Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume II, part 1, Part 38

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago, Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 864

USA > Illinois > Sangamon County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume II, part 1 > Part 38

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One of the most notable early settlers of Au- burn Township was James Patton, who was born in the city of Baltimore, March 17, 1791, in child- hood was taken by his parents to Staunton, Va., and In 1798 to Clark County, Ky. After having served an apprenticeship to the tanning business, in 1810, le joined his parents, who had preceded him to Christian County, Ky., where he married Polly Husband in 1815, five years iater coming to Auhurn Township, Sangamon County, Ill., arriving in the spring of 1820. His wife having died in 1844, he was twice married thereafter, first to MIrs. Lettie Nifong, who died in 1856, and second to Mrs. Elizabeth Gregory, who died in 1875. Soon after coming to Sangamon County

FRANK REISCH

MEMBERS OF THE

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GEORGE REISCH, SR.

FRANK REISCH, SR.

REISCH

BREWING Co.

JOSEPH REISCH

FRANK REISCH, JR.

GEORGE REISCH, JR.

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY

Col. Pattou established a tannery and supplied a wide extent of country with ieather. An enter- prising, public-spirited citizen, he established a high reputation In his community. He died September 12, 1877, ou the farm where he first settled on comng to Sangamon County, leaving a large number of desceudants, most of whom re- side in Sangamon County.

Johan Jacob Rauch was born iu Stuttgart, Germany, July 25, 1796, and came to America in 1818, arriving in Philadelphia on a sailing vessel after a voyage of eleveu weeks. After having been subjected to a species of fraud by a man to pay for his passage in return for iabor, he was compelled to allow himself to be sold at auction in order to ralse the uecessary sum of $70. The lowest bid was for three years' service, aud he was immediately taken to Alabama and there subjected to a condition more horrible than uegro slavery. During much of the time he was em- ployed in boat-building, earning mauy times over the sum paid by his master. Conditious having become intolerable, some six months before the expiration of his term of service he managed to escape, finally reaching Muhlenberg, Ky., where he found some Germau people who gave him em- ployment, and he soon became able to clothe himself and begau to save muouey. In 1824 he there married Pauline Poley, soon after built a saw-mill on a small stream, but desiring to avoid any further connection with the institu- tion of slavery, in October, 1829, he came to Sangamon Conuty and bought three quarter- sections of land on the southern border of the county between Auburu and Virden. IIere he built a saw-mill which proved a great benefit to the community. A man of industry and high moral principle, he achleved a wonderful success, at the time of his death on November 25, 1843, at the age of only a little more than forty-seven years, leaving enough land to make a good farmu for each of his children.

Joseph Poley was born In Logan County, Ky., where he married, and iu 1829 came to Sangamon Couuty, settling near his brother-in-law, Johan Jacob Rauch. He served as Justice of the Peace for a number of years and, at the time of his death on August 17, 1866, left his heirs the title to 3,000 acres of land, of which 2,500 acres were in one body.

James Wallace was born In Pendleton District, S. C., iu 1776. IIls parents, being Scotch Pres- byterlans and Whigs-or supporters of the Dec-

laratiou of Independence-were driven from their homes by the Tories, and his birth occurred iu a camp. Iu early manhood he went to Nova Scotia and there married, but In 1816 returned to South Carolina. Having lived long enough In a free country to appreciate the perils of slav- ery, in November, 1822, he came to Saugamon County, Ill., locating one mile south of the pres- eut village of Auburn. He later moved to Macon County, dying there in 1845.

CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS .- The date of the first religious exercises iu Auburn Township is not a matter of record, but Rev. James SImms, Rivers McCormack and Peter Cartwright, pioneer Metho- dists ; Elder Simon Lindley, a Baptist, and Rev. J. G. Bergen, a Presbyteriau, were eariy church workers in this vicinity. The first church organi- zation is sald to have been Old School Presby- terian, the organization being effected at the home of Samuel McElvain in 1830, while the first church building was erected by that denomination in 1845. It was a modest frame structure, lo- eated in the edge of the woods just west of Crow's Mill, but later was moved to the village of Auburn, where it was used as a dwelling house.

RAILROADS .- Three railroads enter Auburn Township, the Chicago & Alton, the Jackson- ville Southeastern branch of the Chicago, Bur- lington & Quincy crossing the southwestern corner, and the Chicago & Illinois Midland, ex- tending from Auburn eastward, via Pawnee to Taylorville, Christian Couuty. The interurban electric line of the Illinois Tractiou System aiso parallels the Chicago & Alton steam line.

MILLS .- The first grist-mill in the township (a horse-mill) was built by James Sims, on the north part of the Wineman farm, east of the pres- ent village of Auburn.

The first water-mill for sawing lumber was erected in 1825-26 by Robert Crow on Sugar Creek, a mile northeast of Auburn village, and was subsequently rebuilt and a run of burrs added by E. and W. D. Crow, sons of Robert.

A second water-mill (both saw and grist) was built by Jacob Rauch, about slx miles above the Crow's mill, and soou after a third mill between the two by James Wallace. These have all dis- appeared.

In 1838 Asa and George Eastman erected the first steam-mill (a grist-mill) on the branch a mile north of the village of Auburn. The ma- chinery was finally removed to Springfield.

Messrs. Bond & Ely erected an extensive steam

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY

flouring mill within the village, in 1856, at a cost of $15,000, but it proved a financial failure, and in 1864 the machinery was used by J. U. Grove in fitting out a new mill in Cariinville.

SOME FIRST EVENTS .- The first marriage in the township was that of Gideon Vancil to Phobe Wilson in March, 1820, Rev. James Sims offi- ciating, and a daughter born to them in 1821 is supposed to have furnished the first birth in the township.

The first death was that of Mrs. Elizabeth Walker, daughter of Samuel Vancil, who died in the fall of 1819, and was buried In the Winmer burying ground. An Incident connected with the death of Mrs. Walker was the discovery of a prairie fire approaching the cabin in which she lay dying, surrounded by members of the family. By vigorous effort in beating out the fire in the grass and by the use of water, the fire was pre- vented from getting possession of the cabin, but all the hay that had been stacked for the winter feeding of stock was destroyed.

The first tan-yard in the township was estab- lished by James Patton in 1826.

The first orchards were planted in 1825 by Robert Crow and Philip Wineman.

Auburn, the only incorporated village of An- burn Township, has au interesting history. The original town of that name was laid out in 1835, by Asa and George Eastman on iand purchased from Messrs. Godfrey & Gilman, merchants of Alton, and located near the northern border of the township, abont a mile north of the site of the present village. It occupled a handsome lo- cation and, in 1840, had five or six dweilings and a two-story tavern, built by the Eastmans but managed by a man named Swaney, who traveled a great deal and is supposed to have been a pro- fessional gambler. During his last trip he mys- terionsly disappeared, his remains being found some months later near Ewington, Effingham County, where it was supposed he had been mur- dered in revenge by some victim.

The Eastmans and a number of other promi- nent citizens of Sangamon County resided at the original Auburn for a number of years, but fin- ally removed to other places, the Eastmans locat- ing in Springfield, where Asa Eastman was a prominent business man. On the contruction of the Alton & Sangamon Railroad (now the Chicago & Alton) the line was located some distance east of the village, and there was then a sharp struggle over the location of the railroad statlon, which

finally resulted in the success of the younger candidate.

The new village, a mile further south, was platted and recorded on February 24, 1853, by Philip Wineman, the proprietor, on the northeast quarter of Section 10, under the name of "Wine- man." In the meantime Asa Eastman, having become proprietor of the land embraced In the old village, secured the passage by the Legislature of an act vacating the corporation, sold the land to Madison Curvey, and It was transformed Into a farm.

Additions had been made to the new village by Wineman and others, but the popularity of the name "Auburn" is shown by the fact that, during the session of the Legislature of 1864-65, an act was passed wiping ont the name "Wineman," and Incorporating the village under the name of its old rival, the first election under the new char- ter occurring in the spring of 1865. The census tables show a steady Increase in population, the growth between 1890 and 1900 approximating fifty per cent. Auburn was incorporated as a city in 1905, and according to the census of 1910 had a popnlatlon of 1,814.

There are two other rallway stations withln Auburn Township-both on the line of the Chicago & Alton Railroad-Sefton Station, north of Au- burn and near the northern border of the town- ship, and Thayer, about four miles south of Au- burn. Thayer was incorporated as a village in 1901 and in 1910 had a population of 1,012.

There are two banks in Auburn, the Auburn State Bank and the Farmers' State Bank, each having a capital stock of $25,000. The city also has one weekly paper, the "Auburn Citizen," which is the oldest paper in the county outside of Springfield, M. L. Gordon, editor and proprietor.

Population of Auburn Township (1910), 3,851.

BALL TOWNSHIP.

Ball Township, situated directly south of Springfield, in the second tler of townships north of the southern border of Sangamon County, was organized In March, 1861, and named for James A. Ball, a citizen of the township who was a native of Madison County, Ky., came to Sanga- mon County in 1825, and was a soldier in the Winnebago and Black Hawk Wars. It contains an area of 3334 square miles, Including the whole of Town 14 N., R. 5 W. of the Third Principal

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY

Meridian, except two and a quarter sections from west side of the Congressional Township which has been attached to Chatham Township. To Ball Townshlp has been accorded the credit of being the location chosen by the first white settler in Sangamon County. This Is generally conceded to have been Robert Pulllam, although there has been some dlsagreement between writers on San- gamon County history as to the exact date of his coming to the county, some claiming that this was In the year 1816, and others one year later -the fall of 1817. The Old Settlers' Society of Sangamon County, which, however, is re- garded as the best authority on questions of this character, have accepted the latter year as most probable, and had It Inscribed on a bronze tablet attached to a column at the south front of the Court House In Springfield, and dedicated De- cember 2, 1911, in commemoration of that event and in honor of Mr. Pulllam's memory.

wheel with motive power furnished by ' horses or oxen. He also installed probably the first cotton-gin In that locality. The first meeting of the Sangamon County Old Settlers' Association was held on the site of the Pulllam cabin, In August, 1859.

The next group of early settlers iu the Ball Township district came in 1818. These consisted of Willlam Drennan aud his half-brother, Joseph Drennan, his son-in-law, Joseph Dodds, and George Cox, who, leaving portions of thelr fam- llles In the vicinity of Alton, came with thelr teams, farming implements and younger members of their families, fitted for manual labor, under the pilotage of Willlam Moore, an Indlan Ranger, and began opening up farms on Sugar Creek In the vicinity of the Pulliam Settlement. They built two cabins, one occupied by Joseph Cox and the other by the Drennans and Dodds, and as usual with settlers of that period, shuuning the pralries, cleared and planted some fifteen acres of timber land, which they cultivated in common. Later they attempted to break some of the prairie soll with a wooden mold-board plow, but this proved a fallure. Following the playful example of one of the boys, they cut off the grass from a small section of prairle that had been included in the field, and cutting holes in the sod, planted it with corn and pumpkin seeds. The result Is claimed In some of the early histories to have been a surprising success, the crop proving twice as great as that obtained from the land that had been cleared of timber. The Drennans, Cox and

Robert Pulllam was born In Henry, Va., April 12, 1776, his father, William Pulllam, and famliy, emigrating to Kentucky, and thence to the New Design Settlement in what Is uow Monroe County, Ill., later spending some time at Cape Girardeau, Mo., (theu a part of the Spanish possessions) and finally locating in Randolph County, Ill., where the town of Red Bud now stauds. In 1802 he began the improvement of a farm in St. Clair County, four miles east of the present site of the city of Belleville, but a year later settled in the American Bottom a few miles south of Alton, married Mary Stout in 1804, In 1815 returned to St. Clair County, and in 1817, . Dodds brought their families the next year, all In company with two or three hired ucn, inade except Dodds having previously erected cabins. The latter, however, was compelled to live in a rail-pen until a cabin was built. George Cox died In 1819. William Drennan, the head of this colony, died In 1847, while his wife survived him many years. Joseph Drennan passed away in 1865 and his widow In 1866. Joseph Dodds, the son-in-law of William Drennan, survived until 1869, his wife having passed away In 1853. Both of the Drennans and Dodds were influential clt- izens and left large families, and many of their descendants still survive in Sangamon County. a trip north, finally selecting a site on Sugar Creek, due south from the present city of Spring- field, where he built a cabin. In the spring of 1818 he returned to his old home In St. Clair County, where he remained one year when he came with his family to Sangamon County. He found the cabin he had bullt in 1817 occupled by Zachariah Peter, another early settler, but Mr. Pulllam obtained possession, and there re- slded until his death In the vicinity of Carlin- ville, July 31, 1838, his wife dying In 1847. He Is described by Gov. Reynolds as a man of fine After the coming of the Drenuans and the Dodds, settlement in the region now embraced in Ball Township, increased quite rapidly, as its ad- vantages as an agricultural district, with favor- able water supplies for stock, had attracted wldc attention. Among the arrivals lu this period were those of Thomas Black, who came In 1819, physique and strong character, as shown by his submission to the amputation of one of his legs by a country doctor without the aid of anæs- thetles. Originally a Baptist, he later united with the Methodist Church, and bulit one of the first mills in Sangamon County driven by a tread-

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY

settled near the Auburn Township iine, and soon after built a distillery and a horse-mill which were widely patronized; James Anderson, a na- tlve of Virginla, wbo bad spent some time in Keu- tucky and Indiana, came in 1820, settied on Sec- tlon 33, but later moved to the North Fork of the Saugamon, and there died in 1828; Louis Laugh- lin came with his family in 1821, settled on Sec- tion 29, wbere he remained fifteen years, when be removed to Wisconsin; ieaving behind him the reputation of being one of the first Aboii- tionists in Sangamon County. Alexander and Jobn Ritchle came in 1822, settled on Section 33, tbe former removing to Texas (where he died about 1844), and the latter to Iowa.

One of the most noted comers about this time was Job Fietcher, Sr., who arrived In 1819, and on the night of his arrivai was called upon to write the will of George Cox, who came to Sang- amon County with the Drennau and Dodds fam- ilies in 1818. This was the first wili put on record from Sangamon County, but registered at Edwardsville, Sangamon County territory then composing a part of Madison County. Fietcher was born iu Randoiph County, Va., in 1793, spent some years with bis widowed mother in Kentucky ; served six months in the War of 1812 and assisted to bury tbe dead on the battle- field of Tippecanoe ; married Mary Kerchner, a native of Virginia in 1818, and came to what is now Bail Towuship November 11, 1819. Mr. Fletcher is said to have bought from Maj. Elijah Iles the first window-giass soid in Springfield, and is believed to bave taught the first school in . Sangamon County, being also a teacher in a Sun- day Schooi organized in bis neighborhood by the Rev. J. M. Peck. He served as Representative in the General Assembly from Sangamon County for two terms (the Fifth aud Fourteenth Generai Assemblies), and three sessions (Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Generai Assemblies) as Senator. While in the Tenth General Assembly be was classed as one of the famous "Long Nine," of which Abraham Lincoln was a prominent mem- ber, and during this period took a prominent part in securing the removal of the State Cap- ital from Vandalia to Springfield. Mr. Fletcher died September 4, 1872, within half a mlle of the piace where he settled in 1819.

Others who came soon after Pulliam and the Drennans, and about the same time as Mr. Fletcher, were Abram Pease, born on the Island of Martha's Vineyard, in 1791, married Orpba

Southwick in New York, served in the War of 1812, and iu 1818 came to the Ball Townsbip district with the family of Jesse Soutbwlek ; John Taylor, a native of Danville, Ky., came first to Madison County, Ill., and in 1819 to the Sugar Creek Settlement in Sangamon County ; John Brownell, born in Rhode Island in 1800, after spending bis boybood in Seneca, N. Y., came west with the family of William Seely and, in July, 1819, reacbed Sangamon County, where, In 1821, he married Nancy Puiliam; James Sims, born iu Virginia, was taken by his parents to South Carolina, and after his marriage there, spent some time in Kentucky, thence comiug to St. Ciair County, and to Sangamon Couuty in 1820. Mr. Sims built a mili, run by horse power ; quar- ried stone of the same kind of which the first State House in Springfield was built, and served as the first Representative in the State Legisla- ture from Sangamon County, later resided in Morgan County, and as a Metbodist preacher organized the first circuit in Sangamon County. George Brunk, a native of Miami County, Ohio, came in 1821, at the age of seventeen years, later entered eighty acres of land to which he brought bis mother and step-father, Thomas Royai, and the rest of the family in 1824; Job F. Harris, born in Rockbridge County, Va., in 1798, spent bis boyhood with bis parents iu Barreon County, Ky., tbere learned the cabinet- making trade and in 1816 came to St. Louis, later made a trip with a party of trappers from New Orleans to the Rocky Mountains, returning in the fall of 1818, and In 1822 came to Sanga- mon County, served In the Winnebago War of 1827, and died July 29, 1866; Anthony Deardorff, a native of Pennsylvania, caine from Frankiin County, Ohio, in 1823. Arrivals in the Ball Township district during the year 1824 were quite numerous, including Thomas Royal, the step-fatber of George Brunk; Joseph Logsdon, from Madison County, Ky., iater went to Mis- souri and thence to Texas, dying in 1848 on the way to California; Peter Deardorff, a brother of Anthony, and coming with his brother-in-law, George Brunk ; David Brunk, a brother; Gilbert Dodds, a native of South Carolina, resided some years in Teunessee and Caldwell County, Ky., joined his brother Joseph, wbo had preceded him slx years, served as pastor of the Cumberiand Presbyterian church on Sugar Creek, finally dy- Ing near Petersburg, Menard County, May 3, 1872. Other iater comers were James A. Ball,

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY

for whom Ball Township was named, and who came in 1825 (see opening paragraph in this sketch of Ball Township) ; William Burtle, a native of Maryland who, after living many years in Kentucky, came with his family to Sangamon County In 1826, his son, William, Jr .. becoming a prominent citizen, a teacher, an office-holder and one of the early Presidents of the Sangamon County Old Settlers' Society ; Zachariah Ogden, originally from Frederick City, Md., came from Kentucky to Sangamon Connty in 1827, and there died in 1869 ; James Simpson, horn in Mary- land, came from Kentucky in 1828; George Mof- fitt, a native of Augusta County, Va., came from Christlan County, Ky., in 1829, and died in 1860; Richard Simpson, a native of Maryland, spent some years in Kentucky, came to Sanga- mon County in 1830, and a year later removed to Christian Connty, where he and his wife died ; David II. Hermon, born in Wilkes County, N. C., married in Grant County, Ky., and came to San- gamon County in October, 1830, two months be- fore the "deep snow" and endured all the periis of that memorable winter; Jacob Greenawalt, a native of Kentucky, also came in October, 1830, later spent some time in Putnam Connty, hnt re- turning to Sangamon in 1836, died there in 1863 ; John Fletcher, a younger brother of Job Fletcher, came from his native State of Virginia, and in 1830 joined his elder brother who had preceded him eleven years; Daniel Easley, born in Stokes Connty, N. . C., October 18, 1773, spent some thirty years of his early life in Caldwell County, Ky., came to Sangamon County in 1830, and died at Auburn, that county, February 13, 1874, aged one bundred years, three months and twenty-five days. All the immigrants, so far mentioned, are understood to have settied in what is now Ball Township. In 1829 a colony consisting of over sixty persons from Onio came to Ball Township. Some of the leading members of this colony were Absalom Meredith and family, Isaac and David Clark and their families, a Mr. Snell and others. Some other early settlers were Joseph Dixon, Joseph Gatlin, David Ford, Eddin Lewis and William Eads.

One of the most widely known families of Sangamon County and Ball Township, of a later period, is that of Pirilcruon Stout, whose father, Philemon Stout, Sr., came to Sangamon County in 1836 and died January 21, 1846, and the mother. Mrs. Penelope (Anderson) Stout, in No-

vemher, 1860. The parents were natives of New Jersey, hut emigrated to Scott County, Ky., where Philemon Stout, Jr., was born April 19, 1822, and married Melissa Shoup, also of a prominent Ball Township family. Philemon Stout, Jr., bad heen identified with Ball Township seventy-four years, where he became one of the largest land- owners in Sangamon County. and where be died October 1, 1910.

The principal stream in Ball Township is Sugar Creek, which enters the township near the south- western corner, and flows through the township, passing out near the northeastern corner. Its tributaries, Grindstone, Pantber and Lick Creeks, empty into Sugar Creek within the township, the main stream being a branch of the Sangamon River, while Bishop Creek, which passes through the southeast corner of the township, empties into the South Fork of the Sangamon. The first hridge across Sugar Creek was built by Thomas Black and his neighbors, of hewn timbers, about 1827, hut was located in Auburn Township near the Ball Township line.

Ball Township being a strictly agricultural re- gion and there heing no railroad line within its limits-except a section of about two miles of the Chicago & Alton, passing through the north- western corner-until the construction of the Springfield-St. Louis branch of the Illinois Cen- tral, which passes through the entire length of this township from north to south, there has been little tendency to the development of vil- lages. There was a village projected in the northeastern quarter of the township by George R. Spotswood, in 1837, under the name Mazeppa, hut beyond the fact that it bad a small store for a short time, there was littie evidence of village life. Glenarm, a railway station on the Illinois Central, near the sonthern horder of the town- ship, is the only village in the township, although Chatham, a station on the Chicago & Alton Rail- road, is near the western border of the township, and Cotton HIIII, on the Illinois Central, is just north of the line between Ball and Woodside Townships.

A neat frame huilding, for the purpose of a Town Hall, was erected in 1876, on the east bank of Sugar Creek, not far from the site of the Robert Pulllam cabin, and near the center of the township. The population of the town- ship`according to the census of 1910, was 898.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume II, part 1, Part 38

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913 Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Chicago, Munsell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 864

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago, Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 864