USA > Illinois > Madison County > Centennial history of Madison County, Illinois, and its people, 1812 to 1912, Volume I > Part 27
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83
edge and the latest sanitary methods. It is referred to by state officials as being all that a dairy farm should be. The cows at Calla Lily are given a thorough grooming twice a day, their coats being combed and brushed until they shine. Their feet are cleaned and their udders washed and dried with a towel before they are milked. The barn is of con- crete walls, floors and mangers with smooth ceilings having no place to catch dust or cob- webs. The walls and ceilings are cleaned frequently and the floors flushed daily. Win- dows all around give abundance of light and air. The cows roam in pastures all the year round, instead of being confined in stables. In the room where the cows are milked the floor is as clean and the air as sweet as in a hotel dining room. The milkers wear white suits and must wash their hands in hot water before milking and scrub them after each cow is milked. Special milk pails are used which let the stream pour through a cloth. After the milk is taken from the cow it is bottled at 50 degrees, every vessel being ster- ilized. The human hand never touches the milk during the whole process. The demand for Holstein stock is shown by the fact that during the past five years the Calla Lily farm has sold 112 carloads of cows to farmers in this and neighboring counties. Great care is taken with the food of Mr. Spies' pampered herd and the water they drink comes from an artesian well 250 feet deep and is pumped about the farm by gasoline engines. The cows on the farm give from 10,000 to 14,000 pounds of milk yearly. The cows are all tested regularly for tuberculosis and their general health looked after by a veterinary surgeon. Taken in all its completeness, Calla Lilly farm and the great milk-condensing fac- tory at Highland give the best illustrations possible of the wonderful progress of dairy- ing in Madison county.
170
HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
POPULATION DISTINCTIVELY GERMAN
The character of the agricultural popula- tion of the county has changed radically dur- ing the past two generations. The first tillers of the soil were Americans from the southern states. They were joined later by settlers from the eastern section of the country, and still later came the great German immigra- tion. After the second generation compara- tively few of the descendants of the early American settlers remained on the farms. Some of the old families died out; some moved away, while still others remained in the county but engaged in other occupations in the cities and towns. Their places on the farms have been filled by foreigners, or their descendants, mainly Germans, so that the ma-
jority of the farmers of Madison county are now of that nationality or descent. They have introduced many valuable methods of inten- sive farming from the old country and have also adopted such American methods as seemed of the greatest economic value, especially in the use of improved modern machinery and implements. The Germans have greatly aided in making rural Madison a vast and beautiful garden never so productive and desirable as now. "Tickle the soil with a hoe and it laughs with a harvest" must have been writ- ten specially of Madison county. Farm lands that were entered eighty years ago at two dol- lars per acre are now worth from one run- dred to two hundred dollars per acre the county over.
CHAPTER XIX
ADVANCE GUARD OF CIVILIZATION
FIRST LAND OWNERS IN THE COUNTY-FIRST PERMANENT FARM IN ALTON TOWNSHIP- PERMANENT PIONEERS-MEETING OF SOUTH AND NORTH-SAMUEL JUDY, FIRST PERMANENT SETTLER-THE GILLHAMS, WHITESIDES AND PREUITTS-OTHER PIONEERS-FIRST SETTLERS BY TOWNSHIPS-GOVERNOR REYNOLDS' CENTURY-OLD PICTURE -- JOSEPH GILLESPIE ON EARLY TIMES-SAMUEL P. GILLHAM'S RECOLLECTION-GEORGE CHURCHILL AND GEORGE CADWELL.
I hear the tread of pioneers, Of millions yet to be : The first low wash of waves Where soon shall roll a human sea. -Whittier.
Madison county was first seen by white men in 1673, when seven Frenchmen floated down the Mississippi in canoes, as stated in a pre- vious chapter, with the Jesuit missionary Father Marquette and his companion Joliet as leaders, to find a water route from the great lakes "to the western ocean and a short north- west passage to China." But it is some eighty years later before we find any authentic rec- ord of actual settlements within the present bounds of Madison county. About 1750 set- tlements were made by the French on Chou- teau and Cabaret islands in the Mississippi river, probably with the intention of being permanent ; for an apple orchard and pear trees were found there about 1800 by the earliest American pioneers. The statement is made by Governor Reynolds that "the French had resided upon the Big Island in the Missis- sippi below the mouth of the Missouri at in- tervals for fifty or sixty years before (1804). Squire LeCroix, who died in Cahokia an old man a few years since, was born on that island (Chouteau)."
FIRST LAND OWNERS IN THE COUNTY
Early in the nineteenth century, congress appointed a commission to examine the land titles of this region, and many portions of their reports are of interest, as showing who the first settlers were and where they located their homes. Such portions of the Kaskaskia reports as are of interest in the present sketch are quoted below, as found in the second vol- ume of the American State papers :
"Claim 1865; O. C.,* Alexis Buvatte; P. C.,ยก Nicholas Jarrot ; 400 acres situated on the river l'Abbe nine miles above Cahokia." The river l'Abbe here spoken of is Cahokia creek, so-called from the monastery, on Monk's Mound, which was once called "Abbey Hill." The claim, however, is some distance from the Cahokia creek, being on the bank of the Mis- sissippi in township 3-10.
"Claim 519: O. C., Alexander Denis; P. C., William Bolin Whitesides; 400 acres, on Winn's run," etc. This was in township 4-8, section 20, on the bluffs, in what appears to have been the most attractive part of the county, in the "Goshen" settlement, explained later.
*O. C .: Original claimant; +P. C .: Present (1809) claimant.
171
172
HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
"Claim 561 : O. C., Clement Drury ; P. C., heirs of Samuel Worley, 400 acres." This is mostly in section 6 of township 3-9, and in- cludes the farm of Samuel Squires, upon which, in 1865, were pear trees' seventy-five years old.
"Claim 133: O. C., Jean Baptiste Gonville, alias Rappellay; P. C., Nicholas Jarrot ; 400 acres. Affirmed to Jarrot. Situated at Can- teen, about ten miles above Cahokia." This claim includes "l'Abbe" itself, the monastery of the monks of LaTrappe, who from 1810 to 1813 resided there. The claim lies mostly in sections 35 and 36 of 3-9.
"Claim 338: O. C., Louis Bibo; P. C., Sam- uel Judy, 100 acres. Affirmed." Four claims were located together, mostly in sections 32 and 33 of 4-8, by Samuel Judy. On this farm an orchard was set out in 1802 or 1803.
"Claim 1258: O. C., Jean B. Girand, alias Pierre; P. C., John Rice Jones; 100 acres. Affirmed and conveyed by Jones to Thomas Gillham and located in Goshen adjoining Sam- uel Judy and Isham (Isom) Gillham." This is in sections 4 and 5 of 3-8.
"Claim 991: O. C., Pierre Lejoy; P. C., Thomas Kirkpatrick; 100 acres. Affirmed." Located on Cahokia creek. This lies mostly in sections 2 and 3 of 4-8, and includes the northwestern part of Edwardsville.
"Claim 1061: O. C., John Whitesides; P. C., John Whitesides; 100 acres. Affirmed." Situated on the waters of Cahokia creek in sections I and 2 of 3-8.
Of the sixty-nine claims passed upon by the commissioners between 1809 and 1813 twenty- one were located in Nameoki township, eigh- teen in Collinsville, eight in Edwardsville eight in Chouteau, and the remainder were scattered.
FIRST SETTLED FARM IN ALTON TOWNSHIP
Much interest attaches to No. 2056, wherein John Edgar claims the first permanently im- proved tract of land in Alton township, being
"four arpents in front by forty in depth at Piasa, so called, in virtue of an improvement made by Jean Baptiste Cardinal." Edgar showed a deed from Cardinal, dated 17 Sep- tember, 1795, witnessed by La Violette . and acknowledged in April, 1795, five months be- fore its execution. And while Cardinal had made his mark in signing this deed, Edgar presented, as proof of the fairness of the transaction, a letter from Cardinal, offering Edgar this land and signed in a very fair hand by Cardinal himself !
From a perusal of claim 2056, as described above, it is seen that as early as 1783 the Frenchman Jean Baptiste Cardinal was living at "Piasa," "five or six leagues above Caho- kia ;" this was doubtless on the present site of Alton. Also we have the corroborative evi- dence of Maj. Solomon Preuitt who found, in 1806, when he immigrated to Madison county, "a French trading house near the site (sixty years later) of the Alton House, a little loose- rock house roofed with elm bark." This oc- cupation was not permanent.
PERMANENT PIONEERS
But the French seem not to have come into Madison county in any considerable numbers as they did in the two older counties of St. Clair and Randolph, and those of that nation- ality who did come did not remain long. To one Ephraim O'Conner belongs the honor of being the first American settler within this county ; he settled on claim 338, in section 5 of the present Collinsville township in 1800, and there built a log cabin, about six miles south- west of Edwardsville. This immediate neigh- borhood was known as the "Goshen" settle- ment. O'Conner soon sold his claim to Colonel Samuel Judy, who in 1801 became the first per- manent early settler of Madison county. Al- most coincident with the coming of the Judy family, there appear, in the list of early set- tlers, the well known family names Whiteside,
173
HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
Gillham, Kirkpatrick, Jones, Preuitt, Lusk, Newman, Seybold, Moore and Barnsback.
Speaking in a general way, the first perma- nent residents of this county came from the southern states, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennes- see, and the Carolinas, and they found their first homes in the southwestern portion of the county. The reasons for their emigration from the older states to this Illinois territory were probably the same which still impel man to leave his home ties-the desire for more prosperous surroundings, the love of adven- ture, the hope of securing for himself and his children good homes in a new land; and they were encouraged in their hopes by the mar- velous tales brought back by travelers who had seen something of the then socalled "West."
MEETING OF SOUTH AND NORTH
With this first wave of immigration from the southern states came traces of that mon- strous problem which was later to shake this nation to its foundations, negro slavery; for many of these immigrants brought slaves with them, with full permission of the authorities. While the ordinance of 1787 prohibited the in- troduction of slavery here, under the provis- ions of the statute passed after the organiza- tion of Indian territory (of which Illinois was a part from 1800 to 1809) any slave-owner was allowed to bring his slaves provided he appeared with them, within thirty days after their entry into the territory, before the clerk of the court of common pleas and there filed an agreement between owner and slave that, after serving his master a prescribed number of years, the negro should be free. Col. Sam- uel Judy brought two slaves with him, and no doubt many early settlers from the south took advantage of the above provision of law to keep their slaves in Illinois for at least a few years.
A second wave of immigration set in from a different source-from the New England
states, about 1817. The Yankee found that he, as well as his southern brother, could get to the Ohio river, float down on its current and reach the fertile lands of the western country; and his desire for bettering his condition was equally as strong. As soon as the two classes, easterners and southerners, came to under- stand one another, they blended fairly well and worked for the common purpose of bettering themselves and their communities, but it is said that at first there was much prejudice against the New Englanders. The question of slavery seems to have caused the chief clash between the two classes of immigrants, and it was but a few years-1822 to 1824-that a miniature Civil war was fought at the ballot box, when the proslavery leaders attempted to call a con- vention to frame a new state constitution in which it should be expressly stipulated that Illinois should be a slave state. In that elec- tion the vote of Madison county was: Pro- slavery, 351 ; antislavery, 553.
SAMUEL JUDY, FIRST PERMANENT SETTLER
Returning to the earlier days, Col. Samuel Judy is deserving of special mention as the first permanent settler of the county. He was of Swiss parentage, and was a resident of Kentucky before immigrating to Illinois. With his father, Jacob Judy, he lived at Kas- kaskia from 1788 to 1792 ; then moved to the present Monroe county, where the father died in 1807. Samuel Judy, the only son, was born in 1773 and died in 1838. He was prominent in both the civil and military history of Madi- son county, being captain of a company of rangers in 1812, and being elected the same year as the first member to represent this county in the first territorial legislature at Kaskaskia. On his claim, No. 338, he manu- factured brick, and in 1808 began the erection of a brick house, which is still standing a short distance northwest of Peters station. A photograph of this century-old house, taken
174
HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
in 1908, appears with this text. The stone tablet, seen in the photograph in the east gable, shows date 18II, and was inserted in the wall about twenty-five years ago when the wall was repaired. It is said, with good au- thority, that during a severe thunder storm, in 1811, a bolt of lightning entered this east chimney and killed one of Colonel Judy's slaves, who was roasting corn by the fire- place. Colonel Judy's oldest son, Jacob Judy, was register of the land office at Edwards-
in Madison county coming soon after Col- onel Judy, and he induced his brothers John and William to come later, and still later an- other brother, Isaac. The sad and thrilling search which James Gillham conducted for five years, hunting for his wife and children who had been stolen by the Indians in Ken- tucky, would form an intensely interesting chapter in itself. After living near Harrison- ville, Illinois, from 1797 to 1802, James Gill- ham came to Chouteau township, section one,
THE JUDY RESIDENCE [Built more than a century ago, the first brick house in the county, and still standing]
ville from 1845 to 1849, and another son, Col. Thomas Judy, represented the county of Mad- ison in the legislature in 1852. Many direct descendants of the Judy family are still resi- dents in Madison county.
THE GILLHAMS, WHITESIDES AND PREUITTS
An early census of this county would show a vast preponderance of Gillhams. In Hair's Gasetteer is found an exhaustive biographi- cal sketch of this family, tracing the lineage back through the Carolinas to Ireland. It is said that 500 anti-slavery votes were cast, in the 1824 convention fight before mentioned, by the Gillhams throughout Illinois. James Gillham was the first of the family to settle
and his brothers settled in this immediate neighborhood also.
The Whiteside brothers, Samuel and Joel, came to the county from North Carolina in 1803 and settled in the Goshen neighborhood in the northeast part of Collinsville township. They were sons of John Whiteside who had come to Monroe county in 1793. The son Samuel was in command of a company of rangers in 1812, and was commissioned a brigadier general in the Black Hawk war by Gov. Reynolds. In 1818, he was Madison county's first representative in the state legislature.
The Preuitt family likewise came from North Carolina. Martin Preuitt was the head
175
HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
of this large family, which comprised six sons and four daughters. He had served in the Revolutionary war, later moved to Virginia, then to Tennessee and in 1806 to Madison county, where he settled on the Sand Ridge prairie three miles east of Alton. From his youngest son, Solomon Preuitt, who was born in 1790, much of the early history and remi- niscences of this county has been obtainable, through interviews with him before his death in 1875.
OTHER PIONEERS
An early resident of the Goshen settlement was John T. Lusk, a South Carolinian who immigrated in 1805 and entered land two and a half miles southwest of Edwardsville. He married Lucretia Gillham and soon moved to a tract of land later included in the Fair Ground property west of and adjoining Ed- wardsville. Mr. Lusk was a member of the 1812 rangers and was a lieutenant in the Black Hawk war.
William Jones, a Virginian and a Baptist minister, was a resident of this county as early as 1806, and was the head of a large family, many of the descendants being now scattered over the county. He was a mem- ber of both the territorial and state legisla- tures, and also was captain of a company of rangers in 1812. He settled on the sand ridge in Wood river township and soon afterward moved to Fort Russell township.
FIRST SETTLERS BY TOWNSHIPS
Leaving now the consideration of these pio- neer families whose names have ever been familiar to nearly all the households of the county, it will be profitable to mention briefly others of the earliest settlers in each of the twenty-three townships of Madison county, according to the best information obtainable.
Helvetia .- Joseph Duncan settled in the extreme southeast part of this township in 1804, and was soon followed by the Higgins, Hobbs, and Howard families. The influx of
Swiss immigrants began about 1831, under the leadership of Dr. Caspar Koepfli, High- land being founded in 1836.
Saline .- In 1809 the widow Howard, with her sons Abraham and Joseph, came from Tennessee and made their home in section 31. John Giger came later and settled north- west of the present Highland.
Leef .- James Pearce, a native of North Carolina, in 1818 made a permanent home in section 34, on the east side of Silver creek. The Allison brothers and Thomas Johnson came later to section 33.
New Douglas .- Daniel Funderburk, immi- grating from South Carolina, was the first set- tler, in 1819, in section 7, followed by John Carlock, in 1831, in section 19.
St. Jacob .- The Lindly and Chilton fami- lies came here in 1810. John Lindly, a Ken- tuckian, was probably the first settler, and lived first in the southwest quarter of section 18, but moved later to the prairie farther east.
Marine-Maj. Isaac Ferguson and John Warwick came to section 33 in 1813. In 1817 Capt. Rowland P. Allen chose this township as a home, and a large company of his friends, several of them sea-captains, followed him, the Blakemans, Breaths, Ellisons, Masons, and others.
Alhambra .- William Hinch, a Kentuckian, settled on the west bank of Silver creek in section 19 in 1817, and William Hoxcey came to section 18 in the same year. James Farris and Andrew Keown were other early settlers.
Olive .- In 1817, Abram Carlock made his home near the south line of this township, in section 34, and in the same year John Her- rington, Jr., came to section 7. The Street, Keown, and McKittrick families were also pioneers in Olive township.
Jarvis-In 1803, the Seybold family came from Virginia and the Gregg family from Kentucky. Robert Seybold settled in section 8. Other early arrivals in Jarvis township
176
HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
were William Purviance, John Jarvis, George Churchill and Jesse Renfro.
Pin Oak .- Joseph Bartlett, a Virginian by birth, was Pin Oak's earliest resident, coming in 1809 to section 9, and the well-known Barnsback family came very soon afterward to section 31. Paul Beck, George Coventry and Jacob Gonterman made their homes here, also, at a very early date.
Hamel .- In 181I, a Mr. Ferguson came to section 7, just below the crossing of Cahokia creek by the Alton-Greenville road, but moved away the next year. Henry Keley and the Aldrich brothers, Robert and Anson, built a cabin in section 29 in 1817, and in that year Thomas Barnett made a home in the south- west quarter of section 32.
Omph Ghent .- David Swett settled in sec- tion 31, in 1820, near the old Omph Ghent church. Other immigrants of early date were M. Handlon, Charles Tindall, and Samuel H. Denton.
Collinsville .- Aside from the Judy and Whiteside families already mentioned above, the Casterlines were among the first to move into this township, in section 32. Abner Kelly and John Turner were other early arrivals.
Edwardsville .- John Gillham, who came from South Carolina with his five sons in 1802, was probably the first permanent settler in this township, in section 19. Thomas Kirk- patrick came in 1805, erecting a cabin in the extreme northwest part of the city of Ed- wardsville, and his house was chosen as the seat of justice when, in 1812, the county was organized. Abraham Prickett came in 1808; and in the year previous Robert Reynolds of Tennessee, and later of Randolph county, Illi- nois, bought a farm a few miles southwest of Edwardsville, bringing with him a nineteen- year-old son, John Reynolds, to be known in later history as Governor Reynolds.
Fort Russell .- In 1803, Isaiah Dunnegan, a Georgian, made his home in section 31, very near the present Wanda; in 1804, Joseph
Newman of Pennsylvania settled in section 34, and in 1806 Major Isaac Ferguson came to section 18, but soon sold out to Rev. William Jones and went to the Marine settlement, as noted above. John Springer and William Montgomery were other early arrivals not previously named.
Moro .- The first settler here was .Zenas Webster, in section 34, where, in 1820, he built a cabin, on the east side of the "Spring- field road." Thomas Luman and Thomas Wood came soon after, followed in 1831 by Louis D. Palmer, who settled in section 28 with his family, among them the future Gov- ernor John M. Palmer.
Nameoki .- Patrick Hanniberry and the Wiggins family came to Six-Mile prairie in 1801. Nathan Carpenter settled in section 16 in 1804; in 1805 came Isaac Gillham and Thomas Cummings, and in 1808 Amos Squire. Many of the earliest land claims, recorded in Kaskaskia largely by French pioneers, were situated in this township.
Chouteau .- In addition to the French es- tates on the islands in the river and the immi- gration of the Gillhams already noted, Andrew Emmert, in section 33, was a pioneer, coming to this township in 1807.
Wood River .- Thomas Rattan came from Ohio in 1804 to section 13 of Wood River township, giving the name "Rattan's Prairie" to that neighborhood. Toliver Wright, a Vir- ginian and a captain of rangers in 1812, came to the western part of this township in 1806 and in 1808 Abel Moore, born in North Caro- lina and later a resident of Kentucky, settled in the northern part of the township, followed a year later by his brothers William and George. The Davidson brothers, natives of North Carolina, settled in 1806 near the Wanda corner. The Preuitt and Jones pi- oneers have already been named.
Foster .- It seems probable that Joseph S. Reynolds, who entered land in section 33 in 1814 was Foster's first resident, followed two
177
HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
years later by O. Beeman in section 28. The Deck, Short, Dooling, and Foster families should also be mentioned.
Venice .- This township was settled as early as 1804, but by whom is uncertain. The ear- lier inhabitants have stated that one Daniel Lockhart was living in this township as early as 1812, and that John Atkins lived in section I about that date, or possibly as early as 1807. George Cadwell was a resident of section 13 at a very early date.
Alton .- Barring the Frenchman Cardinal, this township had no permanent settlers until 1810 when a log cabin was built by two men, named Price and Colter, on the hill above Hunter's spring (northeast corner of Second and Spring streets.) Few permanent homes were established here until Col. Rufus Easton, the first postmaster of St. Louis, realizing the natural advantages of the location, platted a town site and induced immigration. James Shields and Maj. Charles W. Hunter were among the pioneers, Shields' branch and Hunt- erstown receiving their names from them.
Godfrey .- Nathan Scarritt and Joseph Rey- nolds came to this township in 1826. The former was a brickmaker and built a brick- house on his farm, adjoining Godfrey village ; he was a Yankee by birth and had resided in Edwardsville five years before settling in this township. The Mason, Gillman, and Ingham families were other pioneers. Capt. Benjamin Godfrey came in 1834.
In reviewing the life and customs of the early settlers, it is well to bear in mind that the pioneers of a century ago were in no wise different from the people of today, ex- cept in so far as the material conditions and circumstances of life may have affected them. The pioneer of the early nineteenth century was possessed of as much human nature as the citizen of the twentieth century, and hu- man nature changes little, if any, with the passing of the years. One hundred years ago Vol. I-12
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.