History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part 30

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 948

USA > Illinois > Union County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 30
USA > Illinois > Pulaski County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 30
USA > Illinois > Alexander County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > 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).

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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

numbers. They came from all directions, but especially from the Southern States, Mis- souri, Mississippi and Louisiana. For many summers, the boarding-houses, and all who would accommodate boarders, had all and more than they could accommodate, and many were sometimes turned back by learn- ing they could not get accommodations. The price of lots still continued exorbitantly high, and so wretched were the meager ac- commodations, people ceased to come, and the place fell into decay. A spring house, which was under way, was left to its fate un- finished, and the timbers now lie around the spring in a decaying condition. When too late, the Doctor discovered his mistake, and had what he called a deed from the public to himself made, conveying the spring back to himself. This curious document was signed by the visitors who, from time to time, were attracted to the place, and, as legal wisdom spread among the people, it eventually came to be looked upon as fraudulent. Armed with this document, the Doctor set about try- ing to sell the springs.' He made a sale to a St. Louis and also to a Chicago firm, but when, in each case, the abstract of title was made out, the trade fell through. At present the springs are uncared-for in the public square, and at times the wayfarer comes, drinks of the Pool of Siloam, and is benefit- ed. Over one-half of the original town plat, including the park, lies in the farm of Mr. Taylor Dodd. The remainder is owned by a few of the older inhabitants. most of whom look forward to better times coming for the place. Dr. T. J. Rich resides upon part of the old town plat, and cultivates his fruit trees where once it was intended to erect large brick, stone and iron houses.

The property is located in Section 1, Township 12 south, Range 1 west. It is a tolerably strong sulphur water, and contains

sulphureted hydrogen, a small quantity of sulphate of lime, carbonate of soda, chloride of sodium, and, perhaps, a little alumina and magnesia. The water is said to be a specific for dyspepsia and chronic diseases of the skin. It is also said to be beneficial in cases of scrofula. The water is strongest during the dry season of the year, being then less affected 'by the admixture of surface water.

Dr. Penoyer seems to have been a poor manager, and yet the waters, were shipped and sold by him, in quantities, to many parts of the country. For some years he made a practice of boiling it down and bottling and peddling it about the country, and shipping to those wanting it at a distance.

In conversation with Dr. T. J. Rich, the following additional facts were learned: The chief ingredients of the water are soda, sul- phuret, patash and traces of iron and iodine. The odor which is noted upon drinking the water is caused by the presence of sulph uret of hydrogen; this is said to pass away entire- ly when the water is allowed to stand an hour or two.

The Doctor's method of boiling the water was to take 100 gallons, and boil it until only one remained. This one gallon was quite thick, and tasted like soft soap-suds, or very strong soda-water. It was about the time that the Doctor was engaged in making this medicine, probably about 1850, that there was an epidemic of flux. It was very fatal, and the physicians gave up many cases, which Dr. Penoyer was able to cure with his medicine, in every instance in which it was given a fair trial.

That the water contains ingredients that are full of strong curative powers in many of the human ailments, is beyond all reasonable doubt, and nothing short of Dr. Penoyer's folly could have prevented this place from long ago becoming one of the most noted

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health resorts in the country. In many chronic ailments. and in all skin diseases, and for old sores, it has, in so many in- stances, and unfailingly, cured, that it may be said to be a specific.

Road Material .- An inexhaustible amount of the very best material for the construction of turnpike or common roads, abounds on all the watercourses that intersect the uplands of this district, and is derived from the cherty limestones of the Upper Silurian and Devonian age. It consists of a brown flint or chert, finely broken for use, and occurs abundantly, filling the valleys of the small streams that intersect the limestones above named. This has been used at St. Louis for the manufacture of "concrete stone," and is found equal to the best English flint for this purpose. The material with which; this ex- periment was made was obtained in Union County, but it differs in no way from the flint found in Pulaski and Alexander Counties.

Next to the immense deposits of coal, the St. Louis limestone is reckoned one of the most important formations. It receives its name from the city where its lithological character was first studied. Imbedded in its layers are found Crinoids, * in a profusion found nowhere else in the world. Though untold ages have elapsed since their incar- ceration in the rocks. so perfect has been their preservation, their structure can be de- termined with almost as much precision as if they had perished but yesterday.

The soil was originally formed by the de- composition of rocks. These, by long ex- posure to the air, water and frost, became disintegrated, and the comminuted material acted upon by vegetation, forms the fruitful mold of the surface. When of local origin, it varies in composition with changing mna-

terial from which it is derived. If sand -. stone prevails, it is too porous to retain fer- tilizing agents; if limestone is in excess, it is too hot and dry, and if slate predominates, the resulting clay is too wet and cold. Hence. it is only a combination of these and other ingredients that can properly adapt the earth to the growth of vegetation. Happily for nearly all the Mississippi Valley, the origin of its surface formations precludes the possibility of sterile extremes arising front local causes. And these causes are more abundant in the south end of Illinois than in probably any other place in the great val- ley. The surface of the country is a stratum of drift, formed by the decomposition of every variety of rock in its distribution. This immense deposit, varying from fifteen to two hundred feet in thickness, requires for its production physical conditions which do not exist now. We must go far back in the history when the polar world was a desolation of icy wastes. From these dreary realms of enduring frosts, vast glaciers, reaching southward, dipped into the waters of an inland sea, extending over a large /part of the Upper Mississippi Valley. The ponderous masses, moving southward with an irresistible power, tore immense bowlders from their parent ledges and in- corporated them in their structure. By means of these, in their further progress, they grooved and planed down the subjacent rocks, gathering up and carrying with them part of the abraded material, and strewing their track, for hundreds of miles, with the remainder. On reaching the shore of the in- terior sea, huge icebergs were projected from their extremities into the waters, which, melting as they floated into the warmer lati- tudes, distributed the detrital matter they contained over the bottom. Thus, long be- fore the plains of Illinois clanked with the

* Crinoidea-An order of lily-shaped marine animals. They generally grow attached to the bottom of the sea by a pointed stem, analagous to the growth of plants.

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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

din of railroad trains, these ice-formed navies plowed the seas in which they were sub- merged, and distributed over them cargoes of soil-producing sediment. No mariner walked their crystal decks to direct their course, and no pennon, attached to their glit- tering masts, trailed in the winds that urged them forward; yet they might, perhaps, have sailed under flags of a hundred succeeding em- pires, each as old as the present nationalities of the earth, during the performance of their labors. This splendid soil-forming deposit is destined to make Illinois the great center of American wealth and population. Per- haps no other country of the same extent on the face of the globe can boast a soit so ubiquitous in its distribution, and so univer- sally productive. And here, on the southern point of land that forms the extreme South- ern Illinois, is a soil enriched to an extraor- dinary depth by all the minerals in the crust of the earth, and it contains an unequaled variety of the constituents of plant food. Since plants differ so widely in the elements of which they are composed, this multiplic- ity of composition is the means of growing a great variety of crops, and the amount pro-, duced is correspondingly large. So great is the fertility that years of continued cultiva- tion do not materially diminish the yield, and should sterility be induced by excessive working, the subsoil can be made available.

The cultivation of the soil in all ages has furnished employment for the largest and best portions of mankind; vet the honor to which they are entitled has never been fully acknowledged. Though their occupation is the basis of national prosperity, and upon its progress more than any other branch of in- dustry, depends the march of civilization, yet its history remains, to a great extent, un- written. Historians duly chronicle the feats of the warrior who ravages the face of the

earth and beggars its inhabitants, but leaves unnoticed the labors of him who causes the desolated country to bloom again, and heals, with balm of plenty, the miseries of war. When true worth is duly recognized, instead of the mad ambition which subjugates na- tions to acquire power, the heroism which subdues the soil and feeds the world will be the theme of the poet's song and the orator's eloquence.

The counties of Union, Alexander and Pulaski form the extreme south end of the State, occupying nearly all that point of land south of the grand chain that extends across the lower end of the State, and are in height from 500 to 700 feet, and that make a strong line of difference in the geological forma- tions that extend to the bottom lands near Cairo, as well as exercising a strong influ- ence upon the meteorological changes that occur in this district. The timber, soil, drainage and climate of this district cannot be excelled. Nature has strewn here rich and inexhaustible, and formed a Jand capable of sustaining a greater population to the area than any other district in the country. When cultivated and tended, as it will be some day, to its full capacity, there is more dollars per acre here than, perhaps, in any other spot on the globe. Only think for a moment, it is no experiment to make from $300 to $500 net on a single acre of ground, and that, too, on land that you can buy at from $5 to $20 per acre. It is, too, most fortunately situated as to markets. Markets that can never be overstocked are at your door; at least, so near at hand that transpor- tation is merely nominal. Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis, in fact all the North, and especially the growing giant, the North- west Mississippi Valley, whose climate will make it always come here as the best of cus- tomers, and then there is the entire South,

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to the Gulf, that will be perpetual customers for all your corn. hay, flour and all domestic animals, with railroads to take the perish- able goods with dispatch to their destination, and both railroad and the great rivers to take the bulky and more durable stuff to all the world. The climate alone is an incalculable fortune, a perennial fountain of gold, as it combines the advantages of the North and the South, enabling you to produce the ear- liest fruits and vegetables of all descriptions, thus putting you in the market when com- petition is impossible, and at the same time you can grow, to the best advantage, not only winter wheat, but all the cereals, as well as compete with any spot in the country in rais- ing of all kinds of stock. Then, too, you are equally fortunate in the topography of your . county, both for tillage and for health. The hills, undulations and rolling bottom lands giving you the very best natural drainage, and here you will be equally blest with health and rugged, happy people, as soon as the heavy timbers in the bottoms and near the lakes are a little more cut off, and the pene- trating sunlight, as it always has done and always will, drives away all malaria and miasma. Your excellent natural drainage will protect you from the drowning spring waters that so often visit the central and northern portions of the State, and this very drainage will be almost a specific against the drouths that sometimes visit nearly all por- tions of our country with such a heavy hand.

These truths about Southern Illinois should be widely disseminated. Only see what wonders have been performed by the railroads in peopling the treeless, windy, dry, grasshopper regions that were once known as the Great American Desert. That land of alkali, sage-brush, coyotes, cow boys, scalping Indians and desolate dogtowns. They blew their horns, and cried aloud from

the housetops; they advertised, spent thou- sands of dollars, and have been repaid in millions. Here is the difference: Northenr Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska are situ- ated in the natural line of travel for the old Eastern States, and for that wonderful tide of immigration pouring constantly into this country from Europe, thus this part of Illi- nois has had her light, so far as emigration was concerned, hid under a bushel. Her unapproachable sources of wealth and her incomparable beauties and advantages have been unseen and unheeded.

But little or nothing has ever been done to remedy this evil. On the 9th of last Decem- ber, a meeting was held in Cairo, composed of representative men from Alexander, Jack- son, Johnson. Massac, Perry, Pulaski, Will- iamson and Union Counties, to consider the question of organizing an Emigration Society for Southern Illinois. They concluded to organize under the corporation law of the State, with a capital stock of $10,000. They seemed to realize it as a fact, known to all intelligent people in Southern Illinois. that we have suffered grievously from wrong im- pressions, years ago spread abroad over the country, with regard to our climate, soil and general material conditions, the consequences of which are, we have not attracted the at- tention of immigrants that our merits de- served, and these promoters of a community's wealth and prosperity have passed this sec- tion by and gone West, and fared infinitely worse. They go into the arid wastes of the West, and suffer untold hardships. The facts are, there is not an emigrant that em- barks for America that has ever heard of Southern Illinois; but he puts on his hob- nailed shoes and starts for the land of free- dom and hope, in the firm conviction that Nebraska, Kansas and the Texas Pan-Handle are the real United States-the land of peace,

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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

plenty, hope and happiness. His pockets are stuffed with glowing literature extolling these places, and the cunning railroads have hired the most brilliant writers to picture, in flowing and fascinating terms, these places that catch the swift-coming tide of immigra- tion. If the outside world does hear anything from this favored and incomparable section of country, it is the cheap stock-slander about " Egypt and its darkness and ignorance," until frightened simpletons, who swallow those slanders, are tempted to travel out of their way, in order to not pass through this section of "ignorant barbarians." A silly lie can always outtravel the truth, particu- larly when the slandered community treat the slander with silent contempt, and make no effort to correct the story and present the facts. This outside prejudice against this section must be overcome, and the truth dis- seminated in its place. Why, if you could, by some magic, transport this part of Illi- nois, with every physical fact surrounding, exactly as the facts now exist, the soil, the production, the facilities for markets, the health, the climate, everything, in fact, ex- actly as it is, except the removal, to the northern or middle portion of the State, the land that now sells for $10 or $15 per acre, could not, in three months after the change in locality, and with no other change, mark you, be bought for $500 per acre, no, nor for $1,000 per acre. And then, in a very few years, Cook County would be the only county in the State that would equal this section in population. Immigrants going to a new coun- try are much like a flock of sheep crossing a fence. They follow the bell-sheep without looking to the right or left. Of course, there- fore, it is more difficult to arrest their atten- tion now, and to show them that they are sadly deceived, and are passing by, in ignor- ance, the most favored spot on earth, and

going to not the most favored place, even, in this Western country. We see the poor- est country in America, exactly like a quack doctor, can grow great and prosperous, and smile at its betters, by simply advertising itself-using printer's ink. This is the magic ring-the Aladdin's lamp that brings wealth and prosperity to its friends and pa- trons. The ubiquitous, restless, dashing, energetic, audacious and tireless Yankee of the North has always keenly realized this, and has subsidized it to his use and complete control, and when he got a land-grant for a railroad, he cared not what the country was where he built his road and got his lands; he printed books, pictures, placards, chro- mos, handbills and " dodgers" by the mill- ion, and told all the world, and soon con- vinced it, too, that by coming to him they were on the only road to an earthly paradise. Could the outside world be divested of its unjust prejudices about this locality, and could the simple truth-the plain, palpable facts-be made known to them, what a quick revolution it would produce here -- what a transformation scene would take place.

We have spoken of the advantage of soil, climate and commerce; we have only spoken of the soil, climate, agricultural, commercial and market advantages. In all these you are not only unequaled, but you are simply un- approachable. You can laugh at rivalry in each and every one of these things. In fact, there is no possibility of rivalry from any other section for anything you can produce to the best advantage. Your wheat commands a royal premium in all the markets of the world; your corn cannot be excelled in qual- ity; your potatoes are not only excellent, but they go to the Northern market at a season when you can always dictate your own price per bushel.

The topographical advantages seem to be

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as little understood by the people as is the geology of this locality. The geology and topography of the country are singularly pe- culiar. the remarkable fact being that these two features-especially the topography- place in your hands advantages that will for- ever exclude competition from any other section of the country. It is situated just south of the only true mountain range in Illinois, the spur crossing the State from the Ozark Mountains and traceable into Ken- tucky. This not only protects it from the severest part of the "blizzards" that visit every portion of the West each winter, but it gives it warmth of soil that enables you to raise early fruits, potatoes and garden veg- etables, and place them in the markets at immense advantage. You thus have the healthy, bracing air of the North, that im- parts a tonic and vigor to all animal life, as well as the genial warmth of more southern localities-combining the bracing Northern atmosphere and the early fructifying tropical warmth. Your advantages in this line are already demonstrated in reference to fruits and early vegetables of all kinds, and the same great truths will be some day equally well demonstrated in regard to another and vastly profitable industry for the people, namely, the raising of blooded cattle and the establishment of creameries and butter manu- factories. Here is an unexplored mine of incalculable wealth, where it is again most fortunate indeed. We know of no point in the country where a creamery would yield as much profit on the capital invested as here. The cold spring waters, pure air and superior pasturage would make the greatest yield of butter of the " gilt-edge " quality, and then you are where you could command the choicest of the butter trade of the entire South. And in this respect there is as little danger of competition from other sections of

the country as there is in your fruits and vegetables for shipment North. For instance, Cairo is always ready to pay about 10 cents per pound more for choice butter than the Chicago price. They never can make good butter south of this part of Illinois, and hence, you are at their door with all the fa- cilities and advantages of any Northern point in production, and the immense advantage of being the favored ones in the valuable Southern trade. Thus the profits are multi- plied each way. And is it not plain that if the creameries of Northern Illinois are a source of great profit, both to the factories and to all the farmers for a wide circuit of miles around them, would they not be im- mensely more profitable and beneficial if lo- cated in Union County ? This is not all the profits that are to be made off domestic cattle here. This district is the home of the nutri- tious grasses that enter into the business of stock-raising-producing these in greatest abundance and of the finest quality. Show the world the truth, just as it exists, and you will soon see your county filled with graded cattle, when the industry of butter-making alone would, of itself, make your people prosperous and rich. Your command of the great and best markets in the world-the South for your butter, eggs and poultry, is one of those peculiar advantages of climate, soil and topography that makes it a favored locality. Eggs and butter may yet become a fountain of more wealth to the county than are now the wheat and corn of any county in the State. Thus, this point of Illinois is the doorway of the world's best markets, particu- larly the North and the South, where it will practically always remain without competi- tion.

One day last winter there was a car-load of mules and horses that had been pur- chased in Anna, and were on the switch at

Peter Hb Casper

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the depot preparatory to starting to Nebraska, and while they stood there, the freight train passed, going South, and had several car- loads of horses and mules that had been gathered up in the central portion of the State for the Southern markets.

A few years ago, some Germans came into Union County from Pennsylvania, and among their purchases were some of the old- est farms in the county; farms that had been badly cared for, and "skinned" and washed until they were supposed to be nearly worth- less. Great gullies had been plowed through the fields in every direction by the waters, and the rich soil had disappeared. These thrifty and industrious people, nothing daunted, went to work, and now the soil is restored, the gullies and washouts are filled, and the finest and largest crops every year are the rich rewards of their careful foresight and industry. The geologist will tell you that your land will never wear out under in- telligent treatment, because there is stored in the subsoil an inexhaustible source of wealth-a bank that will never break nor run away with the deposits, upon which the farmer may draw checks that will always be honored, and paid in glittering gold. The same geologist will tell you that the geolog- ical formation of a county always determines the quantity, quality and value of its popu- lation-not only the numbers of the people that will some day live upon it, but will pre- figure their comforts, wealth, enjoyments and the possibilities of their enlightenment and civilization. Hence, what is beneath the sur- face of your land is of the very greatest im- portance to all.

In Pulaski County is a similar experiment of what a little intelligent treatment may do for a farm that had been pronounced worn out by the " skinning" process of farming, on the farm occupied by Dr. G . W. Bristow,

near New Grand Chain. The Doctor has only required four years to convert it into one of the best farms in the county, and richer than it was when the virgin soil was first turned by the plow.

The past winter furnished some remarkable testimony as to the meteorological advan- tages this end of Illinois possesses in cli- matic arrangements. The Northeast, the West and Southwest-in fact, the entire coun- try-was visited by some remarkable winter storms, sometimes termed "blizzards," that passed over the country, carrying, often, de- struction to man and beast. In the cattle and sheep regions of the West and Southwest, there was great loss of stock from these storms. The fierce winds were almost like a tornado, and they carried the blinding snow and frost at such a rate as to send the ther- mometer down from forty to sixty degrees in a few hours. Several of these storms were unparalleled in intensity, and so widespread were they that much stock was destroyed as far South as Central Texas. The record of the thermometer on one of these occasions marked 17º below zero at St. Louis, and 5° below zero at Dallas, Tex., and at the same time it barely reached zero in any of this part of the State south of the north line of Union County. At no time, during the entire winter, did the mark go below zero here, when it passed below that point six or seven hundred miles south of this. And during the cold storms, on more than one occasion, there was a difference of fifteen or twenty degrees between this place and any point forty or fifty miles north of this. This remarkable state of facts results from the topography of this part of Illinois. The mountain chain, six or seven hundred feet high, passing across the State, just north of this district, forms a barrier to the fierce winds from the north, and deflects them to the west or east, or 14

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History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part 30

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 948

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 948