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 13
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"Settled in these crude homes, the pioneers set about preparing for their future. The summer was spent in the cultivation of little patches of corn and garden by means of a crude prairie plow and other tools which they had brought with them, and in hunting the wild game for their meat and peltries, the result being that, as the autumn approached, the larders of the families were well supplied with the best the country afforded. The wolves, however, ate and destroyed much of their sod corn.
SADORUS SOLE PROPRIETOR OF THE GROVE
"In the fall the heads of the two families, having well laid in table supplies, concluded to know what lay to the west of them. Filling their packs with small supplies of provisions, with their rifles upon their shoulders, they again set out on foot together for the West, leaving their families housed as we have seen. They traveled as far as Peoria,
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where Smith determined to remove his family. Their course led them by the way of Mackinaw and Kickapoo Creek, through Indian country. Returning as they went, after an absence of two week, they found at their homes everything quiet and in order.
"Smith at once sold his cabin and improvements to Sadorus, the consideration being the hauling by the latter of a load of goods from the Okaw timber to the Illinois River, which was paid according to agree- ment, and the south end of the grove, with all the improvements, passed to Mr. Sadorus, who thus became the only inhabitant of the south end of the county.
OCCUPATION AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE SMITH CABIN
"The Sadorus family lost no time in taking possession of the Smith cabin, which became its home then, and, with the land upon which it was erected, is still the home of a member of the household, Mr. Allen Sadorus. Its comforts were exchanged in place of the 'half-faced camp,' and all claim to the upper half of the grove was abandoned. The land, thus occupied for a few months by the family, many years afterward became the home of James Miller.
"The Smith cabin was daubed that fall, which means that the interstices between the logs were filled with chinks and mud to prevent the cold from intruding, and its foundations were banked with earth for a like purpose. A mud chimney was built outside with a fireplace opening inside the cabin, and carried up above the cabin roof with sticks and mud. A companion cabin, built subsequently a few feet away, in like manner supplied with a mud and stick chimney and daubed as was the first, added to the comforts and conveniences of the family. A single sash window was bought in Eugene, Indiana, a few years thereafter and that, glazed with glass, gave the family one glass window-the first in Champaign County-and in time other openings, answering for windows, were likewise supplied.
"These cabins did duty as the Sadorus domicile until 1838, about fourteen years, when the permanent home was erected."
MATTHIAS AND MARTIN RHINEHART
The Rhinehart family was prominently identified with the early period of the county's development. Matthias, the ancestor in these parts, brought his family from Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1828 or 1829, and made a settlement in the west half of the southwest quarter of Section 26, Somer Township. In association with his son-in-law.
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Walter Rhoades, he entered that tract in February, 1830. The first postoffice in what is now Champaign County, called Van Buren, was established thereon. Mr. Rhoades lived upon that tract until about 1857, when he sold to A. M. Fauley. There the son, Martin Rhinehart, reached manhood. When he was twenty years of age he enlisted in the Black Hawk War for service in Captain Brown's company of Mounted Rangers. He furnished his own horse, gun and clothing, and received for his services $1 per day. For many years he shared with Thomas L. Butler, who had settled near Homer at about the same time as the Rhinehart family farther to the northwest, the honor of being the only survivor who participated in that campaign from what is now Champaign County. Martin Rhinehart became a prominent and a wealthy citizen.
A HOUSEHOLD TREASURE
When he came as a youth to the central part of the county there were but thirty-five families living within its borders.
INCIDENTS RELATED BY RHINEHART
"The year 1831," he once related, "was almost without a summer; the cold weather continued until late in the spring and a hard frost set in on September 20th, it being so severe that it froze the corn, cob and all. In consequence of the loss of the crop, times got close and money was extremely scarce. The following year settlers were com- pelled to send to Kentucky for their seed corn. In December, 1836, a
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deep snow lay upon the ground. It began to rain and continued all day, when suddenly it turned intensely cold, making ice over the ground and freezing very hard. The sudden change caught many persons unpre- pared and they were frozen to death. Two men named Hildreth and Frame were crossing Four Mile Prairie on that day; they became bewildered, lost their way and were out when the change came. They killed their horses and Frame crawled inside the body of his horse for protection against the cold. But it proved his tomb, as he was found there frozen to death. Hildreth wandered around all night, and when found in the morning was so badly frozen that he lost his toes and fingers."
Mr. Rhinehart also spoke of the early doctors of that day. Dr. Saddler was one of the first physicians of the county and was accounted a good one. It is related of him that he attended a family east of Urbana. This family had a large patch of fine, ripe and juicy water- melons. The doctor continued his visits long after the patient was convalescent, and the family dropped upon the idea that the water- melon patch was the chief attraction and the cause of his repeated visits. They gently broke the news to him that his patient was entirely well, and hinted that further visits were entirely superfluous. The doctor went home and sent in a bill that covered all the visits. The family refused payment. Suit was brought to recover the amount, when the family rendered an account for watermelons devoured by the doctor as an offset, and obtained a small judgment against him. All the neighbors declared that the decision was a most just one."
TRIPS TO CHICAGO
When the Sadorus family first came to the Grove their nearest post- office and county seat was Paris, Edgar County, fifty-two miles to the southeast. Their chief trading point for fifteen years, where they marketed their hogs and bought some of their supplies, was Eugene, Indiana, sixty miles away, with occasional trips to Chicago. The first trip made by Mr. Sadorus to that growing trading post on Lake Michi- gan was in the fall of 1834. Besides himself and his son, Henry, were Uncle Matthew Busey and his son, Fountain J .; Captain Nox, of Sidney, father of Solomon Nox; Pete Bailey, of Salt Fork, and Hiram Jackson. There were four wagons, each drawn by five yoke of oxen. The Sadorus outfit had oats for sale. The company assembled at Poage's, north of Homer, journeyed northward by way of Pilot Grove and Bourbonnais Grove, forded the Kankakee River and swam creeks and streams to the number of eleven, before they reached Fort Dearborn, after three weeks
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of almost continuous raiu. The Sadorus oats had sprouted from one to two inches when the caravan arrived at its destination, but the garrison at the Fort was glad to get them at that, for fifty cents a bushel. Mr. Sadorus purchased of the widely known trader, Gurdon S. Hubbard, for his return trip, salt, sugar, coffee and other family supplies.
These trips to Chicago became quite frequent. In 1830 the Conkey family had come from Massachusetts and settled in Edgar County, and two years afterward William A., then a boy of twelve, made his first visit to Ford Dearborn and the trading post at that point. His elder brother "geed" and "hawed" the ox-team. The wagon was loaded with flour, meat, butter, eggs and other produce, and the trip was made by way of Danville. Nothing disagreeable occurred until the Calumet River was reached, when the precious freight was, for a time, threatened by the soft mud of its bottom. But the cargo and wagon were finally rescued, and Gurdon Hubbard was none the wiser. The Conkeys laid in a good supply of salt and other family provisions for the return journey.
ONE THOUSAND MILE TRIP OF THE CONKEY FAMILY
The same younger Conkey brother settled at Homer in 1843 as one of the pioneer physicians of the county, and years afterwards read a paper before the Champaign Historical Society describing the one thousand mile journey of the family, made in 1830, from their old Massachusetts home to their new home in Edgar County, Illinois. It reads thus: "At the earnest solicitation of my friend, Judge Cunning- ham, one of the promoters of this society, I consented to present a paper setting forth a few incidents of the trip (as I now remember them) of the immigration of my father and his family from Massachu- setts to Illinois in the year 1830. Some few years previous to that time a brother of my mother's from the adjoining town to our residence, against the wishes and entreaties of his friends, relatives and neighbors, started west to see if he could find a country presenting better facilities for a permanent home than he had among the hills and rocks of the East. He had a distant relative of his wife living in Vigo County, Indiana, and to that point they drifted; and after examining the country around there went west to the prairies of Illinois, which presented such an in- viting appearance to him that he at once decided to stop there and make it his future home, being near Paris, the county seat of Edgar County. The glowing description he gave his old associates of the country he had found induced my father to join him in Illinois. My oldest brother
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having preceded the rest of the family a year or so before, and having purchased a forty-acre tract of land adjoining his uncle's for the use of the family on which to make a new start in life. Some time about the first of May, 1830, we bade goodbye to the old homestead in Charlemont, Franklin County, Massachusetts, and the old friends and neighbors, which to them seemed more like a funeral than a temporary separation, and started with such household goods, clothing, etc., as loaded two wagons and teams, hired for the purpose of conveying them to Troy, N. Y., a distance of about fifty miles; at which place we were joined by a brother and sister of my mother's with a span of horses and a light wagon which accompanied our family the entire trip. Remaining in Troy two or three days, we got passage on a canal boat for the entire family (save the uncle, who drove his team to Buffalo), the family then being my father, mother, aunt and a sister aged thirteen and myself -- five in all. After a slow and tedious trip we joined my uncle and team again at Buffalo-a distance of about 250 miles from Troy.
"The trip while on the canal was a slow and tedious one. Not having any record of the time and after an absence of nearly seventy years, I will not attempt to say how long it took us. It was on this part of our journey that I first heard boys scientifically swear; it seemed that at every change of horses and drivers the new driver endeavored to show us that he could do more hard swearing than any of our former ones, and I think if such a thing were possible our last one was entitled to the plum.
"On our arrival at Buffalo we had to wait two or three days before we were able to get passage to Perrysburg, situated on the lake at the mouth of the Maumee River, at or near where Toledo is now situated. Having succeeded in getting passage on a popular schooner, commanded by Captain Wilkinson, an old lake captain, we loaded our goods, horses and wagon on board, and with a few other men going west and with two additional ladies, took possession of the cabin, located in the 'hole' of the craft and quite a cozy, neat apartment. When supper was an- nounced, a majority of the passengers asked to be excused from partici- pating, the rolling of the boat having relieved them from all feeling of hunger, besides occupying their time in attending to the duties required to keep their stomachs from getting in their mouths; but fortunately I had not yet taken the disease and was able to do justice to the good things we had for supper, awaiting my time until later. Sometime after midnight a heavy storm came up; the waters became very angry, and occasionally a wave would wash over our boat so that the most of those who did not want any supper forgot their sickness and fully expected to
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go where sickness never comes. Before morning and to cap the climax, a very strong gale of wind broke the mainmast of our craft and all below at the crash expected to find themselves at the bottom of the lake; but about this time, the fury of the storm began to abate and, with the smaller mast, the sailors kept the boat in an upright position until day- break when at about 10 or 11 o'clock they landed at Dunkirk and rigged another mainmast so that by dark they were in condition to proceed, but waited until the latter part of the night before they left. Before start- ing from Buffalo they had erected a good strong fence or pen around our horses which were on top of the boat and fortunately when the mast broke it fell in such a direction as not to strike them. Well, when morn- ing came and breakfast was ready, and the tender-footed found they were alive, the most of them partook of such diet as they thought their stom- achs would stand. Now, in all seriousness, this was no pleasant trip so far, and in after years the recollection of that night brought up memo- ries in the minds of most of those present that were far from pleasant.
"The next night after leaving Dunkirk the lake again became very rough, accompanied by high winds that drove our boat and stranded it in shallow water near Long Point, which extends into the lake from the Canada side, and not to exceed one-fourth of a mile from the mainland ; and on getting up in the morning we found ourselves fast on the sand, and all that could be done was to remain there until we could attract the attention of some passing boat for our relief by coming to our assist- ance and lightening our boat so it would again float. As soon as it became light enough, our captain had his flag of distress run up to the highest point of our mainmast, but having by the wind been driven so far north and out of the usual track, we remained in our then-present position for five days and nights before our distress signal was seen, when a passing schooner discovered it, came to our relief, and after taking enough of our cargo to allow our boat to again float, we got into deeper water, and reloading our freight again proceeded on our voyage. Having been delayed there so long, our provisions were getting short, but got a supply from our rescuer to relieve us until we landed at Cleve- land without any suffering, except food for our horses which, while stranded, had eaten all we had provided for them, and the Canada shore having no show of vegetation we unpacked several crates of queensware on board and fed them the dirty, musty straw which they ate with avidity, and which kept them alive until we reached Cleveland. Before getting to the pier we sailed along close to the land for quite a distance where stock was grazing on the green grass, which our starved horses aboard discovered, and they became perfectly frantic and so cross that
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the sailors passing them on deck dared not go near them. When we got to where we could take them off and where they could get something to eat they soon got all right.
"Here we also took our wagon off the boat and my uncle drove them to Perrysburg, getting there a few days after the boat arrived, and where we waited until he joined us. Here we saw many Indians, and in fact hardly a day passed until we got to Logansport, Indiana, that we did not encounter more or less of them. While awaiting the arrival of uncle with the team, at Perrysburg, we contracted to be conveyed by keel boat up the Maumee River to Fort Wayne, Indiana, a distance of about ninety miles on a straight line, but how far by that tortuous river I don't know; it seemed a long way. Our crew was composed of a captain who steered the boat and six men, three of which worked on each side of the boat and propelled the craft by long poles, the lower end of each pole covered with a sheath of iron drawn to a point and by walking from stern to bow dragging the poles thus equipped, and then facing the stern of the boat, placing the lower end on the bottom of the river and the upper end against their shoulders, pushing the boat the length of it and getting up a speed to carry it along until they walked again to the bow and repeated their trip to stern as before stated, walking on a wide board with slats nailed across the top to prevent their slipping, and when the boat is loaded is but a few inches above the water.
"At Perrysburg we again put our wagon on board the boat, and either uncle or father rode one of the horses and led the other; there was no wagon road the most of the way, only a trail traveled by the mail car- rier on horseback and marked by cutting three notches in each side of a tree occasionally as a guide. After arriving at Fort Wayne (an old town from the appearance of the buildings, and I think a population not exceeding 200 or 300) we were compelled to remain there until our men folks went across a low flat timbered country some twelve or fifteen miles to the Wabash River to see what the chance was, if any, to get trans- portation down said stream to a point about seven miles above Terre Haute. They were gone three or four days, and on their return reported that the only chance to get down said stream that they could find or hear about was to purchase a pirogue and float down. They accordingly found one made of a large poplar tree, about fifty feet in length, holding its size pretty well its entire length, the inside measure at the large end nearly three feet and the small end twenty-eight inches. This they pur- chased, the party agreeing to have it at a certain place where it could be reached by wagon from Fort Wayne, and returned.
"We then engaged a couple of wagons and teams to haul us to the 1-8
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river in a day, but owing to the condition of the roads and no wagons having passed over them since the fall before, trees had been blown down and across the track, some of which were where we could not get around, and consequently had to spend so much time in removing them that dark overtook us some four miles from the river. We consequently halted, and after building a big fire interested the female portion of our party in preparing supper. We then changed the position of the load in one wagon so as to get a sleeping place for my mother and her sister, while my sister and I stowed ourselves away ; and there we all spent the first night of our lives in a wagon, while the older males of the party put in the time until morning keeping up the fire and spinning yarns, after having satisfied some six or eight Indians who visited them (having been attracted by the fire) that we had no whisky.
"The next morning, after getting breakfast, we struck out and found our boat, in which we proceeded to place our freight, having plenty of room for sleeping quarters. Here again we loaded on our boat our wagon and, as on part of our voyage previously spoken of, one of the older ones traveled with the horses, saluting our craft occasionally through the day, and if convenient, staying with us at night. The weather was warm and comfortable, and by this time (it being June) we leisurely floated along for several days without anything unusual occur- ring. Almost any one of us could steer our craft until one night, when all together and all asleep, the moon having gone down and hardly a ripple on the water, our craft tipped to one side, and before we could get it righted up was at least one-third full of water; and, attracted by a noise on shore like the cracking of brush, we were fully satisfied that someone had stepped upon the edge of our craft, as we always thought, for the purpose of purloining something, and having tipped our boat and at the same time awakened its occupants, left in a hurry; and on the next morning we found footsteps to and also going in the direction of the cracking heard the night before. After righting up our boat we went to work and dipped all the water out we could get, and where our clothes were wet replaced them by dry ones, but we did no more sleeping that night.
"The next day was bright and warm and again we started on our journey, and as luck would have it, my uncle, who was with the horses, found another pirogue nearly as large as the first one, only about thirty- five feet long, which he bought, and when we got along he hailed us in good time to land, when they lashed the two boats together and made a very safe and commodious craft. The only thing missed from our boat was my mother's willow work basket in which she had her knit-
THE OLD CABIN, WITHIN AND WITHOUT
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ting and other work, which we found the next morning in a drift about a mile below where it was tipped out the night before.
"The balance of our trip was free from any other mishaps worthy of note, drifting with the current by day and tying up at night, making stops only at towns occasionally to replenish our larder, until we arrived at Durkee's Ferry, seven miles above Terre Haute, where we found my oldest brother, who had come to meet us, and a representative of the distant relative of my uncle and wife, spoken of in the fore part of this paper, tendering us the hospitality of their home until we could get moved to our destination, which invitation was thankfully received, and on the same day had our goods conveyed there and remained until everything was unpacked and such as had got wet from the tipping over of our craft, thoroughly dried.
FIRST SIGHT OF THE GRAND PRAIRIE
"After a day or two my father and uncle, with our own conveyance, drove to the place of our destination, about fifteen miles west, where father procured a couple of yoke of oxen and a wagon and returned to where he had left us. After reloading a portion of our goods, he returned to where he had procured a log cabin in the neighborhood, and in which we remained until he built a house on the land heretofore spoken of. My father permitted me to accompany him with the first load. The first nine miles of the road was through timber, when we struck the Grand Prairie as it was then called. The grass waving in the beautiful sunlight of June and all the wild flowers indigenous to the prairies bowing their heads to the breeze, presented a sight that I thought the most beautiful I had ever beheld, the remembrance of which, notwith- standing seventy years have passed and gone since then, is still as vivid to my mind, it seems, as the day when I first viewed the beauties of the grand old prairies of Illinois.
"This brings us to the end of our trip, a distance of 820 miles in straight lines, as follows: from Charlemont to Troy, fifty; thence to Buffalo, 250; thence to Perrysburg, 240; thence to Fort Wayne, ninety; thence to Durkee's Ferry, 180; thence to destination, fifteen; said com- putations being from points named derived from the scale of miles marked on the map of each state traveled. Taking into account the tortuous course of the streams navigated, and land traveled, the dis- tance was at least 1,000 miles."
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COLONEL MATTHEW W. BUSEY
The pioneer of the Busey families, who have been so prominent in all fields of development in Champaign County, was Colonel Matthew W., who came to the Urbana region in the early part of 1828 with his wife and eight children, and purchasing the claims of one, Sample Cole, a squatter on the north end of the west half of the northeast quarter of Section 15 for $100, established there his homestead, which he occu- pied until his death in 1852. Born in Shelby County, Kentucky, May 15, 1798, the Colonel was blessed with the typical hospitality and genial- ity of his southern forefathers, although the paternal family moved to Washington County, Indiana, at an early date. In the matter of friend- liness and neighborliness the Buseys certainly lost none of these traits by moving from Kentucky to Indiana. In the Hoosier State young Busey learned the trade of brick mason, which he at first followed and, for one of his enterprising temperament, naturally developed into the business of a builder and contractor. He was also a lover of fine live- stock and a natural farmer; so that he was well fitted to become useful and prominent in the newer country of Illinois. Before settling in Champaign County he had been commissioned colonel in the Indiana State militia, and a few years after his arrival here was similarly hon- ored by the governor of Illinois. So that his "colonel" was no empty title. It is said that on general muster day there was no more resplen- dent and imposing figure than the hearty and able Colonel Busey. [See more extended biography elsewhere.]
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