USA > Illinois > Johnson County > A history of Johnson County, Illinois > Part 13
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a disposition to aid the Sheriff in keeping the peace in mak- ing arrests, and in preventing violence.
I therefore, hereby authorize you, to inquire into the truth of the above representations and others that may be made to you; and if in your opinion a Militia force shall be necessary in said county, you are hereby authorized to call in the Colonels commanding the Militia in the Counties of Gallatin, Johnson, Pulaski, Alexander and Union, who, are hereby commanded to call out such force as may be de- manded; and they will then act according to the following orders.
1st. It is not my design that such Militia force should be used for the protection of horse thieves. counterfeiters or other notorous rogues, whose presence for a long time past in that part of the country has enraged the minds of a great many honest people.
Such Militia force will be used, to protect the Sheriff and his deputies, and all Magistrates and Constables to- gether with the members of the grand jury and the wit- nesses before them, unless such witnesses be rouges, and also such Militia force will be used for the protection of all honest, well meaning people, who have merely disappro- ed of the conduct of the regulators; who lecture that they have carried matters too far; and have opposed them on that account, and who are, or may be threatened therefore.
The Militia force hereby ordered, will not be required to aid in driving off anyone, nor to prevent any notorious rogue from being driven off.
THOMAS FORD, Governor and Com. in Chief.
There were some rough men in this county in its early settlement and even many years afterward. 'They did not respect the law and many cared little for human life. Horse stealing was a common occurrence and some times the thieves were dealt with severly out side the law but this form of dishonesty is about extinct in this county. In former times a few hogs and cattle would occasionally, somehow, get the other man's mark when stock ran at large on the range, but since the days of barbed wire and stock law, men have become more honest. The most noted piece of burglary ever committed in this county was the
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theft of a saw mill, said to be by one William Lizenbeck. The mill was taken up, moved a considerable distance and operated for some time without the knowledge of the owner.
The noted Carterville trial was brought here from Williamson County in 1899. It was a long drawn out affair and involved much time and money. A part of a company of National Guards was kept at Vienna during the trial which grew out of the shooting into a railroad coach at Law- ler, Williamson County and killing at least one colored woman. The trouble arose from the objection of the miners to the employment of negro labor in the mines. There were fifteen men on trial and resulted in the acquital of the defendants. Some very prominent legal talent was employed in the case; Ex-Governor Charles P. Johnston, of Missouri, R. R. Fowler, W. W. Clemens, Edward Spiller, W. W. Duncan and Geo. W. Pillow of Marion, Ill. F. M. Youngblood and W. W. Barr, of Carbondale Ill., S. H. Reed, of DuQuoin, Ill., G. H. Henshaw, J. L. Gallimore, R. B. Morton, Carterville, Ill., W. A. Spann, P. T. Chapman, G. B. Gillespie, and L. O. Whitnel of Vienna.
TECUMSEH SPRING, REBMAN PARK, FERN CLYFFE
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VIENNA TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL
CASTLE ROCK, REBMAN PARK, FERN CLYFFE
INDIANS
PART IV
Long ago, so long ago no man knows when, a colony of stone grave people came into Southern Illinois, they prob- ably came from the valley of the Cumberland and spread over the county between the rivers as far north as Monroe County, where they crossed into Missouri. They left be- hind their unmistakable sign of burying their dead in graves lined and covered with rough flag stone. Where they vanished no one knows. There can be no doubt but that Indians inhabited Johnson County long before the ad- vent of the white settlers. They have left their trails in the forests. Older people have told those now living about the Indians here when they came and the roving bands of them passing through the county for years after- ward; one story is told of the wife of an early resident of Vienna Samuel J. Chapman who came to the county about 1816, how she baked bread under a brush arbor and sold it to the Indians. Uncle George Elkins, born in 1825, still living, says he sold pumpkins to them when they were passing through the county. However, there seems to be no tradition or history naming the tribes, except Rey- nolds, an early historian of Illinois speaks frequently of the Kickapoos being around Kaskaskia and Goshen, but that they lived just here one can not definitely say.
There is no dispute about the Shawnees living around Shawneetown, but it is not certain that they came as far west as Johnson. Some historians claim they lived here in the eighteenth century. Their signs were coffin shaped graves formed of flat stones without cement ; pottery, finely wrought shell and copper ornaments are found in them. Blanchard's maps locate the Pinkeshaws and Miamis in this county in 1765. He also locates Kickapoos here in 1812. The Indians ceded all lands in this section to the United States by a treaty signed at Edwardsville, Ill., 1819.
The remains of a race before ours and probably before the tribe of Indians of which George, who lived on Georges Creek in the eastern part of the county, was the chief, has been found. In this county there is a picture of a buffalo painted on the rocks of a bluff near Ozark, which is sup- posed to have been done by Indians or some other former
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inhabitants. There is no history or legend of its origin re- maining with the present settlers. Many Indian graves have been found in the county. Stone implements, such as Tomahawks, arrow heads, and pottery have been found in various parts of the county, a collection of which may be seen in the Carneigie Library in the exhibit of the Daniel Chapman Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution. There is also some fossil foot-prints in the sand stone for- mation in the community of Berea in the southeast section of the county. The foot is twelve inches long, has but four toes and shaped something like a man's foot.
SETTLERS
The early settlers who did not come direct from Vir- ginia or the Carolinas, came from Kentucky and Tennessee. Emigrated from some of the colonies, lived awhile in the latter states and pressed on farther west.
Virginia was, for many years in the seventeenth cen- tury, the refuge of those who were in turn prominent, im- poverished, endangered, or exiled in the civil wars of Crom- well's time. According as Puritan or Cavalier triumphed at home, so changed the complexion of the emigration of the old Dominion. The Carolinas were peopled by the Cavaliers, who expected to find sudden wealth in the new country, to set up the customs of the court and propigate the gay and chivalrous blood of the Knight. Between these and the French Huguenots who sought to find here religious liberty, there could but be sharp lines of social distinction. Those who came for adventure and gain were soon unde- ceived; those who sought freedom were made to feel the heavy hand of law and unjust taxes.
Then came the great leveler war. From the descen- dants of this people who were tried, tested, melted and re- molded in the fires of the struggle for independence, came the purified Anglo Saxon; that sturdy pioneer to whom civilization owes an undischargeable debt. Of this stock were our ancestors and thus began our early settlements. A few families at a time, occasionally a New Yorker, a New Englander or a Canadian, would sift into this steady stream of searchers for a new home. All the colors blended make "Lablanc," what else could follow but that Pilgrim. Cavalier, Huguenot and Yankee blended should make the most perfect type of citizen.
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A great many of our pioneers had lost their possessions in the Revolution and sought to rebuild their fortunes on new soil. Some of them brought slaves, old silver, pewter plate, native shrubs and flowers but each brought the char- acteristics peculiar to their section of the country. The hospitable, easy-going, genial traits of the southerner have prevailed in this county,
Fordham, an early historian of our state, divides the inhabitants of Southern Illinois into four classes, as fol- lows: "First Hunters; second, first settlers; third, doctors, lawyers, store-kepers, furriers, mechanics, those who trade and speculate in land, who found towns, those who put too much reliance in physical prowess; fourth, old settlers, rich, independent, well informed. Johnson County must have had some residents belonging to some of these classes but whether she could aspire to having any in the fourth class or not, one could not undertake to say.
The first settler in the original Johnson County, that we have a real knowledge of, was Daniel Flannery, who came to this section of the country in 1777 and took up a claim twenty-five or thirty miles above the mouth of the Ohio River and on or near the Mississippi." Flannerys and McElmunnys erected a station or block-house in Alex- ander County about 1783 in township sixteen oposite island number twenty-two in the Mississippi River. These set- tlers left the country and none of them were here in 1800." -Reynolds. He also says, "The Indians seemed to be especially hostile toward the American settlers from 1783 to 1789; but they did not molest the French." "It was the policy of the French, to conciliate the natives, whom they invariably treated with kindness and consideration never shown to that unhappy race by other Europeans with whom they preserved a faith unbroken on either side."- Ford.
Reynolds states that James Flannery was killed by the Indians in 1783, which would explain the Flannerys leaving the country for a time. They later returned, at least, Daniel Flannery did, and established his claim as a settler before the land office commission in 1809 at Kas- kaskia. Issac and Jacob Flannery entered land in Randolph County in 1811, most likely in the same locality where Daniel lived. The name of Flannery continues to appear
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on our court records as late as 1841. Other given names of this family were Samuel, Elijah, Jacob, Abram and Thomas. Reynolds says, "There was not a settler on the trace from Hull's landing, on the Ohio River to Kaskaskia in 1800." Boggs states there were 650 settlers along the Ohio River in 1801, from the census taken by Congress. Many of these families, no doubt, settled in the original bounds of this county, and while our present territory did not lie directly on the river some reckless adventurer, no doubt, found good game farther in the interior, set his stakes and built his little cabin in the present limits of Johnson County.
John and Joseph Worley are given as residents of Illi- nois in 1785. Joseph Worley is given as an American resi- dent of Cahokia in 1789, and James Finny's name also ap- pears as an American citizen of Illinois in 1780. This was taken from the Cahokia records. That these are the men whose names appear on Johnson County's early records, there can be little if any doubt.
The Ray family settled in the northeast part of the county in 1803 in the vicinity of Stonefort, but they are not further indentified with our history through records.
William Lawrence lived somewhere in the county originally set off in 1812 and called Johnson, but just where or how early has not been revealed. He was licensed to keep tavern," where he now lives in 1813." A road was ordered built by his house in 1814. He paid taxes on a still in 1816 and lived on Cache. Old receipts in his estate papers show he paid bills in Mulenberg, Kentucky, which would indicate he came from that state. Another old paper of his would lead one to believe he may have lived here as early as 1803. (See old Papers.)
Samuel Worthington was another pioneer of that time and connected with the Lawrences by marriage. There are some decendants of Worthingtons living in Pulaski County, but it is not known if they are of this family.
The next resident is William Simpson, who lived in Johnson County proper. While it is certain there were settlers here before him, there is no record of them. Tra- dition says he came here in 1805 from Kentucky by way of Shawneetown, making his own road part of the way. His
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name appears on the Randolph County records as early as 1808, and he must have lived here some time before as he brought suit against Hampton Pankey for $300 damage in the above year. He settled near what is known as Double Bridges in Simpson Township, built a double log house and opened as far as is known the first tavern in the county. There is a school house and cemetery located at the present time where his original house and farm building stood. It is about two miles north of Simpson and three from the county line of Pope.
James Finney was a resident of Randolph, tradition says coming from Virginia, in 1806, as he was appointed judge of the court of Common Pleas for that county that year. If his residence was in this section of the county at that time he was also an early settler, since it is certain that he lived in the present limits of Johnson County later. He would have had to live here at least a short time before his appointment. The fact that Reynolds does not speak of him as a first resident of Kaskaskia would make it plausible that he lived in this section. James Bain moved here from Kentucky in 1807, or the early part of the following year, as there is a record of a child of Mr. Bain's being born here in 1808. He settled what is known as the Vickers Farm, now owned by Levi J. Smith. The house stood about one half mile north of the present limits of Vienna. Mrs. Eliza Dwyer who came to this county from Ohio in 1857 and is now ninety-four years old says she knew Mr. and Mrs. James Bain quite well, and they were very old when she made their acquaintance. They told her they lived here a long time before they had any neighbors, but the Indians, who occupied the hills south of town where the farms of John B. Jackson, Joshua Arnold, and Ed. Harvick are now located. Mrs. Dwyer also says evidence such as arrow heads, stone implements, and graves, of the Indians having lived here were still found after she came to Vienna.
The second settler who came to Vienna neighborhood was Mathew Mathis, who opened the Loeney Farm. It is quite plain he lived in the neighborhood as he and his son carried the chain when the town of Vienna was laid off, although his land was not entered until 1832. The next neighbor that can be traced directly is Francis Jordan who entered his land December 1814, the first land entered at
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Shawneetown land office, that lays in this county proper. This is known as the Oliver Farm, about two miles west of Vienna, just off the West Vienna road and is now owned by J. C. Chapman and G. B. Gillespie. John Oliver another first settler occupied part of this farm. Henry Beggs was another early neighbor in this county. He entered the Aus- brooks farm just north west of Vienna, now owned by F. R. Johnston, 1831. Land entries, tradition from Steward Sutliff, grand son of James Bain; and the statements of Mrs. Dwyer are the authority for these early settlers.
Peter Clark, Thos. C. Paterson and Henry Sams lived on the west side of the county in 1816. George Evans set- tled here as early as 1806.
Isaac Wilcox was another very early resident here. His name appears on the Randolph County records in 1802. He was a merchant or trader and the court records show he had many cases on the docket.
"A family of Quarkers of North Carolina named Stokes settled several miles east of Jonesboro in 1808."- Reynolds. This was the founding of the Stokes family liv- ing in Union County and the western part of our county at the present time.
John Bradshaw and John Phelps lived on the west side of the county at or near Elvira, but it was Randolph when they were appointed Justices of the Peace in 1809.
Jesse Griggs, who was one of the first judges for John- son County and Nathan Davis whose name also appears on our early court records lived in that part of the county that was cut off to make Jackson, at least, they with James Hall were the Commissioners of that county when Brownsville was established as the county seat.
"Henry Noble and Jesse Griggs settled on Big Muddy 1804."-Reynolds.
Reynolds makes the statement that the families of Chil- ton, Brazel Lorton, More, Downing, Lemom, Copeland, Lacy Vanhoozer, Rattent, Stublefield, Hewitt, and Jones were at- tached to the eastern Goshen settlement, which was in Madison County, southeast of Edwardsville. It is not known whether Reynolds considered this section of
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country in Goshen settlement or whether some of these families settled there and moved here later, but the names of Brazel Copeland, Lacy, Hewitt, Stublefield and Jones are names of early settlers of this section.
Reynolds is also authority for the following: "White- sides and their numerous connections were from North Carolina, (family tradition says, Virginia.) They first came to Kentucky, then to Illinois in 1793. The patriarch and head of the family was William Whiteside. He erected a fort or blockhouse on the road from Cahokia to Kaskaskia, which became famous as Whiteside's Station. He was prominent as an Indian fighter, had a large family of sons who were also prominent in the warfare against the Indians and in the War of 1812." The Whitesides of this and Pope Counties are a branch of this pioneer family. The founder in this section settled on Big Bay about 1804 or 1805.
John Elkins who also came from North Carolina in 1809 settled on the west side of the county. He later moved to Arkansas but left four children who have descendants living in this county, especially in the western part.
Hamlet Furguson was a resident of this county in 1810 and was among the first judges holding court here. Ham- letsburg, in Pope County, was named in his honor.
William Stiles lived in Center Township in 1813.
Levi Casey settled in Bloomfield Township, 1808. Hez- kiah West came to this county from South Carolina between 1808 and 1810, and settled in the southwest part in the sec- tion known as West Eden. The locality took its name from him. His descendants are numerous and hosts of them still reside in the county. Jacob Harvick was another pioneer. The year of his coming is not definite but his son was a militia officer here in 1812. William McFatridge was the founder of the large family of that name coming here from North Carolina about 1810. His son John was also the head of a family here very early in the county history. They settled on Mack Creek which was named in their honor. Samuel Westbrooks came to this county in 1812, but moved to Equality in 1826. John and Isaac Worley lived at Elvira 1814, ancestors of the Worley family of this county. William Shelby lived on the east side of the county. William Parker lived near the Ohio River in 1827. William
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McKee father to Green B. and a large family of that name settled in what is now Simpson Township in 1819. Samuel McGowan entered land here in 1818, now owned by Ernest Cooper near Walter Sharps. The Beggs Wiggs and Gur- ley families were very early residents on the western side of the county and in Union. Marvin Fuller was a resident of Randolph County in 1810. He is connected with the very earliest courts and no doubt, lived in this section at that date. Elias Harrell, was a settler in 1819, and Joel Thacker settled here about 1820. Green B. Veach, a pioneer, from North Carolina, came here very early. He settled in the eastern section of th county but the date is not known. He served in the Black Hawk War from this county. I. Weaver lived in Center Township in 1813. Some of his descendants live in Pulaski at the pres- ent time. The Borin family also lived in that section of Johnson in 1812, coming from Tennessee. John Byers who was appointed to take the census of 1820 lived in the north- west section of Johnson, that made Jackson, in 1812. Thomas Furguson lived on the eastern side of the county near Big Bay in 1812. He operated a ferry in 1814 at Gol- conda, paying taxes into the county treasury for that year. Vance Lusk and James Whiteside resided on the eastern side of the county in 1816. Their neighborhood later be- came Pope County.
John Whitiker located in the western section of the county that was made into Union or Alexander when they were organized. He paid taxes on his still in this county in 1816. Joseph McCorcle was a settler of 1818. William Fisher came across the border from Indiana to this county in 1810. John S. Graves was another early settler. John Copeland came in 1815 or 1816. Samuel J. Chapman came from New York state about 1816, settling first in what is now Bloomfield. His father, Daniel, came from the same state two or three years later, settling on a farm, near the present Bloomfield and Simpson Township line. Now oc- cupied by W. P. Emmerson.
Milton Ladd, Ivy Reynolds, Jesse Canady, Alfred and D. Y. Bridges, and many others whose names appear on the court records are fully identified with the first settling of the county. Mrs. Sarah Howerton a pioneer mother of Johnson County deserves mention. She was the daughter
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of Randolph Casey and was born in this county in 1823. She was married and moved to the Howerton Farm near what is now New Burnside, in 1842, where she spent the remainder of her life, seventy-three years, as wife and mother. The dwelling was a double log house so familiar in the early days of this county. Many Indians passed her home and dangerous wild animals were numerous. Often when her husband was called away from home and she was left alone over night with the little ones she would build a fire outside the house to frighten the wild beasts away. She married at the age of 19 and raised eight chil- dren. Although a pioneer of a later day she was a founder just as truly as those coming from other states.
People who settled on land without entering it were called squatters; most of the people were squatters in this county, as there was no land office nearer that Kaskaskia, and it was not established till 1804. Shawneetown land office was established in 1812. Captain Cunningham, father of Mrs. Mary A. Logan was the agent there about the fifties. It was considered a sort of crime to enter land from under a squatter. In 1856 there was a special rate of twelve and one-half cents per acre, made to the settlers. This was called the Bit Act. There was a great scramble to get to the land office at this time. Men rode horse back, walked, pooled their horses and wagons to make a con- veyance, in fact, any way to get to Shawneetown. Some- times it would take ten days to make the journey, and wait your turn, since they stood in line as one would at a White House reception. Many people who had the money entered all the land they could for speculation.
The people of this section had to go to the old capitol, Kaskaskia, to enter land or for any legal business, to serve on juries or appear before them. The first deed re- corded in Johnson County was not, of course, within the present limits, but appears on our records; it is from Robert Reynolds to Charles Davis, made in 1805 witnessed by Moses Oliver. This land is on the Mississippi River. Another deed was from John McElmuny to David McEl- muny also on the Mississippi. It was made July 3, 1810. Frequent mention is made of McElmuny's Station in the description of land in the old Kaskaskia records. A station was a block house with a second story extending out over
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the lower one. The upper one was used as the living quart- ers so that the approach of the enemy could be easily seen, while the lower one was used to corral the live stock of the settlers.
The following is a list and the date of entry of those first entering land at Shawneetown in Johnson county pro- per or as it is now outlined; William McFatridge, May 23, 1815; John Elkins, Nov. 13, 1815; James Bain, Feb. 13, 1816; Hardy Johnson, June 26, 1817; Squire Choat, March 1818; Walton Gore, Oct. 5. 1818; John W. Gore, Oct. 10, 1818; Jacob Harvick, Nov. 15, 1818; Richard Marcer, July 10, 1818; Hezekiah West, Jan. 2, 1818; Andrew McGowan, Jan, 2, 1818; Elias Harrell, Sept. 25, 1820; Henry Beggs, 1831; Joel Thacker, 1839; Adam Harvick, 1818; James Finny, 1817; Martin Harvick, 1818; Joel Johnson, 1818; David Shearer, 1818; Thomas Dunsworth, 1819; David Elms, 1817; Abram Hendry, 1818; Benjamin McGinnis, 1817; Richard McGinnis, 1815; Emmet Elkins, 1818; Jere- miah Lissenby, 1818; John Plumer, 1819; (John Plummer entered quite a lot of land no doubt for speculation) ; E. J. J. Freeman, 1818; Daniel Delaney, 1818; Sidwell, Paxton and Chambers, 1818; (they also entered several tracks,) Henry Croswait and Richard Murry, 1818; Samuel Lang- don, 1817; John McFatridge, 1832; Sallie Finney, 1837; Mathew Mathis, 1832; Richard Elliot, 1818; Joel S. Thac- ker, 1839 ; Francis Gehon, 1819; Adam and Martin Harvick; 1818; Louis J. Simpson and Millington Smith, 1817; J. O. Russell, 1816; Rix Carter and Pleasant Axley, 1818; N. Longworth, 1818; (ancestor of the present Nicholas Longworth, Republican leader in Congress from Ohio, and the son-in-law of the world famous Theodore Roosevelt.)
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