History of Bureau County, Illinois, Part 32

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

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inanimate life is regulated more by the geo- logical and meteorological surroundings than by anything else. There is growth and life in a moist atmosphere, and the opposite is true of an arid region. Among human beings this regulates the size of families. Every day you can hear people wondering why it is that the number of children in families now are so much less than among their fathers and grandfathers. Buckle tells us that the number of marriages among the nations of Great Britain, France and Germany are pow- fully influenced by the price of corn. In prosperous times there are more marriages than in hard times and as there are more marriages there will be a greater increase of population, but the number of children to each family is influenced by both the pros- perous condition of the country and the moisture of the atmosphere, and probably more by the latter than the former. The largest average families of children in Eu- rope is in England. On that moist island every portion is teeming with life. A recent naturalist tells us that certain birds that lay four eggs at each hatching there produce only two if transported to this country. The in- vestigations of these subjects are important to the horticulturist, to the farmer generally and especially to the many stock-raisers in this county.

CHAPTER XIX.

SOME CURIOUS BELIEFS-CREDULITY AND SUPERSTITION-GOLD AND SILVER MINES-"WAY BILLS"-GOLD AND SILVER, AND THE MAGICIANS, ETC.

O, may the light of truth, my steps to guide,

Shine on my eve of life-shine soft, and long abide. -JOHN H. BRYANT.

B ELIEFS in the magic art, especially in the active work of the magicians in the handling of the precious ores, are as slow to

leave men's minds as is the beliefs in witches, spooks and spirits, and the bobbing around of ghosts in the affairs of men. Almost any day you may read an account of some locality that is all torn up over a haunted house, where apparently a lot of fool ghosts meet every night and carry on a general idiotic drunken orgy. There are not a few people in the world who yet believe in witches. In another form, there is a class, very large, indeed, that publicly teach "Providential interference " in the daily and hourly affairs of men-punishing some, running errands for others, and cheating the doctors out of their patients constantly. The amount of ignorant credulity and the persistence with which it maintains its hold upon men presents, one of the strongest subjects for our consid- eration. In every city of the civilized world are nightly seances in which ghosts, most generally Indian shades, are made to do duty in the silliest imaginable roles. And this form of witch belief is found widespread and nearly everywhere. While it is palpable that all these beliefs are bordering closely on the idiotic, yet it is not true that all the people who thus dupe themselves and one another, are by any means fools on all subjects. Many and many of them are remarkably bright apparently, and some in fact are noted for strong and vigorous thinkers, when their minds are directed to almost any other sub- ject save that of the ghosts or ghostly affairs. There is nothing new in this strange phase of the human mind. It has apparently existed always, and just as strong and as well defined as it is now. Education has no effect upon it, for it is found as common with the educated as among the illiterate. The strongest believers often in ancient and modern history, in the most stupid, silly and even infamous beliefs, have been the most earnestly advocated by the best educated and

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otherwise the strongest minded of their day. The most curious thing in this world is men's beliefs. Any man will tell you in looking back over his life, that its course has been directed by the most trivial and singular cir- cumstances. In fact, nearly every great life is fitly synonymized by a great river. At its source it may be turned by a straw or pebble out of its course, and when it has gathered its tributaries it moves with a swift and resistless force. But the same man will believe, nay, know in the most dogmatic way, that his judgment aud beliefs are founded upon the eternal granite rocks-here there were no influences of circumstances; nothing but the iron of logic. While the truth is his bent of mind in youth, the most singular and inconsequential accidents have started him in a certain course, or changed his course, and again, like the river, in propor- tion to each mind's resources-its tributeries -does it become stronger and stronger, firmer and firmer in its judgments, whether they were right or wrong. The tenacity with which the most idle beliefs cling to the human race is most extraordinary. When the advance of civilized ideas force their way into men's minds-ideas that you feel certain cannot exist in the same mind with the crude beliefs of a barbarous people, they only drive out by a slow process the folly they find, and it appears at once in some other shape. And the superficial observer says the error is dead when it has only, like the actor, changed its dress, and while its appearance may be greatly improved it is essentially its original self. It is this genius for playing hide and seek that makes it nearly impossible to successfuly extinguish this strong bent of the human mind. When killed in one form in one age it is found in its new habiliments in the next age, denounc- ing its former self, exulting over its own de-

struction, and says, "Look at me, I am the only truth in the world."

Is there a grown man or woman in the world of intelligence enough to partially un- derstand their mother tongue, who has not had his or her mind twisted in infancy by ghostly or fairy stories of the most stupid and injurious kind? "As the twig is bent the tree inclines," whether it grows that way or not. You cannot read a newspaper without being confronted constantly with such stuff. From the lips of the prattling child and from trembling senility; in eloquent poetry or stately prose; in common conversation among all classes and in books and paintings, it may be found, in ugly blotches and in exquisite shadings and it is everywhere and at all times. In some of its Protean forms it is ubiquitous, among all nations, peoples, classes and conditions of life. Is it possible for a perfectly healthy mind to grow in such surroundings ? Every other man you may meet in a day's walk, if he would be thorough- ly honest with you, will tell you that he is an exception, perhaps the only one in the world, yet a miraculous exception to that human trait of beliefs that are either illogical or stupid. Of course he realizes in his neigh- bors, in all mankind except himself this fault and, therefore, he is certain that he is free from the common or universal error. In looking over the curious subject we are free to confess that with the spread of civilization the change that is constantly going on in the outward paraphernalia of injurious supersti- tions are, as a rule, an improvement of the new upon the old. For instance, the differ. ence is by far to better the beliefs of our fathers in witches and witch burning and the same thing in its modern form of seances and spiritual materializing. The latter is innocent. so far as legal faggot and murder are concerned. We say this without any exam-

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ination into the ultimate evils to healthy mind growth and their comparative effects in this line. We merely assert the palpable fact and leave results for others to examine.

Among the early settlers of Illinois, there was one phase of ignorant credulity that has now nearly ceased to exist.

But few localities in the Northwest, or for that matter in the Mississippi Valley, since the coming of De Soto and his hunt for the fountains of youth and the precious metals, but that have had attacks of the curious de- lusion over the reported discovery of gold, silver or lead mines. There were always men hunting and dreaming for such discoveries. There is a per cent of cranks all over the world on certain well-understood subjects, like perpetual motion, the end of the world, religion, or being President of the United States, beatification, or silver or gold mines. Of all these the mine-seeker is the one ex- cusable being, because since and before his- toric times there have been found rich mines of various kinds that have yielded enormous fortunes to the lucky few, while the other victims of their heated fancies have invariably suffered only from long hopes deferred, or been put in straight-jackets by their friends.

Some of the early people were brought here in the pursuit of the gold and silver mine ignis-fatuus that beguiled De Soto and his followers to penetrate the wilderness and leave their bones scattered along their dreary route from Florida to Mexico. Indian tradi- tions and idle pioneer stories lured many to the West in the hope of finding rich gold and silver mines. The great "Mississippi Bubble " ran its course in Europe and bank- rupted its thousands and sent its hundreds to their graves as they followed up the Missis- sippi River and found their way to Illinois, in the faith that they would find the hidden treasures, and all over southern Illinois

especially along the country adjacent to the Mississippi River, is to be found to this day the marks of their presence. At one time a Frenchman brought to Illinois 500 slaves to dig in the mines, and in the oldest settle- ments in the State flows Silver Creek, which got its name from the fact that along its banks the miners had flocked in crowds, and were digging and prospecting upon its hills from its source to its mouth. The relics of those superstitions about gold and silver were thus handed down to the early pioneers, and among some of our people the faith lingers to this day, and they dig yet in the hills and rocks, and to find a rock flecked with bits of mica is enough to set them wild, and renew the otherwise fading superstitions on this absorbing subject. The banks of the Wabash have been celebrated grounds, and the early settlers were sometimes pro- vided, when they came, with precious "way- bills." This consisted of a paper containing minute directions, by referring to certain streams and marks upon trees, by which the possesor of the way-bill could follow the route to a silver mine. They purported to come from the French, those people who were here before the English came, and who had been driven out of the country by the Indians, and these fugitives had prepared these "way-bills," it was said, in order that they or their posterity might, when the savage was out of the way, return and claim these secret stores of inexhaustible wealth. Hence, the man who possessed a way-bill was the happy heir apparent, to great for- tunes, and he dreamed in want and poverty about his wealth of which some day he would take possession. He would not often openly go out and hunt for the route as his chart gave it, for fear that his envious neighbor might be watching his action and thus gain his great secret. Nothing could shake this

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faith in the original way-biller. And when he had spent his life in following the de- lusion, he would on his death-bed call his wife and children about him and tell them the story of the precious paper and bequeath it to them, and they would take up the pur- suit and expend their lives in the same in- fatuation. One now can form but little idea of how general and wide-spread was this de- lusion here in former days. It is about ex- tinct now, and the few faithful that yet linger among us will, as a rule, deny it stoutly when approached on the subject.

A friend tells us at some length of how the way-bill disease flourished for a long time in this section, and extended into sur- rounding connties. He speaks of one cel- ebrated way-bill which came from Vincennes, and found its way here and for a generation or more attracted wide attention. The early hunters for game and silver reported finding many coke pits. and they were built on the bank of the river, about six feet deep and four feet wide, and were walled with rock, the bottom was oval in the shape of a kettle, and the walls showed they had been subject- ed to great heat. There had been work on almost every hillside, showing in places a vast amount of labor in the hunt for the mines: A five-pound lump of pure native copper was found. Other copper specimens were dug up and these were pronounced by geologists, so report says, to be blossoms of silver ore. Among the romantic fictions that fired the peoples' imagination was that of a man who came to the county and for two years hunted for his silver mine. He insisted that when a little boy he had been in a shaft which was worked deep under ground; that he came up from St. Louis, and after a little while returned to St. Louis. He remem- bered he came with some Frenchmen, and rode a mule, and he thought from his recol-

lections he could go to the place, but after two years hunting he finally acknowledge his complete failure. Many think that some of the pioneers in their lonesome isolation from all fellowship with civilization, were easy victims to the wildest romance and story, and in the most inconsiderate way went to work digging holes here and there in the roughest parts of the country; and mines were traded for old horses, broken down wag- ons, and many of the caves and holes fell to the possession of counterfeiters, who largely supplied the people with pretty much all the currency of the realm. This money would for a long time pass current except at the government land office, and the people in their trades and sales would agree that the pay was to be in " land office money." That is when " land office money " was mentioned it simply meant it was to be good money.

In the central portion of the State lived an old reprobate who made the "Hull money." For years he plied his nefarious trade, and the " Hull money" was well known far and wide, and at one time there were people who honestly believed his money was better than the genuine. He was eventually sent to the penitentiary, and for years people hunted for his mine. They believed he dug out the pure silver and simply coined it, and his only crime was in making his money too pure; that he found the precious metal in such abund- ance that he could not afford to put any alloy in his coin, and much such worse than idle stories went the rounds among the people of that day. We give this as one of the forms of credulity that was peculiar to the early settlers of our country. And we record its history because it may now be called a thing of the past.

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CHAPTER XX.

DEBATING SOCIETIES - SOME IMMORTAL SPECIMENS -OLD TIME CHURCH SEVERITY-HOW MATTERS ARE MODIFIED AND BET- TERED-FOREFATHERS' DAY, TOASTS, POEMS, AND ADDRESSES- DISCUSSIONS ABOUT IT IN THE PAPERS-REVIEWING OF HISTORY -ETC., ETC.

My thoughts steal back to that sweet village still; Its flowers and peaceful shades before me rise; The play-place and the prospect from the hill, Its summer verdure and autumnal dyes; The present brings its storm; but while there lost, I shelter me iu the delightful past. -JOHN H. BRYANT.

T THE story of the average county in its days of pioneer farm-making, house- raising and tree-planting, alternated by coon- hunting and August elections, spread-eagle orators and " a little for the stomach's sake," is not, as rule, very largely connected with literature, mind growth, or intellectual cult- ure in any of the branches of education that come of real education in the walks of life of a literary, religious, social or political people. Generally there is too much of the grim re- alities for much time to be given to the arti- ficial or the polish that comes of the higher culture that attends upon ease and leisure. Yet, even fifty or more years ago in perhaps every then organized county in Illinois, there was the incipient debating society in about every schoolhouse in the land, and the com- parative beauties of "Art " or "Nature," or the "Penitentiary " or the "Hangman's rope," or "Pursuit or Possession ?" were fan- ning the latent fires of the young Ciceros and Demosthenes of the whole country. This intellectual fruit was then, as it is now, a winter's growth entirely, and flourished during the three months' winter school. The commanding intellectual figure usually was the teacher, who was working for $10 or $12 a month and "board round;" the

"round" was mostly where was the fattest table and the biggest houseful of fine healthy girls-the neighborhood belles. Many of the swains who radiated about this spot, no doubt, often envied the teacher, and in their hearts were ready to teach the school for nothing, that is, nothing more than the " board round " at this one particular house. These were the primitive literary clubs of the average county, commencing nearly always in the chief town of the county and from here extending to farthest outlying school district. As remarked above there was an average in these things among the counties in the early days of their existence, and in them the performances, the questions dis- cussed and the speeches were much alike. They were then and so are they now, excel- lent training schools for the the young as well as the full grown. In the rural districts, especially, their effects were the very best. They brought the people together, improved their social intercourse, and exchanged thoughts and ideas and tended to polish and improve those who were blessed with but few facilities to this end. They were sometimes amusing, often interesting, and always profit- able. What grown man is there in the land who cannot recall his blushing, first effort in the debating society? The writer well re- members the little old log schoolhouse, where, during the days of the week he was trying hard to get at the intricacies of "figgers," and on Friday evenings he at- tended his first debating society. The older men would be appointed, and then they would choose one at a time alternately until every one present would be elected debater, and they would speak in the order chosen. The head leaders would be the real lions of the evening, and as it tapered off in succes- sion toward the tail of the intellectual whip, the speeches would be correspondingly

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shortened about in the ratio that the embar- rassment increased. On one of these occa- sions, the writer being very young and among the very last chosen, in fact, was only named for forms sake at all, he commenced, and by a sudden inspiration as it were-the subject is forgotten, and it was evidently not germane to the incident, nor necessary to the story now-he broke forth: "Where was Henry Clay? At the head of the army with a big gun killing Indians; that's where he was. And what would have become of all this country if it had not been for James Francis Marion, as he sat eating roasted sweet pota - toes on a holler log, when the King of En- gland called to see him before breakfast, and he wanted something to wash the cob-webs out of his throat. No, sir! Think of all the people of this country being scalped, killed and carried into captivity by the Indians. Was not all these things worth fighting for? No, sir! Tippecanoe and Tyler, too, and so say I forever!" And the tyro sat down covered with glory. From that, on during the winter he was always the very first choice, and as he could discuss any subject in the world equally well, he was quite a hero. We presume the reader has heard of another immortal effort when a society was discussing the subject of "Art or Nature," and the orator rose upon his tip toes and exclaimed: "Mr. President, I say nature is the most beautifuller. What, Mr. President, is beautifuller than to see a nateral steamboat flying and puffin' up a nateral river, or a nateral canal at sea, when the houses rock and bob like nateral corks when you are gitting a big bite from a little sun fish." This settled it and "Nature " won the day, of course.

As early as 1836, before Bureau County was formed, some of the early settlers had taken steps to form a literary society. There

was not enough people in and about Prince- ton to call it a town yet, but there was enough people of that kind who aspired to the high- est walks in the mental fields, who set about the organization of a literary society. They met together and by a vote determined to in- corporate the "Putnam County Lyceum." And this was done. The names of the offi- cers chosen are a sufficient assurance of the force and ability there was in the society. These were: Cyrus Bryant, President; Justin H. Olds, Secretary and Librarian; R. T. Templeton, Treasurer; Arthur Bryant and Degrass Salisbury, Trustees. When Bureau County was created a meeting of this society was called, and on motion of Judge Temple- ton it was unanimously resolved to change the name from " Putnam County Lyceum" to that of "Bureau County Lyceum." This action of the Lyceum was duly spread upon the records of the County Court. Although this society was a creature of the early pio- neer days, the names on its rolls, while the list is much smaller than has been some of the more modern literary bodies in the county, yet it possessed men of as thorough culture and as great natural abilities as can now be gathered in the county or anywhere else for that matter. We award much of the spread of improvement that has always distinguished this county to the early work of the lyceum. Its influence could not but be felt, and to this day its effects are easily traced on every hand. The philosophical conclusion was long since reached that one great man can not exist alone in a county. He will cause at least one great man to rise up 'about him. If this basis of the idea is the true one, then we can see how one, two or three superior men fixing their lot in a community of pioneers will cast their good influences all over the county. Such a community may be started on that higher plane of civilized life, that is

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by others only reached after years of growth and slow self-preparation. It is true, then, that often it depends upon one or two fami- lies or individuals in the moral and intellect- ual bias that is to distinguish a young com- munity. In the formation of the first society in nearly every county in central and north- ern Illinois there was the first meeting of those particular representatives of the New England States and the Southern States of Virginia and Kentucky-the two blades of the scissors that when riveted together cnt out the patterns for the irrepressible conflict. New England blood dominated; no finer types of the two sections were ever presented than was the career of Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, nor can we just now re- call a finer illustration of the observation noted above of the influence that the devel- opments of a man of large talents will have upon his surroundings; or the assertion that one great man in a developing or new com. munity will inevitable produce another great man.

Stephen A. Douglas was a New England- er. As a politician he was a superb-a truly great man. It is perhaps too soon after the close of his active life to discuss the ques- tion of his statesmanship, or to inquire with- ont prejudice, as to whether he was a states- man at all or not. But the career of this Yankee schoolmaster in his adopted State is an eventful one, and presents, to him who can lay aside all prejudices or bias of judg- ment, a study of profound interest. The flood of eloquence or literature yet written or spoken about either Douglas or Lincoln is mere sentiment, exalted beyond the realms of just judgments, and wholly beyond the cold facts of criticism or history. The period of extravagant and affectionate panegyric will in its proper time subside, and the iconoclast will come; he will inflict no injury even if he

does topple over certain imaginary and false idols-or certain extravagant estimates, or fulsome and hysterical eulogies. The gentle hand of affection, the inspired brain, the eloquent tongue, and the gifted pen of ad- miration and love for the dear and illustrious dead, are to be ever respected. They are the beautiful and the good in our common nature -the play of our highest and holiest im- pulses. But the whole truth is not to be for- ever hid under a bushel-real history will in the end be written. The names of Douglas and Lincoln are not here brought forward to assert that their histories will in the end be revised and wholly re-written and the verdict of their cotemporaries reversed and remanded to the great jury of the people, but rather to enforce the idea of the strong and lasting influence of one superior mind acting upon its surroundings. This leads us into the fields of investigation where cause and effect acting and re-acting upon the human mind are to be considered-causes and effects so ob- truse and subtle in both their immediate and remote consequences as to surround the path of investigation with the greatest difficulties. It is only a part of the whole truth, that men are the architects of their own fortune. Cir- cumstances and surroundings are a part of the strongest factors in the make-up of the individual and a community. And a large community is as fixed in its environments as are the primeval rocks in the deep bosom of the earth.

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History of Bureau County, Illinois, Part 32

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