Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Montgomery County, Volume II, Part 4

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897, ed. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913, ed. cn; Strange, Alexander T., ed
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 810

USA > Illinois > Montgomery County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Montgomery County, Volume II > Part 4

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The modern reader will doubtless smile at the description of this primitive temple of justice, and especially at the minuteness of detail; but be it remembered at that time there was not a sawmill in twenty-five miles of the place, and all the plank that was used had to be sawed by hand with a whip saw; hence the necessity of the express conditions in the order of the court that the floors and doors were to be plank ; with- out such conditions the builder would have used puncheons, or slabs split out of logs and smoothed with board axes, so as to look like plank, not unlike clapboards split out with a frow, only thicker, for the floors and clapboards for the doors, because there was not then one house in a hundred that had any other kind of floors or doors. The greater part of the labor and drudgery, as well as the management of county matters, fell upon the shoulders of Mr. Rountree, and he continued to carry this burden for many years. In short, his was the leading and guiding spirit, so far as questions of county policy were concerned, during his entire life, and the influence of his example and precedents will doubtless be left therein for many years to come. At one time he held the following offices, and performed their duties with the utmost satis- faction to the people, as indeed he did everything with scrupulous and methodical exactness and promptness, namely : postmaster of Hillsboro, clerk of the county commissioners court, clerk of the circuit court, county recorder, justice of the peace, notary public, master-in-chancery, and county judge or justice of probate, as well as clerk in the Legislature.

In 1847 he was elected to the convention called for the purpose of amending the constitution of the state and in 1848 he was elected senator for . the counties of Bond, Fayette, Shelby, Christian and Montgomery. In politics the judge was

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

esteemed a Democrat ; but he was never a strict party man, voting generally for the men he thought best fit for the office. His long con- tinned term of official life was dne to the con- viction in the minds of a majority of the voters of the county that he could more safely be en -. trnsted with the care of their public interests than any other man. In 1852 he was first nom- inated for county judge by a Democratic con- vention but had no opposition. In 1861 he was again nominated by the same party, and elected over Henry Richmond, the Republican nominee. In 1865 he was nominated by the Republicans, and elected over Ephraim M. Gilmore, the Dem- ocratic candidate. The last and most important official act of the connty court under his admin- istration was the erection, or as it is facetionsly called, the repairing of the courthonse, and which was by his consummate skill and ability so managed as to cost the people of the connty nothing, being built out of swamp lands funds, which by his management were withheld from market on one pretense or another, and from all speculators of every kind, until they were worth as much as any other lands, and finally sold on easy terins to actual citizens for cultivation at prices varying from twenty-five to forty-five dol- lars per acre. A neat sum of money was thus yielded ont of which the courthouse, worth 125,- 000, was built by day labor, no jobbing nor spec- ulation abont it, besides bridges and other public buildings, and leaving nearly $40,000 to be added to the common school fund. So that from a log cabin. eighteen by twenty feet, in which the first conrt of the county was held, he had the satisfaction of seeing completed under his own administration a structure of solid masonry of the most ornate and approved pattern. At that time it was one of the best in the state, perfectly convenient in all its arrangements and worthy of the connty, which with some additions is the courthouse now in use. Judge Rountree died in the seventy-ninth year of his age, March 4, 1873, leaving a widow and one son, A. H. H., and one danghter, the widow of the late D. D. Shumway, to survive him. In religious belief Judge Rountree was a Methodist, and died in the faith of that church. His son, A. H. H. Ronntree, was born in Montgomery County, Ill., January 2, 1823; was mainly educated in Hills- boro, but was gradnated from McKendree Col- lege, Lebanon, Ill. His life has been chiefly spent in quiet home town pnrsnits. For a num- ber of years he was engaged in merchandising,

but later went into banking. He was at one time mayor of the city of Hillsboro but never heartily entered into the heart of politics. He was married to Eliza A. Walpole, of Huntsville, Ala., and they became the parents of nine chil- dren. of whom only one son and two daughters survive. He gave considerable attention to gathering together historical facts concerning the early settlement of his county, and we are indebted to him more than any one else for in- formation contained in this book. The Roun- tree family came originally from the north of England about 1760, and settled in Virginia, from whence the family scattered widely throughout the conntry.

WHO SURVEYED THE NORTHERN BOUNDARY OF ILLINOIS ?

This question is asked, because apparently an injustice has been done our most deserving pio- neer, in not accrediting to him the part he per- formed in a most important and difficult state work. Hiram Rountree certainly was one of, and possibly the most active, three commission- ers appointed to survey and mark the bonndary line between Illinois and Wisconsin. But in the reports as submitted to the Department at Wash- ington no mention seems to be made of his par- ticipation in the work. From a mass of corre- spondence. conducted in the main by Hon. I. S. Blackwelder, in relation to this matter, we have tried to prepare a summary of the facts and ven- ture some deduction therefrom.

Mr. Blackwelder, nnder date of October 31, 1914, said: "The subject (of this survey) ,was referred to several times in our conversations, and my recollection is as clear as noonday that he stated to me that he was the commissioner appointed by the state of Illinois to establish this boundary line, and that in doing so he crossed the state five times, ending finally at a point on the Mississippi River, where a great stone was placed to mark the western end of the line. His descriptions of the hardships en- countered, of marching through the tall grass and heavy underbrush, and swimming rivers. were so graphic that it made a deep impression on my mind and of those who knew Judge Roun- tree as a most truthful and conscientious man, no one would believe that he would make a statement of this kind which was not true."

In an obituary notice of Judge Ronntree, pub- lished in a Hillsboro paper after his death in

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

1873, we find the following: "In 1830, 1831, he with others was appointed under the adminis- tratiou of General Jackson, commissioner to view and mark out the northern boundary line of Illinois, which service he fully performed."

In Reynolds' pioneer history of Illinois, page 331, we find these words: "Messinger was ap- pointed with a gentleman of Hillsboro to sur- vey on the part of the state of Illinois the north- ern limits of the state, Lucius Lyons, on the part of the United States."

Now from the above quotations it is perfectly clear that Mr. Rountree was appointed as one of the commissioners. While the act of Con- gress hereafter referred to, seems to provide for one of the commissioners to be from Wis- consin there is no meution of such a commis- sioner ever participating in this work, in the report or correspondence consulted. Mr. Black- welder states that Judge Rountree told him they waited for the Wisconsin commissioner to arrive but not getting there he proceeded with- out him. The inference is that Messinger, Roun- tree and Lyons constituted the whole commis- sion.

The next question is who did the work? The act of Congress under which this survey was to be made was passed by Congress, April 18, 1831, and included boundaries in Alabama, Illi- nois and other controverted lines. Mr. Lucius Lyons, the United States commissioner was a resident of Detroit, Mich., and his control ap- parently was general, rather than local, and he died before the completion of the work. Mr. Blackwelder says he "died about the time the party was to begin the work." It is therefore apparent that he never signed the report per- sonally and that his signature was merely at- tached to credit him with the position he held for the United States. In the report of the com- mission as signed by Messinger with Lyons name attached they say: "They (the commissioners) met at Galena in the latter part of October, 1831, preparatory to commencing the survey which is just uow completed."

In the mass of correspondence consulted, ref- erence is made to the sickness of one of the commissioners, and it was at first thought this referred to Judge Rountree, but Mrs. Jessie Palmer Weber has suggested that this reference is probably wrong, that doubtless that refers to Commissioner Lyons, who was sick and died at his home in Detroit, as above stated. The re- port of Mr. Messinger was dated January 29,

1833. It shows that Mr. Daniel R. Davis, upon the part of the United States, aud Mr. Andrew Brailey upon the part of the state of Illinois, were assistants; Mr. Brailey, it will be remem- bered, was a sou-in-law of Jesse Townsend, the first Presbyterian minister in Montgomery Coun- ty and was evidently appointed on the recom- mendation of Mr. Rountree, who knew him well. From the report as given, it was stated that the work was not completed in 1831, on account of cold weather setting in on them. In May, 1832, Judge Rountree went into the Black Hawk War at the head of a company of volun- teers, but was mustered out in August of the same year. From all available evidence he re- sumed the work on the boundary line after his return from the Black Hawk War, as it would have been physically impossible to have run a line five times on foot and horseback, across the state iu 1831, after the October meeting at Ga- lena, and the closing in of winter. The report states that the stone which was set to mark the end of the survey was several feet long and estimated to weigh five tons. This corresponds with Mr. Rountree's statement to Mr. Black- welder, and shows that Mr. Rountree was pres- ent when the work was completed else he could not have said the western and concluding end of the survey was "marked by a great stone."

Another statement made by Mr. Rountree to Mr. Blackwelder was that while "awaiting the coming of the Wisconsin commissioner they spent several weeks in making astronomical ob- servations." In the report as made by Mr. Mes- singer, he used almost the same words, when he says, "More than a month elapsed before a series could be made to the entire satisfaction of the board." As showing the accuracy of Mr. Rountree's statement, he relates that the survey extended from the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan, while the report of Mr. Messinger is less definite as to the lake eud of the work. It seems apparent that Mr. Rountree was present and participated in all of the work uuless it might have been a series of lines ran on the western end before leaving, where it is stated, that only one surveyor was retained, he being the Illinois surveyor, who might have been either Messinger, Rountree, or Brailey as all were sur- veyors. It is the opinion of the editor that when the time came for making the report in Janu- ary, 1833, that Mr. Lyons being dead, his name was attached as a matter of form, and Mr. Roun- tree not being present that Mr. Messinger lid

CHARLES W. BEARDSLEY

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

not assume the privilege of signing his name and the treasury department accepted and filed the report as submitted without requiring the signature of Mr. Rountree. While an injustice was done Mr. Rountree, in omitting his approval of the report, and his signature thereto, we do not assert that such was an intentional wrong; on the other hand we think the report was a hastily prepared statement made with respect to the requirements of the statute and merely to comply with the requirements of the United States authorities.

HOME SWEET HOME.

Many of the early settlers came from parts of the old world much more beautiful than ours ; or, perchance, from spots of great historic inter- est, and leaving these, with courage undaunted, and hopes inspired, they left all to follow a kaleidoscope of prospective opportunity. It was Moses in quest of the' promised land. Home, sweetest word in our language, with its inspira- tions and prospects, was beckoning them on. Undaunted by wild animals, both biped and quadruped, and unconquered wilderness of wild growths, and miasmatic health conditions, the courage shown by these patriots commands our highest encomiums of praise. Sentimentally they loved their "Old Kentucky Home," or their old cabin in the Cumberlands, or perchance their "The Old Homestead" back in the more effete east, but to these sentiments they said, "Get thee behind me" and with faces beaming with expectation, westward they saw their "star of empire." Love of home and family and Jehovah constitutes the basic foundation of all civiliza- tion. From the beginning nature set Illinois, of which Montgomery County is a part, off for a purpose, not for the languor and voluptousness of the old southland, but for the vigor of devel- oping manhood and individualism that charac- terized the early pioneer and still actuates the "desirable citizen" of today, and has given us this great commonwealth.

EARLY FAMILY LINES.

It frequently happens that in given communi- ties certain families dominate, by reason of staying on or near the paternal homestead, and by strong individual characteristics that leave their impress on the affairs of business or social life to suchi an extent that a town or community

could best be described by elucidating the merits of the family lines in them. The Hills of Fill- more, the Kessingers of Grisham, the McDavids of East Fork, the Barlows of Walshville, the Kelleys of Irving and others are among the most important. We must content ourselves with only a few lines.

THE SHERERS.

The Sherrer or Sherer family had as its pro- genitor in Montgomery County, Jacob Daniel Sherrer, who was born in Rhineland, Germany. He was a son of Nicholas Sherrer, born in Oberbetsbaugh, in about 1700, and was probably of Swiss origin. Nicholas Scherer had two sons, Jacob Daniel and George Theobald. He was a farmer owning a small tract of some thirty acres of land as a homestead and here he reared his two sons and one daughter, and here his son George Theobald lived and died, as well as the parents. The homestead was in a province of Germany, near the line of contention between Germany and France, now known as Rhenish Bavaria. Jacob Daniel Scherer, chafing under the oppressions of the political contentions of the day, and the intolerant spirit shown in ecclesiastical matters determined to seek a home and greater freedom in the more congenial sur- roundings of the new world. Accordingly he set sail for America, landing at Philadelphia in 1752, being at that time about twenty-two or twenty- three years of age. Having determined to be- come a citizen of this country, he took the oath of allegiance September 26, 1759. For some years he resided at Philadelphia, Pa., and while there he was married to Miss Hannah Sophia Dick, whom he had known in the old world, and whose passage he is said to have partly paid to America. Some time after his marriage he re- moved to Guilford County, N. C., where he bought a farm near what was, and is still known as Frieden or Shoemaker Church. The tenets of this church, which was Lutheran, being in accord with his own tastes, he adopted them. The name Frieden means "Peace," and the name Shoemaker became attached to the church from the fact that a Tory of that name was there, by order of General Greene, ordered shot for refusing to give a drink of water to a wounded soldier because he was a political en- emy. Jacob Daniel Scherer was a tailor by trade and reared a family of six sons and three daughters, namely : Jacob, Frederick, Christian,

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David, John, Godfrey, Elizabeth, Catherine and Hannah. He died at about the age of seventy years, and his wife lived to be about one liun- dred and both lie buried in the Shoemaker Cem- etery. Withont trying to trace all his children, we pause to notice the second son, Frederick. who was born on the North Carolina homestead in 1763. He was a hatter by trade, and also did farming, and later became a distiller, an occupation then considered honorable even by church members. He served eighteen months in the American Revolution, and had an ear shot off in the service of his father's adopted conntry. After his return from the war, he was married to Miss Barbara Smith, and they had the following children : Jacob, Andrew. Frederick, David, John, Eli, Daniel, Susanna, Barbara and Hannah. His death occurred in 1817 when he was fifty-four years of age and he was buried by the side of his father in the Shoemaker Cemetery.

Frederick Scherer, the third son of the elder Frederick, was born November 22, 1788, in North Carolina, and at the age of twenty-two years, he was married to Margaret, a daughter of Bar- ney Clapp. The oldest daughter of this couple was born in 1811, and named Nellie, and she later married Peter Blackwelder and thus con- nected the two German families that took so prominent a part in Montgomery County history. Frederick Sherer (as the name was spelled by this time) arrived at Hillsboro, December 6, 1833. From the time of their arrival, members of this family have been a part of the moving and up- lifting forces that have made Montgomery Coun- ty what it is today. The children of Frederick Sherer were as follows: Nellie, who first mar- ried a Mr. Waggoner, later, as noted above, mar- ried Peter Blackwelder, and died January 15, 1857, when about one hundred years old. Sarah was born January 15, 1813, and married Martin Cress October 18, 1834. Their children were as follows : Simeon, Jane Reubart, Isaac'N. and Martin L. Bernhard was born February 11, 1814, and died at the age of twelve years. Daniel was born September 7, 1815. He was married to Cynthia Brown March 24, 1844, and they had one danghter, Mrs. Mary E. Stacey of Daven- port, Iowa. Bernhard died and his widow later married Silas Kessinger. Joanna was born No- vember 11, 1816. She married Alfred Blackwel- der, April 19, 1837, and their children were as follows : Daniel Monroe, William R., David D.,

Jacob F., Minerva C. Morrison, John M., Har- riet Davis and Sammuel R. Tolitha was born March 22, 1818, and was married to Absolom Harkey, December 29, 1836, and after his death in 1851, she was married (second) to Geofrey Stiefel. By her first marriage she had the fol- lowing children : Daniel, Cornelius, Elizabeth Litton, and William L. By her second marriage she had the following children : Jacob, Sarah 1. Brokaw and Thomas A. Jacob was born April 7. 1819, and first was married to Catherine Etter who died in giving birth to their first child, Luro. Later he was married to Mary Kirkpat- rick, and they had two danghters, namely : Susan V. and Mary. After her death, Jacob married (third) Gotwald Sherer, widow of Rev. Jacob Sherer, Ralph was born September 9, 1820, and married April 27, 1843, Eliza Brown, and their children were George and Charles. Ralph died April 17, 1898. Rev. Frederick W. was born February 22, 1822, and was married May 25, 1851, to Lillie Huffman, and died September 11, 1889. His children were as follows: Mary, Emma, Martha, Caroline, Della and Frank. David died in infancy. Simeon was born Feb- ruary 19, 1825, was married to Mary Blackwood on April 12, 1849, and died Jannary 26, 1857. His children were Luro and Sarah. Perry A. and James S. died in childhood. Polly M. was born May 13, 1829, and married Samuel A. Paden and their children were as follows: Mary E. Snider, Edward F., Clara E. Rogers, Joseph E. and Willard S. Polly M. died May 28, 1890. Mary Emily was born March 8, 1831, and on April 1, 1852, she was married to Alfred Bar- ringer, dying December 2, 1903, having had the following children : Minerva, George, Martha and Jennie Barringer. Judy Caroline, the young- est child of Frederick and Margaret (Clapp) Sherer, was born September 27, 1832. On De- cember 5, 1854, she was married to John Walcher and although they had children, they died in childhood. From the above record it will be seen that the Sherer family is connected with many other pioneer families of Montgomery County.

The Lutheran Church of Hillsboro was founded by Rev. Daniel Sherer, a son of Fred- erick Sherer, and a brother of Rev. Jacob Sherer. He was born September 7, 1815, and after re- ceiving a liberal education, entered the ministry of the Lutheran Church in North Carolina, and after ten years of successful preaching, was sent

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

to the synod of his church as a missionary to Hillsboro, where he succeeded in founding a church of his faith.

THE M'ADAMS.

Joseph McAdams, Sr., was a Revolutionary soldier and a native of Kentucky. After serv- ing in the war and rearing his family in Ken- tncky, he followed his sons, who had previously emigrated to Illinois, then an almost unknown state. He bought and built on what is known as the Berry Nail farm, on the site of the pres- ent town of Taylor Springs; and lived there some years and it was in his house, which was a fine log cabin twenty by twenty-four feet, two stories high, with one window, that the first court and the first meeting of the commissioners to locate a county seat, met, and two years later, after the house had been transferred to his daughter, Mrs. Luke Lee Steel, these meet- ings were again held here. In the meantime, Mr. McAdams moved to Dudleyville, Bond County, Ill., where he died and his burial was there. The sons of Joseph McAdams, Sr., were : Joseph Mc- Adams, Jr., Thomas Bradford McAdams, John McAdams and James McAdams.

Joseph McAdams came to Illinois from Ken- tucky in 1817, settling, several years later, on what is known as the Craig place two miles west . captain in the Mexican War. of Hillsboro, the entries reading as follows: The west half of the northwest quarter of sec- tion 9, town S, north, range 4, west of the third principal meridian. He later sold to Thomas Nelson, the southeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 9, township S, north, range 4. He married Beniah Kelly and reared a family. Edward Grubbs married one of his daughters, and their son, William S. Grubbs, and Mrs. Robb, their daughter, now live near the old homestead. Another of his children was Capt. John Mc- Adams, who became prominent during the Civil War, as a daring company commander, in whose company many of the boys from the southern part of the county were enlisted.

Thomas Bradford McAdams was born in Logan County, Ky., September 5, 1799. He was named for his cousin James Bradford, the founder of the Bradford Bank in Greenville. He was married to Mary Hunt, daughter of John and Esther Bartlett Hunt of East Tennessee, December 24, 1825, she then being fifteen years of age. Coming to this county in 1817, he settled south of Hillsboro on the place now occupied by

William J. Atterbury, and on January 23, 1833, entered the northwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 7, township S, north, range 4. Here Mrs. Barry, Mrs. Mansfield and others of his family were born. Another daughter named Nancy, a sweet and beautiful girl, died at the age of fifteen. She had been a pupil of Eugene Young, who was then located at Chicago, and was a member of the State Legislature from that city. On hearing of her death, Mr. Young wrote and published in the Baptist Helmet the following acrostic to her memory :

"Not long ago a gentle flower All sweetly decked, a summer bower, Not long ago a form of love, Could gaily smile and blithely move, Yet that flower has lost its charm, Mysterious power, now in the tomb, Cold, silent, lies that lovely form, And earth has lost another charm, Death, 'tis said loves to do its worst, And always strikes the fairest first, Many hearts that laughed before, Shall bleed since Nancy is no more."

Thomas McAdams died on the liomestead above mentioned September 10, 1868. James McAdams, another son of Joseph, Sr., was a

John McAdams, another son settled on the farm southwest from Hillsboro where James Blackburn now lives and later went to Quincy, Ill., where he died. Capt. Samuel McAdams of the Civil War was from one of these families. He lived on a place settled by a Mr. Clark, and known as the Thomas McAdams place abont four or five miles southwest of Hillsboro.

THE WASHBURNS.

There are many notable ancestral lines rep- resented by citizens more or less prominent in this county, and the Montgomery County His- torical Society will be glad to have such data, known to be reliable, in order that a record may be made of it for future reference. As an ex- ample of long ancestral lines, I here give that of the Washburn family. One might not think, to look on our genial comrade of the Hillsboro constabulary force, Seth Washburn, while he smokes his pipe but keeps his weather eye open for violators of the law, that he has back of him a notable ancestry, many generations long,

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Montgomery County, Volume II, Part 4

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897, ed. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913, ed. cn; Strange, Alexander T., ed Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 810

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897, ed. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913, ed. cn; Strange, Alexander T., ed
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 810