USA > Illinois > Champaign County > A Standard history of Champaign County Illinois : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, civic and social development : a chronicle of the people, with family lineage and memoirs, Volume I > Part 12
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MIAMIS PASSING TO THE WEST
"About 1832 a large body of Indians (believed to have been Miamis), 900 in number, in moving from their Indiana reservation to the western territories, passed through Champaign County, crossing the Salt Fork at Prather's Ford a mile or so above St. Joseph, thence by the north side of Big Grove to Newcom's Ford and by Cheney's Grove. It is said the caravan extended from Prather's Ford to Adkins' Point, as the northern extremity of Big Grove was then called. These Indians were entirely friendly to the whites and encamped two days at the Point for rest, where the settlers gathered around for trade and to enjoy their sports.
EN ROUTE FOR WASHINGTON
"In the winter of 1852-53 came a company of braves from the West through Urbana, on their way to Washington to have a talk with the President. While stopping here one of their number died, and was buried in the old cemetery at Urbana. His comrades greatly mourned
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him, and planted at the head of his grave a board, upon which were divers cabalistic decorations. After committing his body to the grave, his comrades blazed a road with their tomahawks to the Bone Yard branch, to guide the dead man's thirsty spirit to the water."
LAST OF THE CHAMPAIGN COUNTY INDIANS
As stated, as late as the Black Hawk War scattered bands of Kicka- poos, Pottawattamies and Delawares were still roaming through the woods and over the prairies of central and eastern Illinois, killing squirrels, wild turkeys, grouse and deer. About the 1st of March they usually returned in a body toward the Kankakee for the purpose of making maple sugar. But at the close of the war, the whites of Indiana and Illinois made a general demand upon the Government to see that all Indians were moved to their reservations west of the Mississippi, according to treaty stipulations.
The Kickapoos of the Vermilion were the last of the Illinois Indians to emigrate. Finally, in 1833, the last of them joined the main body of the tribe in their reservation west of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and were afterward moved to the Indian Territory.
CHAPTER IV
PIONEER SETTLERS AND EVENTS
WORK OF THE UNITED STATES SURVEYORS-THE COUNTY'S ORIGINAL SURVEY RECORD PIONEERS SETTLED IN GROVES AND TIMBER BELTS -ROUTE OF FORT CLARK ROAD THROUGH COUNTY-RUNNEL FIELDER, FIRST SETTLER-TOMPKINS SQUATS ON SITE OF URBANA- HENRY SADORUS-THE COMING OF SADORUS AND SMITH-DISCOVER AND DIVIDE THE GROVE-FIRST SMITH AND SADORUS CABINS- SADORUS, SOLE PROPRIETOR OF THE GROVE-OCCUPATION AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE SMITH CABIN-MATTHIAS AND MARTIN RHINEHART-TRIPS TO CHICAGO-ONE THOUSAND MILES TRIP OF THE CONKEY FAMILY-FIRST SIGHT OF THE GRAND PRAIRIE- COL. MATTHEW W. BUSEY-SETTLERS IN 1828-ISAAC BUSEY AND ISAAC G. BECKLEY-EARLIEST LAND ENTRIES-BIG GROVE PIONEERS -NORTHERN SECTIONS SETTLED LATER-JUDGE CUNNINGHAM'S PIONEER EPITOME-INDIAN OCCUPATION-FIRST WHITE OCCUPANCY -FIRST LAND ENTRIES-DISEASES AND PIONEER PHYSICIANS- EARLY DEATHS-DECEASED REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS-SCHOOLS- MILLS OF EARLY DATE-PIONEER PHYSICIANS-RELIGIOUS PATH- FINDERS-MORE ABOUT THE PREACHERS-EARLY ROADS-WINTER OF THE DEEP SNOW-A CIRCULAR HUNT-LANCASTER AND BLOOM- VILLE, STRICTLY PAPER TOWNS-A PROFESSIONAL LAND GRABBER -WHITE MAN SHAMED BY RED "SAVAGE"-TAXPAYERS AT THE CREATION OF THE COUNTY-AN INSIDE STORY RELATING TO THE COUNTY SEAT-OLD SETTLERS' SOCIETY.
Two years after the Indian treaty at Edwardsville, by which the Kickapoos of the Vermilion ceded their lands in Champaign County to the general Government, the surveyors of the United States commenced their work in the southeastern sections. In 1821, Jacob Judy, James Thompson and James Messenger made surveys in the region now embraced by the townships of Raymond, Ayers, Sidney, Homer, St. Joseph, Ogden and Stanton and parts of Rantoul and Compromise. In the following year the territory included in the rest of the county was sur- veyed by Richard P. Holliday, David Anderson, Patrick O. Lee, Benjamin F. Messenger, Enoch Moore and E. Starr.
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A PIONEER COUPLE IN THE OLD HOME
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
WORK OF THE UNITED STATES SURVEYORS
Writing in 1905, the late Judge J. O. Cunningham thus describes the nature and importance of the work as performed by the Government surveyors, shortly before the first white settlers came to Champaign County : "It will thus be seen that shortly following the treaty with the Indians which extinguished forever their claim upon the territory now known as Champaign County, came the United States surveyors, those pioneers of civilization whose work was to last through all time and be law to all future dwellers. The lines as then fixed and marked by these surveyors are the lines which now divide the townships, school districts and farms of the county, and which determine its boundaries and the locations of most of its public roads.
"When the treaty already referred to was made and when the work of the United States surveyors was performed, the territory later organ- ized into the county of Champaign was within the bounds of the county of Crawford. The section corners, then marked by the throwing up of mounds of earth around stakes charred in their camp fires, were easily found by other surveyors many years after they were established.
THE COUNTY'S ORIGINAL SURVEY RECORD
"In- the office of the county clerk may be found a book commonly called the Original Survey Record, which contains transcripts of all of these surveys carefully copied from the reports and plats made by the General Land Office by these original surveyors. Upon the left hand pages of this very interesting and important record may be found directions for locating every section corner, as marked and left by these men eighty years ago, while upon the opposite pages are found very carefully prepared plats in colors showing every grove of timber and hazel brush, every stream or considerable branch, and every pond, as well as the courses and location with reference to section lines. The number of acres in each section is also marked thereon, and where the section is fractional-that is, the section contains more or less than one square mile-the number of acres in each one-eighth of a section is also shown.
"This record, besides being important as a factor in determining the lines and titles to the lands within the county, is of interest to one inquiring into the early history of the county. These plats and notes were made by the men of the white race who first minutely examined these landscapes. They show the county with reference to the space occupied by timber and open prairie, just as they appeared to Runnel
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Fielder, Henry Sadorus and William Tompkins when they came here a few years thereafter.
"The question has no doubt often been, mentally if not audibly, asked by the dwellers in these groves and upon these premises: 'Who sur- veyed these lands into the sections and townships which now divide the country into farms, neighborhoods and sections and townships? Who piled up the mounds at the corners of the sections, in the absence of better monuments? Whose eyes first minutely examined these land- scapes, and who, in their day-dreams, heard the tramp of our coming?' These questions have often been asked by mne, and I presume by others. I am able to answer from official intelligence.
"It is well here to speak briefly of the Rector family, who were famous in Illinois in early days.
"The Rector family came to Kaskaskia in 1806, when the lands of the United States were to be surveyed. This was a numerous family, consisting of nine brothers and four daughters. They were natives of Virginia. All were remarkable for fearlessness.
"William Rector had, before the War of 1812, been a deputy sur- veyor. During that war he commanded a regiment as its colonel, in the campaign against the Indians, at the head of Peoria Lake. In 1816, Colonel Rector was appointed surveyor-general of Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas. Some of his brothers were deputies under him. Colonel Rector took up his residence in St. Louis on receiving his appointment, as likewise did the rest of the family.
"Townships from 17 to 20, in ranges 7 to 8, including the towns of Sadorus, Colfax, Scott, Mahomet, Pesotum, Tolono, Champaign and Hensley, were surveyed into sections by Richard T. Holliday, for Elias Rector, deputy surveyor, in 1812.
"Townships 21 and 22, in ranges 7 and 8, including the towns of Newcomb, Brown, Condit and East Bend, were surveyed by David Anderson and Patrick Oscar Lee, deputy surveyors, in 1823.
"Townships 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21, range 9, including the towns of Crittenden, Philo, Urbana, Somers and a part of Rantoul, were sur- veyed by Benjamin Franklin Messenger, deputy surveyor, in 1821.
"Township 22, in ranges 9 and 10, including the towns of Ludlow and Harwood, were surveyed in 1822, by Enoch Moore, deputy surveyor.
"Townships 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21, range 10, including the towns of Raymond, Sidney, St. Joseph, Stanton and parts of Rantoul and Com- promise, were surveyed in 1821, by Jacob Judy, deputy surveyor.
"Townships 17, 18, 19 and 20, range 14 west, including the towns of Homer and Ogden, were surveyed in 1821, by James Thompson, deputy surveyor.
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"Township 21, range 14 west, including part of Compromise Town- ship, was surveyed in 1821, by James Messenger, deputy surveyor.
"Township 22, range 14, including part of Kerr Township, was sur- veyed in 1822, by E. Starr, deputy surveyor.
"These facts in relation to the regular townships will settle the question in relation to the narrow, irregular strips running through the eastern part of the county, known as range 11, for the fixing of the corners of sections in the regular townships at the same time operated to divide this strip into townships and sections.
A PIONEER FAMILY
"The surveyors went heavily armed for defense against the cunning red man, and not unfrequently were ambushed and killed. It required not only a knowledge of instruments and mathematics, but familiarity with weapons and the modes of Indian warfare.
"Nelson Rector, a brother of Elias and Colonel Rector, nearly lost his life while engaged in surveying. He had a 'company of surveyors out on the waters of the Saline Creek, in Gallatin County, where, on the 1st of March, 1814, he was fired on by the Indians and severely wounded. His left arm was broken, a ball entered his left side and another touched his face. His horse carried him off, and he recovered from his wounds.'"
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
PIONEERS SETTLED IN GROVES AND TIMBER BELTS
As has been noted, the pioneers of the county chose for their home- steads locations in the beautiful groves and timber belts. Among the most noted of these was Big Grove, comprising a body of heavily timbered rich land, on a branch of the Salt Fork and nearly in the center of the county, twelve miles long and averaging three miles in width. The prairie country around was also most delightful, with an abundance of good water everywhere. Such advantages, with the added fact that the well known Fort Clark Road, which runs from near Danville on the Vermilion River, in the eastern part of the State, to the Illinois River, skirted its northern borders, naturally directed the attention of potential home-makers to the desirability of Big Grove as a place of residence. Even before generally traveled by white men, it was a favorite ronte for the Kickapoos journeying between the Vermilion and their chief interior village in what is now McLean County.
ROUTE OF FORT CLARK ROAD THROUGH COUNTY
The earliest comers to Champaign County followed this convenient thoroughfare from a point about two miles northeast of the present site of Homer northwest through Hickory Grove and a short distance north of the present village of St. Joseph, where it crossed the east branch of the South Fork at Prather's Ford, thence followed the western branch of that creek past Hays Grove to the northern point of the Big Grove, thence crossing what was afterward Adkins Point and Beaver 'Dam, and thence it bore to the northwest, crossing the Sangamon at Newcom's Ford, and from that point up the west bank of the river through Cheney's Grove (Saybrook) to Bloomington and Peoria-the latter then called Fort Clark.
RUNNEL FIELDER, FIRST SETTLER
It was in the Big Grove, a short distance south of the Fort Clark Road and about four miles northeast of the present site of Urbana, that Runnel Fielder, the county's first settler, squatted with his family upon a bluff near Salt Creek, in 1822. He built his cabin near the northwest corner of Section 12, but a few rods from what is known as the Blackberry Schoolhouse. This was the first residence erected in Champaign County by a white man, and its builder also broke the first land in that section, thereby representing the pioneer farmer of the white race. Charles Fielder, the son of Runnel, taught school near Big
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Grove in the winter of 1827-28, and was, in all probability, the first teacher of the county.
The pioneer settler of Champaign County was never more than a squatter upon his original homestead. Another eventually obtained a title to his land, although he did enter the eighty-acre tract east of his home place in June, 1828, which was the first entry of public lands in the Big Grove neighborhood. In the following September, Runnel Fielder was appointed, by the Board of Commissioners of Vermilion County, supervisor of the Fort Clark Road from Prather's Ford on the Salt Fork to the western line of Vermilion County. Soon afterward he emigrated from the county, and about 1831 settled in Tazewell County ; that is, the records show that in March, 1832, he executed a deed in that county for his eighty acres in Big Grove to Isaac Busey.
TOMPKINS SQUATS ON SITE OF URBANA
Soon after the coming of the Fielders to Big Grove, William Tomp- kins settled on the site of Urbana. He built a cabin of nnhewn logs. twenty feet square near the southwest corner of the southwest quarter of Section 8, which was known, after the platting of Urbana, as Lot No. 7 of Hooper & Parks' Addition. The site of the Tompkins home was a patch of hazel brush and small timber, also upon the bank of Salt Creek. The cabin was standing as late as 1855, in the heart of Urbana, and was then pointed out as the oldest house in town. The locality was of special historic interest also, because it marked a well known camping ground of the Kickapoos and Pottawattamies, and the remains of old corn fields were plainly visible for several years after the locality com- menced to be well settled.
"Tompkins," says Judge Cunningham, "like other early settlers of the county, must have occupied this land as a squatter, for the records show no entry of lands by him until February 5, 1830, when he entered the eighty-acre tract where he lived, which embraced all the territory in Urbana bounded on the north by the city limits, east by Vine Street, south by the alley north of Main Street and west by a line running north from the stone bridge. On November 1, 1830, he also entered the eighty-acre tract lying immediately south of that tract, bounded on the north by the first entry, east by Vine Street, south by the city limits and west by the alley next west of Race Street. Before this last entry Tompkins had improved and fenced about twenty acres which lay mostly south of Main Street."
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
HENRY SADORUS
After the Fielders and Tompkinses, the next family to settle in Champaign County with any degree of permanence was that headed by Henry Sadorus, who continued to reside on the Okaw, in the south- western part of the county, for a period of fifty-four years. He gave his name to the grove and the township, as well as the village in the extreme northeastern part of the latter. Mr. Sadorus had served as a soldier in the War of 1812, and about 1818, then thirty-five years of age, immigrated with his family to Indiana. He was a natural trades- man and money-maker, and had amassed quite a capital for the times, when he started for the Vermilion country, with his wife and six chil- dren, in 1824. The eldest of the children was a lad of fourteen, who assisted his father in managing the five yoke of steers which drew the prairie wagon toward the Okaw. It was in the fall of the year, and when he discovered an abandoned cabin on the southeast quarter of Section 1, Township 17, Range 7, he took possession of it and the family commenced housekeeping. He remained a squatter until Decem- ber 11, 1834, when he entered the quarter section at the Vandalia land office. His son William, at the same time, entered the eighty-acre tract adjoining on the north, which were the first entries of land in Sadorus Township.
At the time of Mr. Sadorus' death on July 18, 1878, the Champaign County Gazette published a complete and appreciative sketch of the deceased, in which occurred the following: "The State Road from Kas- kaskia having been opened and passing near his residence, Mr. Sadorus decided to erect a building for a tavern. The nearest saw mill was at Covington, Indiana, sixty miles away, but the lumber (some 50,000 feet) was hauled through unbridged sloughs and streams, and the house was built. For many years Mr. Sadorus did a thriving business. His corn was disposed of to drovers who passed his place with herds of cattle for the East, besides being fed to great numbers of hogs on his farms. His first orchard, now mostly dead, consisted of fifty Milams, procured somewhere near Terre Haute, Indiana. From them were taken innumerable sprouts, and that apple became very common in this section.
"In common with nearly all the pioneers, Mr. Sadorus grew his own cotton, at least enough for clothing and bedding. A half-fare sufficed for this, and the custom was kept up until it became no longer profitable, the time of the mother and three daughters being so much occupied in cooking for and waiting upon the travelers that they could not weave; besides goods began to get cheaper and nearly every immi-
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grant had some kind of cloth to dispose of. About the year 1846 Mrs. Sadorus died, and seven years later he again married, this time a Mrs. Eliza Canterbury of Charleston.
"Some years ago, becoming tired of attending to so much business, Mr. Sadorus divided his property among his descendants, retaining, however, an interest which enabled him to pass his declining years in ease. He died full of years, respected by all who knew him, and beloved by a large circle of friends. He was kind and hospitable to strangers, and never turned a needy man away empty-handed from his door."
Judge Cunningham adds, speaking of the old Sadorus home and Grove: "The home thus set up far from other human habitations was the abode of contentment, hospitality and reasonable thrift, in the first rude cabin which sheltered the family, as well as in the more pretentious home to which the cabin gave place in due time. The Grove was a landmark for many miles around, and the weary traveler well knew that welcome and rest always awaited him at the Sadorus home. Here Mr. Sadorus entertained his neighbors-the Buseys, Webbers and others, from Big Grove; the Piatts, Boyers and others, from down on the Sangamon; Coffeen, the enterprising general merchant, from down on the Salt Fork; the Johnsons, from Linn Grove, and the dwell- ers upon the Ambraw and the Okaw. He was also the counsellor and adviser of all settlers along the upper Okaw in matters pertaining to their welfare, and his judgment was implicitly relied upon."
THE COMING OF SADORUS AND SMITH
The circumstances surrounding the coming of Henry Sadorus to the grove which bears his name, with the main facts of his journey thither, are thus told by Judge Cunningham : "Henry Sadorus, lovingly known by the whole country to the day of his death as Grandpap Sadorus, was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, July 26, 1783, four years before the adoption of the Federal Constitution. The spring of 1817 found him living with his little family-of whom William Sadorus (until of late also a venerable resident of the county), then about five years old, having been born July 4, 1812, was the eldest-on Oil Creek, Crawford County, in the same State. The Western fever, which has prevailed among Americans since the landing of the Pilgrims, attacked the elder Sadorus and, from the native timbers of that region, he constructed a raft or flat boat, upon which he loaded his worldly goods and family, and, after the manner of that time, set out by water upon a long journey westward.
"The flat boat was huilt upon the waters of Oil Creek, and down the
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
adventurers set forth in pursuit of a home in the West, they knew not where. Following the creek to its junction with the Allegheny River, that stream soon bore them to Pittsburgh and the Ohio River, by which means their frail bark in time landed them in Cincinnati, then the emporium of the Far West. One shipwreck alone, at the head of Bien- nerhasset Island, befell the travelers. The flat boat, having served its purpose, was sold in Cincinnati for $1,700 in James Piatt's shinplaster money, making the travelers rich for the time being, but in six months it shared the fate of its kind and was worthless, Mr. Sadorus again being a poor man.
"The family remained in Cincinnati two years, when Mr. Sadorus again drifted westward, stopping successively at Connersville,. Flat Rock and Raccoon, in the State of Indiana, where they found themselves in the spring of 1824, still with a desire to go West. Early in that year, Mr. Sadorus and a neighbor-one Joe Smith-fitted themselves out, each with a team of two yokes of oxen and a covered wagon, suitable for moving their families and goods. Thus accoutred, they again set their faces westward, intending to go to the Illinois country, possibly as far as Fort Clark, since called Peoria.
"An almost trackless forest lay between them and their destination. They passed the site of the city of Indianapolis, then but recently selected as the State capital, where the foundations of the old capitol buildings had but just been laid. Crossing the Wabash River by a ferry at Clinton, Indiana, the party soon encountered the Grand Prairie. After entering Illinois, they met with only one house between the State line and the Okaw River, and that was the home of Hezekiah Cunning- ham, on or near the Vermilion River, where he kept a small trading post for traffic with the Indians. On April 9, 1824, the party reached the isolated grove at the head of the Okaw River, since known as Sadorus Grove, and, as usual, encamped for the night near the place which eventually became the permanent home of the Sadorus family.
DISCOVER AND DIVIDE THE GROVE
"A brief survey of their surroundings satisfied the party that a point had been reached which fully met all their demands for a home. So far as they knew they were thirty or forty miles from neighbors, but were surrounded by as fruitful a country as was to be found, in which wild game abounded and where every want might easily be supplied. Accord- ingly, they determined here to remain and to set about making them- selves comfortable. They found the grove whose shelter they had accepted was three or four miles long and nearly equally divided by a
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narrow place in the timber, through which the Wabash Railroad now crosses the stream. So the two heads of families partitioned the tract covered by this grove between themselves, Smith taking the south end and Sadorus the north end-the Narrows, as the line was called, being the boundary.
FIRST SMITH AND SADORUS CABINS
"Having so divided the beautiful grove of timber between them, the two pioneers proceeded to make arrangements for a permanent stay in the place chosen for a home by building for each a cabin. Smith erected his cabin upon the site of the first encampment, and near where the old Sadorus home now stands, in the southeast quarter of Section 1. It was built of split linn logs, sixteen by sixteen feet, covered with split oaken boards, with linn puncheons for a floor. The roof, after the manner of cabin building, was laid upon logs or poles laid lengthwise of the cabin, each succeeding pole being a little higher than the last and converging toward the apex. These boards, for the want of nails, which were not to be had, were held in place by weight poles laid length- wise over the butts of each course. The door was made of split boards held in place by wooden pins. The window was only a hole cut in the log wall to let in the light, subsequently covered with greased muslin to keep out the cold.
"The Sadorus home, which was built two miles north on Section 36, in what is now Colfax Township but within the grove, was less pre- tentious. It was built of the same material, ten by twenty feet, but entirely open upon one side-what is called a 'half-faced camp.' In this cabin windows and doors were entirely dispensed with.
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