USA > Illinois > Brown County > Versailles > A history of the first white settlers in Versailles Township, Brown County, Illinois > Part 2
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Winter Comes and With it Additions to the Colony
'The greatest event ever cele- orated in this first cabin was the arrival of Isaac Vandeventer and his young wife from Vir- ginia. He was a nephew of Cornelius and came from Vir- ginia on the advice of Cornelius, who had written him months before of the opportunity to ob- tain land here.
"It was after dark in the eve- ning of December 12, 1825, when they drove up to our cabin. The evening was uncom- monly warm for that time of the year, and the door of the cabin was open. They saw the light on this account several miles away, or they wouldn't have been able to find us that night, they said. They came through in a one-horse covered wagon and had been over three weeks on the road.
"A new back log was rolled into the fire place that night, and our families and the new comers gathered around the fire that lighted up the whole cabin clear to the roof, for it didn't have any ceiling. Us 'tow-head youngsters' were all allowed to sit up, and you are mighty right if you think we found places as close to the new com- ers as we could while they told us the latest news from Virginia and their trip across the country to join us. Cornelius and our
boys told them of the happenings since our arrival and we ate supper again with them. My mother made Johnny cakes and we had plenty of venison and wild honey and lots of other good food in abundance, and it was way after midnight when we, all three in the same room, retired more happy than we had been for weeks and months, if not since we had come to the cabin."
Plan New Cabins
"The next morning after the arrival of Isaac Vandeventer and his young wife, and by the way, she was a fine woman, well educated for that day, full of fire and ambition and her first thought was the location for their cabin. Of course, it was then pointed out to her that this be placed near a spring and close to wood for you know we passed up all that fine land around Jacksonville for it wasn't good for wood and water. And then everybody from the cabin went with them and they de- cided on the spot I pointed out coming just under the bluff. There was a spring close and wood in abundance, but the new- comers were made to understand they had a home with us until their cabin could be gotten ready and Isaac would have to make a trip to Edwardsville and enter the land according to law before commencing improvements. A 'squatter' had no rights and
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would lose all the improvements he had made should someone en- ter it according to law, and he would have to move off.
"On the way back from selec- ting the site for Isaac's cabin, Cornelius and he intended to build another cabin, a larger one, in the spring as we were crowded and he selected a spot at the spring north of the road and west of the school house about 500 yards. We had carried water from the spring ever since we arrived.
"Some mighty bad weather followed the coming of Isaac and his wife, but by February the snow was off and all hands were busy. Our men folks helped Isaac when they could and he put up what we called a 'lean- to', sort of a shed facing the south with all the south part open. He built this to have a place to work and
take his time in putting up his cabin, and on the 13th of March that year, he and his wife moved in. We had some pretty chilly
weather following, but they
'toughed' it out and they got into their new cabin the next fall. And by that time Cornelius had his new cabin about ready to move into, working at times when they could leave the crops. "We could hear of more set- tlers coming into the new coun- try, but none coming into our neighborhood. There were sev- eral cabins at Meredosia, or south of where Meredosia now stands, just south of the present railroad depot. Some of these were French traders."
New Town On River
"Columbia had been changed to Naples and there a new town laid out on August 8th of that year (1825), and we all prophe- seid that it couldn't help but make a city. I guess if our folks had the money they would have invested in town lots."
"During that fall a party of French traders paid our Indian
camp a visit for the purpose of buying their furs. They always brought plenty of whiskey when they made such visits for it's a pretty easy matter to trade with an Indian when he's filled up on 'fire water.' One of the squaws from the camp was at our cabin for salt just before dark and told us that the trad- ers had left whiskey and the Indians were drunk. We could hear them whooping and yelling occasionally. We were always a little more on the alert after hearing the Frenchmen had visited with the Indians. We could hear them long before we went to bed and for hours after- ward, and about two o'clock in the morning we could hear the squaws coming jabbering and moaning. The folks let them in- to the cabin. Some of them had their bodies beaten black and blue; they had been trying to keep the drunken Indians from killing each other. They wanted our men to go to the camp, but they refused.
"Several of them remained the rest of the night in the cabin and Cornelius and some of the boys went back with them early the next morning. I sup- pose it looked to them like a cyclone had passed over that camp. Several were badly beat- en up but only one was dead. The Indian that committed the murder had jumped into a
canoe and started down the river in the middle of the chan- nel. Two of the dead Indian's relatives had given chase, fol- lowing him on foot down the bank of the river. The Indian in the canoe went on to St. Louis where he purchased a plug hat and other citizen clothes that might disguise him. But when the two Indians on his trail reached St. Louis sever- al days afterward they recog- nized him and killed him, and a few days later returned to the camp with a duty well per- formed."
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Entertains "Scare the World"
"During that same fall after Isaac Vandeventer had finished his cabin, he and his wife were engaged in making pumpkin butter in a kettle over a fire out in their yard. They had a high rail fence built around the cabin and in the midst of their labor, they noticed Chief Scare the World perched on the top- most rail taking in the proceed- ings. He soon came to the con- clusion that whatever it was they were cooking was good to eat, so he slid down the fence and made his wants known. Afraid to refuse, Isaac's wife went to the cabin and came back with a bowl and spoon which she filled and handed to him. It was in the boiling stage but he managed to make away with it and passed the bowl back for a refilling. This was repeated time and time again, the only change in the proceed- ings were that he was taking a little more time each helping to store it away, but he was a 'stayer' and it was almost sun- down when he handed the bowl back with a grunt that signified that he had had enough. He made several attempts to climb the fence enclosing the cabin before he reached the top. He sat there a second or two and tumbled in a heap on the other side and there he laid. The folks didn't have any remedy for
'too much pumpkin butter' so they didn't bother him, and he laid right there until after sun- up the next morning when he roused up stretched himself and struck out for the camp, no doubt thinking he had been having a 'heap big time'."
Hamilton Neighswonger Arrives-First Settler on Sile of Versailles
"In the early spring of 1826, Hamilton Neighswonger, a broth- er-in-law of Cornelius Vande- venter, arrived with his family.
They came from Hamilton coun- ty and had been living in this state four or five years up to this time. He was the son of a pioneer and had inherited a love for adventure and romance of pioneer life and was skilled in everything pertaining to life in the wilderness; 'a crack shot' with a rifle and a reputation for 'tracking Injuns'. He was almost a giant in stature, straight as an Indian and as nimble as a deer. He dressed exactly like the In- dians; buckskin pants, moccasins and buckskin hunting shirt and in cold weather wore a coon skin cap and blanket. He also wore his hair long and alto- gether was the finest looking
specimen of mankind to be
seen among the early pioneers.
"Well, of course, the neighbors pointed out to the Neighswong- ers a place to build their cabin. While this ‘old woodsman' didn't say much they couldn't tell him anything. He took his time in selecting a place to en- ter his land and build his cabin. He discovered the famous spring that bears his name and erected his cabin close by. This was the first settlement made on the present site of the town of Ver- sailles. We now had four cabins in our settlement. Although the Neighswongers were nearly four miles from us, they were con- sidered close neighbors in those days.
"Hamilton Neighswonger hadn't more than finished his cabin until he was hunting with the Indians. They took right up with him and he would join in their hunts and be gone for days and after returning home, he would roll up in his blanket in front of his fireplace with his head to the fire Indian fashion and he would lay there until he had fully rested from his trip. His family said that he seldom slept in a bed until the later years of his life. He died in the year of 1855.
"Your grandfather, Henry
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Casteen, A. D. Ravencroft,
Corneilus and Dr. Isaac Van- deventer bought 22 acres of the Neighswonger land and founded the town. This tract was then (1836) all in heavy timber, most- ly sugar maple and black walnut, and I helped to clear and haul the logs from most of it. They were then at that time making the roadbed for the old North- ern Cross railroad that passes through town and to this day is plainly traceable, but only a memory of a busted enterprise that promised too much to us then.
"The town site was surveyed and platted by Allen Persinger, a young settler who lived up on Crooked Creek in December, 1836. The state road running from Meredosia to Quincy and established in 1929, he made it 'Main Street,' with the center of the block on the east 'the public square.' But for some reason the square was after- wards platted into lots and sold. One of the Briggs' and a young man by the name of William- son, grandfather of Mrs. Andrew Boss, carried the stakes and chains, and they and the men all went to your grandfather's cabin for dinner and there your grandmother, Mrs. Casteen, gave it the name of Versailles after her old Kentucky Home.' That was December 2 of that year (1836).
"Poor woman, they said, she always longed for her old home and at times grew very home- sick. I have heard them tell that some neighbor women, who once called to pay a friendly
visit, found her in the sugar grove west of the cabin kneeling under a tree. Thinking her ill. they started to lift her to her feet when she said to them. 'I always come here to pray.'
But hers were not the only prayers that went up from these solitudes back in those old days.
Versailles First Wedding
"On the 26th of October, 1826, Cornelius Vandeventer and my mother, Mrs. Susan McFarland, were united in marriage. My mother, you will remember, was a sister to his first wife. This was the first wedding to
be celebrated in Versailles town- ship.
"The winter of 1826 was not cold, but squally, high winds and disagreeable cold rains. Isaac Vandeventer's new cabin was nice and comfortable unless the wind should come from a certain direction. He had failed to build the stick chimney high enough and there would be days when the wind was coming from this direction that he and his wife could not stay in their cabin on account of smoke. She complained that she didn't know which was the worse, smoke in the winter or mos- quitoes in the summer.
Hambaugh and Lambkins, The First Hikers
"In the month of February, 1827, the population of our set- tlement made another increase when Pious Hambaugh and
George Lambkin walked over here from Edwardsville, a trip that took them three days to make for the ground was cov- ered with snow and all the trails on this side of the river obliterated. But they finally found our cabin and our men directed them where to locate, and assisted Lambkin to put up his barn and cabin. He selected an 80 acres that is now a part of the Bent Martin farm, and his cabin stood on the same spot where the brick dwelling now stands. It took two weeks to put up these buildings, and in the meantime Pious Ham- baugh had selected his 80 acres where the old Hambaugh home still stands. They went back
after Lambkin's family and stock and returned in March.
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HISTORY OF VERSAILLES TOWNSHIP
"This was a part of Schuyler county at that time and settlers were slowly drifting in here and there, and during that summer six election precincts were es- tablished in the county. Isaac Vandeventer was appointed as one of the judges, and it was that summer that Isaac com- menced the study of medicine with Dr. Ross down at Atlas, then the county seat of Pike county.
"You know we didn't have a doctor in miles and you couldn't have found one if you had spent a week in the search.
"Dr. Isaac graduated at Cin- cinnati, Ohio, in 1830, and was the first doctor in the county and his practice took him as far as Jacksonville and Quincy.
First White Child Born In Brown County
"It was on the 26th of June in the year 1827 that my half-sis- ter, Lizzie was born, the first white child born in Brown coun- ty. She is now Mrs. Elizabeth Burgesser, widow of
the late George W. Burgesser. You should have seen the Indian squaws flock to the cabin when they heard of it. They crowded and chattered and called her 'White Popoose' and one squaw wanted to trade her copper colored papoose for the white one. There was something sacred to an In- dian squaw about a white baby.
The First Steamboat
"The first steamboat to navi- gate the Illinois river was 'The North Star.' This was in the spring of 1828.
“The Indians knew several hours before its arrival that it was coming and how they knew I can't say unless an Indian run- ner brought word up from down the river. That would have been an easy matter, for, of course the first boats had to stop along
the river occasionally to replen- ish their fuel supply as they all burned wood. Of course later 'wood yards' sprung up all along the river banks to supply them.
"But let's get back to the story. Somehow or other the In- dians had a dread of the ap- proaching steamers as their ac- tions denoted when they came to the cabin wanting our men to came to the camp to be present when it arrived They apparently thought it possessed supernatur- al powers to navigate on the water without paddles or oars. Cornelius was not surprised to hear that a boat was 'headed this way,' He expected it before this time, and, of course, we knew the Indians were telling the truth, so every 'chick and child' of us headed for the In- dian camp to see the first steam- boat.
"We were there, I know, over an hour watching down the river without so much as 'batting an eye-we younger ones at any rate-when all of a sudden it came around the point and we hadn't so much as seen a smudge (smoke). It crept slowly toward us and to me it apparent- ly grew bigger and bigger. I'll never forget, I thought is was a monster. The children from our cabins chattered, the men talked, but nary an Indian so much as grunted I remember looking at them; their faces don't have any expression you know at any time, and this was no exception. Well, the boat passed and the waves that followed washed an Indian canoe from the bank and a big buck jumped into the water and dragged it back and said to Cornelius 'ugh, big boat, have lots of little boats,' and then several young bucks com- menced to take up the river bank with their eyes glued to the steamer and occasionally falling over the underbrush, so fearful to take their eyes from it as it slowly plowed its way, feeling for the unchartered chan-
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HISTORY OF VERSAILLES TOWNSHIP
nel. This was the first boat to unload a cargo at Beard's Ferry, now Beardstown.
"I don't think that boats came up the river regularly that sea- son, Well, at first they didn't have any schedule; they just came along when they got here and back the same way. But it wasn't so many years after this there were several different boats on the river, and after Ver- sailles started, there were two warehouses built on the river, Ravenscroft's and Jeptha WIJ- son's.
First Post Office
"Two more families joined our settlement, Sam Root and John Stone and they crossed the river at Meredosia, a ferry boat was in operation there now-but no town, (the spring of 1828). In the fall of the same year Jef- ferson Hume and Elisha Adams got here, and that same fall Cornelius was appointed post- master and he kept the office at his cabin and it was called 'Van- deventer.' A man by the name of Fowler carried the mail and I think it was sent up from Al- ton to Exeter, thence to Naples and then over here, that is, it was while Cornelius was post- master. They didn't bring it very often either and you paid 25c to get a letter out of the office; they didn't send them already paid. I remember a man came down from Elisha Adams' that winter and asked Cornelius if there was a letter for him and he told him, yes. He asked Cor- nelius to read it so he read it to the man. This fellow told Cor- nelius he would come back and get it as soon as he could get the 25c. I think that broke Cor- nelius of reading letters before they paid the postage because that fellow never did come back."
A Barn Raising
"The two years from 1828 to
1830 saw several more families added to our settlement. Stephen Hambaugh, a brother of Pious, had come with his father and mother and moved into the cabin with his brother. People now had commenced to mingle more together. They had a barn rais- ing at Hambaugh's and I'll never forget that day. All the settlers gathered there and there was genuine brotherly love and kindness shown everybody, and such a merry time at that din- ner-and such a dinner-every- thing provided came from Ham- baugh's. They had vension, tur- key, potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, onions, milk, cornbread and wild gooseberry pie-that much I can remember now.
"After dinner the men filled their pipes and some of the women smoked and it was home made twist right out of their own garden. The men talked of the needs of the settlement and the women talked about their housekeeping and swapped recipes and home remedies for the 'ager' and other ills. And these gatherings sometimes end- ed up with a religious discussion and the interpretations of the Scriptures, but all in the best of humor."
Forward
The notes for this narrative were originally written to cover the period dating from Sept. 7, 1824, the date of the arrival of the Vandeventer and McFarland families to Dec. 31, 1839, the date of the marriage of the nar- rator, Robert Nelson McFarland. But upon finding the last por- tion of the manuscript so badly damaged as to render most of it illegible, thus making it im- possible to further arrange a continued and connecting story. I am forced, for this reason, to write "Finis" with the present installment.
I can only regret that I am by this prevented in mentioning names of many of the pioneers,
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HISTORY OF VERSAILLES TOWNSHIP
who, the narrator states, were active in the early development of the township, among whom are the Briggs', Jethro, Dan, Hank and Colonel Vandeventer, James Bullard, the Summys, Townsends, Humes, Spencer Hall, John Surratt, David Mc- Laughlin, Sr., John Sides, Dan James Brown and many others.
I have, however, copied and shall preserve the scraps of many interesting incidents and events that I have been able to salvage from the damaged pages and these, with much other ma- terial which I possess, may aid others who might care to add to the story of our pioneers.
The oldest township in the county is rich in tradition with a wealth of sentiment, and all contributions of this character will, I am certain, find welcome and open columns in The Senti- nel; and may assist in leading to the erection of permanent Markers at some of the histor- ical spots featured in the town- ship's history before "Old Father Time" has removed souls that has knowledge of their lo- cations or over whose material sepulchers Nature shall have drawn the Mantle of Oblivion.
Respectfully, B. F. Bond.
Parts of the Following Incident Lost
A story of "Bald Knob, a high point along the bluff east of the cabin, upon
the summit of which the Indians sent up their "smoke signals." Also the full story of an Indian wedding that took place one night at the In- dian camp, to which the men of the settlement were invited and for fear of offense, Isaac and Cornelius Vandeventer and the latter's sons, William and Peter, attended. They were most cor- dially received and placed in the hands of an Indian artist who painted their faces for the occasion and then they were
given seats of honor on a log to witness the ceremony. It is needless to add that they were hardly recognizable by their folks at the cabin on their re- turn and they spent the balance of the night in removing their "Indian make-up"
Uncle Nelson always alluded to the Indians in friendly CƠ spirit, stating that the Indians "were good to the settlers" and the eight years he spent with them here were filled with ad- ventures he enjoyed. He played as a boy with the young In- dians and they could always out- do their white playmates in running and jumping and all boyish sports.
And again, the wedding of Stephen Hambaugh and Elmina Stone, which occurred on De- cember 28, 1830. the evening the "deep snow" commenced falling. All the settlers gathered at the Stone cabin for the event and Hamilton Neighswonger brought his fiddle along and they danced all night, but by daylight the snow had reached such a depth that many of the guests were "marooned" at the cabin and were forced to remain for sev- eral days.
One of the incidents of this wedding was when the guests were all taken suddenly ill with the exception of Hamilton Neighswonger, by eating some- thing served at the wedding feast and that he "fiddled away" until they had recovered suf- ficiently to go on with the dance.
An Indian Feast
"Things moved along pretty much as in previous years only everything continued to look more promising. The ground cultivated in previous years be- came more productive as the wild nature was being worked out of the soil. Our bunch of stock was all doing well and in- creasing. We had a good many head of hogs, several more
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HISTORY OF VERSAILLES TOWNSHIP
thrifty calves, and lots of chick- ens considering the trouble we had to save them from the var- ments (this was the fall of 1830).
"But speaking of hogs, we used to in those days turn them out to run wild, and by late fall when it came time to 'round them up', they were most of them usually as wild as deers, and on Sundays before that time we would go out through the timber and down along the river and try to have them lo- cated.
"It was on one of these trips down in the river timber one Sunday. when I was a good sized boy, with Cornelius Van- deventer that I am about to tell you about. We had spent the morning tracking several hogs and finally found them way down on the Big Sand Ridge. Cornelius got close enough to see that they were fat and he said we could shoot them when we got ready for them.
"On returning we came back up the river bank and by the Indian camp. Well, when we reached it, Cornelius stopped and they insisted we stay and eat. I had never seen them pre- paring a 'feast' before and that's what they were doing. Cor- nelius decided to stay, and while they were talking with him I noticed them heating rocks. They had several rocks piled on a log-heap fire and every once in a while they would get one of these out of the fire and with some kind of a two-pronged hook they would drop these hot rocks into a big kettle of some- thing that smelled and looked like soup. My boyish curosity aroused I idled over the
by
kettle to see what they were cooking. The contents of the kettle were boiling, and while standing there I saw boil up to the surface the hind leg of a coon, foot, hair and all, and I decided right there that I wasn't hungry enough to tackle that 'Indian soup'."
Meredosia-How it was Named for a Pretty Girl
Down by the "Old Illinios" broad expanse,
Where the steamer rocks and raves, City lots are staked for sale, Above Old Indian graves.
"In the fall of 1831, they staked out a new town on the river, Meredosia.
'Two brothers by the name of Waldo had opened a store with a full stock of goods shipped up by boat from New Orleans. We didn't have much money in the settlement then, but we did have a pretty good supply of beeswax and coonskins and they were both legal tender. We needed lots of things in our cabin yet at that time, and we were mighty glad to see a store as close as Meredosia.
"I don't know how true it is, but they used to tell how Mere- dosia got its name. There was a French trader lived there, $0 the story goes, by the name of Dosia and he had a daughter by the name of 'Mere'; I suppose that's French for Mary, I don't know as to that. Well, anyway Mere was a pretty girl and all the young fellows were in love with her, in fact, everybody liked her and when they com- menced to try to decide on a name, Mere's many admirers all asked that the new town be christened Mere Dosia, but they compromised by making it one word, Meredosia, in place of di- viding it. I am sure that's how Meredosia got its name.'
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