USA > Illinois > Tazewell County > Washington > Early history of Washington, Ill. and vicinity > Part 9
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In a little while enough settlers were established along the little creek to give it the name Farm Creek, and the set- tlement in Holland's Grove grew into the town of Washing- ton. That these hardy pioneers suffered hardships is evi- dent by the fact that many came and returned to their na- tive land or went elsewhere.
The prairie held many ponds where water became stag- nant and produced malarial conditions. Cattle became in-
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fected with snake root and other obnoxious weeds so that their milk produced sickness.
The average historian wishes to prove that the world is growing better or worse. If he belongs to the former class he exaggerates the sins of his fathers; if he is of the latter class he glosses over their sins and paints them all as saints. The truth may be that we are very much alike, both in our virtues and in our short-comings. As a matter of fact we know that these old forefathers of ours lived the lives of frontiersmen. They took their religion, their poli- tics and their whiskey straight. They fought back the In- dians and built a school house and a church. On election day they fought it out at the polls, often with fists and clubs as each party attempted to vote their side in. Neither were they above buying a vote for their party or kidnapping a vote from the opposition, but they did this for the same reason that they fought the Indians, or fought the devil or the wolf or the rattlesnake-from the standpoint of a firm conviction that they were doing the right thing for poster- ity. They believed that their party stood for the best in- terests of the country and therefore should win, even if they had to cheat and fight to make it win.
And out of that environment Illinois gave to the world the "Great Emancipator" Lincoln, and also Grant and Logan and Stephen A. Douglas and many others who played a heroic part in the development of our country.
While I did not come to Washington until fifty years after our founder came and never had the pleasure of his acquaintance, my memory cherishes the friendships I have had with many of the old-time sterling citizens of Washing- ton whose characters were fashioned by this early environ- ment; all of them possessed of that rare quality we refer to as common sense, which is the main stay of our republic. You couldn't stampede these old fellows with false propa- ganda.
The old-time families were large, ranging off times from ten to twenty children in one family. The founder of our town was the father of twenty-one children, but if the families were large Nature was also bountiful with her sup- plies and they were thrifty in storing their foods, making their clothing and shoes and securing their home comforts. I wonder how many of you remember how a cellar or store room on the farm looked about this time of the year fifty years ago. On one side of the basement there were built a series of shelves or bins. In the lower one of these there
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was from 50 to 100 bushels of potatoes. In the next one there were cabbage, turnips, sweet potatoes and other veg- etables In the next one was a choice variety of apples. Then there were some canned fruits, dried fruits, pickles, sauerkraut, pumpkins, endive, one or two barrels of cider and maybe some grape wine, walnuts, butter nuts, hazel nuts, hickory nuts, dried pennyroyal leaves, jars of apple butter and a little later there was added a barrel of salt pork, ten or twenty smoked hams and shoulders, jars of lard and sausage, maybe a quarter of beef to say nothing of game. Then there was home-made hominy and mince meat, cornmeal and buckwheat flour, sorghum molasses, maple syrup and honey. Say, boy, did I say those were hard times ?
Contrast this, if you will, with the struggle of the aver- age fellow of today to keep his bank account ahead of his checks, or to make his salary meet the demands of the in- stallment collector as he munches a cold dinner from the delicatessen while his wife is at the club.
Their sports consisted of horse racing, rooster fighting, dog fights, horseshoe pitching and wrestling. Their social events were husking bees, wool pickings, apple parings and weddings.
Styles ? Sure they followed the styles just as religious- ly as they do now, although the men saw less of their women than we do today.
For educational purposes they had their spelling bees and debating societies, and I believe that these had a tend- ency to develop more individual thinkers than we have in these times. In our modern system of hurry, hurry, hurry men really haven't time to think, and this is a dangerous condition, especially in a Republican form of government. Republics cannot long endure under mob psychology, neither can our republic long endure when more than fifty per cent of the voters do not think enough of their sovereign right of franchise to vote for their president. We must have the individual thinker or we will have the mob which can be led by any political trickster who has the ability to sway it. You cannot stampede a crowd of people who think for themselves. One thing is certain, while our forefathers would go far to win an election, they firmly believed in the idea that an office was a public trust, and the instances were rare indeed where any officer sold a public trust for private gain, a thing that is becoming too common in our modern method of machine politics.
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With the fear and trust of God in their hearts our fore- fathers were devout in their religious worship. Some of the noblest characters in molding the destiny of American citizenship were the early circuit riders who found a ready welcome in any home of our pioneers as they traveled from place to place to preach the Gospel.
I would not have you go back, neither would I speak of their day as being a Paradise lost to us, for we have many blessings and many privileges that were denied them; but, if we take thought of their lives and what they did for us, it should give us the spirit and the will to fulfill our obliga- tions to our posterity as faithfully as they did for theirs.
And in the words of the great Lincoln I would say in closing: "Five score years ago and one this community was brought into being by one, William Holland, and we have met today to dedicate a tablet to his memory, but we can not dedicate because the memory of him and his followers and what they did for us here is already hallowed memory. Let us, therefore, resolve anew to consecrate our lives to the task of preserving the great principles of Life they builded for us, that we may go forward as they did in our efforts for righteous government, constant in our duty to- ward God and Humanity.
E. Garber.
(To the Tune of Illinois) Where old Farm Creek's gently flowing, Washington, Washington, Where the maple trees are growing, Washington, Washington, Come the trav'lers far and near To pay homage to that seer, Who foresaw thy beauty here, Washington, Washington. Where the cardinal's sweet singing, Washington, Washington,
Where thy church bells gaily ringing, Washington, Washington, Where each cooling shaded street Offers happiness complete
In thy homes with comforts sweet, Washington, Washington.
Where the hollyhocks are blooming, Washington, Washington,
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Where the folks are unassuming, Washington, Washington, From Key West to Frozen Nome We may wander, we may roam, Still we love to call you home, Washington, Washington.
Recollections of Washington as Written by Mrs. Hattie Tobias Foster
Mrs. Foster, a daughter of one of the pioneer families of Washington, who lives near Calma, Calif., writes the fol- lowing reminiscenses of early times in Washington:
Father and mother, James and Caroline Tobias, moved from Circleville, Ohio, about 1841 and settled on what was then known as Greenridge farm, with their two little boys, Ezra about 8 years old and Cyrus two years younger. Ro- zella was born on this farm in 1857. They suffered serious loss of property by fire and moved to town, Washington, where father went into business with R. D. Smith in a gen- eral dry goods and grocery store, soon afterwards being joined by William Hittell, mother's brother, and continued in business till after the war, perhaps the latter part of 1865. In the fall of 1859 Sadie B. was born, and I was born in 1862 in what my parents designated as the Roehm's place. During the Civil war our store was a rendezvous for men to hear the paper read about the news from the front, and Ezra, about 14 years old, read aloud for the benefit of all. He used to take little Sadie, then about 3 years old, to the store and stand her on the counter to sing the popular war songs, for she very early possessed quite a marked talent in voice and memory. Growing up in later years she was a very popular vocalist throughout Illinois, having completed her studies in the Boston Conservatory of Music. Washing- ton people never forgot her and always accorded a hearty welcome. This is, of course, outside of the story of Wash- ington. I have often heard mother tell of the stirring and exciting times and scenes at the times of recruiting, and the big dinners for the soldiers prepared by the women of Washington. Uncle Lewis Tobias, father's orother, had two boys, George and Frank, enlisted, but although Ezra wished to go with Major Jo Miles as drummer boy he was not old enough. After the war father purchased the beautiful white
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proud-stepping horse belonging to Major Miles during his service, and we always called him Major Jo.
Father and mother attended the Evangelical church, where his cousin, the Rev. Simon Tobias, was at one time pastor. Bro. Ezra with George and Frank were playing about the new school house when Ezra fell from the top to the ground through the scaffolding, breaking his arm. (This was before the war). My own earliest recollections are of the campaign rallies when the Democratic and Re- publican parties paraded with bands, returned soldiers, funny clowns, etc. We used to sit on the roof of the store and watch the parades. Uncle Lewis Tobias and Uncle Ben Tobias ran for mayor on opposite tickets and Ben won on the Democratic ticket over his brother Lewis. Father and Lewis were strong temperance advocates and Lewis attended a big meeting at Metamora (I think it was a presidential campaign), was chased by a drunken mob and narrowly escaped by driving into a livery stable and running through the alley to his home. He was accompanied by his daugh- ter, Bessie, afterwards Mrs. B. C. Millington. There are other events of which I have too dim a recollection to un- dertake to relate.
Some Interesting History of the Scott Family, Who Were Early Settlers
(By Miss Emma Scott)
"There are deeds which should not pass away; And names that must not wither, tho the earth Forget her empire with a just decay,
The enslavers and enslaved, their death and birth."
My father, J. Randolph Scott, was born Dec. 8, 1812. He was the fourth son of John and Martha-Patterson Scott of Washington, Washington county, Pennsylvania. His an- cestors came from Scotland and Ireland, the Scotts in 1670, Agnews in 1717 and Pattersons in 1724 to Chester county, Pa., and secured large tracts of land in the "Manor of Mark," from William Penn's sons, in what is now Lancaster county, Pa., the richest agricultural county in the United States. They were Scotch covenanters.
My mother, Asenath Hicks, was born April 8, 1820. She was the second daughter of Asa and Anna Cox-Hicks of Barnesville, Belmont county, Ohio. Her ancesters, the
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Stubbs, Maddocks, Stantons, Bailys and Cox, came from England and Wales in the early years of 1700, to Chester county, Pa. Sir Robert Hicks came from England to Plymouth, Mass., in 1621, in the ship, "Fortune," the first ship to follow the Mayflower. Elizabeth Clement, a widow with four children, came from England to Jamestown, Va., in 1609. Mother's people were Orthodox Friends or Quakers. They, too, figured conspicuously as leaders and builders in the land of their adoption.
The Norsemen, the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxon people, dwelt on the rugged coast of Norway. Their sons went to distant lands, conquered and settled. Out of this social in- heritance came three characteristics-self-reliance, aggres- siveness and love of individual freedom. The Anglo-Saxon inheritance has deeply influenced christianity.
Father came of a long line of adventurers, those who blazed the trail, each in his day, towards the world's pro- gress. The Agnews were heroes in Hindu literature; then Greek pioneers around the Aegean Sea, from which region they traveled westward in a spirit of adventure, to become feudal chiefs in Normandy; thence in 1066 with William the Conqueror to Britain, where Andrew Agnew became holder of the office of hereditary sheriff of Galloway in county Wig- town, Scotland, Nov. 10, 1426, A. D. He also in this same year married Lady Mary Kennedy, the granddaughter of Robert III, a niece of James I of Scotland. The hereditary sheriff was the most powerful individual in the land, save the king. He was paid 4000 pounds per year by the British government. Twelve of the Agnews were honored as hold- ers of this office and they have owned Lochnaw Castle, Stran- rear, Scotland, more than 500 years.
In 1650 Oliver Cromwell completely routed the Coven- anters and abolished all heritable rule. Thus Galloway may be fairly called the cradle of the Covenant as well as of the Reformation. Later, when those in power sought to teach Galloway descendants in Ulster "better manners" they emi- grated to the American colonies, which became the cradle of Presbyterianism in the Province of Pennsylvania.
Their contentions under British rule fitted the Agnews, Scotts and Pattersons to fill colonial offices in Pennsylvania and to take official rank in the Revolutionary war. Father's grandfather, Lieutenant James Patterson, was with General George Washington when he crossed the Delaware river and captured 1000 Hessians and British at Trenton, N. J., Dec. 26, 1776. He was put in charge of these captives and took
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them to prison at Lancaster, Pa., his home town, His grand- father, Hugh Scott, was a major in this war. He had moved from Gettysburg, Pa., in 1763, to Washington, Pa., when his son John was one year old.
Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors. Men are equal-it is not birth, it is virtue that makes them differ. Father's parents and a brother died in 1834. In the spring of 1836, he, in company with his brother, James Pat- terson, came to Illinois in quest of land. They visited Chi- cago, then a village. They each bought land at Geneseo; visited Peoria, also a small place; viewed the country over and selected land; went to Sprigfield to attend the govern- ment "land sale" and secured 560 acres of land-80 acres of timber, uncle 160 and father 320 prairie land in section 31, township 26, range 3 W, at $1.25 per acre. Their land patents were signed by President Martin Van Buren. They returned to Pennsylvania and moved out in the spring of 1837 via the Ohio and Illinois rivers to Pekin, Ill. Uncle Patterson and family set up housekeeping in Washington, and father made his home in the family of Abraham Van Meter, whose son William became widely known through his activities in Five Point and Howard Missions in New York City, N. Y., and as a Baptist missionary to Rome, Italy, in 1875, where he died in 1888.
The Scott brothers were well educated in the common schools in Washington and Jefferson college of their home town. J. Patterson was an evangelist, teacher and farmer; father a hatter by trade, tanner, surveyor and farmer. Uncle taught schools in Washington and Morton, having among his pupils Prof. Josiah and Dr. E. F. Wood, and the children of Thomas Roberts of Morton, by all of whom he was much beloved as a teacher as well as a man. Father broke the prairie with an ox team for himself and for many of the early settlers. One Saturday he left his ox yokes, or bows, with his plow in the field, as was his custom, and Monday morning found that a mischevious young man had undone them. There had been a rain and the sun had been hot, thus they were quite out of commission and it was no small task to get them in order.
They had the first improved prairie farms here, four miles from timber. Anthony Field said, "Away out to Scott's -they will freeze to death out there in winter." They did suffer many great hardships, but this was better than clear- ing off timber land to make a farm. They had learned that lesson in Pennsylvania. They built a cabin on their 80 acres
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of timber land and spent the winter of 1838 there getting out material to improve their farms. Uncle ercted a house and made rails for fencing. Father made stake and rider or worm fences, also post and rail fence around his yards and feed lots. A part of one of these posts is now in the Lincoln court house museum at Metamora, Ill.
Father built a rail pen on his farm and covered it with slough grass as a shelter in the time of storm, and he also made provision for his comfort if, perchance, he were de- tained there over night. Wolves were then numerous and one night quite a pack of these marauders gathered at his pen. They picked the bones that he had thrown out, but were ravenously hungry and made several concerted at- tempts to get into his crib, so for safety he climbed up into the loft They kept up a great howl all night, but when morning dawned they went their way. Fear was not in his nature, but he confessed uneasiness for his personal safety on that occasion.
Venomous snakes were very plentiful, too, and one day while at work in his timber, he could not tell why he stop- ped work and looked up, but just above him was hanging a very large black snake, evidently ready to drop on him and coil its powerful body around him.
On another occasion, during wheat harvest, the days were very hot, too hot to work except early and late. As there was a full moon he thought he would shock wheat in the evening just near the house. He had not worked long when a rattler said, "I am here," so father left the field.
Father's first farming in Illinois was in partnership with William Sample at Walnut Grove. Mrs. Sample was a cousin of father's and they lived in the house now the home of Mrs. John Watson and daughters on Jefferson street. The Samples were from "Little Washington," Pa., too, as it was then called to distinguish it from the capital of the nation. We now designate our pretty little city by Washington, T. C., to differentiate it, too, from Washington, D. C.
He had been to Walnut Grove on horseback and on his way home a terrific blizzard set in; the prairie soon became trackless, and his horse did not wish to keep to his guiding which he thought was because of it not wanting to face the storm. The storm grew in intensity and they failed to find their way. Utterly lost, he gave the horse the rein and im- mediately it took up a more rapid pace, but in the direction it had been inclined to want to go. After some time they
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arrived at home. He said, "I believe that we traveled in a circle only when we were lost." From that time forth he trusted "Skipp" to act as pilot-his first horse in Illinois, and her mate was Uncas, both faithful and true.
Grandfather, John Scott, established the stage coach line from Brownsville to Washington and Pittsburgh and on to Steubenville, Ohio, and owned a great many horses. His "four not" motto was observed by father: "Up hill push them not, down hill shove them not, on the level spare them not, and in the stable forget them not."
There were many swampy places and swails that drew currents of air, which in cold weather came in such force that they cut like a Damascus blade. Both the swamp and the sweep of air were as bad as could be found just south of the Josiah Moore corner, now Frank Birkett's farm.
Father built, for a granery, a room 16x20 feet, but lived in it, about 20 rods east of where he moved it later to the site of the home, because of the awful sweep of air where he built it. He farmed his own land from 1839, which . was very productive. At first he plowed a furrow of the virgin soil and in that he dropped potatoes, corn, watermelon or pumpkin seed. The next furrow plowed covered up what he had planted, and everything grew luxuriantly and pro- duced bountifully. Ground squirrels, moles and crows were their first agricultural pests.
In breaking up his land he plowed a strip southwest of his house in June and soon there sprang up a grove of cotton- woods. A few of those trees are still living (November, 1927), now about 90 years old. When he came from Penn- sylvania he brought black locust seed from his father's farm, which was known as "Locust Grove," and planted them in his yard and in a grove to shelter his fruit orchard. This orchard was one of the chocest in this locality, which excelled in quality and variety of its fruits.
The hand of "Providence" had . placed everythng here for the needs of the pioneer -- springs, timber, nuts, honey, grapes, plums, blackberries, crabapples, mayapples, goose- berries, wild cherries, herbs of every kind to cure their ail- ments, deer, turkey, geese, ducks, quail, prairie chicken, squirrel, etc., and pasture for their stock. The ambition to gather and preserve these supplies in their season only was necessary. Many of the pioneers were quite resource- ful and successful, too, in their methods of laving up stores for their sustenance, viz: They dried corn, apples, pumpkin, beef and deer meat, kept plums under water, wild grapes
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in molasses, had burrow-holes in which they kept apples, potatoes and cabbage from the frost, which they could dig into and help themselves when necessary. There were a vast variety of nuts and the "bee trees" supplied an abund- ance of honey. They gathered herbs for teas in illness, made sassafras tea as a supposed blood purifier, slippery elm bark to take medicines in; also cut the bark of some trees up as an emetic and down as a cathartic. Doctors were few and they had to prepare for emergencies. Were they not brave ? Now a doctor is called when we feel we have pains, when if we were to "think" it is but mind over matter, with little mind it doesn't matter, does it?
All stock roamed the prairies at will, while grain and hay stacks were for the most part at their mercy. As a safeguard against prairie fires they would plow several furrows around their properties, and even such precaution often failed to fully protect.
In the fall of 1844 father was critically ill. Dr. G. P. Wood was his attending physician. (Both he and his son, Dr. E. F. Wood, were his doctors as long as he and they lived). His wheat threshing was not done and the stock on the prairie destroyed his stacks. The pioneer had his losses and crosses, but kept his courage up and tried again and again.
Pioneer hospitality was boundless; new-comers were cordially received and assisted without stint. When a house or a barn was to be raised everybody was there to lend a helping hand, including the women to prepare the "eats." These were their get-acquainted jollifications. When the buildings were completed they were frequently dedicated by a "husking bee," refreshments and not infrequently a social dance.
The campfires, the Dutch-ovens and the fireplaces were well suited for preparing their sumptuous feasts from na- ture's bounteous stores. When snow was on the ground and the mornings were cold, father said he could gather all the prairie chickns he wished in short order, using a stick to stun them, and a bevy of quail would rush unsuspectingly into coops, or traps, in quest of food. The hunter and trap- per were richly rewarded for their efforts. There was never any scarcity of eats if one had ambition enough to go after them.
The farm implements were crude; the wooden mould- board plow to break the land, the cradle to cut the wheat and a fail with which to thresh it. I can well remember
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these implements in our barn when others of a more pro- gressive type had supplanted them. Father did good mow- ing with a scythe, and was equally able to swing a cradle. One season there were five men cradling together. They would cut a swath five cradles wide across the field, then hang their cradles over their shoulders and bind the sheeves back to the other end of the field, then cradle though again and thus cut the whole field.
Father had an iron mortar and pestle with which he crushed both corn and wheat for bread and porridge. Grist mills were few and much time and energy spent, sometimes being gone for a whole week, but boarded by the miller, for those in waiting helped in the mill to get jobs ahead of their's out so that their grists could be ground. They had to take their grist to mill before they were out of supplies at home, to be sure the family at home did not come to want.
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