History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part 73

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 73
USA > Illinois > Pulaski County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 73
USA > Illinois > Alexander County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 73

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).

Education receives the attention of the citi- zens of the precinct, and a number of com- fortable schoolhouses attest their interest in this great civilizing influence. Good schools are taught each year in all of the school dis- tricts.

Ullin Precinct .- This precinct, like Pulaski, is comparatively new as regards settlement. It is largely composed of bottom lands, which extend from Wetaug into Pulaski Precinct. Cache River running through, and its bottom spreading out over nearly the whole precinct, frightened the early settlers from what they deemed its miasmatic swamps. It lies south of Wetaug Precinct, north of Pulaski Precinct, west of Grand Chain Precinct, and east of Alexander County. Since the building of the Illinois Central Railroad, the precinct has been considerably settled. The lumber interest is the most valuable industry and receives much more attention than agriculture. The Legisla- ture appropriated $1,000 at one time for im- proving the State road through the bottoms of Ullin Precinct. This money was expended in grading and corduroying the road, so as to render it passable at all times, when not over- flowed from high water.

The precinct is well supplies with churches, and the people have no lack of church privi- leges. There is a Methodist Episcopal Church in the village, and a Lutheran and Methodist Church in the precinct. There is also a Bap- tist Church on Section 21 of the precinct. Several comfortable schoolhouses show the in- terest the people take in educational matters. Ullin Village was laid out by D. L. Philips

58 7

HISTORY OF PULASKI COUNTY.

and J. F. Ashley, and the plat submitted to record February 20, 1857. It occupies the southwest corner of Section 26, and a part of Section 23, Township 14, Range 1 west. It is but a small place, having but a hundred or two population, two or three stores and a few shops. The lumber interest is large and valu- able. The saw mills of James Bell are the largest in Southern Illinois, and the piles of lumber cut annually by them are simply im- mense. Mr. Bell ships millions of feet from these mills, and still has plenty "more to fol- low." The mills are on the banks of Cache River, by which stream great rafts of logs are brought to their doors, thus saving the poor patient oxen many a hard pull.

The lime business has long been a valuable interest of Ullin Precinct. Of this business, Mr. Olmstead says in his sketch : "The works of the Ullin Lime & Rock Company are situ- ated near Ullin. The quantity of pure blue limestone is inexhaustible. The capacity of the kilns is three hundred barrels per day. The lime is specially adapted to the manufact- ure of gas and glass, and for building pur- poses it is excellent. Since 1866, the company has expended $40,000 in improvements. There are twenty-five neat dwellings belonging to the company, besides other buildings. The company furnish lime, slightly damaged, in any quantity to farmers, and many are avail- ing themselves of this generous offer."

Grand Chain Precinct .- This division lies in the northeast corner of the county, having for its boundaries, Johnson County on the north, Massac County on the east, the Ohio river on the south, and Ohio and Ullin Precincts on the west. The name of Grand Chain was derived from the chain of rocks which extend through the precinct, and across the Ohio River here. The precinct, like Ohio, is a fine farming coun- try, and some of the most flourishing and pro- ductive farms and thrifty farmers in the county are to be found here. The land is high

and lays well, is gently rolling, except along the river, which is quite rough and hilly. Origi- nally the land was mostly heavy timbered, and to open a farm was a work of great labor. From the number of squatters who came in early, the community was christened "The Nation" by Capt. Freeman, a name it long bore, and which is still often applied to it. In the formation of Pulaski County this portion of its territory was cut off from Massac County. It is also told that during the campaign upon the new county question, that this place again received the name of The Nation. But although some of the first comers were men rather rude and uncouth, the community has grown out of the backwoods period, and in no portion of the county, nor of Southern Illinois, can there be found a more intelligent and refined people, or a better and more honorable class of citizens.

Some of the early settlers were : Absalom Youngblood, William Cain, the Crockers, Smiths, Bartlesons, Hugh McGee and others. These hardy pioneers came here when the coun- try was a wilderness, and by dint of great labor and perseverance, succeeded in opening farms and rearing houses and homes. A prior occupancy, however, was what was known as Wilkinsonville. "Gen. Wilkinson," says Mr. Olmstead, "about the close of the war of 1812. ascended the Ohio River with a large body of troops, and established himself at the head of Grand Chain. He erected ex- tensive buildings for barracks, with large brick chimneys, the remains of which are still to be seen. Quite a population gathered around the place, which in honor of the commander, was called Wilkinsonville. From 200 to 400 graves mark the spot where citizens and soldiers found burial. The last inhabitant was Mr. Cooper, the father of Bonaparte Cooper.' This move- ment of Gen. Wilkinson is a little curious, and has, perhaps, never been wholly accounted for. Why he would lead a body of men to this spot, at the time he did, is something of a problem.

588

HISTORY OF PULASKI COUNTY.

A Christian Church was built in the pre- cinct, mostly by Mr. Porter, which is used by all denominations, but the Christians, we be- lieve, have the preference. It stands near Grand Chain Village, but was built before the village was laid out. The colored people also have a church organization called Bethlehem Church. The precinct is well supplied with schoolhouses, and education receives the warm- est support of the people. Some half a dozen good, comfortable schoolhouses are scattered over the precinct at convenient distances, and are well attended during the school term.

The village of New Grand Chain was laid by Joseph W. Gaunt, Warner K. Bartleson and David Porter, and the plat recorded Octo- ber 31, 1872. It is located on the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter, and the north- west quarter of the southwest quarter of Sec- tion 32, Township 14, and Range 2 east. It is on the Cairo Division of the Wabash Railroad, about five miles south of the county line, and is a small and unpretentious village, with a few stores and shops. A large amount of shipping is done, the surplus produce of a large tract of territory accumulating here for transporta- tion to the different markets of the country.

A village called Grand Chain was laid out near where the present village of New Grand Chain is located, but we have no record of it. Cacheton was also laid out as a town by John Butler, November 13, 1873. It was situated where Oaktown Post Office stands, on the rail- road, near the county line. February 17, 1875, it was vacated by law.

Wetaug Precinct .- This is the northernmost precinct of Pulaski County. It partakes some- what of the surface features of Ullin Precinct, which lies south of it, in that it has a good deal of bottom lands, subject, more or less, to overflow. It contains, however, considerable

fine farm lands, and many productive farms and prosperous farmers are to be found in this section. The precinct is bounded north by Union County, east by Johnson County, south by Ullin Precinct, and west by Alexander County, from which it is separated by Mill Creek. There was, originally, considerable fine timber, but much of it has been cut away and sawed into lumber.

One of the earliest settlements made in the county was in this precinct, and was known as the Sower's Settlement. Henry Sowers was the pioneer of quite a colony, who came from North Carolina. Sowers settled at the Big Spring, as it was called, and which is now in the village of Wetaug in 1816. Among those who gathered around him were : Judge Hoff- ner, Richard Brown, the Nally family, the Dex- ters, William McIntosh, the Knupps, Levi Hughes and others. Some of these are still living, and many of them have descendants here. Judge Hoffner is still a resident of the precinct, and is one of the prominent men of the county.

Educational and religious facilities of the precinct are ample, and the people lack neither. In the village of Wetaug, there is a Catholic and a Lutheran Church, both of which are flourishing. Preparations are making for the building of a German Reformed Church in the village, and it will perhaps be erected during the present year.

The village of Wetaug is rather a small place, containing perhaps not more than a hundred or so of inhabitants. A store or two; a few shops and a large flouring mill comprise its business. It is a water and coal station on the Illinois Central Railroad, and is the only stop the fast mail train makes between Anna and Cairo. We could find no record of when it was laid out as a village.

PART V.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES,

PART V.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

CAIRO.

WILLIAM ALBA, deceased, was a son of Daniel Alba (barber), who was born in Grosen- buseck, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, on the 28th day of February, 1807. He grew to manhood in Germany, and married a woman whose name cannot now be known, by whom he had five children ; William, late of Cairo, is the only one ever represented in the United States. She died in the old country, and Mr. Alba was again married in Germany to Miss Margretta Doring, who is still living with her daughter in Cairo, Ill. This marriage was blessed with twelve children, of whom four are now living, viz .: Conrad Alba, barber at Cairo ; Henrietta Klee, of Cairo ; Catherine, wife of Edward Leffern, of St. Louis, and Ma- ria, wife of Albert Niemuth, of St. Louis. Daniel Alba died in St. Louis on the 7th day of September, 1857. William Alba was born in Grosenbuseck, Hesse-Darmstadt, on June 13, 1837, and emigrated to the United States with his father's family, and settled in St. Louis in 1857. He there married, on the 25th of Febru- ary, 1872, to Miss Minnie Lohmeier. She was born at Minden, Westphalia, Prussia, on the 15th day of May, 1835. and came to the United States in 1857, with a sister, Caroline, wife of Fred Dunker, of South Carondelet, Mo. She is a daughter of Christopher Lohmeier,

and the mother's name is unknown, both par- ents having died when she was a small child, leaving a family of eight children, five of whom came to the United States-Frederica (deceased), Lizzie, Louisa, Caroline and Mrs. Alba. Mr. Alba raised a family of five chil- dren, viz .: Bertha, born in Cairo July 12, 1863; Matilda, born May 12, 1865 ; Itta, born August 1, 1867; Benito, born October 20, 1869 ; Minnie, born July 7, 1874, and died September 17, 1878. Mr. Alba died in Cairo on the 9th of November, 1882. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, I. O. O. F., Knights of the Golden Rule, and of the Fire Department. He was buried with the honors of these several societies.

CONRAD ALBA, barber, on Eighth street, Cairo, Ill., is a native of Frankfort, Germany, where he was born on the 15th of June, 1849. His parents, Dr. Daniel Alba and M. Alba, of Germany, came to the United States, and settled in the city of St. Louis in 1857, where the father soon after died, leaving a large fam- ily, of whom but three children are now living, one in St. Louis and two residents of Cairo, Ill. The mother was born on the 8th of April, 1810, and is now living in Cairo, with her daughter, Mrs. Jacob Klee. Conrad Alba came to Cairo in 1862, and at once began the trade

BIOGRAPHICAL:

of barber, working for his brother, William Alba, until 1875, when he opened a shop on Eighth street, where he is still located. He is not a partisan in politics, but on matters of a general issue acts with the Republican party. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

GEORGE M. ALDEN, commission merchant in Cairo, is a native of South Carolina, born in Newberry District November 4, 1828, son of Royal and Malinda A. (Frazer) Alden. The father was a native of Stafford, State of Con- necticut, and the mother of South Carolina. They had a family of nine children, of whom George M. is the oldest. His mother died in Illinois in 1840, on her thirty-fourth birthday. They came from South Carolina in 1837, and settled in Hamilton County. The father was subsequently married to Mrs. Eliza C. Lasater, by whom he had a family of nine children. They both died in Hamilton County, he in 1869 and she in 1870. The father was a teacher by profes- sion for many years, teaching thirty years in Hamilton County. George M. was educated under his instruction. He is a lineal descend- ant of John Alden of the ship Mayflower, who was private secretary to Miles Standish. As a first employment for himself, he followed the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers for ten years, and became a pilot. He enlisted in 1862, in the Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry, and in the organ- ization of the regiment was commissioned Cap- tain of Company G, in which capacity he served until April, 1865, when he was promoted to the position of Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment; promoted to full Colonelcy in August of the same year, with which commission he was discharged at Springfield, in October, 1865. Col. Alden participated in much of the service of the Seventh Army Corps, and was principally con- fined to the States of Missouri and Arkansas. Andrew J. Alden, a younger brother of the Colonel, was first enlisted as a Captain, in a company of the Sixty-second Infantry, and was

discharged on account of disability at the end of one year. Recovering his health, he rercuited a company for the Thirteenth Cavalry, and was commissioned Captain of the company ; he was made a prisoner at the battle of Cross .Roads, Ark., and held over one year at Tyler, Tex. He was promoted to the position of Major, and mustered out, as Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment. He is now in the Government Printing Office in Washington, though his home is in Cairo, Ill. George M., was married at McLeansboro, Ill., in April, 1860, to Miss Elizabeth Wilmott, a native of Illinois. She was born in 1840 and died in 1863. He was married to his present wife December 9, 1865. Her name was Ann T. Knight, widow of Elisha R. Knight, and daughter of Thomas C. and Nancy Graves. This union has been blessed with two children-Leon L. (born November 13, 1866) and Wilber L. Alden (born on Sep- tember 22, 1869). Besides these there are two children as result of Mrs. Alden's first marriage -R. G. Knight and M. G. Knight. Subject came to Cairo in 1867, since which time he has been in the flour and grain business. He is a member of the I. O. O. F., and the family of the Christain Church, in which he holds the position of Elder. R. G. Knight was born in Illinois, and chose the medical profession, but instead of practicing he became a druggist for some years, and is now on the staff of the Chicago Herald. M. G. Knight is a resident of Fort Worth, Tex.

JOHN ANTRIM, tailor, Cairo, Ill., was born December 18, 1828, in Lawrenceburg, Dearborn Co., Ind. His father, Joel Antrim, was born in 1806 in Hamilton County, Ohio, and was of Irish parentage. He was by trade a shoe-mak- er, and in early life moved to Indiana, where in 1827 he was married to Miss Mary Morgan. She was born in 1805 in Pennsylvania, of Ger- man ancestry. They had five children, John being the eldest; Eliza, deceased wife of Dr. R. Ward, of Harrison, Ohio ; Sarah Antrim, who

CAIRO.

is also deceased ; James Antrim. a grain-dealer of Peoria, Ill .; Elisha Antrim, a farmer in Ma- con County, Ill. The father is still living, and a resident of Richmond, Ind. The mother died in 1840 in Iowa. John was reared to manhood on the farm, and received a common school ed- ucation. He early developed a taste for mer- cantile business, and when eighteen years old obtained a position as salesman in a dry goods house, where he had two years' experience. In 1848 he went to Kentucky, where he re- mained as a clerk until 1850. His next posi- tion was that of clerk on a merchant store boat. The two years immediately preceding his com- ing to Cairo, he was employed in a wholesale and retail clothing house in Madison, Ind., in which he obtained his first lessons in the busi- ness of merchant tailoring. In 1852, in connec- tion with John Kelley, he established a busi- ness at Vincennes, Ind., under the firm name of Antrim, Kelley & Co., which continued about eighteen months, when the stock was removed to Metropolis, Ill., where they continued for some years. At the expiration of two years, however, Mr. Antrim retired from the firm, and in the same year (1855) came to Cairo and opened a clothing business, which existed until 1864, during which time he enjoyed unlimited success, amassing a fortune of over $100,000. But being yet a young man full of business en- terprise, he was loath to retire from the arena of trade, and in 1864 sold his stock, went to the city of St. Louis and engaged in an ex- tensive wholesale business, in which he lost heavily, being reduced to "first prin- ciples." He returned to Cairo in 1870, since which time he has engaged in the merchant tailoring business, employing three skilled workmen. He was married in Concor- dia, Meade Co., Ky., May 10, 1853, to Miss Eliza A. Parr (daughter of Col. Smith and Mary Parr, of Kentucky), in which State she was born in 1831. Their family consists of John M., Al- bert W., Nellie May, Addie, Viola M., Hugh S.

and Walter Antrim. Mr. Antrim is a member of the Masonic fraternity of Cairo.

DR. DANIEL ARTER, deceased, was born in the State of Maryland, on the 3d day of June, 1798, and died in Cairo, Ill., on the 6th day of August, 1879. He was twice married, and his last wife and three of their family of six daugh- ters are now residents of the city of Cairo. The Doctor came to Southern Illinois in its pio- neer days, and for twenty-five years was a resi- dent of Pulaski County, where, including adjoining counties, he had an extensive medical practice, always (except the last year of his life) blessed with great vigor of body and an active, well-balanced mind; he not only became a very successful physician, in his treatment of the diseases incident to the country, but be- came a widely known, popular and influential citizen, loved and admired in life for his many virtues, the memory of which are still cherished in the hearts of his many ardent friends. At the outbreak of the war, he removed to Cairo, and accepted an appointment from President Lincoln to the then very responsible and labori- ous position of the Surveyor and Collector of the Cairo port. This office he held, always per- sonally surpervising its affairs, until the close of the war, when he retired from business al- together, having in his eventful life obtained an ample competence for his old age, and though frequently importuned to offer himself as can- didate for offices of public trust, he seemed to possess no ambition in that direction. and dur- ing his eighteen years' residence in Cairo con- tented himself with a single term as Select Councilman, a position he filled most intelli- gently and industriously. Although but little in public life, few men were more constantly before the public, known to and knowing almost everybody in the country. In the manage- ment of his private business, he was prudent and successful, and his declining years were blessed with " temporal abundance." During the last decade of his life, he gave much atten-

BIOGRAPHICAL:

tion to matters of theology, and became noted as an independent and deep thinker, discard- ing every ism and form of religious doctrine not in accord with his ideas of an Infinite God, and embodied in pamphlet form the results of much of his mature thought. He approached death without a fear-yea, he longed for it as a happy release from his sufferings-as a sweet, rest for his care-worn body. For several days preceding the close of his life, he would fre- quently exclaim, " Oh, will the end never come?" and in the growing certainty that the end could not long be delayed, he was never alarmed, but manifested a composure that bespoke peace of mind as to the great future, and thus he calmly rested in death, and though feeble and full of years, his place in the community is difficult to fill. See portrait elsewhere.

ROBERT BAIRD, Street Commissioner, Cairo, Ill. In every local community or city, there is always an "oldest inhabitant," and in this, as in most other matters of interest, Cairo is not lacking, but points with pride to her " oldest inhabitant " in the person of the sub- ject of this sketch, Robert Baird. He is of Irish origin, his father, John Baird, being born in the old country, on the 26th September, 1784. His mother, Jane Walker, was born in Wil- mington, Del., on the 9th of January, 1790. The parents were married at Wilmington, about 1806, and reared a family of twelve children, of whom Robert is the eleventh. He was born on June 5, 1826, at Philadelphia, and was left motherless by the death of that parent three years later, September 26, 1829. The father lived to the age of seventy years, and died in Cairo December 18, 1854. Robert left the home of his father when eleven years old, and, in company with a sister and brother-in-law, moved to Pittsburgh, Penn., where they re- mained but a short time, coming thence to Smithland, Ky., where he began the trade of ship carpenter. It was while working at this trade that he chanced to come to Cairo,

being sent here in 1839, then but thirteen years old, to make some repairs on a boat. By some fatality he remained, and now, though in active business life, is a landmark of Cairo's earliest history. He followed his trade for some years after coming to this city, and finally became owner and captain of a steamboat, and during the late war was in the employ of the Govern- ment in transporting troops and provisions. He has acceptably filled the various official po- sitions in the city government, and now has the supervision of her streets. He is an honored member of the Masonic fra- ternity, possessed of a life experience which is a model of temperance, and in politics a Demo- crat. His worthy wife, Fransina Tanner, to whom he was married in the fall of 1853, was born in Tennessee in 1830. They have been blessed with six children, of whom but three are living, viz., Henry, Robert and Mary Baird. The family residence is on the corner of Ninth and Walnut streets.

SANFORD P. BENNETT, of the firm of Wood & Bennett, Cairo, Ill., is a native of Mil- ton, Pike Co., Ill., and is the second of a family of five children of Lucius Bennett and Deborah Renoud. His parents are of French ancestry, though native born-the father a native of the State of New York, where he grew to manhood and married. From New York they removed to Illinois and settled in Pike County. Sanford P. was educated in the common schools of Pike County, and afterward took a course in a commercial college in the city of St. Louis, Mo His early business life has been largely ab- sorbed in clerical duties, having worked for seven years as Deputy Circuit Clerk of Pike County, besides a term as County Clerk in the same county. On the 24th of May, 1861, he enlisted in Company K, of the Sixteenth Illinois Infantry Regiment, from which he was dis- charged in December, 1862, on account of phys- ical disability. and from that time until 1866 he was connected with the Quartermaster's De-

CAIRO.

partment at Cairo, Ill. In May, 1861, he was appointed to the position of Postmaster of Pittsfield, Ill., by President Lincoln, which office he filled by deputy until removed by President Johnson in 1866. In December, 1876, he be- came a member of the firm of Green, Wood & Bennett, which, by the retirement of the first named gentleman, is now Wood & Bennett, who do a general grain and milling business on the Ohio levee, corner of Eighteenth street. Mr. Bennett was married, December 14, 1865, in Pittsburgh, Penn., to Miss Kate McCallinn, a native of Scotland, where she was born on the 16th day of December, 1842. She came from Scotland to Philadelphia, Penn., with her par- ents, when four years old. Their family con- sists of five children, of whom one is deceased. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bennett are members of the Presbyterian Church of Cairo, Ill., and he is a member of the I. O. O. F.

ADOLPH BLACK, merchant, Cairo, Ill., is a Hungarian by birth, and a son of Leopold Black, who was a landlord in that dominion. Both father and mother (Betty Black) were born and died in the old country. Adolph was born May 20, 1823, and grew to manhood on his father's farm, and in 1844 was married to Ressie Neiman, who was born in 1823. Mr. Black came to the United States in 1856, land- ing at New York City, and soon located at Cleveland, Ohio, where for five years he en- gaged at his trade, that of optician. Having decided to engage in merchandising, he removed to Upper Sandusky, in Wyandot County, Ohio, where he opened a dry goods store, which he successfully conducted until coming to Cairo, Ill. He landed in Cairo on the 11th day of May, 1867, and immediately established him- self in the boot and shoe business, located on the corner of Eighth street and Commercial avenue, remaining at that place until 1874, when he moved to No. 140 Commercial avenue. His business career has proven abundantly suc- cessful, and he now carries an extensive stock,

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History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part 73

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