History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part 66

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 66
USA > Illinois > Pulaski County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 66
USA > Illinois > Alexander County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 66

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).

532

HISTORY OF PULASKI COUNTY.

estate. We can never hope to acclimate any of the choice Northern or Eastern apples to this section, yet we can and do grow good apples. Our "Winesaps," "Sparks," "Finks," " Rome Beauty," " Summer Pearmain " and many other varieties are not excelled any- where. While we give the apple the first place on our list of fruits for domestic use, it would have to accept a third or fourth place in a commercial point of view. The strawberry, peach and grape would outrank it for money.

The strawberry, while it never assumes the dignity of a tree, or the spreading im- portance of a vine, yet it commands respect for its intrinsic merit. No other single crop in this county, at this time, has the influ- ence on the business relations of our people. An entire failure would almost bankrupt our merchants, and a good crop makes all hearts rejoice, from the merchant, with his thous- ands of dollars invested, down to the little negro with his " two quart check." The gathering and shipping of the strawberry crop to market, develops a spirit of business enterprise in our boys and girls that they would never attain by the study of text-books.

The first strawberries ever grown in this county for market were grown by Mr. Stephen Blanchard, near the town of Amer- ica, about the year 1857.

They were known as the " Virginia Seed- ling," or "scarlet," and were at that time considered a great luxury, but would not be tolerated on our farms to-day. The berries that he took to the home market were han- dled in shallow trays, with the traditional " paddle scoop," and what he marketed at the towns on the Central Railroad were put up in small quart boxes, made of thin lum- ber, and set on shallow trays. Then an old German would take one of these trays in each hand and walk to the railroad, pay his

fare to Cairo or any other market he wished to use, and carry the berries and sell them and bring back the boxes and money.

The first Wilson strawberries introduced into this county was through the late Judge A. M. Brown; but the first Wilsons culti- vated for market were by Martin Harnish, from Lancaster County, Penn. His one- fourth of an acre soon spread. In the vicin- ity of Villa Ridge, many of his neighbors planted small patches, seldom over half an acre, as there were many who thought the markets would be glutted and the entire busi- ness overdone. For instance, when, in 1863, nineteen shippers sent off fifty cases in one day, almost everyone thought the market would be " busted." But the berries sold on the Chicago market the next day, at 45 cents per quart.

The delusion that the market would be glutted, and that no one man could success- fully handle more than one acre, clung to our people like the fear of death; and it is only in the last six or seven years that we have learned that the same vim and push that would handle one acre would handle ten if multiplied by ten. To illustrate how the fear of spreading out was kept alive, it would be well to give a sketch of one large plantation, and the way it was managed here. Some Cincinnati men, learning that we could grow good berries, formed a com- pany, came here, and bought some land in a rich, sweet gum bottom. They cleared up twenty acres at a great expense, planted it partially with bogus plants, cultivated it in the most expensive manner and boarded at a hotel-in fact, moved things lively; build- ing extensive quarters for pickers, and pay- ing 3 to 5 cents per quart for picking. There was no fruit train then, as now, and all had to go by express. Some days they would miss the train, and the berries would have to

533

HISTORY OF PULASKI COUNTY.

lay over to another day; sometimes the whole lot would have to be dumped out at the station and thus lost. All this, in connec- tion with the fact that the berries were ten days later in the rich bottoms than on the sunny hillsides, and a big mortgage was spread over the whole thing, and the reader will not be surprised that a grand failure was the result of the first big strawberry field in this county. Everybody was ready to say " I told you so," and "It can't be done; one acre is enough for any man," and many more such consolatory remarks. If our people had seen where the failure came in, and profited thereby, we would, to-day, have ranked first as a strawberry shipping point, instead of being the third on the Cen- tral Railroad.

The varieties in cultivation here now are many, but the Wilson still holds its own against all new comers in the minds of its old friends. The cash brought into this county by strawberries, twenty-two years ago, amounted to but a few dollars; the amount brought in this year (1883) will reach nearly $100,000, and the acreage, which was about 600 acres this year, will, in 1884, be at least 50 per cent higher.

Peach growing has attained some success in the county in the last twenty years; but many of the first budded varieties were not suited to the soil and climate, and one-half of all the peaches planted in the county have failed to pay a fair interest on the capital invested, for the reason that the planters had not the experience and will to give the proper care to growing the trees, cultivating the soil, and " bugging " and thinning the fruit.

The late Judge Brown, already mentioned, and Martin Harnish planted the first com- mercial peach orchards in this county. They advocated starting the heads of the trees boot

top high, so the limbs could bend down without splitting the trunks of the trees. A few years, however, of this style of pruning cured them of that idea, and Judge Brown became one of the stanchest advocates of high-headed trees, thorough " bugging" and thinning of the fruit.

It would be useless to go through the list of peaches, to designate those that failed, or those that succeeded; but most of the peach- growers here noted that the early and late varieties pay better than to have an excessive crop in midsummer. With a better knowl- edge of what varieties to plant, and how to care for them, coupled with that progressive spirit of our planters, the outlook is promis- ing to make this county one of the foremost peach growing counties of the West.

There may have been a few vines of Ca- tawba and Isabella grapes planted here at an early date, but old Father Huhner, a German from St. Louis, was the first to plant grapes in this county (about 1859-60) for commer- cial use. His object was the manufacture of wine, and in a few years there was a lively interest in the grape and wine business in the county. A considerable amount of good wine was made and sold here; but the changes aud vexations of the internal rev- enue, and the fact that the grapes would sell for as much money as the wine would bring, caused a falling-off in the production of wine, and to-day there is none made in the county. But the reader must not infer that grape growing has ceased. Far from it. Each year has witnessed an increase in the acre- age, and more care and thought used in gathering and marketing the fruit, until it is now considered one of our most permanent and profitable fruit crops. Last year (1882) there were more than seventy tons of grapes shipped from this county, and it was one of the worst years for the grape we have had.

534

HISTORY OF PULASKI COUNTY.

The business has grown, from a few hun- dred vines in 1860, to near 200,000 in 1883, including the young vines planted this spring; and preparations are being made to still increase the number. The most hopeful outlook in the grape business in this county is the introduction of better varieties for table use and wine.

The red raspberry has always been a good fruit for market purposes, and has paid well the last few years; but our people don't plant largely of them on account of the trouble of getting them picked in good condition. Our hot summers sometimes burn the canes of the blackcaps so they die; and again, our market is so far off, that they are neglected as a market crop, although, in a general way, they grow and bear heavy crops, and are profitable to evaporate.

What can we say of blackberries ? The woods, fence-corners and ditches are full of them; all fruiting annually, and making a glut in every market in reach. Some of the wild ones are good in quality, and larger in size than the Snyder, or many of the culti- vated sorts so highly extolled by nurserymen.

In a commercial way, the sweet potato is, perhaps, the leading vegetable of this county. They have been grown here, for home use, for many years; but it is only in the last ten or twelve years that they have assumed any importance as a crop to ship to Northern markets. The first full car load of sweet

potatoes grown and shipped from Villa Ridge to Chicago was in 1870. It was shipped by the writer, and from that date to the present time the shipments have increased, until now they are considered one of our best an- nual products; and there is not a month. from October to April, that they are not shipped North by the car-load.

The growing and shipping wax beans to the Northern markets was first successfully done by Mr. Israel Sanderson, of Pulaski (if we are not mistaken) in 1870-71. The busi- ness has grown, from a few one-third bushel boxes at the first, to eight or nine car-loads a year at present, and the demand seems to keep pace with the supply. Mr. Sanderson is also the first man to cultivate and ship the cantelope, or nutmeg melon to market from this county, and was the most successful grower in the county. But the melon .louse gave so much trouble that, as a commercial crop, they are now almost abandoned.

The growing of tomatoes for market has never assumed very large proportions here. The earliest and finest specimens, however, have been raised and shipped from Villa Ridge, and there is no reason why it should not rival Cobden as a tomato station. There are many other fruits and vegetables that should be mentioned; . but the brief space allotted to horticulture in a work of this kind, and the limited time at the writer's command, pre- cludes a more extended article.

HISTORY OF PULASKI COUNTY.

535

CHAPTER V .*

MOUND CITY-EARLY IIISTORY OF THE PLACE-THE INDIAN MASSACRE-JOSEPH TIBBS AND SOME OF THE EARLY CITIZENS OF "THE MOUNDS"-GEN. RAWLINGS-FIRST SALE OF LOTS -THE EMPORIUM COMPANY-HOW IT FLOURISHED AND THEN PLAYED OUT-THIE

MARINE WAYS-GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL-TIIE NATIONAL CEMETERY, ETC.

"THE earliest history of which we have any accurate account of the location where Mound City now stands dates back to 1812, that being the time of the Indian mas- sacre, and as it tells of the life and fate of many early pioneers in Illinois, we give the history of the massacre, as told by Thomas Falker, and as written by Rev. E. B. Olm- sted, and published in the newspapers some years ago.

Thomas Falker, who died in Pulaski Coun- ty in 1859, gave the facts of the massacre of the whites where Mound City now stands. The first white settlers of the extreme south- ern portion of Illinois were Tennesseans, but it is not generally known that they were driven here by an earthquake, which gave its first shake December 16, 1811. The present site of Cairo was then known as Bird's Point. Two families, one named Clark and the other Phillips, lived near where is now Mound City. A man named Conyer had set- tled below the old town, America, and a Mr. Lyerle, a short distance above, and a man named Humphrey lived where Lower Cale- donia now stands. These were all the inhab- itants of the country, from the mouth of the Ohio to Grand Chain-twenty miles. They had made but small improvement, and as the land had not yet come into market, of course they did not own the soil. The fam- ily of Clark consisted of only himself and

wife; their children were grown up and lived elsewhere, but paid them an occasional visit. The other family near Mound City, consisted of Mrs. Phillips and a son and daughter nearly grown and a man named Kenaday. The family originally were from Tennessee, and removed from that State into what is now Union County. Mr. Phillips having occasion to return to Tennessee, on business, Kenaday became acquianted with his wife and persuaded lier to abandon Phillips and live with him. No disturbance followed this delinquency, and the easy morals of the times seems to have winked at it.

In the fall of 1812, these families were enjoying their usual quiet, when some In- dians, ten in number, paid them an unex- pected visit. They belonged to the Creek tribe, which inhabited the lower part of Kentucky, and had been exiled and outlawed for some supposed outrages committed on their own nation. They were known to the inhabitants of that country as " the out. lawed Indians," and on the occasion of this unwelcome visit were returning from a tour in the northern part of the territory, where they had been to see some other tribes. On the same day, Mr. Phillips returned home, accompanied by a Mr. Shaver, who lived in Union County, and whose wife Mrs. Phillips had been attending in her sickness.

The cabin of Clark stood near the west boundary line of what is Mound City; that

*By Dr. N. R. Casey.

536

HISTORY OF PULASKI COUNTY.

of Mrs. Phillips a short distance above, on the next elevation. Shaver stopped at Clark's and fastened his horse near the back door. When he saw the Indians, he expressed ap- prehension to Clark, but he told him he was acquainted with them, had traded with them, and did not suppose they had any bad inten- tions. Yet when Clark on one occasion went out to the smoke house Shaver saw by the pallor of his face that he was much alarmed. It was his opinion that Clark had seen or overheard through the openings of the house enough to satisfy him of the hostile inten- tions of the savages, but feared to speak of it lest Shaver should mount his horse and leave him to his fate. The Indians asked for something to eat. Mrs. Clark told them if they would grind some corn on the hand mill she would prepare them a meal. They did so and partook of the hospitality of a family they fully intended to butcher before night.

The Indians were armed with guns and tomahawks; one of them came to Shaver and felt the muscles of his thighs, his knees, etc., as though he wished to judge of his ability to run. " Do you wish to run a race? " said Shaver. " No." "Do you wish to wrestle ? " "No." The situation of the white settlers were becoming more alarming. They hoped, after the Indians had eaten, they would take their departure, but they sauntered around as if unwilling to do so. It was Shaver's inten- tion to carry home some whisky, but Clark was afraid to draw it while the Indians were there. At length, five of the Indians went up to Mrs. Phillips'; the other five remained at Clark's. Two of the latter took their sta- tion with apparent carelessness in the front door (next the river), and two more stood near the fire-place, where sat Mr .. and Mrs. Clark and Shaver. The latter happening to look at the Indians in the front door, saw

one of them make a signal in the direction of Mrs. Phillips', which was in sight, by striking his hands together vertically sev- eral times. Directly he heard screams and shouts in that direction, and the next instant received a stunning blow on his head, from the hatchet of the Indian who stood near him. He fell forward, but being a powerful man, he dashed between the two Indians at the back door and ran for his horse, which, as said, was fastened near the back door. He soon saw, however, his retreat in that di- rection would be cut off, so he ran down the river bank, with two of the Indians in full pursuit. They doubtless supposed. as Shaver was already wounded, he would fall an easy prey; but he was fleet of foot, and then he was running for his life. Blinded by the blood which poured down his face, and which he occasionally dashed away with his hand, he made for the bayou below the present Ma- rine Ways. A hatchet just missed his head and fell many yards in front of him. His first impulse was to pick it up and defend himself, but a moment's reflection convinced him the chances were too much against him. It was half a mile or so to the bayou; Shaver gained it in advance of the Indians. It was quite full and partially frozen over. He plunged in and gained the opposite shore. The Indians paused on the bank, afraid to follow. They told him he was a brave, and endeavored to induce him to return. Tradi- tion says he addressed some very strong lan- guage to the Indians and made his way to the Union County settlements. His escape, considering the circumstances, was wonder- ful. The Indians murdered Clark and his wife. Mrs. Phillips, her son and daughter and Kenaday. They ripped up the feather beds, destroyed the furniture and carried off whatever struck their fancy, including Shaver's fine horse. They crossed the river

537

HISTORY OF PULASKI COUNTY.

into Kentucky and were followed by the cit- izens of the settlement in Union County for some distance, but no trace of them could be found. A few days after, Capt. Phillips, who was stationed at Fort Massac, came down with a company of men to bury the dead. A shocking sight met their gaze. Clark and his wife were found in their house dead. The body of young William Phillips was found drifted ashore about a mile below Mound City. His sister was not found; one of her slippers was found on the bank of the river. It is supposed she and her brother got into a skiff and were shot down before they could get away. Kenaday was found some distance from the cabin of Mrs. Phil- lips. His shoulder and back much cut in gashes by the tomahawks of the savages. The body of Mrs. Phillips was found, and also the body of her unborn babe, impaled upon a stake.

After the Indian massacre, the place known as the Mounds seems to have been deserted for a time, but its advantages as a trading point overcame the fears, mixed with su- perstition, that possessed the people that migrated to and up and down the Ohio River, and in 1836 there were two double log cab- ins, with two thirty-foot rooms, a twelve- foot porch, a clapboard roof over all, with large fire-place in each end, five other cabins and one storehouse. The two double cabins stood on the river bank, near where Meyer & Nordman's stave factory now stands. Two of the small cabins above where the Mound City Hotel now stands, two more near where P. M. Kelly now lives. The store- house, a little southeast of what was known as the Big Mound, on the river bank; a strip of ground then lay between the mound and river. The store, which consisted of dry goods, groceries and a general assortment of such articles as were absolutely necessary,

not embracing anything, however, that could be considered in those days a luxury. It was kept by Forbes & Vancil; the latter died at the Mounds, and the former in the county. In connection with this store, they had a wood-yard. They paid their wood-choppers in goods, and traded extensively with hunt- ers and trappers, and in this way did a thriving business for a number of years. The other cabins were occupied first by one and then by another, as they happened along, but the cabins could never be found empty. In 1838, a regiment of soldiers, re- turning from the Florida war, on their way to Jefferson Barracks, got ice-bound, and re- mained in camp, just this side of the mouth of Cache River, all winter. Three-quarters of a mile south of Mound City, the country was then comparatively a wilderness. What few emigrants bad sought the location had brought with them various kinds of stock. The wild grass and the vast canebrakes gave them unlimited pasture, summer and winter, and they increased rapidly. Wild cattle and hogs, never having been cared for by human hands, abounded in the woods. But they tell that the wild stock and the tame ones were much fewer when the soldiers left in the spring, that it was their custom to kill anything they saw that they imagined might be good to eat. On one occasion, a large company of them came up to Forbes & Van- cil's store; they found the log porch hung with game, among which was a dressed deer. They flocked on and around the porch, and when they left, the turkeys, ducks and squir. rels were all gone, and nothing left of the dressed deer but its skeleton. Soldiers have acted very much alike, it would seem, in all ages.

There was a road leading from the Mounds to America, one to Jonesboro and one to Uni- ty, then the county seat, but they were not

538

HISTORY OF PULASKI COUNTY.

broad gauges, nor were they air lines, and to travel them with a wagon involved much uncertainty as to the outcome. In 1838, there was a storehouse built, by a man named Coblitz, of considerable pretensions. It was a frame and two stories high, 20x50 feet, but was burnt down in 1839. It also stood near the mound on the river. We find at this date and earlier the present site of Mound City, an important trading point on the Ohio River for many miles. When Mr. Coblitz left, which was after his storehouse and its effects had burned, Mr. James Dough - erty, father of A. J. and J. L. Dougherty, moved to the Mounds in 1839, and became the business man of the place, cultivated the ten or fifteen acres of cleared land and continued the wood yard for three years. After James Dougherty, Joseph Tibbs came, a man of much native shrewdness, without education, not being able to read or write his name, but was the recognized leader of a majority of the inhabitants of this immediate settlement. He was frequently involved in law suits, and on one occasion he was asked why he did not employ a law- yer to defend him. His reply indicated "the kind of a man he was." He said he had found it safer and even cheaper to employ witnesses. Joseph Tibbs cultivated the cleared land at the Mounds from 1843 to 1852. In 1857, he was living on his farm, two and a half miles west of Mound City, when the writer met him for the first time. The first question he asked after the intro- duction was, had I brought a good horse with me. I intimated that his reputation had extended to my former home, conse- quently I brought no horse. He died in 1859 and had considerable property. He left but one son, and he demented. While many hard stories are told of Joseph Tibbs, he had many good qualities.

From the time steamboats navigated the Ohio River, the deep water, the banks and the safe harbor, now fronting Mound City, was known by steamboat men and used by them as a place of safety for landing and mooring their boats during low water. This locality was considered by them the head of navigation during low water, when the upper river was frozen over. Steamers could reach this point at all seasons of the year from the Lower Mississippi. The warm waters from the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers pre- vented the formation of ice sufficient to in- terrupt navigation. As early as 1840, ten to fifteen steamboats laid up at the Mounds during the entire winter, while low water in the Mississippi, together with ice, prevented them from reaching St. Louis, and it has ever since that time been considered by steamboat men a desirable place for mooring boats during low water, ice or storms. The Ohio River at this point measures one mile from the Illinois to the Kentucky shore. The channel is wide and deep, and washes the Illinois side. The river widens from this point to its mouth, and in early days, when the commerce of the Ohio Valley was transported by rivers south, it was no un- common thing to see ten or fifteen steamers in sight, including the celebrated Eclipse and like boats, loaded to the water's edge. It is not strange that a location that had been so long regarded so favorably as a trad- ing point should attract attention, and its natural advantages made available in build- ing upon the site a city. With that purpose in view, Gen. Moses M. Rawlings, in 1854, owning the following lands that had been owned by more than one person and had been divided into allotments and described as lots: Lot No. 2, containing thirty-five acres; Lot No. 5, containing thirty-eight acres; and Lot No. 12, containing thirteen

539

HISTORY OF PULASKI COUNTY.

acres, all in Section 36, Town 16, Range 1 west, determined to lay out a city. A his- tory of Mound City without at least a brief history of Gen. Rawlings, would certainly be incomplete.

Gen. M. M. Rawlings was born in Virgin- ia in 1793, his parents moving to Newcastle County, Ky., in 1794. When a boy, he left his father's house and on foot made his way to Shawneetown, Ill., reaching that place without a dollar in the spring of 1809. At that early day, the Saline salt works were being operated, and directly and indirectly gave employment to a number of laborers. Young Rawlings took hold of whatever came in his way to do. The result was he soon accu- mulated more than a bare living. He invested in produce, furs, or anything out of which he thought a profit might be the result. Gen. Rawlings was married three times. He married his first wife, Miss Sarah J. Seaton, of Breckinridge County, Ky., in 1811, long before he had reached his majority, and by whom he had ten children. All died be- fore he came to Mound City but Sarah J,, wife of Dr. Henry F. Delaney, and now a widow, living on Rose Hill, six miles north of Mound City, and Francis M. Rawlings, a brilliant young lawyer, a man of imposing appearance, thoroughly educated and an or- ator not equaled in the State. He repre- sented Union, Alexander and Pulaski Coun- ties in the Legislature in the years 1854-55.

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.

History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part 66

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