USA > Illinois > Morgan County > Jacksonville > Historic Morgan and classic Jacksonville > Part 43
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State's Attorneys -- Linus C. Chandler, elected in 1872; Arthur A. Leeper, 1876; Renben R. Hewitt, 1880; re-elected in 1884.
County Assessors and Treasurers-Thomas Wilbourne, Isaac W. Overall, Wm. W. Babb, 1837-'38; Wm. H. Helms, 1838-39; Robert G. Gaines, 1839-47; John Craig, 1847-'51; Martin F. Higgins, 1951-53; Phineas T. Underwood, 1853-'57; Frank A. Hammer, 1857-'59; David C. Dilley, 1859-71; Philip H. Bailey, 1871-173; John L. Cire, 1873-81; John Rahn, 1881; Henry Quigg, 1882.
By the plots, surveys and legal instruments on file in the Recorder's office, we learn that places were laid out into town lots, before the separation, as follows: Beardstown, September 9, 1829; Princeton, February 19, 1833 ; Richmond, March 2, 1833; Virginia, May 17, 18, 19, 1836; Philadelphia, July 11, 1836.
Princeton, on " Jersey Prairie," was laid off by John G. Bergen. Richmond was in the northeast part of the county, but is now out of existence. Johnston Shelton was the surveyor of Virginia in 1836, as well as of Jacksonville in 1825-eleven years before.
Since the separate existence of Cass, several other towns have been duly laid off, viz: Monroe (since vacated), Lancaster, May 6, 1837; Arenzville, February 17, 1840, Chandlerville, April 29, 1848; Ashland, July, 1857; Newmanville, April 6, 1859. In the latter case, Rev. Wm. Clark owned the land, and will sell no lots without a provi- sion in the deeds prohibiting the sale of liquor. This excellent provision is also insisted
NOTE .- Thomas Wilbourne was elected Treasurer August 7, 1837, and afterward resigned, and Isaac W. Overall was elected December 16, 1837, to fill the vacancy, and took possession of the office and en- tered upon its duties, but his election was contested by Wm. W. Babb, and Babb was declared the rightful incumbent. Martin F. Higgins was re-elected Assessor and Treasurer November 8th, but died shortly afterward, and Phineas T. Underwood was elected to fill the vacancy, and re-elected in 1855. John L. Cire died during his last term of office, and John Rahn was oppointed by the County Commis- sioners to till the vacancy, and he was elected by the people November 1881, to fill a constitutional interim of one year. Faulkner W. Gerdis died February 26, 1884.
273
THE CITY OF VIRGINIA.
upon by Mr. William C. Stevenson, in the sale of Little Indian property. Francis Arenz was the founder of the town bearing his name and Archibald, Job and Alexander Beard laid out Philadelphia as School Trustees.
The compiler of this volume gave himself the pleasure, a few days since, of visit- ing the city of Virginia. The courteous treatment received from merchants, bankers, editors, county officers and old settlers was worthy of this sincere acknowledgment of obligation. The little municipality did not seem to be feeling the hard times any more than sister cities of much larger pretensions, and her business men were hopeful and evidently enterprising. The burg's biggest item of the day was the formal dedica- tion of the new opera " house that Jack (Tureman) built," and that Charlie Tinney, of the Gazette, with more than the average newspaper man's enterprise, has done so much to secure for his home. After trying the road from the depot to the square, both on foot and in the ' bus, we were decidedly of the opinion that if Bro. Beatty, of the En- quirer, wants to get even with his rival in the way of public benefits, he should secure the dedication of a street railroad for Virginia. After newspapers and an opera house, the next " long-felt want" is a street raiload or well-paved high ways.
At his old stand in the drug store we found our old friend, Mr. Will Wood, busy in the calendar, almanac, pill and cigar business. Ile finds time, too, for his share of Sunday-School work. Here we met the bibliopole and naturalist of the community, Dr. Snyder, who was prompt to volunteer words of encouragement, and an order for " Historic Morgan."
In the court house we found quite a number of friends and much assistance. Circuit Clerk F. E. Downing obligingly searched the records for us for dates of the laying out of the various towns of the county. The present county officials are D. N. Walker, county judge; J. F. Robinson, county clerk ; Finis E. Downing, circuit clerk ; Henry Quigg, treasurer; A. H. Sielschott, sheriff; R. R. Hewitt, state's attorney ; A. L. Anderson, school superintendent; Joseph Wilson, surveyor; George L. Warlow, master in chancery. Under their management " Little Cass" seems to be waxing fat and prospering.
The city of Virginia we found to be governed by the following officials: Mayor, Ernest P. Widmayer (a former Jacksonvillian and brother of its ex-mayor); clerk, George Kelly (absent, but ruling by proxy in the person of S. W. Bailey); attorney, A. A. Leeper; marshal, Thomas Finn; aldermen, L. R. Simmons, Morrison Graves, C. I. Haskell, Joseph F. Cherry, R. W. Rabourn, W. W. Bishop-two from each of the three wards into which the city is divided.
There are three school buildings in Virginia, all located in one school district, and managed by three directors, viz: J. N. Gridley, D. G. Smithi, A. A. Leeper. The instructors in their employ are: Prof. J. F. Mccullough, superintendent ; Samuel B. Rach and R. P. Anderson, assistants, and the following teachers: Misses Rachael Berry, Harmonia Tate, Adelia Snyder, Belle Rodgers, Marie Way, Jessie Wilson, and Mr. George Schafer. As far as we could learn the schools are well governed and attended, the pupils making very satisfactory progress. With a population of 1,800 Virginia sends 475 pupils to her schools.
The saloon license system prevails here, the fee being $720 per annum.
In the Circuit Court room we found Hon. Richard W. Mills, so well known and whose aged mother, now living near Arcadia, in Morgan county, was among the earliest settlers of this part of the state. Mills was trying a case before Esquire Keel. ing Berry, who addressed the last Old Settler's meeting so interestingly, and whose mind as to old-time matters in Morgan and Cass is as clear as that of a man forty years younger. He gave us much valuable information as to the pioneers and customs of log cabin days. Before we write of a few others of the first settlers of Cass we should speak of this old-timer and his recollections. He remembers making the first purchase in the first store in Virginia-three pairs of shoes for his father's family-of Mr. Oli- ver, while the goods were being unpacked from the shipping-boxes.
274
KEELING BERRY -- COUNTY SEAT ELECTIONS-HEROINES.
Mr. Berry informs us that he came to Morgan county in 1833, in the fall of the year, from East Virginia, with his parents, two brothers and four sisters. One brother was already out here. The family traveled 900 miles to reach their new home. The men and boys footed it nearly the whole way. They settled one mile east of Little Indian station, where his parents lived until their deaths in 1857 and 1861.
Mr. Berry, Sr., had bought 130 acres of land, thirty-five under cultivation. Keel- ing had but little opportunity of education, not attending school more than eleven months in his life-time. The boy was thoughtful and studious, and gained knowledge by night-study at home. In his twenty-second year he began teaching in a log school- house, one-fourth of a mile west of Little Indian, on what is now Henderson Massey's farm, and there the identical old school house continues to stand to this day. Young Berry continued there as teacher for three terms, in the years 1839 and 1840. Since then he has followed the same occupation, up to 1876, in Cass or Macon county. In politics he has always been identified with the Whig or Republican party. In 1856, in Macon county, he was quite an active campaigner for Fremont. In 1867, as one of the commission he adjudicated the county seat contest. It was one of the hottest ever known in the State. The result was that the court house remained in Beardstown. In November, 1872, there was another warm contest and vote on the same subject, but a fairer vote. Virginia triumphed. Beardstown contested, bun lost. A change of site cannot now be made until a three-fifths majority for a change can be obtained, which is not likely. It might be mentioned in this connection that in one of these county seat elections Virginia returned a poll-book with 2,820 votes recorded, when at any preceding election she had never polled over 750. Mr. Keeling Berry continued to make his home on a farm until he moved into Virginia in January, 1868. He was county surveyor for one term, not being phys- ically able to work on a farm. Now he is filling for the third term the office of just- ice of the peace.
In writing of the pioneer settlers of old Morgan, now Cass, we are reminded that there is a class often neglected by local historians that deserves the highest praise for heroic endurance, self-sacrificing labor, and that permeating influence upon a com- munity that tended to mould and elevate character more than any others. We refer to the devoted Christian women who came in the prime of life, with husbands and chil- dren, from homes of comfort, to these unsettled regions where they toiled for their families and labored and prayed for the advancement of the morals of the new settle- ments. At all hours of the day or night they went at the call of Philanthropy to care for the sick, to relieve the needy, to comfort the afflicted and even to bury the dead. There were no professional nurses or physicians, homes were widely separated and the calls of distress would often cause the women to ride many miles in the night- time, over lonely prairie roads or forest paths. Many lives were doubtless saved by their prompt response and timely attention. " Mother" Redman, of Sugar Grove, Cass county, now gone to her reward, is mentioned as living an especially useful life in this respect. Undoubtedly many others deserve strong praise for similar services. Among the older settlers of Morgan county is Maria [widow of George] Cunningham. She reached this county in the spring of 1825, with the family of her father-Allen Q. Lindsey. They settled two miles south of Princeton, and she was married in 1835. Since then she has not lived farther from Virginia than four miles. Her father was a justice of the peace; so was one of her brothers. Her brother Allen is said to have precipitated the Black Hawk war. Being then a boatman on the Illinois river, he was attacked by the Indians and defended himself vigorously with firearms. The Lindsey family were prominent and public spirited, exerting themselves to wisely shape soci- ety. They were Kentuckians of much refinement and general knowledge, always active in politics, although not office seekers. Their views were of the Clay-Whig school.
Mrs. Elizabeth Hopkins is another living witness of early times hereabouts. In the fall of 1825 she removed from Clark county, Ind., to what is now the southern part
MRS. HOPKINS-"UNCLE BILLY" CLARK-AFFAIRS IN 1827-'30. 275
of Cass county. The next year they made a home and settled in Sugar Grove, in the southeast part of Cass, some four miles from Virginia. Her husband, Henry (now de- ceased), without help, improved 100 acres of prairie and lived on that farm forty-nine years, raising to maturity a family of eleven children. Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins saw this region grow from nothing to as prosperous and thrifty a community as the county affords. Their home was a preaching.place for the Methodist ministry from the first up to 1840. They always had a hearty welcome for the itinerant preachers, some of whom, when stopping there, went out into the field to help their host reap the harvest.
Another Indianian to locate in the now Cass part of Morgan was James Garner, who came into " Panther Grove," six miles southeast of Virginia, in 1831. He is well remembered by early settlers as a Methodist preacher, of but limited education, yet he was one whom all loved to hear, and he exercised as much influence, perhaps, as any other man in the county in his time, for the moral improvement of its inhabitants. It is said of him that after plowing all the week he would consider his horse as needing rest too much to be used on the Sabbath so he would walk three or four miles to meet his appointments. He died in 1863.
Among the present residents of Virginia, known and respected by all, is the Rev. William (commonly called "Uncle Billy") Clark. His father, Thomas, brought him and four other children out to Morgan in April, 1827, and the family set- tled in North Grove, some four miles west of the present site of Virginia, where they farmed it until 1833, but soon returned. William began preaching in 1839 in Iowa, but returned to Cass in '40, when he was twenty three years of age, and has been preaching the Gospel in or near his old home from that day to this, as a circuit rider of the Methodist Episcopal church. Now-a-days he only preaches occasionally.
Mr. Clark furnishes us with the following account of himself :
I was born in Franklin county, Tennessee, January 17, 1817. My father, Thomas Clark, was born in Pennsylvania, and my mother in East Tennessee. They came to Madison county, Illinois, in 1826. In April, 1827, they came to Morgan county, now Cass. They settled in North Grove, four miles west of the present site of Virginia. The family consisted of father, mother and seven children. Our first school teacher was Joshua P. Crow, in 1827, who taught several terms at the Bridgewater school house, a log cabin in that neighborhood. The county then abounded in wild game in- cluding deer and turkeys, without number. The people were remarkable for their in- dustry, honesty, frugality and sociability and were much on an equality-none rich, but few wealthy. Had no churches but their log cabins. The old Baptists were the most numerous among the early settlers in this section. The first Methodist meetings in the neighborhood were held at my uncle William Clark's, on the farm now owned by Edward Davis. The first circuit preachers were Joseph Talkington and Isaac House. The first burial in the Clark grave yard was a child of Mr. Norton. The first Methodist class organized was at the house of William Myers, on the Tureman farm, consisting of five members-William M. Clark, his wife and daughter, Mrs. Myers and my mother. The people gare more attention to the gospel in those days than now.
We saw the deep snow in 1830. It fell early in December and remained until spring, and was about three feet deep on a level. Nearly all the game was destroyed by reason of the snow that winter. It was never so plenty afterwards.
I will name a few of the families living in this part of the county in that early day, as far as my knowledge goes: Matthews, Bridgewater, Ruby, Davis, Hoffman, Williams, Crow, Bowyer, Savage, Summers, Case, Wiggins, Hamby, Bristow, Gilpin, Rev. Levi Springer, Rev. Reddick Horn, Myers, Tureman, Haynes, my uncle William M. Clark and my father's family.
We had no two-horse wagons or stoves; the old wooden mould barshare and shovel plow was the order of that day. One great difficulty we labored under was lack of mills. We had to go from three to twenty-five miles to get a little corn ground. In company with an uncle I had to wait three days and nights at uncle Jimmy Sims' horse
276 RECOLLECTIONS OF MORGAN IN 1828-'33 -- JOHN H. TUREMAN.
mill, near Arcadia, to get grinding done. In 1829, I rode sixteen miles to get a single letter out of the postoffice in Jacksonville; the postage was twenty-five cents in those days. Jacksonville was but a small village when I first saw it, in 1827, and Beardstown was scarcely begun. In the spring of 1831 the big snow went off with such a rush that it raised the streams unusually high. Uncle Tommy Beard, the founder of Beardstown, brought his ferryboat out to the slough on this side and ferried the folks across the slough to get to town. The first steam flouring mill was built by Knapp & Pouge, in Beardstown. I think it was built in 1828, and was the first steam engine I ever saw.
After five years residence in this neighborhood my father moved eleven miles eastward of Jacksonville, to near the head of the Mauvaisterre, on the Vandalia road. Big Indian Creek in that day was flush enough with water to run mills and several were built on it, and so with other streams, but matters have greatly changed. In the fall of 1833, there occurred a strange phenonema, on the night of the 13th of November -the apparent falling of the stars, raining like hail from the clouds, which created some alarm among the people. This year, 1833, the cholera visited Jacksonville in a fearful manner, carrying off about one hundred of its inhabitants, and laid the town in mourning. My father left Morgan county that fall and went into Schuyler county, where he remained two years, and then went to Iowa Territory and remained there until May, 1840, and then returned to Cass county and settled in the old neighborhood where he first settled in 1827, not far from the present site of Virginia, and remained in the county until his death, which occurred August 16, 1852, and my mother died August 2, 1866. They are both buried, with other members of the family, at the old burying ground in North Grove, four miles west of Virginia.
I was converted while living in Iowa, September 28, 1837, and was licensed to preach in the M. E. church, November 30, 1839. I traveled the circuits about four years in all. I have been a local preacher or minister in said church ever since. I have been a resident of Morgan and Cass counties fifty-one years-farming mostly for a livelihood. I have seen nearly all the first settlers pass away and new ones take their place and have marked the many 'changes and improvements that have taken place in the last half century. As time has rolled on and improvements have been made, such as railroads and telegraphs, the facilities have become much greater for the development of the resources of the world and also the speedy communication to and from all parts of the habitable globe. And schools and churches have so increased that society ought to have been more refined, elevated and christianized ere this. But with all these advantages the world seems to be no better, but worse. Why is this? We answer, because man is a fallen and depraved being, and to materially change his life he needs the converting grace of God. It is not frequent, to say the least, for anyone to find himself so near the same spot at the end of fifty-eight years, as the writer. And he will say of himself that he has led an active and laborious life, wholly abstaining from the use of all intoxicants and tobacco; that he has enjoyed good general health, and finds in the midst of the evils of this wicked world many good things to be thank- ful for, and as a Christian, "having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come;" and is comfortably situated, with his kind companion in their quiet home, in the decline of life, in the beautiful little city of Virginia, the county seat of Cass.
Mr. John H. Tureman, one of the wealthy farmers of Cass, now lives in the neigh- borhood where Mr. Clark settled. He was born there in 1828 and has made it his life home. He has just made himself "a reputation and a name" in Virginia by erecting an opera house at a cost of $17,000. His mother-in-law, Mrs. Elizabeth Davis, now over eighty years of age, is also still in that neighborhood, being the only person now living there who has been there since 1828. But to return to the Clarks. Circuit court was in session when they came through Jacksonville in 1827, from Madison county, enroute to North Grove. Jacksonville was then a village of 300 or 400 inhabitants, and court was being held in a log cabin. William remembers that in 1829 they heard of a letter in the postoffice at Jacksonville for his father from his (William's) brother on the
277
CROW, BIDDLECOMBE, HORN. CORBEY, COSNER, GATTON.
Okaw. So he rode on horseback sixteen miles to get the letter, paid the required twenty-five cents postage and returned home with it. He used to go eighteen miles to a horse power mill for grinding and even farther-twenty-five miles-to Exeter to a water power mill.
Mr. Clark says the first school teacher in Cass was Joshua P. Crow, who in 1828 taught the young idea how to shoot in a log cabin, some three and one-half miles west of Virginia, called the Bridgewater school house. The first burying ground was near- by and this is now called after the Clarks. The first burial was that of a child of Mr. Norton in 1826. The first frame meeting house in Virginia was built by the Protestant Methodists in 1836. In those circuit-riding days there were no frame houses; log cabins were the homes, the school houses and the churches. Preaching was heard in private houses or school cabins. The Baptists were the prevailing denomination. The first M. E. circuit preaching was in 1828 by Revs. Isaac House and Joseph Talkington, who organized the first Methodist church in Cass. Mrs. Clark, whose maiden name was Glover, came from Pope to Madison, then to Morgan, settling in the neighborhood of the Clarks and Turemans.
We have recorded the statement that Mr. Crow was the first school teacher in this part of old Morgan. The second is said to have been Daniel Corbey who taught in Sugar Grove, and the third, John Biddlecombe, who wielded the birch in his neighbor- hood. Mr. William Holmes was teacher, according to Mr. Keeling Berry, as early as 1830, using one of the abandoned cabins in Sugar Grove.
The first tannery erected in Cass county, and in fact in this part of Illinois, was by Andrew Cunningham, who is still living, but out of business.
Among the Kentuckians who came in 1837 was John Biddlecombe, from Logan county. He came as a Missionary Baptist preacher, a man of much piety and very useful. He was one of the early day teachers of the regions of "The Narrows" and died only a few years ago loved and respected by all who knew him.
There came with him a brother-in-law from the same county and like him both teacher and preacher -- Benjamin Corbey. He was of the Cumberland Presbyterian faith and probably the ablest minister of the gospel in this section at that time. His power was not in his fine education but in his ability to win the love of all with whom he came in contact. It is reported of him that he did more than any man in his time to spread the influence of his denomination. He died many years ago.
Still another settler came from Logan county, Kentucky. Coming to Morgan about the same time was Reddick Horn, a prominent Protestant Methodist. He and Corbey founded a church and did much to mould sympathy in the neighborhood of the present Virginia.
Thomas J. Cosner came from Indiana in 1843 and located four miles from Virginia. Some three weeks after his arrival the nag he had come on from Indiana was stolen and he was left without a particle of property. For ten years or more he was a farm laborer by the month, at a time when wages were only $10 per month. Now by fru- gality, honesty and industry he has accumulated farm property aggregating about three-fourths of a section worth $60 per acre. In all he is probably worth to-day about $30,000 and now lives in the city, and owns one building on the square, of Virginia.
Z. W. Gatton was born in Allen county, Kentucky, but came to Illinois with his father in September, 1824, locating within a quarter of a mile of Little Indian on a farm then all raw prairie. He put twenty acres under cultivation the first year. The family remained there a few years and then moved to Beardstown. Their house was headquarters of traveling M. E. preachers. After Z. W. became grown he went to Ottawa for one winter and Beardstown for four years. Now he is living just outside the city limits of Virginia; has been there over twenty years. He recollects the deep snow and quick freeze of 1831 and 1836; was living in Beardstown; had gone to his father's, where were two cabins some ten feet apart. He walked across in slush and
278
EARLIEST WHITE SETTLER-THREE MILE STRIP.
back in fifteen minutes on ice. He carried a petition, after having circulated it, to Vandalia for the separation of Cass from Morgan.
His father and Judge Thomas, of our city, were well acquainted and particular friends in Kentucky before cither came to Illinois, to meet again in Morgan county. Mr. Gatton recollects the cholera year, 1833, and how bad the scare was in Beardstown. Nurses could not be obtained and men had to give up their business to nurse the sick and care for the dead and dying. And not one of these volunteer nurses caught the disease.
The carliest white settler of Cass county, of whom we find any knowledge, was old Eli Cox. He settled in the eastern part of what is now Cass county, in the year 1816, stopping at a grove at the head of a creek, which have since been known as Cox's Grove and Cox's Creek. At that early date there was not a white man in all this part of the state. The United States government had not even stretched a surveyor's chain over the land, neither section nor township had been laid off. This man Cox, being, perhaps, a trapper and hunter and accustomed to look carefully at his surroundings, saw at a glance the great advantages of the prairie for farming and grazing purposes, and conclud- to make himself a permanent home here. He staked out a claim and after remaining on it for a time left it; returned in 1819, built a cabin and commenced permanent im- provements, and lived there until his death which occurred in 1880, or 1881. Of the carly history of Mr. Cox little, or nothing, is known to the writer, although well ac- quainted with him since 1836, he never on any occasion referred to his early life or the place of his birth. He was an honest, industrious man, strictly upright and honest in all his dealings, but mingled very little in society, and those who knew him best held him in the highest esteem. During his long years of residence in the old cabin, he married and raised a large family and also accumulated property and money to the amount of thirty or forty thousand dollars.
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