USA > Illinois > Edwards County > Combined history of Edwards, Lawrence and Wabash counties, Illinois. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 17
USA > Illinois > Wabash County > Combined history of Edwards, Lawrence and Wabash counties, Illinois. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 17
USA > Illinois > Lawrence County > Combined history of Edwards, Lawrence and Wabash counties, Illinois. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 17
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in their ranks. Imagine the anxiety and horror that must have filled the souls of the wife and children as they sat in their solitary retreat, and listened to the sharp echoes of the rifles, as they sank to silence along the shores of the Wabash ! La Motte was afterward killed by the Indians on the creek and in the prairie that still bear his name, in Crawford county. After his death his widow opera- ted the ferry till about 1812, when it passed under the management of her son-in-law, James Gibson. Across the way from La Motte's lived a family named White. Also in that vicinity dwelt a family of Buntons, three of whom, the mother and two of three daughters, were, one afternoon, massacred ; the remaining daughter, whose name was Jane, escaped and secreted herself in a corn- field till night, when she swam the Wabash to Vincennes. This brave girl, at the time of the massacre, was fortu- nately wearing on her head a handkerchief, after the manner of the French, whom the Indians were not wont to disturb, so long as they betrayed no affiliation with the Americans. If not suffered voluntarily to escape, she was probably reserved for more clemency of treat- ment, as captivity. About a mile below the ferry, at the "Ford," lived a French family, named Senette. Somewhere also, in this vicinity, was the home of Chas. Boneaut. Some distance above the ferry landing, on the bluff known as Dubois' hill, lived the family of that name; they had three sons, Toussaint, Lawrence, and Killgore; the family became conspicuous in the civil and business affairs of the county. Toussaint was drowned while crossing Indian creek. On Dubois' hill, in troublous Indian days, lived an old negro, called "Billy o' the Bow," and his dusky conjugal companion, Seeley by name; they lived together in a house not made with hands-a hollow sycamore tree-till their in- dependent life together was brought to a close by a bullet from the rifle of some lurking Indian. Going north along the river till the vicinity of Russellville is reached, the settlements are of a more recent date.
This vicinity was settled about the year 1809 or '10 by some Baptist families from Kentucky. Most con- spicuous among them were the Allisons, of whom there were four families, whose respective heads were Samuel and his two sons, Frederick and Ezra, and his brother Jonathan. Of these, the first possessed the element of pioneer the most prominently. He was fond of the pursuit of game, and frequently brought down, and dressed the saddles of as many as fifteen deer between sun and sun. When the redoubtable Tecumseh had impressed upon the remnant tribes in the Wabash valley, a sense of their supposed wrongs, and they began a career of de- predation and pillage, the necessity of some means of life and property became apparent. A stockade fort was accordingly built in the spring of 1812, on Samuel Allison's improvement, now within the northern corpor- ate limits of Russellville, called Fort Allison. The construction of this defensive arrangement was similar to that at St. Francisville, above described. Besides the Allisons, the families of Thomas Mills, William Stock.
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HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
well, McBane, William Hogue, Daniel and Henry Kuykendall, and the colored families of Anderson, Morris, and Tannann were early inmates of the fort. Stockwell and Anderson were shot by the Indians, the former on returning from Fort La Motte, the latter somewhere in the neighborhood of Fort Allison. The wife of Anderson wanted a cannon mounted on Dubois hill to deal out indiscriminate slaughter among the Indians. During the days of "forting," 1812-1815, a party of thirteen Rangers, one rainy day, were passing from Fort La Motte to Fort Allison, and, when within half a mile of the latter, were fired upon by a number of Indians. They suffered no bodily harm or incon- venience, save that of the strange circumstance that the handkerchiefs they were wearing about their necks were, in two cases, shot away. The party on leaving Fort La Motte, discharged their guns, as a precaution against wet priming, and, when fired upon, were unable to return the attack. As Austin Tann was returning, one day, from Small's Mill on the Embarras, with a sack of meal, he was pursued by a band of Indians on ponies. He was riding a large horse and took refuge in the marsh, southwest of Russellville. His pursuers were unable to follow him with their ponies, and he escaped with the loss only of his grist. The pious community that settled at Russellville, established the pioneer church of Lawrence county. It was organized in 1817, and built a house of worship, in 1821. It was named Little Village church, which name was also given to the burial place that lay adjoining it. " Little Village " was an Indian hamlet that stood on the site of Russellville. This vicinity was an important one in the rude un- written annals of savage life. This is shown by the ex- istence of mounds, commonly in groups, scattered along the river for the distance of a mile and a half from Russellville south. Investigation shows that they were burial places, but whether they were used for ordinary interments or designed as monuments to the memory of those who had distinguished themselves in council or in battle, may be treated as a matter of conjecture. Among the characters of note, buried in this vicinity, was Little Turtle, the sworn enemy of the pale face, and the father of Captain William Wills, who had been taken captive, when a child, and who was killed in the Chicago massacre, iu 1812. Around his neck, in life, he wore a neatly carved figure of the animal, whose name he bore, and when he died it was buried with him, and was a few years ago exhumed. Among the tribes, rem nants of whom, at the advent of the white man, roamed over the territory of the county, in savage sport and pastime, by marsh and stream, and river and timber- skirt, were the Miamis, Pottawotamies, Delawares, Shawnees and others. The latter through Tecumseh, claimed the whole of the Wabash valley, and endeavored to annul the title of government to such territory as it had acquired from other tribes. The dramatic interview between Tecumseh and Gov. Harrison in this behalf, has passed into history, and was witnessed by Austin Tann,
an early colored pioneer. Communication between the east and west shores of the Wabash, in the vicinity of Russellville, was had at an early day by means of a ferry established and operated by a man named Lana- fere. Though most of the early settlements were made along the Wabash, a few found their way into the in- terior, along the Cahokia and Kaskaskia traces, and the Embarras river. On the banks of this stream, about a mile and a quarter above its mouth, in 1805 or 1806, settled John Small. Shortly after this date, he built a frame water mill, which became familiarly known as Small's mill. After Small's death his widow married a man named Brown, and the mill was, in later years, called Brown's. It was among the very earliest, if not the first frame building, in the territory of Lawrence county. The dam was built of hewed logs, supported by rock and earth. It was a most important economic in- stitution in those early days, and commanded trade from a wide extent of country. It was doubtless watched by the lurking Indians with an eye of unrest, as he read in it the sad prophecy of coming events. Tradition tells of many adventures with the natives at this point. Tecumseh and his fifteen hundred warriors encamped in this vicinity during the war of 1812. Some distance above the mill, in a little log cabin, at a locality called " Muscle shoals," lived William Harriman with his wife and four children. Seneca Amy, a young man, lived with them. Mrs. Harriman, for two successive nights, dreamed that she saw her children hurribly butchered. She told her husband that she regarded the dreams as prophetic of their fate, unless they sought some place of safety. He endeavored to quiet her fears, but became himself apprehensive on account of a sulky disposition manifested by the natives whom he met, and yielded to her importunities. The family had gone to the river edge, when young Amy started back for a gun they had forgotten. He had not advanced far, when he saw the cabin surrounded by Indians, and, unobserved, dodged into the brush and escaped. They immediately followed in pursuit of the family, and shot Harriman seated in a pirogue, and tomahawked the mother and children. Tradition says there were also other victims of this massacre, which took place about the year 1812. The girls are said to have been beautiful, and to have had magnificent heads of long hair. Still farther up the river, it is said, another family fell victims to savage ferocity. One day two men left the block-house, at the mill, and went down to the marsh to shoot duck. They were attacked and one of them was shot and toma- hawked and scalped. John and Levi Compton, of the timber settlement in Wabash county, and Israel Potvine and Francis Tugaw buried him at the foot of a white oak tree, upon which they chopped a cross, yet to be seen. In 1805 or 1806, William Spencer built a double log house, where the Cahokia trace crossed the Embarras. It was subsequently moved farther down the river to Small's mill. Shortly after this, Nathan Rawlings settled on Indian creek, at the crossing of the trace.
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HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
With the exception of these few outpost settlements, the interior of Lawrence county remained unbroken wilderness till 1815, when the storm of war having passed away, immigration, which for three years had been entirely checked or confined to the fortifications along the Wabash, set rapidly in. The doors of the forts were also thrown open, and their inmates went forth to the avocations of peace. In this year the " Christian neighborhood," now the vicinity of Center- ville, was settled by people of the New Light, afterward the Christian faith, principally from Tennessee. Among them were the Harrises, Howards, Rigses, Ashbrooks. Johnsons, Leneves, Turners, Andersons, Adamses, Lemons, Berries, and others equally worthy of mention. This was an important centre of industry, good neigh- borhood, and education in that early day. The " Cen- ter School-house," a double log building designed for school and church purposes, was put up in 1816 or '17, and in point of antiquity and importance, deserves a place at the head of educational and church efforts in the State of Illinois. Henry Palmer and Eli Harris, both of whom came to the settlement in 1815, were re- spectively the pioneer minister and teacher. The colored inmates of Fort Allison began a settlement in the neighborhood of Pinkstaff station, and as they were law-abiding like their fair-complexioned fellow-citizens, so they shared equally with them the blessings of pro- tection and civil liberty. The soil of Illinois as a State is free from the taint of slavery. The sentiments of her people, with their broad liberality, and respect for the rights of man could never tolerate an institution whose essential features were a violation of those rights; rights whose sacredness depends not upon the character of the owner, but upon the character of the rights themselves. Most of the immigrants who brought slaves with them to the territory of Illinois, liberated them, as though her broad lands and spreading prairies were a moral rebuke. An effort was made, in 1816 or '17, by two Tennesseeans, William and John Leach, father and son, to establish a slave farm or plantation on an extensive scale in the neighborhood of Little Raccoon creek. This germ of the dark institution was crushed by the admission of Illinois into the Union as a free State. Not only did she guarantee liberty to those within her own borders, but in after years by her most gifted son, to every one within the broad limits of the United States. Though a feeling of equality, regardless of race or color, was a prevailing sentiment among the pioneers yet it is not strange that something of prejudice should have per- vaded the minds of some individuals. And in this con- nection it may be pertinent to mention an incident re- lated by Hon. O. B. Ficklih, not only as illustrating this point, but as throwing light upon the administration of justice in the county's infancy. During a wrangle at a drinking place in Lawrenceville, a negro hit a white man with a rock, and severely injured him. Knowledge of the affair came to the ears of one of the early resident justices of the place, who rushed headlong into the court
room, where Judge Wilson was presiding, and hallooed out : " Judge Wilson, Judge Wilson, adjourn the court. A most grievous outrage has been committed; a nigger has hit a white man with a rock !" The negro settle- ment, in the course of time, worked its way further south, and is now mainly within the northern confines of Lawrence township.
The next important settlement was that of a colony of Shakers, on the Embarras river, formed in 1819. The tenets and regulations of the sect were strictly carried out by this community. In their mode of life they were communistic, and their affairs were managed by a board of three trustees. The colony numbered about forty individuals, male and female, who lived separate and apart from each other. Their most important act was the building of the old " Shaker mill," the particulars of whose his- tory may be learned from the chapter on Bond Town- ship. The breaking and washing away of the mill dam about two years after their settlement, was the signal at which they left for other parts, principally Shakertown, Indiana, whence they came. The four years interven- ing between the return of peace, in 1815, and the forma- tion of the settlement just mentioned brought many home seekers to the shores of Lawrence county, who penetrated into the interior. Their names will be found in their appropriate places in the township histories. They were a brave and hardy set of men, and nobly triumphed over the difficulties incident to life in a new country. Disease lingered in the marshes, the wild beasts stood ready to pounce on the fold, and the Indian, though nominally at peace with the pale face, was a walking embodiment of latent hostility that made the home of the settler a place of constant anxiety and unrest. James Baird was shot by an Indian while working in his field south of Russellville, in 1815 or 1816. In 1819 a family of McCalls settled some distance north of Law- renceville. At that time, or shortly after, a party of Delaware Indians, from a camp on Brushy Fork, came to McCall's cabin and demanded whisky. He refused compliance with their demand, and they murdered him. Kill Buck, a chief, Captain Thomas and Big Panther were convicted of the crime, but from motives of policy were suffered to go unpunished. Some time subsequent to 1824, the wolves one night almost entirely devoured a cow and the calf she had just given birth to, belonging to Renick Heath, then residing at the old Shaker mill. Eight wolves were found gormandizing on their flesh in the morning, and were with some difficulty driven off. An amusing and instructive incident, bearing upon the habits of the panther, is related by Mr. Heath, one of the few pioneers who yet remain to tell the romantic stories of early life in Illinois. One night a wolf was heard barking violently some distance off. It continued till daybreak, when Mr. Heath, gun in hand, went to inves- tigate. He saw the wolf at some distance jumping up and from side to side, as it kept up a constant barking. He continued to advance, and when within a short dis- tance of the wolf, was greatly surprised to observe a pan-
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HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
ther, which had been the object of so much ado, leap from a limb. Both animals made good their escape. Beneath the tree lay the fresh, partially devoured body of a raccoon, upon which the panther is supposed to have been feeding, when the wolf rudely obtruded. The former animal, when attacked, is readily induced to ascend a tree, less perhaps as a refuge from, than as a convenient means of attacking, an adversary. Game, in the days of which we are writing, was abundant almost to an extent exceeding our belief. The wild . fowls were so numerous, that while they were an abun- dant and convenient supply of food, they were a serious drawback to early husbandry, not only as destroying the fruits, but as discouraging the efforts of labor. Wheat fields were frequently completely destroyed by them. Hunting was an important pursuit, and supplied directly or indirectly the luxuries as well as the neces- saries of life. Every man was either by choice or necessity a hunter. Conspicuous among the former were Samuel Allison and Peter Paragin. Allison was not only an expert hunter, but wasalso skillful in Indian warfare. A day's hunt would frequently yield him fif- teen saddles of deer. If not the first American settler in Lawrence county, he was among the most conspicuous. One of his daughters-in-law, an English lady, whose maiden name was Rebecca Moody, made bullets in an old oven for the colonists at the battles of Bunker Hill and Cowpens. Paragin was the pioneer of the north- western part of the county. He pushed his way into the wilderness far in advance of his fellows, and by his triumphs over the beasts of the forest, lent two names to the geographical vocabulary of the county. "Paragin slough " commemorates the killing of two bears, and "Eagle Branch " is an epitome of the story of the cap- ture on that stream of an eagle of extraordinary size. Not only did the flesh of wild animals serve for the set- tler's table, but their skins supplied the necessity of cloth- ing. A pioneer with buckskin breeches, a homespun coat, and a coonskin cap was an embodiment of these lines of Pope :
" Happy the man whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air In his own ground ! "
An important early industry was bee-hunting. The destiny of the Indian is to recede before the approach of the white man ; it is the province of the honey-bee to act on the rever-e, and precede the advance of civilization. The approach of the honey-bee was always a sad har- binger to the Indians, for they knew the pale faces were not far behind. At an early period bees were very numerous in Illinois, in the groves and along the skirts of timber; hence the product of the hive became a desirable commodity in trade and commerce ; and when the farmer wished a little " land office " money, this was an article that would readily command it. They would take their beeswax, deer-skins and peltries to the water- courses, and descend in their canoes or improvised boats
constructed for the purpose, to New Orleans and other markets. Bee-hunting excursions were an annual occur- rence. In the spring, when the wild flower unfolded its petals, the search would begin. It was not only an avocation, but it was a science or trade, and an expert bee-hunter could find ready employment. The principal early agricultural industry was cotton-raising. Allison Prairie was the cotton-field of the Wabash Valley. Its cultivation began some time prior to 1820, and con- tinued for several years. Cotton gins were not uncom- mon, and the spinning-wheel was in every cabin. The raising of cattle and hogs was likewise an important industry. Wild grass and mast for their sustenance were abundant. Illinois has always assumed an honor- able part in the matter of education, so materially con- cerning the welfare of a free people ; and as soon as an immigration set in the school teacher was abroad in the land.
Among those who taught in the county limits from 1817 to 1819 were Mrs. Clark, Agnes Corrie, George Godfrey, I-aiah Lewis, Larkin Ryle, John Martin, Jas. Swainey, Borden and Fleming. The school teacher and the minister went hand in hand, and, in many instances, performed the same office. The same rude log structure served alike for the school and as a house of worship. The early resident ministers were: Revs. Blithe Mc- Corcle, Mr. Stone, John Clark, Richard B. McCorcle, William Ramsey, John Dollahan, Samuel Borden, Wil- liam Kincaid, Daniel Travis, and others, among whom was "Squealing Johnny " Parker, as he was called. He styled himself a " Two-see Baptist." Travelling preach- ers frequently came into the territory, and among them were James Hughes, John Rodgers, David McDonald, Elijah Gooden, Peter Cartwright and Lorenzo Dow. One of the most needed and poorly supplied blessings of pioneer life were mills. Long and hazardous journeys were necessary to secure the grinding of a bag of meal. Small's mill, on the Embarras, built in 1805 or 1806, was one of the earliest in the State of Illinois; but, considering the difficulty of reaching it through dense forests and swollen streams, it was scarcely a convenience except to a few.
We have thus set forth briefly the dangers and hard- ships of those who paved the way for whatever is grand in morals or government or magnificent in struc. ture in the county of Lawrence. Let the reader compare the present with the past, and then let him reflect how rapid has been the march of progress and how marvellous has been the change.
WABASH COUNTY.
The county of Wabash is an offspring of Edwards county ; yet the first settlements made within the vast boundaries of the latter were within the limits of what is now Wabash county.
The first settlers were a few French families, who located on the Wabash river, near the point known as
10
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HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
Rochester, in Coffee precinct. This was about 1800. Prominent among these was the family of Tougas, also named Lavulette. This occured from Mrs. Tougas marrying a man by the name of Lavulette, and some of the children of Mrs. Tougas, assumed the name of their step-father. There were four brothers, August, William, Joseph, and Francis. They were all well formed, athle- tic men, and possessed of such material as to brave the wilds of the frontier. The former is said to have been six and one-half feet in stature. During the Indian troubles, they remained and trafficked with them. The Indians both feared and respected them. The word of August among the treacherous Piankashaws was law, and it is said that he even went so far as to inflict pun ishment upon some of the tribe for petty theft. An Indian is bound to respect and admire his superior in strength. In this capacity, August had demonstrated to their picked warriors, that he was their superior, by friendly hand to hand, athletic sports with them. It was through this means that they stood in such awe and fear of him. While others were massacred and pillaged, he was never disturbed. In 1838 he sold his posses- sions at Rochester and moved to Mt. Carmel, where he engaged in the hotel business. He continued in this calling for several years, when he returned to Coffee pre- cinct, where he died in 1849. His eldest daughter, Mrs. Stewart, is now a resident of Texas. One daugh- ter, wife of Captain Sharp, lives in Mt. Carmel. William was a man of a family when he moved from Vincennes to the county, locating near the mouth of Coffee creek, with the rest of the family. He remained here a few years, when he moved to the banks of Raccoon creek, in Lawrence county. Two years afterward he removed to near Vincennes. After a short stay here he re- turned to Coffee precinct and permanently located in sec- tion 10, township 2 south, range 13 west. This was about 1816. He built and operated a horse mill, which was one of the first in the county. He died on his farm at the age of 75 years. Joseph and Francis Tougas, subse- quently located at St. Francisville, in Lawrence county.
The first American settlement was made in what is now Wabash precinct, in about 1802. Those having the honor of striking the first blow toward civilization in this part of the county, were Levi Compton and Joshua Jordan, brothers-in-law. The former was a native of Virginia, but as early as 1791, he moved to Kentucky, and from thence to Illinois in the year above stated. He then had a family of a wife and six chil- dren. He first located on the Wabash river, in section 26, township 1 north, range 12 west, where he constructed a cabin and 'improved a few acres of land. Not liking the locality, he removed to section 12. It was here, in 1814, that he built what was probably the first borse-mill in the county. A fort was also built here about 1810, which was known as Compton fort It was enclosed with a palisade and contained dwellings, grana- ries, booths, etc., for the convenience of the inmates, and was sufficient in size to accommodate about one hundred
families. In the time of the Indian troubles, at a pre- concerted signal, the families of the settlement would take refuge in the fort, where they would remain until it was pronounced safe to leave. In about 1817, Mr. Compton moved to township 2 south, rauge 14 west, and settled in section 13, where he spent the remainder of his days. He was a representative man, and had the honor of being a member of the first Constitutional Con- vention in 1818. From 1818 to 1820, he was in the State Senate. He died about 1844, at the advanced age of eighty years. One son, Joseph Compton, is a citizen of Coffee precinct, and is said to be the first white child born in the county.
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