USA > Illinois > Champaign County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume II > Part 35
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"It is expected that the cars will soon pay the town a visit, and that the whistle of the loco- motive will wake to new life the business of the town and surrounding country, which is already good. Several new houses are being built, and many more will be commenced when facilities for getting lumber are better.
"Our friend, M. D. Coffeen. Esq., has just fin- ished a new and commodious building for the accommodation of his extensive business, which we admired very much on account of the con- venience of its arrangement and the superior beauty of the workmanship. The carpenter work was done by Mr. Cyrus Hays, and the painting, which is really elegant, by Mr. John Towner.
"Besides Mr. Coffeen's dry-goods store, there are several others and a drug-store by Judge John B. Thomas, all doing a fine business. A steam saw-mill has, during the summer, been put in operation, which is turning, out a vast amount of ties for the Great Western Railroad." -Urbana Union, October 25, 1855.
684
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
have come to its settlement and become, from time to time, a part of its communities, many men who have helped in the conquest of the country, but whose names are not recorded here as those of the real pioneers, but who are not to be overlooked in the inventory of forces which have transformed the wilderness into a garden. Among men of this kind may be named the Towners-William, Benjamin, Rich- ard and George-Fountain J. Busey, Joseph V. George, William D. Clark, Samuel Love, Dr. George W. Hartman, Dr. E. Bodman; the Cole brothers-Billings B., George and Charles; Willard Samson; the Porterfields, whose num- bers exceed that of any other family ever making its home there; Jonathan Howser, Jo- seph T. Kelley and others.
CHAPTER XII.
SETTLEMENT IN SANGAMON TIMBER.
SANGAMON LAST TO BE SETTLED-ISAAC BUSEY EN- TERED FIRST LAND-JONATHAN MAXWELL-JOHN BRYAN-JOHN MEADE-JOHN G. ROBERTSON- NOAH BIXLER-ISAAC V. WILLIAMS-F. L. SCOTT- J. Q. THOMAS-B. F. HARRIS-GEORGE BOYER- WILLIAM STEWART-JOSEPH T. EVERETT-JESSE .B. PUGH-JEFFERSON TROTTER-F. B. SALE-W. W. FOOS.
1
The settlements first made in the western part of Champaign County form no exception to the rule, in the selection of lands for farms and sites for homes, as to the preference for timber instead of prairie. The former, in the estimation of the pioneer, was of greatest value, and the latter was valuable or worth- less, as it lay near to the timber belt or remote from it. The wealth to be won from the prai- rie soil and the esteem in which it was to be held by the successors of pioneers, was not dreamed of by them. So, on inspection of dates of entries of lands lying along the San- gamon River, the records show a scramble for timber tracts, even though those tracts abounded in yellow clay, while the prairie tracts, covered with wealth producing mold, were ignored and despised and shunned, as elsewhere in the State. Up to 1850 not one- fourth of the prairie lands had been entered, while the timber lands had all, or nearly all, been taken.
In point of time, the great Sangamon ter- ritory of the county was last to attract the attention of the immigrant and the last to have its solitudes and landscapes disturbed by the coming of the white settler; although its beautiful valleys and wide plains were visited by the retiring red race long after his visits . to other portions of the nearby country had ceased, and many earth-works along the river banks, and the presence in the soil of the stone axes and arrow-heads of a by-gone race fully attest the favor in which the region was held before the white man had elbowed out the aboriginal occupants.
It was nearly six years after Jesse Williams, on February 7, 1827, made the first entry of lands of the county in Section 12 of Sidney Township, that Isaac Busey, the first citizen of Urbana, made an entry of lands in and near the timber belt of the Sangamon, on October 22, 1832, at the Land Office at Vandalia. Mr. Busey entered 120 acres in Section 14, 80 acres in Section 15, and 160 acres in Section 23-all in Township 20-now Mahomet Township- which were the first entries of lands upon the Sangamon within this county. Later in the same year he entered other lands in Sections 22 and 23, and on October 27, Jonathan Max- well, who it is claimed was the first to make his home in the township, entered 40 acres in Section 22. Henry Osborn, on October 29th, entered land in Sections 11 and 12. These were the only lands in the Sangamon timber taken that year. They are all situated east of the river, within and adjacent to the tim- ber.
On August 10, 1833, John Bryan, who had but recently, by his marriage to Malinda Busey -the first marriage celebrated by authority of a Champaign County license-become the son-in-law of Isaac Busey, entered a 40-acre tract in Section 14, adjoining the first entry of Mr. Busey, and these lands became the home of the Bryan family, in whose hands it remained for many years. John Meade also made his first entry of lands in 1833 in Sec- tion 15.
The year 1834 saw more entries made of the Sangamon lands. John G. Robertson, William Phillips, Lackland Howard, Noah Bixler, Charles Parker, Henry and David Osborn, John Meade, Jeremiah Hollingsworth, Solomon and James Osborn, John Bryan and Samuel Hanna took up various tracts in Sections 9,
685
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17, in Mahomet Township. Less in number were the entries there the next year. They were made by I. V. Williams in Section 6, Scott Township, and by Noah Bixler, Martha A. Robertson, Joseph Brian, Joel Hormel, Jacob Hammer, Daniel Henness, Fielding L. Scott, Joseph Henness, Joseph Lindsey, Joseph Hammer and John G. Robertson in Sections 3, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15 and 17 in Mahomet Township.
The year 1836 saw more entries of Sanga- mon lands than any previous year, the num- ber reaching over forty, mostly in Mahomet, in Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15 and 17. Among those who made these entries and afterwards became well known residents and useful citizens, may be named Jacob Hammer, Noah Bixler, James Bevans, William Justice, John J. Rea, John Webb, George Ritter, Mar- tha A. Robertson, James Parmes, Jonathan Maxwell, Jonathan Scott, Jeremiah Hollings- worth, Robert M. Patterson, John Lindsey and Daniel T. Porter.
The last named on March 5th of that year, entered the southeast quarter of the north- west quarter of Section 15, and on the 10th of the same month followed this entry by put- ting on record the plat of the town of Mid- dletown-a plat of thirty-eight lots located up- on his late entry. This plat was the original of the present village of Mahomet. The found- er chose one of the most picturesque locations in the county for his future city. The plat was laid to conform to the Bloomington road as now traveled, which must have been in use before that time. Additions since made to the plat extend it towards the north, west and south.
The records of the county show that J. Q. Thomas, still a resident of Mahomet, in Sep- tember, 1855, laid out the town of "Bloom- ville," consisting of thirty-two lots on the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 8, about two miles northwest of Ma- homet. The object of this enterprise does not appear, as no town ever grew up there and no further attempt at urban expansion was ever made, so far as known.
In 1836 P. S. Loughborough, of Kentucky, en- tered a large area of land in Sections 14, 15, 22, 27, and 35, in Newcomb Township, out of which grew many law-suits for the settlement of titles, some of which finally reached the
highest court of the State and caused much annoyance to the rightful owners.
James S. Mitchel, during the years 1834 to 1836, entered lands in Sections 22 and 23 in Newcomb, and soon thereafter improved the same. He is said to have been the first to bring to the county improved breeds of cattle. He was very prominent for some years in the affairs of the county.
In addition to those already named as early investors in Sangamon real estate of the coun- ty, it will be proper to name many others who, before 1845 or soon thereafter, came to the county. These include B. F. Harris, George Boyer, William Stewart, Michael Bix- ler, Abner Leland, Adam Karr, Thomas Lind- sey, Joseph T. Everett, William H. Groves, Jesse B. Pugh, Robert Fisher, Augustus Black- er, Jefferson Trotter, William Peabody, Ben- jamin Huston, Robert Huston, Samuel Huston, Benjamin Dolph, Nicholas Devore, Thomas Stephens, Andrew Pancake, John Phillippe, John J. Gulick, F. B. Sale, Abel Harwood, John W. Parks, John H. Funston, Wiley Davis, Thomas A. Davidson, John R. Rayburn, Robert P. Carson, Elisha Harkness, William Foos and Samuel A. Harvey, William Dawley, Alexan- der G. Boyer, R. R. Seymour, Samuel Koogler, Matthew T. Scott, B. F. Cressap and William W. Foos. The entries of the latter named gentlemen were notable for their extent, and for the fact that these entries-with, perhaps, large additions thereto-are still held by per- sons of the same name as profitable invest- ments. (1)
These entries were made early in the his-
(1) The Foos farm, at Foosland, consists of 3,800 acres. The owner, F. W. Foos, resides in New York City, but often comes to Foosland and is well known there. His resident manager is R. G. Ball, a good farmer and most compe- tent man in every way. For the past fifteen years Mr. Ball has had the management of this big farm and seems to have given entire sat- isfaction, both to tenants and owner. The farm rents to tenants for $4 per acre, cash, for either grain or grass land, except that, when as much as 100 acres of grass are rented to one man. the price is but $3.75. This is much lower than neighboring land can be rented for and therefore it is much in demand. There are thir- teen tenants in all. Of the 3,800 acres there are 1,500 in grass, 700 in oats and 2,100 in corn- at least that was the case last season, but the proportions differ yearly. An effort is made to keep changing from grain to grass. thus keeping the fertility of the soil. The farm is moderately well tiled, has fairly good fences around it, but the buildings are not very new or up to date. Last year there were raised on this farm-not including the 1,500 acres of grass-105,000 bush- els of corn and 2,100 bushels of oats .- Cham- paign Times.
686
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
tory of the county and remote from timber. One rule of selection seems to have been ob- served by far-seeing men who chose land for future use or sale; this class, in most cases- even while there was unpatented timber land open to entry-choosing choice prairie tracts; while the early seeker after a home for him- self and family, when possible, kept within or close to the timber grove. Modern develop- ments have shown that Naudain, McHenry, Hale, Loughborough, Foos and other specu- lators, who came early and made their choice of lands on the prairie and away from any natural protection from the wintry blasts, chose most wisely. It was common for the early settler, who had his snug home in the timber grove, to look with pity, or even with some degree of derision, upon the unfortunate late comer, who, perhaps under compulsion, made his home on the prairie. Many such have been informed that they would certainly freeze in such a location. Until as late as 1850 few farms had been opened a mile from timber in this county; and, even later than that, the pessimists among the settlers often prophesied that these prairies would never be settled. Transportation facilities for building material and fuel, together with the demon- stration of the capacities of the prairie soil, have changed the whole aspect and estimates of relative values.
B. F. Harris, who made his home upon the Sangamon about 1836, remembers that, at that time, there were living along that timber, for a space of ten miles or more, something over fifteen families, of whom he names the fol- lowing: John Phillippe, Ethan Newcom, Mat- thew Johnson, Jonathan Maxwell, John Bryan; James, Robert and Solomon Osborn; Isaac V. Williams, Wesley Davis, Edward Nolan, Wil- liam Wright, Nat. Hanline, Bennett Warren, George Boyer, Elijah Myers, Amos Dickson, Moses N. Dale, John Meade, John Kilgore, Isaac and Joseph Hammer; also a family named Demorest and another named Hughes, whose given names were not remembered:
Nelson Stearns, father of William Stearns, came to the country about 1844 and bought a part of the lands entered, as already stated, by James Bevans, which are now owned and occupied by the son, William. Mr. Stearns died in 1848 and his widow became the wife of George Boyer.
Many of the cabins erected in the Sangamon settlement before 1833, were built with holes between the logs at convenient distances as port-holes for defense against Indian attack. Fortunately, so far as known, no occasion ever existed for their use for that purpose.
CHAPTER XIII.
SETTLEMENTS IN OTHER GROVES.
MIDDLE FORK : SAMUEL KERR, ANTHONY T. MORGAN, WILLIAM BRIAN, SANFORD AND WILLIAM SWIN- FORD, WILLIAM CHENOWETH, JOHN KUDER, SOL- OMON AND LEWIS KUDER, SOLOMON WILSON, LEVI WOOD, DANIEL ALLHANDS, SOLOMON MERCER- - BUR OAK GROVE: SAMUEL MCCLUGHEN, JOHN STRONG, ISAAC MOORE, ANTHONY T: MORGAN .- LINN GROVE: JOSEPH DAVIS, DANIEL JOHNSON, FREDERIC BOUSE -AMBRAW TIMBER : THOMAS,
SAMUEL AND HUGH MEHARRY, GEORGE W. MYERS, JAMES M. HELM, ALFRED BOCOCK, COR- NELIUS THOMPSON, WOODSON MORGAN, JOHN SPENCER -MINK GROVE; ARCHA CAMPBELL, GEORGE W. TERRY -LOST GROVE: JOHN F. THOMPSON - PIONEER WEST.
With personal knowledge derived from ob- servation, a glance at the records of land en- tries of the county will show that the earliest settlements of the county were made in or near the natural groves of timber found here. . This law of growth found early settlers in the small groves, as well as in the larger groves and timber belts. With but few exceptions all entries made prior to 1845 were within the protection of the timber, or upon choice selections of prairie nearby.
Samuel Kerr, reputed to have been the first person to become a permanent resident of the northeastern township of Champaign County -and from whom the township received its name in the year 1833 entered land in Sec- tion 9, in what has since been known as "Sugar Grove," an aggregation of fine timber which grew up under the protection of the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River, which makes a cut across the northeast corner of this county. Here he lived and died-with the exception of a very few others who also ven- tured so far away-alone in the great waste of timber and prairie which lay unclaimed around him.
687
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN. COUNTY.
One Anthony T. Morgan on November 10, 1832, entered forty acres in Section 34, which was the first entry to be made in that town- ship. Other entries there were few for some years and generally made for speculative pur- poses, and by people who are not known to have ever occupied their holdings. William Brian, James Kellar, Andrew Sprouls, George Grooms, William Hodges, B. Milliken, Jona- than Powell, Levi Asher, Young E. Winkler, Daniel Halbutt and Edward Pyle followed with entries within the next few years, but how many of them became residents the writer is unable to say. In all, not fifty entries-and those mostly of forty-acre tracts-were made before 1840.
We notice the names of Sanford Swinford, William Swinford, William Chenoweth, John Kuder and Solomon Kuder-all well known residents of that part of the county, in later years-among these early comers. The neigh- borhood was remote from the county-seat, from markets and from mills, and its settle- ment was very slow, although the quality of the soil was unexcelled and the outlook for the future all that could be wished.
Until about 1854 the settlement was united with Urbana precinct, and its voters, who chose to take part in elections, went there to vote. Not much before this date was its first postoffice-Point Pleasant-established, prior to which date Urbana, or Marysville in Ver- milion County, were its nearest postoffices.
Later there came to the township Solomon Wilson, Lewis Kuder, Levi Wood, Daniel All- hands and Solomon Mercer.
Samuel McClughen was first to choose a residence at Bur Oak Grove, which he did in 1836, during which year, and the years soon following, he and members of his family en- tered considerable land there. Mr. McClughen lived there the remainder of his life, and his descendants are still upon the ground. In this retired situation all that nature could do for the lone settler was done, for free air, free pasturage and free land for cultivation were all around in abundance.(1) Settlers as
(1) Mrs. Margaret Truax, one of the daughters of Samuel McClughen, born soon after the set- tlement of her father's family at the Bur Oak Grove, well remembers their isolation there in the early years. She relates that, upon one occasion, late in the fall and after the weather became somewhat cool, by some means the fam- ily fire went out. It was before the day of fric- tion matches and no other facilities for the re-
neighbors came but' slowly. John Strong, father of Ambrose, now of Urbana, lived at the Grove some years.
Other entries of land there were made be- . fore 1840 by William Abnett, Isaac Moore, Robert Wyatt and by Anthony T. Morgan.
Joseph Davis entered the Linn Grove lands in 1835, though he had lived there long before that date, probably as a squatter upon the public domain. His house long before that date was a stopping place for travelers pass- ing there, either upon the east and west or upon the north and south trail, both of which were much traveled. The same lands were, about 1840, conveyed by Milton Davis to Dan- iel Johnson. The Johnson home was also a hospitable halting place for many years there- after.
The Ambraw timber, like other groves of the county, was an early rallying point for settlers, though few seem to have chosen it before 1840. Frederic Bouse, so far as tra- dition informs us, was the first. He is said to have lived both at the Linn Grove and at the grove further south, which, after seventy-five years, still bears his name. No record shows that he entered land in the Ambraw valley.
From 1836 to 1843 James Groenendyke and his brother Samuel, merchants and pork-pack- ers of Eugene, Ind., either as individuals or together, entered several tracts of land along the stream, carefully selecting those best cov- ered with timber as the most desirable, as they had done elsewhere in the county. As neither ever located upon the lands so pur- chased, it seems evident that the entries were made only as investments. Both the Groenendyke brothers died many years since, leaving to their numerous heirs these in- vestments.
Thomas, Samuel and Hugh Meharry were also large buyers of lands in this township, Crittenden and Philo, to be held as invest- ments for their children, as they are to this
kindling of the fire were at hand. The nearest neighbors were at the Hickory Grove, four or five miles distant. Mr. McClughen mounted a horse, and with a covered iron kettle in which to bring the needed fire, rode as fast as he could to Michael Firebaugh's, a neighbor on the east side of Hickory Grove, for his supply be- fore a fire could be started. Mrs. Truax remem- bers that the younger members of the family were put to bed to save them from suffering from cold during the absence of the father.
688
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
day. George W. Myers, James M. Helm, Al- fred Bocock, Cornelius Thompson, Woodson Morgan, John Spencer and others came in the 'fifties.
Archa Campbell, as early as 1849, entered land, then and since known as "Mink Grove," at Rantoul. He and his brother John-both then residents at Urbana-in 1850 and 1852, by entries of adjoining lands, added to this holding. Archa built a cabin. there before or soon after his purchase, and for some time, with his family, made his home there. His nearest neighbors were the dwellers at the north end of the Big Grove, eight miles away, or those at Sugar Grove, as far away to the east. He was succeeded in the occupancy of the cabin by George W. Terry, who lived there as late as 1853, when the writer, during a journey from Urbana to Chicago and return, was most hospitably received and fed, both going and coming.
Lost Grove, situated near the line which divides the Township of South Homer from the Township of Ayers, was, from its isola- tion and the very wet conditions which sur- rounded it, shunned as a place for settlement until long after the other situations were well peopled. It was, however, well known and often visited by travelers. The road from Paris to Homer and Urbana made this a point; and so, from the earliest history of the county, travel from the south led to it. It was a land-mark for travelers in that direc- tion and often spoken of. Its locality now embraces some of the best and most highly prized lands of the county. (1)
(1)"The first improvement was made by a man by the name of West at the Lost Grove-it hav- ing been so named on account of a traveler at an early day, having lost his course in a vio- lent snow storm then prevailing, and who took refuge in the grove and perished, his remains having been discovered badly mutilated by wolves sometime thereafter. West, with his brother-in-law, John F. Thompson, pre-empted the land in 1851, and during that spring West settled there by building a shanty, and com- menced making an improvement. During that year he built a log house and remained there until 1853, when he sold out his interest in the lands to Thompson, who moved there in 1855 and remained until his death, leaving quite a large family, the most of whom have settled in and around the village of Homer."-Dr. W. A. Conkey's Essay.
CHAPTER XIV.
EARLY CONDITIONS AND CUSTOMS.
THE CABIN HOME-BETTER HOUSES-FIRST FRAME DWELLINGS-DISEASES-EARLY DEATHS - GREAT AGE OF SOME PIONEERS-CHOLERA-SOME EARLY PHYSICIANS-DR. T. FULKERSON-DR. J. H. LYON -DR. H. STEVENS-DR. W. A. CONKEY-DR. JOHN SADDLER-DR. WINSTON SOMERS-DR. N. H. ADAMS -DR. C. C. HAWES-DR. CRANE-DR. J. T. MILLER -DR. C. H. MILLS-DR. H. C, HOWARD-EARLY MILLS-FIRST STEAM MILL.
As in all new countries, the first buildings erected in Champaign County were of the most simple and primitive character consist- ent with the protection of the family from the storm and cold. Anything for a shelter was the thing desired.
A style of house very common in the set- tlements-and one quickly constructed with- out other tools than an axe and, perhaps, an auger-was a cabin wholly built with the tim- ber materials always to be had in the timber groves. Small logs, or poles, of suitable length to build a cabin suited in size to the wants or necessities of the family, were cut and hauled to the site chosen for the future home. Notching the ends of these logs, with the help of his neighbors or, in some in- stances, of the Indians, they were rolled one above the other on the four sides of the build- ing until a suitable height of walls was at- tained. Across the building, at intervals of three or four feet, other logs or poles were laid until a foundation for the floor of the chamber or loft had been prepared, having in view all the time symmetry and smoothness of the upper room. The ends of this building were then carried up a suitable height for the upper room, when they were, by shortening each successive log, gradually drawn to an apex. Again logs or poles were laid from gable to gable for the support of the roof, to be made of boards or shakes of suitable length, split from some near-by oak tree. In the absence or impossibility of getting nails with which to fasten the roof, boards, logs or poles were cut of suitable length and laid lengthwise of the building, upon each succes- sive course of the roofing material. The neces- sary doors and windows were formed by cut- ting spaces through the log walls, in suitable
COLLEGE OF LAW-UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
LIB! RY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
689
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
places and of suitable size. Doors and win- dow-shutters were made from split clapboards and hung on wooden hinges. As late as 1837 glass windows were not known about the Big Grove. Floors were made of puncheons split from trees, one side of which was hewed to a plane surface for the upper side of the floor, while the other side was notched to the log sleepers upon which the floor rested, the edges of each puncheon being lined and straightened so as to fit its neighbor. In this way a very solid and durable floor could be made with only the woodman's axe, and an adz to level and smooth off after the floor had been laid. A floor could be made of white ash or oak, which, after the necessary wear from the feet of the dwellers in the cabin, presented no mean appearance when sanded and kept clean. For a ceiling above, a very ready and excellent expedient was al- ways at hand. In summer time the bark of the linden tree readily cleaves from the trunk in sheets as long as the ordinary cabin, and of a width equal to the circumference of the log from which it is taken. Enough of this to furnish the ceiling of an ordinary cabin could be peeled in an hour or so. Placed upon the beams, which had also been peeled before being placed in position, the inside of the bark turned down, with poles for weights on top to prevent curling, a ceiling at once tight and elegant enough for a fairy castle was had, which time and smoke from the fire-place would color most beautifully.
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