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 80
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 80
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 80
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HON. AMBROSE HOENER
WAS born at Cologne on the Rhine, Germany, in 1825. He comes from a sturdy, long-lived German family ; his father was a wealthy merchant of the above-named place, and died at the ripe old age of eighty-four years. His mother sur- vived and died in her eighty-eighth year. Mr. Hoener received a good education in the Latin schools and a thor- ough education in the commercial college in Cologne, and served an appreciative apprenticeship in the mercantile business under the direction of his father. Subsequently he 42
traveled for a number of years for a large business house, through Holland, Switzerland and the German states. Being strongly impressed with republican ideas and theo- ries, his sympathies were enlisted on the part of the revolu- tionists, although he was compelled to serve in the Prussian army opposing them in the uprising at Baden. In 1849 he left Germany and cmigrated to the United States. ITe settled in St. Louis, but soon after went to St. Clair county, in Illi- nois, and in 1851 came to Waterloo, where he has since resided. He engaged in mercantile pursuits, which he followed for two years, after which he was prevailed upon to accept an official position. His peculiar ability and fitness for public life was soon recognized, and he became the recipient of the people's favor, and was repeatedly elected to positions of honor and trust. He was assessor and treasurer of Monroe county for four years, and county clerk for twelve consecutive years, and police magistrate for eight years. These frequent elections testify to his popularity, and are testimonials to his worth as a man and citizen, and his ability and fidelity as an officer of the county. Politi cally he has always been an uncompromising Democrat, giving an unqualified support to the principles and nominees of that political organization. In 1876 he was selected to be the senatorial standard-bearer for the 48th District. It was believed that he was the most popular man for that position, and was the one to harmonize all the antagonistic and conflicting elements of the party, and bring out its full strength. The prediction was verified in his election by the large popular vote of 5,574 against 4 679 for his opponent, an influential and popular Republican. While a member of the state Senate Mr. Iloener was chairman of the com- mittee on finance, aud was also assigned to several other important committees. While a member he earned the reputation of being an able, industrious legislator and a highly competent and creditable representative for his con- stituents. His entire course in that body was marked by a desire to legislate in the interest of the whole people rather than in favor of the few. During the protracted senatorial struggle which resulted in the election of David Davis to the United States Senate, Mr. Hoener being dissatisfied with the tactics of the majority and desiring to hasten the busi- ness of the Legislature, thereby saving the people much money, arranged a meeting of the German members of both houses, and proposed to them that in the event that Davis was not elected on the first ballot after the reassembling of the different bodies, that he would propose the name of Ex- Governor Koerner. This arrangement was concurred in by all the members present, but it coming to the knowledge of the majority, they at once upon the next ballot elected Judge Davis. We have no doubt his election was the re- sult of the action of Mr. Hoener and his German friends.
NEW DESIGN.
MONROE COUNTY.
N the year 1786 the first settlements at New Design seem to have been made. The name is said to have arisen from the circumstance that James Lemen, the founder of the colony, observed that he had a "new design" to make a settle- ment south of Bellefontaine. The New Design settlement, previous to 1800, con- tained the largest American colony in Illinois. It was the common rendezous of the immigration from Kentucky and Virginia, and with Bellefontaine, the head quarters of the whole American population in the last cen- tury. Its founders were attracted by the elevated and beautiful country, then prairie, afterward overgrown with timber, from which the courses of both the Kaskaskia and the Mississippi could be traced. The settlement rapidly increased in size, and by the year 1790 a considerable number of families had here made their homes. In 1800 the population is estimated to have been two hundred and fifty. The location of James Lemen's house, on survey 395, claims 502, about four miles south of Waterloo, nearly marked the centre of the colony.
James Lemen was born in Berkeley county, Virginia, in the autumn of 1760. His grandfather had emigrated to America from the north of Ireland. His father died when James was a year old. His mother married again and he was raised in the Presbyterian faith. In 1777, during the war of the Revolution, he enlisted in the Virginia forces. He tock part in the battle of White Plains. He served in the army two years, and then returned to Virginia. He lived for a time in the vicinity of Wheeling, and their mar- ried Catherine Ogle, daughter of Captain Joseph Ogle. IIe came to Illinois in 1786, arriving in July, of that year, with his family by a flat boat from Pittsburg, on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to Kaskaskia. After James Smith, a Baptist preacher, arrived and preached in the New Design settlement, Mr. Lemen professed religion, and thenceforth he was an active member of the church. He was an earnest opponent of slavery, and mere expressions of his in a sermon preached in the Richland church in 1809, caused the division that sprang up between the Baptist churches of southern Illinois. He was Justice of the Peace for many years under the Territorial government, and also acted as Judge of the County Court. His first dwelling was a log cabin, and he after- wards built a brick house, which is still standing, and which was the first brick house erected within the limits of the present county of Monroe. His house stands on the north- west part of claim 502, survey 395. This tract was conceded
to James Lemen in right of his militia service. The building is thirty by twenty feet, and contains four rooms, two above and two below. Near hy is the grave yard where rests the remains of several members of the Lemen family and other pioncers of that settlement. Elder James Lemen died on the 9th of January, 1823. His wife died July 14, 1840, aged seventy-five years. James Lemen raised a large family of children ; six of his sons were preachers of the gospel ; one, Robert, taught school a number of years, and was of great benefit to the settlement. James, who was born at the New Design, in 1787, was elected to several important public positions. Ile served several times in both branches of the State Legislature, and was a delegate from St. Clair county to the convention which framed the first constitution of the State. Early in the present century Robert, Joseph, and James Lemen, Jr., removed to the Ridge prairie, in St Clair county, and there made prominent settlements.
Captain Joseph Ogle was one of the pioneers of New De- sign. He was horn in Virginia in 1744. He commanded a company of Virginia troops during the Revolutionary war, holding a commission as captain from Patrick Henry, then Governor or Virginia. He came to Illinois from the neigh- borhood of Wheeling, Virginia, in 1785. With him came Joseph Worley, and James Andrews. He was a man of untiring energy, and strong will power, in his honor one of the counties of the State received its name. He professed religion under the preaching of the Rev. James Smith, at New Design in 1787, and was appointed leader, by the Rev. Joseph Lillard, in 1793, of the first Methodist class ever formed in Illinois. Members of the Ogle family removed from New Design, and in 1796 made a settlement in the American Bottom, near where the road from Bellefontaine to Cahokia descended the bluff.
In 1802 Captain Ogle made one of the pioneer locations in the Ridge prairie, near the present town of O'Fallon, in St. Clair county, where he resided till his death, in 1821. His descendants reside in St. Clair county.
In the year 1793 the most numerous colony Illinois, so far, had received settled in and around, the New Design This colony embraced families by the name of Whiteside, Griffin, Gibbons, Enochs, Chanee, Musiek, and Going. In it were many daring, enterprising, and influential men, whose ar- rival was hailed with great satisfaction by the other settlers, who were anxious to strengthen the colony against attacks of the Indians. The Whitesides were born and raised in North Carolina. They subsequently settled at Whitesides' station, southeast of Columbia.
Joseph Kinney also reached the New Design settlement in
330
331
HISTORY OF RANDOLPH, MONROE AND PERRY COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
1793. He raised a crop during the summer of that year and then returned to Kentucky for his family, which he had left on Bear Grass creek, seven miles from Louisville. From the site of' Louisville he descended the Ohio to Fort Massa- cre, from which place he crossed the country to Kaskaskia, and from there came to New Design settlement. Ile lived on the Rock Ilorse creek until his death in 1803. He had seven sons and four daughters, who grew to years of maturity. One of his daughters married Mr. Demint, in Kentucky, in 1792. Demint came to Illinois, and made a farm southeast of New Design. (In section eighteen, town- ship three, range nine.) He was a pious man, and a good citizen. One Sunday morning, while bridling his horse, to go to meeting, the horse kieked him so severely that he died. This occurred in the year 1811.
Andrew Kinney, son of Joseph Kinney, built a water mill on the site of Monroe city. The youngest daughter married Joseph Lemon, 1809. She had no education, what- ever, at the time of her marriage, but went to school after- ward, learned to read and write, and became the mother of a large and respectable family of children. William Kinney was born in Kentucky, in 1781, and was nearly thirteen when he came to Illinois with his father. At nineteen he married. In 1803 he removed to a place a few miles north. east of the present city of Belleville. In 1809 he opened a store on his farm, and at that time could barely write. He became interested in religion, was baptized iu 1809, and af. terward became a member of the Baptist ministry. He was several times elected, from St. Clair county, to the State Legislature, and in 1826 became Lieutenant-Governor of the State. He died in 1843.
Robert McMahan, a native of Virginia, came to Illinois, from Kentucky, in 1793, and settled at New Design. The next year he selected a location for a farm southeast of New Design, in what is now known as the Yankee Prairie. Here several members of his family were murdered by Indians on the twenty-sixth of January, 1795. The eireumstances of this affair are elsewhere related. This massacre took place on the northeast quarter of section nineteen, township three, range nine, about a mile west of Burksville station. Me. Mahan removed to Ralls' ridge, in Randolph county, and thence to the vicinity of Troy, in Madison county, where he died in 1822.
In the years 1796 and 1797 important additions were made to the New Design settlement. Solomon Shook and Mr. Borer arrived from Virginia in 1796, and the next year witnessed the coming of a large colony from the country adjacent to the south branch of the Potomae in Ilardy county, Virginia. A year or so previous David Badgeley, Leonard Carr, Diniel Stookey, Abraham Eyeman, Mr. Whetstone and Abraham Stookey, made the journey to I]]- inois from Virginia on horseback and thoroughly explored the country with the view of selecting a good location for their neighbors in Virginia David Badgeley, who was a Baptist preacher, held religious meetings in the American settlements.
The summer of 1797 was uncommonly wet and rainy, and the streams between Fort Massacre and Kaskaskia were
all swollen beyond their banks. After arranging their wagons and horses and making all things ready for the jour- ney, they set out from Fort Massacre for New Design. The ravages of disease carried off almost one-half of this Vir- ginia colony during the first summer and fall of their arrival. The prevailing sickness was a malignant fever supposed to be contagious. Scareely a household but mourned the loss of one or more of its members.
After 1797 the country was healthy, and that part of the colony which remained did well, and furnished many valua- ble citizens. The Carr, Stookey, Eyeman, Shook, Mitchell, (lark, Badgeley, Teter, Miller and other families left numer- ous and respectable descendants. About 1800 many, among whom were Edward and Thomas Todd, moved from New Design to the American Bottom. The neighborhood of the present city of Belleville in St. Clair county received a number of early settlers from this colony.
David Bedgeley was one of the earliest Baptist ministers in Illinois. During his first visit in 1797 he preached in the settlement from the 4th to the 30th of May, and baptized fifteen persons. Among the settlers was Joseph Chance who had been set apart as a lay elder in Kentucky. He and Elder Badgeley organized, with twenty-eight members, the first Baptist Church in THinois. It was ca led the New De- sign Church. James Smith, a Baptist preacher from Ken- tucky, preached here in 1787, and Joseph Lillard, a Metho- dist, in 1793. John Clark, a Scotchman by birth, who had followed the seas in early life, and in 1781 had been pressed into service on board a British man-of-war, which lay off Charleston harbor, and had swam ashore at the risk of his life, rather than fight the Americans, came to Illinois in 1797, and both preached and taught school at New Design. He is said to have been the first preacher of the gospel to eross the Mississippi and preach to the Americans west of the river, a proceeding contrary to the regulations of the Roman Catholic Spanish government of Upper Louisiana. Elder Joseph Chance, who with David Badgeley, organized the pioneer Baptist church in Illinois, was born in Delaware in 1765. Tle removed to North Carolina, thence to Kentucky, and in 1794 came to Illinois. One of the earliest movements in Illinois toward forming a Bible Society was made at New Design.
The first American school teacher in Illinois was a resi- dent of the New Design settlement, and there taught his first school This was John Seeley. He first came to IHli- noss in 1783. An early physician named Wallace attended to the sick at New Design in 1797.
The Tolin family is one of the oldest in the precinet, com- ing from Virginia, and settling near where Burksville now stands in the last century. Isaac Tolin, who was a small boy when he came to Ilinois, married Susan Demint. The oklest son by this marriage was Judge George Tolin, for three terms one of the judges of the Monroe county court who died in 1874.
The farm on section seven of township three, range nine, now owned by Valentine Schneider, was, in early years, the house of Joshua MeMurtrey. lle was from Virginia. In 1818 a number of families came from Ohio, chicily from
332
HISTORY OF RANDOLPHI, MONROE AND
PERRY COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
the vicinity of Marietta. Some of them settled in the Prai- rie, and from that circumstance it was called Yankee Prairie. One of these immigrants was Rev. Daniel Hilton, a minister of he Baptist church. For many years he was pastor of the Fountain Creek Baptist Church. Several of his descendants reside in the county. Daniel M. Barker, a native of Ver- mont, settled in the New Design prairie in 1818. In 1854 he removed to Red Bud where he died. He had nine chil- dren, Hiram, Lewis, Albert, Miron, Eveline, Melcena, Susan, Eliza and Daniel Perry, of whom Lewis alone now resides in this county. Several became residents of Ran- dolph county. Zebediah Barker, the father of Daniel M. Barker, settled a mile and a half west of the present town of Burksville, on land now owned by H. Johanning.
With the Ohio immigration came the Norton and Gilman families which settled on Dry run, south of Burksville. Moses Varnum, born at Belfast, Maine, came from Ohio with his family in 1818. Jewett and Justus Varnum were his two sons and he had two daughters, one of whom mar- ried Daniel M. Barker. Jewett Varnum made an improve- ment in the northwest quarter of section seventeen, township three, range nine, and Justus on the southeast quarter of section eighteen.
Among later settlers in the precinct were Eben Alexan- der and John Durfee, who came about the year 1837, and entered land on Horse Creek. They built a saw mill on Horse creek. Richmond Durfee, a newph-w of Alexander Durfee, started a store half a mile northwest of the present Burksville station, the first store in this part of the county. After a year or two it was removed to the Horse prairie, near the county line. He afterward started a store in Red Bud. The Durfees were natives of Fall River, Massachu- setts, and came to Illinois from Ohio. Harrison Druce, a native of the State of New York, settled where he now lives, in section sixteen, township three, range nine, in 1842. John Murphy and his son James settled near Cambria sta- tion in 1840. Soon after 1835 a number of families of Irish descent settled in the precinct, among which were the Sennot, Mclaughlin, Burns, Dugau, Lynch, Donahue, Cooney, Dwyer and Butler families. St. Patrick's Catholic church was established in their neighborhood.
There are two stations of the St. Louis aud Cairo railroad, Cambria and Burksville stations, within the limits of the precinct. There are three post-offices, Burksville and New Design, at Burksville station ; and Tipton at Cambria.
BURKSVILLE.
The commencement of the growth of the town of Burksville was the starting of a store in 185t hy John G. Burk- hardt and John Metzler Burkhardt was a resident of St Louis. Napoleon Fitzpatrick was taken in as a partner in 1854, but in about a year afterward disposed of his interest to the other members of the firm. The store was purchased in 1857 by Paul C. Brey, and the same year Jacob Miller, subsequently a resident of Red Bud, was made a partner. Afterward Mr. Brey became again the sole owner, and continued the store until 1864, when Francis Schifferdecker obtained an interest, which in 1866 he sold to Alexander Durfee, who died in 1868. The store was burned in 1872, and Mr. Brey then formed a partnership with Anton Lang dorf, which continued till 1874, since which time the business has been carried on by Mr. Langs- dorf.
The second store was established in 1856 by Miron Barker and Rudolph Kuederle. Frederick Zimmermann and George Baum also carried on the mercantile business for a time. The original town site was owned by John P. Brown, who sold the lots in parcels. The name of Burks- ville was given the place in 1857 in honor of John G. Burk- hardt.
An addition known as "Hendricks' addition" was then made in 1858 hy Gerhardt J. Hendricks, and one in 1868 by Fred Burkhardt. A post office was established in 1857 and Paul C. Brey appointed the first postmaster. He re- tained the office till his removal from the place in 1874, since which time the position has been filled by Anton Langsdorf. The town contains about twenty dwelling houses, and has a population of about one hundred and twenty.
There is an Evangelical Lutheran church, and one of the same denomination two miles and a half south. The business interests of the place are now represented as follows: merchants, Anton Langsdorf and Charles Boehne & Son; shoemaker, Frederick Zimmermann ; saw mill and black -. smith shop, Frederick Meyer; blacksmith, William Enrich ; wagon maker, William Klein ; harness maker, Jacob Blette ; hotels, Fred Burkhardt and Anton Conrad. Burks- ville is nearer than any other town to the geographical centre of the county. At Burksville station on the railroad two miles distant, a store is carried on by Jacob B. Berger.
332A
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"EAGLE CLIFFS , THE RESIDENCE OF ISAAC EBERMAN, MOREDOCK PRECINCT, MONROE CO. ILL.
MOREDOCK.
MONROE COUNTY.
OREDOCK precinct lies wholly in the American Bottom. Within its limits were made some of the earliest settle- ments in Illinois, and it has been the home of many distinguished and eele- brat d meu. One of the first improve- ments was made by Shadrach Bond who settled in the bottom near the mouth of Dug hollow in the year 1782. He was a native of Maryland, and was raised near the city of Baltimore. He held a con- spieuous position among the early settlers of the county. Although quiet, unassumingand unambitious, he was several times elected a representative in the legislatures of both the Indian and Northwestern territory, and for many years was justice of St. Clair county court of common pleas, before Monroe Co. was organized. He was familiarly known as Judge Bond. He had a strong mind and a liberal and generous disposition. He was not ambitious for wealth but was the owner of a large body of land. Claim 322, survey 399, was granted to him (the confirmation being made by Gov. St. Clair) in right of an old Freuch concession. This comprised four hundred acres, and extended from the foot of the bluff to the bottom. Claim 321, survey 400, contain ing four hundred aeres, is the grant of land which he obtain- ed by virtue of his improvement. His house was at the mouth of Dug hollow, in the bottom a short distance from the bluff, and some scattered stones still remain to mark its site. On his death he was buried in the old graveyard on the bluff just above his residence.
At the same time with Bond, James Garretson came to Illinois. He settled first near Bellefontaine, a mile north- east of the present town of Waterloo, where four hundred aeres of land was given him on account of the improvement he there made. He subsequently made his home in the bottom. He was the owner of claim 2609, survey 407, con- firmed to him in right of the militia elaims of himself, James Bryan, and Benjamin Ogle. On the tenth of December, 1788, while hauling hay in company with Benjamin Ogle, he was attacked by two Indians. Ogle was struck in the shoulder by a ball, Garretsou escaped. In stacking the same hay Samuel Garretson, a brother to James Garretson, and a man named Reddick, were killed and scalped by the Indians. James Garretson on the eighteenth of March, 1800, married Mary Carr, daughter of Joseph Carr, who came to the new design settlement in 1794. It was right after his marriage that he settled in the bottom of what is now Moredoek pre- ciuct. He was an honest and upright citizen, and an or dained preacher in the Baptist church.
One of the most remarkable persons who ever lived in this part of the country, was John Moredock. In bis honor the precinct reecived its name. His house was on the south side of Moredock lake on the farm now owned by William Wineklemann. His father, Barney Moredock, having died, his mother married as her second husband Michael Huff, and in the year 1786, the family set out from the Monon- gahela country, in western Pennsylvania, for Illinois. They embarked in a boat on the Ohio at Red Stone, where the town of Brownsville was afterward built. While ascending the Mississippi, they encamped for the night near the Grand Tower. Here the party was attacked by the Indians. Mrs. Huff, and one of her sons were killed. The body of the woman was frightfully mangled before the eyes of her son, John Moredock. The rest of the family eume to what is now Monroe county. The list of land grants made on account of the improvements shows that Huff, at an early date, began the cultivation of a farm about a mile north of the site of Waterloo. The family subsequently settled in the American Bottom. Mr. Iluff was killed by the Indians between Prairie du Rocher and Kaskaskia. The calamities which the Indi- ans had visited on his family excited deep feelings of hatred and vengeance in the breast of young Moredock, and he swore eternal enmity against the savage race. lle was a boy when he came to Illinois, and his mind and character were formed under the peculiar circumstances that belong to a wild and new country. He had little opportunities for education. He could merely read and write, and possessed a scant acquaintance with the rules of arithmetic. In 1803, he was elected a member of the territorial legislature, which convened at Vincennes the same year, he was a man of much strong common sense and though young made a good legislator. He had some talent and taste for military life. Ile was first Captain of a company, and afterward became Major of a battalion. In 1814 he was elected to the legis- lative assembly held at Kaskaskia, under the territorial gov- ernment. He had two daughters, but neither of whom left children ; they were excellent rifle shots, and it is said of them, that they could take off the head of a squirrel from the top of the tallest tree Major Moredock was in the service during the war of 1812-14 as Major. He died in 1830.
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