History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois, Part 6

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 6
USA > Illinois > Bond County > History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois > Part 6

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At " Moody's Spring " the Methodists held the first camp-meeting in the county, and for a series of years these meetings were annually held there, so that it afterward became gener- ally known as " Moody's Camp-ground." As the county became more thiekly settled, the number of " eamp-grounds " increased, and, for many years, camp-meetings were annually held in various portions by the Methodists and Cum- berland Presbyterians. These gatherings of the people for religious purposes took place in July, August or September, when fruits and vegetables were the most abundant, and provi- sions to "feed the multitude " could most easily be procured.

One of the most noted places in the county for holding camp-meetings was situated near the town of Newport, and called "Zion Camp- ground," a brief description of which may not be uninteresting to the reader. Many of us can 0

*By R. O. White.

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

well remember its cool, shady arbor in the green forest, with its primitive seats, the temporary pulpit or " stand," in front of which, on a nail driven in the trunk of a tree, was suspended the tin trumpet or horn, by which the people were called together for religious services ; the tents with their straw-covered floors, forming three sides of a square around the seated area, at a distance of thirty or forty yards ; back of these the cooking operations presided over by old ladies with caps on their heads, and young maidens with bright eyes, rosy cheeks and glossy curls ; the space reserved for " anxious seats," called the "altar," immediately in front of the stand and covered with straw ; the shady and well-beaten path to the cool spring, trickling from its moss-grown sycamore gum ; the tables spread with the choicest viands of the country, of which all were invited freely to partake freely, " without money and without price ;" and the groups of singers in the tents, composed mainly of young gentlemen and ladies, assembled for the ostensible purpose of singing. All these, and many other associations of these old camp- meetings, will long remain fresh in the memory of those who witnessed them.

Preaching then was very different from what it is now, being generally of the noisy order. Society, too, was in a rough state, and the preaching, in order to rivet attention and be effective, had to correspond with the times. For, unless a speaker can gain the attention of his audience and hold it, he may preach till doomsday and then find that his time and breath have been spent in vain. Thus the style of preaching, as well as any other public speaking, changes with the manners of the people. In those early days, the preacher who had the strongest voice and exercised it most ; who could give the most extravagant and over-wrought descriptions of heaven, hell and the day of judgment, and could slash the air with his hands and arms in the wildest man- ner, was considered the greatest man by the

majority of the people. The singing partook of the same noisy character as the preaching and at night, with favorable wind, both the singing and preaching might be easily heard three miles.

With the rude state of society then existing in the community, the behavior of some at camp-meetings was not always of the best, and ministers and members had much difficulty some times in maintaining good order, espe- cially at night. Notwithstanding their best endeavors, frequent disturbances occurred after, dark, such as shaving off horses' manes and tails, smearing tar over the seats of saddles, and throwing watermelon rinds, empty whisky bottles, etc., into the altar among the mourners. Taking all things into consideration, however, the general behavior was as good as could have been expected at that time; and much as we may now pride ourselves on onr superior refine- ment and deplore such conduct, we have, never- theless, in our community at this day individ- uals who are only restrained from committing such disgraceful acts by the force of public opinion and the laws of the land.

Though the religious exercises partook, to a great extent, of this noisy character, and the preachers were less polished in their phrase- ology than at this time, yet the people were as sincere in their profession of Christianity as they are now. In proportion to number, there were, doubtless, as few hypocrites among relig- ious people and as much true piety as at the present day. The pioneer ministers were not all of the above type, but many possessed talent and learning, used the best of language, and were graceful and dignified in their preach- ing. These backwoods preachers contributed largely in their day to the morals of the com- munity, and were mainly instrumental in laying the foundation of the various religions denom- inations in our county. They were not ashamed to be seen traveling on foot or on horseback many miles to meet their appoint-

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

ments, often encountering hunger and thirst, and exposing themselves to the inclemencies of the weather.

The first Sunday school in the county was organized in the year 1818, at the residence of William Robinson, about one and a half miles northwest of Greenville. It was under the su- pervision of the Presbyterian Church, which we have already mentioned. It was composed of grown people and children, and was termed a Bible class or society. This school has been kept up by that denomination ever since, but meets now in Greenville, at the Okl Presbyteri- an Church, and is very justly entitled the pio- neer Sunday school of Bond County. After its organization, others, under the control of the different religious denominations, were estab- lished in various portions of the county, as new churches were organized. The progress of these schools was at first slow, but they gradu- ally gained in strength and popular favor, keep- ing pace with the various religious denomina- tions, until there are now in every neighbor- hood, not only neat, commodious churches, but well-attended and flourishing Sunday schools.

Among the ministers of the Gospel who la- bored here at an early day, may be mentioned Bishop Ames, Peter Cartwright and James B. Woollard, of the Methodist ; Peter Long, of the Baptist, and Joel Knight, of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. These, with the excep- tion of Peter Cartwright, have preached in nearly all parts of the county. J. B. Wool- lard and Peter Long have doubtless performed more marriage ceremonies and preached more funerals than any other two ministers in this portion of the State. Of the early preachers of this county long since dead, were Revs. John Dew, John M. Peck, William K. Stewart, and many others of the various denominations, whom the old settlers can call to mind.

It is not inappropriate, in concluding this sketch of the religious denominations of the county, to notice briefly what was termed in

those early times "the jerks." Although not so common here as in many other localities of the Western country, yet they were of frequent enough occurrence as to excite considerable speculation as to their origin. There is little doubt now, perhaps, that they were a species of religious excitement, though many believed then that they originated from witchcraft, or were the direct work of Satan. Persons having them were affected with violent convulsions, their heads, necks and limbs being involuntari- ly and forcibly jerked in every possible direc- tion, their hands clenched, and their jaws tightly set.

A young lady took the jerks one evening at a camp-meeting at Mount Gilead, four miles west of Greenville, about thirty-five years ago, and so violent and rapid were her motions that four men who attempted to hold her, to prevent her being thrown against the benches or trees, were unable to do so. Her hands were shut more firmly than her natural strength seemed to warrant. Attacks of this kind came on sud- denly, lasting generally only a few minutes, though sometimes longer, and occurred only at camp-meetings, when the religious excitement was at its greatest strain. There was anoth- er phase or modification of the jerks, termed " the falling down exercise," in which the per- sons affected suddenly fell down and lay per- fectly helpless. Sometimes they remained in this condition for several hours, but usually only a short time, when they would rise to their feet, and in most instances commence running and leaping about, throwing their arms in every direction, manifesting all the symptoms of the first form of the disease, with the exception that, in the former cases, they seldom spoke a word, but in the latter, after rising from the ground, they often sereamed, sang or laughed in the wildest manner. Persons, after recover- ing from one of these attacks, appeared listless and dull for awhile, having little or nothing to say to anyone, and utterly incapable of being

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

excited in any way whatever, until the return of the paroxysm, which to some came every night of the meeting, when the mourners were called to the " altar," and the excitement again became great.

From what has been said in a preceding chapter of the prevalence of whisky-drinking among the early settlers, and the general belief that ardent spirits " were good in their place," it will not be supposed that Bond County was a fruitful field for temperance organizations in old times. Temperance societies were formed, however, at different periods, between the years 1830 and 1840, though with but little perma- nent success. A man would come along, de- liver a lecture, organize a society, and, for a while, all would go well; but in the course of a year or two, the whole thing went to naught, and those of the members who had been in the habit of drinking, like the Biblical sow, " returned to their wallow."

As late as 1846, when the company for the Mexican war from Bond County was organized at Greenville, after the requisite number had volunteered, the men were drawn up in line, on the public square, and a bucket-full of whisky brought out and distributed as a "treat," of which most of them partook, drinking it out of a tin dipper. It was not many years after this, however, before the temperance cause be- gan to gain ground, encountering more or less opposition, until at present no one who is an habitual drinker is admitted into the best society, and no young lady of the community will tolerate the addresses of a regular and known dram-drinker. This state of things is not so much attributable to the influence of temperance organizations, perhaps, as to the better training and education of the present generation.

The schools and educational facilities of the county now claim our attention, and follow very appropriately the history of the churches. Both possess refining influences, and furnish

the highest standard of the civilization of all communities. It is a characteristic feature of all American settlements that among their first efforts of a public nature is the establishment of churches and schools. The early school- houses in Illinois were rude, and constructed upon a primitive plan.

The first school in the county was taught, in the year 1819, by Thomas White, in a little log cabin, on the hill west of Greenville, between the residence of Mrs. Black and where Samuel White's tanyard was situated. This school was small, as the inhabitants were few, some of whom had no education themselves, and did not care whether their children ever received any or not. But as the population increased, schools sprang up in various parts of the county, whenever a neighborhood became strong enough to sustain one. In some in- stances, where but two or three families lived near each other, they sent off' several miles to those similarly situated, took in children and boarded them free, in order to have a school that would justify the paying of a teacher.

There being no school fund then, every man paid for the tuition of his children out of his own pocket. The price of teaching was from $1.50 to $2 per scholar per quarter-equiva- lent to $12 or $15 a month, for a school of twenty-five pupils, which was more than any school in the county averaged for many years.

The schoolhouses, for many years, were built of logs with puncheon floors, weight-pole roofs, and wide chimneys of wood and clay, on a par with the dwellings of the settlers themselves. The seats were long benches made of puncheons or slabs, without backs, and frequently so high that the feet of the smaller pupils could not touch the floor, and it was quite an irksome task for the little fellows to sit from early in the morning till late in the evening, with noth- ing to support their backs, and their legs dangling from the rough seats. It is no won-

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

der, then, that some scholars, instead of going on to school when they left home in the morn- ing, often played truant all day, eoneealing themselves in the bushes till the usual time to return in the evening. This trick the writer remembers having been guilty of several times. He onee lay all day in a field of tall rye, near harvest, when the heat of the sun and his thirst were far more intolerable than sitting on a bench at school.

The schools were conducted on the most noisy plan imaginable. They received the ap- pellation of " vocal schools," that is, the schol- ars spelled, read and " ciphered " aloud while studying their lessons, as well as when reciting, and such another jargon of unintelligible sounds as one of those schools presented has never been witnessed, perhaps, sinee the con- fusion at Babel. Some of the pupils tried to study, others gabbled away with all their might without uttering an intelligible sound, and the noise made rendered it almost impossible for the instructor to tell who were studying and who were not. But the culminating point eame, when they were told to study the " spell- ing lesson," which was the last one recited be- fore school "turned out" at noon and in the evening, and was participated in by all the scholars. The noise then produced has been often heard at the distance of more than a mile. When the teacher wished the class to reeite, he brought his foot to the floor with a loud and vigorous stamp, which shook the whole house, and had the effeet of stilling the noise for a moment, similar to the throwing of a billet of wood into a pond of eroaking frogs. The whole school would instantly rise to their feet and make an unceremonious rush for " their places," recklessly running against or over each other.

Occasionally, a " downy-chinned " lad, un- der the influence of "puppy love," took ad- vantage of the confusion to imprint or, rather, daub a kiss on the cheek of some fair damsel,

whom he imagined as far gone in the tender passions as himself .*

The teacher of one of these noisy schools once gave his usual stamp to eall up the class, when his foot eame down upon the end of a loose puncheon, which fell beneath his weight, letting him through as far as he could go, and tearing one leg of his pantaloons from. the ankle to the knee on a nail. The effect upon the school, of course, was a serions and melancholy one. Some of the teachers, when pronouneing the words to the class, or " giving out " the lesson, as it was called, spoke as though they intended not only their pupils, but many of the neigh- bors to hear them.

When schools prohibiting pupils from study- ing aloud first began to be taught, they were ealled " silent schools," and such was the preju- diee in favor of the old, noisy system that in some neighborhoods it was made the test of qualification of teachers. School books then were scarce, Webster's Spelling book, the En- glish Reader, New Testament and Pike's Arith- metie constituted the list of books used for many years.

Male teachers only were employed for several decades after the first organization of schools in this county. Female teachers were so scaree that none offered their services, and had they done so, the prejudice against them was so great that no neighborhood would have em- ployed them. So great was the opposition to female education, many of the first settlers of the county held that all the education a girl required was to be able to read the Bible and Testament and write well enough to sign her own name. Some would not even go this far, but allowed her only the privilege of learning to read. When speaking of the literary attain- ments of a girl, it was a common remark, " she has education enough for a woman !"

Our educational interests and facilities,

*[This was a part of the performance, we presume. that was left off the programme .- Ed.]

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

though at first so inferior, have gradually kept improving as the county increased in popula- tion and wealth, aided by wise legislation, until we have arrived at our present system of free sehools, of which all may feel justly prond. Below we present the following condensed sehool statistics of Bond County, as a matter of interest :

Number of white persons in the county between the ages of six and twenty-one years. 4,618

Number of colored persons in the county between the ages of six and twenty-one years. 39

Total. 4,650

Number of schools in the county.

Number of districts in the county.

Number of scholars attending school.

3,685

Number of teachers. 111

Number of male teachers 67

Number of female teachers

Number of brick schoolhouses.

Number of frame schoolhouses.

Number of log schoolhouses. 2

Amount paid male teachers $14,501.64

Amount paid female teachers. 7,513.98

Ilighest monthly wages paid any male teacher. 125

Lowest monthly wages paid any male teacher. 25

Highest monthly wages paid any female teacher. 50

Lowest monthly wages paid any female teacher. 20

The highest monthly wages paid to male teachers are in Township 5, Range 3, $165 ; Township 4, Range 1, $65 ; Township 4, Range 3. $60. The lowest wages paid to males are in Township 7, Range 3, $25 ; Township 4, Range 2, $28. The highest monthly wages paid to females are in Township 5, Range 3, $50; Township 6, Range 4, $45 ; Township 7, Range 3, $40. The lowest are in Township 4, Range 2 and Township 6, Range 3. Township 4, Range 4, and Township 7, Range 4, each $20 per month.

Almira Female College, beautifully situated in Greenville, is an educational institution of

which Bond County may well feel proud. It was founded in 1857, and is in a very flourish- ing state. A full history of it, however, will be found in the chapters devoted to the history of Greenville.

The citizens of Bond County have not been behind those in any other portion of the State in asserting their opinions, demanding their rights, or responding to the ealls of patriotism. As an instance of their readiness to make a public declaration of opinion, they were the first in the county to oppose what was called the "internal improvement bill," passed many years ago by the Legislature, the following notice of which appears in Ford's History of Illinois, page 291 :

" The people of Bond County, as soon as the internal improvement system passed, had de- clared in a public meeting that the system must lead to taxation and utter ruin ; that the people were not bound to pay any of the debt to be contracted for it ; and that Bond County would never assist in paying a cent of it. Ae- cordingly, they refused to pay taxes for several years." The citizens of the county were correet in their conclusions, for in a few years the sys- tem went down, and left the State in the almost bankrupt condition they had foretold, with a debt of $14.000,000 hanging over it. When the subject of paying this debt by increased taxation came up in 1844, William S. Wait ad- dressed a very able letter to Thomas Ford, Governor of the State, in opposition to the plan

In patriotism the county has been equally prompt in maintaining her position. When the State of Illinois was called upon for four regi- ments of volunteers for the Mexican war, in 1846, Bond County furnished one company of ninety-three men. This company had the fol- lowing officers : Benjamin E. Sellers, Captain ; J. M. Hubbard, First Lieutenant ; S. G. Mc- Adams, Second Lieutenant, and I. N. Red- fearn, Third Lieutenant. Of this number only about forty men returned at the close of the

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

campaign, the remainder having died or been discharged on account of sickness. But few of them are now living in the county.

During the late rebellion, the county, small as it is. furnished five companies of cavalry, besides several companies of infantry.

Notwithstanding so many companies went from this county into the late war, many of the citizens strongly opposed it. In consequence of their opposition, much excitement prevailed during a portion of the time, resulting, how- ever, in no very serious trouble, except in a few instances. Many occurrences, both ludi- crous and otherwise, might be related, but lest

they stir up and keep alive old prejudices and differences, they will be passed over in silence. Suffice it to say, in conclusion of the county's war record, that those who went forth to battle for their country's honor acquitted themselves as became American soldiers, and their history in the long and dreadful four years' struggle was that of all the soldiers from Illinois-noble and honorable. Those who met a soldier's death fell in a high and holy cause ; those who survived the struggle and returned home en- joy the proud consciousness that the Union was preserved-the government unshaken.

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

CHAPTER VII .*

RAILROAD HISTORY-THE INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM-OLD NATIONAL OR CUMBERLAND ROAD-MISSISSIPPI AND ATLANTIC RAILROAD-THE EARLY DIFFICULTIES IN ITS CON-

STRUCTION-FINAL COMPLETION-THE PRESENT VANDALIA LINE-OFFICERS OF

THE ROAD, ETC .- THE PRESS OF BOND COUNTY-EARLY NEWSPAPERS-

"ADVOCATE" AND ITS ANTECEDENTS-THE "SUN," ETC.

A LL who are acquainted with the history of Illinois, will remember the old In- ternal Improvement System, which well-nigh wrecked the Commonwealth. For a time it seemed as if the whole country had gone wild upon the subject of internal improvements, and railroads and canals were chartered with- out regard to cost or eligibility of location. Illinois took a front rank in this reckless ex- penditure, and voted away millions of money for internal improvements. But it is not our intention to go into details upon the subject- a subject that many still living in Bond Coun- ty are familiar with. It is merely alluded to by way of introduction to the internal im- provements of the county.

The old National road was the first internal improvement in which Bond County took an active interest. Perhaps no work has ever taken place in the United States, of a public character, which excited so much interest throughout the country as the "National, or Cumberland road " from Washington City to St. Louis, with a branch diverging at Zanes- ville, Ohio, passing through Kentucky, Tennes- sec, and on to New Orleans. Not even the Union Pacific Railroad excelled in magnitude the enterprise of the Old National road in its day, and which passed through Vandalia and Greenville on to St. Louis. For years it was the great question in the National Congress, as

the Mississippi River Improvement is now the all-absorbing theme in that august body. Our space, however, will not allow a sketch of this great project, and the reader is referred to other publications for its history. The remarks upon this road, as well as the old internal improve- ment system, are but prefatory to the sub- joined sketch of the Mississippi & Atlantic Railroad, now so extensively and favorably know everywhere as the " Vandalia Line." The history of this famous railroad thorough- fare is written by Mr. Williamson Plant, who has been connected with it from the very in- ception of the enterprise, and is perfectly familiar with its career from the original sur- vey to the present time. He has written it up fully, and the article will be found interesting to all the friends of the road. It is as follows :

The first railroad that gave any assurance to the people of being built through Bond Coun- ty was the Mississippi & Atlantic Railroad from St. Louis through Greenville, Vandalia, Terre Haute, connecting with lines to New York.

One of the most earnest workers for that road was the Hon. William S. Wait, who was one of Bond County's oldest and most re- spected citizens. His letter written in June, 1863, to ex-Gov. B. Gratz Brown, of St. Louis, will fully explain the difficulties that sur- rounded, and finally overcame that road :

" The railroad projected so early as 1835 to

*By W. H. Perrin.

HISTORY OF BOND COUNTY.

run from St. Louis to Terre Hante, was in- tended as the commencement of a direct line of railway to the Atlantic eities, and its first survey (of which a copy is inelosed) was taken over the exact line of the great 'Cumberland' road. We applied to the Illinois Legislature for a charter in 1846, but were opposed by rival interests, that finally succeeded in estab- lishing two lines of railroad connecting St. Louis with the Wabash-one by a line running north, and the other by a line running south of our survey, thus demonstrating by the unfail- ing test of physical geography that our line is the central and true one. The two rival lines alluded to, viz., Terre Haute & Alton and Ohio & Mississippi. We organized our company with the name of the 'Mississippi & Atlantic Railroad,' in 1850, by virtue of a General Railroad Law passed the year previous, and immediately accomplished a survey. An ad- verse decision of our Supreme Court led us to accept the offer of Eastern capitalists to help us through, who immediately took nine-tenths of the stock, and gave us John Brough for President. Our right to construct was finally confirmed in February, 1854; the road put under contract, and the work commenced. The shock given to all railroad enterprise by the "Schuyler fraud " suspended operations, and before confidence was restored, the controlling power, which was enthroned in Wall street, had arrived at the conclusion, as we afterward discovered, to procced no further in the con- struction of the Mississippi & Atlantie Rail- road. For purposes best understood by them- selves, the Eastern managers amused us for several years with the hope that they were still determined to prosecute the work. When we were finally convinced of the intentional deception, we abandoned the old charter and instituted a new company under the name of the 'Highland & St. Louis Railroad Company' with power to build and complete by seetions the entire road from St. Louis to Terre Haute.

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History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois, Part 6

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