USA > Illinois > Williamson County > Historical souvenir of Williamson County, Illinois : being a brief review of the county from date of founding to the present > Part 30
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36
"They went to work at once, and began to get out a large amount of coal. They worked without molesta- tion a week, when a mob of 1500 men, composed of miners and men claiming to be miners, from Bell- ville, Duquoin and other adjacent towns in Southern Illinois, assem- bled at Carterville, threatening to drive away the negroes and to de- stroy the mining property of the St. Louis and Big Muddy Coal Company if the managers refused to discharge the negroes and reemploy the strik- ing miners. The Sheriff came to Carterville, swore in a number of deputies and went into the town, compelling the mob to leave, and
ending the trouble for that time.
"It then seemed to be accepted that the negroes had come to stay. and that it would be useless to at- tempt to drive them out.It was re-
ported, and no doubt was true, that Mr. Mitchell, now the President of the United Mine Workers of Ameri- ca, came to Carterville and advised the miners that they had no right to interfere with the operations of the St. Louis and Big Muddy Coal Company's mines, and, had his ad- vice been followed, it is probable that the recent troubles would not have occurred.
"After July, 1898, nearly all the old employes of the company applied to James Donnelly, manager of the mines, for work, and under instruc- tions from me to employ such men as he needed, rejecting only such as had been known to have engaged in acts of violence, he re-employed something like 100 of the white miners, who worked peacably and apparently without friction with the colored miners, producing from July 1. 1898, to May 15, 1899, the larg- est average output of coal that the mine ever made, an output larger than any other mine in the State had produced.
"The miners were perfectly satis- fied, and at no time made a demand for an increase of wages or for re- dress of any grievances. Previous
BOARD OF EDUCATION, Creal Springs. Top Row-J. F. Miller, W. T. Harris. Second Row-W. S. Brin, B. Gaskill.
6
SOUVENIR OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH AT CREAL SPRINGS, ILL.
to April 1st, the Brush men held a meeting and re-affirmed their old contract, according to the same rate for which they had been working.
"It seemed that there could be no further trouble, but the arrange- ment was not satisfactory to the United Mine Workers, and they at once began to make trouble. About the first of May three of the em- ployes of the coal company came to me to make complaint about their wages. The men told me if I would give them eight hours a day instead of ten, I would not have any more trouble with the union men, and would be allowed to work in peace. To this } agreed, and the eight-hour day was adopted. When the three men came to me } asked if they re- presented the Union, saying that I would not treat with any one repre- senting the Miners' Union, as that organization had utterly failed in the past to keep its promises to me. The men disclaimed any connection with the Miners' Union, and pro- tested that they only came to pre- sent their individual grievances. When I went to the mines I called Mr. Donnelly, the mine manager, to my office and told him what I had said to the three men, advising him to put them on the roll at the rate agreed upon, whereupon I was in- formed by him that those three men had been sent as a committee from a lodge that had been organized by my men without my knowledge.
"Immediately the men were dis- charged because they had misrepre- sented the situation and had in- duced me to make concessions that would have resulted in the claim be- ing made that I had recognized the Miners' Union and would be bound to carry out such demands as my men might make.
"At once a strike was ordered, Nearly all the colored men refused to strike and with Irew from the se- cret organization that had been formed. In order to replace the men who had left my employment, I sent to Tennessee and got thirty or forty men, and had arranged for more when I learned that I could get as many miners as I wanted at Pana, the operators there having been induced to send their negro
miners away. One of them tele- graphed to me requesting me to send up and get some of the best men who were there without means and without any prospect of employ- ment. On June 28th, my son went to Pana, and with the assistance of one of our employes who knew the colored miners at Pana, secured about forty miners with their fam- ilies, who agreed to go to Carterville to work. When two miles from our mines the coach in which the men and their families were traveling was fired upon and one negro woman was killed. This was on June 30. Many of the participants in the at- tack upon the train have been ar- rested and are held for murder. The trial is set for the fourth Mon- day in September.
"Trouble has continued at the mines. I have to go about with an escort all the time, having been as- saulted in the city of Murphysboro on the night of August 12th, by two men who laid in ambush for me as I was going from my hotel to the train. An attempt was made to as- sault me on Thursday last, and on Friday two negroes were driven out of town. On Saturday three white men, who are members of the mil- itla company, but who were not on duty at the time, were assaulted in Carterville by the same men, who, with others, assaulted and killed the five negroes. A large number of the men who participated in that crime are known. Their names have been given to the coroner's jury and
M. E. CHURCH AT CREAL SPRINGS.
7
SOUVENIR OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
PUBLIC OFFICERS OF CREAL SPRINGS.
Top Row-Edward Sullin, Clerk: G. W. Dempsey, Alderman; J. L. Gully, Alderman. Second Row-Jo hn Dupont, Alderman: Henry Wals- ton, Mayor; W. L. Harris, Alderman.
they will be held for murder.
"The Governor has assured the authorities of Williamson County that they will be offered every facil- ity for prosecuting all of the men engaged in these riots.
"On the same day that the ne- groes were killed, armed men went through the train from Carbondale to Carterville searching for me and threatened to kill me. Several of the men now under arrest for the killing on Sunday will be indicted for the murder of June 30th, and will also be prosecuted for threaten- ing to kill me and for destroying mining property.
"While the mine-owners have been assured of protection from the county and State, they have not found that such protection was af- forded them until disaster came, and as a result, have not depended en- tirely upon such precautions, but have provided arms of their own in sufficient quantity and of the best quality to be used by their trusted employes in case of emergency. This fact being known to the strikers, has prevented them from coming near enough to the mines to destroy the property, although it has been dis- covered that on the night of July 1st they brought dynamite and secreted it in a wheat-shock only a short dis- tance from the houses occupied by the miners.
"There is no doubt that if such precaution had not been taken Wil- liamson county would today be re- sponsible for the loss of the prop- erty helonging to the St. Louis and Big Muddy Coal Company.
"I do not believe in keeping an
armed body of men, nor do I think it creditable that I have to go around armed for protection. But I have found on several occasions lately that I would not have escaped had I not been ready to defend myself.
"The five negroes killed were above the average miners in intelli- gence, and were among the best men we had. They did not go to the city nor to the railroad for the purpose of making trouble, but on the con- trary some of them went to take the train and others expected friends on
the train that arrived at Carterville at noon on Sunday. One of the men went to the train for the purpose of going to Pulaski, Tenn .. to attend the funeral of his mother, another went for the purpose of meeting his wife and two children who were coming from Mt. Vernon, Ill. Some of the others intended to go to Ma- rion to attend church service, as the colored people have no church at Carterville. Knowing that there was public feeling against them in the town of Carterville, these men were afraid to go through the town, anl would not have done so had it not been for the one who wanted to go to his mother's funeral, and the other who wanted to meet his wife and children. The colored people got together at their school house on the mine property on Sunday morn- ing, and selected a few of their best men to go to Carterville with their friends. They took men who did not drink and who were old enough to have good judgment. They did not go into the town until just in time to meet the train. They went to the depot quietly, and the agent of the Illinois Central Railroad states that they were not making any disturbance or provoking any- one, whatever. A mob of men came into the depot with guns and or- dered the negroes to leave the place and to get out of town. The ne- groes, some of them with tickets in their pockets, left the depot, driven by the white men with guns in their hands down the road. It is claimed that one of them fired into the crowd at a boy, but, as it is said by one of Carterville's citizens, the boy dodged the bullet. This shot, it is claimed, caused the shooting.
"At all events, the armed strikers
MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH AT CREAL SPRINGS, ILL.
8
SOUVENIR OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
-
CITY HALL, Carterville,
began firing at the negroes, killing four of them outright and wounding another, who died soon afterwards. None of the white people were killed or hurt. This record tells its own story."-Inter Ocean, copied in Ma- rion Leader, October 5, 1899.
The names of the killed are: Rev. O. T. J. Floy1, Huse Bradley, John Black, Henry Branum, Sim Cum- mins.
T. L. Roberts, Foreman of the Grand Jury; names of the indicted: Robert Hadfield, Math Walker, El- mer James, Lem Shadowen, Wesley Shadowen, Charles Shadowen, Rich- ard Kelley, Wm. Kelley, John Wal- lace, Willis Carney, Jack Naugh, Frank Grider.
The attorneys for the State were the following: R. R. Fowler, States Attorney for Williamson County; George B. Gillespie, States Attorney for Johnson County; W. W. Clem- mens, Marion; Ed Spiller, Marion : F. M. Youngblood, Carbondale; Judge W. W. Barr, Carbondale,
On the defence: Ex-Governor Johnson, of St. Louis: Lendoff Whit- nell, Vienna: W. A. Spann, Vienna: J. L. Gallimore, Carterville: R. B. Morton, Carterville; W. W. Duncan, Marion.
The case was taken on a change of venue to Johnson County, and on the trial of the case, all the defend- ants were discharged.
The financial result of the riot to Williamson County was a debt of $20,000, of which, after the 1904 taxes are paid, there yet remains about $2,000 to pay.
Carterville Store Co.
Prominent among the mercantile interests of Carterville, Illinois, stands the Carterville Store Co., which entered a business life on the
first day of January, 1898, handling principally groceries, dry goods and shoes, and showing one of the neat- est and best kept stocks in William- son County, whose constant aim is to be fair in their treatment of their customers by giving them good val- ue in all purchases, and truly said, they are not satisfied unless their customers are satisfied. The pros- perity enjoyed by this store has gradually increased, as evidenced by the volume of business year by year. This Company confidently expects to surpass all other years, in point of sales, in 1904. Credit for this phe- nominal business is in a measure largely due to its able manager, Mr. Willard Peyton, who was born March 6, 1874, at Pinckneyville, Illinois,
and came to Carterville in Decem- ber, 1897. Mr. Peyton's start in business began at the age of seven- teen, in a store at Pinckneyville, later in the restaurant business at Union City, Tenn., with a brother, under the firm name of Peyton Bros., which continued from 1895 to 1897 inclusive, when in January, 1898, he accepted the position of manager of the Carterville Store Co's. store. Mr. Peyton is a member of the A. F. & A. M., 1. O. O. F., and Mod- ern Woodmen. His father, Robt. S. Peyton, was born near Hopkinsville, Ky., and his mother, Harriet E., near Marion, Ky. The brilliant ca- reer of Mr. Peyton is due to his strict attention to his duties and un- ceasing efforts to please the patrons of the store.
Carterville State and Savings Bank.
With the blossoming from Town to City, the necessities of the mer- chants, citizens and manufacturers demand financial institutions, the combination of commercial and fi- nancial interests of any location cen- ters in the strength and character of its banks, and especially is this true in Carterville, Williamson Co., Illinois, which has in the last four years nearly doubled its population, and where many of the leading mer- chants, mine and land owners, are stockholders in the Carterville State and Savings Bank, successor to the Bank of Carterville. About thirty- five of the hustling promoters of Car- terville's best interests, represent- ing the wealthiest and most influen- tial citizens of the City and County, organized the Carterville State and Savings Bank, which opened its doors for business on the thirteenth
SCHOOL HOUSE AT CREAL SPRINGS.
9
SOUVENIR OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
THE OZARK HOTEL, Creal Springs, Ill.
day of April, 1904, with $50,000.00 capital. S. H. Bundy was president; J. B. Samuel, vice president; M. W. Sizemore, cashier, and the following directors: S. H. Bundy, J. B. Sam- uel, Ed. A. Elles, L. J. Moaks, H. F. Arnold, P. H. Carroll, W. C. Mc- Neill, F. H. Koennecke and W. S. Wilson. The remarkable growth of this bank is best evidenced by its $216,000.00 of deposits and loans of $165,000.00 at this writing, but forty-five days of age. This flour- ishing condition is due to the strict- est and most conservative business methods, obliging and courteous treatment to the public, consistant with good banking by an efficient corps of experienced gentlemen, whose names as officers and stock- holders are a guarantee of the solid- ity of the bank.
REV. TIMOTHY CAGLE, Pioneer Farmer.
This venerable old gentleman. now close to the 80's, is another liv- ing testimonial to the benefits of the simple and regular habit of farm life. Ile comes, too, of long-lived ancestry among the mountains of Tennessee. He was born in Robin- son County, December 25, 1826, and canie, a babe in his mothe.''s arms, and settled first near the old town of Bainbridge. His mother, Polly Demumbe, died there at the age of 65, and his father, Charles Cagle, lived to be 85 and died near Little Rock, Ark. Her father was a sol- dier in the war of the Revolution and died at Nashville, Tenn., at the advanced age of 110.
August 25, 1849, Mr. Cagle chose Caroline Roberts for his life's part- ner, and together they have raised fourteen children. She is a very re- markable woman and richly de-
serves to be held in everlasting re- membrance. She was born August 8th, 1832, at Bainbridge, and she and her husband were school-mates from childhood. Except in child- bearing she was never sick a day in her life, never had a doctor nor a hired girl. She did her own house- work, raised her great family and has spun and woven as high as 100 yards of woolen cloth in a year.
At her advanced age she scorns hired help and gets ahout the old farmhouse as sprightly as a maid of 20. She is slim and trim as a bride, quick and active, and as ambitious as in her girlhood. Except for the few wrinkles and an occasional grey hair, you would hardly know that time had ever laid its hand upon her.
She and her husband are co-labor- ers still, but she is the smarter of the two. May such mothers multi- ply in the land, and may her sons do her reverence and her daughters follow in her steps.
But alas! The sound of the spin- ning wheel is no longer heard in the land. Its busy hum has given way to the ear-racking tum-tum-tum of the piano. The sons and daugh- ters have forsaken the farm and families have dwindled to one and two or three. Alas for the Repub- lic if the industrial drift lead not back to the old paths.
In 1848 Mr. Cagle bought his present homestead among the wolves and rattlers, and in 1849 brought his newly wedded bride to a home where light has been kept cheerfully burning until this present hour. Neither had much education, but pioneering gave them health and strength if it did not give them book- learning.
Near their home, among the rocks along Crab Orchard Creek, was a den of rattlers, so numerous and prolific that Mr. Cagle's predecessor, of whom he bought, killed 300 in one year. He, himself, was bitten but once, and barely escaped with his life. But the rattlers have long ago gone to keep the wolves and bears company.
In 1852 he began to preach for the Missionary Baptists, and served them until a year after the War. In 1866 he was licensed by the Free Baptists and preached for them un- til about three years ago, when ad- vancing age and infirmities brought his labors to an end. He enlisted in Co. B., 1st Col. regiment to serve in the Meixcan War, but with the rest of those boys, he "bravely marched up the hill only to march down again."
THE BATH-HOUSE AT THE OZARK HOTEL, Creal Springs.
10
SOUVENIR OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
PASI
CREAL SPRINGS FREE BAPTIST CHURCH, REV. J. W. MCKINNEY, PASTOR.
In politics he was a Republican and always voted that ticket, but was never an office-seeker nor a politician.
The names of their children are: William Cagle. deceased; Mrs. Nan- cy, widow of Hezekiah McNeal: Jas. Cagle, deceased: Mrs. Mary W., the wife of Hiram Wedkins, Carterville; Pleasant Cagle, Charles Cagle, Tim- othy Cagle, Carterville; Martha Ca- gle, Moody Cagle, Edwin Cagle, Car- terville; Mardicai, deceased; Mrs. Gertie, wife of Grif Sanders; Mrs. Dolly, wife of Tuck Hampton: Mrs. Dora, wife of William Hampton, Carterville: Alfracratls Cagle, on the old farm.
S. G. CHAMNESS, Pioneer Farmer.
Mr. Chamness is one of those men who never grow old. Erect, vigor- ous and active, at the age of 79 he is a living epistle known and read of all men, and the burden of it is that sobriety, industry and religion are a good investment for this pres- ent life. He is a native of Tennes- see, and was born in Stewart County September 29. 1825. He came with his parents to Belleville when but three years old, and in 1846, when about ten years old, his parents set- tled near where he still lives. The
only towns of any importance in
that time were Bainbridge and Frankfort.
Game was plentiful in those days, and so were wolves and rattlers. It was not uncommon for his father and older brothers to kill a deer or two before breakfast. The country was timbered and roads were but foot paths. It was a long drive to mill or to meeting, but corn and sweet potatoes grew luxuriantly, and there was always plenty of venison and wild turkey. The climate and soil were all that could be desired, and for drink they had the bubbling spring. They soon had the lowing herd and plenty of butter and milk. Hog and homony, bonny-clabber, corn pone, sweet and Irish pota- toes, possum, wild turkey and fresh venison, with plenty of "punkin but- ter!" What more could the pioneers desire in a home where the doctor was a stranger and peace and plenty abounded. No wonder his 80 years sit lightly on him. Had he passed his "three score years and ten" in the grime and the grind of a great city, his 80 years would have been reduced to 50 or 40, notwithstanding the vigor of his Tennessee parent- age. He has passed his years in paradise, and will scarcely note a change when the gates open to re- ceive him bye and bye.
What mattered the log house aud the buckskin breeches? The old log house is now a smoke house and a substantial frame house has long ago replaced it, and the buckskin and blue jeans have given way to broadcloth, but the old man still sighs for the days of the pioneer. Fifty-nine years next March the old pioneer has been rooted in the soil of his boyhood days, and truly has he flourished like a green bay tree.
Five times has he taken a wife, and is now living happily with his fifth wife. Twenty-nine grand chil- dren and twenty-three great grand children rise up and call him blessed. His first wife was Harriet Norris, to whom he was united Jan. 13, 1845. She died the following September 24, without children. He married his second wife March 1, 1846. By her he had six children, of whom five still survive: J. C. Chamness, a pros- perons farmer and stock raiser in the neighborhood; Draiton Cham- ness, who died when three years old: Mary, the wife of George Pen- tecost: Samantha, wife of Rev. A. A. Brown, of Rentfrow, Oklahoma, and Sylvester Chamness, of Creal Springs, Ill. His second wife died and for a third wife he took Ann Jones, By her he had seven chil- dren, E. A. Chamness, on the home place; Nora, who died in infancy;
11
SOUVENIR OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
OLD DONNELLY MINE, Carterville, Illinois.
Albert B. Chamness, who runs the store at Cottage Home: Libbie, who married Joe Osborn, and died in 1902: Cora, the wife of Elijah Blankenship. Then followed a pair of twin boys who died in infancy. His fourth wife was Fanny Norris, whom he married November 22, 1890. She died September 14, 1900, and then the aged patriarch took a wife, Ruth Jones, with whom he is still living. He is a Democrat in pol- ities and a deacon for 50 years in the Missionary Baptist Church. His schooling was limited but his native sense unbounded.
ELDER F. L. DAVIS, Pastor of Christian Church.
Was born near Bloomington, Mc- Lean County, Illinois, September 3, 1871. He is a second cousin to the late David Davis of Bloomington, whom he greatly resembles, both physically and mentally, pulling down the scales to 325 pounds avor- dupois, and demonstrating his claim of being one of the solidest men in the State. He is very proud of hav- ing been reared on a farm by his father, who was also reared to the plow. And it may be added (en passant ) that this unusual canse of gratulation to Mr. Davis is fortun- ately becoming less a rarity than in former years. It is gradually be- ing comprehended that moral, physi- cal and intellectual well-being is closely allied to the soil and to de- spise the farm is analagous to going back on one's own mother. When told that his "Great Father" would have a "talk" with him (meaning the Government Agent), Red Jacket is reported to have tossed his head proudly and retorted "My Father! God is my father and the earth is my mother. 1 will recline upon her hosom." Happy will it be when the
shallow contempt for the farm, still too prevalent, shall give place to the love and honor Brother Davis feels for it, and men forsake the grime and misery and want of the crowded city for the pure air and sunlight, the peace and plenty of the farm.
Very just and honorable is Broth- er Davis' pride in having been reared on a farm, it was a good start. Nearly all of America's great men, like the giant oaks and the fruitful vines and trees, were first planted in the fruitful soil of the country they love and honor. Pig- mies and criminals are bred in the cities, giants on the farm, witness Brother Davis' 325 pounds avoirdu- pois. And as the farm witnesses to health and vigor of mind, so does his education speak words of praise for our incomparable common school system, for he received his first schooling in intervals common
to the schoolboy in his farm life. He was educated, so to speak, with his hands upon the plow handles. But he didn't stop at the "little red school house." September 12th, 1892, he entered Eureka College, where he pursued his studies for three years, until June, 1895. The following September he entered Wesley University at Bloomington, where he spent another year. In September, 1901, he entered Drake University, where he spent two terms. He ceased his course of study with a course in the Golden Cross Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat College in Chicago, from which he graduated in 1903, with the degree of Doctor of Optics. In the Spring of 1892 he was converted and first began to preach April Sth, in his na- tive town of Hayworth. From that time on till the present his life has heen spent in the gospel ministry. Although active and efficient as a pastor, much of his time has been, by preference, devoted to Evangelis- tic work. He has served weak and struggling churches the greater part of the time, and sounded ont the word of life in the regions beyond. After laboring for a while in his na- tive town, he went, in the fall of 1896, to Miriden, Chorokee Co., Iowa, thence to Esterville in Emmitt County: from there to Dows, where in seven months' work he estab- lished a good congregation and erected a church at a cost of $3000.
From Dows he moved to Charles City, Floyd County, then to Tama and then spent a straight eighteen months evangelizing with his home at Des Moines.
From Des Moines he went to Red- wood Falls, Minnesota, where he re- mained but ten months and moved to Clinton, lowa. His pastorate at Carterville began at the close of his term as State Evangelist, to which he was appointed by the State Board
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.