the memories of the living.
Whether this has been well done is not for us to say. A generous and intelligent public must decide. It is not permitted any man to attain per- fection. Its regions lie beyond our reach. We feel, however, in submitting this work to the inspection of the patrons, whose public spirit made possible its preparation, that satisfaction which results from a consciousness of faith- ful endeavor and an earnest desire to fulfil the expectations of all.
Our work is accomplished, and its result is submitted, with tranquillity, to your inspection.
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HISTORY
OF
WASHINGTON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
CHAPTER I. BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ILLINOIS.
T is necessary to treat the history of this great State briefly. And first we direct attention to the
DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
Hernando De Soto, cutting his way through the wilderness from Florida, had discovered the Mississippi in the year 1542. Wasted with disease and privation, he only reached the stream to die upon its banks, and the remains of the ambitious and iron-willed Spaniard found a fitting resting-place beneath the waters of the great river. The chief incitement to Spanish discoveries in America was a thirst for gold and treasure. The discovery and settlement of the Mississippi Valley on the part of the French must, on the other hand, be ascribed to religious zeal. Jesuit missionaries, from the French settlements on the St. Lawrence, early penetrated to the region of Lake Huron. It was from the tribes of Indians living in the West, that intelligence came of a noble river flowing south. Marquette, who had visited the Chippewas in 1668, and established the mission of St. Mary, now the oldest settlement within the present commonwealth of Michigan, formed the purpose of its exploration.
In company with Joliet, a fur-trader of Quebec, who had been designated by M. Talon, Intendant of Canada, as chieftain of the exploring party, and five French voyageurs, Marquette, on the 10th of June 1673, set out on the expedition. Crossing the water shed dividing the Fox from the Wisconsin rivers, their two canoes were soon launched on the waters of the latter. Seven days after, on the 17th of June, they joyfully entered the broad cur- rent of the Mississippi. Stopping six days on the western bank, near the mouth of the Des Moines River, to enjoy the hospitalities of the Illinois Indians, the voyage was resumed, and after passing the perpendicular rocks above Alton, on whose lofty limestone front are painted frightful representa- tions of monsters, they suddenly came upon the mouth of the Missouri, known by its Algonquin name of Pekitanoni, whose swift and turbid current threatened to engulf their frail canoes. The site of St. Louis was an un- broken forest, and further down, the fertile plain bordering the river reposed in peaceful solitude, as, early in July, the adventurers glided past it. They continued their voyage to a point some distance below the mouth of the Arkansas, and then retraced their course up the river, arriving at the Jesuit Mission at the head of Green Bay, late in September.
Robert Cavalier de La Salle, whose illustrious naine is more intimately connected with the exploration of the Mississippi than that of any other, was the next to descend the river, in the early part of the year 1682. At its mouth he erected a column, and decorating it with the arms of France, placed upon it the following inscription :
LOUIS LE GRAND, ROI DE FRANCE ET DE NAVARRE, REGNE; LE NEUVIEME AVRIL, 1682.
Thus France, by right of discovery, lay claim to the Mississippi Valley, the fairest portion of the globe, an empire in extent, stretching from the Gulf to
the Lakes, and from the farthest sources of the Ohio to where the nead waters of the Missouri are lost in the wild solitudes of the Rocky Mountains. La Salle bestowed upon the territory the name of Louisiana, in honor of the King of France, Louis XIV.
The assertion has been made that on La Salle's return up the river, in the summer of 1682, a portion of the party were left behind, who founded the villages of Kaskaskia and Cahokia, but the statement rests on no substantial foundation.
THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS IN ILLINOIS.
The gentle and pious Marquette, devoted to his purpose of carrying the gospel to the Indians, had established a mission among the Illinois, in 1675, at their principal town on the river which still bears their name. This was at the present town of Utica, in La Salle County. In the presence of the whole tribe, by whom, it is recorded, he was received as a celestial visitor, he displayed the sacred pictures of the Virgin Mary, raised an altar, and said mass. On Easter Sunday, after celebrating the mystery of the Eucharist, he took possession of the land in the name of the Saviour of the world, and founded the " Mission of the Immaculate Conception." The town was called Kaskaskia, a name afterwards transferred to another locality.
La Salle, while making preparations to descend the Mississippi, built a fort, on the Illinois River, below the Lake of Peoria, in February, 1680, and in commemoration of his misfortunes, bestowed upon it the name of Crevecoeur, "broken-hearted." Traces of its embankments are yet discernible. This was the first military occupation of Illinois. There is no evidence, however, that settlement was begun there at that early date.
On La Salle's return from his exploration of the Mississippi, in 1682, he fortified "Starved Rock," whose military advantages had previously attracted his attention. From its summit, which rises +25 feet above the waters of the river, the valley of the Illinois spreads out before the eye in a landscape of rarest beauty. From three sides it is inaccessible. This stronghold received the name of the Fort of St. Louis. Twenty thousand allied Indians gathered around it on the fertile plains. The fort seems to have been abandoned soon after the year 1700.
Marquette's mission (1765), Crevecoeur (1680), and the Fort of St. Louis (1682), embrace, so far, all the attempts made toward effecting anything like a permanent settlement in the Illinois country. Of the second few traces remain. A line of fortifications may be faintly traced, and that is all. The seed of civilization planted by the Jesuit, Marquette, among the Illinois In- dians, was destined to produce more enduring fruit. It was the germ of Kaskaskia, during the succeeding years of the French occupation-the metropolis of the Mississippi Valley. The southern Kaskaskia is merely the northern one transplanted. The Mission of the Immaculate Conception is the same.
FOUNDING OF KASKABKIA.
On the death of Marquette, he was succeeded by Allouez, and he by Father Gravier, who respectively had charge of the Mission on the Illinois River. Gravier is said to have been the first to reduce the principles of the Illinois language to rules. It was also he who succeeded in transferring Marquette's Mission from the banks of the Illinois south to the spot where
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
stands the modern town of Kaskaskia, and where it was destined to endure. The exact date is not known, but the removal was accomplished some time prior to the year 1690, though probably not earlier than 1685.
Father Gravier was subsequently recalled to Mackinaw, and his place was supplied by Bineteau and Pinet. Pinet proved an eloquent and suc- cessful minister, and his chapel was often insufficient to hold the crowds of savages who gathered to hear his words. Bineteau met with a fate similar to that which befell many another devoted priest in his heroic labors for the conversion of the savages. He accompanied the Kaskaskias on one of their annual hunts to the upper Mississippi, that his pastoral relations might not suffer intermission. His frame was poorly fitted to stand the exposure. Parched by day on the burning prairie, chilled by heavy dews at night, now panting with thirst and again aching with cold, he at length fell a victim to a violent fever, and "left his bones on the wilderness range of the buffa- loes." Pinet shortly after followed his comrade.
Father Gabriel Morrest had previously arrived at Kaskaskia. He was a Jesuit. He had carried the emblem of his faith to the frozen regions of Hud- son's Bay, and had been taken prisoner by the English, and upon his lib- eration returned to America, and joined the Kaskaskia Mission. After the deaths of Bineteau and Pinet, he had sole charge until joined by Father Mermet shortly after the opening of the eighteenth century.
The devotion and piety of Mermet fully equalled those of his companion. He had assisted in collecting a village of Indians and Canadians, and had thus founded the first French port on the Ohio, or, as the lower part of the river was then called, the Wabash. At the Kaskaskia Mission his gentle virtues and fervid eloquence seem not to have been without their influence. " At early dawn his pupils came to church dressed neatly and modestly, each in a large deer-skin, or in a robe stitched together from several skins. After receiving lessons they chanted canticles; mass was then said in pre- sence of all the Christians in the place, the French and the converts-the women on one side and the men on the other. From prayer and instruction the missionaries proceeded to visit the sick and administer medicine, and their skill as physicians did more than all the rest to win confidence. In the afternoon the catechism was taught in the presence of the young and the old, when every one, without distinction of rank or age, answered the ques- tions of the missionary. At evening all would assemble at the chapel for instruction, for prayer, and to chant the hymns of the church. On Sundays and festivals, even after vespers, a homily was pronounced ; at the close of the day parties would meet in houses to recite the chaplet in alternate choirs, and sing psalms until late at night. These psalms were often homilies with words set to familiar tunes. Saturday and Sunday were days appointed for confession and communion, and every convert confessed once in a fortnight. The success of the mission was such that marriages of French immigrants were sometimes solemnized with the daughters of the Illinois according to the rites of the Catholic Church. The occupation of the country was a cantonment of Europeans among the native proprietors of the forests and the prairies .* A court of law was unknown for nearly a century, and up to the time of Boisbriant there was no local government. The priests possessed the entire confidence of the community, and their authority happily settled, without the tardy delays and vexations of the courts, the minor difficulties which threatened the peace of the settlement. Of the families which formed part of the French population in the early history of Kaskaskia, there is some uncertainty. There is, however, authority for believing that the follow- ing were among the principal settlers : Bazyl La Chapelle, Michael Derouse (called St. Pierre), Jean Baptiste St. Gemme Beauvais, Baptiste Montreal, Boucher de Montbrun, Charles Danie, Francois Charlesville, Antoine Bien- venu, Louis Bruyat, Alexis Doza, Joseph Paget, Prix Pagi, Michael An- toyen, Langlois De Lisle, La Derroutte and Noval.
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