USA > Illinois > Madison County > Centennial history of Madison County, Illinois, and its people, 1812 to 1912, Volume II > Part 15
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William M. T. Springer was born August 31, 1828, and after attending the local public schools, entered McKendree College (1848), where he remained that year and part of 1849. In 1850 he joined an overland company and went to California, returning home the fol- lowing year. In 1852, in association with his brothers Thomas and Levi he engaged in farming. They also erected a saw-mill, of which he had the management until about 1875, when he sold out his interests and moved to Edwardsville, where he engaged in the hardware and farm-machine business. He was married to Miss Margaret J. Barber Janu- ary 7, 1857, and by this union had six chil- dren. Politically he was a Republican, and both he and his wife were active members of the Methodist Episcopal church. In July of 1881, on account of ill-health, he started to Colorado. At Lawrence, Kansas, he stopped off to visit his sister, where he was taken ill and died October 9, 1881. His body now rests in Woodlawn cemetery, Edwardsville. His wife and three living children now reside in Edwardsville, namely : Thomas W., who married Florence Benedict; Mary Emma, wife of Dr. E. W. Fiegenbaum; and Jose- phine, who resides with her mother. Jennie Florence, wife of Charles Tunnell, died Sep- tember 8, 191I.
Levi Cartwright Springer was born October 3, 1832. His common school education was supplemented by a fine general knowledge, ac- quired by much reading. In 1852, when but twenty years of age, he became associated with his brothers, Thomas and William, in
agriculture and lumber business. Several years later, dissolving partnership with his brothers, he turned his attention to horticul- ture, near Makanda, Illinois, This in connec- tion with grain buying, occupied him until about 1872, when he returned to Madison county and was married in Edwardsville to Miss Ada- line Barber, October 15, 1878. By this union one daughter was born,-Maude Irwin, who now makes her home with her aunt, Mrs. Margaret Springer, of Edwardsville. During the year 1880 Mr. Springer bought the old Scarritt place near Godfrey. Eight years later he retired from active business and spent his time looking after his various interests. Much of his time was spent in Edwardsville, with frequent trips of long duration to California, where his wife died January 29, 1897. He united at a youthful age with the Methodist Episcopal church at Salem, and in later years was identified with the Masonic lodge, No. 99, at Edwardsville. Mr. Springer took a deep interest in politics, early affiliating with the Republican party and later becoming an ardent supporter of the Prohibition reform move- ment. He died in 1902, at the home of his sister, Mrs. S. P. Irwin, Moneta, California, and was brought back to his native environ- ment where he rests beside his wife in Wood- lawn cemetery in Edwardsville.
Emily P. Springer was born July 31, 1836. After completing the studies of the local pub- lic schools she attended Jacksonville Female College during the years 1856-57. At the early age of thirteen she joined the Methodist church at Salem, where she retained her mem- bership till 1886, when she had it transferred to Edwardsville. She was married to R. C. Gillham, December 29, 1858. (For further data see Gillham history on other pages of this work.)
Lucinda Springer was born November 2, 1839. She was married to Samuel P. Irwin November 5, 1868, and she now resides with her son at Compton, California.
Joshua S. was born December 15, 1841, and soon after attaining his majority he removed to Jackson county, Illinois, where he now re- sides with his son. For the complete genealogi- cal table and history of this branch of the Springer family from the time of their first landing in America to the present time, the descendants are indebted to Thomas O. and Levi Springer. The original manuscript is now in the possession of Miss Maude Irwin Springer, daughter of Levi.
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
THE GILLIAM FAMILY IN MADISON COUNTY. The original ancestor of the Gill- ham family in America was Thomas Gillham, whose offspring not only helped gain inde- pendence for our country, but were closely identified with the early settlement of Madi- son county during the last years of the eight- eenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. He was of Scotch-Irish descent and immigrated with his wife and four chil- dren (two sons and two daughters), from Ireland in 1730 and settled in Virginia. His first wife dying there, he again married and removed to South Carolina and settled in what was then known as Pendleton county, since divided into the counties of Pickens and Hen- derson. In all, he had eleven children, seven sons and four daughters. He, his seven sons and two sons-in-law, served in the war for In- dependence, his term of service being as fol- lows: Two hundred and ten days in Captain Barnett's company, Hill's regiment ; fourteen days in Captain James Thompson's company, Bratton's regiment; forty days in the latter company under Lieutenant Dervin ; nine days in Captain Hill's company ; and twenty-nine days as horseman in Captain Kirkpatrick's company, said services terminating October 30, 1781. ( From office of historical commission, South Carolina.) Five of his sons and two of his daughters, with their families, migrated to Illinois and settled in Madison county.
His eldest son, Thomas, married in South Carolina and his family consisted of two sons. William and lsom, and two daughters. This family moved to Madison county, Illinois. where the father died near the close of the seventeenth century. William went to Ken- tucky where he married, but returned to Illi- nois and remained until his death.
Isom, the second son, was born in South Carolina in 1778. He married Ruth Vaughn. He died in Madison county, Illinois, in 1820, and was buried at Upper Alton. In 1812 he was elected first sheriff of Madison county, which at that time embraced all of central and northern Illinois, and a part of the pres- ent state of Wisconsin. Mrs. Dora Gillham Krome, daughter of Shadrach B. Gillham, third son of Isom Gillham, and her children. are the only descendants of Isom Gillham still residing in Madison county.
The finding of the beautiful prairies and heavy wooded valleys of Illinois by the Gill- hams was through the treachery of the In- dians, James, the fourth son of Thomas I, had moved from South Carolina to Kentucky. In June, 1790, while he and his eldest son were
at work in the fields, a party of Kickapoo Indians stole his wife and other three chil- (Iren and successfully escaped to their hunt- ing ground in northern Illinois. On his re- turn from work he discovered his loss, and after following their trail, he was convinced his missing ones were alive, as he could often see the footprints of his wife and children. He sold his farm, placed his remaining child in the care of neighbors, and with the determi- nation to regain his family, started north into an almost endless wilderness, full of savages and wild beasts. He visited trading posts in hope of tidings. From old Vincennes he went to Kaskaskia and after five years' search found them in a Kickapoo village in central Illinois. He was so well pleased with the new territory of Ilinois that he, two years later ( 1797), with his reunited family, settled in the American bottom near St. Louis.
From the glowing accounts of the new coun- try by James in his home letters, Thomas, the third son of Thomas, was induced to come, reaching Illinois the last day of the year 1799. The other sons, John and William, followed and on June 10, 1802, arrived in Monroe county. The same year John settled on the west bank of Cahokia, in section 19, township 4, range 8. In a few years he removed to sec- tion I, township 1. range 9, one-fourth of a mile west of Wanda.
John Gillham, fourth son of Thomas (by his second wife), served as corporal in the Sixth South Carolina Regiment. He enlisted March 29. 1776, and was discharged June 1, 1777. (From records of war department.) Fle was also in the South Carolina Mili- tia, under Colonel Brandon. (From South Carolina records, Columbia. ) He was mar- ried in South Carolina to Miss Sarah Clark, by whom he had twelve children, six boys and six girls. He died in 1832 and is buried in the cemetery near Wanda.
Ryderus C. Gillham, third son of John Gillham, was born in South Carolina, June 18, 1773, and came with his parents and uncle to Madison county in 1802. He was first mar- ried to Susannah Brown and settled in the northeastern quarter of the northeastern quar- ter of section 12, township 4, range 9. By this wife he had seven children, to the oldest of whom, Samuel P. Gillham, all credit is due for the writing and preserving of the gene- alogy and early history of the Gillham fam- ily up to the middle of the nineteenth century.
Ryderus C. Gillham, in 1817, filed a certifi- cate of register in the land office at Kaskaskia. in the Territory of Illinois. On September 29.
Re le Bilcham
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
1817, a land grant for the southwestern quar- ter, section 6, township 4, range 8, was exe- cuted at Washington in the general land of- fice on parchment and signed by James Mon- roe, president, and Josiah Meigs, commissioner of the general land office. This land grant is now in possession of E. L. Gillham, a grand- son of R. C. Gillham, and is in a splendid state of preservation. This quarter section and the original eighty-acre tract have always been owned by a Gillham, descendant of Ry- derus C. Gillham, and with the exception of two years a Gillham has always lived on it. It has never had a mortgage recorded against it.
Ryderus C. Gillham married second Ruhama P. Stockton, nee Patterson, born January 16, 1793. By this union six children were born. Politically he was a Whig, and his reason for coming to Ilinois was, as he often said, be- cause he "would not rear his family in the lap of slavery." A history of Illinois printed in 1849 says: "The convention (or slave) party of 1824 owed its defeat to the Gillham family and its kinsmen; who almost in a solid phalanx cast five hundred votes against the proposition to make Illinois a slave state." He was a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church, and was a charter member when this religious so- ciety was first formed in 1809, by the author- ity of the Western Conference, held that year in Cincinnati, Ohio. Services were held at private houses till 1812, when he and his neighbors built the first church at Old Salem, now Wanda. In connection, a brief sketch of this church, which also served as school-house, will be of interest. The following description is given by Samuel P. and Ryderus C., Jr. : "This house was built out of what may be termed raw material, the frame work being from hewn timbers tenoned and put together with draw-pins, the siding, split-boards rived in the timber and nailed on with home-made, hand-forged nails. Mother Earth formed the floor. The seats were made of black walnut, to the backs of which were hinged a board which could be propped up like a shelf for school use and lowered for church purposes. Drawers were made to slide under the seats, to hold such paraphernalia as were used in that day, the most important of which was the Bible, from which the children learned to read and spell."
In 1838 the Old Salem camp ground was laid out and substantial camps built by Ry- derus C. and his neighbors. He served as juror in the first murder case tried in Madison county.
Ryderus C. Gillham was a member of the
state militia, an armed organization which at that time was very necessary to protect the frontier homes from the depredations of the Indians. On the 19th day of April, 1814, Ninian Edwards, governor of Illinois terri- tory, issued a commission, thereby making Ryderus Clark Gillham first lieutenant in the Second Regiment of the Illinois Territory Mi- litia. This commission is now in the posses- sion of Mrs. Emily P. Gillham, the wife of Mr. Gillham's child. It is printed in old style type and is in a perfect state of preservation.
Of the thirteen children born to Mr. Gill- ham, but one survives ( 19II), namely : Elea- nor E., born March 26, 1833. She married John Wilson and removed to Marion county, Illinois, where she now resides with her son. A genealogy of each of his children would re- quire too much space, hence only those who have lineal descendants still living in this county will be taken up. Hannah, second daughter of R. C. Gillham by his first mar- riage, was born November 2, 1817, died April 20, 1858, was married to Charles Sebastian and had ten children, of whom five are now living. Charles P., the seventh child, who now resides in Edwardsville, Illinois, married Martha F. Tartt, daughter of John Tartt, an old resident of the county. By this union five children were born, namely: Frank E., of Chicago, who married Jessie Stubbs and has one child, Mary Burk; Leota May, who mar- ried Carl J. Andel; Claude M., who married Hazel A. Comstock, and has one child, Alice Maude; Grace D., and W. Paul, the two lat- ter residing at Edwardsville with their parents.
Gershom P. Gillham, fourth child of Ry- derus C., by his second marriage, was born November 21, 1828, and is deceased. He mar- ried Mary Lacy and the four living children of their union are as follows : William R., J. Franklin, George L. and Daniel B. After the death of his father, he and his brother James took charge of the old Gillham home- stead until 1849, when, in company with neigh- bors, he fitted out an overland train and went to California. After his return he married and built a sawmill two and a half miles north of Wanda. Several years later he. with John Gillham, bought out the Western Hotel in St. Louis. Later he returned to Madison county and engaged in farming. He died at the home of his brother James in Alton, November 23, 1875. He served in the Civil war, being first lieutenant of Company F under Captain Jake Kinder, of the One Hundred and Seventeenth Illinois Regiment. Politically he was a Re- publican, and both he and his wife were mem-
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
bers of the Methodist church at Wanda. William R., the first child, married Lydia Southard, and by this union they have four children now living, namely: Maude, Claude, Gershom and Imo. Claude is now living in Idaho and the other three reside with their parents in Alton. George L., third child of Gershom, married Marie Gerding and now re- sides in Alton.
Ryderus C., Jr., youngest child of Ryderus Clark Gillham and Ruhama P. Stockton, was born July 3. 1836. He obtained his common school education in the old combined school and church built by the early settlers at Old Salem, now Wanda, and finished with one year at McKendree College, Lebanon, Illinois. On December 29, 1858, he was united in mar- riage to Miss Emily P. Suringer, and together with his older brother James took charge of and began farming the Gillham estate. The following year an older brother John (by his father's first marriage ), bought out the inter- ests of all heirs in the estate, except his and James.' The year after Ryderus C. obtained possession of all his father's estate, except the interest of James, by buying out John, and on October 16, 1860, a deed therefor was re- corded in the recorder's office at Edwardsville. Illinois. Early in life he became convinced that farm lands were a safe and profitable in- vestment, and by industry and frugality he and his wife added materially to the original homestead. During the year 1891 he gave up active business and built a comfortable resi- dence on a five-acre tract in Oakland Addi- tion, Edwardsville, to which new home, he, with his wife and two younger sons, moved on New Year's Day, 1892.
Since the candidacy of General Fremont he supported the principles of the Republican party and was present at the Lincoln-Douglas debate held in Alton October 15, 1858. Ile and his wife celebrated their golden wedding, Tuesday, December 29, 1908. In attendance were four children, seven grandchildren, and many relatives and friends. He was an en- thusiastic and consistent Mason. He was raised in Edwardsville Lodge. No. 99. June 4, 1863, was a charter member of Lodge No. 146, Roval Arch Masons, organized at Edwards- ville in 1872, and a member of the Belvidere Commandery, No. 2, K. T., at Alton. The Scottish Rite degrees, from the fourth to the thirty-second inclusive, were conferred on him in the Oriental Consistory at Chicago. He was also a charter member of St. Clair Lodge of Perfection at East St. Louis. He died
March 23, 1910, and in accordance with his wishes, was buried by the Knights Templar.
Five children were born to Ryderus C. and Emily P. Gillham, namely : Fannie F., Charles Elmer, Edward L., Frederick C. and J. Frank- lin. Fannie F. was born May 1, 1860. After attending the Wanda school she graduated from Shurtleff College in 1882. After teach- ing three years she was married in 1886 to Rev. R. E. Pierce. Both she and her husband are affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal church. They have three children,-Raymond Clark, Mary Theora and Benjamin Elmer. They, with their children, reside in University Park. Denver, Colorado. Charles E., born January 13, 1862, died December 3, 1896. After fin- ishing the eighth grade at Wanda he entered the Freshman class at Shurtleff College. In February, 1884, he was united in marriage to Lida K. Kendall. By this union two children were born-Charlotte K., who died in early childhood, and Ruth K., now living with her aunt, Mrs. Fannie Gillham Pierce, in Denver. In politics Charles E. Gillham was a Republi- can. He was a member of the Masonic lodge, No. 99, of Edwardsville, and at his death in 1896 was buried by that order in the Wanda cemetery. After his death his wife and daugh- ter removed to Edwardsville and made their home there until the death of the former, which occurred June 5, 1909. She is buried beside her husband in the Wanda cemetery.
Edward Lavern, third child of R. C. Gill- ham, was born February 1, 1864. After fin- ishing the common school course at Wanda and a three years' course of higher branches at the same school, he engaged in farming with his father and so continued eight years. He was united in marriage, November 25, 1891, to Miss Mary W. Flagg, daughter of Mrs. Willard C. Flagg, of Liberty Prairie, and to them were born Willard Clark, Charles Elmer and Norman Flagg. The granduncle of these boys, Thomas O. Springer, once remarked that they were genuine Madison county boys, in as much as they came from some of the oldest Madison county stock, their great-grandpar- ents being Ryderus C. Gillham, who settled here in 1802, John Springer, in 1814, Gaius Paddock, in 1818, and Gershom Flagg, in 1818. Edward Lavern Gillham became a member of Masonic lodge, No. 99, of Ed- wardsville, in February, 1905. For further information concerning Mary Flagg Gillham, see history of Flagg family.
Frederick Clark Gillham, third son of R. C. Gillham, was born March 4, 1870. His educa-
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
tion was attained through attendance in the Wanda school, Northwestern University, Evanston, and the Gem City Business College, Quincy, Illinois. He is interested in manu- facturing enterprises in various parts of the state and actively identified with the Granite City Trust & Savings Bank, Granite City. He is an ardent Mason and identified with and a member of Edwardsville Lodge, No. 99, A. F. & A. M., Edwardsville Chapter, No. 146, R. A. M., Alton Council, No. 3, R. & S. M., Belvi- dere Commandery, No. 2, K. T., Alton, Ori- ental Consistory, A. A. S. R., and Medinah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., Chicago. It was through his influence that the first body of of the A. A. S. R. was established in East St. Louis in 1906, of which he was chosen as the first presiding officer. All the other bodies have since been established there, the last one the Mississippi Valley Consistory, of which he was selected and made the first Commander- in-Chief, being authorized to work under dis- pensation of October 2, 1911. As a reward for his early labor in the Rite in East St. Louis, he was crowned a Sovereign Grand In- spector General, Honorary, Thirty-third de- gree, at the annual meeting of the Supreme Council, N. M. J., held in Buffalo, New York, September 15, 1908.
John Franklin, fourth son of R. C. Gill- ham, was born March 4, 1870. His early edu- cation was obtained at Wanda. After attend- ing school at Evanston a year, he entered Shurtleff College, Upper Alton, and was gradu- ated from that institution in 1892. He took a two years' course in law at the Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, graduating in 1894, and returned to his home town and took up the practice of law. He was elected state's attorney of Madison county on the Republican ticket in 1904 and was re-elected to the same office in 1908. He is a member of different fraternal organizations, being a Knight of Pythias and a Scottish Rite, or thirty-second degree Mason.
Ryderus C. Gillham, Jr., was much inter- ested in family history and genealogy and took great pleasure in relating anecdotes and cus- toms of people living in his childhood. In later years he often said: "I have lived in the era of greatest advancement." His father's first house was built of logs. It contained but one room, which had a split log or what was then known as a puncheon floor. The house in which he was born was built in the same fash- ion as the old combined school-house and church before mentioned, except that it had a smooth board floor. He saw the wool, flax
and cotton grown from which his mother and sisters, carded, spun and wove into clothing material, wool for winter and flax and cotton for summer. His father, being a South Caro- linian by birth, supplemented his flax by grow- ing cotton, which would mature on the sandy soil just south of his house. The shoes for the family were made by his father, from hides tanned on the place. The bread was made from corn meal ground on the water mill just north of Edwardsville. The more well-to-do settlers had white bread ( bread made of wheat flower) on Sundays. Sugar syrup was made in a large maple grove four and one-half miles southwest of Edwardsville, on land now owned by Charles Smith. People came for miles around and camped and made their sugar. On his father's farm was a charcoal pit from which all the settlers made their powder. Mode of travel was to walk, ride horse-back or drive an ox-cart. In making the round trip to Alton (ten miles) with the ox-cart, it took from daylight to nine o'clock at night, the creaking of the wooden hubs on their wooden axles heralding their return long before they actually arrived. He remembered the first wagon brought into the neighborhood by John Springer, father of his wife, who also had the first harness and drove the first horse-team. The first one-horse wagon that he saw was driven by John Springer, who was escorting the first teacher of the Old Salem school about the neighborhood and soliciting subscriptions for pupils at two dollars and fifty cents per head for a term of six months, the teacher to "board around." The first buggy brought into the neighborhood was owned by Charles Gill- ham, son of John IV, son of Thomas. The first shot-gun he remembered seeing, while a school-boy, was in the hands of a teacher. He had never seen other than rifles, and the bore of the gun impressed him greatly, as he then knew nothing of shot and thought this gun took a very large ball. The first double- barrelled shot-gun belonged to Joshua Dunne- gan and is now in the curio collection of the sons of E. L. Gillham. In his boyhood days the wheat was cut by hand sickle, one-half acre being a day's work. Next followed the cradle, with three or four acres,-a day's cutting. The reaper that required a man to rake off by hand in bunches came next. The first in this locality was owned by Joshua Vaughn. The first header was owned by his brother, S. P. Gillham. Then the self-rake, dropper and present binder followed in succession. The first mode of threshing was by the flail, then threshing floors were made, the bundles cut
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
and evenly distributed and tramped out by horses, a girl or boy riding one horse and leading another. When he was a good-sized boy he heard it announced after church that the following week a horse power threshing machine would start operation on the place of William Gillham, adjoining the school-ground on the north side. The machine arrived and school was dismissed to give all a chance to see it.
The plow he first used he described as hav- ing an iron edge and wooden mould-board, necessitating carrying a paddle to scrape off the dirt and it was drawn by oxen. From this he lived to see successive improvements up to the four-horse steel gang and gasoline tractor.
JOHN ELBLE, who was elected supervisor of Alton township in April, 1911, has been identi- fied with the political affairs of this city and county for many years. His first campaign in city politics was made thirty years ago, when he was elected alderman. Few citizens of the county are more interested in its history of the past and the advancement of the future than Mr. Elble. His interest in the preserva- tion of old records led him, several years ago, to make a transcription of the proceedings of the first county court that sat in Edwards- ville in 1813. His copy extends to 1817, thus preserving a blurred and fading manu- script which may have since been entirely lost. In this and many other ways Mr. Elble has constituted himself an authority on many phases of the county's past.
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