USA > Illinois > Tazewell County > Washington > Early history of Washington, Ill. and vicinity > Part 8
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William Holland Family History- Father of Twenty-One Children
Holland Family Record
The following very interesting facts in regard to the family of William Holland, the first settler and founder of Washington, has been copied from the "family records" and on information furnished by Mrs. Thomas Holland:
William Holland, born in Lincoln county, North Caro- lina, Oct. 14, 1786; married May 24, 1811, to Levycy Bess, by Isaac Holland; died Nov. 27, 1871, Washington, age 85 years, 1 month, 13 days.
Levycy Bess, born Lincoln county, N. C., Jan. 26, 1794; died Jan. 27, 1833, Washington, age 39 years, 1 day.
The Children
Lawson Holland, born Lincoln county, N. C., Feb. 24, 1812; married Elizabeth Bandy, by Rev. W. J. Curtis, in 1833; children James, Reuben, Thomas, Lewis, Sarah, George, Isaac and Charles.
Elizabeth Holland, born Lincoln county, N. C., May 20, 1813; further history unknown.
Metilda Holland, born Hopkins county, Kentucky, Nov. 30, 1814; further history unknown.
Senath Holland, born territory Illinois, Ocoaw river, Nov. 3, 1815; further history unknown.
William H. Holland, born Madison county, Ill., Oct. 6, 1818; married Elizabeth Holland, a cousin, of Sangamon county, Ill .; children Nellie, John, Leva, Oliver.
Nancy Carline Holland, born Sangamon county, Ill., June 28, 1820; married Hamilton Riddle; children Hamilton, Jane, Ellen, Lavycy and Lavina twins, Lynn; Hiawatha, Kan.
Mary Holland, born Sangamon county, Ill., Feb. 6, 1821; married Lewis Beal; children Moses, Narcissy.
Matthew Holland, born Sangamon county, Ill., Aug. 6, 1822; married Ellen Pierce.
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Levicy Holland, born Peoria county, Ill., Nov. 16, 1924; married Pascal Bandy.
Sarah Jane Holland, born March 6, 1826, Peoria county, Ill .; married Dud Couzier; his second wife Elizabeth; chil- dren Esther, Daniel, Edgar.
George Washington Holland, born Tazewell county, Ill., Feb. 18, 1828; never married; was a California gold seeker; died in Washington.
Alviry Holland, born Tazewell county May 15, 1829; died March 15, 1833, age 3 years, 10 months.
Narcissy Holland, born Tazewell county July 7, 1831; married George Bandy; children Olivia, Martha, Mary, Al- bert.
Katharine Holland, born Tazewell county Jan, 18, 1833; 9 days old at death of mother; further history unknown.
Second Wife and Children
Mrs. Jane Wilson Cowden, born Feb. 25, 1804, Fayette, Penn .; married to William Holland March 31, 1833, by Dan- iel Meek; died Nov. 10, 1856, Washington. Came to Wash- ington in 1829 with her brother, William Wilson, from Perry county, Ohio.
Maria Holland, born Tazewell county Nov. 1, 1835; died Jan. 1, 1836, ae 2 months.
Philura Holland, born Tazewell county May 12, 1837; married Frank Wright of Missouri; no knowledge of family except two sons killed by lightning.
Jane Susanna Holland, born Tazewell county July 23, 1838; married Henry Cook; children Lucy, Lillie, Sadie, Fred, William.
James Harrison Holland, born Aug. 11, 1840, Washing- ton; married Mary Johnson; children William, Anna, resi- dence Los Angeles, Calif.
Esther Ann Holland, born March 16, 1842, Washington : married John Weeks; children Albert, Lyda (now Mrs. Ed McManus) ; grandson Carlos.
John Allen Holland, born Oct.1 0, 1843, Washington; further history unknown.
Isaac Holland, born July 24, 1845, Washington; married Mary Lewis; children May (now Mrs. Dr. Bell) ; grandchild James Holland Bell.
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Washington's Centennial Celebration
The city of Washington held a Centennial celebration on August 11, 12 and 13, 1925. It was estimated 16,000 people attended the different events during the three days.
The first day's event was a pageant given in honor of Miss Mary Italin, a teacher in the Washington primary school for nearly fifty years, and who up to that time had passed over 1500 pupils through her room. Following the play in three episodes which did great honor to Miss Italin, she was escorted to the Commercial square where a beauti- ful terra cotta flower urn was presented to her as a memor- ial, a gift of her students. After Hon. David McCluggage had presented the memorial to her in a most flattering ad- dress she was given personal letters and telegrams from President Calvin Coolidge, Senator Wm. Mckinley, Governor Len Small, Congressman W. E. Hull and State Senator Ben L. Smith.
The rest of the celebration consisted of addresses by Congressman Rathbone and State Senator Kessinger, plays on two evenings by the Kiwanis club, band concerts, grand barbecue, parade, ball game and other sport events.
Mayor Rinkenberger, ably assisted by various commit- tees, planned and carried out most successfully the big event.
Memorial to William Holland
On Friday, Oct. 15, 1926, there was dedicated a bronze memorial to William Holland, the first settler of Washing- ton, Ill. Miss Emma Scott, whose parents were among Washington's first settlers, was responsible for the agitation which resulted in the raising of the necessary funds to pur- chase the memorial. The bronze tablet is imbedded in the brick work on the west side of the band stand located in Commercial square and is impressive in appearance. The following is the wording on the tablet:
In Honor of
WILLIAM HOLLAND First Settler Washington, Illinois 1825
The following are the addresses in full of some of the speakers at the dedicatory service :
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Mayor Geo. Rinkenberger
I consider it a very great honor to have the opportunity of presiding at this meeting and being Mayor of our city 100 years after its foundation was laid by the man in whose memory we meet here this afternoon. This is an occasion that few people are able to witness, and to have the honor of presiding is only to remind me of my inability to do jus- tice and my great desire will be able to do better because the memories that are brought back to us not only who was the founder of our city, but they show us what men of those times did for the future generations. I wonder if the men of today are sacrificing as much as the people 100 or a 1,000 years ago sacrificed so that you and I might be happy and prosperous today, and I wonder if you and I are appreciat- ing the things that these people did for us. Of the many instances that we can recall we can start back 20 centuries ago when Christ gave his life for us; then we go through the many wars and through the sufferings and hardships that were endured by the men who discovered and first set- tled in our great free country in the 14th century and down to our own William Holland, who, 100 years ago, without any of the luxuries and the privileges and happiness that we have today, sacrificed his life and his fortune to make this spot a happy home for you and I.
In looking over some of the records it seems to me that this man was a cheerful giver, and got his pleasure out of giving rather than out of the honor that was derived from it. He gave to us our cemetery so that we might have a resting place for those who passed beyond; he gave to us both the primary and the grade school grounds and the school play grounds, having in mind the welfare and the development of the younger generation that would continue the activities of our city after he had passed on. He also gave to this city, as a gift, the Public Square where we are now meeting in his honor. So he started here the develop- ment of the laying out and the building of our beautiful lit- tle city. H did it in honor of the "Father of Our Country" and named it after Washington rather than after himself, which he no doubt would have had an opportunity to do; but in his modest way it seems that we can read in his his- tory that his mind was only for you and I that live today, and the things he did were not for his own glory. I am wondering if a 100 years from now the same thing could be said about any of us, and I am sure that this afternoon will be well spent in placing in the City Park a suitable memorial
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of our founder and I am sure that the speakers of this af- ternoon will bring us some very interesting messages appro- priate for the occasion.
As the Mayor of our city I feel it my duty and it is with great honor that I accept it as a privilege to exercise the authority invested in me as Mayor of the city to express to Mrs. Esther Weeks and the descendants of William Holland a sincere appreciation for the beautiful memories that we have of your father and our "father".
It is certainly remarkable to be able to realize that 100 years after our city was founded we can celebrate in honor of our founder and have with us his daughter who happens to be Mrs. Esther Weeks, who passed the 84th year of her life on March 16, last. She is the youngest of the 21 chil- dren of William Holland, and if I might pause from serious- ness for a moment I might add here that William Holland not only started our city by the gifts of the cemetery, the school grounds and the City Park and by the establishment of a solid foundation for a prosperous city, but he also with- in his own children gave us a mighty army of men and women who were able to do more than their part in keeping in operation the city he started for 100 years. We are not all unmindful of the things that your ancestors have done; the only reason that we are unable at this time to express to you the proper appreciation that this city might have for that foundation which was laid by William Holland in 1826 is because I do not have the words and the ability to express it in a proper manner.
I therefore again, on behalf of the citizens of Washing- ton and the community which I represent as Mayor, express to you, Mrs. Weeks, and the other descendants of William Holland, an assurance of our sincere appreciation of your own efforts and those of your families who have left us be- fore you in the great part which you have had in the build- ing of this city and community, and the liberal spirit in which you have made this a happy home for all of us, and we are sure that you will be rewarded again for the splendid spirit you have shown on earth when it becomes your op- portunity to meet William Holland again inside the pearly gates at the right hand of God.
Mayor George Rinkenberger.
Prof. B. J. Radford of Eureka
In the winter of 1860-61 I taught school out here at what they call Central school house. Two of the pupils that attended that school are with us today, Mrs. Cal Cress and
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Mr. John Wilson. I boarded that winter in the family of John Johnson, who lived in that neighborhood. One of his youngest children by the name of Mary was thirteen years old; she afterwards became the wife of Jimmie Holland, a son of William Holland whom we celebrate today.
William Holland was born in North Carolina. It is the native state of old "Hickory" Jackson. It was the state from which Daniel Boone went forth and blazed the way of pion- eers and of civilization throughout the wilderness country ly- ing to the west and from what I saw of William Holland think that he had imbibed the spirit of his fellow citizens and imbibed the pioneer spirit of Daniel Boone and the steel determination of old "Hickory" Jackson. He was a man of that fibre and character, as I remember him, and he came with those rugged characteristics of the old north state that made him the fine pioneer that he was. When he settled here it was then called Holland's Grove, in 1825. He had been living in this part of the state since 1820. In 1820 he came to Fort Clark, afterwards called Peoria, and while he lived over on the west side of the river at Fort Clark he built a cabin on the east side and opened a little farm there, and would cross back and forth to his work in a canoe that he had constructed. Then, in 1825, he came here and built his cabin on the place where now Mr. Danforth's fine residence is, and it would not be necessary nor would it be profitable for me to relate on the circumstances, the hardships, the la- bor, the trials and the dangers through which that pioneer family went, for you have heard some of that this afternoon from the other speakers
No doubt all of you have read about those early days and the hardships of those early times, but when William Holland built his cabin here his nearest neighbors were ten miles away, where East Peoria is now. How would you like to go off and take your family, and put them in a log cabin ten miles away from your nearest white neighbor, surround- ed by Indians sometimes sober and peaceful, sometimes drunken and dangerous? Nobody but a heroic man and no family but a heroic family would undertake such an enter- prise as that. Think of it a little while. Think what it would mean in the way of labor; in the way of hardships; what danger in the way of the lack of everything that we rely upon today in the times of trouble. There was no one to whom they could appeal; they had to care for themselves in every way. Think about it; but now honest thinking leads us along to what it all meant, and what it is all about and
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what for. Why did he come here? Why did other sturdy men gather around him in hardships and deprivation and in danger make their homes? They came to establish homes, but not for themselves. They were looking to posterity; they were looking to our welfare today; they were looking to the opportunities that we have today of which they denied themselves. If it had been simply for themselves, if it had been only for their own gratification they would have been better off to stay in their own community; so they came to make homes for the future-for their children and their children's children and for us today.
One of the noblest threads of humanity is to have a care and to take pains and toil for posterity. You high livers, you aristocrats who live for pleasure and luxury do not think of posterity. When the French nobility that gathered like butterflies around the Bourbons were spending the revenues of the canton and the revenues that could be gathered from conquests, while they were living high and reveling, some wise man said to them, "Well, what is the outcome of this; what is to come after this ?" "Oh!" they sneeringly said, "after us the devil's case;" and there was a deluge of dread and doubt that spread over France and over the boundaries of Europe, a deluge that nearly wrecked civilization.
These men that settled Washington I knew personally. I know what kind of fibre those men had. They came here and denied themselves of comforts, they endured hardships, they faced danger that their children and their children's children and the children of those that should come after them might have the opportunities and safeguards that we have now, and as has been said very aptly this afternoon they not only came to build the home, but the school and the church and to gather about the home all of those effec- tive and helpful influences that should make home what it ought to be. Now I would like you to think pretty seriously of the things that grow out of these conditions.
In the city where I was preaching once I was visiting a family on the Avenue. On one side they called it the "Bobs" side, it being inhabited by people of moderate means who lived by labor and by mutual helpfulness in the family. On the other side was the palaces of rich men; this was the "Nabob" side. As we were sitting on the porch I said to my friend, pointing to a house that cost $150,000, "That family must enjoy life and have a good time with that sumptuous home, luxury everywhere and plenty of money". "Well", he said, "that man and his wife have not met for many years;
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he has his abode in one of the hotels down town and they never meet". "There is another fine house", I said; "they certainly have a good happy life". And he told me about the scandal that had broken up that house and in four houses which I pointed out there was a skeleton in the closet of each house.
What is it that binds the bonds of the household to- gether? What is it that binds neighbor to neighbor? What is it that makes the most congenial companions and neigh- bors ? We have our own ideas about these things. The old Greeks called their carousals and picnicking a Cymbosian; that means a drunken get-together-have a great revelry and all get gloriously drunk. That was the great social am- bition of men; it was the symbol of Greek high life. Some of the Romans said, "We understand it better", and when they had their drunken revelries they called it a Convivial, a living together. Hurrah, drink and carouse and call it a living together. We live together and there are a great many people today who have the idea that social functions, that high living, that picnics where delicacies are consumed voraciously are the real ties of civilization, but not so. It isn't so.
I served four years during the Civil war, and I notice year after year when the old soldiers get together about the campfire and in the gatherings that they do not brag about the fun that they had, but they talk about the hard- ships, the long marches, the tough battles they had. These are the things that make men comrades, working together, unselfishness and helpfulness where help is needed. These are the things that make home ties and community ties. These are the things that make neighborhoods. There are lots of things that I would like to say, but one of the things I am going to say is that what we need is a little honor.
I have said now that the family ties can be more firmly knit and the good fellowship can be more firmly tightened by a condition that requires mutual helpfulness that brings them together in unselfishness and mutual self-denial.
There was one thing about the old households that we do not have today. The family lived together in those days of William Holland with great families of children, and they would gather around the old fireplace and in the glare of the cheerful fire the sentiment and the heart strings were knit and they lived happily. We don't do it now. We talk about the old hearth stone; we don't have it now. When I
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was a boy two rooms would do for a family of 12 and guests could always be provided for, but now it takes a house of 10 or 12 rooms for two or three people, and they hardly see each other day or night. That's a hard thing for family life; that's a difficult position in family life. My experience as a city pastor has been this, that it is a most difficult thing for family ties to keep sweet and free where great wealth permits those to live in separate rooms and be set off alone. It is a terrible strain on family ties.
Well, those are the conditions as I remember them, as I lived through them, as I can imagine them in the family of William Holland and other pioneer families. These fam- ilies that were real families had domestic ties that were su- preme in the best happiness that the world can ever know. You may think I am getting old and cranky, but if I can make you think along these lines I will be satisfied whether you like it or not.
Another danger that besets the home idea is that idea that a home or a residence ouglit to be an expression of mag- nificence and wealth. Well, what of it? Whose business is it if it is? Well, it means this: In the accounts of the re- cent great storm in Florida I read about a residence of a multimillionaire that was partly wrecked and the papers said it cost $9,000,000 to build that palatial residence, to beautify the grounds and for the expensive life carried on there. Think about it. If he has the money whose business is it? The maintanence of that palace and the expensive social life that goes with it would tax the revenue of Taze- well county. Well, what of it? Look at Europe. What is at the bottom of the World war, national hostilities? Well, yes, it came to that finally, but this is true that there has been what were called homes and what were originally homes that have grown into palaces and grown into chateaus and pleasure parks all over Europe, the maintainence of which could not be afforded by the nations such as England, France and Germany, and so they had to rob the backward people of the world to sustain those palaces and residences, and I tell you today there will be no peace in the world un- til more people quit putting millions into domestic palaces and spending the revenues of provinces for the high social life that may make revolution and there may be National Leagues and World Courts, but I tell you now, having studied and taught history in college for thirty years, that the foundation of the World war and all wars, the main- spring of it all, has been to get revenues for sumptuous do-
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mestic life in palaces and chateaus. I don't know whether you believe it or not, but if I can get you to think along this I will be satisfied. I remember very well when the Duke of Marlborough could not find resources to keep all his palaces and the high life of his ancestors, and all his resources had been used and he came over to New York and got $5,000,000 and a wife thrown in. That would make Bleihem castle over several times. That was soon gone and there was a family quarrel and divorce. It was this upkeep of palaces and ex- pensive high life during the reign of Charles V and those other French kings, the robbing of peasants so they could have Versailles that was the real cause of the French Revo- lution. The peasants had to be robbed and when they could not afford it the king robbed Europe and invaded it. It was the lack of home life which had sent them drifting in that direction.
There can be no peace nor cessation of robbing of the outlying nations of the world for revenues until men come to live soberly and home life is what it ought to be, comfort- able and beautiful, yes, but I think you can recall that the great peril of the world and to civilization is the grasping of millions by individuals and nations that they may live sumptuously every day, and so I see men trying to organize so that these great discoveries of science and the great ad- vance that we have made will be used soberly and in such a way that every man can feel that he is not enjoying some- thing that belongs to another.
Prof. B. J. Radford.
Address of E. Garber
It is an honor, indeed, to be asked to participate in this program; but, since the occasion requires a study of events dating back 100 years, I cannot yet understand why your committee selected me.
I believe I am on the program for remarks-Then and Now. Since I cannot tell you much about then, I will not have to say much about now, so my remarks should be brief.
It is fitting that we pay homage to the founder of our city and community. It is also wise that we pause for a moment in commemoration of our earlier history and re- count some of the struggles and hardships necessary to bring forth the social, religious, educational and political environment which we have inherited.
I shall not attempt anything like a detailed history of
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our township. There are in existence several little volumes which contain much of the early history of Washington; they are "Picturesque Washington", "A History of Wash- ington Township" by John W. Dougherty, "Life Experience of Isabelle Harlan" and "The Story of David Kindig". These should be published in one volume and made available to all who are interested in our earlier history.
Almost in the center of the North American Continent, five great rivers converge into one, and into these flow in- numerable smaller streams and through these arteries flows the life blood of nature. Here she planted her choicest gar- den consisting of virgin oak forests, beautiful walnut and maple groves, verdant prairies; all of it dotted with count- less varieties of wild flowers and peopled with myriad winged songsters, whistling quail, cackling prairie chickens, chatter- ing squirrel, and chipmunk, deer and antelope. These were wont to congregate upon the banks of one of these little laughing streams and pour out their devotion to her with their melodies of praise. Then one morning when they were so gathered in the year 1825, there arose a wreath of smoke from a camp-fire in the edge of the forest-rising like in- cense on an altar, marking the dawn of human civilization in this part of the world. I have a faint suspicion they may have watched it with some concern, especially if they knew that the Indian had killed for meat only, while the white man kills for sport. However that may be, this camp-fire was built by the founder of our city and as he observed the bountiful surroundings of his camp site decided to make this paradise his home.
In good time with a longing for companionship (and perhaps with the ambition of a realtor) he began to write others about his wonderful grove. Had he been possessed of modern advertising facilities, he might easily have created a rush that would have rivaled all real estate booms. Even then it was not so long until Holland's Grove became a sort of a goal for the Easterner who treked his immigration van across the boundless plains toward the setting sun.
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