Combined history of Randolph, Monroe and Perry counties, Illinois . With illustrations descriptive of their scenery and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers, Part 19

Author: McDonough, J.L., & Co., Philadelphia
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.L. McDonough & Co
Number of Pages: 578


USA > Illinois > Perry County > Combined history of Randolph, Monroe and Perry counties, Illinois . With illustrations descriptive of their scenery and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 19
USA > Illinois > Randolph County > Combined history of Randolph, Monroe and Perry counties, Illinois . With illustrations descriptive of their scenery and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 19
USA > Illinois > Monroe County > Combined history of Randolph, Monroe and Perry counties, Illinois . With illustrations descriptive of their scenery and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 19


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The New Design settlement was founded about the year 1786. James Lemen, a native of Berkeley county, Virgi- nia, settled here that year. He became the head of a nu- merous and influential family which has been held in re- spect in lilinois for now nearly a century. The dwelling which he constructed is still standing. It was the first brick house in the county, and is now one of the oldest in the state. The New Design settlement, toward the close of the last eentury, was the most flourishing of all the American colo- nies in Illinois. In 1793 it received a large aee ssion in the Griffin, Gibbons, Enochs, Chance, Musiek and Going fami- lies. Four years later a still more numerous colony arrived. It was composed of no less than one hundred and fifty-four persons, and was made of immigrants from Hardy county, Virginia on the south branch of the Potomac. and included the Carr, Stookey, Eyeman, Shook, Mitchell, Kinkead, Clark, Badgeley, Teter and Miller families. The first season in Illinois was sad and disheartening. The summer was wet, the journey from the Ohio to Kaskaskia was aecom- plished in land and water, and though the settlers extended an open-handed welcome and hospitality, disease desolated nearly every household, and swept away one-half of the new arrivals. In New Design the earliest church (Protestant ) organization in Illinois was formed.


The Whitesides, the family of noted Indian fighters, eame to New Design in 1793, and shortly afterward settled at the Bellefontaine and Whiteside's station. They were from the frontiers of North Carolina, and from there had made their way into Kentucky. The fort which William Whiteside erected southeast of Columbia was a noted military post in the Indian wars. John Whiteside lived for many years at Bellefontaine, and died there. Joseph Kinney settled at New Design in 1793, and shortly afterward built one of the first mills in Illinois on Rock House creek. One of his sons, William Kinney, became lieutenant-governor of the state, and another, Andrew Kinney, where Monroe eity now stands, built a water-mill from which, early in the present century, flour was shipped to the St. Louis, New Orleans, and even more distant markets.


By the act of Congress of 1791, a grant of four hundred aeres of land was made to all who had cultivated or im- proved land in Illinois, except in villages, prior to the year 1788. Under this aet the public records show that forty- five improvement grants were made to Americans. The heads of American families were seventy-five in number, and all the Americans who were capable of bearing arms as militia men on or before the year 1791 were only sixty-five. Under the law which granted four hundred acres to each head of a family in 1788, two hundred and forty-four dona- tions were made. From this it is estimated, supposing each family to have averaged five members, that the whole popu- lation of Illinois in the year 1788 was twelve hundred and twenty.


Where the road from the Bellefontaine to Cahokia de- scended the bluff' settlements were made by the Ogles and Biggs in the year 1796. The Ogle family brought a con- siderable tract of land under cultivation in the bottom ad- joining the bluff. The same year families of the name of Short, Griffin, Gibbons, Roberts and Valentine settled be- tween Bellefontaine and the bluff in the present Bluff pre- cinet. After a few years this settlement was abandoned en- tirely. A large grave-yard showed that the inhabitants of this neighborhood must have been at one time quite numer- ous. The first settlement northeast of Whiteside's station, in the present limits of St. Clair county, was made by William Scott, a native of Botetourt county. Virginia, who selected a location on Turkey Ilill, near Belleville, in De- cember, 1797. The Murdick family settled in the American Bottom in 1796, and John Murdick grew up to be the wag of the day. George and William Blair came the same year. George lived for a time on the Eberman place, north of Waterloo, and on a ranch west of his residence erected a distillery in early times. In 1802 he removed to the site of the present city of Belleville, and the public buildings were located on part of his farm at the time the county seat was removed to that place from C'aho- kia. James McRoberts, in 1797, settled north of the present Maysville. He lived here many years, and was honored and respected. One of his sons became United States sena- tor. Dr. Caldwell Cairnes, at the beginning of the century, settled north of the present town of Harrisonville. For years he practiced his profession in the American Bottom.


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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH, MONROE AND PERRY COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.


He was a member of the convention which framed the ori- ginal constitution of the state, aud was one of the judges of the St. Clair county court.


Among the new settlers who reached the county in 1804 are the Ford and Forguer family. The eldest of the chil- dren was George Forguer. His half-brother was Thomas Ford, who became governor of the state. The father of George Forguer served as an officer in the revolutionary war, and took part in Arnold's disastrous campaign in Canada He was subsequently appointed collector of reve- nue of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and while in the possession of a large amount of the public money, was robbed by Tories. The restoration of this amount entailed the loss of his private fortune, and he removed to the western borders of Pennsylvania, there to begin life anew. He settled near what was known as the Red Stone Old Fort, afterward called Brownsville, and was killed there by the falling in of a coal bank. Some two or three years afterward, his widow married Robert Ford, who in 1802 was killed, as it was supposed, by robbers in the mountains. This left her with a large family and scanty means of support. The Spanish government west of the Mississippi was liberal in its offers of land to actual settlers, and with the object of taking advantage of this she embarked from Red Stone Old Fort for St. Louis, in the Spanish country, in the year 1804. She reached St. Louis only to find that the country west of the Mississippi had been ceded to the United States, and she could obtain no land except by purchase. She remained in St. Louis some time, and then she and some of her children were taken sick. After their recovery, in the fall of the year 1804, the family came to the east side of the river, finding a home about three miles south of the present town of Waterloo. The next year, 1805, the family moved nearer the bluff, not far from the residence of James McRoberts. Here George Forguer and Thomas Ford attended the school kept by Edward Humphrey in the neighborhood of Chalfin Bridge. Samuel McRoberts also attended this school, so that Mr. Humphrey, in his primitive school-house in the bottom, had under his tuition at one time a future attorney- general of the state, a United States senator, and a governor of Illinois. Mrs. Forguer was a woman of much talent and ability, and she bent all her energies toward the education of her children. She observed system and economy in her family, and used every endeavor to get along. She herself taught school for a time near the McRoberts residence. She afterward moved to a place under the bluff. Those yet liv- ing who remember Thomas Ford at that period, when he was about fourteen years old, speak of him as a boy of un- usually polite manners and pleasing address. Mrs. Ford bestowed much care on the rearing of her children, and en- deavored to instill into them sound moral principles. For- guer, being the oldest of the children, was obliged to work out, and help gain a support for the family. He begau this when he was nine years old. Altogether he attended school not much more than a year. He learned the trade of a car- penter in St. Louis, and worked at it for several years in that city. He came back to Monroe county, and purchased the tract of land on which Waterloo is built, and in company


with Daniel P. Cook laid out the town. He purchased a stock of goods and opened a store at this point. He also projected the town of Bridgewater on the Mississippi, a mile above Harrisonville. His mercantile operations proved a failure, and he began the study of law. His education was defective, but he possessed a naturally strong and vigorous intellect, which supplied many deficiencies in the way of intellectual training. He had a good voice, and the debat- ing societies of the county furnished him the training for an accomplished and pleasing orator. He was elected a repre- sentative from Monroe county in the State Legislature in 1826, and at the end of the session was appointed Secretary of State. He was afterward elected Attorney-General. He removed to Sangamon county, which he represented in the State Senate. He was also register of the land office at Springfield. He died of a pulmonary disease, at Cincin- nati, in the year 1837, at the age of forty-three. Although he began the world poor, and for some years was embarrassed with the debts he incurred in his unsuccessful mercantile operations in this county, he afterward accumulated con- siderable wealth.


Thomas Ford had better opportunities for acquiring an education. He was studious in his youth, aud at school ardently atta hed to the science of mathematics. He awakened the interest of Daniel P. Cook, who made ar- rangements for him to study law, and sent him to Lexing- ton, Kentucky, to improve his education. The misfortunes of his brother Forguer obliged him to return home, and while reading law he taught school, at intervals, at Water- loo, to gain the means of a support. He began practice in 1823; in 1829 was appointed prosecuting attorney; in 1835 was elected circuit judge ; in 1840 an associate justice of the supreme court ; and in 1842 governor of the state. He died at Peoria in 1849, which place he made his home after the close of his term as governor.


INDIAN HOSTILITIES.


In the Indian hostilities from 1786 to 1795 the inhabit- ants of the present Monroe county suffered greatly. The pioneer settlers realized their exposed condition, and as soon as they reached the county erected forts for their protection. One of these block houses was at Bellefontaine. Another was in the American Bottom near the residence of Shadrach Boud. Another was built by Daniel and James Flannary on the main road from Kaskaskia to Cahokia. This was about three miles southeast of the present town of Columbia, and was afterward widely known as Whiteside's station. A fourth was erected by James Piggot at the foot of the bluff, a mile and a half west of Columbia, where a small creek, called by the French the Grand Ruisseau, emerges from the bluff. This was also a celebrated place in early times, and was known as Piggot's fort. A fifth block house was built by Nathaniel Hull at his residence at the foot of the bluff just below the present Chalfin bridge. Brashear's station stood near the present town of Harrisonville, and Golden's block house not far from where Monroe city is now built. Sometimes these forts, or stations, consisted of a single block house, the second story projecting over the first, with holes


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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH, MONROE AND PERRY COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.


in the floor through which to shoot at Indians attempting to enter the lower story. The lower story was provided with port holes, and with strong puncheon doors, three or four inches thick, stoutly barred. Another and better style of pioneer fortification was made by building a large, strong block house on each of the foor corners of a square lot of ground. Large timbers, placed deep in the ground and extending twelve or fifteen feet above the surface, filled in the interval between the buildings. Within these stockades cabins were built, and if a spring was not to be found a well was dng. When danger was suspected horses were kept inside during the night. There were usually two strong gates. In the line of the stockade, near the top, port holes were cut here and there, and platforms were constructed inside on which to stand and shoot. The timber was care- fully cleared away in the vicinity so that no place of ambush might be afforded the enemy. Sometimes sentinels were kept on watch during the night. In the morning the inmates emerged from the fort with great caution, for the Indians at that hour often lurked in the neighborhood. In these stations the inhabitants found refuge in times of anticipated danger, and from them issued the expeditions that set out from time to time to punish the Indians for some atrocity.


In the year 1786 while Mr. Huff, who had married the widow Moredock, was coming to Illinois from Western Pennsylvania with the Moredock family, the party was attacked by the Indiaus on the Mississippi near Grand Tower, and Mrs. Huff, one of her sons, and some others were killed. The rest managed to escape in the boat. The body of Mrs. Haff was mangled in a shocking manner before the eyes of her husband and family. One of her sons, John Moredock, swore vengeance against the Indian race, and was afterward one of the foremost leaders in inflicting punish- ment on the savages A few years afterward Mr. Huff, himself, was killed by the Indians on the road between Prairie du Rocher and Kaskaskia. Many years afterward his watch and some other articles were found on the spot where he had been killed.


Before this, in the year 1783, James Flannary had been killed, but the settlers were not much apprehensive of danger till a general war commenced in 1786. That year James Andrews, who lived two miles north of where Waterloo now stands, was attacked by the Indians, he and his wife massacred, and his child taken captive. Andrews was an adventurous young Virginian, who had come to Illinois with the American immigration, and had settled at Bellefontaine in 1782. Shortly afterward he married the daughter of Captain Joseph Ogle, and settled at the head of Andrews' run at a spot now included in claim 507, survey 721. The window of his cabin was a square hole cut into the side of the building, which could be securely closed in times of danger. Andrews had neglected to close this opening on retiring for the night, and just before dawn while reposing peacefully by the side of his wife and child there came the sharp, clear report of an Indian's rifle. and a bullet penetrated his body. He instantly leaped from the bed, and sprang out through the opposite door, believing


that the savages would be satisfied with plundering the house, and would not injure his wife and child. After ran- sacking the house, and loading themselves with such articles as they could carry, they prepared to depart, taking Mrs. Andrews with them, when the little girl. at that time three years old, who had before remained perfectly quiet and un- observed, called out, "Don't take my mamma." Upon hearing the cry, they returned and seized the child, and carried her with them After traveling about a quarter of a mile Mrs. Andrews, who was in a delicate state of health, expecting soon to become the mother of another child, became unable to proceed farther, when her inhuman cap- tors took the unhappy woman behind a tree and murdered her, leaving the body on the scene of the outrage. The body of poor Andrews was discovered some days later, far down the creek, where in weakness and delirium he had sunk down and died. Captain Ogle, the father of Mrs. Andrews, went to St. Louis, then a French trading port, and offered a liberal reward for the recovery of the child through the French traders and trappers. The little girl had been carried by the Indians as far north as Prairie du Chien, but after a short captivity she was brought back to St. Louis by the French trappers. She was raised in the family of James Lemen, at New Design. Her name was Drusilla, and on arriving at womanhood she became the wife of Henry Mace. Soon after her marriage she and her hus- band settled on the Andrews' tract, but a short distance from where the old house had stood. On one occasion, while sitting with her infant in her arms, an aged Pottawatamie Indian entered the house, and addressed her in broken Eng- lish : " House no here long time ago," and then taking her by the arm led her to where her father's house had stood, and said, " Long time ago you papoose, heep Indian eame and kill you mother." Mrs Mace was much agitated. The Indian, without doubt, was one of the band that massacred her father and mother. She became the mother of a large family of children.


On the 10th of December, 1788, while Benjamin Ogle and James Garretson were hauling hay from the bottom, they were fired upon by two Indians. A ball lodged in Ogle's shoulder and remained there. Garretson escaped in the woods. While engaged in stacking this same hay Samuel Garretson and a man named Reddick were killed and scalped. On account of his wound Mr Ogle was granted a pension by the government. On the 28th of March, 1788, William Biggs, who then resided at Bellefontaine, in con- pany with John Vallis, set out for Cahokia, to sell some beaver fur. When within six miles of Piggot's fort they heard the report of two guns which they thought had been fired by hunters. Soon afterward sixteen Indians made their appearance and presented their guns in readiness to fire. Biggs and Vallis whipped their horses and attempted to escape. The bullets of the Indians killed Biggs' horse and pierced his overcoat with four holes, though his person escaped injury. With his furs and saddle he fell from his horse, and after running some distance, was made prisoner. Vallis was shot in the thigh, but clung to his horse, which carried him to the fort. He died six weeks afterward from


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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH, MONROE AND PERRY COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.


his wouud. As soon as Vallis reached the fort a swivel gun was fired to alarm the neighborhood. When the Indians heard this gun they ran with Biggs for six miles. They were without horses, but traveled forty miles the first day. One of the Indians attempted to kill Biggs, but this his comrades would not permit, and killed the Indian himself. The Indians were Kickapoos, and traveled with Biggs to their town on the Wabash. After some time he effected his release by agreeing to pay a Spaniard, named Bazedone, two hundred and sixty dollars rausom money, and thirty- seven more for necessaries to enable him to make his journey home. He reached Kaskaskia by way of the Wabash, Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and from there came to Belle- fontaine. IIe was a large and fine-looking mau, and was greatly admired by the Indian maidens, who were his warm friends during his captivity. He wrote and published a narrative of his adventures in 1826.


During the years 1789 and 1790 the Indians grew more boll and troublesome, and numerous murders were com- mitted. No family or individual was safe, night or day, from their attaeks. It is estimated that in these two years one-tenth of the inhabitants of the county were massacred. The Kickapoos were mostly the aggressors. They were better armed and more vigorous than the other Indian tribes, and prosecuted their war against the Americans with great ferveity. The French settlers of Illinois almost en- tirely escaped. The enmity of the savages was directed altogether against the American population. In the Amer- ican Bottom, not far from where Fountain creek flows from the bluff, three boys were attacked by six Indians in 1789. One, David Waddle, was struck with a tomahawk in three places and scalped, but still made his escape and recovered from his wounds. Ilis companions ran to the neighboring fort and were uninjured. James Turner and John Ferrel were killed the same year. James Dempsey was sealped and left for dead, but recovered. In the winter of 1789-90, a party of Osage Indians crossed the Mississippi and stole some horses from the settlers in the American Bottom. A party was hastily organized to pursue them toward the river. James Worley, being in advance of the others, was turned upon, and killed and scalped by the Indians, before his companions could come to his rescue. It is said that the Indians cut off the head of Worley, and threw it toward the whites as they advanced. It was seldom that the Osages, who lived west of the Mississippi, crossed the river to commit depredations in Illinois.


A Baptist preacher from Kentucky, James Smith, while journeying to the village of St. Phillips, in company with a Frenchman and a Mrs. Huff, on the 19th of May, 1790, the party was fired on by a band of Kickapoo Indians who were concealed in a thicket near Bellefontaine. The horses of the preacher and Frenchman were shot, and the woman was wounded. Mrs. Huff was at once killed on falling into the hands of the Indians; the Frenchman made his escape, and Smith was taken prisoner. ITis saddle bags were found the next day in a thicket where he had thrown them at the time of the attack. He was a large, heavy man, and the Indians loaded him with a pack of plunder they had secured from


the settlements, and set out toward their town on the Wa- bash. His march through the prairies, with a heavy load, and under a hot sun, was excessively fatiguing Some of the Indians proposed to kill him, and pointed their guns at his breast. Having observed him praying and singing hymns, they concluded that he was a good medicine man, and held intercourse with the Great Spirit, and must not therefore be killed. Through the agency of the French traders at Vincennes, he was released, the people of the New Design settlement paying one hundred and seventy dollars for his ransom. He came back to Illinois, obtained his saddle bags which contained valuable papers relating to the titles of land belonging to his friends, and then returned to Kentucky.


In May, 1791, John Dempsey, who two years before had been scalped by the Indians and left for dead, was agaiu attacked, and this time succeeded also in effecting his escape. A party of eight men hastened in pursuit of the Indians, who were double the number of the whites. Captain Na- thaniel Hull led the party, of whom the other members were James Lemen, Joseph Ogle, Benjamin Ogle, Josiah Ryan, William Bryson, John Porter and Daniel Raper. The Indians were overtaken and a hot battle fought in the timber at the Big Spring, about five miles north of the present town of Waterloo, and a short distance east of the St. Louis road. The fight was kept up from tree to tree, the Indians endeavoring to escape and the whites pursuing. Five of the Indians were killed, and not one of the whites was injured.


In the year 1793 a band of Kickapoo Indians stole some horses from the American bottom near Eagle Cliffs, and an expedition was organized to pursue the Indians. William Whiteside was captain, and he was accompanied by Samuel Judy, John Whiteside, Samuel Whiteside, William Harring- ton, William L. Whiteside, John Porter, and John Dempsey. They followed the Indian trail, passing near the site of the present city of Belleville, towards the Indian camp on Shoal creek. One of the party generally went before on the trail to prevent the others from rushing int> an ambuscade. It was considered better that one should be killed than all the party. They came up with the Indians on Shoal creek, and found three of the horses grazing in the prairie. These horses were secured, and then arrangements were made to attack the Indian camp. Captain Whiteside divided his force into two parties of four men each. These parties attacked the camp from opposite sides at the same time, the firing of the captain's gun being the sigual for the commence- ment of the battle. One Indian, the son of the chief, was killed, and several wounded. The Indians ran off, leaving their guns and everything else behind. The old chief, Pecon by name, surrendered, and gave up his gun to Whiteside. He supposed from the bold attack that the whites were numerous, but when he found their entire number consisted of only eight men, he called in a loud voice for his meu to return, and at the same time attempted to wrench his gun from Whiteside's hands. Whiteside was a large man of ex- traordinary strength and easily retained the gun. While the struggle was going on the whites were afraid to shoot at


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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH, MONROE AND PERRY COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.


the Indian lest they might kill their captain. Whiteside would not permit his men to injure an unarmed foe, and the chief was suffered to escape. Captain Whiteside was famous for his prudence, as well as his courage, and with the horses they had caught, started baek, and neither ate nor slept till they reached Whiteside's station. His wisdom was verified, for the very night of his arrival at the station Pecon and seventy warriors, in pursuit, camped near Cahokia. The next year, 1794, Peeon and his band shot Thomas Whiteside near the station, and tomahawked a son of Captain White- side, who had wandered some distance from the fort to play.


Captain Whiteside, however, had his revenge next year. A Frenchman of Cahokia informed him that a considerable number of Indians had camped under the bluff in St. Clair county, near where the road from Belleville to St. Louis now pas.es. Captain Whiteside gathered a company of fourteen, among which were Samuel Whiteside, William L. White- side. Johnson J. Whiteside, Samuel Judy, and I-aac Enochs, and attacked the camp just before the break of day, killing all the Indians except one who ran off, and was killed, it is said, by the other Indians for his cowardice. For many years afterward the bones of these Indians could be seen whitening the ground. In this battle Captain Whiteside was wounded, and he supposed mortally. Ile fell to the ground, but still continued to exhort his men to stand their ground and never permit an Indian to touch his body when he was dead, as he supposed he would be in a short time. Ilis son, l'el, was also wounded in bis arm so that he could not use his gun. He examined his father's wound, and found that the ball had not passed through the body, but had struck a rib and glanced off toward the spine. The bul- let could be felt under the skin. Every pioneer in those days was a surgeon, and with his butcher-knife he eut it out. remarking, ' Father. you are not dead yet. ' The old man jumped to his feet, and continued his fight with the Indians. On their return to Whiteside's station the party halted in Cahokia, at the house of Mrs. Rains, to care for the wounded This lady had two beautiful and intelligent daughters, and this accidental meeting finally led to their marriage to Cel and William B. Whiteside.




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