History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part 55

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 55
USA > Illinois > Pulaski County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 55
USA > Illinois > Alexander County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 55

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half dozen Republican voters in the entire precinct. The people used to vote at John N. Meisenheimer's, but of late years have cast their votes at the Meisenheimer School- house.

Of the early schools of the precinct, we know but little beyond the fact that they were of the usual pioneer character, with the log cabin schoolhouse, and the old-fashioned and illiterate teacher. There are now some four or five good, comfortable schoolhouses, among which are the Fulenwider Schoolhouse, the Meisenheimer, the Hileman and the Holmes Schoolhouses. There is but one church building in the precinct-the German Lutheran Church, at the railroad station of Kornthal; but of it we were unable to learn any particulars concerning its history. In addition to this church, religious services are held in the schoolhouses, as well as Sunday school.

The roads of this section are on a par with other portions of the county, nothing to brag of, and with so much material "lying around loose," might be made much better at a light expense. The only mills in the precinct are a couple of saw mills. They are operated by steam, and one is owned by John M. Hile- man, and the other by Bell & Messler. The latter cuts mostly box material.

Kornthal is the nearest approach to a vil- lage, and consists of a station on the narrow- gange railroad, in the extreme northeastern part of the precinct. It has never been laid out as a town, and has a store, a church, a. shop or two, and a few residences-"only this, and nothing more."

435

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

CHAPTER XXIII .*

PRESTON AND UNION PRECINCTS-THEIR GEOGRAPHICAL AND TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES- EARLY PIONEERS - WHERE THEY CAME FROM AND HOW THEY LIVED -THE

ALDRIDGES AND OTHER " FIRST FAMILIES"-SWAMPS, BULLFROGS AND MOSQUITOES-SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, ETC.

T THE divisions of Union and Preston Pre- 1

cincts, to which this chapter is devoted, lie along the Mississippi River, which forms their western boundary, while Big Muddy River and Johnson County form the north boundary; Alto Pass, Jonesboro and Meisen- heimer Precincts lie on the east, and Alexan- der County on the south. The land is gen- erally level, and much of it swampy and sub- ject to overflow during high water. The swamps are prolific of bull-frogs, mosquitoes and other pleasant (!) attractions to the human race. The bottoms are very rich, and pro- duce abundant crops of corn and wheat, when high water does not interfere. Most of the land is owned by a few individuals, who, with one or two exceptions, live back in the hills, or in Jonesboro and Anna; hence, the inhabitants are nearly all renters, and of a kind of migratory character, flowing back and forth with the tide, as it were; retreating back into the hills during the overflow of the bottoms, and returning when the waters abate. Could the river and other streams be so leveed as to prevent overflow, and the swamps subjected to a perfect system of drainage, these bottoms would soon become the most valuable lands in Union County. The timber comprises oak, hickory, sweet gum. sycamore, elm, cottonwood, maple, honey. locust, etc., etc. The population of Preston in 1880 was 283, and Union 827,

and a large proportion of these are tran- sient. The precincts are without railroad communication, and are dependent on water transportation to get rid of their surplus products.

Among the early settlers of Preston Pre- cinct were Davis Holder, Thomas Harris, James Abernathie, the Bruce family, Henry Rowe, Parish Green, Manuel and Andrew Penrod, from Kentucky. Manuel Penrod set- tled on Running Lake, in the southern part of the precinct, and Andrew settled in the vicinity of the old village of Preston. Green afterward settled down at the Willard Land- ing, and long kept a ferry there. The others settled mostly in the river bottoms, and are now gone. From Tennessee came the Rush- ing family, the Erwins and Hamptons; and from North Carolina. the Aldridges, Joseph Fink, James Betts and Nathaniel Smith. Most of these are dead or have moved away, except the Aldridges, who are represented by Mrs. William Aldridge and James Aldridge. John Hurst, an Englishman John Freeman, from Massachusetts. and George and Adam James, from Virginia. were all early settlers.

In Union Precinct, the following were some of the early settlers: Parish Green settled at what is now called Willard's Land- ing, and is supposed to have been the first settlement. It was long known as Green's Ferry, and is still often so called at the pres-

*By W. H. Perrin.

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IHISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

ent day. Other early settlers in Union were Jacob Blotcher, David Treese, Jacob Reed, R. B. Goodman, John Talley, Allen Kimball. David and William Green, and perhaps some others. Blotcher is still living, and came here from Indiana. He settled about two iniles above Willard's Landing, and was among the first settlers in the precinct. Treese settled two and a half miles from the landing, out on the road to Jonesboro, and has been dead several years. Reed lived about a mile from the Anderson Schoolhouse, and has been dead six years. Goodman is still living; Talley lives on the Willard farm, half a mile north of the big barn; Kimball has been dead eight or ten years. The Greens are both dead. Silas Green, of Cob- den, is a son of David Green, and T. W. Green, living on the road to Jonesboro, is a son of William Green.

John Grammar and David Penrod opened a farm near where the gravel road crosses Running Lake. This farm was subsequently purchased by a man named Fenton, who put up a cotton-gin. He afterward changed it in- to a mill for grinding corn. It was finally burned, as was supposed, by incendiarism. Hutchinson Bennett, Jo Palmer, John Baker and John Price were also early settlers, and are all dead. Thomas Cox settled early, and James Morgan was perhaps the first black- smith in the precinct.

In the year 1844, there was a great over- flow, and the bottoms were entirely flooded, the water being eight feet deep in places not usually submerged at all. Again in 1851, the bottoms were covered for miles, and still again in 1858. This so discouraged the peo- ple that many of them left in disgust and have never returned. Taking all the disad- vantages into consideration to which these divisions of the county are subjected, there is very little of interest to write about in

either of the precincts. Some points of their history, such as the great overflows of the Mississippi, geological formations, etc., etc., are treated in other chapters of this volume.

There are no mills-except saw mills-in these precincts, or other manufacturing in- dustries, but it is a region devoted wholly to farming and -- hunting and fishing. Neither are there any church buildings in these pre- cincts. It does not follow. however, that the people are heathens or disciples of Bob In gersoll. Regular Church services are held in the schoolhouses every month. Rev. Mr. Sutters often officiating at these meetings. Before the flood of 1844, there was a Baptist Church, of which Revs. William Gentry and Jeremiah Brown were bright and shining lights, but after the flood it was abandoned.

There are nine schoolhouses in the two pre- cinets, most of them good frame buildings, a fact which speaks well for the intelligence of the people and the improvement of the rising generation. These schoolhouses are known as the Parmley, Frogge, Hamburg, . Reynolds, Brumitts, Abernathie, Sublet, Grading and the Big Barn Schoolhouses.

The old village of Preston was once quite a thriving place on the river. It was laid out as a town, October 27. 1842, by John Garner, and for a time was a great shipping point. But the Mississippi kept encroaching upon its limits, until at the present time, the ex- act spot on which it stood, is swept by the main current, and nothing of the town re- mains. Union Point Post Office is kept by George Barringer on the river, but there is no town. It is merely a steamboat landing, a post office and a small store.

The Government Light is on the bank of the Mississippi River, and is maintained at the expense of the Government for the benefit of passing boats. It is kept by Matt Hughes, and is of infinite value to river men.

437

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

Willard's Landing, in Union Precinct, is ¿ merely a store, post office and steamboat land- ing. Before the era of railroads, it was the most important landing in Union County. Most of the surplus products were hauled here for shipment, while the goods for Jones- boro merchants were landed here and hauled out in wagons. This caused the building of what is known as the gravel road, running from Jonesboro to the landing, and is the best road in the county. There is a toll-gate on it a few miles east of the landing, and the road is now kept up by the tax thus imposed upon those who use it. During the late war, and for a few years after its close, there was considerable cotton raised here. This was all hauled to the landing and shipped by way of the river.

The store at the landing is kept by Mr.

A. Lence, who opened out here about fifteen years ago. One of the Vancils had kept a few goods here on a boat, but did not remain long The original name of the post office was Big Barn, and it was established at that place, but moved to the landing after Lence opened a store here. The name was then changed to Willard's Landing Post Office. Mr. Lence is Postmaster, and the mail comes on horseback from Jonesboro.

To conclude that part of our volume de- voted to Union County, we may safely pre- dict that if the day ever comes when these lands, now denominated river bottoms and swamps, can be secured against inundation, they will prove by far the most valuable por- tion of the county. All that is needed to make them such are good levees and an ample- system of drainage.

Jak . Morris.

PART III.

HISTORY OF ALEXANDER COUNTY,

PART III. HISTORY OF ALEXANDER COUNTY.

BY H. C. BRADSBY.

CHAPTER I.

FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY-THE WAY THE PEOPLE LIVED-GROWTH AND PROGRESS-GEOLOGY AND SOILS-THE MOUND BUILDERS-TRINITY-AMERICA-

COL. RECTOR, WEBB AND OTHERS- WILKINSONVILLE- CALEDONIA - UNITY-MANY INTERESTING EVENTS-ETC., ETC., ETC.

" Those matted woods, where birds forget to sing; Those poisonous swamps with rank luxuriance crowned."

TN our history of Union County, in this work, will be found an account of the history of the territory that is now Alexander County, to the time of its separation from the parent county, March 4, 1819. We have noted the fact that the first comers date back to 1795, but they merely camped a time and hunted the game in the grand old giant for- ests that covered in unbroken grandeur the entire territory of Alexander County, and perhaps after a season of hunters' sport moved on to other places or returned to the old homes in the States. In 1805, were the first attempts at permanent settlement by families composed of men and their wives and children, who built their log cabins and cleared a little spot of ground adjacent, and deadened the large trees, and cut away the undergrowth and commenced to raise corn for bread. Thrifty families would probably by the second year realize the necessity of

something for clothing the family, and they commenced the experiment of raising cotton and flax. At first, these branches of agricult- ure were the suggestion of the thrifty women, and as these articles grew well, in the course of the settlement at Southern Illinois, cotton eventually became the leading product, and this continued to be the case, at least there were large quantities of cotton produced in all this portion of the State, until some time after 1850, when the people found they could produce other things to a better profit.

When Alexander County was formed, it was a great waste, with only here and there meager settlements of hardy pioneers, but few of whom are now living to tell over the strange story of their early lives in the wil- derness. They have passed away in their day and generation, and the very few who have come down to us from a former generation have forgotten and forgiven the early hard- . ships that encompassed them, and remember only the wild freedom and joys of their eager childhood. They came here they know not

444

HISTORY OF ALEXANDER COUNTY.

why, and at once they seemed to realize that to look backward with regret was useless, and hence they contemplate it with gratitude, and that they were then filled with a holy pur- pose to do for us-those who were to come after them -- a sacred duty. That impulse, be it instinctive or acquired, which forces each generation to do something, however small, to make the world wiser, better and happier than they found it, which is after all, the vital principle of human develop- ment; and the struggles and sorrows through which each generation passes in the accom- plishment of the self-imposed yet imperative task, are the sublimest tragedies of history. Carlyle has discoursed on this theme with characteristic power and grace:

Generation after generation takes to itself the form of a body, and issuing forth from Cimmerian night, appears on heaven's mission. What force and fire is in each he expends. One grinding in the mill of industry; one, hunter-like, climbing the Al- pine heights of science; one madly dashed to pieces on the rocks of strife, warring with his fel- low -and then the heaven-sent is recalled; his earthly vesture falls away, and soon, even to sense, becomes a shadow. Thus, like a God-created, fire- breathing Spirit, we emerge from the Inane; we haste stormfully across the astonished earth; then we plunge again into the Inane. Earth's mountains are leveled, her seas are filled up in our passage. Can the earth, which is but dead, and a vision, resist spirits, which are reality, and are alive? On the hardest adamant some footprint of us is stamped in. The last rear of the host will read traces of the earliest van. But whence? O heaven, whither? Sense knows not; faith knows not; only that it is through mystery into mystery, from God to God.

When we remember how uncertain is life at best, and that its average duration is not more than forty years, nearly half of which is spent in preparing to live, the wonder is that man is not content to stay where he finds himself, "to let well enough alone," and do as little for posterity as possible. But spurred up and on by the divine impulse he can neither explain nor resist, he labors as

if life were to last a thousand years; as if his eyes were to see the harvest from the seed he plants, his soul rejoice at the onward and upward march he aids.

The rifle, the fish-hook, the "gig," used in spearing fish, antedated the grater and stump mills among the very earliest settlers in sup- plying food. The first famines that occurred among the people were caused by the absence of salt, as they could make bread and meat of their meat by using the lean for bread and the fat for meat, when driven to it. The question of bread, after the first coming of a family, until they could clear a little truck patch to raise their family supply, was often a serious one indeed. Then, too, even after the first corn was raised, there were no mills accessible to grind it. Corn was the staple production. Wheat was not raised at all for some time after the first settlers were here. The ground was light and fresh, and when the dense undergrowth of the forests was removed and the large trees deadened, to raise corn required but little labor. The hoe often was the only farming implement a family possessed. It was a clumsy instrument, and such rows as are now made by the check- rower were not then dreamed of nor were they needed. The earliest and best farms in the State extended along the line of the river, from Alton to Cairo. When the people of Union County first came here, there were no water mills in the State, except a few in St. Clair and Randolph Counties, and when the floods came, even these would have to suspend operations, and often vexatious and protracted delays were occasioned by neces- sary repairs after the waters had abated.

Horse mills soon came after wheat was raised; these were most generally turned by hand or rope of raw-hide, and a " scaark " was used to separate the bran from the flour, worked by hand. This machine was made of

445

HISTORY OF ALEXANDER COUNTY.

a deerskin, with the hair shaved off, drawn over a rim or hoop, and holes burnt through it with a wire. Illinois farmers at one time thus manufactured flour in this way for the city of St. Louis. Then came the mill with a large wheel with cogs, drawn by horses, running in a trundle head, that carried the stones, all in a horizontal position. Next came the ox mill, or the inclined plane, which only came long after the admission of the State into the Union; then the improved water mill; then finally the steam mill. What a gradual but wonderful development is there in the slow growth to the present splendid perfected roller patent-process mills, from the first hand mill and mortar that originally cracked the corn for the "hoe-cakes" and " dodgers."

An equally wonderful development do we see in the harvesting of the wheat, from the old way that so long prevailed of doing the work with a hand sickle. In the course of time, men began to come here who had seen the use of cradles, and some of them made such machines-very rude and clumsy gener- ally-for their own use, and thus the sickle gradually passed away and improvements, once started, have never stopped, not even with the splendid self-binders we now behold singing their glad songs in the golden fields. For many years, the wheat was sown in the corn in September or October, and plowed in lightly, and good authority asserts the fact that sometimes, owing to careless tending the corn, that the weeds would be so rank that some were compelled to ride on horse- back to sow their wheat. In the early spring, the stalks would be cut with a hoe. and yet with such farming, ten and fifteen bushels of wheat were expected and generally raised.

In 1821, 1822, 1823, the wheat crop in this part of Illinois was very short. It was blasted and injured with smut, and had to be

washed before it was fit for grinding. Many people were discouraged by these failures, and they supposed that it was the fault of the soil and climate that were not adapted to wheat. It was, however, soon proven that it was the indfferent cultivation alone that caused all the trouble. In the years 1827, 1828 and 1829, the black weevil injured and destroyed the wheat in the stalk and in the granary. but the two successive severe winters of 1830, 1831, destroyed this insect, as it wholly dis- appeared.

The " diamond plow," an Illinois inven- tion, was introduced to the Illinois farmers in 1841 or 1842, and there is no doubt that this then was the most valuable and impor- tant invention yet given to the farmers of the State. In all Southern Illinois it created a revolution in farming, and was largely the basis on which rested the wonderful and rapid development and enriching of the State that marks its coming as a great era. It was the first plow ever known to our people that completely turned the ground, cutting a deep and wide furrow, and leaving it smooth and level, and it would plow clean in the thickest and tallest weeds or rank stubble without clogging, and worked with less mo- tive power than any plow ever before known.

Alexander County forms the southern ex- tremity of the State, and is bounded by the Mississippi on the west and south, by the Ohio and Cache !Rivers on the east, and by Union County on the north. It includes an area of about 220 square miles, more than one-half of which is alluvial bottom land, occupying the borders of 'the streams above- named, and in the southern portion of the county these bottoms extend entirely across it, from the Cache River to the Mississippi. The bottom lands are "generally flat, and are interspersed with cypress ponds and marshes, and a portion of them are too wet for culti-

HISTORY OF ALEXANDER COUNTY.

vation. They are heavily timbered with white oak, swamp white oak, live oak, Spanish oak, yellow poplar, shellbark and pignut hickory, ash, beech and white and sugar maples, all of which are found on the highest bottoms, and indicate a soil sufficient- ly dry for cultivation. The swampy lands are indicated by the growth of the cypress, sweet gum, pecan, tupelo gum, cottonwood, willow, etc. In the northern part of the county the surface is roughly broken, and the arable lands are mostly confined to the creek bottoms, and the more gentle slopes adjacent to the streams. The river bluffs above Santa Fé are generally steep and rocky, often pre- senting towering cliffs or rugged chert hills, destitute of timber, and but partially covered with scrubby trees and shrubs that find a scanty foothold in the rocky surface. The southern boundary of these old formations of the Silurian and Devonian ages is also de- fined by a line of bluffs, similar in their ap- pearance to those on the Mississippi. These extend about half way across the county, in the lower part of Township 15 south, and then trend off northeastwardly, leaving a bottom from three to five miles in width be tween them and the Cache River. These bluffs appear to have been 'washed by a powerful stream at some former period, and no doubt owe their origin to the same cause that excavated the valley of the Ohio.

The alluvial deposits of this county cover the lower portion of the county, from the south line of Township 15 south to the Ohio River; they also strike the western bank of Cache River, nearly to the north line of the county, and occupy a portion of Township 14 south, Range 3 west, in the northwest corner of the county, forming a wide bottom be- tween the limestone bluffs and the Missis- sippi. They consist of irregularly stratified beds of sand and loamy clay, alternating with

vegetable humus, similar to those seen almost anywhere along the banks of our large rivers.

Geology gives the following as the sections underlying Alexander County: Alluvium, 20 to 30 feet; Tertiary, 50 to 60 feet; sili- cious shales of Lower Carboniferous lime- stone, 7 feet; shales, flint rock, 40 to 50 feet; Clear Creek limestone, 300 feet (the last two Devonian). Then, passing a band of brown, silicious shales, the Upper Silurian is entered, with 250 feet of Helderberg limestone, and then the Lower Silurian limestone, 225 feet. Just above Santa Fé is an outcrop of the Tertiary formation, form- ing a narrow belt extending across to the bot- toms. Specimens of silicious wood are com- mon in this vicinity, and may be picked up in the ravines, but no other fossils are found in this group. The deposits known as " Chalk Banks " are formed of chert rock, and cherty silicious shales, by decomposition from a plastic clay. Its greatest thickness, in this portion of the State, is 250 feet. _ The region usually underlaid by this formation is gener- ally broken and hilly. Of this county, the State Geologist says: " From the topographical features, it will be seen that the amount of arable land in the county is limited, and re- stricted to the higher portions of the river bottoms and the narrow valleys of the small streams. But wherever these bottom lands - are dry enough to admit of cultivation, they are very productive, having a light, warm, sandy soil, that yields large crops of corn, cotton, tobacco, Irish and sweet potatoes, and most other products suited to the climate. Small fruits and peaches will also do well in the driest bottom lands, and grapes, apples and pears, etc., may be successfully cultivated on such of the highlands as are not too steep for cultivation. The advantages of climate in this extreme southern portion of the

447

HISTORY OF ALEXANDER COUNTY.

State, which enables the fruit-grower to put his fruit in market in advance of that raised in any other section north of the Ohio, will always make this a desirable region for the · cultivation of such fruits as are most desir- able for the early markets.

" These rich bottom lands are equally de- sirable for the market gardener, and Cairo, Chicago and St. Louis could be supplied with early vegetables from this portion of the State several weeks earlier than from Central Illinois."

What this intelligent geologist foresaw has been, to some extent, realized by the farmers and gardeners of the county in the past few years, and this industry, with its enormous profits, is rapidly developing to-day.

Mound-Builders .- As noticed elsewhere, there are, throughout a large portion of the Mississippi Valley, the remains of a former race of inhabitants found, of whose origin and history we have no record, and who are only known to us by the relics that are found in the tumuli which they have left. The Mound-Builders were a numerous people, en- tirely distinct from the North American In- dians, and they lived so long before the latter that they are not known to them, even by tradition. They were industrious and do- mestic in their habits, and the finding of large sea shells, which must have been brought from the Gulf of Mexico, if not from more distant shores, proves that they had communication and trade with other tribes. Perhaps the most interesting fact connected with this ancient people is that they had a written language. This is proved by some inscribed tablets that have been dis- covered in the mounds, the most important of which belong to the Davenport Academy of Sciences. These tablets have attracted great attention from archæologists, and it is thought they will some time prove of great

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History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part 55

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