USA > Illinois > Tazewell County > Washington > Early history of Washington, Ill. and vicinity > Part 7
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Mrs. Bayler also taught a select school in summer for several years for $1.00 per month per pupil. Mrs. Mostoller, Will Aubrey, James and Frank Wrenn were among her pu- pils.
Mrs. Bayler after her marriage lived in the attractive home on the bayler stock farm, which adjoins the city on the northwest. She was noted for her hospitality and they used to come from near and far to visit the Baylers. Of late years Mrs. Mrs. Bayler has had a severe sick spell and is not able to get out very much. She still retains her keen intellect
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and can vividly recount the scenes of long ago. She has rooms in the Tobias building and runs a little notion store to help while her time away, and her old friends are glad to call.
The above incidents were secured in a recent talk with Mrs. Bayler.
Some History of the Zinser Family, Who Were Old Settlers
Mrs. Lizzie Zinser Brown of Harlan, Ia., and Rev. J. W. Ferner of Washington, D. C., are the only remaining mem- bers of the Zinser, Tobias, Ferner caravan of early settlers who emigrated from Ohio to Washington in 1851. . Mrs. Brown in some recent letters to Miss Emma Scott tells of some of the early history of her family and of the country. The following are extracts :
"There were four families of us in company when we moved from Ohio, coming by team and in covered wagons. Father, Jacob Zinser's, family was the largest. There were 11 children, but only 9, 5 girls and 4 boys, came with the family. The oldest brother, John, came previous to father and got work at his trade as a wagon maker. Father came to Illinois to get a better chance to farm, as his boys were old enough to help with the work. Brother S. L. attended college at Delaware, Ohio, and when the war broke out he enlisted and raised a company and was made lieutenant. He was in the army 3 years, was wounded at Chattanooga and was discharged. He went into the drug business. He mar- ried Sarah Grady.
Brothers Sam and George were the first to hear the call and enlist in the Civil war. They went through four years, were in many battles, and were honorably discharged at the close without a wound. Brother Israel enlisted when they called for recruits. He was not in battle, but was in camp when the war closed.
Brother William looked after the farming while the other boys were helping Uncle Sam. They all went into busi- ness after the war, Sam and George in the hardware busi- ness for some time, and Israel in the drug business. William was a farmer all his life. He lived in northern Iowa until he died and his family still live there.
Ben, the youngest of the family, was born in Washing- ton. He was a banker as long as he lived and died in 1925.
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The girls in the family from oldest down were Mary, Catherine, Susan, Lizzie and Rebecca. They were all mar- ried but Rebecca. Catherine died in 1862 and was the first break in the family.
I think it took our family a month to make the trip from Ohio to Illinois. It was rough traveling over corduroy bridges. The country was swampy in places and the roads were made of logs, which did not make a smooth roadbed.
I remember when I was young a string of saloons they had in Washington across the north side of the square. I do not know who patronized them as I was afraid to pass by them, I was so afraid of a drunken man. I can recall when I was a child and sick with a diseased knee, which left me a cripple for life, the folks raised me up to the door to see the first train go through Washington on the T., P. & W. railroad. It was in 1857.
I am past my 80th birthday. I have not had my usual health this summer. Recently I have been laid up with a spell of rheumatism.
John W. Wilson is one of Washington's oldest native born citizen. Mr. Wilson is still active and in very good health, and he has an especially keen and vivid mind. He had an extended farming experience in Woodford and Taze- well counties and is well qualified to tell of early conditions. The following are some facts gathered from an interview with hint:
William Wilson, father of J. W. Wilson, was one of the very early settlers in Central Illinois. He came here in 1829 from Ohio. His widowed sister, Jane, accompanied him. (Jane afterwards was the second wife of William Holland, the first settler in Washington, and was the mother of six of Mr. Holland's family of twenty-one children. One of her children, Mrs. John Weeks, is still living in Washington, the only surviving child of Washington's first settler).
Mr. Wilson and sister, Jane, came to Illinois overland in a one-horse wagon. They started with a cow owned by Jane. They traveled four days with the cow tied behind the wagon and the animal caused so much trouble to lead that being mightily provoked one day Mr. Wilson asked his sis- ter Jane what she would take for the cow. She set the price at $10, and although the brother was not very flush he pulled out his purse and paid her $10, and not waiting to un- tie the cow he took out his knife, slashed the rope and turned the cow loose. In a week of two the cow wandered back to its original home in Ohio. And in six months or a year some
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of the folks who had picked up the cow sent Mr. Wilson $10, the amount he had paid his sister.
Wm. Wilson and his sister came alone on their journey with their one-horse wagon as far as the Wabash river. There they fell in with the Heaths and Henson Thomas, who were also on their way to Illinois and were early settlers who located in Washington. The early Wilson had a tough experience in making the long trip with his single horse and wagon through the timber and across streams and swampy land.
Upon his arrival in Washington Mr. Wilson purchased a claim of 164 acres of land just west of Washington, now owned by George Muller. There was a log cabin on the place. Mr. Wilson lived there until his death in 1857. When he came here he thought the prairie land east of Washington never would be settled, so he went into the timber and grubbed out trees. He was only able to clear about 50 acres of the land while he owned it.
Wiliam Wilson married Sarah McClure. The McClures lived on the farm where Willhardt used to live, northwest of Washington. He was the father of six children, one dying in infancy. Of the five children Mary Jane married H. K. Swisher, Nancy married George Bon Durant, Maria married W. T. Smith, Sarah Ann unmarried and John W. married Virginia Ann Kindig, who died in January, 1912. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Wilson. One died in infancy, one son died at the age of 21, soon after gradu- ating from high school. The daughter, Gertrude, lives with her father and keeps house for him.
John W. Wilson lived with his folks until he was 18 years of age. He then hired out to work on a farm during the summer at $12 a month. That winter he went to school in the old seminary, taught by Joe Wood. The next year he farmed for Henry Kindig at $14 a month. The next two years he farmed for himself and boarded at Emanuel Kin- dig's two miles northwest of Washington. He raised mostly corn, one year some wheat. He sold his corn that year in the ear for 80 cents, 80 pounds to the bushel. He received a good price on account of the war.
In the spring of 1866 he married and moved on a farm in the east part of Woodford county, 5 miles southeast of Minonk. He farmed there for fifteen years. A good deal of the prairie land around there was wet and had sloughs upon it. They had no tiling then. He raised corn and oats, most- ly corn. They hauled their corn to market at Minonk. That
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was considered a great corn country. Some days they would have to wait all day and over to the next day to get unloaded. The streets would be full of wagons. The police would have to help keep order and get the wagons lined up. They had no dumps in those days and the corn was all scooped off the load. The elevator would furnish one extra man to help the farmer scoop off his load.
They hauled some of their corn in an early day to Chi- cago, not very big loads, and received as low as 614 cents a bushel. That was about the only way to get money some- times.
Most of the country was raw prairie land. When Mr. Wilson started farming in 1866 about one-fourth was in cul- tivation. Raw land then sold for $10 an acre and cultivated land for $25 to $40 per acre.
Wild game was plentiful. There were lots of prairie chickens, geese and ducks. Mr. Wilson could shoot a good deal of game from his front yard.
Mr. Wilson moved onto several different farms in Wood- ford and Tazewell counties up until 1893, when he gave up farming and moved to Washington. Farming was not very profitable in those days. The highest price paid for corn was 45 cents a bushel, after the war.
When he was a boy he remembers one time of carrying 18 dozen eggs to town for his brother-in-law to the Tobias & Hittle store in Washington and receiving 3 cents a dozen for them.
In the old days they used to have some pretty cold winters. When Mr. Wilson was a boy, living at home, in the winter of 1854-55 they had a butchering at their place and the neighbors were all in to help. It was so cold a spell at that time that the snow had not thawed in the wagon tracks for seven weeks.
The roads were pretty bad in the early days. In Febru- ary, 1866, he went to Peoria to get his wedding suit. The mud was so deep he went on horseback and had to get off the horse three times to let him wallow out of the mud. There was timber all along the Peoria road in the sixties, some of the trees being three feet through.
In 1859 Stephen A. Douglas held a big political meeting in Locust Grove near Metamora (now the McGuire farm). Over 100 wagons went up from Washington. The towns around vied with each other in sending the biggest delega- tion. Mr. Wlison remembers that Jaser Sickler's father was a drummer for the occasion. He marched about twenty-five
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feet back of Doulgas in the parade. He had a deep voice and he created a big sensation by shouting, "Hurrah for Douglas", every few steps along the way.
In those days the political parties would try and see which one could raise the highest flag pole. There was a good deal of drinking at the political meetings and there was quite a littte fighting.
One of the early events in Washington which occurred when Mr. Wilson was a boy was the wrecking of the store and saloon kept by a man named Pearl on the top of the hill in the west part of Washington (afterwards the Wells Andrews homestead). It seems that Pearl sold some whis- key to David Kelso, one of the early settlers. Kelso went to Peoria and died after drinking the whiskey and it was sup- posed to have been poisoned. It created a sensation and a crowd was formed and went out and completely wrecked the Pearl place. Several of Kelso's brothers were in the crowd. One of the boys had driven into town with a team of oxen, and when he heard they were going out to Pearl's he jumped off his wagon on the square and let the oxen run loose and joined the crowd. Pearl sat by while they wrecked his place, but he afterwards had quite a number of the wrecking party arrested. Abraham Lincoln was hired to defend the arrested parties and secured their acquittal in a trial which was held at Pekin.
Pearl's first wife was a sister of Dr. Wood. She sepa- rated from him and lived across the road from his place. Af- ter they wrecked his place Pearl went to Peoria where he led a dissolute life and finally died in the poor house.
Mr. Wilson has a number of relics of the early days and is sorry he did not preserve more of them, especially the early crude farming implements used by his father. He has three or four chairs made in 1839 by Asa Danforth and his brother when they ran a furniture store and factory here in an early day. The chairs are still solid and are good for many more years of service. He also has an old side-saddle used by his mother, made in an early day.
He thinks the oldest brick building in Washington is the Petri store building which was operated in an early day by Mr. Gorin. The Roehm shoe store is the oldest frame build- ing. The room above the store was known as temperance hall and Mr. Wilson remembers when his church, the Chris- tian, held services in the room.
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Mr. Wilson's father used to haul goods from Wesley City for the stores in Washington. It took three days to make the round trip, some 25 miles, and he was paid $1.50 for a trip.
When his father landed in Washington in 1829 there were only four or five families living here.
Old Time Account Book
Mr. Wilson has a valuable old relic which consists of an old account book of his father, William Wilson. The date of the accounts were from 1838 to 1845. The penmanship of the elder Mr. Wilson was very good and although the paper is faded with age the writing still stands out plainly.
This account book shows most vividly and accurately the prices that were paid for produce and work in those early days. It also shows the names of some of our very early settlers.
In those early days evidently not much cash changed hands. Mr. Wilson's accounts showed that he kept a debtor and credit account with most of the people with whom he did business. The accounts would run for a year or more and they would have a settlement and carry the balance over in the next account.
The following are just a few of the many entries in the account book :
Oct. 16, 1839. Adam Switzer, Cr. for the making of a coat and pocket stuff, $8.25.
Jan. 11, 1840. A. Switzer, Cr. for making a coat and vest, $2.00, and for trimmings, 433/4c.
May 31, 1841. J. Wheeler, half cord of wood, 75 cents.
June 31, 1841. J. Wheeler, Dr., to 4 doz. eggs, 25c.
July 12, 1841. J. Wheeler, Dr., to 9 lbs. lard at 61/4c, 5614c.
Dec. 8, 1838. Mr. Goold, Dr., to 34 cord of wood, $1.3414.
July 13, 1841. J. Wheeler, Cr. for one day's work, $1.00.
Oct. 11, 1844. Dr. Wood, Dr. to 40 lbs. pickled pork, $2.00.
Oct. 15, 1845. Dr. Wood, Dr. to 23 lbs. pork at 21/2c per lb., 57c.
April 27, 1849. Mr. Our, Dr. to 12 bushels corn at 25c per bushel, $3.00.
March 26, 1841. Snell and Tiney, Dr. to hauling one load to Wesley City, $2.00.
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Dec. 27, 1841. Samuel Hampton, Dr. to 73 lbs. of pork, $1.091/2.
Dec. 2, 1844. Mr. Waggoner, Cr. for one day's work, 50c.
Nov. 22, 1838. Mr. Pearl, Dr. to 1 day's work with two horses and wagon, $2.00.
Feb. 6, 1839. Mr. Pearl, Dr. to 25 lbs. flour, $1.00.
Dec. 6, 1841. David Gibson, Dr. to one load of wood, 621/Qc.
Dec. 5, 1840. Squire Baker, Cr. for one day's work done by George Thomas, $1.00.
Feb. 8, 1839. Doct. Goodwin, Dr. to one cord wood, $2.00.
June 1, 1841. Richard Wab, Dr. to 15 lbs. of wool at 371%c per lb., which is to be paid in work at 50c per day by Shiderick when called on.
Oct. 1841. Jacob Kern, Dr. to 94 ft. of lynn lumber at 2c per foot.
Oct. 19, 1839. Lawson Holland, Dr. to timber to make 3200 feet of lumber at 871/c per hundred, $28.00.
June 15, 1840. Lawson Holland, Cr. for a wheat fan re- ceived of Parsons, $28.00.
Oct. 4, 1843. J. Belle, Dr. to 118 lbs. of beef at 2c, $2.36.
Nov. 16, 1843. J. Belle, Cr. for two days' work done by the boys, 50c.
Jan. 25, 1839. Wm. Kern, Dr. to 180 feet of frame tim- ber at 2 cents per foot, Dr. to hauling 2 loads at 50c per load.
March 10, 1838. Wm. Kern, Cr. for one side saddle, $18.00.
Feb. 11. Wm. Kern, Cr. for the grinding of 10 bushels and a half of spring wheat, $1.68.
April 13, 1839. Wm. Kern, Cr. for a hat got Jacob Kern's shop, $5.00.
July 8, 1839. Wm. Kern, Cr. for the carding of 20 lbs. and thre-fourths of rolls at 7c per lb., $1.46.
May 10, 1842. Sephas Wood, Cr. for 2 days' work done by John Baracas' boys, $1.25.
Oct. 4, 1843. David Gibson, Cr. for half a day at butch- ering beef, 50c.
Nov. 9, 1845. David Gibson, Cr. for one day at husking, 50c.
June 15, 1844. Sephas Wood, Dr. to 11/4 lbs. of butter, 10c.
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Nov. 4, 1845. George Higgins, Cr. for one day's work, 50c.
April 12, 1839. J. Phillips, Dr. to 2 walnut trees, $7.00. Aug. 6, 1839. J. Phillips, Dr. to 24 lbs. pork at 7c per lb., $1.68.
Jan. 8, 1840. J. Phillips, Dr. to a stack of hay, $6.00 to be cash, $4.00 to be work.
June 29, 1840. Due me from J. Phillips on settlement to be paid in trade, $25.46.
Oct. 25, 1841. Mr. Rue, Dr. to one steer weighing 403 lbs., $10.071/2; to one cow weighing 525 lbs., $12.121/2.
June 3, 1840. Mr. Allee, Cr. for sharpening plow, 25c.
Jan. 23, 1840. Mr. Allee, Cr. for setting 4 pair of shoes, $1.25.
Oct. 12, 1841. Thomas Fish, Cr. by one pair of shoes, $1.75. Cr. for pair of boots, $4.50.
Nov. 10, 1842. Mr. Willard, Dr. to one hide, 63 lbs. at 3c, $1.89.
Dec. 16, 1839. S. P. Gorin, Dr. to 14 yards flannel at 75c, $10.50. Cr. for goods of Rodes Van Meter, $10.50.
Oct. 28, 1841. Wm. Holland, Cr. for 2 bushels of ap- ples and 9 bushels of bran.
Feb. 17, 1842. Wm. Holland, Cr. for 2 days work, $1.50. Jan. 18, 1841. Asa Danforth, Cr. for sharpening a cross cut saw, 50c.
Mch. 23, 1841. Mr. Danforth, to lumber marked on re- ceipt of $52.50, to be paid in furniture.
Jan. 22, 1841. Mr. Danforth, Dr. to 2 loads of hickory timber delivered at the shop, $3.00.
May 5, 1843. Wm. C. Spencer, Dr. to 2 bushels of oats, 24c.
Oct. 7, 1844. Robert Celso (Kelso), Cr. for one day's work, 50c.
July 5, 1845. R. Celso, Dr. to 2 trees in the pasture, $4.00.
March, 1846. A. Switzer, Cr. for on cloth vest, $3.50.
Jan. 27, 1844. Dr. Wood, Dr to eight bushels of oats at 20c, $1.60.
March 22, 1842. Mr. Runnels, Cr. for sharpening a plow, 121%c.
May 26, 1842. Mr. Runnels, Cr. for sharpening plow, mending log chain, making bell clapper, sharpening mattock, amounting to 621/2c.
Dec. 18, 1846. L. Reynolds, Dr. to 3 loads of wood, 75c.
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Dec. 10, 1844. J. S. Bell, Dr. to 183 lbs. beef at 11/2s. per lb., $2.45.
Oct. 20, 1845. J. S. Bell, Cr. with 1 day's work done by Thomas, 371/2c.
Nov. 19, 1841. S. P. Gorin, Dr. to half cord of wood de- livered at the female school house, 75c.
A number of entries given below were made which would seem to indicate that Mr. Wilson had taken some of wie early private bank money or script on account:
Five dollars on the Bank of Illinois, marked letter A No. 1710, payable at their branch bank at Pekin to the or- der of C. C. Wilcox, cashier thereof, Shawneetown, 1st of May, 1840, got of J. Johnson.
Ten dollars the State Bank of Illinois, marked letter A No. 43240, payable at their branch bank in Danville to the order of Mr. Mobley, cashier, Springfield, June the 1st, 1837, got of James McClure.
Five dollars on the State Bank of Illinois, marked letter 6 No. 8613, payable at Springfield to anyone or bearer, datt Sept. 1, 1835, got of Crasly.
Mrs. Esther Ann Weeks
Mrs. Esther Ann Weeks was born in Washington on March 16, 1842, a daughter of William Holland, the first settler and founder of Washington. Mr. Holland was the father of twenty-one children and Mrs. Weeks is the only known living child. It is quite appropriate that in compiling the early history of this locality that we should have an in- terview with Mrs. Weeks. The following interesting facts were gathered by Miss Emma Scott in a recent talk with her:
William Holland was born in Lincoln county, North Caro- lina, Oct. 14, 1786. He was married on May 24, 1811, to Levycy Bess. In 1815 they moved to Illinois territory and settled at Edwardsville, Madison county, where they re- mained three years. They then removed to Menard county where they lived two years, and from there to Fort Clark (Peoria) in 1820.
Mr. Holland had a gunsmith shop in Peoria and also raised corn on the Illinois river bottom on the Tazewell side of the river. In cultivating his crop he crossed the stream in a birch bark canoe.
After Mr. Holland settled in Washington he continued to conduct his shop as gunsmith for the Indians at Fort Clark. In doing so he rode his gray horse, "Turk", to the
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river bank and let him loose to go home, and he swam the river both going and coming, and ran home to Washington. Turk was a great horse. The neighborhood children used his back to support their teeter board. Mr. Holland used to put Esther Ann and her little brother on his back and let Turk trot off to the barn. The children fell off, but the horse kept on his way and on reaching the barn looked back to see their predicament, and if a horse could laugh he sure- ly did.
Wm. Holland's first cabin in Washingtn was at a spring, still flowing, just south of the Dickinson canning factory, in the northeast quarter of section 23, township 26, north range 2 west of the 3d principal meridian in Tazewell county, Illinois. He later built on the present site of the A. G. Dan- forth residence, and continued to live there to the close of his life Nov. 27, 1871.
In the spring of 1826 Mr. Holland started to improve a farm in the northwest quarter of section 24, township 26, range 3 west of the 3d P. M., just east of the original town of Washington and embracing a part of the Holland, Dorsey, Wathen and Robinson addition to the town.
Mr. Holland had three wives and was the father of twenty-one children, fourteen by his first wife, Levycy Bess Holland, and seven by his second wife, Mrs. Jane Wilson Cowen Holland. By this third wife, Mrs. Meadows Holland, there were no children. Mrs. Meadows was a sister of Ezra Miles and Mrs. Borland.
Mr. Holland had a family of ten children when he set- tled in Washington. He soon had a school conducted in his own home. He took a deep interest in helping his children with their studies. One of the family pastimes was to have a "spelling bee" with the father as the pronouncer.
The first religious meeting in Washington was held in Mr. Holland's log cabin. It was conducted by Rev. Jesse Walker, a Methodist preacher. James Harvey, one of the first settlers, was present and the two families.
Before his death Mr. Holland had all his children come home and he preached them a sermon he had prepared. This sermon was delivered at his funeral by Rev. Howe of the Christian church. It has been preserved and is in print. It shows that Mr. Holland was a man of learning and was well posted on the Bible. It also proves that he was a firm be- liever in the Christian faith.
Miss Emma Scott furnishes the following information: "Mr. Ruble, who lived northeast of Washington, told me that
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when he was a boy 14 years of age he came to town and did not know that Mr. Holland had died until he saw the funeral procession move from the Frank Tobias furniture store, which was located on the lot back of the old Danforth hotel. They were carrying a casket through the middle of the muddy street, followed by neighbors and friends, among whom were Mrs. Asa Danforth and her daughter Hattie, all walking to the old cemetery.
William Holland gave a 4th of July dinner in the year 1850 in a fine grove where the Henry Denhart home now stands. He erected long tables and bought muslin for table cloths. The citizens did not wish for him to bear all of the expense, and they formed a procession in the square and marched to the grounds. As they passed his shop, which was south of the grove, they passed through a gate. Mr. Holland's little daughter, Esther Ann, about 10 years old, held her little apron to catch the coins of a free will offering from the dinner guests. Mrs. Holland, son William and Hamilton Riddle, a son-in-law, did all of the cooking for the big dinner.
The day after the Fourth, Esther Ann, who later be- came Mrs. John Weeks, and Susan Burton (later Mrs. Almon G. Danforth), climbed on the long tables and ran from one end to the other. In her glee Susan pushed Esther off, and she gathered her hands full of dust and put it down the back of Susan's neck. Susan reciprocated by putting an equal amount of dirt in Esther's hair, etc.
A Frenchman and a German came to the Holland shop in an early day. The Frenchman asked, "Is the Smith's smith in?"
The German said, "Get away, let me talk," and he said, "Is the black smith's shop in der rouse ?"
In 1829 a band of Indians camped one and one-half miles west of Washington. The white women were afraid of them and Mr. Holland asked their chief to have them move farther away. They complied with the request and located near Fort Clark on the Tazewell side of the river. The Indians were harsh at times and would walk into the homes. They one time broke open Mrs. Jane Holland's trunk, but did not take any of the contents. They were af- ter money. Mr. Holland was a quick tempered man and spoke to them about their act. They said they would not do harm to the "pale face."
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The primary school property in Washington was a gift by Mr. Holland and could never be used except for school purposes.
Mr. Holland's first wife was buried on the Benj. Tobias homestead in 1833, as were later on two of the children.
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