Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Edgar County, Part 127

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell
Number of Pages: 876

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HISTORY OF EDGAR COUNTY.

of access. Prior to the construction of the aforesaid line of railroad, Clinton and Terre Haute on the Wabash river, from twenty to forty miles distant, were the only home market places, produce being carried thence by flat-boat to New Orleans, which was the only seaport of the great valley of the Mississippi. The annual amount of produce which thus found its way down the Mississippi was sufficient to "glut the market" from one year's end to another. Some- times the enterprising settler would haul his grain or fruit to Chicago. It took a fortnight to make the round trip; but, in those days, time was more plenty than anything else, and was scarcely considered an element of value.

The period immediately preceding the Civi! War was one of extreme depression in the value of farm products. The winter before the war began many farmers used their surplus corn for fuel, there being but a limited sale for it at eight and ten cents per bushel. Much corn was converted into whisky, the price of which was "a bit (121/2 cents) a gallon." A citizen could keep warm cheap enough that winter, either by burning his ear-corn in his fireplace, or imbib- ing the distillation thereof. As the cloud of war darkened the land, there was social sad- ness all about and everywhere; but, puzzling and paradoxical as it may now seem, those years of national gloom and general sorrow were pecuniarily prosperous, and actually the most money-making period for the farmers this county has ever experienced. Wealth was rapidly accumulated by diligence and sense in almost every line of business, but agriculture was especially remunerative.

During the war there were about two thou-, sand citizens of the county enlisted in the army, but the number of people in the county was not diminished, as many refugees fled to this region from the arena of war and remained until peace came. Most all of them finally returned to their former homes. The surviv- ing volunteers came home, but many of them emigrated to the new Western States and, for more than a decade, commencing with 1860, the county was at a standstill in the matter of increase in population. During this post-war period, the vast market which the Government had furnished having vanished with the advent of peace, and the great army of men having ceased to be consumers and become producers, problems of finance became much confused and unsettled, and there was a general decline ill

prices and depreciation of values. This con- tinued with scant exceptions until the Govern- ment resumed specie payments in 1879. The restoration or growth of financial confidence was slow but sure, and from that time the prog- ress of the county has been constant and accel- erated.

The prairie lands of the county are very flat and during a wet season were naturally inca- pable of producing a crop of corn, or indeed anything except prairie grass. There is some undulating prairie in the north side of the county-a "ridge," as it is called, rising fifty or sixty feet above the lower level, extending clear across the county and much farther west- ward. There are also some undulations in the town of Shiloh, somewhat scattered and comprising, all together, perhaps, two to three thousand acres. These elevations are not as permanently fertile as the lower areas, but were first selected by settlers to obviate the difficulties of rainy seasons, and because the mere grazing on them by domestic animals . would extirpate the prairie grass and the blue grass would come as its natural successor. Within the last thirty years all the lands of the county have been enclosed, occupied and improved in every way. The wet lands have been drained, and having a deeper soil, have thereby been made more productive than the higher lands. Systems of main drains, with tributaries affording outlets for each tract in each system or district, have been organized, begun and completed throughout the prairie district, until their entire acreage has been made arable and profitable; and where were once only ponds and "swags" all the year and every year, are now to be found the best corn- fields. Except the larger main drains, the drainage of the land is tile-made of the soil next the "tile factory" or of "brick tile." Stone tile is used in some cases where a capacity of more than fifteen inches in diameter is required. This is rarely necessary, however, as, in these almost level areas, by scattering the mains and connecting more of them with the larger open main-drains, sufficient capacity for outlet can be obtained, and thus the neces- sity for large and expensive stone-tile is obvi- ated. Tile-drainage of the land is advantageous in more ways than one: besides carrying away the excess of water, it aids materially in the fertilization of the lands beneath the surface of which, at a depth of two to four feet, it

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HISTORY OF EDGAR COUNTY.

awaits the residue of the rains and melting snows, which is not imbibed by the thirsty overlying soil, as it percolates below in pur- suit of its destined level. Whatever there is in the rain and the snow which will stimulate and enrich the soil. may be caught up and appro- priated by it as the fluid passes down within easy reach, instead of running off over the sur- face, or standing in ponds or "swags" until its dispersion in the air by evaporation. When the land was new it produced abundant crops ot wheat, and the cultivation of that grain was more profitable than corn; but, in later years, wheat seldom succeeds and corn has taken its place as the plant which, with oats now and then, and occasionally clover, furnishes the basis for rotation of crops. Clover is becom- ing more fashionable every year. Farms are larger than formerly, and one man and one team will farm eighty, or even a hundred acres, and farm it well. All stubble-land is plowed in August and September, and need not . be broken the next spring: a "disc" will pre- pare it for planting; or at most, a "disc" and harrow will do so. If corn crops are repeated, the stalks are broken down, cut in pieces and plowed under, thus returning to the soil all the growth of the former year except the ear and fodder. Thus farmed, the average acre yields seventy bushels of corn or fifty bushels of oats. The present pecuniary income from a crop of oats is less than that from corn, but the oats crop is easier to make and handle, brings money earlier in the year and rests the soil for a succeeding corn crop.

The level timber lands in the county are so like the prairie that the foregoing is equally applicable to them. The undulating timber lands do not need the drainage, and are farmed in corn and oats much like the prairie, except that more clover is grown upon them. The broken lands are generally used for pasture.

The first settlers, while plowing their fields, walked behind their bar-share plows with wooden mold-boards and turning a single fur- row, broke the clods with a harrow with wooden teeth, furrowed the ground both ways, and at each cross-furrow, dropped his seed corn and covered it with a hoe; and, as it grew, he cultivated his crop with a shovel-plow and a hoe. The farmer of those early days was, indeed, "The man with a hoe." When the corn ripened he husked it, handling it with his hands, a few ears at a time, until with such

severe toil, he got a few dollars from his scant crop.

Now the farmer sits in a comfortable seat on his bright steel plow, turns two or more fur- rows at once and, each day, several acres; then, similarly seated on the "disc," the steel circles of which gleam in the sunlight like so many silver dollars, he pulverizes and levels the ground for planting; then mounts his corn- planter, which drops and covers the seed-corn with such certainty and celerity that "the man with a hoe," if he were present, would drop that instrument and declare it wasn't his'n. Then he "works" his corn with a cultivator, finishing a row each time he crosses the field; with the polished "shares," husks it at the rate of one hundred bushels per day, hauling it from the field to an elevator, where he opens the end-gate of his great wagon-bed, with side- boards up to his ears when he stands upright in it, and, in a second of time, the big load is dumped into the crib below, and he drives around to the scales to have his wagon weighed, while he receives a handful of money for his load of corn.

From the time the settlement of Edgar County began up to 1884, large tracts of land were exclusively devoted to grazing, and the county was noted for its herds of cattle, as well as for their excellence, many of them being short-horns and other superior breeds. Lat- terly these large pastures are planted in corn, and it may be truly said of Edgar County, that "Corn is King"-Indian corn-although broom- corn is produced in considerable quantities in the western part of the county. Many farmers plant hundreds of acres each and the aggregate amount raised and shipped from the county, each year, is so great as to seem fabulous. Col. Terrence Clark superintends the planting and production of over two thousand acres of corn and half as many acres of oats on his farms. The annual plant of corn will average not less than fifty acres to the man and team engaged. The crop is planted, "tended" and "laid by" within three months, and another month is required for gathering it for the crib or mar- ket. If a railroad station is situated within a mile or two-or even three miles-the corn is generally hauled from the field to the elevator as the wagon-beds are filled, if prices at the time happen to be satisfactory. More than half the corn is produced by tenants. The usual rental is half the crop delivered in the crib or

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HISTORY OF EDGAR COUNTY.

elevator; and it is the custom for the landlord and tenant to divide by weight as the crop is harvested. Many land proprietors have retired to the city or village nearest their farms. The tenants of Edgar County, as a class, are good citizens, manly, intelligent, thrifty, worthy in every way, and most of them, sooner or later, become proprietors here or elsewhere. Farms are enclosed with wire fences or hedges, except in a few instances, notwithstanding the law pro- hibiting stock from running at large; but lately hedges are abhorred and are disappearing, as their growth occupies too much valuable space. Farm buildings are good in a general way, and some are extraordinary. The usual farm res- idence is a commodious cottage of wood, well built and handsomely painted, giving evidence of the skillful comfort and good living of the occupants, indicating that in every way they are attractive homes. Large barns are rare: only stabling for horses and room for feed, such as hay and grain and crib-room for the corn crops, being requisite. The cribs are gen- erally located at some distance from the barn for convenience and security from fire. A farm here and there has a maple or walnut grove of an acre or more, near the residence; but, in a general way, the trees are not many and are for ornament only.

This county is not in the fruit belt of Illinois and orchards are small and unproductive. Fruit trees grow rapidly in the prairie, as all trees do; but their lifetime is short and the climate seems to forbid their bearing fruit. The fruit trees on the timber land do better, but are unprofitable there. Small fruit does fairly well but is not much grown. Importation facil- ities are so abundant that people rely upon the markets supplied by localities where such fruits are produced with a regular and certain abundance.

Taken all in all, the farmers of Edgar County, proprietors and tenants, are the equals of farmers anywhere else in the State of Illi- nois, or the United States, which is not faint praise, but "enough said" in a commendatory way,

CHAPTER VII.

PRECINCT ORGANIZATION.

EDGAR COUNTY DIVIDED INTO PRECINCTS-WAYNE, PIKE, FAIRFIELD, CARROLL AND RIPLEY PRE- CINCTS ORGANIZED-TERRITORY EMBRACED IN EACH-EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND LEADING CITI- ZENS.

On the organization of Edgar County in January, 1823, it was divided into five pre- cincts, viz .: Wayne, Pike, Fairfield, Carroll and Ripley.

WAYNE PRECINCT included what now consti- tutes the towns of Brouillett Creek, Hunter, Stratton and the north mile in width of Elbridge. The first settlers arrived here in 1817. Remember Blackman, John Stratton, William Whitley, Anthony Saunders and Aloy- sius Brown early in that year, and in the fall of the same year came Col. Jonathan Mayo and, later, Barney Reynolds, both from Ken- tucky. Blackman was from New York; Strat- ton, Whitley and Brown were Kentuckians and Saunders from North Carolina. A corn crop was raised during that year by those who came in time, and this was the first corn grown in the county by white men, and believed to be the first ever grown in the county, as it is not known that the Indians ever produced corn here.

Col. Jonathan Mayo, one of the settlers of 1817, was a native of Virginia and having been prominent in county history, is mentioned else- where more particularly. Brown and Reynolds, who came the same year, in later years removed to Wisconsin. A granddaughter of the former, Mrs. Emma Swank, resides in Chrisman in this county and four grandsons reside in the county. They were Catholics and one of Brown's daughters became the Superior of the Sisters of Providence who conduct the educa- tional institution of the Catholic Church known as "St. Mary's of the Woods" in Vigo County, Ind., a few miles west of Terre Haute. She is yet living there, but retired from the active control of the Sisterhood. Stratton removed to Momence, in Kankakee County, Ill. Whitley was afterwards Sheriff, and resided on what is

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HISTORY OF EDGAR COUNTY. 2 meses.

now the Joe Redmon farm north of Paris. Saunders returned to the South. Blackman died where he settled.

The next year (1818) Daniel Lane, Augustus E. Boland, Dan W. Beckwith and William Reed came to this settlement. Boland was a Con- necticut man, had enlisted in the War of 1812, and, coming west as a soldier, was discharged at Vincennes in 1815 and remained on the frontier until he settled here. A grandson, John T. Boland, and a granddaughter, Mrs. Newton, reside in the county at this time. Reed came from an Eastern State and was the first Sheriff of the county, and later went to Ver- milion County, as did Beckwith, who was from New York. In 1819 the Rev. Joseph Curtis, Samuel Littlefield, Jacob Jones, Lewis Murphy. and Thomas and Benjamin Van Houtin came, but Littlefield and Jones moved north of Brou- illett Creek, entered land and there established homes. They were from Maine. Some of Lit- tlefield's grandchildren now occupy lands entered by him. Mr. Curtis is referred to else- where. The Van Houtins were from New York and New Jersey. A number of their children are living on lands entered and occupied by them.

In 1820 there came to the settlement James and William Murphy, James M. Blackburn, Otis McCulloch, Trueman Blackman, James Dud- ley, Alonzo Lapham, Joseph Lowry, John Lycan and Alexander McDonald. Dudley afterwards had a general store in Grandview and later removed to Coles County, where a number of his descendants now reside. William Murphy and Colonel Blackburn are mentioned elsewhere in this book. James Murphy built a horse-mill and afterwards a. water-mill, which were the first mills of their kind in the county. John Lycan lived and died here and two of his sons and many other descendants still reside in the county. Lapham built and operated the first fulling mill in the county. Trueman Blackman was the last of these settlers to die, and he left a son and three grandsons who are resi- dents of the neighborhood in which their ances- tor settled. McCulloch died at Baldwinsville in this county. Several of his grandchildren reside in the county.

In 1821 came John B. Alexander, Nathaniel Morgan and Dr. Earl Murphy, a brother of Wil- liam and James Murphy. Dr. Murphy soon died. Alexander is told of elsewhere. The next year Rev. John W. McReynolds, George

Board, Laban Burr, Edward Wheeler, Squire Newlon, James Lowry, James Wesly, and the Gillams-John, Thomas and Daniel-joined this settlement. Board was the first Coroner of the county. In 1825, Rev. William Mayo, Col- onel Jonathan Mayo's father, came; also Wil- liam S. Wilson, Andrew S. Fitzgerald, John Brown and Robert J. Scott arrived in the pre- cinct. Scott and Brown took up land north of Brouillett's Creek. Scott is well represented by his descendants in the neighborhood where he settled, and Brown also. Scott was from Ohio and Brown from Kentucky. The next year Col. D. A. Morrison, William Hurst, Sylvester Barker, William C. Trimble came. Morrison and Trimble were from Kentucky, Hurst from Ohio, and Barker from New Hampshire.

During 1827 to 1830, inclusive, Thomas Evans, the Parkers, Enos Hobbs, Matthew Scott, the Hunters, William Allen, Godfrey Wilkin, John Clarke, Isaac Wilkins, Jesse Moore and Daniel and Lewis Camerer settled in the north end of Wayne precinct; and William Huffman, James Carney, Isaac Sandford and James A. Gillespy were added to the settlement at south end. The Parkers, the Camerers, the Wilkins and Scott were from Ohio; Moore from Kentucky, Hobbs and Hunter from Tennessee, and Allen from Virginia. Sandford was from New York; he was a tanner by trade and established the first tannery in the county. The Hunters were John Hunter and five sons. The latter came in 1828, while the senior Hun- ter came in 1831. The sons having entered land in the county in 1828, returned to Putnam County, Ind., and did not settle in Edgar County permanently until 1832. John and Spencer K. lived where they entered land for a half century or more, and then removed to Paris, where they died at a good old age- John aged 96, and Spencer K. an octogenarian. John was once Sheriff of the county. They are both represented by numerous descendants, among whom are Hon. A. J. Hunter, J. D. Hun- ter, President of the Citizens' National Bank of Paris, and William J. Hunter, Vice-Presi- dent of the First National Bank of Paris. The town of Hunter was named for these men. In 1820 John Lycan built and operated a black- smith shop in this precinct near where the Henry Wright homestead now is, which was the first shop of its kind in the county. Rev. Joseph Curtis planted a nursery the same year, and, in 1824, Rev. John McReynolds began the

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manufacture of furniture, coffins, etc. James Johnson made chairs with good hickory split seats, which, with good care, would never wear out. Elijah Austin was the first Justice of the Peace. Wayne furnished most of the first county officers.

In August, 1820, an effort was made to lo- cate within this precinct the county seat of the county, which it was understood would be or- ganized in the near future, and John F. Thomp- son surveyed and platted Cambridge City, where the town of Baldwinsville was for a good many years afterwards. The city failed to be selected for the county seat and was vacated. Logan, a town laid out in the north end of the precinct, has always been a trading point and postoffice, and although missed by the railroad lines, it still retains considerable importance. Huffmanville had for years a postoffice, store and a blacksmith shop, as also had Clay's Prairie; but as towns grew up along the rail- road built through the south end of the pre- cinct, these places dwindled until now the pass- erby has to be told where they are. Wayne Pre- cinct was very large, containing about one hun- dred sections of land-so created, perhaps, with a view to assist in securing the location of the county seat at Cambridge City.

PIKE PRECINCT, one of the original five pre- cincts into which Edgar County was divided, was almost identical in area with the present town of Elbridge. Its area was much less than that of Wayne, embracing only about thir- ty-six sections of land, or a government town- ship. John Ray came from Tennessee in 1818, and settled on land which, later on, was in the southeast corner of the county. Soon after Alexander Ewing came also from Tennessee, and within the next three years came Arthur Forster, Thomas Wilson, James Knight, Thomas Rhoads, James Love and James Eggles- ton from Kentucky. In 1822, Eleven Tucker and David Roll came from Ohio; in 1823 came Andrew B. Ray, from Tennessee, and Abner Lamb, from Kentucky, and settled in this neighborhood; in 1824, Thomas Hicklin arrived from Kentucky; John Elliott came in 1825, and Solomon Trogdon in 1826. In 1829, Will- iam Hanks, James W. Parrish and George Mack came from Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina, respectively. John Cummins, Peterson Yeargin and W. D. Marley came soon after. Andrew Ray, who now resides on the old Ray homestead, is a worthy representative

of the early settlers, as also are the present generation of Forsters, Marleys, Simses, Rolls and Rhoads, who reside in what was Pike Precinct, now the Town of Elbridge. The highway from Terre Haute to Paris ran through this precinct; and this road was a mail route westward, the mail being carried in the stage coaches of those days. A town with a postoffice, hotel, store, etc., was established about half way between Paris and Terre Haute, and named Elbridge. For many years there was a considerable business transacted there, but when the railroad was built from Paris to Terre Haute in 1874, it missed Elbridge by a mile and the town ceased to grow.

FAIRFIELD PRECINCT included the areas. which now constitute parts of the Towns of Paris, Sims, (spelled in the Government census tables "Symmes") Grandview, Kansas, Buck, a large part of Embarras, and a few sections of Edgar and Shiloh. The lands in this precinct, except seven sections and thirteen fractional sections, are west of the "Boundary Line," as the west- ern boundary of the tract known as "Harrison's Purchase" is called. They were not subject to entry as early by some years as the lands with- in that tract were, and consequently this pre- cinct was not sought by settlers as soon as were Wayne and Pike. But it was not so neglected long, as Hall Sims and Thomas Jones cams from Kentucky and settled in the precinct in July, 1821. Sims was a native of North Caro- lina. He settled where he continued to live to an advanced age, in what is the Town of Sims, and Jones in what is now the Town of Paris. Sims represented the county in the General Assembly (1838, 1842 and 1846), and lived to be a nonagenarian. The next year (1822) Samuel Vance, Smith Shaw, Charles Ives and Thomas Tennery settled in what is now the Town of Paris, and Thomas Carey, the Sutherlands (Aric, R. B., Daniel and Charles), Isaac Johnson, John Cutler, Thomas Brown and Thomas Darnall, settled in Grandview, and John Darnall, William James, Moses Williams, Samuel Wells and Isaac Johnson settled ju Sims. The Rhoads, who first settled in Pike Precinct, removed into Fairfield. In 1823 Na- thaniel Wayne, Milton K., Washington and Isaac Alexander, Adriel Stout, Leander Mun- sell, William Means, David Crozier, William Beard, Moses and Aaron Darnall, William Flood, William Young and William Craig came to the county and settled on lands

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HISTORY OF EDGAR COUNTY.

which were included in Fairfield. Means, Munsell, Crozier and Stout were from Ohio; the Darnalls, Flood, Craig and Young were Kentuckians, and settled in Sims. With-

in the next two years the O'Hairs (Michael, John and William), James Adams, Isaac Craig, Jonathan Newman, William Roley, and Handley also settled in Sims; and G. B. Shelledy, George Moke, the Dills, the Redmons, George Bennett, William and Leadstone, settled in Paris. Robert Brown, the Johnsons (James and Benjamin), and Joseph McCracken settled in Grandview, as did the Hendersons (John, Andrew and Hugh). William and Madison Johnson and Aaron Pinson settled in Paris. The Olmsteads ( Moses and John T.) removed into Coles County later. Between 1825 and 1830 Lawson Kimble, John and Matthew Bovell, Thomas Brock, George W. Roberts, James Hos- kins, John Montgomery, Robert Rhea, Patrick and Bartholomew Whalen, Thomas Doherty and James F. Whitney settled in Paris; Frederick Rudy, Jacob Augustus, John Archer, Joseph Hite, John Humphrey, William K. Payne, Will- iam and John Shrader, John and Joseph Perisho, James Miller, Daniel and Emanuel Zink settled in the Grandview neighborhood; John Arterburn, J. R. Wilhoit, the Pinnells (Huston, Abram, Edward, Willis S. and W. J. S.), Rev. J. Y. Allison, Abraham Boyer and John K. Boyer settled in what is now the Town of Kansas; James Flack, John Milburn, John Sisk, Thomas Doherty, Joseph Smart, Thomas Scott, Henry Ouseley and Benjamin Wayne set- tled in what is now the town of Embarras, and William K. Laughlin, Robert Downs, Isaac Nee- ley and Middleton White settled in Sims. Whitney was Sheriff and died of cholera while in office. Of all these, J. R. Wilhoit is the sole survivor. He is an octogenarian, rich as a prince, and managing his affairs like a man of middle life.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Edgar County, Part 127

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Number of Pages: 876

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell
Number of Pages: 876