Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Hancock County, Volume II, Part 7

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. cn; Currey, J. Seymour (Josiah Seymour), 1844-1928. 4n; Scofield, Charles J. (Charles Josiah), 1853- 4n
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1174


USA > Illinois > Hancock County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Hancock County, Volume II > Part 7


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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Judge Thomas Coke Sharp came to Warsaw in September, 1840, and opened a law office in Warsaw, which he maintained there until 1865 when he located in Carthage. He was very active in the Mormon history and newspaper work. Judge Sharp was one of the prominent men of this county. He was one of the dele- gates who framed the constitution of 1848. He


was at one time county judge. For many years he was editor of The Carthage Gazette, and also engaged in practicing law.


Samuel Gordon and wife landed opposite Montebello in 1831. They were accompanied by their two sons. They traveled by stage from New Hampshire to Pittsburg, thence down the Ohio and up the Mississippi.


to When Samuel Gordon came Hancock County there were fewer than 500 people in the entire county, that is in 1831. Samuel R. Yetter came to this county in 1837.


In 1834 William R. Kimbrough, when four years of age, came to this county with his par- ents, who settled in Carthage Township, where they built a log cabin. William R. Kimbrough obtained his education in a log schoolhouse, walking six miles over the prairie to school.


Hickerson and Cynthia Wright came to Han- cock County in May, 1834.


John T. Johnson came to St. Marys Town- ship in 1839. He had to clear the land in order to have space enough on which to build a log cabin. He was the first man to move on to the prairie, for the pioneers in those days always settled near the timber.


Alfred Quick, Sr., settled in Rocky Run Town- ship in 1834.


Robert Gillham arrived at Warsaw on April 11, 1837. He purchased 160 acres of land in Walker Township at $1.25 an acre. Not a furrow had been turned nor an improvement made on the place. He built a little log cabin in which he lived in true pioneer style. The plows of that day had wooden mold-boards, and sickle and scythe were the leading features of the farm machinery.


P. D. Williams came to this county in 1837. William Wallace Reed came to Wythe Town- ship in this county in 1836.


Harrison O. Knox was born in Green Plains on section 25, Wythe Township, May 5, 1833. His parents came to Hancock County in 1832, and Harrison was the first white child born in the part of the county where they made their home. Samuel Knox, the father, who came in 1832, was a minister of the Christian Church, and preached the first sermon ever delivered in Wythe township. He and his wife are buried in Green Plains Cemetery in Wilcox township. Harrison O. Knox acquired his early education in the schools of Green Plains and afterward attended the Warsaw High School. On the 6th of November, 1860, Mr. Knox voted for Abraham


Eng by E G Williams & Bro NY.


Munsell Pub . J


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Lincoln at Bank's schoolhouse in Rocky Run Township, where he was teaching in a log build- ing, having there 108 scholars, or an average of 621% for six months.


George Walker, while in Kentucky, rented land from Zachary Taylor and in 1831 had his goods all packed ready to load and start for Illinois. He was taken sick and did not come until 1833. He located at Quincy and in Adams County for a short time, and in 1833 bought 640 acres of land from two attorneys who spent the night at his home, twenty-two miles north of Quincy. These attorneys were going from Carthage to Quincy on horseback. One horse gave out and they put both saddles on the remaining horse and with each man in a saddle on the one horse proceeded on their way to Quincy and were thus riding when they stopped over night at Mr. Walker's residence. Mr. Walker spent two winters in Springfield as a member of the State Legislature and became associated with many distinguished men. Dur- ing the second winter in company with Stephen A. Douglas, Abraham Lincoln and Jacob C. Davis, in a hired vehicle, he drove to his home in Hancock County, a distance of 120 miles, to make a visit over Sunday They arrived Friday night and that night such a heavy fall of snow occurred that the next Monday morning they had to drive a herd of cattle ahead of them to break the road to Quincy, to which place they rode on horseback. They were three days in getting to Springfield.


Andrew McMahan came to Hancock County in 1831. This was the year of the great snow- a winter memorable in the history of Illinois. There were few settlers in the northern part of the state and the central and southern sec- tions were but sparsely settled.


John Moffitt and his wife came to Hancock County, settling near Nauvoo, in the fall of 1828. His son, James J. Moffitt, was born on section 7 Sonora Township, Feb. 15, 1831. This was the winter of the great snow in Illinois -memorable in the history of the county-and a year prior to the Black Hawk War, a fact which indicates that the Indians were still numerous in this part of the Mississippi Valley. When John Moffitt came to this county in 1828 he entered from the government 320 acres of land on section 7 and 8 in Sonora Township, most of which was at that time covered with timber. In the midst of the forest he built a log cabin and began clearing away the trees. As soon


as it was possible to plow he would place his land under cultivation and in the course of time became the owner of a well-developed property, and in the year 1839 witnessed the advent of the Mormons into that locality and he gave them some of his land that they might improve it. The pictures of pioneer life indicated ex- actly the conditions which existed in Hancock County at that period. The streams were un- bridged, the prairie was covered with its native grasses, the timber was uncut and only here and there had a little clearing been made to show that the work of civilization had been begun on the frontier, while deer were plentiful and there were many wild animals roaming over the prairie or in the woods. The Indians, too, were numerous and going upon the war-path. Mr. Moffitt, during the Black Hawk War, enlisted in the army under Captain James White.


Rudolphus Chandler, in 1836, drove across the country with team and wagon and purchased the northwest of section 20 in Wythe Township. This was all wild prairie covered with the native grasses. Mr. Chandler brought with him his wife and three children. He built a log house and log stable and began life in pioneer style. He broke the prairie with the crude implements then in use. The early education of Guy B. Chandler, son of Rudolphus, acquired in the district schools, was supplemented by three terms of study in Warsaw Seminary.


Stephen Gano Ferris, with his family, came to Hancock County in 1832. The history of Mr. Ferris, as given by Mr. Gregg so fully and aptly illustrates the condition of things in Hancock County at that time as to justify the use of portions of it in this history. Mr. Ferris came to Hancock from the state of New York. There came with him his wife and six children, John M., Leonard T., Francina R., R. G., Dorothy L., and Phidelia B., all of whom are now dead. In - the preceding year (1831) Jabez A. Beebe, brother-in-law of Stephen Gano Ferris, had come to this county and purchased land where Fountain Green now stands. We take up Mr. Gregg's account with the arrival of the Ferris family at St. Louis.


"Arriving at St. Louis, it seemed as if the lateness of the season would compel the party to seek winter quarters in that vicinity; but luckily a small steamboat called the William Wallace was about to attempt the trip to Trad- ers' Point, now Keokuk. Mr. Ferris engaged passage for himself and family, although the


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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY


captain would not agree to carry them to any particular point in view of the possible closing of navigation at any hour. On arriving at Quincy the captain declined going any farther unless liberally paid for it. Mr. Ferris and others paid the price demanded, and the avari- cious captain-who was in addition to his rough manners a brutal fellow-came on to Traders' Point, landing there about the 10th or 11th of December. At that time Traders' Point com- prised three or four log cabins at the base of the hill. The population consisted of three or four traders and their families, and 100 or so of Indians and half-breeds who were loafing about. There was no house where Hamilton now stands. The first house above Fort Ed- wards (now Warsaw) was the cabin of Abra- ham Smith, about two and a half miles above the present town of Hamilton. Desiring to cross the river to Mr. Smith's place, Mr. Ferris paid a man $16 to ferry his family and personal effects across the river. The boat was a crazy affair, very leaky and not at all adequate to the burthen imposed upon it. After loading the boat with its living freight and household goods, it was towed some three miles up the river by horses, and from that point "poled" across. In the boat, in addition to Mr. Ferris' family and effects, were Mr. Stearns and his family and ef- fects, and a horse and wagon. After various and exciting besetments with the rapids and rocks, the boat, about one-third full of water, was finally landed not far from Mr. Smith's cabin, and the long and tedious journey by water was ended.


"The crossing at Traders' Point was made on the 13th of December, 1832; and on the follow- ing day Mr. Ferris and his son John M. walked across to Horse Lick Grove (now Fountain Green), some twenty-two miles, where they em- ployed a man named George W. Howard to haul his family and goods to their destination. The trip was made with an ox-team to haul the household goods, and a one-horse wagon to haul the family. They arrived at Fountain Green December 15, 1832. Mr. Beebe and family, hav- ing arrived the year previous, had a comfortable double log house, which he shared with Mr. Ferris' family until spring. Mr. Ferris then purchased of Mr. Beebe 110 acres of land, upon which, on the ground now occupied by Mr. Mc- Claughry's residence, in Fountain Green, he built a comfortable log house; in the spring of 1833 he opened out the farm and built a small


tannery. The latter, after a fair trial, proved impracticable on account of scarcity of bark. Some five years later he built a small saw-mill on the creek not far from Fountain Green. This proved unprofitable, and thence forward until 1845 he gave his attention mainly to farming.


"When he (Mr. Ferris) first settled at Horse Lick Grove there were not to exceed 200 people within the present boundaries of Hancock County. The nearest mill was sixty miles dis- tant; and in lieu of flour, people had to be con- tent with coarse meal pounded from dry corn in a wooden mortar. These, among others, were some of the vicissitudes and hardships en- dured by the pioneers, that we might enjoy the conveniences and luxuries of the present day."


On page 710 Gregg says that when Ferris first settled at Horse Lick Grove there were not to exceed 200 people within the present borders of Hancock County. This shows the fallacy of history, for this was in the year 1832, whereas Hancock County had been organized as a separate county in 1829, three years before, and the law required the county to have 350 in- habitants before it could be organized, unless there had been a remarkable exodus from the county during the three years, or unless a fraud- ulent petition had been presented to Judge Young in 1829, the county must have had about double the population Gregg gives it in 1832. (How about White's house where courts were held?)


Ephraim and Eda Perkins were very early settlers in this county. Mrs. Perkins is said to have been the first white woman who resided in McDonough County, where she lived two years, before coming to this county. She learned to speak the Pottawatomie language, from which it appears that there must have been Potta- watomies here in that early day. The Perkins family lived in Pilot Grove.


In 1835 Ephraim Perkins bought the claim of one Franklin to certain land in Pilot Grove, a few miles northeast of Carthage, where Frank- lin had settled about 1830.


When the Mckellips family moved to Rock Creek Township in 1851, that township was mostly wild prairie, and deer and wolves were numerous. The wolves were bold enough to sneak into the yards after chickens, and deer were sometimes shot in the cornfields.


Jolin and Charity Newman moved, with their family, to Pontoosuc, in 1836. Indians were frequently seen in that region in those days.


Miles B. Mann came to this county in 1839,


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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY


and was employed for a time by Street & Bro., then doing a large merchandising business in Carthage.


John Cochran brought his family to Hancock County in 1831 and made his home in Monte- bello Township. His son Charles L. Cochran attended the first school taught in that town- ship. The school was held in a log building 14 by 16 feet, and was taught by Mrs. McKinney.


Gen. Robert F. Smith came to this county in 1833, and permanently in 1834. He was an officer in the Mormon War and was wounded in the neck at the battle of Nauvoo. He served with distinction in the Civil War and- was. breveted brigadier-general. His home was in Montebello Township. .


Samuel Steele came from New Hampshire to this county in 1830, when there were very few settlements here. He was one of the "Rangers" in the Black Hawk War.


Anthony Duffy came from Pennsylvania to Hancock Township in this county in 1836, when the county was a wilderness. On December 8th, he built a log-cabin 16 feet square, with half a room above, in which he lived until 1850. He was one of the leading men called out by Gov- ernor Ford to arrest Joseph Smith and bring him to Carthage. He had just returned home when the Smiths were killed. He claimed that he had pretty good information in advance that the deed would be done.


Dr. William Booz, physician, preacher and farmer, came with his parents to Hancock County in 1837. He located in Hancock Township. He was one of the pioneers, well versed in the early history of the county.


Isaac C. Howd, with his wife and five children, came to Carthage in 1837. He lived in Pilot Grove many years and then moved to Pontoosuc, where he built the Franklin House, which he kept as a hotel.


Jary White came to this county on June 17, 1835, locating in Fountain Green Township. At that time there was no mill nearer than Rush- ville, thirty-five miles distant. Corn-meal grat- ers were much in use when corn was beginning to harden. He knew how to make a "lizzard," a kind of sled made from the fork of a tree, used by frontiersmen.


Joseph Lionberger and family came to this county in 1835, finally locating in Pilot Grove Township. He built the first saw and grist mill in the township, on Crooked Creek, in 1838.


George Waggener came to Hancock County


and settled on December 31 in Pilot Grove Township in 1837. He was active in the Mor- mon difficulties, but not one of those who did the shooting, although he hauled the ammuni- tion for those who did. When the Smiths were killed, he picked up in the jail the revolver which Smith had emptied, and presented it to the authorities when called on the coroner's jury.


Charles Abbott came with his parents to the county in 1844. He saw at one time in this county as many as sixty deer in a single drove. He attended the "Academy" at Carthage about eight months, there being no schools in his neigh- borhood. He lived in Rock Creek Township.


Wright B. Bailey came to this county in 1850. His home was in Rock Creek Township. In his school days, his text-books were a Testament, a spelling-book and an arithmetic. "So anxious was he to learn to write that he procured a piece of soapstone from the creek and dressed the side smooth, and, when a neighbor would happen in he would have him make the letters of the alphabet at the top of this rude slate, and he (Mr. Bailey) would sit for hours imi- tating the copy."


John E. Earl and family, except the oldest son, came to this county in 1844 by the following route : Leaving the old home in Schoharie County, N. Y., they proceeded by boat on the Erie Canal to Buffalo; thence on Lake Erie to Cleveland, O .; thence by the Ohio Canal to Portsmouth, O .; thence down the Ohio river to Cairo; and thence up the Mississippi River to Warsaw. This journey covered three weeks and three days. When the family arrived at Warsaw, the family treasury contained $2.50 in money.


Matthew Ellison and family came to Rock Creek Township in 1843, when there were only four men in the township, viz., Timothy T. Terry, Abraham Shaw, Richard Lambert, and a Mr. Spencer.


Many of the early settlers of Rock Creek Township were from England. The Ellisons and Lambers were from Yorkshire, England, the Stevensons from Leicestershire, the Thornbers from Lancaster, and the Sleaters from Bath.


John Yaple and wife came to Pontoosuc Town- ship in 1831, but removed to Madison County, whence they had come, at the beginning of the Indian troubles which culminated in the Black Hawk War.


Joel Catlin and William D. Abernathy, who were brothers-in-law, came to Oliver's Settle-


.


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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY


ment in 1832, and located where the town of Augusta now stands, and gave the name to the place. Mr. Abernathy was at one time sheriff of this county.


'Dr. Samuel B. Mead came to Augusta in 1833. It is said that he was the second practicing physician in the county, Dr. Isaac Galland hav- ing preceded him at Riverside. Dr. John F. Charles came to Carthage a little later.


Miss Ruth Bateman, who was a sister of State Superintendent Bateman, taught the first school in 1835.


Benjamin Gould and Miss Rebecca J. Jones and Christopher E. Yates were living in Augusta Township on Christmas Day, 1833, for on that day Mr. Gould and Miss Jones were married in that township, the ceremony being performed by Mr. Yates.


G. W. Hawley came to Augusta in 1833. He built the first store-house, and bought and sold the first dry-goods brought to Augusta.


John H. Lawton was brought by his father to Carthage in 1835. He helped get out the timber for the windmill, and did certain work on the first number of the Carthagenian. He went to New Orleans, but came back to Car- thage in the summer of 1837 and clerked a while in Matthews' store, and did some paint- ing for Homer Brown.


Jolin Griffiths was brought by his parents to this county in 1831, when the first threshing- machine was started in Hancock County by Mr. Robinson. It was a "chaff-piler." In 1844 he helped run the first reaper he ever saw. Mr. Gregg says he split more rails than Mr. Lincoln did. (But he did not attain the presidency.)


Green Harding came to Hancock County, with his parents, in 1831. There were then only four families in St. Albans Township.


Mr. S. R. Yetter, who died recently, came to this county eighty-five years ago, when a boy twelve years of age. An obituary notice re- cently published in the Keokuk Gate City states that, after the family had lost most of their possessions through the sinking of their boat on which they were traveling, they arrived at Warsaw, and finished their journey in a crude looking vehicle similar to a wagon, drawn by oxen. In that day oxen were used to break the prairie soil, one man working all day for a wage of from fifty to seventy-five cents. It is stated that fifteen acres could be broken by one man with a six-yoke (twelve oxen) plough in a week's time. The oxen were not guided by lines, but by the gee-and-haw method. The


obituary notice states that Mr. Yetter is said to have had the first frame house in his part of the county, and that house still stands in good condition and is one of the oldest landmarks in that section of the county. It is stated that Mr. Yetter was present at the famous Lincoln- Douglas debates, but that could not have been in Hancock County, for Lincoln and Douglas did not debate in this county. Each of them spoke in Hancock County in 1858, but on dif- ferent days. Their famous debates were held elsewhere.


To those of the present generation events oc- curring at any time prior to the Civil War may be regarded as early history. Attention in this chapter so far has been given to events of tue twenties and thirties, at the very beginning of . the settlement of the county. There are some newspapers at hand, printed in the fifties, from which we are taking a brief survey of business interests in Hancock County in the fifties, as far as disclosed by these papers. Only those enterprises are mentioned which are advertised in these Warsaw and Carthage papers, and not even all of these, on account of lack of time and space.


The Warsaw Commercial Journal, Vol. 3, No. 4, date of issue March 12, 1853, mentioned else- where in this history, was published at Warsaw by J. Mc Kee, at $1.00 per year. It is stated in that issue of the paper that its circulation in and out of Hancock County was greater than that of any other paper printed in the county. The paper in question contains advertisements of St. Louis businesses and enterprises which will not be of interest to the reader of this history. There are other advertisements which pertain strictly to our own county, among which are those which follow.


S. R. Holmes, forwarding and commission merchant and general steamboat agent, Warsaw, Illinois. This gentleman advertises himself al- ways on hand-no waiting-no, never!


Another firm engaged in the same business was that of Cox & Elifritz, a firm composed of D. H. Cox and D. G. Elifritz.


N. Werneck and John Scott were each en- gaged also at Warsaw in the business of general forwarding and commission merchant.


L. Mussetter was a family grocer at Warsaw, who notified the people that he was dealer also in wines and liquors, as well as foreign and domestic fruits, and every description of coun- try produce.


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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY


W. A. Watts, successor to C. Knopf, was a wholesale and retail grocer at Warsaw.


W. A. Katz was a grocer at Warsaw who dealt in liquors and cigars.


Among physicians at Warsaw were Dr. James J. Linn, Drs. English & Wilcox, a firm com- posed of Wm. English and I. K. Wilcox, and Drs. Coolidge & Judd.


There appears also the card of J. Mack, phy- sician and surgeon, with office on the public square at Carthage, Illinois.


H. P. Spellman was a druggist at Warsaw, who identified his place of business by the sign of the Golden Mortar.


John Slater of St. Albans advertised about 100 choice varieties of apple trees, proved in his orchard to be genuine, for sale at $6.00 per 100 trees, and a small stock of other fruit trees, and osage orange plants from $1.00 to $3.00 per 100, according to size.


Eli Hilton advertised a wagon-yard at War- saw, with plenty of good timothy hay and other necessary food for horses, and also blacksmith- ing in all its various branches and horseshoeing with promptness and in a workmanlike manner. Peter Parr was also engaged in blacksmithing at Warsaw.


J. W. Ketchum advertised his well-known eat- ing house at Warsaw, "where he (Ketchum) may always be found with food for the hungry, and bedding where the weary may rest with quietness." In addition to a stable and wagon- yard for the accommodation of traders, he fur- nished oysters, boiled, fried, stewed or roasted, and requested the people to remember that the expense was only fifteen cents per meal.


William P. Darst of Warsaw, under the name of "Hancock Emporium Store," called the at- tention of his customers to his stock of ready- made clothing and ladies' dress goods and shoes.


Another grocery store at Warsaw was that of Crawford & Knox, who carried a stock of family groceries and a few articles of staple dry goods, among the articles mentioned being "star and mould candles," "with many other articles too tedious to enumerate."


In another column L. Mussetter advised the thirsty that he had just received and had for sale twenty baskets of very superior champagne.


William Cooper of Warsaw gave notice that he had removed his stove, castings, tin, copper, and sheet-iron establishment, and that same could be identified by the "Sign of the Golden Coffeepot." He had for sale Bucks patent, the mother of all good cook-stoves, and the Charter


Oak, Prairie State, St. Louis, Prize Premium, and Superior Premium, and among heating stoves, ""Cooper's patent portable equinomical (sic), parlor, bedroom, shop, school-house, etc., air-tight heating stove, that is ahead of all. others in cheapness and everything."


John Thunhouser was engaged in selling boots and shoes at Warsaw in the building formerly occupied by T. C. Sharp, Esq., as a law office, while C. Kuennecke was conducting a new and cheap store, having just received a large ship- ment of dry goods, boots and shoes, hats and caps, etc.


Charles E. Stone was engaged in the furni- ture business at Warsaw.


In No. 20 of Vol. 2 of the Carthage Republican, issued July 12, 1855, the following businesses and professions, among others, are advertised.


G. M. Child was the editor of the paper, and the subscription price was $1.00 per year. The paper was a four-page sheet, with seven columns to the page.


I. C. Howd was proprietor of the Franklin House at Pontoosuc.


William O. Torrey was a physician and sur- geon at Pontoosuc.




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