USA > Illinois > Montgomery County > History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois > Part 16
USA > Illinois > Bond County > History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois > Part 16
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only the young man and his girl, but older people find real comfort, in those dishes they know so well how to serve. In closing our Greenville notes, mention must be made of the " boy merchant," Lincoln Reid, son of Col. J. B. Reid, a mere lad, yet he has been in business about three years, beginning at first selling stationery on a small scale from a counter in the corner of the post office in Greenville. His business is steadily in- creasing, until now it is developing into a business of larger proportions. Such enter- prise gives hopeful promise in the future.
To write of incidents of a foreign land as they fall under our observation or related to us by others, is largely of the nature of ma- chine work. But to write of one's home, early associations and recollections, of inci- dents of days that are passed never to return and bring back those happy inspirations of youth, cannot but bring its share of sadness. But let these be as they may, the writer has honestly, but perhaps too hurriedly, given in the preceeding pages (or at least that part allotted to him), which came under his per- scnal knowledge, or was derived from official records of the different events as they oc- curred, faithfully and impartially, knowing full well that some errors may have crept in unobserved, for which great care has been used to make the number of such as few as possible.
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RIPLEY PRECINCT.
CHAPTER XIII .*
RIPLEY PRECINCT-TOPOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE -EARLY SETTLEMENT - PIONEER LIFE AND HARDSHIPS-THE WHEELOCKS-THE ANCIENT TOWN OF "OLD RIPLEY"-OLD SPANISH TRADITION-CHURCHES-SCHOOLS-VILLAGES, ETC.
"The past and present as herein told, Form topics of thought for young and old." -Riley.
N ATURE in her green mantle is nowhere more lovely than in that portion of Bond County set aside by survey and known as " Ripley Precinct." Cozy farmhouses nestle in somber quietude amid the green orchards which dot the landscape in every direction. Though it has every appearance of newness, this country has been settled for many years. Scenes, familiar to many of the older residents, are fast passing from view, and the old landmarks are disappearing with those to whom they owe their existence, and mention must be made of them before the places which once knew them shall know them no more. Only too frequently it is the case, that people do not see beyond the narrow limits of their own lives, and items of private and public interest are neglected and allowed to drift into the channel of the forgot- ten past. A great many important facts con- nected with the earlier history of Ripley Pre- cinet are irrecoverably lost, but a few have been found by careful research, which will be appropriately mentioned.
Ripley Precinct lies almost directly west of Greenville, and is somewhat irregular in shape, very much resembling in form an inverted L. It extends from the western limits of Green- ville Precinct to the Madison County line, with Cottonwood Precinct extending along its north- ern boundary and Pocahontas Precinct bound- ing it on the south. The entire surface is suf-
ficiently rolling, so that artificial means of drainage is unnecessary. Some of the land, however, along the creeks is low, or so very rugged that it can only be used for grazing purposes, and is not susceptible of cultivation, but the farming lands are nearly level, or but slightly undulating. The soil is of the finest quality, and yields abundant harvests of all crops usually grown in this latitude. The principal products are wheat, corn and oats, which indeed are almost the only products.
The residences throughout this precinct are mostly good, substantial buildings, though very little attempt is made at the elegance displayed in older and longer settled countries, but the finely cultivated farms bespeak the success which has attended those who were fortunate enough to secure a footing here, when land was much cheaper. The original timber consisted of hickory, oak, ash, poplar, walnut, sugar ma- ple, and the present growth is much the same, though a great deal of the original timber has fallen before the industrions hand of the set- tlers. The water-courses flowing through Rip- ley Precinct are Shoal Creek, the only one of any importance which enters from the north and flows across the precinct in a southeasterly direction. There are also two small creeks, both knowu as Dry Fork, one coming from the south and the other from the north, and, unit- ing, flow about three-quarters of a mile into Shoal Creek. Shoal Creek has a number of other small tributaries, hardly worth mentioning.
The early settlement of Ripley Precinct is
* By Taylor J. Riley.
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HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.
somewhat involved in obscurity, but promi- nent among those of whom anything is known was Anderson Hill, who came from South Caro- lina, in the time of the Indians, and settled upon the farm now owned by John Davis. His son, Anderson Hill, Jr., then but a child, came with his father and afterward settled upon the farm now owned by William Brown, where he lived until his death, which occurred in 1853. Moses File was also among the early settlers, coming from North Carolina and settling about seven miles west of Greenville in 1818. His son, John N. File, now owns the old home farm. The Wheelock Brothers came from the East, in 1812, and founded the town known as "Old Ripley," which in early times was quite a trading post, people coming from within a radius of fifty miles to do their trading. The town was founded upon a farm belonging to a Mr. Lust, of Edwardsville, now owned by William Brown, and numerous signs are still visible, though the buildings have long since been torn down or moved away, the ruins of old blacksmith shops and several old wells alone remaining to mark the site of this once prosperous village. Dr. Baker came about this time, and occupied the house now owned by the Widow Jandt. He was the first person buried in the old Brown Graveyard, where many weary mortals are now resting. Numerous descendants of the above- named early settlers still live in this precinet, and the farms of their forefathers, which were then a wilderness, have indeed been made to " blossom as the rose." Other families con- tinued to move into the community just de- seribed, until the war of 1812 put a slight check on immigration for a time, but after its close it commenced again with renewed vigor. Glowing accounts were carried back to the older settlements of the richness and fertility of this new country, which brought many of the sturdy baekwoodsman of Virginia and North Carolina, accustomed from their earliest childhood to lives of self-dependence, and in
whom had been generated a contempt of dan- ger and a love for the wild excitement of an adventurous life. "We of the present day, accustomed to the luxuries and conveniences of a highly civilized state of society, lapped in the soft indolence of a fearless security, accustomed to shiver at every blast of winter's wind, and to tremble at every noise, the origin of which is not perfectly understood, ean form but an im- perfect idea of the motives and influences which eould induce the early pioneers of the West to forsake the safe and peaceful settlements of their native States and brave the unknown perils and undergo the dreadful privations of a savage and unreclaimed wilderness."
In early times, the procuring of bread was a souree of great anxiety to the settlers, and when the first white people came to this coun- try they found none of the conveniences of to- day. An enterprising settler named Lee was the first to erect a mill. It was built on Shoal Creek, where Brown's Mill now stands, over sixty years ago, and for many years supplied the settlers of Ripley Precinct with eorn meal and a seanty supply of flour. All signs of this inill have entirely succumbed to the lapse of time, and where it once was there now stands a thriving grist-mill, which was erected in the year 1840, by Benjamin and Henry Brown. When this mill was first built, it was used only for sawing lumber, but in 1847 William Brown purchased the interest of Henry Brown (his cousin), and he and Benjamin Brown put in machinery for grinding grain, and for thirty- five years this vicinity has been filled with the merry din of the wheels of " Brown's Mill." A few years later a saw and grist mill was built on Shoal Creek, about three and one-half miles below Brown's Mill, by William Hunter, which was afterward purchased by Wesley Bilyew who ran it for several years. No traces of this mill at present remain. At an early date a tannery was built on the farm now owned by William Brown, though the builder's name
.
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RIPLEY PRECINCT.
could not be ascertained, and only an old vat, or two remain to mark the place where it once stood. A distillery, supposed to have been built by the Wheelocks about 1813, once stood near where Brown's Mill now stands, though one looking at the place to-day would scarcely imagine it ever to have been the scene of an active industry.
One particular in which Ripley Precinct is sadly deficient is its roads, which are very lit- tle superior to the early day "trails" or " traces." The first road of any importance was the old " Vandalia road," which is but lit- tle better now than it was then, being the same old, unimproved dirt road, and in the spring becomes almost impassable. It is an old road, and as there are no pikes in the precinct, it is very much nsed. Another road which has been used as a highway since an early date, is the " Pocahontas and Ripley road," but its nnim- proved condition renders travel upon it any- thing but comfortable.
The first bridge constructed in this precinct was over Shoal Creek, on the " Vandalia road," and was made of wood. It has been washed away twice and rebuilt of wood, and it was washed away the third time in 1875, and re- built of iron, the same year. In April of the present year (1882), this iron bridge was washed away, but was caught and replaced in June, without any material damage having been done. This bridge is the only one ever built in the precinct.
For many years, an old tradition has been going the rounds in this vicinity to the effect that the Spanish, who lived here at a very early date, had buried three barrels of silver dollars in that portion of Ripley Precinct known as " Shoal Creek bottom," on land now owned by Thomas B. File. So much eredit has been placed in this tale that the three barrels of Spanish dollars have been often sought for, and numerous places give evidence of having been dug up, in the vigorous search for this mythi-
cal fortune. An old gentleman named Bates living near New Berlin, claims to know where this " hoard " is located, but the thinking por- tion of the inhabitants place no credit in it. It is also stated that the Indians who inhabited this region in an early day have been heard to say that "if the people of Shoal Creek bottom knew what they did, they conld shoe their horses with silver."
The precinct of Ripley cannot boast of many churches. The first one erected was " Mount Nebo," built by the Baptists, in 1835. The church was organized on the 9th of February, 1832, at the residence of John Coyle, on Round Prairie, by Rev. Peter Long, assisted by Thomas Smith, of Madison County, and with twenty-three mem- bers, several of whom were subsequently turned out for unfaithfulness. At a meeting in March of the same year, Rev. Peter Long was chosen pastor, in which capacity he served for over forty years, and. in 1874, in his seventieth year of age, on account of his enfeebled condition, lie resigned his pastorate, though he is still a mem- ber of the same church. Since its organization, the membership has run up as high as 130, and during this time two other churches have been organized out of it. Since the resignation of Rev. Peter Long, the pastors have been : Rev. W. C. Harvey, A. J. Sitton, John H. Jones, who filled the pulpit for about three years, and J. B. White, who is the present pastor, with a membership of about sixty. Their first church building was constructed of hewn logs, and was an enormous affair, said to have been the larg- est log building ever built in the county. About 1850, it was replaced by a frame house, which was destroyed by fire in 1852, by ashes being put in a keg and igniting. Late the same year, the frame edifice, which at present occupies the site, was erected. No other churches have been built in Ripley Precinct, until the present year (1882), when the Presbyterians, led by Rev ! Thomas Hynes, erected a beautiful little church of brick in the village of New Berlin. This
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HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.
organization is as yet quite small, but supports a very good Sunday school, and is in a flourish- ing condition. Quite recently, also, the Regular Baptists have built a frame church on the " Vandalia road," about two miles east of New Berlin. Their membership only numbers about twenty souls, and their church is presided over by no regular pastor. For nearly twenty years the African Baptists, numbering about twenty members, have been worshiping in a little log church on "Shoal Creek Hill," near New Berlin, but have never had a regular pastor.
The subject of education and the building of schoolhouses were paid very little attention to by the early settlers in Ripley Precinet. For many years school was had in a small way around at the houses of the settlers. The first schoolhouse erected in this precinct was built on the old " Lee Wait farm," in 1830. For some time, it was taught by Thomas Arm- strong, and afterward, the tutorship was as- sumed by Peter Long. At present, nothing remains to show where this old pioneer school- house was located. The instruction given the pupils at this time was of the most primitive character, embraeing only the most common of the school branches, such as reading, writing, spelling and a knowledge of the rudimentary principles of mathematics. There are at present six schoolhouses in Ripley Precinct, namely : Ronnd Prairie Schoolhouse, present teacher, F. W. Fritz ; Ray's Schoolhouse, present teacher, Henry Dixon ; the Baker Schoolhouse, presided over by Miss Bunn ; the Ripley Schoolhouse, teacher, George H. Donnell ; the Mount Vernon Schoolhouse, teacher, R. O. White, and the Terra- pin Ridge Schoolhouse, presided over by Millard Dixon. Of late years, the subject of education has received much more attention than it did in an earlier day ; efficient teachers are em- ployed at reasonable salaries and many of the higher branches are taught.
New Berlin, the post office name of which is Old Ripley, is the only village in this precinct. It was founded in September, 1850, by Charles Plog and Mathias Brown, and is located on a part of the south half of Section No. 8, Town 5 north, of Range 4 west, of the Third Principal meridian, near the old " Vandalia road." The originial plat contained twenty-four lots, 50x120 feet in dimensions, and, in June, 1866, H. G. Jandt made an addition of sixteen lots, of the same dimensions as those in the original plat. Mr. Jandt was among the first residents in New Berlin, and for probably twenty years kept a gen- eral merchandise store. I. V. Long also was en- gaged in the general merchandising business abont this time. William Lytle built and ran the first tavern, and kept in connection with it a small stock of groceries, and retailed liquors. The monotonous quiet, which always exists about a small village, was relieved in New Berlin by the merry clanging of the hammer of Ferdinand Gauzer, the first village blacksmith, and every Sunday divine service was held in his shop, led by the Rev. Thomas Hynes. H. G. Jandt kept the first post office in the rear end of his store. The present Postmaster is R. O. White, who is also engaged in teaching the "young idea how to shoot" at the Mount Vernon Schoolhouse. At present, New Berlin is a thriving little hamlet of about one hundred and fifty inhabitants, mostly Germans, and is considerable of a trading-point, the business enterprises consisting of two general merchan- dise stores, one brick drug store, two black- smith-shops, two wagon-makers' shops, two shoe shops, two saloons, a steam grist and saw mill, owned by Mrs. Cox, and a neat, comforta- ble hotel, owned by Mrs. Mary Arnold. No secret societies exist in New Berlin as yet, thongh a number of the inhabitants are mem- bers of organizations in the neighboring towns.
133
MULBERRY GROVE PRECINCT.
CHAPTER XIV .*
MULBERRY GROVE PRECINCT - PHYSICAL, TOPOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE-EARLY SETTLE- MENT -- REV. J. B. WOOLARD AND OTHER PIONEERS-FIRST BIRTH, MARRIAGE, ETC .- THE
BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS-CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS-VILLAGE OF MULBERRY GROVE-WHEN LAID OUT-GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT, ETC., ETC.
" A song for the early times out West, And our green old forest home."
M - The Old Pioneer. ULBERRY GROVE PRECINCT is rather diminutive in size, and its cit- izens, as has been said of those of the State of Rhode Island, when they want to communicate with each other, do not write letters or send messages, but go out in the yard and call to them. Though small in extent, it is fine land, well adapted to cultiva- tion, and numbers some excellent farms. It is mostly level prairie, with a few hills along the small water-courses which intersect it. It con- tains a fractional part of two townships ; a por- tion lying in Township 5, the remainder in Township 6, Range 2 west, and is bounded on the north by Zion Precinct, on the east by Fay- ette County, on the south by Fairview Pre- cinet, and on the west by Greenville and Zion Precincts. The land is watered and drained by Owl Creek, Lick Creek, Town Branch, Sea- graves' Branch, and a few smaller streams that are nameless on the maps. The streams drain the land sufficiently, without the farmers hav- ing to resort to artificial means. More or less timber bordered the water-courses, consisting of the species common to this section. The precinct has the advantage of the Vandalia Railroad, which passes nearly across the cen- ter, with a station at the village of Mulberry Grove, whence large shipments are made of the
surplus products of the surrounding country. Upon the whole, this little division, called Mul- berry Grove Precinct, ranks among the best and most prosperous portion of Bond County.
The first settlement or improvement inade in what is now known as Mulberry Grove Pre- cinct was made about the year 1826 by Zopher Foster, on the place now occupied by Rev. James B. Woolard. The next settlers after Foster were John Bilyew and Duncan Johnson, who came in about 1829-30, and were from Tennessee. Rev. James B. Woolard, from North Carolina, was the next permanent settler. He came to the country in 1831, and pur- chased the improvements of Zopher Foster, where he has resided ever since-a period of more than fifty years.
Mr. Woolard has lived an active life, and been closely identified with Bond County throughout a long period of time. From a published sketch of his life, we extract a few facts and incidents that will probably interest the reader, and without which a history of Bond County would scarcely be complete. He was born in North Carolina, but brought up principally in Tennessee, and, as we have said, came to Bond County in 1831, locating upon the place where he still lives. In the spring of 1832, the next year after he came here, upon the call of Gov. Reynolds for volunteers for the Black Hawk war, he enlisted as one of the fifty men comprising the quota of Bond County. For the money received for his services in the
* By W. H. Perrin.
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HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.
campaign, he entered his first forty acres of land, being that upon which he lives, and to which, in a few years, by industry and econo- my, he was enabled to add, until he was the owner of 600 acres in a body. He was one of the Judges of the first election held in his part of the county, and when a post office was es- tablished in 1834-35, he was appointed Post- master.
Of his religious life, much might be said which space will not permit. In the summer of 1823, he made a profession of religion, joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, served as class leader and licensed exhorter. In the fall of 1829, was licensed a local preacher ; his first license was signed by Rev. Peter Cartwright, Presiding Elder. In 1834, was ordained Dea- con by Bishop R. R. Roberts. In the fall of 1836, was received as an itinerant in the Illi- nois Conference, and was appointed to the Car- lyle Circuit, in the bounds of which he lived. In 1837, to Grafton Circuit, and in 1838 to Car- linville. In 1839, was ordained Elder by Bish- op Morris, and appointed to the Carlinville Sta- tion ; 1840, to Staunton ; 1841 again to Carlyle, 1842 to Shelbyville, 1843, to Sharon. On ac- count of his aged and feeble parents and young family depending upon him, in 1844 he asked and obtained a location from the annual con- ference. He continued laboring diligently as a local preacher until the fall of 1853; after he had buried his aged father, who died in his cighty-fifth year, and made comfortable pro- vision for his mother, he again entered the itin- erancy in the Southern Illinois Conference, was appointed agent for MeKendree College, and re- moved to Lebanon. In the fall of the same year, was appointed to Trenton Circuit ; 1854 to Shiloh, and again, in 1855, to Shiloh. In 1856, to Fillmore; 1857 and 1858, to Salem; 1859 and 1860, to Middleton. In 1862, was appointed Chaplain in the One Hundred and Eleventh Illinois Volunteers, J. S. Martin, Colonel, in which capacity he served three years, but
through exposure and fatigue of camp life, his health failed, and he came home at the close of the war with a broken constitution, not able to perform the labors of an itinerant minister. Yet his friends of the Conference continued him on the itinerant list as a superannuated member of the Southern Illinois Conference, and now, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, his voice still clear and strong, he frequently preaches and attends funerals.
Since his first settlement in the county, his home has been a welcome stopping-place for friends, and especially for ministers ; none were ever turned away from his door. And now, full of years and full of honors, the hero of two wars, he is calmly awaiting the summons, " Well done, thou good and faithful sery- ant," etc.
Other early settlers in Mulberry Grove Pre- cinct were Richard Moody, James Dunaway, James Spradling, Mark Dunaway, Joseph Arm- strong, Bennett Seagraves, Arthur Sherard, Drury Petty, Durham, Henry Inman, John Perkins and others. Durham settled on Sec- tion 12, and was from Tennessee. He has a son and a daughter living in Fayette County. Inman settled on Section 1, about the year 1830; Perkins, about the same year, settled on Section 10, and has several sons living in the county. Moody settled on Owl Creek, and was from the southern part of the State ; the Dun- aways settled east of Moody ; also, Petty. The latter sold out to Spradling about 1830. Arm- strong was a Tennesseean, and bought out Mark Dunaway. Sherard was also from Ten- nessee, and settled on Section 36, in 1833. In illustration of the healthfulness of the neigh- borhood, Mr. Woolard says that the first fifteen years he lived there, he did not pay $15 in doctors' bills, and although more than twenty different families have lived on the farm at dif- ferent times, there has never been but one death on it since it was settled.
This comprises the sum and substance of
Allians Chapman)
LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
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MULBERRY GROVE PRECINCT.
what we have obtained of the early settlement of this portion of Bond County. The story of the early trials of the pioneers may be found in other chapters of this work. What applies to them in one section of Southern Illinois is com- mon in all parts of the State. Their life for years was hard, and beset with dangers and difficulties, but patience and perseverance, coupled with an indomitable will, carried them over safe, and wafted them on to wealth and prosperity.
John Bilyew, who is mentioned as one of the first settlers of the precinct, and who built his cabin near where the village of Mulberry Grove now stands, erected a horse mill at a very early day, upon or near the site of the present Meth- odist Church, which he operated for a good many years. It was a great benefit to the neighborhood, and continued to do good service until enfeebled by age, and it had became so frail and rickety that the customers had to withe in the cogs with hickory withes so that they could grind their corn. But it finally went "the way of all the earth," and a good steam mill now occupies its place in the busi- ness of the community.
Everything must have a beginning, and in Mulberry Grove Precinct, the increase of pop- ulation began by the birth of a daughter to the wife of Zopher Foster, the first settler, and was the first birth in the precinct. The first marriage was a daughter of Arthur Sherard. She was married by Duncan Johnson, who was the first Justice of the Peace, but who she mar- ried we did not learn. The first election was held in the neighborhood under a tree, near the dwelling of Bennett Seagraves, about 1833-34. Rev. J. B. Woolard and Drury Petty were the Judges of this election, and John Russell and William Hunter were candidates for the Leg- islature. The first sermon preached was by Rev. E. R. Ames, afterward Bishop Ames. The first post office was established about the year 1834-35, and J. B. Woolard was appoint-
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