Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume 2, Part 33

Author: Dyson, Howard F., 1870- History of Schuyler County. 4n
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1126

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The first records of land titles in Schuyler County were made at Edwardsville, where the original government land patents were recorded. Afterwards, when the State capital was located at Vandalia. the records of government patents and transfers were made there, and the original State records are now in the vault of the Schuy- ler County Circuit Clerk, but for convenience in reference the county records have been tran- spribed in a separate volume. Other early records of transfers in Schuyler are recorded in Pike County, which, prior to 1823, included all of the Military Tract.

By the system of tract indexes in use in this county, all the transfers to any parcel of land can be readily determined by an examination of the records and a true abstract of title obtained. During the years that this country was a col-

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HISTORY OF SCHUYLER COUNTY.

ony of England. land was granted, sold and described by metes and bounds, and this system is still in vogue in the Eastern States; but ow- ing to the liability of monuments to be oblit- erated, and the constant variation of the mag- netic needle, the system was looked upon with disfavor by the founders of our Government when they were called upon to divide the Northwestern Territory and arrange for a system of govern- ment survey.

A committee of the Continental Congress, of which Thomas Jefferson was Chairman, was ap- pointed to draft a system of government survey, and their first report was made May 7, 1784. It was first decided to divide the public lands into parcels one hundred miles square, to be sub- divided into lots one mile square, but this report was amended April 26, 1785, and surveyors were required to divide the territory into townships. seven miles square, and sub-divided into sec- tions one mile square. The ordinance as finally passed. however, on May 20, 1755, provided for townships six miles square, containing thirty- six sections of one mile square, and the first sur- vey of public lands was made under this system, which is in use at the present time.

After this system of government survey was inaugurated. it was found necessary to establish corrected Meridian Lines, owing to the conver- genee of exactly due north lines as they proceed toward the North pole, and to insure greater accuracy and aid in description, Base Lines were ram at right angle to the True Meridian.

All the land in the Military Tract is sur- veyed with reference to the Fourth Principal Meridian, which intersects the Base Line in Schuyler County about one-half mile south of the Beardstown wagon bridge. In describing lands. the townships are referred to as east or west of the Fourth Principal Meridian, according to their numerical relation, and in the same man- ner their position north of the Base Line is designated. Then. again. cach township is di- vided into thirty-six sections, numbered consec- utively, first from right to left. beginning on the first (or northern) tier of sections in the north- east corner of the township; then alternating from left to right on the second tier. the third and fifth tiers being numbered in the same direc- tion as the first. and the fourth and sixth (or even tiers) like the second-thus making it pos- sible to give a concise and acenrate description of parcels of land by the numbering of sections,

within specified townships whose location may be determined by reference to the Meridian and Base Line. This system of land surveying is theoretically perfect, but when it came to prac- tieal operation, it was found impossible to make each township exactly six miles square, and the same held true in the division of the townships into sections. To remedy this in part, correc- tion lines were run, which accounts for the jogs on section corners, and, in the subdivision of the townships, the surveyors had instructions to place the excess or deficiency in the north and west tier of sections.

After the lands of the Military Traet were set apart as bounty commissions for the soldiers of the War of 1812, a survey was ordered. It was the intention to locate the Base Line for the Military Tract on the fortieth parallel, but an error in the computation fixed it one and a half miles to the north, and the mistake was not discovered until all the land had been laid off. After the Base Line and Fourth Principal Meri- dian were established, government coutraets were let for the division into townships and, later, other contracts for the subdivision into sections.

From the record of the original government surveys, we find that the first township sur- veys in Schuyler County were begun in Novem- ber, 1815, and the work continued for two years. J. Milton Moore and Enoch Moore, afterwards prominent citizens of Monroe County, had a large contract for surveys, as did also John D. Whitesides, afterwards a General in the Black Hawk War and State Treasurer.

At this time all the country north of the Il- linois River was in possession of the Indians. and the surveyors labored under many hard- ships. Most of the work was done during the winter months, when the streams and swampy prairie land was frozen, and at that season there was less danger from roving Indians, who looked with suspicion upon the invasion of their hunting grounds by the white man. Of the early surveyors in the county John McKee is the only one who lost his life in the service. Ile Was killed by the Indians in what is now Brown County in 1515, and MeKre Creek was named by his associates in his honor.

In making the contract for surveys the Gov- ernment paid its surveyors by the mile, and the natur: 1 result was they sacrificed accuracy for speed, which accounts for the many errors that have since been noted in the resurveys. The

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HISTORY OF SCHUYLER COUNTY.

original government survey, however, is the one recognized by the courts, and all resurveys must be made in conformity thereto, notwithstanding the error is apparent.

It will be interesting to note a few of the most apparent of these mistakes in the goveru- ment surveys, which no doubt have mystified the land-owner who looks upon surveying as an exact science. A story told by one of the County Surveyors well illustrates this point. He had labored long and diligently in establishing a gov- ernment line, with its deviations, crooks and turns, when finally one of the irate land-owners turned upon him and exclaimed: "See here! I want to know if you are not sworn to survey this tract by running straight lines." The weary sur- veyor, whose patience had already been sorely tried, turned upon him and, in his wrath, replied : "No, by G ---; I'm swore to make just as many mistakes as the infernal government surveyor, who laid out this tract."

It was intended that the Base Line should be a reckoning point for all other surveys, and it was supposed to have been accurately laid off. but, running west from the intersection with the Fourth Principal Meridian, there is a decided crook on the south side of Section thirt, four in Bainbridge Township. In the original survey of Bainbridge Township, none of the east and west section lines were accurately run, although they are platted in the notes, and this accounts for the many crooked lines in that township. The government surveyors likewise reported inll sec- tions, when a resurvey shows that the quarter- sections lying next to the Base Line in sections thirty-two, thirty-three and thirty-four in Bain- bridge Township contain only one hundred acres. The opposite condition exists in Birming- ham Township, where we find the northwest quarter of Section 6 contains 270 acres.

Browning Township is another section where the mistakes of the government surveyors are apparent in crooked section lines. In the origi- . nal work the surveyors lost twenty rods at the southwest quarter of Section 4, and continued the error to the south line of the township, A simi- lar mistake was made in surveying the west portion of the county, which resulted in locating the southwest quarter of Camden Township forty rods too far north. In Hickory Township, on the southeast quarter of Section 18, the surveyors lost entirely a tract of land which includes 29.31 aeres. No record of this land exists, it is not

listed in the tax books, and apparently it has no government title, but it has been occupied and farmed for the last fifty years. In an effort to establish a title the matter was brought before the Government Land Office, but as there was no record of such land existing in the original tield notes, nothing could be done and the present owner has obtained title by possession alone.

These and a multitude of lesser errors in the original surveys, have made the work of the County Surveyor extremely difficult, as he must take the government survey as a basis for his work. The fact that this county was heavily timbered and that witness trees were clearly defined monuments to the corners, has facili -- tated the work of the resurveys, but in many localities there now exists a decided variation between the commonly accepted property lines and the government survey. The statute of limitations has fixed these division lines, even though at variance with the government survey, and the County Surveyor must be governed there- by. which adds to the errors already on record in the original field notes.

Even after the old government corners have been relocated from witness trees, it is a dith- cult matter to perpetuate them, especially if they are in the highway, for the road workers are ruthless destroyers of all such monuments. Prob- ably ten per cent. of the old government witness trees are still standing in Schuyler County, and the greater portion of all quarter section corners have been accurately located, and all that is now required is that these monuments be preserved together with the witness trees that have been marked by the County Surveyor.

In following descriptions from deeds as well as in relocating original lines, the surveyor finds that he must exercise to a considerable extent, certain judicial functions. Hle usually takes the place of both judge and jury, and acting as ar- biter between adjoining proprietors, decides both the law and the facts in regard to their boundary lines. lle does this not because of any right or authority he may possess, but because the inter- ested parties voluntarily submit their differences to him, as an expert in such matters, preferring to abide by his decision rather than to go to law about it. But sometimes the surveyor is asked to interpret deeds that would puzzle a Supreme Court Justice. To illustrate, we produce the following deed, copied from the records in the Circuit Clerk's office: "All that part of

The & Botterberg

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HISTORY OF SCHUYLER COUNTY.

the N. W. 1, 35, 3 N. 1 W. as lies east of and upon a branch running from the north into Me- Kre branch, the west line to be west and adjoin- ing where said Harris has cleared and piled up rails, and between the improvements of said Harris and James Abbott on the said quarter, the same part to be conveyed. being supposed to leave ninety acres from off the east side of said quarter."

SWAMP LAND SURVEYS.

The last government survey of lands in Schuy- ler County was made in the year 1842-43. when the swamp lands along the Illinois River and creeks tributary thereto were platted. D. A. Spaulding was the Surveyor-in-chief, and he asked permission of the government officials to correct the many apparent errors in the original survey, but he received peremptory orders to make his survey in accordance with the field-notes furnished. This was anything but pleasing to a man of Mr. Spaulding's ability, who, if given an opportunity. would have straightened out the crooked lines in Bainbridge. Frederick, Brown- ing and Hickory Townships. As it was. he fol- lowed the crooks and turns of the old original survey, even when the meander lines of the Il- linois River mounted the tops of the high blufts.

The swamp lands surveyed and platted by Spaulding were turned over to the State, and by legislative enactment in force June 22, 1852. these same lands eame into possession of the county. On September 3. 1855, the first publie sale of swamp land was made, and prices ranged as low as ten cents an acre. It was thought that better prices could be secured if an effort was made to drain the lands and, in 1857. Leonidas Horney was appointed Drainage Commissioner. At the meeting of the Board of Supervisors on May 20, 1857. he made a report advocating the drainage of several tracts, claiming that they could thereby be increased in value five hundred per cent., which would well pay the county as an investment. In accordance with this recom- mendation a contract was let. September 19. 1857, which specified the following tracts sub- ject to drainage: Sections 17 and 32, Brooklyn ; Section 32, Bainbridge: Section 3. Frederick ; Sections 24 and 25, Browning: and Sections 14. 17 and 19, Ilickory. This drainage contraet cost the county $1,137, and was followed by others equally as large. Whether the results secured justitied the expenditure, we have been unable

to determine. Swamp land continued to be sold, however. until some years after the war, and many of the first purchasers realized handsome profits on their investments.

DRAINAGE SCHEMES-PRESENT CONDITIONS- In the following supplementary pages will be found a more detailed history of the swamp lands and their present condition :

The reclaiming of the overflowed lands of Schuyler County to cultivation forms an inter- esting chapter in the industrial development of the agricultural resources of the county, and the history of the movement is but little known.

The land originally designated "swamp land" along the Illinois River and Crooked Creek, were not listed for entry in the government land of- fices at the time the Military Tract was thrown open for settlement, and it was not until 1842 that the tracts were surveyed and platted. This work was done by David A. Spaulding, under di- rection of the Department of the Interior, and by act of Congress, under date of September 28, 1850, these lands were patented to the State of Illinois. By an act of the Legislature the title of the swamp lands was placed in the county where said lands were located, and they were soon afterward disposed of at publie sale.

Schuyler County in this manner obtained own- ership of 4,344.81 acres of swamp for over- flowed) lands, and on December 9, 1853, Charles Neill was appointed Drainage Commissioner by the Board of Supervisors. The land was divided into three classes, and a basis of valuation fixed by the Board. Land in the first class was valued at 90 cents an acre; second class, 50 cents, and third class, 10 cents, and the first publie sale of the lands was held September 5. 1855.

On March 12, 1856, Leonidas Horney was ap- pointed Drainage Commissioner, and the Board of Supervisors voted to apply $2.000 derived from the sale of swamp lands, to the county jail fund. which was in need of replenishing on account of the erection of a new county building.

Under direction of Mr. Ilorney a survey was made of the swamp lands owned by the county. and in a report made by the Commissioner to the Supervisors, under date of March 12, 1860, it is shown that $1.615.04 was expended for this purpose. At this meeting of the board, $500 from the swamp land fund was ordered turned into the County School Fund, and apportioned among the several townships.

Charles Neill was again appointed Drainage

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HISTORY OF SCHUYLER COUNTY.

Commissioner, March 13, 1862, and the report made at that meeting of the board showed that there yet remained unsold 1,700 acres, and the amount of $708.48 in the sawmp land fund was ordered used for general county purposes. In after years ali of this land was disposed of, and even the third class land, which was valued in 1856 at 10 cents an aere, and which is today largely covered with water, sells for from $15 to $25 an aere, and is used for hunting and fishing purposes.

The first determined effort to reclaim a large body of the rich allnvian land in Schuyler County by means of levees and internal drainage, was made in the fall of 1890. when the Coal Creek Drainage and Levee District was formed under the laws of Illinois. Messrs. Christie & Lowe. two Chicago contractors, secured by purchase of the owners in this county some 5,000 acres of land in lower Bainbridge Township. and they formed a drainage district, which included about 7,000 aeres. This tract is bounded on the east by the Illinois River, and in its natural state was cut through the center by Coal Creek. In the development of the drainage scheme, the river was held back by a levee that extended from the mouth of Coal Creek to the railroad embankment below Frederick, and Coal Creek was defleeted to a channel outside the levee district on the west. A large pumping plant was erected at the lower end of the district, but the overflow of Coal Creek at flood seasons has rendered futile the efforts of the promoters to reclaim this rich land to cultivation, and for five years past. it has been practically aban- doned. New impetus has Intely been given to the enterprise, and the District Commissioners are now planning to spend $40,000 in additional improvements to control the flood water of Coal Creek and provide internal improvements ..

A second drainage and levee district was or- ganized in the same township this year, and at the May term of the County Court the Crane Creek Drainage and Levee Distriet was created. and George Hanna, II. V. Teel and Henry Kirk- ham were named as Commissioners. This dis- triet includes about 5,000 acres, and the plan is to carry Crane Creek outside the district, and levee against the Illinois River and Crooked Creek. Work will commence as soon as the pre- liminary court proceedings are completed.

CHAPTER A.

PIONEER LIFE.

HARDSHIPS AND PRIVATIONS ENCOUNTERED BY THE EARLY SETTLER-WHENCE HIE CAME AND ROUTES OF TRAVEL-ST. LOUIS THIE NEAREST CASH MARKET-NEAREST POSTOFFICE AND PHYSI- CIAN-IMPORTANCE OF THE RIFLE IN PIONEER LIFE -- BEE-HUNTING AS A SOURCE OF REVENUE -- EARLY INDUSTRIES AND BUSINESS ENTERPRISES- FIRST SETTLERS SHUN THIE PRAIRIES-FIRST STEAMER ASCENDS THE ILLINOIS IN 1828-TARM- ING AS THE FIRST INDUSTRY-FURS AND PELT- RIFS AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR MONEY-EARLY FARM IMPLEMENTS -- METHODS OF CULTIVATION AND HARVESTING OF CROPS-DAYS OF THE CORN GRATER AND WOODEN MORTAR-WIIERE THE FIRST MILLS WLRE LOCATED-PART BORNE BY THE PIO- NEER WOMEN IN EARLY DOMESTIC AND INDUS- TRIAL, LIFE-TWO TYPES OF SOCIETY-SPORTS AND PASTIMES -- AN EARLY WEDDING AND THIE IN- FAIR-COMING OF THE PREACHER AND DAYS OF . THE CAMP-MEETING.

It is a matter of common knowledge that the prosent generation knows but little of the labors. the privations, the hardships and the countless dangers dared by the pioneers who first settled and improved Schuyler County. Their struggle with natural conditions was enough to try the most courageous and the most hopeful. and that they did succeed and did triumph, goes to show they were animated by a mighty zeal. and sus- tained by a backing of the toughest moral fiber.

Too often in the days of our prosperous times we forget how the sturdy pionecers pushed into the wilderness of the Military Traet, even while the Indian yet roamed over the country, and built their cabins along what was then known as the northwestern frontier. They came from the settlements of New England. from the middle and southeastern coast States, and from the border lands of Kentucky and Missonri, and met on common ground as countrymen and neighbors.

There were two great routes of communication open to Schuyler County in those early days. One was by means of the overland trail, which wound its devious was southward across the

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HISTORY OF SCHUYLER COUNTY.

. Illinois River, and then eastward to Terre Haute. The other was by way of the Illinois River, and many of the settlers from Missouri and Ken- tucky chose this route.

Under the most favorable conditions, it was a dreary, tiresome journey, fraught with many dangers and privations, especially by the over- land route, where the only road was a trail through the prairie, and where streams had to be forded at all seasons of the year, save dur- ing the winter season, when crossing was made on the ice. Yet hundreds so came, even from distant New England, Texas and North Carolina.

Even after the toilsome and perilous journey was made in safety, great courage was required to brave the dangers and trials incident to build- ing a home in the trackless wilds. The life of the pioneer-and by this we mean the noble women as well as the men-was one of unceasing vigilance and activity. It involved every possi- ble danger from exposure, illness or accident, and called for the highest quality of courage and en- durance. To some, no doubt. the element of constant adventure was a great inducement to settle here, and fully were they realized; and, even after the country began to fill with home- seekers, we find that love of adventure, yet un- satisfied, stirred some of the early settlers to move farther westward onto the new frontier. .

It is a well known sociological fact that hu- mans are molded by environment and the rug- ged life, and the scenes of the primitive wilder- ness, inculcated in the pioneers courage. patience, self-reliance and an' abiding faith in God. They were, in brief, an intelligent. honest and hardy race. Their private virtues were hospitality, courage and fidelity, their publie virtues were patriotism, love of order and readiness for the most arduous public service, and the stamp of their qualities. modified by the lapse of years, inay still be observed.

In that first year in the county. the little col- ony of settlers, less than two score in number, must have been depressed by the solitude of the wilderness that everywhere surrounded them. Distances were mighty and means of communi- eation slow and laborious. The nearest market was St. Louis: the nearest blacksmith shop at Carrollton ; the nearest postoffice. Sangamon, sixty miles away, and the only physician known to the settlers lived at Diamond Grove, Bear where Jacksonville is now located. It has been said by some Illinois historians that ague berame

a habit with the early pioneers, and that the only medicine known or prescribed in the settle- ment was calomel and whisky, with an occasional blood-letting when a physician was called. As for luxuries, there were none; and ceaseless, toilsome labor was the only pastime, if we ex- cept hunting.

The rifle was an important adjunct in the equipment of the pioneer, and for many years after their arrival, the forest supplied the set- tlers with the greater part of their subsistence. Furs and peltry were the circulating medium of the country, and they had little else to give in exchange. Constant practice, and the fact that their means of support depended upon it, made every man a marksman. In those pioneer days, each gun was hand-made, and while they look crude compared with the perfect mechanical excellence of the present day, they were often- times costly weapons. for the hunters took pride in their guns and had them made to their special order.

Another source of revenue that the pioneers were quick to take advantage of, was bee-hunt- ing. This was followed as a regular business by some of the young unmarried men, and. during the year 1823, a joint company, composed of Thomas Beard, Samuel Gooch and Orris Me- Cartney, shipped twenty-seven barrels of strained honey to St. Louis, in addition to a large quantity of wax. Bees were then so abundant that it was no unusual thing to find ten swarms in one day. and the yield ran as high as thirty to forty gallons per tree, but such a find was an unusual one. This product found a ready market in St. Louis and was one of the main sources of supplying the carly home seekers with the neces- sities of life.

Rafting logs, staves and hoop-poles down the Illinois River to the St. Louis market was an- other of the early business enterprises of pioneer days which yielded good returns, and it was continued long after the country became thickly settled. The great majority of the early settlers shunned the rich, flat prairie land, now the very finest in Illinois, because it was wet and "boggy," and in looking for an Ideal location for a home, chose the timbered country. Here many years of their life were spent in clearing off the heavy timber and grubbing stumps in their cultivated fields. But while this engaged in clearing their homestead, they were getting a little ready money from the sale of logs and staves, and the cooper

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shops gave employment to men who otherwise would not have been able to establish a home of their own.

It was not until 1828 that the first steamboat came up the Illinois River to Beardstown from St. Louis, but in the years preceding that the set- tlers carried on a regnlar trailie with St. Louis, which was in fact their only market. The young men of the settlement looked forward with great glee to the trip down the river on the log-rafts and keel-boats, and it had a fascination sufficient to cause many of them to leave the settlement and engage in rafting as a business. It was a rough, hard life, full of danger and privations, but the sturdy youths were accustomed to no other mode of living, and chose it in preference to the routine work of the farm.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume 2, Part 33

Author: Dyson, Howard F., 1870- History of Schuyler County. 4n Publication date: 1908 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1126

Author: Dyson, Howard F., 1870- History of Schuyler County. 4n
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1126