USA > Illinois > St Clair County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume II > Part 17
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In 1820, Chauncey S. Burr, from Connecticut, came to Kaskaskia, by a combination of car- riage and boat. Upon reaching a river he would take off the running gear, put it into the wagon- bed and "paddle" or "pole" the concern across. Hc brought the first mirror to this county, and was the first Justice of the Peace in this vi- cinity. The first wedding ceremony performed was that of Jacob Hardy and Elizabeth Wildy, in August, 1832. His wife, Mrs. Permilia Burr, was the first elder of the Kaskaskia Presbyte- rian Church, to which she would ride on horse- back when the weather permitted.
A very eccentric person was Reuben Lively, who bought the Athens ferry from its founder, Ira Manville, Sr. He was famous for his queer reception of strangers-first showing them gruff treatment, but always ending by entertaining them generously. His son William, born in 1816, was the second child born in Athens Precinct.
Other settlers were George and Jack Baggs, Robin McDonald and Thomas, James and John Rainey.
In 1831, a school-house, better than most of that time, was built on Section 34. The teacher, Isaac Hill, and several pupils from a distance, boarded at John Lively's. There were thirty pupils in all, and the cost of tuition
was $2.50 per pupil for three months. On Mud Creek, in the northeastern part of the precinct, in 1836, was built a primitive log school-house with a dirt floor and four or five glass panes fitted in between the logs. Mrs. Martha Wilson was the teacher.
A Scotchman, of the old Presbyterian school, by the name of Kirkwood, was the first resi- dent preacher, and in 1829 preached in his own house to his neighbors. Mrs. Rebecca Green, who lived on Section 27, T. 3 S., R. 6 W., would walk almost to Sparta, a distance of ten miles, to attend church, carrying a child in her arms.
In 1837, a steamboat, "Wild Duck," steamed up the Kaskaskia as far as Carlyle. Athens, laid out on September 21, 1836, by Narcisse Pensoneau, began to be promising. Plats show- ing churches, parks, steamboats and crowded thoroughfares were circulated through the East, and the proverbial "gold brick" sold well.
The first land entries were made byAndrew White, Robert Morrison, John Lively and Na- thaniel Hill in 1814; Thomas Nichols in 1815; Adam Henderson in 1816; Daniel P. Cook in 1817; and Henry T. Whitman and James Mor- rison in 1818. The first threshing machine used here was bought by Baumann brothers in Al- ton in 1854.
In 1816, Isaac Hill was licensed to keep a tav- ern at what is now the village of New Athens. This was the nucleus of the town itself. The precinct was organized in June, 1839.
White Oak Mine, one of the most extensive in the county, is on Section 35, about two miles southeast of Marissa. It is 175 feet deep with a vein six and a half feet thick. In 1880, it employed 100 men, was operated by steam power, and its products shipped to St. Louis at the rate of twenty cars a day. It was un- der the proprietorship of Donk, Tijou & Com- pany. Later mining history of St. Clair County is presented in another chapter.
TOWNSHIPS.
FAYETTEVILLE TOWNSHIP was organized from parts of St. Clair, Fayetteville and Athens Pre- cincts, and embraces most of the congressional township 2 S., R. 6 W. It is bounded north by Engelmann Township, east by Washington County, south by Marissa Township and west by New Athens Township. It is watered by
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY
the Kaskaskia River and Big Mud and Little Mud Creeks. St. Libory and Darmstadt are within its borders. Officers in 1906: John J. Luechtenfeld, Supervisor; Martin Nichol, High- way Commissioner; George Beiser, Town Clerk; John Bedman, Collector; Conrad Juen- ger, Justice of the Peace; John V. Weilmun- ster, Constable; George Beiser, William H. Krouse, Police Magistrates.
NEW ATHENS TOWNSHIP consists of congres- sional township 2 S., R. 7 W., and was organ- ized from parts of Athens and Fayetteville Pre- cincts. It is watered by the Kaskaskia River and Silver Creek. New Athens and Lementon Station, on the old "Cairo Short Line," are points of importance. The former is a flourish- ing village. The township is bounded on the north by Freeburg Township, on the east by Fayetteville Township, on the south by Mill- stadt Township and on the west by Prairie du Long Township. Officers, 1906: Louis Schulz, Supervisor; Frank Keisert, Highway Commis- sioner; H. A. Dressler, Town Clerk; George H. Winter, Collector; Daniel M. Fullmer, Police Justice.
LENZBURG TOWNSHIP, organized from part of Athens Precinct, contains most of T. 3 S., R. 7 W., and a small fraction of T. 3 S., R. 6 W., and is bounded on the north by New Athens Township, on the east by Marissa Township, on the south by Randolph County and on the west by Monroe County. The Kaskaskia River flows along its western border, and its south- ern and eastern parts are watered by Dosa Creek. Lenzburg is an important village. Dutch Hill and Risdon are hamlets. Officers, 1906: George A.
Reinhardt, Supervisor; Charles Maul, Highway Commissioner; H. G. Winter, Town Clerk; William Muser, Collector; Michael Kelly, Police Magistrate.
FREEBURG TOWNSHIP .- This township is bounded on the north by Shiloh Valley and Mascoutah Townships, on the east by Engel- mann Township, on the south by New Athens Township and on the west by Smithton Township. It was organized from parts of Mascoutah, Belleville and Fayetteville Pre- cincts and comprises congressional township 1
S., R. 7 W. Silver Creek flows southwesterly nearly through its center. Freeburg, a station on the "Cairo Short Line," in the southwest part of this township, is a growing village. Township officials, 1906: F. H. Hilmstein, Su- pervisor; Joseph Koesterer, Highway Commis- sioner; John Sentzel, Town Clerk; John Heid, Collector; J. A. Blinn, Justice of the Peace.
MARISSA TOWNSHIP .- This civil division is constituted of most of Township 3 S., R. 7 W., and was created from a part of Athens Pre- cinct. It is the southeastern township of the county, bounded north by Fayetteville Town- ship, east by Washington County, south by Randolph County and west by Lenzburg Town- ship. Dosa Creek and Big Mud Creek rise in the southeast part of this township. Marissa and Lenzburg, on the "Cairo Short Line," are important local trading and shipping points. The latter is in Lenzburg Township, however, in a rectangle cut out of the western side of Marissa Township, which bounds it north, east and south. Officials of Marissa Township in 1906 are: S. S. Bogle, Supervisor; John Beim- fohr, Highway Commissioner; Thomas M. Key- worth, Town Clerk; T. N. McIntyre, Collector; O. M. Wylie, Justice of the Peace.
CHAPTER XVII.
CITY OF BELLEVILLE.
REMOVAL OF SEAT OF JUSTICE FROM CAHOKIA -- COMPTON HILL BECOMES THE SITE OF THE NEW COUNTY SEAT AND RECEIVES THE NAME OF BELLE- VILLE-SITE SELECTED IN 1813-SOME EARLY SETTLERS-OTHER EARLY EVENTS AND CONDI- TIONS- BUSINESS BEGINNINGS-MILLS AND MILL- ERS-COMMERCIAL HISTORY-CITY INCORPORATED IN 1850-MAYORS AND OTHER MUNICIPAL OFFI- CERS-FIRE DEPARTMENT - POSTMASTERS - NEW FEDERAL BUILDING - BELLEVILLE NEWSPAPERS -- SOME NOTABLE EVENTS-THE BENNETT AND STU- ART DUEL - CHOLERA VISITATIONS - CHARLES DICKENS' VISIT-PUBLIC LIBRARY.
Among the old records in the court-house in Belleville, a document was found recently which proved to be the original of the order of the
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY
Commissioners appointed by the Court of Com- mon Pleas in 1812, to select a new place for holding court in St. Clair County. The Com- mission made its report in January, 1813, select- ing Belleville (then Compton Hill) as the county-seat. This record had been sought for years, and its discovery was accidental. It has been placed in the record museum recently es- tablished in the basement of the court-house by the Board of Supervisors. The document is in excellent condition.
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About the time this step was taken the bor- der settlements in Illinois were in a state of alarm over the prospects of an Indian war growing out of the conflict then commencing with Great Britain, but this fact did not ma- terially affect the growth of population in St. Clair County. The highlands east of the American Bottom continued to receive acces- sions of American settlers until the inhabitants of the French villages along the Mississippi were outnumbered at the ballot-box. When this became generally known the idea was broached of moving the county-seat of St. Clair County from the French village of Cahokia to some more central and more accessible point.
The site chosen for the new county-seat was on the land of George Blair. Isaac Enochs, James Lemen, Jacob Short, Nathan Chambers and John Hay, Commissioners duly authorized, reported that they had "marked the place for that purpose," about twenty-five rods northeast from the dwelling house of Blair, in his corn- field, and further reported that the said Blair had proposed and agreed to give a donation for the use and benefit of the county of a public square containing one acre of land, for the purpose of erecting public buildings thereon, and to relinquish twenty-five acres of land ad- joining next around the public square, and that he also proposed to give every fifth lot of land of the twenty-five acres, exclusive of the streets. as a donation for the use and benefit of the county.
Blair came into court and promised to have conveniences made by "the next June term to hold the court at the new place" for that term, "and," it is added, "Mr. Blair received six dol- lars for hauling seats, benches and tables of the court-house at Cahokia." The court, ac- cepting the Commissioners' report and Blair's offer, ordered "that a court-house and jail be erected at the new county seat."
SOME OF THE PIONEERS .- Thus were the foun- dations of the town (now city) of Belleville laid. At that time the Ridge Prairie and Badg- ley settlements had been already colonized by families whose names are still well known, among them those of Lemen, Ogle, Badgley, Kinney, Whiteside, Phillips, Riggs, Varner, Redman, Stout, Pulliam, and others. And a set- tlement had also been made a few miles south- east of Belleville, embracing the Eymans, Stookeys, Millers, Teters, and others. The In- dian troubles had not materially abated yet, and they presented to both the governors and the governed a continuous chapter of difficulties, without any apparent approach toward the end. To make confusion worse confounded, differ- ences arose, resulting in a conflict of authority between the civil and the military powers.
Notwithstanding these discouragements the new town made progress. In 1819 it was in- corporated and Daniel Murray was its first President. A survey, began in 1814 by John Messinger, was completed and put on record by Governor Ninian Edwards. Mr. Blair named the streets. The street farthest east was Church Street, with Jackson, High, Illinois, Spring and Hill Streets to the west. North and south from public square the streets were named First, Second and Third. The present Main Street was then called St. Clair Street. St. Clair and Illinois Streets were sixty-six feet, and the others forty-nine and one-half feet wide. Blair, who owned the first dwelling-house in Belleville and for several years kept a hotel, was, according to Governor Reynolds, "a man of no gifts, wealth or attraction, but a simple, uneducated man, with an inborn hatred of work and an imprudent love for lengthy words. regardless of their sense." West of Blair's lived Henry Miller, and William Phillips lived in South Belleville. In 1810, Elijah Chapman had built the first water-mill on the west side of. Richland Creek, on the Centerville Road.
In 1814, the first store in Belleville was opened by Joseph Kerr, who got his goods from his brother, Matthew Kerr, in St. Louis. Other early merchants were Messrs. Lindell, Ring- gold, Wilkinson and Pensoneau. In 1815 Reuben Anderson came from Cahokia to Belleville, opened a hotel on Illinois Street, and later served as Constable and Deputy Sheriff.
With the county seat, there came to Belle- ville from Cahokia John Hay, son of Major
Very Truly Soucis for MR. hopple
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY
Hay, the English Governor of Upper Canada. John Hay was always regarded as a leader in county affairs, and at different times filled the offices of Circuit Clerk, County Clerk, Recorder, County Judge, Notary Public and Commissioner. He died in 1843. William Mears and Alphonso Stuart, lawyers, came in 1816.
One of the most conspicuous citizens of early Belleville was James Tannehill, a wagon-maker, who came from South Carolina in 1817. On the site of the present National Hotel he built a hotel, which Governor Reynolds said "looked like a whole French village." This tavern, con- structed of hewn logs above and frame work below, was then the largest in Southern Illi- nois, and there came together people of every calling and sort imaginable, as are wont to con- gregate in a tavern in a pioneer town. Tanne- hill was a kind and accommodating landlord, but not a good business man; so he accumu- lated practically no money. Later he sold his tavern to Judge Latham, of Edwardsville, began farming, and later operated a distillery in South Belleville, on a twelve-acre lot covered with heavy timber, which, bad bargainer as he was, he got in exchange for an old horse. This was the first distillery in the county in which steam was used. Steam was conveyed through hol- low logs instead of iron pipes. All the whisky he made was consumed at the hotel. He built a wind-mill for grinding grain on his farm; but, through some mistake of construction, it came to destruction in a storm.
In 1828, Tannehill bought an old mill on Race Street and improved it, but failed to make money with it and sold it to Thomas Harri- son for $800. He also had a great reputation as a manipulator of the divining rod. His last venture was in lead mining in Missouri; but, needless to say, he failed in this. He held at different times the positions of Jailer and Jus- tice of the Pease.
Tannehill had a very pleasing personality, He was six feet four inches tall, stout, kind- hearted, good-natured and a zealous advocate of negro slavery. His tavern passed through the hands of Judge Latham, William Orr (who died of cholera), and a Mr. Maus. In 1815, another hotel was built by Daniel Wise, which was kept in turn by Wise, a Mr. Bottsford, an Englishman named Robison and other pio- neer Bonifaces.
Other prominent citizens of early Belleville
were: Joseph Kerr, who lived on the site of the Belleville House; Daniel Murray, a Balti- more man of excellent standing; Etienne Pen- soneau, a French Canadian who had a dry- goods store, slaves, a mill on Richland Creek, and other property, but lacked pubic spirit. The early Belleville settlers were chiefly from Vir- ginia and other Southern States. Among the Southern families were those of Mitchell, West, Dennis, Gay, Cohen, Greaves, Glasgow and Heath. These families brought with them their slaves, which were a bone of contention for five years and were finally freed.
Another family prominent in early days was the Rapier family. We quote the following, written by James Affleck some years ago and found among his papers: "Oscar Rapier was well known here by the older citizens, having lived here from infancy until long after he was grown. He married Miss Lucretia Fouke, a sister of Philip B. Fouke, and an aunt of Governor Charles P. Johnson. She died of cholera in 1849. He had two sons and a daugh- ter. His eldest son, Richard, was a volunteer in the Federal Army in the Civil War. He was brought home sick and died of smallpox in the Thomas House. His daughter Julia taught school here for a while, but later married and lived in California. Mr. Rapier was at one time a member of the Presbyterian Church here.
"It may be admissable here to give a brief sketch of his father and mother, Richard and Rachel Rapier. They came here from Ken- tucky soon after the State was added to the Union. They opened a grocery store in a small house about where Stolberg's (now Winkler & Schirmen's) store now is. Their stock con- sisted of what is generally found in a grocery store, besides whisky, powder, shot, lead and tar. When Mr. Rapier came here, he brought a stock of 300 barrels of Old Bourbon whisky, for which he found a ready sale. The first house I entered when I first came to Belle- ville, in 1820, was this little store. He pros- pered in business and soon wanted more room. He purchased the corner lot where the court- house now stands, on which was a small two- story brick house, into which, about 1825, he moved the grocery and added largely of dry- goods. The family occupied the second story. It was here that I saw him, after bidding some of his friends good-bye, mount his horse and leave for Philadelphia and intermediate points
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY
to purchase stock for his house, the Ohio River being too low for boats to run at that time.
"Mrs. Rapier was a business woman who man- aged the store in the absence of her husband; 'besides, was much more pleasant for cus- tomers to deal with. Mr. Rapier's prosperity still increased. He stocked a large store in St. Louis and moved there with his family about 1829. He employed William McClintock as agent to conduct the business here. In 1832 Mr. Rapier commenced the erection of a steam flouring mill, known since as the Hinckley mill, but greatly enlarged by Mr. Hinckley. Mr. Ra- pier was like the blacksmith who had too many irons in the fire. The mill became unprofitable, a dead weight and expense. The goods here were sold to John Flanagan and Theodore J. Krafft, who continued the business on the cor- ner until they built the house later occupied by G. H. Stolberg as a book-store, into which they moved their goods when it was finished. Mr. Rapier finally failed and gave up all his effects to his creditors, except the lot on which the court-house now stands, which he man- aged to save by conveying it to a friend be- fore the wreck came. He died in 1850. His wife had preceded him some years. Their bones have been removed in excavating for building.
"Shortly before he died he sold the corner lot to the county for the erection of the pres- ent court-house, the county paying $7,000 and citizens owning property near or fronting the square-principally Henry Goedeking and John Maus-paying $3,000, as $10,000 was the lowest price for which Mr. Rapier would sell. Such is a brief sketch of that once noted family here."
In 1814, Etienne Pensoneau was given the contract to built a court-house, an unpainted frame building, two stories high on the public square, in front of the site of the present court- house. The court room occupied the whole lower floor; the Clerks' offices and the jury rooms the upper floor. Into this was put the furniture and other fixtures, which Blair had hauled from Cahokia.
In 1820, brick houses were built by Governor Ninian Edwards and Robert A. Mclaughlin, on Main Street; Samuel Crane, on High Street; Taft, on the Square, and S. Hull, on High Street, south of Second South Street.
In 1818-19, mechanics began to follow their
trades here. Messrs. Small and Smith, and Conrad Bornman were blacksmiths. Mr. Born- man, however, abandoned the blacksmith's trade to learn brick-making and brick-laying. He later became prominent, and died in 1878.
In 1819, when Belleville was incorporated as a town, it contained about twenty-five families. There were several stores-one carried on by Glasgow, Porter & Nevin; one, on the site of the Academy of Music, by Robert K. Mclaughlin, a Kentuckian, who had been a lawyer. Reuben Anderson kept a hotel on illinois Street. Thomas Cohen, who was "burgomaster" in 1820, but later removed to St. Louis, where he was elected Mayor, kept a jewelry store on Illi- nois Street. He was a man of fashion, wearing ruffled shirts and the like, and was prominent as a citizen and man of affairs. Others re- siding in Belleville in 1819 and. 1820 were: William Hook, son-in-law of James Tannehill, a millwright and carpenter; Jacob Maurer, a blacksmith; Lewis Myers, a hatter, from Ken- tucky; Jacob Myers, a Justice of the Peace; John H. Gay; Richard Chandler; Edmund P. Wilkinson, an early Justice of the Peace; Major Washington West from Virginia; Zachariah Stevenson, a noted pugilist; James Mitchell, David Blackwell, and James Affleck, who was born in Scotland, came to South Carolina, and later to Belleville, where he died in April, 1902. Mrs. James Mitchell said that, in 1819, Belle- ville could boast of only two houses with shin- gle roofs.
According to reminiscenses of James Affleck, published in the "Collections" of the Illinois Historical Society, some of the houses of 1817-19 in Belleville were the following: "Daniel Mur- ray and family built a very good house for that time on the southwest corner of Illinois and Second South Street; Richard Chandler, an older brother of S. B. Chandler, lived in a log- house located where the Heckel planing-mill later stood; a Mr. Kinkaid lived in a log house where the Lorey Building later stood; Thomas Cohen lived in a two-story dwelling on the site of the Dr. Kohl residence, on Illinois Street; William Mears, a lawyer, built a good house on the southwest corner of Illinois and First South Streets; Lewis Myers lived in a house on the site of the new jail; Mrs. Robinson, afterwards Mrs. Murray, owned a house and lived where the Methodist Episcopal Church now stands; William Phillips, father of James
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY
Phillips, owned a house and farm in the south- west part of town, but, in 1816, sold it to Al- phonso C. Stuart; Timothy Bennett (who killed Stuart in a duel) had a lot with a log cabin on it, adjoining the residence of C. F. Noetling, later occupied by Emil Feigenbutz. Some way the lot formerly occupied by Ben- nett seemed to be shunned through a sort of superstitious fear, perhaps, for it was not until over sixty-five years after the hanging of Ben- nett that anyone would live there. The build- ing was simply allowed to sink to decay. In 1818 or 1819, Ringgold & Wilkinson built an ox-mill near the R. A. Halbert residence, but they had no success in running it. The mill was later bought by the Harrisons." .
EARLY EVENTS AND CONDITIONS .- The people of Belleville had, in early days, no penitentiary to which to send offenders against the law, but in lieu thereof they had the whipping post and the pillory, where criminals, bound hand and foot, were made the unwilling recipients of from five to forty lashes, according to the offense or crime committed. There were two or three walnut trees in the vicinity of the public square, which were used to save the county the expense of erecting a special whip- ping-post, and there was witnessed the lacera- tion and bleeding of many a poor fellow's back. The last sentence of that kind that was ever carried into effect in this county, it is said, was executed by the Hon. John D. Hughes. It is believed, however, that only one man was ever punished in Belleville by being put in the pillory. His name was William D. Noble, and his crime was forgery.
But the people, in those days, very frequently took the administration of the law into their own hands. They held that it was unnecessary to trouble the courts of the county with some grades of criminals; and that, as Judge Lynch's court was always in session, and but few crim- inals had been known to prosecute a writ of error from that court after being tried be- fore it, a preference should be given to it over all others, on economical grounds if on no other. Soon after the close of the War of 1812, the county roundabout was flooded with counterfeit notes, and in order to detect and punish the guilty parties, a company of regulators was organized of many of the best citizens, of which Dr. Estes was elected captain. This company was established in Belleville in 1815, and dur-
ing its existence, which was but a few months, by its prompt infliction of punishment on all who were found guilty of crime by its tribunals, it created excitement throughout the country. Criminals became terrified and fled, and good men deplored the necessity for the organiza- tion of any such society. The Lynch Court was usually held in the neighborhood of Silver Creek, and there, too, were all the punishments generally inflicted. Many, however, were al- lowed the privilege of leaving the country, and so avoided the summary inflictions that other- wise would have been their almost certain doom. The man Noble, alluded to above, was sentenced both to punishment in the pillory and a fine of $2,000 and costs of prosecution, $1,000 to go to the person he had attempted to defraud, and $1,000 to the State. The judgment in his case was carried into execution on the 13th of April, 1822. Noble was exposed for about one hour in the pillory, which was erected about the center of the public square. There it was allowed to remain for many years, though used only as a hitching-post for the teams and horses of those who came in from the coun- try. Governor Reynolds sat as Judge in the above case, William A. Beaird as Sheriff, and John Hay, Clerk.
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