USA > Illinois > Mason County > Centennial history of Mason County, including a sketch of the early history of Illinois, its physical peculiarities, soils, climate, production, etc. > Part 3
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
tance. It rises in the prairie in the eastern part of McLean county, and, running southwest through Tazewell county, enters the Illi- nois about three miles below Pekin. The next stream entering the Illinois river is Quiver creek, from the cast, a short distance above the city of Havana. An inconsiderable stream, but on whose banks are situated two fine mills, and along its shores lie some of the finest farms in the State of Illinois. The stream is abundantly stocked with fish. Twenty-five miles below the mouth of Mackinaw, and directly opposite the city of Havana, Spoon river-classic stream of many historical associations-enters the Illinois from the west. It is a beautiful stream, the most consider- able of those which water the military tract. It was once naviga- ble for a short distance. Its length is about one hundred and forty miles.
About eight miles above Beardstown the Sangamon enters the Illinois from the cast. It is one of the most prominent branches of the Illinois, and forms the southeastern boundary of Mason county. It is one hundred and eighty miles in length, and has been, in sea- sons of high water, traversed with small steamers a long distance from its mouth. From its position and excellence of its lands, it is one of the most important streams in the State. Along its banks are some of the best grass and stock farms in Illinois. Crooked creek, next to Spoon river, is the most considerable stream that waters the military tract. From its volume and length it deserves the name of river, but it is mostly designated by the inferior title. It enters the Illinois from the west, a few miles below Beardstown, and is about one hundred miles in length. Below Crooked creek, and on the east side of the river, are Indian creek, Mauvaisterre creek, and Sandy creek, in Morgan county, and Apple and Macou- pin creeks, in Green county. All these are beautiful streams, and meander through some of the best populated and most fertile regions of country of the garden State. McKee's creek, emptying on the west side, is the lowest of the tributaries of the Illinois of any note, from the military tract. The land on this creek and its branches is excellent, and well proportioned in timber and prairie; is gently undulating and rich.
In the Illinois river there are but few bars or obstructions to navigation until we reach Starved Rock, about one mile above the town of Utica. Here we meet the first permanent obstruction, being a ledge of sandstone rock immediately at the foot of the
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HISTORICAL EVENTS.
rapids, and extending entirely across the bed of the river. This point is two hundred and ten miles from its mouth by the course of the river. The town of Utica may properly be called the head of navigation, though steamers have gone to Ottawa, nine miles further. For a great distance above its mouth the river is almost straight as a canal, and during low water in summer has scarcely any perceptible current, and the water is quite transparent. The river is wide and deep, and enters the Mississippi by a mouth four hundred yards wide. No river in the western country is so fine for the purposes of navigation as the Illinois, or flows through so rich and fertile a region of country. On the banks of this noble stream the first French emigrants from Canada settled, and here was the scenery on which they founded their extravagant panegy- rics on the western country.
By the Chicago and Illinois canal the waters of the Illinois river are united to those of Lake Michigan, and form one of the most important links in the chain of internal navigable waters of the United States. Nature performed a great share in the accomplish- ment of this grand improvement. The canal distance from the lake to its intersection with the river is one hundred miles. The navigation of the Illinois river was an indispensable necessity to the early settlers as a means of access and egress, and for the ship- ment of their immense superfluous crops.
THE SANGAMON RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.
The Sangamon river forms the southeast boundary of Mason county, and is one of the most important tributaries of the Illinois. It enters that river about one hundred miles above its mouth, and ten miles above Beardstown. It rises in Vermilion county, and heads with the Mackinaw, the Vermilion, the Big Vermilion, and other streams. Its length is about one hundred and eighty miles, and is navigable for small steamboats when waters are high, and before the stream was crossed by numerous railroad bridges, to the junction of the north and south forks, a distance from the Illinois of about seventy-five miles. In the spring of 1832 a steamboat of the larger class arrived within five miles of Springfield, and dis- charged its cargo. In 1837 arrangements were made for running a small class of steamboats from the towns on the Illinois to Peters- burg, on the left bank of the Sangamon, and forty-five miles from its mouth. All the streams that enter this river have sandy or -4
26
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
pebbly bottoms, clear and transparent waters. The Sangamon bottoms have a soil of extraordinary fertility, and rear from their rich, black, mould forests of enormous sycamore and elms, and other forest trees; huge overgrown masses, and towering high heavenward.
The Sangamon and its branches flow through the richest and most delightful regions of the great west. The beautiful and fertile prairies on its banks afford range and rich pasturage for thousands of cattle. The general aspect of the country drained by the San- gamon and its branches is level, yet it is sufficiently undulating to permit the water to escape to the creeks. It now constitutes one of the richest grazing and agricultural districts in the State, or the United States, the soil being of such a nature that immense crops are raised with comparatively little agricultural labor. The rail- roads traversing this region to the great markets of the west and east, here receive their long trains of cattle, hogs, corn, wheat and rye.
The principal branches of the Sangamon are the South Fork and Salt creek. The latter being most identified with Mason county, is about ninety miles long, and heads near the main stream of the Sangamon, and receives in its course several unimportant tributaries. The same that was said of the Sangamon will apply to the country bordering on Salt creek, without the slightest dimi- nution.
PRODUCTIONS OF THE SOIL.
That region of Central Illinois-the WESTERN EMPIRE STATE- of which Mason county forms no inconsiderable part, having a vast extent of most fertile lands, must, of course, raise with greatest ease all the articles to which her soil and climate are favorable, to an amount far beyond her consumption.
All the grains, fruits and vegetables of the temperate regions of the earth here grow most luxuriently. The wheat is of an excel- lent quality, and there is no part of the western continent where corn is grown with greater ease and abundance, nor of equal qual- ity. In the great corn markets of the country, Chicago and Bos- ton, " Mason county yellow" is a standard quotation, and at higher rates than any other in those markets. When the frosts nip the corn on lower and less favored soils, we find men from almost every part of our great State sending to Central Illinois, and to Mason county especially, for their seed corn. When the millers of
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HISTORICAL EVENTS.
Northern Illinois desire a dry article for early fall grinding, they" send their purchasing agents to Mason county.
Garden vegetables of all kinds succeed well. No country can exceed this in its adaptation to rearing the finest fruits and fruit- bearing trees. (We make an exception here of dwarf pears and the quince, and will give the causes in detail in the section on Fruits, in another part of this work.) Wild fruits and berries are, in many places, abundant, and on some of the prairies the straw- berries are remarkably fine. In some localities grapevines indigen- ous to the country are abundant, and yield a fruit from which can be manufactured an excellent wine. Indigenuous vines are very prolific, and are found in every variety of soil, interwoven in every thicket, bordering on the prairies, and climbing to the tops of the tallest trees on the bottom lands. The French, in early times, made so much wine from our native grapes in Illinois, as to export a quantity to France, upon which the government of that country, in 1774, passed laws prohibiting the importation of wines from their dependencies in America, lest it might injure the sale of that staple of the French Kingdom.
The native plum is produced in great abundance, variety and flavor, color and size; are less subject to curculio than the tenderer varieties. Crab apples are abundant and prolific .. Wild cherries are equally productive. The persimmon is abundant, and delicious when the frost has destroyed its astringency. The black mulberry is abundant and productive.
The gooseberry, the strawberry and the blackberry grow wild and in great profusion, proving from natural causes alone the beautiful adaptation of our soil and climate to the production of the improved and finer varieties of fruits.
Of nuts, the hickory, black walnut and pecan deserve notice. The later is an oblong, thin-shelled and delicious nut, that grows on a large tree of the same family as the hickory. (Carya-olive- formis.)
The pawpaw grows on the bottoms and rich timbered uplands, and produces a large, pulpy, and luscious fruit. The Kentucky coffee tree is a native of the lands bordering on the Illinois river, and a desirable tree for shade and ornament.
Of the domestic fruits, the apple, peach and the pear are princi- pally cultivated, the latter, however, with variable success. Pears were successfully grown as seedlings by the early French settlers
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
in the southern part of the State. Many of their earliest plantings still survive. The quince cannot be successfully grown in Central Illinois. Peach trees grow with great rapidity, and decay propor- tionately soon. Our variable winters render them precarious and uncertain.
ORIGIN OF SANGAMON COUNTY.
Sangamon, which included within its limits a part of Mason county, was formed from Bond and Madison counties in IS21, and in 1837 was the largest and most populous in the State, being forty miles from north to south, and forty-two from east to west on its southern boundary, and upwards of sixty on its north- ern boundary; containing sixty full townships, or two thousand one hundred and sixty square miles. Previous to 1819 there was not a white inhabitant on the Sangamon river; in 1837 they amounted to over twenty thousand.
The whole territory watered by the Sangamon and its branches is an Arcadian region, in which nature has delighted to bring together her happiest combination of landscape and scenery. There is in this region a happy combination of timber and prairie land, the soil is of great fertility, being of a rich, calcareous loam, from one to three feet deep, intermixed with fine sand. The sum- mer range for cattle in inexhaustable. All who ever visit this fine tract of country admire the beauty of the landscape which nature has here displayed in primeval loveliness and freshness. So delight- ful a region was soon selected by emigrants from New York, New England, North Carolina, and Canada, and'more than two hundred families had settled themselves here before it was surveyed.
It constitutes several populous counties now, one of which is Mason, inhabited by thriving farmers, and prosperous commercial towns.
"Arcadian vales, with vinc-hung bowers, And grassy nooks beneath the black jack's shades,
Where dance the never ceasing hours To music of the bright cascade. Skies softly beautiful and blue As Italia's, with stars as bright;
Flowers rich as morning's sunrise hue, And gorgeous as the gemmed midnight.
Land of the west ! Green forest land ! Thus hath creation's bounteous hand 1 Upon thine ample bosom flung
Charms, such as were her gift when the gray world was young."
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HISTORICAL EVENTS.
MENARD COUNTY.
The county of Menard was taken from the northwestern part of Sangamon county, in 1838, and includes within its boundaries about sixty miles of the lower part of the Sangamon river, and a part of Salt creek. It was bounded on the north by Tazewell county, on the south by part of Sangamon county, on the north- west by Schuyler and Fulton counties. It towns are Petersburg, New Salem and Athens.
TAZEWELL COUNTY.
From which the northern part of Mason was taken, was origin- ally bounded on the north by Putnam county, east, by McLean, south, by Sangamon, and west, by Peoria and Fulton, from which it was seperated by the Illinois river. Its length from north to south was forty-eight miles, and from east to west, on its southern boundary, forty-five miles, and on its northen, ten miles. Its area is about twelve hundred and twenty square miles. Tremont was the county seat, about ten miles east of the Illinois river, and nearly the centre of the county. It was laid out in 1835, and in 1837 contained seventy houses, and about three hundred inhabit- ants. The other towns, in the original limits of the county, were Pekin, Wesley city, Havana, Mackinaw, Dillon, Bloomingdale, Washington, Detroit and Hanover.
Mackinaw was the original county seat, before it was removed to Tremont. The town contained about one hundred inhabit- ants.
MASON COUNTY.
Was the result of the union of the counties of Sangamon and Tazewell and Menard, and was born from the two latter, by an act approved January 20, 1841. Parts of Menard were used in its construction. The adjoining counties, or the territory now form- ing the adjoining counties, were all settled prior to Mason. In 1830 to 1835 there did not reside in the present limits of Mason county to exceed twenty-five families. Some years later, in 1840 to 1845, the tide of emigration and the progress of development was begun which has so rapidly increased, and placed Mason county in her present enviable position among the leading counties in the State of Illinois.
The best information now obtainable, indicates that Mr. Osian M. Ross was the first permanent white settler, and located at Ha- vana, in the spring of 1829.
Where the city of Havana now stands was a wilderness at that time, and was long after known as Ross' Ferry. To illustrate the primitiveness of this region at that time, we will here note that the first Postoffice was established in the county in the fall of IS29, Osian M. Ross, Postmaster.
The present city of Chicago was then Fort Dearborn, and Cook county and its surroundings had no Postoffice in their limits. The first Postoffice in Cook county was established in IS31.
Two offices were in Fulton county in 1830. McLean had no office in 1830; neither had LaSalle county an office in her then ex- tended territory. McDonough and Mercer were without Post- offices. Peoria county had an office at Peoria, Norman Hyde, Postmaster. Mackinaw, then the county seat of Tazewell county, had a Postoffice in 1830 and earlier. In that year there were but one hundred and thirty offices in Illinois.
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
The offices were mostly in the central and southern part of the State, where the earliest settlements were established.
Mr. John Williams, of Springfield, Illinois, informs me, that in 1825 he was a clerk in the office in that city. They received mails twice a week, and the surrounding regions were on hand for their mails at these arrivals. Though the first white settlers located here permanently in 1829, this region had been traversed by white men long before that date. Father Hennepin, with two compan- ions, passed down the Illinois river in 16So. LaSalle and others, early explorers, traded with the Indians along the banks of the Illinois, and at various succeeding periods.
In 1833 a few other families settled in this vicinity. Dr. Chand- ler located where the town of Chandlerville is, in 1832. A man named Myers came to Havana, also, the Krebaum family, about this date. A Mr. Shepherd and Mr. Westervelt located at Matan- zas about this time, and Mr. Barnes at the Mounds, north of this city. For the experiences and further details of the first settlers, we refer the reader to the Biographical department of this work. These early settlers were not troubled by the Indians to any seri- ous extent, as in some other parts of the State, as nearly all had left prior to the arrival of the first white settlers. A couple of blockhouses, for defense, had been erected at Havana, previous to the Black Hawk war, and stood for many years. The first school house, erected for the purpose of public instruction, was on what is now the Court House square. As population increased, these facili- ties were multiplied, to meet the wants of the pioneer. The first school houses in the eastern part of the county were built at Crane creek and Big Grove, and were known as the Turner and Virgin school houses. These were the voting places for the election pre- eincts in which they were situated, and supplied the place of church edifices for religious services. The log school house at Big Grove was built in the latter part of 1838. Mr. Lease, Sr., was the first teacher. A school was taught in the vicinity, however, at an earlier date, at the residence of Edward Sykes (see Biography), by his daughter, Mary A., then a girl of fourteen, now the intelligent, talented and amiable wife of S. D. Swing, Esq., of Mason city.
Churches were not erected at so early a date, though religious services were not neglected, but were held at the residences of the settlers, or in the groves which were God's first temples. The first ministers transiently visiting this county were, Rev. Peter Cart-
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HISTORY OF MASÓN COUNTY.
wright, who preached at Havana, in 1835, and at various times since, to near the date of his death. Rev. John Jenkins, from Ful- ton county, may have visited here at an earlier date. In 1836, Rev. J. A. Daniels, now a resident of Bath, organized a Baptist church at Sny Carte, assisted by Rev. Thos. Taylor, now of Oregon. The original members were Wm. Davis and wife, Richard Phelps and wife, Mr. Smith and wife, the parents of Mark A. Smith, Esq., now of that vicinity, and Mrs. J. W. Phelps. A very pleasant fact connected with that organization is, that Mr. Daniels, the first min- ister, is the pastor of it to this day, a period of forty years, with the exception of a brief absence. Thus have they labored together, in the good work before them, knowing in whom they trusted. Ir- regular services were held in the eastern part of the county, by different ministers, at various times and places. A Baptist church ) was built on Crane creek, in 1856. /The old Methodist church, in Havana, / and a Presbyterian church, at Bath, were built at an earlier date, and were, as near as we can ascertain, the first church edifices in the county.
The present status of the county's schools and churches will be referred to, at length, in this work, under another head.
The subject of the formation of a new county having been for some time agitated; in 1841, as before stated, an act was passed by the Legislature, and duly approved by the Governor, for that pur- pose. By the provisions of this law the legal voters of the district which was to compose the new county, met at Havana on the first Monday in April, 1841, and proceeded to elect a sheriff, treasurer, and other county officers. The sheriff chosen was Francis Low, still a resident of this city, and President of the First National Bank, and who had been acting as deputy sheriff when part of the territory of the county lay within the limits of Tazewell county. George T. Virgin, John R. Chaney and Abner Baxter were county commissioners. Joseph A. Phelps was the first county clerk, and subsequently, at a meeting of the circuit court, he was appointed circuit clerk by the presiding judge. The population of Mason county at the time of its organization, as near as can be as- certained, was about two thousand, and at this election about four hundred votes were cast.
It was also directed by the Legislature that at the same time and place a vote should be taken for the purpose of determining the location of the county seat. Here began a struggle and a rivalry
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
continuing many years, which was far from creditable to the par- ties engaged therein, on either side. They endeavored to accom- plish by foul means what could not be accomplished by fair. It was the source of rivalry between the friends of the towns which were the candidates for the seat of justice. The two towns which were the competitors for the county seat were Havana and Bath. The contest was exciting, but the former was successful.
A bond donating a block of lots adjoining the public square, was executed by L. W. & H. L. Ross. Thus Havana was elected the county seat. It did not, however, long retain that honor. Dissat- isfaction in the defeated town waxed strong and violent.
Agitation was kept up, and an act, approved January 19, 1843, was obtained from the legislature, authorizing another election on the second Monday of February, of that year. Polls were opened in Havana, Bath and Linchburg, where votes were received for and against Bath and Havana for county seat. The votes of Hava- na were for that town, and those at the others were against it being the county seat. Bath received a majority of the votes, and was declared the county seat. They soon had the records removed to that town. The June term of the circuit court, 1844, was held at Bath; the term for the previous year had been held at Havana. Bath continued the county seat for eight years. Havana still had aspirations for the seat of justice, and in February, 1851, legisla- tion was obtained which ordered another election on the second Monday in March, 1851, at which the question was again before the people for or against removal. This election, conducted as un- fairly as the former one, resulted in again making Havana the county seat, which it has continued to be. The last term of court held in Bath was in November, 1850. The May term following was held in Havana.
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The first term of circuit court ever held in Havana was at the hotel of Osian M. Ross, beginnning November 12, 1841, S. H. Treat, Judge. The official bond of Joseph A. Phelps, first circuit clerk, was dated April 9, 1841.
Grand Jurors at the June term of county court ordered for the November term, 1841, were as follows:
James Walker, Ira Halsted, Austin P. Melton,
Daniel Clark, Sr.,
. Michael Swing, P. W. Campbell, John G. Conover,
William Dew, -5
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
Thomas F. Blunt,
Anderson Young,
Lemuel D. Becket,
George Marshall,
G. W. Phelps,
Edmund Northern,
A. Hickey,
Hodge Sherman, William Atwater,
William Hibbs,
Thomas Low,
Daniel Dieffenbacher,
John Rishel, Pulaski Scovil,
Daniel Bell.
The following were ordered for a petit jury at the same Novem- ber term, IS41, second Monday of November:
George Close,
Israel Carman,
Henry Sears,
O. E. Foster,
A. W. Hemp,
Thomas Falkner,
James Russel,
James Yardly,
Laban Blunt,
John Close,
Washington Davies,
Jacob H. Cross,
James Ray,
James Lockerman,
Benjamin Lesson,
John Johnson,
Frederick Buck,
David Coder,
William Chaney,
James Blakely,
Nelson Abbey,
William Rodgers,
Samuel Patton, H. C. Rowland,
Francis Low, Sheriff and Collector of taxes.
Collector's bond, $1,500. O. E. Foster and J. H. Netler, securi- ties. Approved July 6, 1841.
County Commissioners in IS41: Robert Falkner, A. J. Field, George T. Virgin.
County Commissioners in 1844: John R. Chaney, Abner Bax- ter, Amos Smith.
County Commissioners in 1845: Abner Baxter, Amos Smith, R. McReynolds.
At this date we find the following order: "That Joseph A. Phelps be allowed, for use of room to hold court in, one dollar per day for two and a half days. Total, two dollars and fifty cents."
County Commissioners in 1846: Amos Smith, Robert McRey- nolds, Henry Norris.
Bond of Adolph Krebaum filed for county clerk August 28, IS47. Sworn into office September 6, a847.
County Commissioners in IS48 and 1849: R. McReynolds, Amos Smith, Henry Norris.
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
November 28, 1849: Smith Turner, County Judge, and John Pemberton and Robert McReynolds, Associates. These continued till the 28th of November, 1853, when N. J. Rockwell, County Judge, and Daniel Corey and J. H. Daniels, Associates.
The bond of Isaac N. Onstot, County Clerk, bears date Novem- ber 29, 1853. James H. Hole's bond as Collector filed December 5, 1854.
June 5, 1855: County Judge, N. J. Rockwell. Associates, H. C. Burnham, J. H. Daniels.
The vacancy in the clerkship caused by the death of Isaac N. Onstot, filled by Adolph Krebaum, by order of the court, Novem- ber 7, 1856. J. P. West, Collector and Sheriff. Adolph Kre- baum elected for a full term, and sworn into office March, 1857.
The following persons have filled the office of Circuit Clerk since the organization of the county, in the order in which they are named, viz: Joseph A. Phelps, John S. Wilbourn, Richard Ritter, O. H. Wright, John H. Havighorst, George A. Blanchard, and Leonard Schwenk, the present competent and gentlemanly incum- bent.
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