Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume II, Part 29

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Cunningham, Joseph O. (Joseph Oscar), 1830-1917
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 632

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Philo

Kaskaskia River

Tolono

Lille Vermillion

Sadorus

Iesdale

· Pesotum

River

Broadlands

oParkville

OLONGVIEW

Drawn by Deette Rolfe.

TOPOGRAPHIC MAP OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY (No. 1.) Showing Location of Cities, Villages and Streams. (For Elevations See Footnote Page 645.)

Spoon

Royal

Sellars

Camp Sam

Slough

Black Slough

LIBR RY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

653

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY. 1

deeply cut by streams, giving it a somewhat rugged appearance. In many places the streams have pushed upward until they have reached the crest, and in some cases cut through it, thus converting it into a series of more or less irregular knolls and ridges, which stand out prominently. The locations of a few of the more important knolls may be noted, with their elevations: West of Ludlow, 830 feet; southeast of Ludlow, 820 feet; west of Dillsburg, 810 feet; east of Dills- burg, 820 feet; west of Royal, 810 feet; south- east of Gifford, 820 feet, and east of Flat- ville, 820 feet. The 830-foot knoll near Lud- low marks the highest point in the county. On its eastern side the moraine descends into a low prairie cut by streams. East of Pen- field these cut to 659 feet; Penfield, itself, stands just within the moraine at 728 feet.

"The second moraine is a part of the Cham- paign System, and because of its many branches, it covers much territory and pre- sents a very irregular outline. It enters from Piatt County, with two branches which soon unite, and later it breaks up into three parts which remain distinct until they reach the southern border of Vermilion County. It pre- sents less relief than the Bloomington mo- raine, and, as a rule, the slopes are more gentle.

"The main ridge enters near Mahomet at an elevation of 770 feet and passes southeast through Champaign and Philo. Except for two or three miles where it has been broken by the Sangamon, it gradually rises in height to a point north of Rising, where an altitude of 810 feet is attained. Later it sinks to 730 feet and, except in isolated knolls, does not again rise above this elevation. The high points are: 760 feet west of Mira; 750 feet west of Deers; 750 feet northeast of Philo; the same, south of Philo; 770 feet southeast of Philo, and 760 feet in the north end of Raymond Township. In the northern part of the county the lowland surface is about 710 feet; farthier south, however, it is not more than 670 feet.

"The smaller ridge from Piatt joins this main one just east of Mahomet. It is nar- row, but has a sharply defined crest, varying in elevation from 760-780 feet. It sinks quite abruptly into the low Sangamon bottom (to 690 feet) on the north, and into the low prai- rie (700 feet) on the south.

"At Rising, the large branch which con- -nects the two systems is given off to the northeast. North of Thomasboro, this sends a narrow spur to the southeast, which soon · begins to widen, and ends in a bluff several miles long. The bluff tends to the northeast, and its western end almost unites with the main ridge northeast of Urbana. Its eastern end terminates near Sellars in an abrupt ele- vation known as Blue Mound, which rises forty feet in less than a quarter of a mile. An uneven and roughly circular strip of high- land is thus formed, surrounding the lowland which is now drained by Beaver Ditch. This is quite different from the other parts of the moraine in that the slopes are very gentle, especially on the inside of the circle. The crest, for the most part, stands at 750 feet, but in places it rises to 790 feet.

"At Staley, a low spur, known as the 'Sta- ley Moraine,' runs southward, passing through Prairie View, Tolono and Pesotum into Doug-, Ias County, where it turns east and, later, reunites with the main ridge near the south- ern border of Vermilion County. In the north- ern part of this spur, the elevation is some- thing over 750 feet; but it gradually sinks until, near the southern border of the county, its crest is not over 700 feet. Its outline is very irregular, as it sends off smaller spurs which merge insensibly into the prairie.

"From the eastern side of the main ridge, many short and generally low spurs are given off to the northeast, as at Mira and Deers.

"The main ridge divides again about eight miles southeast of Philo, beyond the 760-foot knoll. One branch passes out of the county north, and the other just south of Broadlands. Later they unite again. Both are very low and have but little relief. The southern one, in fact, seems to have been almost entirely cut away, and does not become a feature of the landscape until it reaches Broadlands. Near there it shows in the form of knolls- 700-730 feet. The northern one retains its identity throughout.

"Champaign County, then, is far from being the low, flat area which it is usually consid- ered. The accompanying map shows very dis- tinctly the differences in relief which it af- fords.

"The drainage system, though very incom- plete, is exceptionally well outlined. ' Upon the map the beds of most of the streams may

:654

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

be traced, and from it may be seen the very great extent to which their courses are de- pendent upon the moraines. In every case. the moraines act as water-sheds for the sepa- 'ration. of the river-basins. Their peculiar ar- .rangement causes Champaign County to furn- ish water to the Wabash, the Illinois, the Embarras and the Kaskaskia.

"All the territory east of the 'Staley Mo- raine' is tributary to the Wabash through the two branches of the Vermilion (Salt Fork and Middle Fork) and the Embarras. Salt Fork has its headwaters south of Rantoul in the circular spur, and its branches extend north to the crest of the Bloomington Moraine, and south to the main ridge of the Champaign System. The Middle Fork drains the small area northeast of this moraine. The Embar- ras rises south of Urbana on the University farm and receives its waters from the area lying between the Champaign and Staley moraines.

"Just west of Champaign the Kaskaskia rises and drains the prairie lying west of the Staley Moraine.

"The Sangamon is the largest stream in the county. It rises in Ford County, but for sev- eral miles its course is through a succession of sloughs and, consequently, it is very shal- low. As it nears the Champaign Moraine, however, its valley deepens, and at Mahomet it has bluffs 80 to 100 feet high.

"By means of these streams all the low- land prairies have outlets which, time, .would have completely drained them with- out the aid of the tile-drain.

"Two glaciers have covered this county. These glaciers were separated by a long in- ·terval of time, during which a drainage sys- tem was established, and an irregular topog- raphy composed of hills and valleys was pro- duced. Here and there were small beds of gravel deposited in lakes in which there was but little current. The second glacier cov- ered all this with another layer of debris, first filling the valleys and low places and then spreading a uniform layer over the whole. Irregularly interspersed in this drift are long strips and beds of gravel which have their out- crops on the flanks of the moraines. These, being surrounded by the dense clay, form pockets which become reservoirs for the stor- age of water.

. "It is on these reservoirs that the county

must rely for its water supply. The water obtained from them is of good quality, except in the somewhat rare instances where the outcrop of the gravel bed is so situated as to be exposed to contaminating influences, or in those cases, which should never occur, where the wells themselves are contaminated. As these gravel beds are distributed through the drift at different depths, the wells, even on adjoining lots, may vary in depth. The quantity of water furnished by a well is gov- erned by the size of the gravel bed from which it draws its supply. The deep wells of the county generally draw from the beds de- posited between the two sheets of drift; their difference in depth depends on the irregular- ities of the first drift surface.

"The lowlands behind and between the mo- raines were originally lake beds, and these, by their partial drainage, developed into prai- ries whose black soil is due to the vegetable matter deposited in the beds of these lakes. On the lighter soil of the moraines, which were exposed above the water during the long lake period, trees took root and ultimately formed forest

belts, which were prevented from spreading, first by the lakes themselves, and afterward, by the tall grasses and forest fires. The numerous sloughs of the early settlers were the rem- nants of these lakes for which Nature had not yet provided the necessary drainage .:

"DE ETTE ROLFE."

CHAPTER VI.

EARLIEST MILITARY OCCUPATION. -

CHAMPAIGN COUNTY HAS LITTLE MARTIAL HISTORY -PASSAGE OF SPANISH FORCE-FORT HARRISON NEAR BY-GENERAL HOPKINS' EXPEDITION-GEN. ZACHARY TAYLOR.

Champaign County, from its locality remote from the theater of the great wars into which the nation has been drawn, since the passing of its territory from savage control, has little of martial history to its credit prior to 1861. What may have taken place before it became the dwelling place of a people who write down their history, can only be a matter of conjecture. The presence along the Sanga- mon River of earthworks, apparently con- structed for purposes of military defense, but

. .

Drawn by Deette Roife.

TOPOGRAPHIC MAP OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY (No. 2.)

Showing Location of Moraines and Valleys. (Dark Tints Indicate Higher Elevations, See Pages 652-654.)

LIBR Y OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

655

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

now overgrown with timber of a large size, and the known presence here later of a peo- ple whose abhorrence of the labor necessary in their construction, strongly supports the conjecture favoring the presence here, before the later Indian occupants, of a people who had the genius and skill necessary in self-de- fense. Who these defensive builders were, their origin and final destiny, can never be- come otherwise, however, than mere conjec- ture.

On January 2, 1781, a small army, consist- ing in part of Spanish soldiers and in part of Indians, under a Spanish officer named Pourre-officers and all not exceeding one hundred and fifty men-marched out of St. Louis, then the capital of the Spanish prov- ince of Northern Louisiana, and across the River Mississippi, under orders to capture, for His Most Christian Majesty, the King of Spain, the fort at the mouth of the St. Joseph River, near the south end of Lake Michigan, under the control of a garrison of the Eng- lish, then at war with Spain, in Europe.

The expedition being undertaken at a sea- son when the waterways of the country were frozen, the route taken was wholly by land, across the prairies. The errand was success- fully performed, as a surprise was sprung upon the lethargic garrison within the fort, and all were made prisoners of war. As a result, the conquerors claimed the Illinois country as conquered territory.

This bit of early Illinois history is intro- duced here, not as such, but in furtherance of the topic of the chapter; for, from the points made in marching and counter-march- ing between St. Louis and St. Joseph, the ter- ritory of Champaign County could hardly have been missed. Such seems to have been the conclusion of the author of "Chapters from Illinois History."(1) This work says: "Some years ago, in the valley where a large Indian village once stood, a few miles west of Dan- ville, in Illinois, three cannon balls of Euro- pean manufacture were found. The place was within the range of a small piece of artillery

planted on the hills nearby, and it has been conjectured' that these balls are relics of this expedition. If so, these afford the only clew · to the line of march."

The later war between the United States and Great Britain, waged between the years 1812 and 1815, brought near to our borders, if not actually upon our soil, fierce conflicts between American soldiers and the red allies of the foreign foe. Fort Harrison, built at a point a few miles north of Terre Haute, Ind., east of the Wabash River, as a means of defense against the enemy inhabiting Illinois, was the object of a severe but unsuccessful attack from this foe on September 4, 1812, (1) while under the command of Capt. Zachary Taylor, afterwards President of the United States.

War between the United States and Great Britain had been declared by Congress June 19, 1812. Already our northern and western frontiers echoed the crack of the hostile rifle in the hands of the allies, and Illinois, in common with other frontier settlements, had suffered from cruel massacres by which the lives of many of her inhabitants had been sacrificed. The United States post at Mack- inac Island had surrendered to the British force and the garrison of Fort Dearborn, at the mouth of the Chicago River, had been cruelly and treacherously butchered. Hostile bands of Indians beset the settled portions of Illinois, carrying death to many homes, and the Indian tribes along the Illinois River dan- gerously menaced every white resident of the Territory.

To check this dangerous condition of affairs, it was determined to strike a decisive blow against the hostile Indians residing along the west side of the Wabash, on the head waters of the Sangamon, and on the Illinois River, above Peoria Lake. A force of Illinois Ran- gers had been gathered and organized under Governor Edwards, at Camp Russell, near Ed- wardsville, (2) organized into two regiments, and placed under command of Colonel Russell, of the regular army. Gen. Samuel Hopkins, a veteran revolutionary officer, in command of two thou- sand Kentucky mounted riflemen, was also in camp at Vincennes. The plan was sug- gested and agreed upon that the force gath-

(1) Edward G. Mason, whose conclusion is found in his work, page 300. See also, Rey- nolds' "Pioneer History," page 126; "Dillon's His- tory of Indiana," page 173. The name of the commander of this expedition is given as above by Mason and as "Pierre" by Dillon. The date is also given as in 1782 by Reynolds and as 1783 by Dillon. It was while Virginia held control at Kaskaskia.

(1)"Dillon's History of Indiana," page 489.

(2) Moses' History of Illinois, page 252-253.

656

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN. COUNTY.

ered by Governor Edwards should, under the direction of Colonel Russell, act in concert with that of General Hopkins, the latter mov- ing up the Wabash to Ft. Harrison, destroy- ing Indian towns on the way and driving the .refugees before him; then, crossing the river into Illinois, march across the Grand Prairie by way of the head-waters of the Vermilion and Sangamon Rivers to the Illinois River at Peoria Lake, where a junction was to be ef- fected with the force under Governor Edwards and Colonel Russell, the united force to finish the work of destruction among the Indian in- habitants by destroying the villages along the Illinois. The plan of campaign was better than its execution proved to be. It met with failure and disgrace on the part of the Ken- tuckians, as detailed by General Hopkins, (1) but undoubtedly gave to the territory which afterwards took the name of Champaign County its first and, perhaps, only experience in sustaining the tramp of civilized troops in pursuit of a hostile foe.

The army of General Hopkins was made up of an aggregation of undisciplined men, en- listed, as they believed, only to defend their own borders; so, as will be seen, military dis- cipline and order were of the most flimsy and unreliable character. Discontent and murmurs from one cause and another arose among the troops before leaving Vincennes; and particu- larly they protested against proceeding far- ther, while at Fort Harrison a large number of the men broke off and returned home.

On October 15, 1812, General Hopkins, at the head of his troops, crossed the Wabash River and turned his face to the northwest, confident of success from the great harmony which seemed then to prevail among his troops. (2) Hardly had the force reached the Grand Prai- rie until signs of a general discontent and in- subordination returned. Instead of maintain- ing that silence and discipline proper and necessary to be observed by an army in an enemy's country, the troops, enticed by the abundant game on all hands, began to straggle and kept up a continuous fire thereat, utterly defying the authority of the commanding Gen- eral, and making it impossible to check the discord. Added to this, the season was rainy, the army had no competent guides, the coun-

try was unknown, and, on the fourth day from Fort Harrison, from loss of the course on the prairies, and insubordination, confusion reigned.

General Hopkins, in describing his ill- starred expedition, says that on the night of the 19th of October, they came to a grove of timber affording water, where they encamped for the night.(1) The Indians in their front set fire to the prairie grass, to the great an- noyance of the force, making it necessary to fire the grass around the camp for protection. At this point it was determined by the officers to return, the discomfited General only ask- ing that he might dictate the course of the return march. He put himself at the head of his disorganized men, intending partially to re- lieve himself of the enforced disgrace by at- tacking some of the Indian towns, but all to no purpose, for the men, now a mob, broke through all restraint and moved off in a con- trary way.

Capt. Zachary Taylor-since the hero of our war with Mexico, and a lamented Presi- dent of the United States-was one of the party, and ably seconded the efforts of his commanding General to stay the retreat and prevent defeat . and disgrace to American arms.

The route taken by this force and the dis- tance and direction traveled renders it not merely probable but reasonably certain that General Hopkins passed over a part of the territory of Champaign County. It is, prob- ably, not too much to assume that the "grove with water," which fixed the camp on the 19th of October, was the Big Grove or the Salt Fork timber, and that the prairie which then silently skirted it on the south and west, was the scene of the brave old General's dis- grace and discomfiture.

While cutting down an abrupt bluff of the Middle Fork of the Vermilion, ten miles west of Danville, in 1869, for the passage of the Indiana, Bloomington & Western Railway, the workmen took from the loose shale compos- ing the bluff, two cannon balls of iron, each about three inches in diameter, which balls were in the possession of the late Hon. H. W. Beckwith, of Danville, Ill., previous to his death. The oldest citizen of that section being at a loss to account for their presence in that

(1) Dillon's History of Indiana, page 497.

(2) Gen. Hopkins had a force of 2,000 men .- Dillon's History of Indiana, page 269.

(1) Dillon's History of Indiana, page 269.

.657

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN. COUNTY.

·bluff, I believe it is not assuming too much to say that these balls were probably thrown at hostile Indians from the light field pieces used by General Hopkins on that occasion. It is not known that any other armed force ·ever passed near this point, unless the Span- -ish force referred to in a preceding paragraph of this chapter, also passed the same point. If it did pass near the Indian village on the Middle Fork, it is hardly probable that it car- ried guns of sufficient caliber to have depos- ited these balls where they were found. Gen- eral Hopkins made his campaign in the early autumn, when transportation across this coun- try was comparatively easy, the distance being no more than eighty miles from Fort Har- rison, his base of supplies. He had a force of 2,000 men, while the Spanish force did not exceed 150 men and officers, were upon , a long winter march and were provided, we must conclude, with no impediments not neces- sary for the work in hand-the surprise and capture of a force much less than their own, protected only by a weak stockade.

A former citizen of this county, long since deceased,(1) once informed the writer that, when a very young man residing in Indiana, in the spring of 1832, he joined a regiment of Indiana volunteers called out to fight the In- dians under Black Hawk, commonly known as the Black Hawk War. The regiment, under orders for the seat of war in the northern part of Illinois, crossed the Wabash River at Terre Haute, and a northwesterly course led them through Champaign County. One night the ground near the creek on west Main Street, Urbana, about where the Christian church stands, was chosen as a camping ground, and was occupied until time to march next morn- ing. The regiment marched through the coun- ty under arms, from the south to the north . line.

It might here be added that quite a num-

(1) Deacon James Myers, who died February. 1883. Mr. Meyers remembered well the one cabin-then on the site of Urbana,- -across the creek from the camping ground,-occupied by Isaac Busey. He also had ample reason for remembering the lone cabin of the Cook family, located about a mile and a half north of Ur- bana, on the east side of North Lincoln Ave- nue; for, from the line of girls, who, from the door-yard fence, watched the soldiers pass. he took one for his wife eight years thereafter, when he had returned from the war and become a citizen of Champaign County. The union of this couple gave to the county. a large family of sons and daughters.

ber of Vermilion County men from that por- tion of the county which, during the next year by act of the General Assembly became .Champaign County, took part in the Black Hawk War, as members of a company made up mostly from about Danville. Among these may be named Thomas L. Butler, afterwards and for many years a well-known citizen of Homer, and who met his death only a few years since in a railroad accident; Martin Rhinehart, a citizen of Somer Township, who many years since removed to Wisconsin, where he died; also Rev. Mr. Mahurin, a Bap- tist minister, who lived and preached in the Big Grove, and Jacob Heater, afterwards a well-known citizen.

CHAPTER VII.

EARLY NAMES OF LOCALITIES.

FIRST HOMES SET UP IN THE GROVES-NAMES OF LOCATIONS, AS NOW KNOWN, UNKNOWN PRIOR TO 1860-BIG GROVE-SALT FORK-SANGAMON-AM- BRAW-MIDDLE FORK-SADORUS GROVE-BOWSE'S GROVE-LINN GROVE-LOST GROVE-HICKORY GROVE BUR-OAK GROVE-MINK GROVE-DEAD-MAN'S GROVE -CHERRY GROVE-THE TOW-HEAD-ADKIN'S POINT -NOX'S POINT-BUTLER'S POINT-PANCAKE'S POINT-STRONG'S FORD-PRATHER'S FORD-NEW COM'S FORD-KENTUCKY SETTLEMENT-YANKEE RIDGE-DUTCH FLATS.

As was the fact in most of the early settle- ments in 'Illinois, the first homes of white families in Champaign County were set up in the groves and timber belts, on account of the protection yielded in winter and the accessi- bility to water, fuel and building material. (1)

(1)To illustrate the antipathy of the pioneer for a residence upon the prairie, the following, told by Dr. W. A. Conkey, of Homer, is here inserted:

Dr. Conkey, then ten years of age, came with his father's family from Massachusetts, to Ed- gar County, Illinois, in 1830, and at once the father built his home away out on the prairie, his neighbors, as usual then, all having chosen their places of residence in or near the timber, -he being the first to do so in that neighbor- hood. This act called forth comment and crit- icism from the pioneers who, as usual, shook their heads at so daring an adventure. At a public sale in the neighborhood, a few months thereafter, Mr. Conkey was a bidder for such articles of property as he needed, and seems to have attracted some attention by his presence and bidding; for one man asked of another who it was that was thus making purchases. The answer was. "O. it is that d -- d fool Yankee that has built away out on the prairie."

658

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

There being many such timber tracts, and each one having, in turn, served as a shelter to the newly arrived settlers, it will be most convenient, in detailing the facts in hand con- cerning the early settlement of the county, to treat each grove or timber belt and its set- tlements separately, designating them by the names in use fifty years since, and until township organization under the statute about 1860, and the growth of villages along the various lines of railroads, gave us a new no- menclature for neighborhoods.

It need hardly be related that, prior to 1860, the present names in use to designate organ- ized towns were unknown, except where the name was before then used to designate a vil- lage or railroad station.

Until the autumn of 1860 the county existed under what is known as county organization, as distinguished from township organization, since then prevailing. A vote of the county determined the change. Before then county business, now done by the Board of Super- visors, was transacted, before 1848, by a board of three commissioners; and, from 1848 until the change in 1860, by the Judge of the Coun- ty Court and two associates. The names be- fore then universally used to designate local- ities other than the immediate neighborhood of the few villages, were such as "The Big Grove,"(1) meaning the large grove of nat- ural timber just north of the City of Urbana, lying partly in Town 19 and partly in Town 20. "The Salt Fork" (2) was a general term used to designate not only the lands covered by the timber along that stream, but the neighboring farms, from its northern extrem- ity to the point where it leaves the county. Homer and Sidney were villages along the

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume II, Part 29

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Cunningham, Joseph O. (Joseph Oscar), 1830-1917 Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 632

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Cunningham, Joseph O. (Joseph Oscar), 1830-1917
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 632