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Gc 977.301 M53b v.1 1222009
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00839 8361
PAST AND PRESENT OF
MERCER COUNTY
ILLINOIS
ISAAC NEWTON BASSETT
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME I
971.301 MJ3b v. 1
CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1914
1222009
PREFACE
In the latter part of 1912 the editor of the Aledo Democrat re- quested me to write a historical sketch or reminiscences of what I knew in regard to the history of Mercer County. For some seven or eight months I contributed articles to the paper and on account of illness had to suspend writing further for the time being. In the latter part of 1913 The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company of Chicago sent one of their agents and writers here to procure some one to edit a history of the county, and I was engaged to undertake the authorship of such a work. The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company agreed to furnish some competent author to write the history of the county under my direction and furnished me with Professor W. A. Good- speed, who is a thoroughly educated and experienced man, having written the history of a number of counties and states heretofore, and I am indebted to him for his labor, intelligence and experience in compiling and writing this history of the county. I have collected a great many facts in addition to what have come under my own observation, and submitted the same to Professor Goodspeed. I have had also the benefit of advice from Messrs. F. S. Burgett of Keiths- burg, Richard H. Roberts of New Boston, William B. Frew and Justice George A. Cooke of Aledo, Maj. Dan W. Sedwick of Suez Township, and Charles Kinsey of Richland Grove Township, and have received from various persons throughout the county valuable information and assistance in preparing this work. It is useless to say that this or any other history is absolutely complete and correct. I have endeavored, however, to be correct in regard to all matters stated in the work and have tried to incorporate all essential facts that ought to be preserved in a history, but it is a very difficult matter to determine what is of importance enough to be preserved as history, and what should be omitted. I hope, however, that with the assistance of Professor Goodspeed and others, who have given me aid in pub- lishing this history, that all has been preserved that is essential to a good history of the county. The work is in two volumes, the first being a volume of the general history, of which I am the author, and the second a volume composed of biographies, which have been written under the direction of the respective individuals whose biographies appear. Of this part of the work neither Professor Goodspeed nor I are responsible.
PREFACE
I am also under especial obligations to Mrs. Martha Mathews and Mrs. Flora Winger of Aledo, and to the editor of the Keithsburg News at Keithsburg, to the county officers and to the clergy through- out the county for special information and assistance in preparing articles upon some of the subjects treated. The assistance of these persons had to be called for and relied upon in many instances because of my blindness and extreme age, which prevented me from personally looking after the information which they gave me.
It was impossible to submit a copy of the work to the members of the Advisory Board and they are not responsible for anything con- tained in the history, but they have been very helpful in assisting me and giving material for the history.
Hoping that the work will be helpful and satisfactory to the community and people of Mercer County, the same is submitted by, THE AUTHOR.
Aledo, Illinois, October, 1914.
CONTENTS
- -
CHAPTER I
EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY 5
CHAPTER II
INDIAN AFFAIRS II
CHAPTER III
MERCER COUNTY AS PART OF THE UNITED STATES. 21
CHAPTER IV
GEOLOGY, MINES, TEMPERATURE, ETC.
CHAPTER V
MERCER COUNTY SCIENTIFIC AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ETC ..... 55
CHAPTER VI
PROCEEDINGS OF THE COUNTY BOARD
61
CHAPTER VII
RAILROADS, ELECTRIC ROADS, ETC.
8 I
CHAPTER VIII
MILITARY AFFAIRS
95
CHAPTER IX
POLITICAL PARTIES IN MERCER COUNTY
149
CHAPTER X
AGRICULTURE
197
CHAPTER XI
EDUCATION
235
·
45
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XII
THE LEGAL, FINANCIAL AND OTHER RIGHTS OF WOMEN 279
CHAPTER XIII
TEMPERANCE
287
CHAPTER XIV
THE BENCH AND BAR.
305
CHAPTER XV
RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS
329
CHAPTER XVI
OLD SETTLERS ORGANIZATIONS
363
CHAPTER XVII
MERCER COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY.
CHAPTER XVIII
MERCER TOWNSHIP
37I
CHAPTER XIX
KEITHSBURG TOWNSHIP 407
CHAPTER XX
NEW BOSTON TOWNSHIP
427
CHAPTER XXI
MILLERSBURG TOWNSHIP
441
CHAPTER XXII
GREENE TOWNSHIP
451
CHAPTER XXIII
RIVOLI TOWNSHIP
461
CHAPTER XXIV
RICHLAND GROVE TOWNSHIP
469
365
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXV
SUEZ TOWNSHIP
479
CHAPTER XXVI
OHIO GROVE TOWNSHIP 485
CHAPTER XXVII
NORTH HENDERSON TOWNSHIP
489
CHAPTER XXVIII
ABINGTON TOWNSHIP
495
CHAPTER XXIX
ELIZA TOWNSHIP
499
CHAPTER XXX
PREEMPTION TOWNSHIP
505
CHAPTER XXXI
PERRYTON TOWNSHIP
5II
CHAPTER XXXII
DUNCAN TOWNSHIP
517
CHAPTER XXXIII
MISCELLANEOUS 521
ISAAC N. BASSETT
HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY
CHAPTER I
EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY
INTRODUCTION
Before the era of railroads civilization sought the sea or its navigable affluents, because communication on a large scale was by vessel and not usually overland by wagon, caravans or other land con- veyance. It thus occurred that whenever new lands were to be ex- plored the projected routes were along water courses where canoes or other boats could be propelled up or down the tedious, tortuous and hazardous channels. In the older settled countries the cities were invariably located on the sea or on large streams which emptied into the sea, where commerce could be carried on with other similar cen- ters of civilization. Here and there caravans crossed overland from city to city, but they were limited both in number and in usefulness.
For several centuries before the discovery of America the mer- chants and navigators of Europe had sought in vain to find a way to reach India and China by sailing westward instead of eastward. It was known that the world was round and it was believed by many that vessels which sailed westward would thus reach China and India, because civilized man then did not know of the existence of the West- ern Hemisphere which would prevent commerce from reaching those countries. It was in pursuit of a waterway to reach India that Columbus sailed on his memorable voyage of discovery west- ward in 1492. This expedition and many others which succeeded did not find a route to China and India, but did find that the two Americas interpose an insurmountable obstacle to the attainment of that object unless a water route through North America could be dis- covered. So important was such a route to the commerce of Europe with the Orient that as rapidly as possible various expeditions began to penetrate the wilds of the North American interior. Could such a route be found by commerce it would obviate the necessity of its being forced to send vessels around Cape Horn in order to reach Vol. I-1
5
6
PAST AND PRESENT OF MERCER COUNTY
the oriental nations, with which trade was enormous for that time and vital to the prosperity of European merchants. Thus after the discovery of the Western Hemisphere commerce continued its en- deavors to find a water route to the South Sea, as the Pacific Ocean was then called, across the American continent, believing that if such a result could be accomplished vessels would speedily reach the markets of the Orient.
It was with this object in view that the governor of New France, as Canada was then called, sent Louis Joliet and Father Jacques Mar- quette in the summer of 1673 to find and explore the large river lying westward of the Great Lakes, which all had heard about from the Indians, but which it was believed no white man had yet seen, though in reality De Soto had discovered it near Memphis in the previous century, but it was not known that the two streams were one and the same. The object of the governor of New France is shown in his letter of instruction to Louis Joliet. It states specifically that a water route to the South Sea was the paramount object of the expedition and that the great river of which the Indians talked so much should be explored with the hopes, if not the expectation, that it would be found to empty into the South Sea, in which case the long sought for water route to the Orient would become a reality instead of a mer- cantile and maritime dream. Joliet was the commander of the ex- pedition, and Father Marquette was sent along as a means to assist in propitiating the Indian tribes along the way. Joliet was well fitted for the duty, because he was familiar with nearly all the Indian dia- lects and nearly always commanded the respect of the tribes. The power of Father Marquette over the Indians was fully recognized by the authorities of New France and his selection to accompany the expedition was unanimous. They were accompanied by five other Frenchmen whose names are unknown-seven in all to brave the dangers, hazards and uncertainties of the western wilds. With boats and supplies they left the Strait of Mackinac on May 17, 1673, coasted along the shore of Lake Michigan to Green Bay, passed up Fox River in Wisconsin, carried their boats and supplies across the portage to the Wisconsin River, and rowed down that stream until on June 17th they emerged from its mouth into the water of the Mis- sissippi. Their feelings of delight over the discovery are described in the papers of Father Marquette.
Then began their real task of exploration. With the hope of reaching the South Sea they turned their boats down the river, row- ing steadily during the days, but encamping on the shores usually
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MERCER COUNTY
during the nights. They passed by what is now Mercer County and may have encamped or landed on its shores. Finally when near the mouth of the Des Moines River, evidences of the presence of Indians became so numerous and patent that they landed, determined to com- municate with the natives in order to learn more of their surround- ings and what was ahead of them. They followed a footpath from the Mississippi westward a few miles to the shore of the Des Moines and finally saw spread out before them in the valley of the latter stream a village of wigwams and other abodes. Instantly their pres- ence caused great commotion in the village and soon three chiefs stark naked and with signs of peace and with peace pipes in their hands approached them, stopping often to gesticulate in friendly native style. When they met the Indians showed every indication of submission and friendship. They proved to be members of a branch of the Illinois tribe and welcomed the explorers to their village, or rather a series of villages, along the Des Moines River. The entire tribe turned out and accompanied the strangers, scrutinizing them closely, but keeping at a respectful distance as they passed from vil- lage to village. Both Joliet and Father Marquette were given sig- nal evidence of the high estimation in which they were held. In fact the tribe did not want to part with Father Marquette at all and saw him depart with many indications of regret. One of the chiefs gave his son, a lad ten or twelve years old, to Joliet for a slave; he accom- panied the expedition down the river and back to Canada. They were given a great feast where the leading chief declared that the sun never shone brighter, the forests never laughed with greater mer- riment and the streams were never so free from rapids and rocks as on the day that brought the white man to this spot. The guests were given the great honor of being fed by the hands of the Indian chiefs, the latter taking the choicest portion of the food and placing it in their mouths. The Indians were unable to give the travelers the information sought concerning the course and mouth of the Mis- sissippi, which was the reason for the continuance of the voyage down that stream.
After passing down as far as Arkansas and learning that the Mis- sissippi probably emptied into the Gulf of Mexico and learning fur- ther that they would no doubt encounter hostile tribes, they returned up stream to the mouth of the Illinois River, thence up that stream and the Des Plaines and Chicago rivers to Lake Michigan and thence back to Canada. When almost within sight of home they met with an accident in the St. Lawrence River, by which Joliet lost all his
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MERCER COUNTY
papers containing a full account of the expedition and lost the little Indian slave by drowning. This expedition opened up the Missis- sippi River to French and English explorations and settlements and showed that the South Sea could not be reached by the Father of Waters. The French used this discovery as a basis of their claims to all the country from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi and thence down that stream on both sides to the French settlements of Louisi- ana. Mercer County was first a part of New France and then a part of Louisiana.
The French did not sleep on their rights, but sent out various expeditions to cement their claims to this vast tract of country. The expedition of Robert La Salle in 1680 still further secured the Lake Michigan and the Illinois regions to the crown of France. They built forts at St. Joseph, Michigan, and Peoria, Illinois-really built a chain of forts from Canada to Louisiana, and established permanent settlements. Henry Tonti, La Salle's first assistant, remained at the Peoria fort, Creve Cœur, though later was compelled to leave. Father Hennepin and companions later passed down the Illinois and up the Mississippi no doubt seeing what is now Mercer County. Several expeditions from Louisiana passed up to what is now Minne- sota, landing perhaps on Mercer County soil at the famous Upper Yellow Banks, now New Boston.
As the years passed the English from the Atlantic colonies pushed their claims westward through Pennsylvania and down the Ohio River and threatened the French possessions on the Mississippi and even on the Great Lakes. The first conflict between the two nations on American soil in the West was at Fort Duquesne (now Pitts- burg) in 1753. The English from Virginia established Fort Pitt at that point, but were driven away by the French who named the gar- rison Fort Duquesne and endeavored to check the movement of the English down the Ohio River and for a time succeeded. The Seven Years', war resulted, lasting from 1755 to 1762, at the conclusion of which all the territory of France east of the Mississippi River except along the Gulf of Mexico passed to the possession of Great Britain. This splended success of the English was due to the energy and state- craft of William Pitt, who at the crisis of the struggle in the English Parliament fought for a strenuous continuance of the war and though sick was borne to the chamber on a stretcher and there declared that now was the time to despoil France, the ancient enemy of the Eng- lish, of all her possessions in the New World. His counsel prevailed with the result that France was pushed westward of the Mississippi except in the far South.
9
PAST AND PRESENT OF MERCER COUNTY
Thus it will be seen that what is now Mercer County was the pos- session of France by right of discovery and settlement and by Great Britain after 1763 by right of conquest. It remained the property of the latter until 1783 when it passed to the United States as a result of the Revolutionary war. Thus it has remained to the present time.
CHAPTER II INDIAN AFFAIRS
At the time of the first white settlement in Mercer County the Sacs and Foxes, or Reynards, claimed ownership of this part of the state and were in actual possession. That tribe resided originally on Fox River near Green Bay in Wisconsin and was powerful and warlike. It was a branch of the Sioux nation and was almost con- . tinually at war with its neighbors, the Winnebagos, Menominees and Kickapoos, who also lived in the Green Bay region when the first French voyagers began to penetrate that section of the West. Almost from the start the Reynards began to oppose the exploration of the French Canadians through Wisconsin and farther westward, killing the explorers and taking possession of their equipments, weapons, etc. Finally an army of whites and friendly Indians was sent against them with the result that they were completely crushed and driven westward to the Mississippi and down that stream where they established permanent villages on the site of the present Du- buque, Rock Island, Keokuk and elsewhere. Here they were found when the first white settlers arrived in Mercer County. Other Green Bay tribes were driven westward and in turn drove to the south or west the Iowas and other nations residing along the river. But the Winnebagos, Pottawatomies, Menominees, Illinois, Kickapoos and others roamed at will over all this portion of the country, taking their chances of extermination by the tribe having the greater right to the soil.
The location of Julian Dubuque at Dubuque in 1788 did much to establish peace between the Sacs and Foxes and the whites. At least once annually and many years oftener he passed down the river to St. Louis to dispose of his lead ore, furs and other native products and returned with his supplies for the Indian trade. In 1804-5 Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike went up the river from St. Louis to Min- nesota on an exploring expedition for the Government. At this time the trade of St. Louis with the settlements on the upper Mississippi was large and continuous. Scarcely a week passed during the warm months that did not witness the passage of boats of the fur traders and explorers up or down the river. The expedition of Lewis and
11
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MERCER COUNTY
Clarke up the Mississippi River occurred in 1804-5. Every import- ant western branch of the river was peopled with Indians and each Indian village had present one or more white traders in the employ of the various fur companies. The almost daily passage of keel boats on the Mississippi and a little later of steamboats was the occasion for the establishment of the first settlement in Mercer County by the Denisons at New Boston in 1827 and by the Vannattas at Keithsburg a few days later.
How long the Indians had occupied what is now Mercer County is unknown, but must have been many centuries, because in all parts have been found since the earliest settlement many stone and flint implements, knives, scrapers, arrow and spear heads, pottery, dis- coidal stones, totems, stone and shell beads and bracelets, gorgets, pestles, rollers, smoothers, perforators, stone hammers, battle axes, anvils, leather dressers, fish sinkers, pipes, etc. Various materials were used by the natives in the construction of these implements and ornaments-granite, flint, greenstone, hornblende, cyanite, trap, quartzite, bone, shell, steatite, hematite, olivine, sandstone, catlinite, etc .. It is clear that for many centuries the savages roamed and hunted over the county leaving behind their stone possessions which could not be destroyed.
On Pope Creek, on Edwards River and on many of the smaller streams have been found numerous arrow and spear heads and toma- hawks or hatchets. Flint spear points have been found numerously along the Mississippi and the interior streams and particularly along the lakes and sloughs near Bay Island. The spear points found are usually notched or serrated and rendered capable of producing a terrible wound in either fish or land animal. The pottery is usually found on Pope Creek and Edwards River and is mainly fragmentary. Near New Boston large quantities have been found, the material used being a clay mixed with fine sand or powdered shells. Often rude scroll-work is found on the pottery. The discoidal stones found are next to the pipes in value. They seem to have been intended for some sort of ceremonial observance and are often found buried in Indian graves. Occasionally hieroglyphics are found on the ceremonial stones, but the meaning has never been deciphered. Indian quoits and chuny-ke-stones are found here and there through the county. About thirty specimens of Indian pipes of various shapes and sizes have been discovered in the county. Several were found in Eliza and Abington townships. One is a tomahawk and pipe combined and is an amalgam of copper and steel, evidently made for the Indians by the French or English. It is probable that the
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MERCER COUNTY
most of these implements and ornaments were not made in this county, but were made at the large Indian villages elsewhere. This county did not contain within the knowledge of the whites any large permanent Indian town or village, but was the site of many tempo- rary encampments not only along the Mississippi, but on Pope Creek, Edwards River, Camp Creek and their large branches. Over the prairies and through the groves wandered the deer and the buffalo, the wolf and the panther, the wildcat and the lynx. Many skeletons of the buffalo were found scattered over the county by the first settlers. The abundance of wild game and fish were the magnets that brought here the numerous temporary Indian encampments.
The first settlers located at New Boston and Keithsburg to supply the steamboats on the river with wood. That was primarily the object which brought them to this county. Steamboats began to navigate the Mississippi in 1823. Indians were here in great numbers, but were friendly until the Black Hawk war. The Lower Yellow Banks were at Oquawka and the Upper Yellow Banks were at New Boston in Mercer County.
As early as July, 1827, trouble with the Indians began. Two keel boats on their way up the Mississippi with supplies for Fort Snelling were attacked by Winnebagos and several of the crew were killed and others wounded. This occasioned great alarm by prov- ing the hostile purposes of the Indians of various tribes. The per- petrators of this outrage were pursued and punished. Although the Densions, Vannattas and others had come to this county a few weeks before, they were not molested and the excitement soon subsided. However, trouble with the Sacs and Foxes soon occurred, though nothing serious happened until 1831 when Black Hawk crossed to the old home of his band on the east side of the Mississippi near Rock Island. They were driven back by a large body of militia which marched northward from Beardstown in June, crossing Mercer County from south to north between Aledo and Joy along an old Indian trail. This ended the trouble for that year, but in 1832 the Sacs and Foxes, Winnebagos and members of other tribes again crossed the Mississippi and ascended Rock River to the home of the Winnebagos near its source. Again as before a large body of militia assembled at Beardstown and on April 27th started north- ward, marching first to Oquawka where they received supplies and then passing directly to Fort Armstrong, Rock Island, across Mercer County. They reached Fort Armstrong on May 7th. With this body of about two thousand troops was a company from Sangamon County commanded by Capt. Abraham Lincoln and attached to the Fourth
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MERCER COUNTY
Regiment. They met Col. Zachary Taylor at Fort Armstrong. The army was strengthened, pursued the Indians and in the end com- pletely defeated them at the battle of Bad Axe. After the war Black Hawk lived in Lee County, Iowa, but often came to New Boston near which he had a daughter buried. The following account is not intended as a history of the Black Hawk war, but only of the part borne in it by Mercer County.
This war involved Mercer County in part. It was the result of the attempt to remove the Indians west of the Mississippi River in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty of November 3, 1804, between the chiefs and head men of the Sacs and Foxes and other tribes and William Henry Harrison, by which the Indians agreed to leave both sides of the Mississippi free to the settlement by whites, but afterward endeavored to repudiate their obligations and the treaty. By this treaty the Indians agreed to cede to the Government 15,000,000 acres lying between the Wisconsin River on the north, Fox River of Illinois on the east and southeast and the Mississippi River on the west for the insignificant annuity of $1,000 in perpetuity and $2,500 in goods. The immediate cause of the outbreak was the agreement in the treaty that the Indians should enjoy the privilege of living and hunting upon these lands until they were transferred to private owners, or as long as they remained in possession of the United States.
The Indians claimed that the attempt to remove them westward was a violation of this provision of the treaty. As a matter of fact the land had neither been surveyed nor placed upon the market, but here and there had been squatted upon by pioneers, who began to appear in considerable number by 1823 and take possession of the cultivated fields and the homes of the Indians, notably at the ancient village of the Sacs and Foxes, Saukenuk, on the bank of Rock River near its mouth. The squatters went so far in a few instances as to burn the Indian lodges, whip the women and children and drive them away in the absence of the braves. The few settlers in Mercer County were squatters who thus infringed upon the rights of the Indians-had no right to locate here until the land was duly surveyed, placed on the market, sold and occupied by white settlers. They were thus at the mercy of the savages when the climax came. At New Boston were William Denison and his married son John W. and their families, David S. Witter and wife, a Frenchman named Pentacosa who kept a store and a hired man named Twist. Other sons of William Denison were Erastus, James, Joseph, Ezra, Newton and Elmer, two or three of whom were young men at this
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