History of Bureau County, Illinois, Part 15

Author: Bradsby, Henry C., [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago, World publishing company
Number of Pages: 776

USA > Illinois > Bureau County > History of Bureau County, Illinois > Part 15

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).

son William came in 1833; but William re- turned to Kentucky. Jesse Perkins bought Leonard Roth's claim in 1832, one mile west of Bureau Junction, where he died. His son Alvin lives near Senachwine.

Manson Perkins was born February 15, 1826, in Ashe County, N. C. He was a son of Stephen Perkins.

In 1849 there was a party of fifteen started for California from about Perkins' Grove; among these were the Perkinses. John Per- kins taught the first school in Perkins' Grove.

William Pollock, a native of Tyrone, Ire- land, came to Illinois in 1832, and settled in Stark County, and came to Perkins' Grove in 1837. He purchased William Anderson's claim. Anderson was a Mormon Elder. Anderson went to Nauvoo, and was killed in the Hancock County war. Johnson W. Per- kins, born here, married Edith A. Wasson, daughter of Lorenzo D. Wasson.

George C. Hinsdale came in July, 1831. He married Elizabeth Baggs, May 18, 1834. (See biography.)

Christopher G. Corss came in 1831 with the Hampshire Colony. (See biography of C. C. Corss.)

CHAPTER IX.

LONE TREE-PUTNAM COUNTY ORGANIZED 1831-CAPTAIN HAWS- JOHN M. GAY ELECTED COMMISSIONER, DR. N. CHAMBERLAIN, SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT, 1831-BUREAU PRECINCT-ITS FIRST NINETEEN VOTERS-THEIR NAMES AND WHOM THEY VOTED FOR- A DEMOCRATIC MAIOBITY-BUREAUITES ON THE JURY OF 1831- JOHN M. GAY AND DANIEL DIMMICE ELECTED JUSTICES-GURDON S. HUBBARD'S ACCOUNT OF BOURBONNAIS-PEORIA AND GALENA ROAD-DAVE JONES-FIRST STEAMBOAT-FIRST GRIST AND SAW- MILL-" DAD JOE " SMITH, A SKETCH-YOUNG DAD JOE'S RIUE -- ALEX. BOYD'S RIDE-THE HALL MASSACRE-SYLVIA AND RACHEL HIALL-PEOPLE FLEE THE COUNTY-SHABRONA.

R ESUMING the thread of our narrative from which we swerved some little in the preceding chapter, in our account of the old settlers and their meetings and records,

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we will devote some considerable space in this chapter to those facts and circumstances as we have gleaned them of the early settlers, and the course of their lives here when all was new and wild.

Oliver Kellogg, brother-in-law of Dixon and Boyd, was among the earliest pioneers in this section, and when the route from Galena became a traveled road, it went by the name of Kellogg's trail, for many years.

As early as 1829, Meredith's, Thomas's, Boyd's, Inlet's, Dixon's and Kellogg's were noted places, as well as the old Bulbona and Lone Tree, the latter giving its name to Lone Tree Postoffice. From the earliest times this great, solitary tree, standing alone in the wide expanse of prairie, was widely known. It was a grand old oak that for ages had lifted its boughs and defied the storms and pointed the way to the lonely travelers, hunters and trappers; and when civilization began to hunt out this partof the world, it was a noted beacon, a towering sentinel that told the weary pioneers that they were upon the borders of the promised land. This historic tree died some twenty years ago, and was blown down, and Mr. E. Anderson, who had become the owner of the ground on which it stood, had made a pasture about it, and it is supposed the continuous tramping of stock was partly the cause of its eventual decay. We are indebted to An- drew Anderson for a small block of this Lone Tree, which is now doing service as a paper weight on our table. When we are through with it, it will be suitably identified and placed in the custody of the Illinois Historical Association.

Lone Tree is about the center of Wheat- land Township, in the southern part of Bu- reau County.

In the spring of 1831 Putnam County was first organized into a municipality, and pos-

sessed of legal functions. Then new bound- aries were given the county, that is, to the boundaries in the act of 1825, authorizing the county when sufficient population was had to organize. At that time (1831) the whole country north and west of Bureau set- tlement to Galena and northeast including Chicago were in the bounds. According to the act of the Legislature on the first Mon- day in March, 1831, at the house of Capt. Will- iam Haws, * an election for county officers was held, and to put the wheels of the new county government in operation. John M. Gay was elected one of the Commissioners of the new county, and Dr. N. Chamberlain was appointed School Commissioner. These were both Bureau County men, and at the time they were living in Bureau Precinct, Putnam County. Bureau Precinct included all of the present county and parts of Stark and Mar- shall Counties. At the first election, August 18, 1831, there were just nineteen votes in Bureau Precinct, as follows: Henry Thomas, Elijah Epperson, Mason Dimmick, Leonard Roth, John M. Gay, Samuel Glason, Curtiss Williams, John and Justus Ament, J. W. Hall, Henry Harrison, Abram Stratton, Eze- kiel Thomas, Hezekiah and Anthony Epper- son, E. H. Hall, Adam Taylor, Daniel Dim- mick and Thomas Washburn. This vote in Bureau Precinct was given as follows, on Candidates for Congress: Joseph Duncan, 10; Sidney Breese. 1; Edward Cole, 6; James Turney, 2. As Duncan was the "out and outer " Democrat perhaps in the race, we may be safe in saying that the first vote ever polled of the good people of what is now Bureau County was unmistakably Democratic.

In the month of May, 1831, the first court of Putnam County met. The grand jury list

* This was Capt. Ilaws of the Black Hawk war, and whose company was composed of several Bureau men, and who served with him during that war. His house, at which this first elec- tiou was held, was near where Magnolia now is.

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shows the names of Elijah Epperson, Henry Thomas, Leonard Roth, Abram Stratton, John Knox and Mr. Gaylord. On the petit jury were Sylvester Brigham, Ezekiel Thomas, Eli Redmon, Justin Ament and William Morris. This court was at the trading-house of Thomas Hartzell, a well-known place to every old settler.

Gurdon S. Hubbard .- Our attention has just been called to a letter from Mr. Hubbard to the old settlers of Putnam County, and as this gives us some important facts in refer- ence to this county, we extract the following: " Thomas Hartzell, who was a Pennsylvanian by birth, was at that time, 1824, trading on the river below in opposition to the American Fur Company. In 1824-25, he succeeded Beaubien in the employment of the company. There was a house just below, across the ravine, built by Antoine Bourbonnais (Bul- bona), also an opposition trader, but who, like Hartzell, went into the employ of the Fur Company under a yearly salary. My trading post after leaving Beaubien was at the mouth of Crooked Creek till 1826, when I located on the Iroquois River, where I continned in the employ of the company till 1830, when I bought them out. The last time I visited the place where the old trading-house stood, the chimney was almost all that remained. It was built almost wholly of clay, upon a frame-work of wood, being supported by stakes stuck firmly in the ground, the whole daubed inside and out with clay mortar. The hearth was of dry clay pounded hard. It was the custom to build rousing fires, and this soon baked and hardened the chimney and gave it durability. The roof was made of puncheons, the cracks well daubed with clay and long grass laid on top and kept in place by logs of small size. The sides of the honse consisted of logs kept in place by posts sunk in the ground. The ends were

sapling logs set in the ground upright to the roof. A rongh door at one end and a window composed of a sheet of foolscap paper, well greased, completed the building. It was warm and comfortable, and under the roof many an Indian was hospitably entertained."

Hubbard further tells of the great buffalo herds he saw upon these prairies when he first came here, and that passing boats "were often delayed for hours by vast herds cross- ing from side to side, among which it was dangerous to venture." Indians accounted for their disappearance by a deep snow and a long hard winter when thousands perished, and for years the whitening bones upon the prairies were evidences of the truth of this story.

Peoria and Galena Road. - This became a prominent thoroughfare in 1827. The first road connecting Peoria and the Lead Mines (Galena) passed by Rock Island, and this was a long and difficult route. John Dixon, Charles S. Boyd and Kellogg had hunted out this new, shorter and better road, and at the time of the Winnebago war, 1827, Col. Neale, with 600 volunteers from southern Illinois passed over this new trail.

Soon after this road was opened, droves of cattle and hogs, with emigrant and mining wagons, as well as a daily mail coach, passed over it, which made it one of the great thor- oughfares of the West. For a number of years after this road was opened, only six cabins were built along its entire length, and these stood fifteen or twenty miles apart, so as to entertain travelers. Besides these six cabins, no marks of civilization could be seen between Peoria and Galena, and the country through which it passed was still in the possession of Indians.

This road originally passed through the head of Boyd's Grove, over the town site of Providence, a few rods west of Wyanet, and

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by Red Oak Grove. Afterward it was changed to pass through Dad Joe Grove, and in 1833 it was made to pass through Tiskilwa and Princeton.

In the spring of 1831 Dad Joe received a large, sealed package, wrapped around with red tape, and inscribed " Official Documents." On opening it an order was found from the Commissioner's Court of Jo Daviess County, notifying him that he was appointed Overseer of High ways, and fixing his district from the north line of Peoria County to Rock River, a distance of sixty-five miles. In this dis- trict Dad Joe could only find four men, be- sides himself, to work on this sixty-five miles of road.

In 1833 an act passed the Legislature to survey and permanently locate the Peoria and Galena road, and appointed Charles S. Boyd, J. B. Merrideth, and Dad Joe, Com- missioners for that purpose. Although this road had been traveled for six years, it had never been surveyed or legally established, and with the exception of bridging one or two sloughs, no work had been done on it. The Commissioners met at Peoria for the pur- pose of commencing their work, and at the ferry, now Front Street, they drove the first stake. A large crowd of people had col- lected on that occasion, as the location of the road was to them a matter of some conse- quence. Dad Joe, mounted on old Pat, ap- peared to be the center of attraction, as he was well kuown by every one about Peoria. Eight years previously he was a resident of Peoria, and while acting as one of the County Commissioners he had located the county seat there, and by him the name of the place was changed from Fort Clark to Peoria.

Many of the old settlers will recollect old Pat, Dad Joe's favorite horse, which was ridden or driven by him for more than twenty years, and he became almost as well known

in the settlement as his noted master. He was a dark sorrel horse, with foxy ears, a star in the forehead, a scar on the flank, and was always fat and sleek. It was this horse that young Joe rode when he carried the Govern- or's dispatch from Dixon's Ferry to Fort Wilburn, as previously stated.

Among the crowd that had collected around the Commissioners on this occasion, was John Winter, a mail contractor, and owner of the stage line between Peoria and Galena. Many stories of early times were told by those present, funny jokes passed, and all were enjoying the fun, when Winter offered to stake the choice of his stage horses against old Pat, that he could throw Dad Joe down. Now Dad Joe was no gambler, and would not have exchanged old Pat for all of Winter's horses: but being fond of fun, he said in his loud tone of voice, which could have been heard for half a mile, " Winter, I'll be blessed if I don't take that bet." Dad Joe was a thick, heavy-set man, of remarkable physical power, and wore at the time a long hunting-shirt with a large rope tied around his waist. Winter was a spare, active man, a great champion in wrest- ling, and wore a pair of fine cloth panta- loons, made tight in accordance with the fashion of the day. When all the prelimin- aries were arranged, and the parties had taken hold, Winter sang out, "Dad, are you ready ?" to which Dad replied, " All ready, Winter, God bless you." Winter, as quick as thought, attempted to knock his adver- sary's feet from under him, but instead of doing so, he was raised off the ground, and held there by the strong arm of Dad Joe. Winter kicked and struggled to regain his footing, but all to no purpose; at the same time his tight pantaloons burst open. At last he said, "Dad, for God's sake let me down, and you shall have the best horse in

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my barn." Dad Joe released his hold, and Winter never either paid the bet or bantered the old man for another tussle .*

The first wedding celebrated within the limits of Bureau Connty took place in the summer of 1830, and the parties were Leon- ard Roth and Nancy Perkins, a daughter of Timothy Perkins. The license was obtained at the county clerk's office in Peoria, and the parties were married by Elijah Epperson. There were some doubts about Mr. Epper- son's authority to administer the marriage rite, as it was obtained through his church relation some years before, while living in Kentucky, but there was no authorized per- son, at that time, living within fifty miles of them, and the legality of the marriage was never questioned.

For a few years after Putnam County was organized, John M. Gay, as Justice of the Peace, was the only person on the west side of the Illinois River authorized to administer the marriage rite. Abram Stratton and Miss Sarah Baggs deferred their wedding two weeks, waiting for Mr. Gay to obtain his commission, so he could marry them. Squire Gay was sent for to marry a couple at Per- kins' Grove, whose names were Peter Har- mon and Rebecca Perkins, a daughter of Timothy Perkins.

Dare Jones. t-This individual became so notorious in the early settlement of the county, and figures so much in its history, that a further account of him may interest the reader. Dave Jones, or Devil Jones, as he was generally called, was a small, well- built man, with very dark skin, hair and eyes as black as a raven, and he had a wild, savage appearance. He was strong and active, a good wrestler and fighter, and but few men could compete with him. For a number of

* N. Matson.

+ This account of Dave Jones is from N. Matson's Reminis- cences.

years he was a terror to the settlement, being feared both by whites and Indians. Jones came to the country in the spring of 1831, and built a cabin on the present site of Tis- kilwa, but getting into trouble with the Indians, he traded his claim to Mr. McCor- mis for an old mare, valued at ten dollars, and two gallons of whisky. He next built a cabin near where Lomax's Mill now stands; a year or two later he went to Dimmick's Grove, and in 1835 he moved to Indiana, where he was hanged by a mob soon after his arrival. Many remarkable feats of Jones are still remembered by old settlers. some of which are worth preserving.

In the spring of 1832 a dead Indian was found in the creek, near the present site of the Bureau Valley Mills, with a bullet-hole in his back, showing that he came to his death from a rifle shot. The corpse was taken out of the water by Indians, buried in the sand near by, and the affair was soon forgot- ten. Jones said while hunting deer in the creek bottom, he saw this Indian sitting on a log over the water fishing, when all of a sud- den he jumped np as though he was about to draw out a big fish, and pitched headlong into the water, and was drowned when he came up to him. Two other Indians disap- peared mysteriously about the same time, who were supposed to have been murdered, and on that account, it is said, the Indians contemplated taking revenge on the settlers.

One warm afternoon, Jones, with a jug in one hand, came cantering his old mare up to the Hennepin ferry, saying that his wife was very sick, and would certainly die if she did not get some whisky soon. In great haste Jones was taken across the river, and on land- ing on the Hennepin side, he put his old mare on a gallop up the bluff to Durley's store, where he filled his jug with whisky. Meeting with some old chums, he soon

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became intoxicated, forgot about his wife's sickness, and spent the afternoon and even- ing in wrestling, dancing "Jim Crow," and having a fight with some of his friends.

It was long after dark when Jones started for home, but on arriving at the ferry he found the boat locked up, and the ferryman in bed. Jones rapped at the door of the ferryman's house, swearing if he did not get up and take him across, he would pull the house down, and whip him besides. But all his threats were in vain; the ferryman could not be moved. Jones went down to the river, took off the bridle reins, with which he tied the jug of whisky on his back, then drove his old mare into the river, and holding on to her tail, was ferried across the river, as he afterward expressed it, without costing him a cent.

One afternoon, while Dave Jones was engaged in cutting out a road from Hennepin ferry through the bottom timber, his coat, which lay by the wayside, was stolen. Although the value of the old coat did not exceed two dollars, it was the only one Jones had, and he searched for it throughout the settlement. At last Jones found his coat on the back of the thief, whom he arrested and took to Hennepin for trial. The thief was at work in Mr. Hays' field, immediately west of Princeton, when Jones presented his rifle at his breast, ordering him to take up his line of march for Hennepin, and if he deviated from the direct course. he would blow his brains out. The culprit, shaking in his boots, started on his journey, while Jones, with his rifle on his shoulder, walked about three paces behind. On arriving at Henne- pin the thief pleaded guilty, being more afraid of Jones than the penalties of the law, and was therefore put in jail. "After Jones had delivered up his prisoner, he got drunk, was engaged in several fights, and he too was

arrested and put in jail. At that time the Hennepin jail consisted of only one room, being a log structure, twelve feet square, and Jones being put in with the thief, commenced beating him Seeing that they could not live together, the thief was liberated and Jones retained. At this turn of affairs Jones became penitent, agreed to go home and behave himself, if they would let him out. Accordingly the sheriff took him across the river, and set him at liberty; but Jones swore he would not go home until he had whipped every person in Hennepin, so he returned to carry out his threats, but was again arrested and put in jail.

A short time after the establishing of the Hennepin ferry, Dave Jones was on the Hennepin side of the river, with a yoke of wild cattle, and wished to cross over, but was unwilling to pay the ferriage. He swore before he would pay the ferryman's extrava- gant price, he would swim the river, saying that he had frequently done it, and could do it again. Jones wore a long-tailed Jackson overcoat, which reached to his heels, and a coon-skin cap, with the tail hanging down over his shoulders, the weather at the time being quite cool. He drove his oxen into the river, taking the tail of one of them into his mouth, when they started for. the oppo- site shore. Away went the steers, and so went Dave Jones, his long hair and long- tailed overcoat floating on the water, his teeth tightly fastened to the steer's tail, while with his hands and feet he paddled with all his might. Everything went on swimmingly, until they came near the middle of the river, where the waters from each side of the island came together; here the current was too strong for the steers-they turned down stream, and put back for the Hennepin side. Jones could not open his mouth to say gee or haw, without losing his hold on the steer's tail, and was 7

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therefore obliged to go where the steers led him, but all were safely landed some distance below the starting-place. Jones was in a terrible rage at his failure to cross the river -beat his cattle, and cursed the bystanders for laughing at his misfortune. After taking a big dram of whisky, he tried it again, but with no better success. Three different times Jones tried this experiment, each time whip- ping his cattle and taking a fresh dram of whisky. At last he was obliged to give it up as a bad job, and submit to paying the ferryman the exorbitant price of twenty-five cents to be ferried over.

First Steamboat .- In May, 1831, the steam- boat Caroline came up the Illinois River from St. Louis, and continued up the river to the mouth of the Little Vermilion-Shipping- port. This was the first steamer that had ever ascended above Beardstown, then the head of navigation. At this point a pilot named Crozier took the boat successfully to Ottawa. In the September following the second boat came-the Traveler. The Caroline brought Captain Williams' company of soldiers.

First Mill .- In 1829 Timothy Perkins and Leonard Roth came and settled near Leepertown Mills. In 1830 William Hoskins, John Clark and John Hall (bought Dim- mick's claim) and made a large farm. Dim- mick removed to LaMoille, where he lived two years and sold out and left the country.

In the summer of 1830 Amos Leonard (millwright) built a grist-mill on East Bureau, about eighty rods above its mouth. It was made of round logs, twelve feet square, and all its machinery, with a few excoptions, was made of wood. The mill-stones were dressed out of boulder rocks, which were taken from the bluffs near by, and the hoop they ran in was a section of a hollow sycamore tree. This mill, when in running order, would grind about ten bushels per day, but poor as it

was, people regarded it as a great accession to the settlement, and it relieved them of the slow process of grinding on hand-mills, or pounding their grain on a hominy block. Settlers east of the river, as well as those liv- ing near the mouth of Fox River, patronized Leonard's Mill, and it is now believed that it was the first water-mill built north of Peoria.

In 1831 Henry George, a single man who was killed at the Indian Creek massacre, made a claim, and built a cabin on the pres- ent site of Bureau Junction. In 1833 John Leeper bought Perkins' claim, and a few years afterward built a large flouring-mill, which received much patronage from adjoin- ing counties. Quite a village (called Leeper- town) grew up at this mill; but in 1838 the mill burned down and the village went to decay.

In 1834 a number of immigrants found homes in this locality, among whom were David Nickerson, John McElwain, James Howe, Charles Leeper and Maj. William Shields. As early as 1832 a number of per- sons had settled in Hoskins' neighborhood, among whom were Daniel Sherley and Gil- bert Kellums. In 1834 the large family of Searl came here, where many of their de- scendants continue to live.

Moseley Settlement .- In August, 1831, Roland Moseley, Daniel Smith and John Musgrove, with their families, came to Bureau; the two former were from Massa- chusetts, and the latter from New Jersey, having met by chance while on their way to the West. The emigrants ascended the Illi- nois River in a steamboat as far as Naples, and finding it difficult to obtain passage further up the river, they left their families there, and made a tour through the country in search of homes. Hearing of the Hamp- shire Colony on Bureau, Mr. Moseley directed his course thither, and being pleased with

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the country, he selected a claim. At that time Timothy Perkins claimed, for himself and family, all the timber and adjoining prairie, between Arthur Bryant's and Caleb Cook's, but he agreed to let Mr. Moseley have enough for two farms, on condition of selling him some building material. A few months previous, Timothy Perkins and Leonard Roth had built a saw-mill on Main Bureau, a short distance below the present site of McManis' Mill. This was the first saw-mill built within the limits of Bureau County, and with one ex- ception, the first north of Peoria.

Mr. Moseley marked out his claim, cutting the initials of his name on witness trees, and contracting with Mr. Perkins to furnish him, on the land, some boards and slabs for a shanty, after which he returned to Naples to report his discovery.

The three families, with their household goods, were put on board a keel-boat at Na- ples, and ascended the river as far as the mouth of Bureau Creek. Soon after their arrival at Bureau they were all taken down sick with the intermittent fever, one not be- ing able to assist the other. Although strangers in a strange land, they found those who acted the part of the good Samaritan. James G. Forristal, although living twelve miles distant, was a neighbor to them, spend- ing days and even weeks in administering to their wants. Dauiel Smith, father of Daniel P. and Dwight Smith, of Ohiotown, found shelter for his family in a shanty constructed of split puncheons, which stood on the Doo- little farm. The widow of Daniel Smith, being left with three small children, in a strange country, and with limited means, ex- perienced many of the hardships common to a new settlement.

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History of Bureau County, Illinois, Part 15

Author: Bradsby, Henry C., [from old catalog] ed Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Chicago, World publishing company Number of Pages: 776

Author: Bradsby, Henry C., [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago, World publishing company
Number of Pages: 776