USA > Illinois > Knox County > Annals of Knox County : commemorating centennial of admission of Illinois as a state of the Union in 1818 > Part 8
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Comparative Prices, 1836-1918
In 1836 wheat sold for between $1.40 and $1.50 per bushel ; corn sold for 50 cents per bushel and hogs for $4.00 per hun- dred. Now, in 1918, wheat is worth $2.10 per bushel, corn $1.50 per bushel and hogs are selling for $20.00 per hundred weight, and therefore, now, as then, the farmers find that corn is "worth more to feed" than to sell.
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The First Company Sets Out for "The West."
As early in the spring of 1836 as the roads would permit, "the advance guard of the army of occupation" under the lead- ership of Nehemiah West, left their pleasant homes in New York and started westward. They journeyed in strong, well- built, canvas covered wagons drawn by patient, plodding horses. Their rate of progress was that of about as many miles per day as the average railway train covers in an hour. Four long weeks measured their slow and toilsome length before the new home was reached and they beheld "the city of their dreams."
The First Dwellings
And what did they look upon? Not a city of comfortable homes, of schools and churches and business houses, as were their own familiar Utica and Albany, not even the pretty, peaceful village nestling at the foot of the green hills from which they turned their faces as they bade good-bye to home and friends ; but just a few rude log cabins standing in the out- skirts of a "stretch of timber" that bordered an apparently limitless expanse of trackless, treeless prairie. These cabins were located three and one-half miles northwest of the center of the site of their future city of Galesburg. They had been built and occupied by settlers coming up from Kentucky and other parts of the south, who had within the five or six years previous fringed the grove with a tier of farms and had then vacated their cabins presumably for more commodious quar- ters. There were not enough of these cabins to accommodate even the first party that arrived, but they distributed them- selves as best they could until they could build cabins for them- selves, and in their turn vacate those they found to be occupied by a succession of later arrivals who came during the summer and fall of 1836 and the spring of 1837. Some of the young people slept in corn cribs belonging to the cabins, or were housed in tents made of boughs until a sufficient number of cabins could be built for the shelter of all who came; albeit they must be crowded to the extent of two and three families in a single room of these rude buildings.
"Log City"
The cluster of cabins which thus sprang up along the edge of Henderson Grove, and scattered for a mile or more along the woodland trail, came to be known in the history of the colony as "Log City," a name revered and honored in the hearts of all true and loyal descendants of the Founders.
Description of the First Cabins
Prof. George Churchill. of Knox College in one of his his- torical papers says: "It would astonish a modern builder to
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examine one of these mansions. Some of them were built without as much as a single nail or pane of glass in the entire structure. Log walls were chincked with mud, outside chim- ney constructed of sticks and clay, with upper aperature so large as not only to give egress to the smoke, but ingress to the light when the cabin door was shut. Doors made of split boards fastened with wooden pins to a wooden hinge; a punch- eon floor, and roof covered with shakes (narrow strips of wood) held down by heavy log riders.
First Rude Furnishings
The furniture was at first as rude as the cabins. Boxes, barrels and short logs were the chairs, a larger box the table, and a one-post bed stood in one corner of the room."
Shipments of Furniture Long Delayed
One reason for the utter crudeness of the furniture thus described, and the lack of household conveniences of all kinds was the fact that their goods were shipped by water and were delayed many weeks after the colonists themselves had arrived on the scene. The "one-post bed" referred to above was con- structed in this way: A pole was mortised into a log at the end of the room at a proper distance from the corner to meas- ure the width of the bed. Another pole was mortised into the side wall at the distance of a bed's length. The two poles which came together at a right angle were supported by a third up- right post which constituted the only outer support. Ropes were interlaced across and around these poles forming by their network a foundation for a straw bed, the popular mattress of that day. A straw or husk or hay mattress made a fragrant wholesome resting place, providing the filling of the ticks was replenished often enough to meet sanitary requirements. A third bed was often made between the two corner beds by plac- ing four "chests" side by side. These chests were a necessary article in the household furniture of every family. They con- tained the wearing apparel of the family, and every time an article stored in them was needed, the bedding had to be re- moved. The one room was equipped with a stove for cooking and heating purposes, or sometimes with only a fireplace. One of the stoves in a Log City home has been thus described: The stove was in the shape of an oblong box with one large opening in the center of the top; directly underneath this was the fire- box with a wide, projecting hearth in front where the hoe- cakes were toasted.
In these crowded, crude, and neccessarily unsanitary quarters they cooked, and ate, and slept and suffered all kinds of privations and hardships, but remained strong in courage and hope. The manner of housing and furnishing was only a temporary "make shift" until their furniture arrived and
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more comfortable houses could be built. Before the winter drew near they were all comfortably housed in log cabins, suf- ficient in number and capacity for their immediate needs. The cold weather of the autumn of 1836 found 175 residents in Log City busily preparing for the coming winter. During the winter the men were busy getting timber ready for the houses to be built on the prairie in the spring. After the first saw- mill was put up, house building began in good earnest.
First Saw Mill in 1837
A steam saw mill was built on colony land in Henderson Grove by John Kendall and was completed in 1837. Previous to the completion of this mill sawed lumber for building was only obtainable by hauling logs from Henderson Grove to Knoxville, and paying for the mill work with two-thirds of the boards. Naturally it was greatly to the advantage of the col- onists to have their own saw mills located upon colony land. The next year the Ferris brothers, Western, Olmsted, and Wil- liam, sons of Silvanus Ferris, built the second mill two miles northwest of the Kendall mill, and shortly afterward a third saw mill was erected in Galesburg by Nehemiah West, Erastus Swift, and George W. Gale. This mill was located on the north side of Ferris Street between West and Academy. Although located four miles from the nearest timber the output of this latter mill was in great demand and found ready use at the point where it was turned out. And doubtless the combined output of the three mills was needed to meet the demands of the colonists who were building their village and their farm houses upon the prairies during these first busy years from 1836 to 1840. The houses upon the prairie were, with an ex- ception, frame houses, albeit they were plain and modest in their structure. An early settler in writing of these buildings says, "In the early days of the Galesburg settlement few vill- ages in Illinois could boast of painted houses and the white dwellings of the embryo city attracted the pleased attention of eastern travelers. This distinction was rendered possible by the oil mill built and operated by Leonard Chappell on Kellogg street, between Main and Ferris. There oil might be had in exchange for flax seed raised on the farms."
The first dwelling house built upon the site of the city of Galesburg was that of William Holyoke, and it stood on the lot now occupied by the Mathews block, between Prairie and Kellogg streets, and on the north side of Main street. A frame house built at Log City and occupied by Riley Root and his family was placed upon large sleds and in that way removed to the village on the prairie and located upon the lot at the north- west corner of Main and Cherry streets in the block now occu- pied by the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank, the Rearick Hard- ware Store, etc.
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The First Meeting House
The log cabin of Hugh Conger has the distinction of hav- ing been the first meeting house of the colonists, it being more commodious than some of the others, as was necessary for his family of seven children. But before the cold weather of their first winter set in a more commodious and comfortable build- ing was provided which was designed for both church and school purposes.
First Building for Both Church and School Purposes
This was a two-room building with a wide door between the rooms in which the speaker stood so as to be readily seen and heard from both rooms. It was constructed of split tim- bers, roofed with split shakes, floored with split boards, and when the saw mill began to run, ceiled upon the inside with rough basswood boards and the space between the clapboards and the ceiling filled with saw-dust. Professor Churchill says : "It would not be much out of the way to say that in this very building the first term of Knox College was held with Profes- sor Nehemiah H. Losey as principal and Miss Lucy Gay as assistant."
First Public School Building
It also served the purpose of a public school and was the only building for that purpose until the following year, or pos- sibly two years, when the first public school building devoted primarily and especially to that purpose was erected in the new village on the prairie. It stood on the northeast corner of the public square facing the south. It could boast of one feat- ure of the most approved and up-to-date type ; that is, the floor was inclined from the front to the rear of the room, so that the teacher standing or seated by his desk at the further end could readily supervise the deportment of the pupils.
First Public School Teacher
Among the many who held sway over this school from 1840 to 1850 were Eli Farnham, who had the distinction of be- ing the first teacher of the first public school in Galesburg; James H. Noteware, afterward superintendent of public schools for the State of Kansas ; Marshall Delong, one of the most pop- ular and successful teachers of the early day, in this vicinity ; George Churchill, prince of teachers from the very beginning of his long career in the school and class-room; and Henry McCall, whose wife and daughter, Miss Ida McCall, many years thereafter, were both of them, and for a number of years both at the same time, the honored and beloved teachers of many successive classes in Knox Academy.
Development of Galesburg Public Schools
From that small beginning the Galesburg Public School
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system has developed and increased until it has reached the fol- lowing proportions: In the fall of 1918 there are twelve build- ings with a total enrollment of 3,721 pupils. The High School is a modern, well-equipped building of forty-four rooms. The grade buildings range in size from four to thirteen rooms. There are one hundred twenty-eight instructors and supervis- ors and fifteen secretaries and other helpers, making in all one hundred forty-three upon the pay roll.| The school build- ings with the exception of the High School and the Central Pri- mary are named in honor of the two most distinguished men our state has given to the nation; for Presidents and Profes- sors in our Colleges, and for substantial citizens who have given efficient service upon the board of trustees in the colleges, and the board of education in the Public schools. These are the names :
Names of Public School Buildings
Lincoln, Douglas, Weston, Bateman, Churchill, Hitchcock, Cooke, Farnham, Silas Willard and L. T. Stone. An attractive and finely equipped gymnasium was completed during the summer of this centennial year, and to this building is given the name of the W. L. Steele Gymnasium, in memory of the lamented superintendent of our city schools who for thirty- three years devoted himself untiringly and with pronounced success to the improvement and the upbuilding of these schools and died in May, 1918, just previous to his voluntary retire- ment from the active service which he had so well performed.
But to go back to the autumn of 1837. At this time so many had moved out to their farms or to the village upon the prairie, that the church services were held alternately at the grove and at the village, in the latter place the meetings being held in a store building which was owned by Matthew Cham- bers and was located at the intersection of Main street with the Public Square, east of the Square and on the south side of Main street.
Population of the Town at the Close of 1837.
By the close of 1837 there was a community numbering 232. Of these 175 came in 1836 and 57 in 1837. Besides these there were at least two families belonging to the original colony who settled elsewhere. Mr. Thomas Gilbert settled in Knox- ville and Mr. Isaac Wetmore in Ontario. But the colonists of 1836 and 1837 were the original "Old Settlers," and these were they who, building themselves, "their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor," into the structure of the College, the Church, and the community, won for themselves the distinctive title of "The Founders." As a matter of historic interest in- terest and for purposes of information to further inquirers we give below the names of the colonists of 1836 and 1837, the "Founders of Galesburg."
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Names of Colonists-1836
The first company who arrived on the second day of June, 1836, consisted of the following persons: Mr. and Mrs. Nehe- miah West and their five children; Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Conger and seven children; Miss Elizabeth Hudson; Mr. Barber Allen and his son, Daniel; and the young men, John G. West and Abram Tyler.
The First Wedding, August 31, 1836
Miss Elizabeth Hudson and Mr. Henry Ferris were the principals in the first wedding of the colony. They were mar- ried August 31, 1836, only two months after the arrival of Miss Hudson. Mr. Ferris had spent the previous winter, that of 1835-1836, in one of the log cabins in Henderson Grove, and was on the ground to welcome the first company on its arrival. There is a difference of opinion as to whether he lived entirely alone in his cabin, or had the company of another man, one of the Goodell family.
Other Companies Arrive
The names of other colonists who arrived with their fam- ilies during the summer and fall of 1836 are the following: Messrs. George and H. Troop Avery, their mother and sisters ; Mathew Chambers; Leonard Chappell; C. S. Colton; Patrick Dunn; Caleb Finch; Lusher Gay; Daniel Griffith; Abel Goodell; William Hamblin; John Haskins; Mrs. Sarah Warner Hitchcock, a widow and her sons, Elam and Samuel; the two Kendall brothers, Adoniram and John; Elisha King; John Mc- Mullen; Isaac Colton; Roswell Payne; Riley Root; Thomas Simmons ; Erastus and Job Swift; Daniel Wheeler, and Henry Willcox. The most of them had families of two or more little children. Two of the young men were married during the sum- mer or fall of 1836. This list does not include the members of the canal boat company who arrived about August 1, 1836. Rev. George W. Gale with his wife and family of young child- ren arrived quite late in the fall of 1836.
"The Canal Boat Company," 1836.
The historic "canal boat trip" of the summer of 1836 was made up of a series of vicissitudes and disasters seldom paral- leled in the annals of pioneer emigration. The company num- bered thirty-seven and included men, women and children rang- ing in age from an infant of six weeks to men and women of forty or fifty years. The persons making up this party were: Captain John C. Smith and wife (Mr. Smith being one of the subscribers to Mr. Gale's enterprise, and the promoter of this water trip for the party) ; Miss Catherine Ann Watson, a neice of Mrs. Smith, and two little sons of Dr. Grant, a Nestorian missionary who came under their care; Mr. and Mrs. Mills, two sons and a daughter; Miss Hannah Adams, a sister of Mrs.
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Mills ; a girl named Mariah Fox, and a negro boy named Harry, who was under the charge of Mr. Mills; Mr. Lyman, his wife, two sons and two daughters; Mr. Orrin Kendall, his wife and two little sons; John Kendall; N. H. Losey, his wife, and one child; Henry Hitchcock, a brother of Mrs. Losey ; Mrs. Clarissa Phelps, two daughters and one son, two nieces and a nephew (the children of Riley Root) ; John Bryan and a negro who steered the boat. The disastrous experiences of this party are related in Chapter VI of the book entitled "Seventy-five Signi- ficant Years," to which we have previously referred. They are of pathetic and tragic interest.
Arrivals in Spring of 1837
In the spring of 1837 a number of substantial citizens with their families arrived to swell the population of the little com- munity. Among them were the following, the most of them married and with children of various ages: Silvanus Ferris (although one of the chief promoters of the enterprise, he was one of the later arrivals), his sons William and Olmstead, both of them married ; Mr. Ferris' son-in-law, Dr. James Bruce ; J. P. Frost, the founder of the Frost Manufacturing Company, and wife; Eli Farnham and wife; H. H. May, the inventor of the first steel plow, and wife; Agrippa Martin and family ; Levi Sanderson and family; Junius Prentice aind family ; Sheldon Allen, wife and infant son; Jonathan Simmons and wife; Harvey Jerauld; Western Ferris; N. O. Ferris ; George Ferris and possibly others. One section at least of this group of fam- ilies was six weeks on the way. Judging from the record of the names of the towns and villages touched along the route, their line of travel was much the same as that followed by the Michigan Central railroad today.
Methods of Travel Then and Now
The early methods of travel were as we have seen, slow, wearisome and hazardous. They were in almost overwhelm- ing contrast to the luxurious service and the rapid transit afforded by the railroads, the ocean liners, the private motor cars, and most amazing of all, the air craft of the present day. Many have made the mistake of concluding that the Galesburg colonists traveled from the East in wagons drawn by ox teams. This is not true. They came either in wagons covered with canvas to protect them from the weather and drawn by strong horses, or by the water route which included in its devious course the Erie canal, Lake Erie, the Ohio canal, the Ohio River, and the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. Some of the men who came singly came by water as far as Chicago, which was then a village of a few hundred inhabitants, and then by horseback the remainder of the way.
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The Pioneers from the Southern States
The southerners who settled along the outskirts of Hen- derson Grove five or six years previous to the coming of our colonists made the journey on horseback bringing with them their personal belongings and such small articles of fur- niture as they could carry upon pack horses. A remarkable example of pioneer enterprise and intrepid adventure may be found in the case of Mrs. Henrietta Brown, the widowed mother of eight sons and daughters who grew up to be prom- inent and useful citizens in the townships adjacent to Hen- derson Grove. When the spirit of emigration took hold upon a group of her friends and neighbors, substantial citizens of the "Kentucky Blue Grass Country," she joined their ranks and with her children, ranging in age from an infant to young manhood and womanhood, she journeyed from Kentucky with a train of horses of the fine old Kentucky stock, sufficient in number to transport herself and her children, the family cloth- ing and bedding and a few pieces of furniture. The children who were too small to ride alone, and the younger ones too numerous to ride upon the horse with their mother were sus- pended in panniers swung across the backs of the pack horses ..
The First Fort in Knox County
Upon the tract of Government land which Mrs. Brown acquired which was located about seven miles N. W. of Gales- burg, the first fort or stockade in Knox County was erected. This served the purpose of a dwelling for her family and a place of refuge for the neighbors in case of alarm from the Indian bands who roamed the prairie at that period. Later, when that building became too small to protecting the increas- ing population, another fort was built upon the premises of her son-in-law, Peter Franz, and was located about one-half the distance between the first fort and the present site of Gales- burg. Two other forts erected in Knox County in that early period as protection against the Indians were located respec- tively on Section 10 in Henderson Township and S. E. of Knox- ville in Orange Township. The forts N. W. of the site of Galesburg were called Fort Aggie and Fort Lewis.
The First Store
The first store in the community was conducted by one of the colonists from Maine, Mr. Chauncey S. Colton, who came in the season of 1836. It is said that, with true Yankee thrift and enterprise, he began to sell goods in one end of the log cabin of one of the Kentucky settlers, with whom he and his family were quartered until his store building about a mile farther west, in the Log City neighborhood, could be com- pleted. This building is described as an 8 by 10 foot structure in which Mr. Colton displayed a varied assortment of goods-
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"a department store" in embryo. But about this nucleus he gathered a fortune as the years passed by, until he became one of the wealthiest men of his day in this section of the state. As the homes upon the prairie were occupied Mr. Colton re- moved his stock of goods to a building on the northwest corner of the intersection of Main street and the Public Square in the village which building also served the purpose for his family for a number of years.
Others Stores
During that same season other stores were opened by Mathew Chambers and Levi Sanderson who also carried on a thriving and prosperous business and were reckoned among the moneyed men of the county.
Commercial Development Along All Lines
The mercantile business thus started has developed along all lines suited to household needs until Galesburg with its var- ious wholesale and retail business houses has become the com- mercial center for a large area of one of the richest tracts of country in the state.
First Academy Building
Late in the fall of 1838 the first Academy building was finished and occupied. It stood where the First National Bank building now stands, on the northeast corner of Main and Cherry streets. Years ago it was moved farther north to the middle of the block, facing Cherry street, and was at first used as a private residence, and afterward as a boarding house. This historic structure was demolished early in the spring of 1918, and is now only a memory.
With the Academy building completed and occupied by an academic department of forty students and a corps of teachers, it began to look as if Mr. Gale's great idea was about to be realized. The college had entered upon its career of use- fulness. But since it could not spring into being fully equipped it must first be established upon a strong and durable founda- tion. That foundation was the preparatory school, the Acad- emy.
First Knox College Faculty
The first faculty of the college was composed of five mem- bers. They were the following: Rev. Hiram H. Kellogg, Pres- ident; Rev. George W. Gale, Acting Professor of Languages ; Nehemiah H. Losey, A. M., Professor of Mathematics and Nat- ural Science; James H. Smith, A. B., Tutor; Miss Julia Chand- ler, Preceptress of the "Female Department." After the re- quired training in the Academy the first Freshman class was ready to enter upon the regular college curriculum in the fall of 1841, five years after the arrival of the colonists at "Log City."
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First Knox Commencement
In June, 1846, the first Knox Commencement Day oc- curred, and a class of nine young men was graduated. Of these, five became ministers, two of whom were foreign mis- sionaries, two became physicians, one a professor in college, and one a farmer. Dr. Jonathan Blanchard, who became Presi- dent of the college in 1845, had the distinction of presiding over this first notable occasion and with this event the Idea had fully materialized, the dream came true.
Numbers Then and Now
Some figures by way of comparison will show the develop- ment of the college up to the present time. The first college faculty numbered five. The faculty at the beginning of the school year, 1918, numbered 24. The first graduating class numbered 9; the class of 1918 numbered 50. Presumably the first Freshman class numbered 9, although we have not the figures at hand. The Freshman class in the fall of 1918 num- bered 292. Of these 235 were inducted into the Student's Army Training Corps, according to the new order of things throughout the entire country in consequence of the "World War." There were in all 301 new students of whom 288 were men. A large number of men who would naturally have swelled the ranks of the other classes had enlisted for active service in the army and were either in the training camps or had gone "overseas."
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