History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois, Part 30

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 30
USA > Illinois > Bond County > History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois > Part 30

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).

and installed, viz .: D. B. Jackson, Chief Priest; G. G. Withington, High Priest; William K. Jackson, Senior Warden ; J. W. Cassaday, Seribe ; A. S. Haskell. Treasurer, and A. Il. Brown, Junior Warden. The membership of this body has never been large.

Hillsboro Lodge. No. 265. I. O. G. T., was organized February 11, 1881, with some thirty- odd members. The present officers are as fol- lows : A. G. Taylor. W. C. T .; Mrs. Tirzah Depuy, W. V. T .; Jacob Beck, P. W. C. T .; James Lynch, W. S .; Mrs. Mary Jolinson, W. F. S .; J. J. Miller. W. T .; C. W. Taylor, W. M .; Mrs. M. H. Johnson. W. D. M .; Libbie Horton, W. A. S .: Dudley Depuy, W. S .; Meda Hanna, R. H. S .; Lucy Robb, L. H. S .; Rev. S. C. Dickey, W. C. The lodge is small in num- bers, but stong in faith, and inspired with the lofty aims of the canse in which they are engaged ; the members, though few, work none the less zealously. That they have aceom- plished much, none can deny, but the field is still large for the exercise of their good work.

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

CHAPTER X .*

HILLSBORO-EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS-EARLY SCHOOLS AND THE OLD LOG SCHOOLHOUSE- HILLSBORO ACADEMY-ITS COLLEGE CAREER-THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS-NEWSPAPERS-

THE FIRST PAPERS OF THE TOWN - UPS AND DOWNS OF THE BUSINESS - THE

"NEWS" AND THE "JOURNAL" OF TO-DAY, ETC.

" A little learning is a dangerous thing, Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring."

A MID the various conflicting opinions on moral, political and religious subjects, there is need of charity and forbearance, con- cession and compromise. Citizenship is of no avail unless we imbibe the liberal spirit of our laws and institutions. Through the medium of the common schools are the rising generation of all nationalities assimilated readily and thor- oughly forming the great American people. The common schools are alike open to the rich and the poor, the citizen and the stranger. It is the duty of those to whom the administra- tion of the schools is confided, to discharge it with magnanimous liberality and Christian kindness. Diligent care should be taken by instructors, to impress upon the minds of chil- dren and youth committed to their care, the principles of morality and justice, and a sacred regard to truth, love of their country, humanity and universal benevolence, sobriety, industry and frugality, chastity, moderation and temper- ance, and all other virtues which are the orna- ments to society.

The people of Hillsboro displayed an early interest in educating their children, and among the pioneer institutions of the town, may be noted the old log schoolhouse, already fre- quently mentioned in these pages. Says Mr. Rountree, in his early reminiscences of Hills- boro : " It is a remarkable fact that Hillsboro,

like Jacksonville, was a kind of Athens of Illi- nois. The early citizens, coming as they did from the older States, where education was the rule, the great mass of them were intelligent, well educated men and women. One of the earliest school teachers in Hillsboro was Nancy Crumba, who was a sister of the first wife of David B. Jackson. She taught frequently in Hillsboro, and was a refined, cultivated lady- so much so, that girls and young women were sent from abroad-Vandalia, Carlyle and Ed- wardsville, to her, that she might put on the finishing to the education that they had re- ceived at home."

Another of the early teachers of Hillsboro was Rosetta Townsend, who was raised on the place known as Rose Hill. She afterward mar- ried Andrew M. Braley, an old sailor and sur- veyor, and died early, leaving one child, Ann Eliza, who also taught in Hillsboro years after John C. Terret was another early teacher, and the first who taught the classics in a school in the town. Many other good and efficient teachers taught in Hillsboro up to the time of building the academy.

The first schoolhouse ever built in Hillsboro was in the winter of 1825. It was of round logs twenty-five feet square, chinked and daubed with mud ; the fire-place occupied nearly one whole side of the house, its jambs of mud, and chimney of sticks covered with the same mate- rial. A log was sawed out on two sides of the room, and the long space filled with sash and glass, while on the fourth side was the door,

*By W. H. Perrin.

John , I MC David, Sem

LIBRARY OF INE UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS

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CITY OF HILLSBORO.

with shutter made of clapboards. The floor was of puncheons, the benches of split logs, with legs in the round side, and the upper side somewhat smoothed with axes. There was no loft or ceiling ; a few shelves on pegs, etc. The roof was of clapboards held to their places with weight-poles. Two writing desks made of punch- eons, perhaps a chair, a water "piggin," no andirons except rocks, no tongs, a clapboard shovel, wooden fire-poker, a mud hearth, and a few " peep-holes " through the chinks or cracks. This was the first temple of learning with which the youth of Hillsboro became acquainted. and in the unpretending structure, the foundation of the education of some of Illinois' great men were laid. This early schoolhouse stood on the crest of the hill above the natural spring at Rountree's pasture, in the eastern part of what is now the main city. Of the teachers who in- structed in this old house, it may be said, that they were men and women of culture, some of whom arose to eminence. Of these we may mention Maj. Campbell, of Carlisle; Maj. John H. Rountree, a prominent politician and legis- lator ; Hon. James M. Bradford, who held various offices, and John Hays, Mr. Springer, W. L. Jenkins, Frank Dickson and many others. There are many of the citizens of the town and county received their education wholly or in part, viz. : the Cresses, Rutledges, Blackber- gers, Seymours, Boones, Grubbs, Rountrees, etc., etc., also Revs. R. J. Nall and W. S. Pren- tice, prominent Methodist preachers ; James and Sidney larkey and Jacob Scherer, of the Lutheran Church, and Gen. Tillson. of Quincy, whose part in the late civil war highly distin- guished him. Indeed many persons of distinc- tion taught, or were tanght in that old build- ing, Hillsboro's first schoolhouse.

No doubt the memories connected with it, says Mr. Rountree, are warm in their hearts, but the old house is gone. Other buildings have been crected to take its place. Our fine brick free schoolhouse is an ornament and well

worthy of our pride. The old academy still flourishes. But it is a question if they are more useful in their day than the log houses for simi- lar purposes were in the pioneer days. Of the new brick schoolhouse, it is a comfortable and commodious structure, standing on a beautiful lot north of the court house. It is built after the usual style of architecture of the modern schoolhouses, and is finished and furnished in the latest improved manner.

The Academy .- About the year 1836, the people united together and built the Hillsboro Academy. At the time of its erection it was one of the most magnificent temples of learning in the State. John Tillson was the moving spirit in its construction and endowment, and to him, more than to any other single individual is the community indebted for the high reputa- tion of the institution. Young men and boys came from all the surrounding country to re- ceive academic and collegiate training at Hills- boro Academy, and afterward College. Here the energy of Mr. Tillson shone out. He brought the first Superintendent, Prof. Isaac Wetherill, from the East, and his wife for asso- ciate in the female department, with Prof. Ed- ward Wyman associate in the male department, and Miss E. F. Hadley, teacher of instrumental music. The first session commenced the first Wednesday in November, 1837, and was liber- ally patronized for years. It gave Hillsboro so great a reputation for education and morality that no other public school building was erected until the present brick edifice alluded to above.

The Academy was changed to a college and carried on several years as such by the Lu- therans, but was abandoned by them in 1852, when they removed their institution to Spring- field. The building then became the property of the common schools, and has since been used by the city as the high school department. It has lost nothing in this capacity from the high standard of excellence it occupied, and is still an educational institution of more than ordinary

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

merit. It stands in the most pleasant part of the city, near the center of a gently rolling piece of ground, whose rich, grassy carpet is shaded with a profusion of fine old forest trees of a century's growth. In a word, no city of its size and population possesses better facilities than Hillsboro for a good common-school edu- cation.

The Press .- The newspapers of Hillsboro next claim our attention, and in connection with the educational history their mention is pecu- liarly appropriate, as the press has always been deemed a zealous friend and advocate of learn- ing. From the "Rountree Letters," so freely quoted from in these pages, we gather the early history of the press of Hillsboro, and no man, perhaps, was more capable than Mr. Rountree of doing the subject justice.

The Prairie Beacon was the first paper pub- lished in Hillsboro, and was established about the year 1838, by a stock company. It was published in the upper story of Hayward & Holmes' old storehouse, and Aaron Clapp, Esq., was its editor. Ile is described as a tall, straight, red-haired man, badly cross-eyed, but a fine scholar, fresh from an Eastern college, and a friend and college-mate of Prof. Isaac Wetherill, then Principal of the Hillsboro Academy. The Prairie Beacon proved a poor and unprofitable investment, and after strug- gling on for about a year and a half it ceased publication. The press, type and fixtures were sold to some parties in Platteville, Wis., where it was used in the publication of a paper called The Northern Badger. So disastrous was the failure of the Prairie Beacon that some years elapsed before another attempt was made to es- tablish a paper at Hillsboro. In 1850, Frank and Cyrus Gilmore established the Prairie Mirror, with Rev. Francis Springer as editor. The boys, for they were but boys at the time, did all the office work themselves. In national politics the Mirror was Whig, but upon home affairs it advocated "State policy," which by

its success staved off the building of a number of other railroads until the building of Ilills- boro's road. The Gilmore boys sold out to William K. Jackson in 1851, who became its proprietor, with C. D. Dickerson as editor. I the reconstruction of political parties the Mir- ror became the exponent of the Know-Nothing party. Dickerson bought out Mr. Jackson in 1854, and carried it on himself until 1856, when he changed it to the Montgomery County Herald; afterward sold it to James Blackman, Jr., and removed from Hillsboro.

The Herald was continued by Mr. Blackman as a Know-Nothing paper nntil 1858, when he sold out to J. W. Kitchell and F. H. Gilmore, who ran it as an independent paper until the opening of the campaign of 1860. They then sold it to Davis, Turner & Co., who published it through the campaign as a Democratic paper, and late in the season sold it to F. H. Gilmore, who continned it as a Democratic paper. In 1862, he sold it to E. J. Ellis, a refugee from Missouri. Mr. Ellis was an old editor, and after the war returned to Missouri, where, at the last account of him, he was publishing a paper called the Montgomery Standard. He sold the Herald to Ed. L. Reynolds and Wilbur F. Stoddard. They continued it as a Demo- cratic paper until 1867, when they sold it to William McEwen and John Auginbaugh, who, the next year (1868), sold it to E. J. C. Alexander. Mr. Alexander continued the paper as Democratic, but changed its name to the Hillsboro Democrat. " He so run the paper," says Mr. Rountree, " as to make a fortune and elect himself to the State Legislature, where he is now (1873-74) serving his constituents. While it claims to be a Democratic paper, it is only negatively so ; and it is in full accord with the ' Farmer movement,' as against both political parties, hanging with the Democrats in their fight with the Republicans." With the issue of April 29, 1874, Mr. Alexander changed the name of the Democrat to that of The Anti-

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CITY OF HILLSBORO.

Monopolist, and became the zealous exponent of the farmer or grange movement. Still he was not happy, and another change came over his paper. This time he called it the Hillsboro Blade, and changed its polities to Republican. Ile then sold it to James L. Slaek, who again changed its name, calling it the Hillsboro Jour- mal. Slack sold it to Charles R. Truitt in 1881, the present editor and publisher. It is a hand- some eight-page paper, neatly and tastefully printed, ably edited, and is the Republican organ of Montgomery County.

About the year 1859 or 1860, the Illinois Free Press was established in Hillsboro, as the advocate of the views of the Republican party. It was published by a stock company composed of the leading Republicans of Hillsboro and Butler, and Mr. D. W. Munn was its editor. Later it was in charge of J. B. Hutchinson and James Munn. Hutchinson afterward moved to Iowa, and Munn was slightly wounded at Donelson, Tenn., when he retired from the army, and finally returned East, whence he had come, and where he was lost sight of. The Free Press was never a financial success, and suspended publication, but was resurrected again in 1863 by John W. Kitchell, and the name changed to the Union Monitor. D. W. Munn had become sole proprietor previous to the sale to Mr. Kitchell. It was next bought by Mr. Thomas J. Russell, Mr. Kitchell remain- ing as editor, until he was drafted into the army in the spring of 1865, when Mr. J. E. Henry, a native of Bond County, a good writer and an able man, became editor. He afterward removed to St. Joseph, Mo. Mr. Alexander, afterward editor and proprietor of the Demo- crat, became, in May, 1867, proprietor of the Monitor, as the Republican organ, but hecom- ing a little " tender-footed," as he expressed, it

on the negro question, he sold out to B. S. Hood, of Litchfield, a man of fine abilities, but not being acquainted with the modus operandi of running a newspaper, did not make a fortune out of his investment. It was removed to Litchfield, and for a time was run by a stock company. Messrs. Bangs & Gray finally be- eame the purchasers, who, after a little while, divided the office, and from this division sprung the News Letter of Hillsboro, condueted by C. L. and E. T. Bangs. The remainder was sold to Taylor & Kimball, of Belleville, who con- ducted the Monitor a few months by agents, and then transferred it to Coolidge & Litch- field, and it became what is now the Litchfield Monitor.

The News Letter was sold to Slack & Tobin, and the name changed to the Hillsboro Journal. Mr. Tobin sold out to Slack, who sold to John- son & Tobin in 1875. Up to this time it had been Republican in politics, but Johnson & Tobin changed its name to Montgomery News, and its polities to Democrat. In 1876, Johnson sold his interest to George W. Paisley, and February 6, 1882, Paisley & Tobin sold the paper to Benjamin E. Johnson, who is the present owner and editor. The News is the official organ of the Democracy of Montgomery County, and is a large eight-page paper, well edited by Col. Johnson, a man of considerable newspaper ability, experience and enterprise.

The press of Hillsboro at the present time is second to that of no town of its importance in Southern Illinois, and the people should be justly proud of it, and extend to it the support and patronage it so richly merits. No town can prosper without live, enterprising news- papers, and such papers cannot exist without liberal patronage.

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

CHAPTER XI.+

NORTH LITCHFIELD TOWNSHIP-DESCRIPTION AND TOPOGRAPHY-CHARACTER OF SOIL-EARLY SETTLEMENTS-THE BRIGGS FAMILY-OTHER PIONEERS-THE FIRST PREACHERS AND

CHURCHES-SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS-PIONEER INCIDENTS-TAX RECEIPTS, ETC. -EARLY DISEASES AND DEATHS -EFFECTS OF THE WAR, ETC., ETC.

T HIS township, lying on the west side of the county, is south of Zanesville, west of Butler, and north of South Litchfield. The west fork of Shoal Creek passes from north to south through the east side, and is fringed with timber for nearly a mile on each side. The west two-thirds of the township are prairie. The west and north portions discharge their surplus waters through a branch into the creek, while the southwestern sections send their drainage into the Cahokia, and the southeastern seetions lie on Rocky Branch, an affluent of the west fork of Shoal Creek. For three miles the Indianapolis & St. Louis railroad divides it from South Litchfield. The Jacksonville road enters at the northwest corner and leaves it two miles east of the southwest corner. The St. Louis branch of the Wabash, going north, en- ters the township two miles from the county line and leaves it two miles west of the north- east corner. It thus contains nearly sixteen miles of railroad.

The soil along the creek is white and better for straw grain than for corn. In the prairie the soil is black, glutinous and deep. The sur- face in the prairie region requires artificial drain- age, which has been in part supplied by the con- struction of railroads, and a more careful at- tention to the location and improvement of ordinary highways. In the farms along the timber, rail fences are the rule ; in other and more recently eultivated farms board fences are common, and many hedges are found. All

the prairie and much of the timber is fenced, and this has led to the adoption of a stock law.

In 1816, Robert Briggs, born east of the Blue Ridge, and emigrating to Ohio en route to Ed- wardsville, where he dwelt in the fort, and where children were born to him, located on Lake Fork in Walshville. He built a cabin and began a farm. Two years later, the land was bought from under him by Government entry, and Mr. Briggs, leaving his cribs filled with corn, removed in 1818 to a point nearly a third of a mile east of Martin Ritchie's house, and began anew. His old neighbors relieved him of his cribbed corn, and he had no new neigh- bors in the modern meaning of the word. A few miles to the north, a family settled a little later, and five miles to the south were two or three families. The region abounded in gray wolves, tall, fierce, gaunt fellows, and occasion- ally a black one was seen. Muskrats were nu- merous in the shallow ponds, and skunks were met everywhere. The few sheep Mr. Briggs owned were penned each night to protect them from beasts of prey, for black bears and painters were not quite unknown. Grapes grew in the woods, and " bee trees " yieldled their delicious sweets to the pioneer. Wagons were not in use ; in place of them rude ox earts were in general use, frequently made without iron. Cattle were the exclusively draft animals ; horses were employed only under the saddle, and to plow corn. In dry weather an ox cart in motion was the equal in noise to a Chinese

*Bv Il. A. Coolidge.

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NORTH LITCHFIELD TOWNSHIP.

orchestra. Osen wrought in the ordinary yoke, but horses had wooden hames on shuck collars, made by some neighbors and connected to the whippletree with chains, supported by a strip of raw hide over the horse's back.

The cattle were natives, small and hardy. A fattened animal which weighed dressed half a thousand pounds was a monster. The horses were usually about fifteen hands high, and of light weight. In a few years after Mr. Briggs' settlement, the Archy stock was introduced from North Carolina and was highly esteemed for the saddle. All travel was on horseback, and a steed, sure-footed, hardy, and with a swift, easy pace, was a possession keenly appre- ciated. Swine of the baser breed prevailed. They were not inclined to take on flesh, were fleet of fout and insatiable in appetite, and pug- nacious. The few sheep were kept for the wool. Quail and gray squirrels and wild turkeys, water fowl and herds of deer, made the country a valuable game region. Of song birds the pioneers do not speak ; they came in with the cessation of the annual burning of the prairie, and the appearance of orchards and trees around human habitations.

For several years Mr. Briggs grew cotton for home clothing. When picked, it was ginned by hand, and then prepared on hand cards in the house for the spinning wheel. Sometimes wool was mingled with the "batts" for spinning. The cotton was carded, spun, wove and dyed at home, and the cloth fashioned into garments by the housewife's shears and needle. Nearly every home contained a spinning wheel and loom and a variety of saddles. The children tasted neither tea nor coffee. Sassafras tea or crust coffee does not tempt a healthy or a ca- pricious thirst. The johnny cake board was as necessary in a well regulated family as knives and forks, and the corn meal was brought from Elin Point or thie " Pepper Mill." The meal, wetted with water and salted and baked on a board set sloping before the fire, and eaten with

milk, was a healthful food, and the children throve on it.

The Briggs family went to Old Ripley, in Bond County, for meal, and their meat was wild game ; the forest yielded them grapes and plums ; their garden Irish potatoes and sweet ones. The father tanned each year, imper- fectly, leather in a trough, and from the product, which had the properties of rawhide, he made shoes for his children. When wet these shoes were a world too wide ! When dried on the feet they shrank until they bound like com- presses.

The first school his children attended was in a log schoolhouse, two miles and a half east of home, and probably in Butler Grove Town- ship. The second school was taught in the first schoolhouse in the township, a few rods due north of the home of E. K. Austin. Religious meetings were first held at private houses, but, when schools were introduced, the school-room during the week was the church on Sunday. The first sermon, so far as known, was perhaps delivered by Bennett Woods, a Hardshell Bap- tist, of whom our informant narrates several amusing incidents. The preacher had on one occasion forgotten his glasses, and when he arose to give ont the hymn-which it was the custom to "deacon" in consequence of the want of hymn books-he began :

" My eyes are dim ; I cannot see, I've left my specs at home."

The leader of the singing immediately raised the tune and the congregation began to sing ! " Stop, stop! That is not the hymn ; I meant to say I forgot my spectacles and will not read a hymn this morning."

On another occasion a mother was carrying her wailing infant out of the house to avoid disturbing the congregation. "Sister Sally, if you go out, you will not hear the sermon." " Yes, I will ; I will sit near the house, and will hear every word." In a few moments Mr. Woods went to an open window, and thrusting

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

out his head and shoulders continued his dis- course, in order that " Sister Sally " should not lose the benefit of it.

The first church in the township was erected near the southeast corner of the west half of the northwest corner of Section 33, or just west of State street, and half a mile north of the In- dianapolis & St. Louis railroad. It was used jointly by the Lutherans and Presbyterians. This is the popular opinion which has found a place in local histories, but a log church near Honey Bend was built many years earlier, which long since decayed to a ruin. but the site can be identified just over the line in Zanes- ville Township. Near it several hundred In- dians were encamped in huts of pawpaw. The unwelcome visitors were energetically pressed to move on, and their shelters perished by nat- ural decay. This church belonged to the Hard- shell Baptists-a sect which believes in unsal- aried preachers and in paying their debts. The second religious body was the Williams Society of Methodists near Honey Bend. William Williams, the founder, is still spoken of as a godly man, whese piety was ardent and con- sistent.

Isaiah Hurley was the first school teacher, a mild, inoffensive person. The Wilkinson boys were his especial tormentors.

The Briggs family at first ate from pewter plates and drank from gourds or tin cups. The light at evening was the wood fire, or, if there was any grease to be had, a saucer was filled with it, in which a wiek floated. Hickory bark or dry branches of trees were used as light wood to illuminate the cabins, and the boys spelled out their bibles or books by their flick- ering flame. Sometimes buttonwood balls were gathered, and, when dried, soaked in fat and lighted. They afforded good light, but were speedily consumed.

Their earlier neighbors were the Mathews family, living a couple furlongs to the west. That family went west of the river during the

" twenties," leaving no representative here, but a remembrance older than the oldest living in- habitant of the township.

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History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois, Part 30

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