USA > Illinois > Knox County > Annals of Knox County : commemorating centennial of admission of Illinois as a state of the Union in 1818 > Part 14
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The village, as has been noted, has two grain elevators, two banks, the First National and the Anderson State Bank ; we have had and now have a weekly paper, the Oneida News, a Masonic lodge with a large membership, a Modern Woodmen Camp, a Mystic Workers Insurance Company, two Woman's Clubs, which are decidedly helpful in a social and literary way. There is also an organization known as the Oneida-Altona Branch of the Knox County Free Kindergarten, and out of this has grown what may be called an auxiliary. The latter is wholly composed of farm wives and daughters, and has its centre in that intangible, but yet very real, something known as Ontario. The meetings are no doubt beneficial in a social way, but it is the sentiment of the heart materialized by the hands that on many, very many occasions brings cheer to the little homeless ones in the Galesburg Kindergarten.
The Church in Ontario Township In 1840 the Presbyterians planned and in a measure ef-
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fected an organization, which so far as now known in a short time as such disappeared. The same denomination again in 1863, probably as a result of the seed sown in 1840, took the necessary steps to found a church in Oneida, and in 1865 one was erected. The building was completely destroyed by a wind- storm in 1868. A new church was immediately erected and has been added to, the interior remodeled, the congregation is out of debt, has a resident pastor, but the membership is slowly but constantly diminishing.
In that part of Ontario township which is known as On- tario, paranthetically it may be said, that this section has a social center of its own; it is really a community within a com- munity, although not nearly so much so as in the days that are gone; yet it still exists, resembling some of the European States, however small. The Ontarioans are staunch believers in autonomy, and this being so the settlers who favored the congregational system of church management came together in 1848 and discussed the feasibility of organizing a church of this denomination, and in 1852 the church which is still in existence, was erected; there has been no resident pastor for a number of years and though preaching services are occasion- ally held it would seem to an unbiased onlooker that the end of the Ontario Congregational church is near at hand.
About the same time in the same communuity a certain number, who, from the old eastern home, had brought cer- tain inherited theological ideas which to them seemed essen- tial, decided to build a Baptist church. Such was built; also a parsonage, and for many years preaching services were regu- larly held. However, for a considerable time no services were held, the church building was demolished, the parsonage sold, the society disbanded, and the place which knew it, and knew it for its good, will in all probability know it no more.
In 1852, in the neighborhood of what is now Oneida, a Con- gregational Society was formed. In 1855 the church building, which is still the property of the society, was built, has had an eventful and most useful existence, but the church is pastor- less, with slight signs of rejuvenation. There are still mem- bers of the church and of the society who hope and look for- ward to a new life for their beloved church, and for them and for the community as a whole such a consumation is to be wished.
The Oneida Methodist church was built in 1863. It was a live organization to begin with, all its past history proves that it has not lost its pristine enthusiasm, and in keeping with its inner life its material progress is well shown in the new brick edifice which occupies and graces the site of the old wooden structure, and at this writing a new, handsome brick veneered parsonage is nearing completion.
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Sometime between 1850 and 1860 a Baptist and a Uni- versalist church were built in Oneida. The latter was destroyed by fire; was rebuilt, but was wrecked by a windstorm. The Baptist church was demolished at the same time and neither was ever rebuilt. There was also a Lutheran organization which at no time had more than thirty members, its existence was brief as its list of members. The Seven Day Adventists had a place of worship for a short time. Church and church goers have disappeared.
There is also on Section 1 a Christian church. It has al- ways been numerically weak and in common with all, or nearly all Ontario churches, it is not only weak, but constantly be- coming weaker.
It would appear from the foregoing that at some time there have been in Ontario township ten religious societies, at least eight have had places of worship. At present there are but two congregations having resident pastors-the Methodist and Presbyterian. For this condition there may be many reasons given. It is true that there are a less number of in- habitants in the township, and a smaller percentage of the lesser number are church goers, and again there is a Swedish Lutheran Church in Altona, where a large number of the older people of our township regularly attend public worship. On such occasions they meet with friends of kindred speech and from the pulpit hear the words to memory dear and sing the songs they first heard in their old home, "over there." There is also a church of the same denomination in Wataga and though not so largely attended as that in Altona still quite a number of families from the southern side of Ontario are attendants and members. The same may be said of the extreme north of the township, the people here going to Woodhull.
However, it will have to be admitted that the chief cause of the decadence and disappearance of churches is the fact that a large and increasing number of people never go to any church and another large, and perhaps increasing, number, seldom go. Neither class mentioned can be depended on as a liberal giver to any department of church work, and churches need friends.
However, in the not distant future all three societies, Al- tona, Wataga, Woodhull, in all their meetings will use and use only the English tongue. In that case will the present average church attendance prevail, or will decadence and, in many in- stances, disintegration take place ?
Yet even if the church as the embodiment of Christianity should largely or wholly pass, would not that something in it which is greater than itself continue to live, ever, ever march- ing on.
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ORANGE TOWNSHIP From Sketch by John C. Eiker
Orange, as a present defined and bounded, was one of the first townships in the county to attract the attention of early immigrants to northern Illinois, and the pioneers were not wholly free from fear of predatory visits from the aboriginal owners of the soil. As a matter of fact, however, in 1830-the year the first settlers arrived-the Indians were migrating to the west, and the comparatively few of them remained. A blockhouse was erected, however, in 1830, or '31, and the mur- der of a white man by a straggling band of hostile savages during the Black Hawk War threw the small community into a ferment of apprehension.
The township is crossed by several well defined trails. That which is known as the Peorian and Galena runs diagonally from northwest to southeast, passing also through Knox, crossing the northeastern corner of the present city of Knox- ville. A little to the west of this is another, which crosses Brush Creek, in Section 30, and forms a sort of pathway from that stream to the headwaters of Haw Creek. Several Indian graves have been found and their traces are yet plainly discern- able just across the Knox Township boundary line, on Section 32. The last appearance of any considerable body of aborigines in the township was in 1843, when several hundred Sacs and Foxes camped on the northwestern quarter of Section 5, while on their way from the north to their reservation in Indian Ter- ritory.
The first white family to settle within the present limits of Orange was that of Joseph Wallace, who located on Section 15, in 1830, and found a rudely constructed cabin suffice for their shelter. After the death of his wife, on the old farm, Mr. Wallace removed to Iowa.
Asa Haynes (born in Dutchess County, New York, in 1804,) came in 1836. He had bought the three hundred acres on Section 30, on which he erected a one-roomed log cabin, in which he took up his residence with his wife, formerly Miss Mary Gaddis, to whom he had been married October 7, 1830. He was hardy, daring and adventurous, but without education other than such as he had obtained during two months' attend- ance at an Ohio district school each winter during six or seven years. He brought with him his two children, a half brother, Hiram, and a nephew, Isaac Hill. During their journey from Ohio, which occupied nineteen days, they encountered more or less rainfall during seventeen days, and found the rivers swol- len to the summit of their banks, even the horses' harness never drying. Mr. Haynes was energetic and enterprising, and from the outset proved a potent factor in the development of
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the new country. He started the first brick yard and in 1840, built the first saw mill, which was operated by water power obtained from Brush Creek. In 1841 he erected a large barn, and the following year replaced his primitive cabin with a brick house, which in those early days was regarded as commodious. While by no means a profound scholar himself, he took a deep interest in imparting of at least a sound primary education to children. For a time he himself taught an elementary school in his little cabin, and when his brick home was completed, one room was reserved and furnished as a school-room. Miss Frances Moore was the instructress, becoming later, Mrs. Hiram Haynes. Asa Haynes became, in his day, the largest land holder in Orange Township, at one time owning nine hun- dred and eighty-nine acres. He was one of the adventurers of 1849 and Captain of the "Jayhawkers" company of gold seekers formed at Galesburg. He led this little band of sixty across the continent. The hardships and privations which the men underwent caused many to drop by the way, but Mr. Haynes reached California safely, where he remained until 1851. Later in life he returned to California and made that State his resi- dence for several years. He returned home and died at the house of a daughter, in Missouri, March 20, 1889.
James Ferguson came from Kentucky, with his family, in the same year with Mr. Wallace settling on Section 11. He had several children but only two are at present residents of Orange; Andrew J., a farmer living on Section 10, and Mrs. Sarah Weir, whose home is on Section 15. The elder Ferguson attained prominence as being the first Justice of the Peace and . the first Overseer of the Poor in the township. He was also a soldier in the Black Hawk War, being commissioned as Major. He died in 1841, his widow surviving him for twenty years. Both sleep in the quiet plot of ground reserved for sepulture on the old farm.
Peter Godfrey is among the best known settlers of 1832, and he and his wife are among the oldest and most honored couples belonging to the "Old Settlers' Association of Knox County." John Denney and John and Simon McAllister arrived two years later. Isaiah Hutson and wife emigrated from the State of New York in 1837. He has since died (1883), but his widow and daughter still find their home on the homestead, which was theirs sixty years ago. Thomas Gilbert was also an early settler, his farm being on Section 8. His son, Thomas, is a prominent citizen of Knoxville, and two of his daughters still reside in that city.
Other early settlers of the township who are worthy of especial mention are as follows: Thomas and James Sumner, who came from Ohio in 1837 and settled on Section 23. James lost his life through an accident.
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Isreal Turner emigrated from Chester county, Pennsyl- vania, in 1837. He entered two hundred and forty acres on Section 32, remaining there until he died. Anderson Barnett also came in the same year, settling on Section 10. To him belonged the distinction of begetting the largest family of children (eighteen) ever reared in the township.
The early houses were, of course, of logs and of these Mr. Wallace built the first, on Section 15. Thomas A. Rude erected the first brick dwelling, on the farm of the late William Turner, in the same section. A portion of the latter is still standing, but the residence of Mr. Asa Haynes is probably the oldest structure in the county, remaining precisely as it was built.
The two earliest marriages were those of Alexander Rob- ertson to Narcissa Ferguson, and of Danie IFuqua to Lydia Bomar. This was a double wedding and the ceremony was solemnized by Rev. Jacob Gum at the Ferguson residence, on Section 10. The first white child born (1833) was Cynthia, daughter of James Ferguson.
The first school house was of logs, and stood on Section 14. It was known as the Wallace school, and religious ser- vices were occasionally held within its rude, unplastered walls. The first teacher was Thomas Ellison, who wielded the birch during the winter of 1836. He died at Abingdon, in 1897. Mr. Ellison was followed by Anderson Barnett, who taught in 1837 and in 1838. The school house erected in what is now District No. 8 was of brick, Isreal Turner being the mason and the car- pentry being done by Charles Corwin. Miss Amanda Corwin, one of the earliest graduates from Knox College, was the first teacher and remained six years. Another early school house was that within the limits of the present District No. 3, where Miss Mary Gilbert Chaffee was the first to give instruction to boys and girls, some of whom have long since passed away, while others have grown old and silver-haired. At present Orange township has eight schools, all ungraded, occupying well constructed frame buildings. The houses are modern and represent an outlay, in the aggregate, of about ten thousand dollars. In addition to this sum, libraries and equipments have cost a thousand dollars. The total enrollment of pupils is two hundred and seventeen.
The earliest religious service held in the township was con- ducted by Rev. Jacob Gum, a Baptist minister, at the home of James Ferguson.
The first denomination to organize into a church society was the Methodist Episcopal. This body erected a house of worship known as Orange Chapel, in 1855. It was built on Sec- tion 22, and was of brick, burned in the yard of Anderson Bar- nett and laid by Thomas Rambo. The building was dedicated
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in the Spring of 1856, by Rev. Richard Haney. The Gilson Cir- cuit was established in 1857-8, and Orange Chapel was included within its limits.
Early in the seventies revival services were held at the school house in District No. 4, which resulted in a general awakening of religious interest. At that time there was no organized church other than Orange Chapel, although there was in the township a moderate sprinkling of Congregational- ists and Protestant Methodists. The fervor of both of these sects was aroused. Both denominations organized societies, and Haynes Chapel was built (1871-73) by the Protestant Methodists. The Congregational church had no place of wor- ship and soon ceased to exist as a local organization. A general religious decline appeared to be supervene about the same time, spreading over the territory btween Knoxville and Hermon, on the north and south, and Gilson and Abingdon on the east and west. In fact, for nearly twenty years, or until 1890, Orange Chapel was the only center of organic Christian effort. In the last mentionel year, however, a branch of the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor was formed at Haynes Chapel, with nine active members. For several years the young people conducted weekly services there, after their cus- tomary fashion, and in 1893, Rev. A. W. Depew, of Abingdon, began preaching with marked success; Haynes Chapel being considered an outlying station. By this time the Christian En- deavors numbered forty, and it was not long before another Congregational church was organized with twenty-two mem- bers. Its first pastor was Rev. Mr. Slater, who preached for the congregation from May, 1894, to February, 1895.
The township was organized and its name chosen at a meeting held April 3, 1853. The name seems to have been selected on account of the shape of the central prairie, which, in those early days, was one of the most beautiful spots in the State. Asa Haynes was elected Supervisor; A. Barnett, Clerk ; A. Pierce, Assessor; J. G. Rude, Collector; Peter Godfrey and David Stephens, Constables; Samuel Mather and J. Wallace, Overseers of the Poor; J. H. McGrew, Thomas Gilbert and Mor- ris Chase, Highway Commissioners.
The chief industries are agriculture and stock raising, although in those early days, brick yards were started by Asa Haynes, Thompson Rude and Anderson Barnett. These ven- tures proved unprofitable, however, and the kilns long ago fell into disintegration and decay. From the time of its settle- ment Orange ranked high among the best cereal producing sections of the county, although a lack of transportation facili- ties prevented the marketing of the grain raised. More than half was used in the fattening of stock. Haynes, Godfrey and Sumner Brothers manifested great interest in improving the
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quality of live stock and were the first to introduce spotted China hogs and Shorthorn cattle.
The principle market of the pioneers was Peoria, although Canton and Oquawka received a fair share of the farm pro- ducts. The farmers hauled their produce by teams, receiving in exchange supplies which they carried home to their expect- tant families. The opening of the first railroad, in 1854, altered the entire situation, shippers now finding Chicago at once the most accessible and most profitable market.
The only village in Orange is De Long, a flourishing little station, on the line of the Narrow Gauge Road, now C., B. & Q. It came into existence in 1882, and owes its being-as it does its name-to S. H. Malory. He bought the site from Wayne Marks when the preliminary survey of the line was made, in anticipation of a station being established thereon, and called the village DeLong, in honor of the explorer of that name. It can boast two general stores, one grain elevator, a barber shop, two blacksmith shops, a building containing a hall and store room, and about twenty-five residences. Its population is about 100 and it is a relatively important point for grain and stock.
The township furnished its full quota of troops in both the Mexican and Civil Wars.
Wm. H. Wiley is the only surviving soldier now living, January, 1920, in the township from which he enlisted.
John Lawrence, Isaac and Samuel Mather were among the early settlers. The Township Hall is located in the center of the township and is a building originally used for a Farmer's Grange Supply Store, Wm. Forlow being the manager in the years from '75 to 80. The White School House, two miles north of Delong, was one of the first schools in the township, the first building was built of logs. The Civil War was furnished two Captains, Wm. Reynolds and Wright Woolsey.
Orange township furnished its quota in the Spanish- American and also in the recent World War. Eileen
(Facts in the foregoing sketch, not contained in the Reese history, were furnished by W. A. Wiley.)
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PERSIFER TOWNSHIP By Joseph M. Miles w.
The name-Persifer-was given to a postoffice which was located at the home of Charles Bradford, who owned the north- west quarter of Section 27 in this township and whose home was located at the southwest corner of his farm. We do not know who chose the name, but it was named in honor of Gen- eral Persifer Frazier Smith who served in the Mexican war. Morgan Reece told me that people wrote the name they wanted and sent it to Knoxville.
The township was set off as a separate town sometime in the Fall of 1849, and on January 14, 1850, the voters at an elec- tion chose the name Persifer for the township. At that time Haw Creek and Persifer were in one precinct and I have heard my father say that the polling place was at the residence of Booker Pickrel which was located at the northwest corner of Section 3 in Haw Creek township. It is now the home of John Spear.
The township is located near the top of the east slope of the ridge which lies between the Illinois and the Mississippi river. As a consequence the general slope is east and south. A bend in Spoon river cuts off about 300 acres on the east side of the township, and this with Court Creek and its tribu- taries (Middle Creek, North Creek and Sugar Creek) and other small streams, furnish excellent drainage for the township. These streams render the greater part of the land very rough there being only about 3,000 acres of prairie land in the town- ship, making it more of a grazing than a farming region.
Originally at least three-fourths of the township was cov- ered with timber or scattered trees. The land where the scat- tered trees grew was called barrens, but the word was a mis- nomer for the barrens is now the home of some of our most progressive and well to do citizens. When the early settlers came nearly all of the timber was large trees. Then as the set- tlers cut the trees, new trees came up from the seed and now what timber we have is nearly all what is called second growth. Nearly all of this second growth has been cut and killed until we have very little timber left at the present time. The prin- cipal timber is the oak of which the white oak is probably the most useful variety. Burr oak comes next in usefulness. Black oak is the most plentiful. There is also red oak, pin oak and jack oak. There are also a few cottonwood, a few elms, a few lynn, a few box alder, a few ash, hickory, black walnut and hard maple. When the early settlers first came to the county there was a white pine grove on Section 25. Some of the trees were more than two feet through at the stump. This grove was soon all cut and used up. Most of it was sawed at the Whitton
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saw mill which was situated at the Sumner bridge on Spoon river in the northeast corner of Haw Creek township. One house was built from this white pine lumber-that of Captain Taylor of Trenton. This house was the first (or second) frame house built in the township. Excepting this small grove, none of the native timber is of much use as building material except as frame materiel. Very little wood is now used for fuel, nearly everyone uses coal for heating and cooking purposes at the present time. The greatest use of native timber is posts, coal props-of which a great many are shipped from the township -and bridge plank.
Mineral Deposits
There are plentiful deposits of shale in the township that would make excellent brick but as yet there is no factory for making brick and as concrete is beginning to be so extensively used and is such an excellent building material, there prob- ably never will be any brick made from it.
Coal is also found in all parts of the township, but it is not mined to any extent. Three separate veins of coal crop out in the township. The highest vein is in the north part of the town and is 4 feet thick and is of excellent quality. The other veins are but two feet thick and are very hard and make a great many cinders.
The only stone in the township is sandstone, of which there is a small supply. It is soft and does not withstand the climate very well. As there is practically no gravel to use in making concrete, and the other building materials are so scarce, it is readily seen that materials for building is one of our worst drawbacks.
Persifer is well supplied with fertile soil. About one- fourth of the land is what is know nas "Marshall Silt Loam" and is what was originally prairie and barrens. All the re- mainder of the land-except the bottom land-is called "Miami Silt Loam."
In the early days the settlers used springs or shallow wells for water, but year by year the wells had to be made deeper and deeper until at the present time drilled wells from 50 to 300 feet deep furnish the purest and the most abundant supply of water. In the early days people secured soft water by set- ting buckets, washtubs, or barrels under the eaves of their houses to catch the rain water as it ran from the eaves. Now nearly every house has its cistern for rain water. Cisterns usually hold from 60 to 80 barrels of water and people are sel- dom out of it.
The prairies not only furnish a fertile soil for farming but in the early days furnished spontaneously an abundant sup-
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ply of roughage for stock. The timber also furnished acorns in sufficient quantities to fatten not only deer but all the hogs the early settlers raised. Honey was also plentiful. Mr. R. C. Benson told of one bee tree that he cut from which he filled all the tubs and buckets he had and then stood in honey several inches deep.
Several kinds of fruit and nuts are native to the township. Wild grapes, plums, black-berries, straw-berries, elder-berries, and wild crabs were found, and black walnuts, butternuts, hick- ory nuts, and hazelnuts were also plentiful. A party of young people once went into Court Creek bottoms near where Apple- ton now stands and gathered a washtub full of wild straw- berries.
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