History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois, Part 26

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : O. L. Baskin
Number of Pages: 758

USA > Illinois > Montgomery County > History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois > Part 26
USA > Illinois > Bond County > History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois > Part 26

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).

Additional to the foregoing, Mr. Coolidge furnishes us the following, as the "war history" of Litchfield and immediate vieinity:

" News of the firing on Fort Sumter was caught from the wires on Sunday evening, and the fuller details came the next day in the morning dailies. A call was instantly issued for a public meeting in the evening, at Empire Hall. The hall was crowded with men. Speaker after speaker was called to address his fellow-citizens, and declare his sentiments as to the Republic. There was but one opinion. War had begun. Force must be repelled by force, and forty men responded that evening to the call for 75,000 troops to preserve the Union. In three days, the company had a hun- dred and twenty rank and file, and with B. M. Munn as Captain, and E. Southworth and ML P. Miller as Lientenants, had departed to Springfield to become a part of the first Illinois regiment raised. For a few weeks the regiment was quartered at Alton, then ordered to Cairo, where Gen. Grant was in command. It com- pleted its extended period of enlistment at Mound City. The company saw no hostile flag, and heard no hostile bullet. Only the

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Captain and a few of his men re-enlisted for three years. The first exaltation of feeling was over, and the soldiers came home, some to enter other organizations, and the most to labor for daily bread, for no county can long keep on the field over four per cent of its population.

" The three months' volunteers being in the field, steps were taken to enlist a company for three years. The attempt was speedily success- ful, and under Delos Van Deuzen, Captain, and L. G. Perley and P. G. Galvin, Lieutenants, and R. W. Short, First Sergeant, the company was mustered into service at St. Louis June 16, 1861, as Company II, Sixth Missouri Volun- teers, Col. Blood commanding. No regiment was then forming in Illinois. This Litchfield preferred to go into a foreign regiment, if it was necessary, in order to gain a recognized military status. Guarding Pilot Knob until November, the regiment then proceeded to Springfield, via St. Louis and Tipton, forming a part of the army under Fremont, which this leader marched to fight Gen. Price, but which Hunter led into pacific quarters, under the shelter of St. Lonis. Wintering at Otter- ville, the Sixth, in April, departed for Pitts- burg Landing, and joined the army before Corinth, being the First of the First Brigade, Second Division, Fifteenth Army Corps, com- manded in succession by Sherman, Blair and Logan, went down the railroad to Memphis. The regiment preserved this position through its campaigns.

" In December, 1862, the Sixth bore a bloody part in the assault on Chickasaw Bayon, leav- ing eighty men dead before the walls. This was the first sharp affair in which it partici- pated. Then it assisted at the capture of Arkansas Post, and, returning, was detained by high water at Young's Point, opposite Vicks- burg, until May, 1863, when it crossed the Mississippi thirty miles below, and advanced on Jackson. That town taken, the regiment bore its flag through the battles which sent

Johnson whirling to the rear, and cleared the way to the successful investment of Pemberton in his stronghold. When Vicksburg surren- dered, the regiment assisted in the recapture of Jackson, and it was stationed in winter quar- ters on Black River until ordered to move to the relief of Chattanooga. The Sixth was the first regiment to cross the river against Mis- sion Ridge, and was on picket duty for sixty consecutive hours. In November, the regiment marched to the aid of Burnside, beleaguered at Knoxville, going light, without baggage or provisions, and foraging for food while advancing forty miles a day. In the spring of 1864. it re-enlisted as veterans, and were furloughed home for sixty days, and Capt. Van Deuzen went back as Lieutenant Colonel, commanding the regiment. Lieut. Galvin was promoted to Major, and Sergeant R. M. Short was made Captain of his company. A portion of the winter, the regiment lay at Huntsville. In May, 1864, the advance on Atlanta began, and Company I saw bloody service at Resaca, Dallas and Kenesaw Mountain. July 22, 1864, its depleted ranks fonght on the field where McPherson fell, and six days later burnt powder at Jonesboro, and Atlanta was fairly taken. Hood, throwing himself on Sherman's commu- nieations, the latter marched to the north until his antagonist was beyond the Tennessee, and too far from his base of supplies to be trouble- some. Then leaving him to the stern mercies of Gen. Thomas, Sherman disappeared in the direction of the sea, to reach tide-water about Christmas. The Sixth led the sharp assault of Fort McAlister, whose capture restored the connection between the army and the fleet sent to meet it with indispensable supplies.

"The regiment was a Columbia, and win- ning fields by rapid marching even more than by fighting; fired its last shot on Goldsboro, and was present at the surrender of Johnston at Raleigh; having kept step to the music of the Union in a hundred figlits in nine States,

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and marched in proud triumph in the grand review at Washington, the regiment was hon- orably mustered out of service at St. Louis, in September, 1865, only a remnant having sur- vived the perils of battle and the more deadly camp.

" Many Litchfield men enlisted in companies recruited elsewhere. Some of them were with Zagonyi in his mad charge at Springfield, one against ten-a dash indefensible by military rules, but in its consequences hardly less val- uable than a battle gained. Others were sur- rendered at Lexington. They fought at Pea Ridge; they did Garrison duty at St. Louis and Camp Butler ; they were in the gunboat serv- ice; they bled at Fort Donelson and suffered and lived through the horrors of Andersonville.

" In August, 1861, half a company of cavalry was enlisted here, and being refused admission to an Illinois regiment, completed an informal organization and became Company C, First Missouri Cavalry. While at St. Louis, the com- pany received recruits from home until the ranks were full. James Barrett was elected Captain, a position from which he retired in a few months, on account of deafness. The regi- ment took possession of Lexington on Gen. Price's retreat to avoid Fremont, and joined the latter's army at Warsaw. His body guard and two companies of the First Regiment were sent forward to disperse a small force at Springfield, and Company C in Zagonyi's fa- mous charge learned they were one against ten. The company wintered at Leavenworth, and for two years were fighting Quantrell and the guerrillas. At Pleasant Hill, Quantrell lost seventy-five men, while the Federals were weak- ened by about a dozen killed and wounded. In 1863, the regiment entered Davidson's Di- vision at Clarendon, back of Helena, and slowly approached Little Rock, which was captured with slight loss. In 1864, the regiment then dismounted, formed the advance guard of Steele's army to co-operate with Banks' Red

River expedition. The First Missouri was under fire forty days of the forty-one, while absent; on five days in severe battles. At the last one, at the crossing of the Saline, Kirby Smith lost his artillery, and Steele sac- rificed 1,200 wagons on his retreat. In Angust, 1864, the regiment was discharged on the ex- piration of its term of enlistment. There re- remained in the city and its neighborhood only four or five of the riders who fought Quantrell.

" In 1862, E. Southworth began to raise the fourth entire company in the city. Isaac Skill- man soon co-operated with him, and when the ranks were full, was elected Captain ; M. Pack and J. Reubart, Lientenants. The company was assigned the post of honor in the Ninety- first Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Col. Day com- manding, and being ordered to Kentucky, was captured by John Morgan, at Elizabethtown, and paroled and sent home. Being at length exchanged, the regiment was sent South and' put on outpost duty near Galveston. Thence, in 1865, it was ordered to New Orleans, and saw active service at Mobile, where it bore an honorable part in the capture of Fort Blakely.

"Three entire companies raised here were incorporated in Missouri regiments, in addition to several detachments enlisted here, by Lieu- tenants Gurney, Henderson, Perkins and others. Lieut. Perley was promoted to the Captaincy of Company K, and was killed by falling from a window in Memphis. Lieutenants White and Henderson, Pack and Reubart, and Ser- geants Short, V. Hoffman, and private W. Ed- gar, rose to Captaincies.

" While the city thus sent her hundreds into the field, the men who could not go had an onerons duty to perform at home. A member of the Golden Circle visited a friend here in the critical time when trouble was apprehended in this county. 'I understand,' said he, ' that you have 4,000 stand of arms at the service of the Union League.' 'Certainly. I will show you a specimen of our guns,' and going to a

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neighbor he borrowed his Ballard rifle. 'This,' said he, 'is a specimen of one-half our sup- ply,' and producing a sixteen-shooter Henry rifle and explaining its construction and ef- ficieney, ' this is the pattern of the other half.' The emissary of the Golden Circle was dis- mayed, and his report to the Order was in- structive, and bore an obvious moral. Before this incident, parts of the Circle had been established in this county, and for a short time one met in the city. Military reviews or drills were held in the close neighborhood. At least three public addresses were made here by its orators, usnally by way of a surprise, and the local speakers still live under an immeasurable weight of publie odium. A Democratie Club was formed, which met each evening to hear read the latest war news, and an invitation was sought to address it by the Colonel of the Golden Cirele regiment, which, in military array, had stalked through Hillsboro. The invitation was refused, and only by an abuse of authority and courtesy was he permitted to ascend its plat- form. The club was so deeply offended that it never met again. It was about this date that no one was permitted to call himself a Demo- erat unless he was hostile to the further prose- cntion of the war. The writer saw and suf- fered from the zeal and malevolence of the disloyal element. But it is true that in pro- portion to their numbers, as many Democrats enlisted and served in the war as Republicans. Three of the four captains who raised com- panies here were Democrats, as were a majority of the rank and file.

" Isaac Skillman, in the spring of 1861, en- listed half a company of cavalry which be- came a part of an Illinois regiment. The

command was taken prisoners at Lexing- ton, paroled and sent home. D. W. Hender- son, Belmont Perkins, Al Gurnee and others enlisted men here who were mustered into Missouri regiments. For a time the fervor for enlisting was such that volunteers, being re- fused in Illinois, went into Missouri regiments. At least 600 men were raised here, quite one- half the entire force supplied by the county, and the city, in draft times, received no credit for its sons fighting under the flags of other States.

"Litchfield responded promptly to each call for troops, and what sort of men she furnished can be seen in her record of pensioners, and on the headstones of national cemeteries. She did her duty-no town could do more-and the Divine thing, which is duty, is always great, and always equally great. It is as great in the sentinel, pacing at midnight his narrow round, as in the General who gains his fame by hurl- ing redoubtable squadrons against intrepid foes to whom the day of battle is a time of of joy."

This comprises a very brief, and, perhaps, imperfect sketch of Montgomery County's war history-a history that runs through three wars. How many men the county furnished to the national armies, in the late civil war, it is impossible to say, as many enlisted in regi- ments organized in other States, and for whom Montgomery County received no credit. Those who survived the conflict, have their reward in the knowledge that the old flag still floats over all the States ; those who fell in the fight, and rest in soldier's graves, are embalmed in the nation's history.

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HILLSBORO TOWNSHIP.

CHAPTER VII .*

HILLSBORO TOWNSHIP-DESCRIPTION, BOUNDARIES AND TOPOGRAPHY-ITS EARLY SETTLEMENT -THE MCADAMSES, RUTLEDGES, BOONES, AND OTHER PIONEERS-HARD LIFE OF THE

PEOPLE-THEIR ROUGH HABITS, COARSE FARE AND SEVERE DUTY-THE PRIMI-

TIVE CABIN AND ITS COMFORTS-MILLS, ROADS AND BRIDGES-

EARLY SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, ETC., ETC.

.Our grandmothers long have reposed in the tomb; With a strong, healthy race they have peopled the land;

They worked with the spindle, they toiled at the loom,

Nor lazily brought up their babies by hand." -Eugene Hall.

AR across the dense woodlands of Indiana, beyond where Ohio's placid waters roll onward toward the Mississippi, and yet still farther on, among the grand old forests and gushing springs and fertile plains of Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina, came the pio- neers of this seetion of the county. Many of them left homes of comfort behind them, others but a small farm upon which they lived and rented by the year. and which barely gave them a support. All came to better their condition, to secure cheap lands, and to finally enable them to give their children a start in the world. Their journey hither was a hard one, and well calculated to discourage men of lesser energy. To those who settled the territory, now em- braced in Hillsboro Township, their trials and hardships, their toils and dangers, the pages following are inseribed.

The township of Hillsboro occupies a posi- tion a little south of the center of the county, and is bounded on the north by Butler Grove Township, on the east by East Fork Township on the south by Grisham Township, and on the west by South Litchfield Township. It is most-

ly of uneven surface, rolling and somewhat hilly along the water-courses, breaking, in places, in- to bluffs, and when first seen by white men, the larger portion was covered with timber. Nearly all of it, however, is susceptible of cultivation, and produces fine crops of eorn, oats and wheat. The timber is principally oak, sugar-maple, cot- tonwood, elm, walnut, ash, pecan, hickory, etc., ete. The land is drained by Shoal Creek and its tributaries. Middle Fork of Shoal Creek passes nearly through the center of the town- ship in an almost southwest direction, while the West Fork flows through the western part to the southward, and unites with Middle Fork near the south line. Brush Creek is a small stream in the northwest corner and empties in- to the West Fork, while there are several other insignificant streams that are nameless on the maps. Hillsboro, since the date of township organization (1873) has corresponded in size with the Congressional survey, embracing with- in its limits thirty-six sections of land lying in a square.

The settlement of Hillsboro Township dates back to 1817 or 1818, and was among the first settlements made in the county. Look at the dates, 1817-1882 ! Sixty-five years stands between these milestones. Half that number is the average of a generation's lifetime, and hence, two generations have come and gone since the beginning of the settlement in what now forms Hillsboro Township. Among its early pioneers we may mention the names of

* By W. H. Perrin.

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

the Killpatricks, Joseph McAdams, Jarvis Forehand, William Clark, Dr. Levi D. Boone James Rutledge, Solomon Prewitt, John Till- son, David McCoy, Nicholas Lockerman, the Wrights, Benjamin Rose, Hiram Rountree, Alexander McWilliams, Roland Shepherd, John Norton, D. B. Jackson, Gordon B. Crandall, Joel Smith and a number of others whose names cannot be recalled.

Joseph McAdams, the progenitor of the Mc- Adams family, at whose house the first courts were held, settled some three miles southwest of the present town of Hillsboro. The Me- Adams family was a prominent one, and many descendants of the patriarch, whose name is mentioned above, still reside in the county, and are useful and worthy citizens. Joseph Mc- Adams raised a family of nine sons and three daughters, and it is a remarkable fact that not one of them-father, mother, sons and daugh- ters-but are dead, and, with perhaps, a single exception, the husbands and wives are also dead.

"The mother that infant's affection approved, The husband that mother and infant who blessed, Each, all, are away to their dwellings of rest."

All were prominent citizens, but John only held office, and was one of the first County Commissioners. Joseph, the patriarch of the family, died many years ago, leaving a name untarnished. He was the first Coroner of Mont- gomery County, but never aspired to office ; one of his sons died on a place settled by Will- iam Clark, mentioned above as one of the early settlers of the township. But our space will not admit of a detailed sketch of this large family.

About two miles west of Hillsboro, and near where the first county seat (Hamilton) was laid out, David Killpatrick settled. IIe was of Irish descent, well educated, and said to be one of the finest mathematicians of his day in the county. A man of stern integrity, useful and intelligent, he was often elected to the office of

the Justice of the Peace. He, too, raised a large family, and has many descendants living in the county. It was a daughter of his, Martha Killpatrick, who married Dr. Garner, the first doctor that ever practiced medicine in the county. Near Killpatrick, Joel Smith set- tled. He was the step-father of David B. Starr. who is prominently mentioned elsewhere in this work. David B. Jackson and James Rutledge settled where Hillsboro now stands, and were early hotel-keepers. They are more especially noticed in connection with the early history of the city. Of Mr. Rutledge we extract the fol- lowing from the Rountree Letters : " In an early day, he cut a conspicuous figure in our county, having served as Constable for many years, and incidentally as Deputy Sheriff, and many times have we seen him 'cheek by jowl " with some horse-thief or other violator of the law, We remember one fact of him, that he put in our old log jail the first prisoners we ever saw go to jail, a couple of horse thieves, by the names of Parks and Means. 'Uncle Jimmy' also served in the Legislature as a Representative from this county. Indeed it may be remarked of him that he always took a large interest in the welfare of our county and our people. He was always at their service, and ever free to express his opinions on all subjects."

Benjamin Rose was an early settler south of Hillsboro, near where the old woolen factory stands. He married a widow, who had two children by a former husband, William and Charles Linxwiler, whom he raised, and who became well-known citizens. He afterward set- tled a place known as the " Linn Knoll," near Brush Creek. He had two brothers, who were also early settlers, and both of whom are now dead. Other settlers soon flocked around " Linn Knoll," among whom were George H. Anderson, Robert Mann, Mark Rutledge, Will- iam Knight, John Bostick, James Grantham, James Wiley, etc., etc., all excellent men and citizens. Anderson had a large family ; most

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of those living reside in Christian County. His wife was a danghter of Robert Mann, who is long since dead. Knight and his wife and most of their family are dead. John Bostick and his aged father, Ezra, a soldier of the Revolutionary war, have likewise gone to that land, " whose sands bear the marks of no re- turning footprints." James Wiley and his good old father, Aquilla Wiley, have followed them. Thus the pioneers have passed away, leaving but few of their number who stand "like the scattered stalks that remain in the field when the tempest has swept over it."

Dr. Boone was one of the early physicians, a contemporary of Dr. Garner, believed to be the first physician in the county. He was a man of intelligence, of the old Daniel Boone stock, and personally very popular. He com- manded a company of Montgomery County boys in the Black Hawk war, and when he served out his term re-enlisted as Surgeon in Capt. Rountree's company, and served to the close of the war. Afterward he removed to Chicago, grew rich, became President of a bank, was elected Mayor, and was a man of much prominence. During the late war, he got into trouble, because his whole-souled generos- ity prompted him to provide comforts for the Confederate prisoners confined in Camp Doug- las, and he was arrested by the Federals for thus succoring those upon whom the fortune of war had frowned, and many of whom were sons of his old Kentucky friends. Hiram Rountree and John Tillson, two men, perhaps, more prominently connected with the county than any others, will receive further mention in the chapters devoted to the town and city. Al- exander McWilliams settled about four miles west of Hillsboro, on what was afterward known as the Zimmerman place. John Mc- Williams was a son, a man of excellent quali- ties, and one of the early business men of Litchfield. Lockerman settled in the western part of the present township. C. B. Blockber-

ger settled in Hillsboro when it consisted of but a few log houses. He was a tinsmith, and opened the first tin shop in the county. He was a public-spirited man, made himself very useful to the early settlers, kept a general store ; made brick ; kept a hotel, and was sev- eral times elected to the Legislature. lle was Deputy United States Marshal in 1840, after- ward Postmaster, also served as Probate Judge, and held several military offices. He was chiefly instrumental in organizing the first Masonic lodge in Hillsboro, and the first in the county, to which he was greatly devoted. When he died he was buried with Masonic honors, Gen. Shields officiating.

The Cannons were early settlers, locating here as early as 1824. There were three brothers-William, John and Charles-all of whom settled near Hillsboro, and some of them in the town. William raised thirteen children out of fifteen born to him. Says Mr. Roun- tree in his sketches : " Ile is now nearly three- score and ten, and is quite a patriarch. He counts his descendants as follows : Children, 15, of whom are living, 13; grandchildren, 99, of whom are living, 90 ; great-grand child- ren, all living, 13, making 127 descendants, of whom 116 are now living." But our space will not admit of further details of the carly settlement of the township. We have endeav- ored to trace its settlement from the beginning down to a period within the memory of those still living, giving the names and facts of the early history of the more prominent of its pi- oneers. Though doubtless the names of many are overlooked who are entitled to honorable mention among these pioneer fathers, yet no pains have been spared to make the list full and complete.

The early life of the pioneers was one not to be envied, and one that could scarcely be en- dured or borne by their more tenderly-nurtured descendants. The early settlers as we have said came here to better their condition, and

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

make homes for themselves and families. Their first duty was to provide shelter, and their cabins were hastily built, the cracks between the logs rudely daubed with mud ; the floors were often mother earth, or of rough punch- eons, and the bedsteads and tables, with a chair or two, were almost the sole furniture. Pew- ter plates were common, and the big fire-places surrounded by pots, skillets, ovens, pans, etc., were used for cooking instead of stoves. Bis- cuits and corn-dodgers baked in an oven or skil- let, and " johnny cake" baked on a board before the fire, were considered diet fit for the gods. Game was plenty, and hence meat was never scarce, but the facilities for obtaining meal and flour were very limited. Mills for flour came after years with other improvements, but hand- mills, run not by steam, horses or oxen, but by the women and children, were the chief means of getting meal. New corn was often grated by hand for immediate use. Fruit could only be obtained from abroad, and with great difficulty, except such as grew wild. Honey was abundant, and could be had for the simple cutting down of the bee trees, so com- mon in the woods.

The clothing was cheap and primitive as that of the cabin and its surroundings. That for both sexes was made at home, going through all the processes from the time of leaving the sheep's back until placed upon the back of the wearer. All the members of the household, male and female, men, women and children, were usually employed in some parts, if not in all parts of its manufacture. The men and boys often wore clothing made of the dressed skins of animals; boots were unknown, and shoes indulged in only as a luxury by the grown people, while moccasins made at home sufficed for the smaller members of the family. Says Mr. Rountree : "We wonder if the boys of our day are curious to know what kind of hair oil and neck-ties, what shaped collars and cuffs were the fashion then ? We wonder if

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History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois, Part 26

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago : O. L. Baskin Number of Pages: 758

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : O. L. Baskin
Number of Pages: 758