USA > Illinois > Clark County > History of Crawford and Clark counties, Illinois > Part 37
USA > Illinois > Crawford County > History of Crawford and Clark counties, Illinois > Part 37
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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
Senate, from the Wabash, Edwards and Wayne counties district, discharging the du- ties of the office with signal ability. He was elected a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention of 1848 from Wabash County. His ripe scholarship, and profound knowledge of the law brought him conspicuously forward, and many of the most important features of the Constitution were his handiwork. After the convention had completed its labors he was made chairman of a committee to prepare an address to the people of Illinois, to be sub- mitted with the Constitution. This was a most able and admirable paper and was wholly written by him.
Judge Constable was a devoted Old Line Whig, and acted strictly with that party until its dissolution in 1854, when he became a Democrat. He was the Whig candidate for Congress in 1852, in the 7th district. and was defeated by Hon. J. C. Allen. Many of the older citizens will yet contend that the can- vass made by Judge Constable in this election was by far the ablest and most brilliant ever made in the district. He was a Democratic elector in 1856, for the State at large. In June, 1861, he was elected judge of the 4th judicial circuit and this position he held until his death.
He was a pure, able and just judge, ex- amining all questions that came before him with conscientious impartiality, great prompt- ness and discrimination.
As a lawyer, judge and legislator, he was alike popular. In every position of life to which the people elevated him, he gained dis- tinguished honors. He was well fitted to adorn the highest places in the public trust, and had his life been spared to his people the public voice would have doubtless called him to yet higher places of trust.
His acquirements as a lawyer were varied and profound. He had drunk deeply of the fountains of English common law, and he kept pace with the march of judicial science, by a familiarity with the reported decisions of our own courts and those of England. He had thoroughly studied and mastered the philoso- phy and spirit as well as the dry letter of the law. As a speaker he was forcible, eloquent and correct. His language showed the man of thought and cultivated taste. His bearing was dignified, courteous and polite. He was an ornament to the bench and an honor to the bar.
At times Judge Constable has been the ob- ject of the most violent and relentless polit- ical persecution, and yet those who knew him well, know that the man scarcely ever lived, who less deserved it. Firm and conscientious in all his views, and bold and fearless in their enunciation, he had, at the same time, respect for those who honestly differed from him on even the most vital tenets of his faith. His personal experience, his education and his reason taught him the fallibility of human judgment and the liability of honest and wise men to disagree upon almost every question of political philosophy in a government con- stituted as ours is; and he claimed no charity for himself that he did not cordially extend to others.
In all the relations of life a sense of duty -stern and inexorable-accompanied him and characterized his every act, and disre- garding selfish and personal considerations, he obeyed its behests until the icy hand of death was laid upon his brow.
The biographic record of the other mem- bers of the bar, now living in the county, will be found in the department of this work, under the head of Biographical Sketches.
CHAPTER VIII .*
MARSHALL TOWNSHIP-INTRODUCTION-TYPOGRAPHY-AN ILLINOIS BARREN -- PRIMI- TIVE ATTRACTIONS-EARLY LAND ENTRIES-ORIGIN OF THE VILLAGE-PIO- NEER INDUSTRIES AND IMPROVEMENTS-EARLY SOCIETY, ETC., ETC.
" "Tis nature's plan The child should grow unto the man, The man grow wrinkled, old, and gray." -Longfellow.
ATARSHALL Township was known in the Congressional survey as town 11 north, range 12 west, and for nearly a score of years after the organization of the county, did not bear a more specific title. For some time it formed an insignificant part of the original and illy-defined townships of Washington and Du- bois and only secured recognition and promi- nence when it was named Marshall, and chosen as the site of the county seat of justice in 1832. The site of this township was origi- nally occupied by what was termed in the vernacular of the frontier, a " barren,"-de- batable ground where the wild fires and timber met on somewhat equal terms and either might claim the mastery. The land was high and pleasantly situated with gentle słope toward the South, giving rise in the western half to an important branch of Mill Creek which joins the main stream on the southern line of the township. Mill Creek enters the original boundary of the township on section nineteen and taking a south- easterly course passes out of the middle part of section thirty-threc. The highest point in the township and in the county, is about a mile south of the site of the village of Mar- shall, though the village generally seems to
share in the pre-eminence, the land sloping in all directions from it. Big Creek, an impor- tant stream in the early history of the county, forms the boundary on the northeast corner, but receives no affluent from this territory. In the vicinity of Mill and Big Creeks the timber early gained the ascendency and clothed the somewhat broken land adjoining these streams with a heavy forest growth, but elsewhere the township was generally covered with an almost impenetrable undergrowth of willow, hazel, and blackjack, while here and there, towering above the underbrush, an oc- casional shag-bark hickory flaunted its lofty top. This formed a paradise for wild or " Congress hogs " as they were called, narrow paths of which ramified this dense copse. Cattle early learned to find their way here to pick the young prairie grass that was found here and there in the open glades. During the first half of the year the unfortunate fron- tiersman, who found himself here by accident or in quest of stock, was obliged to wade in about six inches of water which covered the ground with disagreeable uniformity. Later in the year the surplus moisture drained and dried off, and here and there the sunny ex- posures bore considerable quantities of deli- cious wild strawberries that attracted the carly settlers from the older towns of York and Darwin, and game of all sorts recognizing here a natural retreat, made it an attractive resort for the hunter.
The location of the National Road through
* By J. H. Battle.
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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
this township in 1827, gave to this locality a partially redeeming feature, but at that time failed to excite mnch interest in it as an eli- gible site for land entries. If the county records may be relied upon, Reason Wiley did enter 160 aeres on the west half of section two, and in the following year Mecom Maine made another entry on the east half of the northeast quarter of the same section, but these entries were evidently made more with reference to the quality of land. in that vi- cinity and the milling facilities likely to be afforded by Big Creek than any belief in the future of the township. In the meanwhile, the county seat which had been fixed at Au- rora in Darwin Township was, a few years later, removed to Darwin village, and the foreshadow of coming events plainly indi- eated that it must be again removed nearer to the center of the county, the limits of which had been permanently defined. The importance of the National Road made it certain that some part of Marshall would probably be chosen as the site for the per- manent seat of justice, and the moneyed men of the older settlements were look- ing forward to discover the probable point with a view to speculation. This state of affairs culminated in 1835, and hundreds of acres were entered here in this year, princi- pally by those who were residents in Darwin and York. The more significant of these were the entries of William B. Archer and Gov. J. Duncan on sections 13 and 24. Others fol- lowed rapidly in the succeeding years so that if each entry had represented an actual settler the township would have been thiekly popu- lated by 1840, as the following list of entries to that date wiil show. In 1827, entry was made on section 2, by Reason Wiley; on the same section in 1828, by Mecom Maine; in 1831, by Thos. Carey on section 31; in 1832, by Thos. Wilson on section 2; and in the same year on section 32, by John Craig. In
1835, the following entries appear: Jno. B. Stockwell and Orlando B. Fieklin on section 31, Wm. P. Twilley on section 28, John R ggs and Cornelius Lamb on section 25, Milton Lake, Steven Archer, and Dr. Wm. Tutt on section 24, J. Dunean and W. B. Archer, and David A. Pritchard on section 13. In 1836, entry was made by Wm. C. Blundell, Abram Washburn, Abel English and Jonathan Jones on section 1; by Woodford Dulaney and W. B. Areher on seetion 13; by Oliver Davis on section 19; by Albert B. Kitchell on section 21; by William Sullivan et al. on section 22; by Jacob and Justin Harlan on section 23; by Jno. Bartlett on section 25; by John Hol- lenbeck on section 27; by George B. Rich- ardson, Jno. Houston and Wickliffe Kitehell on section 28; by Thos. Weathers and Jno. MeManus on section 29; by A. Davis and Abraham Lewis on section 30; by P. and Geo. Thatcher on section 31; by Wm. Craig on seetion 32; by Levi Stark on section 33; by Win. Bartlett and Wm. MeKean on see- tion 36. In 1837, on section 1, entry was inade by Henry Cole, Michael Ripple, Samuel Galbreath and Jno. Beiers; on section 2, by Zachariah Wood; on section 9, by Jas. B. Anderson; on section 13, by Washington Cole and Hugh Malone; on section 14, by S. D. Handy; on section 15, by Wm. Ketchum; on section 17, by Robert Mitchel; on section 19, by Hayward Davis; on section 22, by Jno. Thompson; on section 24, by Richard Grace; on section 28, by E. L. Janney; on section 30, by J. C. Hillebert, and on section 34, by Vincent Handy. In 1838, entry was made on section 2, by Robert Ashmore; on section 7, by Richard Airey; on section 9, by Stephen Lee; on section 12, by Jas. MeKay and O. H. P. Miller; on section 13, by Michael Meeker; on section 17, by Cor- nelius Sullivan; on section 20, by Jno. Combs and Jno. B. Mitchel; ou section 21, by Jas. L. Clark; on section 22, by Darius Phillips,
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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
Fred Quick and Joel Vansant; on section 23, by Caleb Philips; on section 25, by Wm. Harbert; on section 29, by Elza Neal; on section 30, by Wm. Fanbush; on section 31, by Zach. Henry; and on section 33, by Wesley and Enoch Lee, and Matthew Cleave- land. In 1839, on section 9, entry was made by William King; on section 14, by Relly Madison; on section 18, by Richard Clapp; on section 19, by Peter Weaver; on section 21, by Leonard Umbarger and Philip Smith; on section 22, by Lewis Huff; on section 30, by Christian Orendorff, Jno. A. and Peter Fredenberg; on section 31, by Henry Jeffers; on section 32, by Andrew Fleming, Calvin Bennett and George White; on section 33, by Archibald Irwin; and on section 34, by Jno. W. Bailor and Isaac W. Martin.
This list represents some ninety-five fami- lies, but a large number of them were non- residents of this county, and a still larger number either never lived in the township or did not come here until some time later than the date of these entries, and at the begin- ning of 1840 it is doubtful if there were more than thirty families living within the present limits of Marshall Township.
The first actual settlement was probably made in February, 1830, by W'm. George. But little is known of him. He was first found on the eastern limit of the present village, near the line of the National Road. He never entered land, but simply "squatted" on the first available spot, with no definite intention, but simply to see what would turn up. He had a considerable family which he made comfortable as circumstances would allow in a three-sided log structure, covered and banked about with the coarse prairie hay which he had cut for the purpose. On the open side of his structure was built a large fire, which served to keep off the damp, chilly air, and facilitate such "culinary at- tempts as the support of the family made
necessary. He did not stay here long. At- tracted by the brighter prospects on Big Creek, the family soon moved there, and a little later went to Texas. In May, of 18 0, Abram Washburn came to near the western limit of the site of the present village. He was a native of Ohio, and came by way of the river to Shawneetown; from this point he went into the country near the town and took up some land, where he lived for some nine years. About 1830, hoping to get employ- ment on the National Road, and at the same time secure a more healthful place to live, he came to this locality. He came in the usual covered wagon, and came to a halt near the site of Mckean's residence west of the vil- lage. Pitching out such things as would bear exposure to the weather, he prepared a bed for the older children on the ground under the wagon, while the parents and the younger ones occupied the shelter of the vehicle. A log cabin was soon put up, where the parents and six children found a comfortable home. Washburn obtained work upon the National Road, and subsequently found it convenient to change his residence to the east side of the site of the present village. While engaged on the public works he had neither time nor inclination to make any permanent improve- ments. A garden was cultivated for the fam- ily's supply of vegetables, but the land proved so poor that but little could be pro- duced, and resort was had to the rotted turf which had been thrown off the line of the public road, as fertilizer. Washburn subse- quently entered land on section 1, on which he moved and lived until his death.
A very early settler, and of whom but little is known, was Mecom Maine. He en- tered land on section 2, in Marshall Town- ship, as early as 1828. He came from New York, and was probably in the county about the time he made his entry of land, but being a quiet man, and occupied with the cares of
2.36
IHISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
a frontier farm, he left but little impress upon the community which gathered there He stayed here but a short time, and left for Texas before others of his family came to this locality, although he was entrusted to select lands for them.
Thomas Wilson was another early settler in this vicinity. He was an Irishman, and made a characteristic settlement in the northern part of the township, which was popularly known as Whiskeyville. He put up one of the earliest saw-mills on the fork of Big Creek, where, in a little log structure, he did business when the state of the water per- mitted. He remained about here but a few years when he went to Florida. In 1832 John Craig settled on section 32, and soon after put up a saw-mill on Mill Creek, which furnished some material to the contractors on the National Road. In this year, also, Wm. C. Blundell came here. He was a preacher in the Methodist church, and made several improvements about the country, but sold one after the other, moving about from place to place. Ile entered land on section 1 in 1836, but did not move onto the place. He spent most of his residence in the county within the limits of Wabash Township, preaching on the circuit which was assigned him. In 1836, Abel English, a native of New Jersey, came to Marshall, and entered land on section 1. In the following year, in company with a man by the name of Hick- man, who came with or soon after him, from New Jersey, be put up a combined saw and grist mill.
The first settlement on the present site of the village of Marshall was made in 1836. In January of this year the Legislature passed an act to remove the county seat from Darwin to some point on the National Road. The growing demand was that it should be located near the center of the population which would eventually fill the county, and this act of the
Legislature had been anticipated by the people for several years. But which should be the favored site was a question which aroused the liveliest competition among the friends of the various eligible points. In October, 1831, R. A. Ferguson had platted the village of Livingstone in the western part of what is now Wabash Township, on the National Road, and lots in this village, a little later, sold at fabulous prices. In September, 1833, Thomas Carey laid off the little village of Careyford on the east half of the northeast quarter of section 31, and on the west half of the north- west quarter of section 32, in town 11 north, range 12 west. This plat exhibits simply a row of lots on either side of the Cumberland Road with Mill Creek dividing it in nearly equal parts. Its founder was a native of New York and came early to Danville in this State, with an ox team. He was really a res- ident of Edgar County but attracted by the opportunity for speculation he came to this locality, and entered land in 1831. He had a contract on the road, part of the time in part- nership with James Whitlock, and built on the site of his village a large hotel for the accommodation of his hands and such travel- ing guests as found it convenient to use it. In November, 1836, Orlando B. Ficklin, Demas Ward and Jonathan N. Rathbone laid off the village of Auburn, about a mile west of Careyford. This was a more ambitious venture than the latter village, and was an open competitor for the prize to be awarded by the Legislative Commission. With the exception of Rathbone, the proprietors were non-residents of the county and entered into the matter as a speculation. Ficklin was a man of ability and influence, and entered into the contest with some assurance of success. A square in the center of the plat was reserved for the erection of county buildings, though it was wisely provided that in the event of the county seat being placed elsewhere, this
N. L. Draper.
2.19
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
square should be devoted to the use of the public as a pirk or common. In October, 1835, Marshall was platted on parts of sections 13 and 21 in town 11 north, range 12 west, by J. Duncan and W. B. Archer. The ground selected was high and covered by a forest growth which offered the least obstacles to making it habitable, but it had the disadvan- tage, owing to the character of the soil, of be- ing wet and as forbidding in appearance as its most determined opponents could wish. It was situated considerably east of the geo- graphical center of the county as well, but the contest was likely to be decided more by the strength of the battalions than the just- ness of the cause and these matters proved of minor consideration. A bill was passed by the Legislature in January, 1836, to change the county seat from Darwin to some point on the National Road nearer the center of the county, and appointed Gen. W'm. F. Thornton, Wm. Prentiss, and John Hendrix of Shelby County, and Charles Emerson aud Wm. Red- diek of Macon County, as commissioners to fix upon the site. But four of the commissioners appeared upon the ground, and these were divided evenly in their choice between Mar- shall and Auburn. The matter was again re- ferred to the Legislature, and an act submit- ting the whole question to the people was passed. By this aet it was provided that the people of the county should vote on the ques- tion of moving the county seat and if this was carried in the affirmative, they should again vote upon the question of the place. The two factions uniting upon the first question hal no difficulty in out-voting the Darwin adherents, but upon the second question the contest was not so uneven. The adherents of Auburn had in the meanwhile been reinforced by J. C. Ilillebert, a man of considerable weath living in York, who secured an impor- tant share in the plat and lands lying near it.
He was, however, of a cautious disposition and not so generous in the expen liture of money as the case seemed to demand. Col. Archer, on the other hand, was a man of con- siderable wealth, a member of the Legislature, and possessed of large influence in the com- munity in which he lived. He was of Irish extraction, born in Scott County, Kentucky, from whence he had gone with his father to Ohio, and with him, in 1817, came to Darwin. Ile early interested Joseph Duncan, who was Governor of the State in 1836, in his scheme, and bent all his influence and energies in promoting the success of this venture. After płatting the town he secured a valuable be- ginning of the new community, in the settle- ment of John Birtlett and James Whitlock. The latter was especially serviceable in the spirited " electioneering " which preceded the final vote in 1837. Social entertainments were a part of the means employed to captivate the voters, and Whitlock " kept open house " in the new brick building into which he had just then moved. Here on Saturday night was held a weekly soiree to which the invitations were very generally extended. A piano was a part of Mr. Whitlock's furniture, a very rare sight in this country at that time, and the ladies of the family devoted themselves to the entertainment of their guests. It is said that the ladies' influence was no mean factor in the contest, and the Auburn adherents were wont to say that some of their opponents thought Whitlock's parlor was a type of heaven. At Careyford there was a dance continuing through three days, it is said, but it availed nothing. The election was held in July or August of 1837, and decided in favor of Marshall by a majority of eighty-one votes. This decision assured the eventual success of Archer's venture though it still required a good deal of attention to make it profitable as there was no small expense involved in
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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
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the struggle beside the payment of five thou- sind dollars, which was one of the conditions of the removal.
Early in 1836, Col. Areher had induced his brother-in-law, John Bartlett to come to Mar- shall, and put up and conduct a hotel. Bart- lett was a native of New York and had come to Walnut prairie in 1812, but tired of coun- try life had determined to go to Chicago and cast in his fortunes with that growing village. He had gone so far in his prepara- tions as to rent a house there, when Archer took him in hand and demonstrated the supe- rior advantages of Marshall. At all events, Bartlett came here in April of 1836, and erected a double log-house on the east end of the lot on which the residence of Mrs. Green- ough now stands. The building was formed of hickory logs, which being cut at the right time peeled off their bark giving the structure a unique and attractive appearance. It fronted on Market street, and had three rooms, each opening by a door upon a porch which ran the whole length of the building. At this time the national road was in process of con- struction through the county. Through the village it had been graded and finished, but in the near vicinity large forces of workinen were employed, and these men, with the through travel which began to be a prominent factor in the western communities, brought considerable revenue to this wayside inn.
The corps of Government engineers en- gaged on the road made this point their head-quarters, and were the guests of the ho- tel for upward of three years, while the in- crease of transient business made it soon nee- essary to erect a long building on the west side of the lot for their accommodation. The second building erected in the new village was a large frame stable, 42 by 113 feet, which was placed on the corner of Market and Franklin streets, where Archer Bartlett's lum- ber-yard now is; and the capacity of this
spacious building was frequently taxed to its utmost to afford accommodations for the horses of the hotel guests. Here Mr. Bart ett did a thriving business for years, the morning bills amounting from fifteen to fifty, and not un- frequently reaching one hundred dollars in amount. A little later in this vear a second and important addition was made to the com- munity started here, in the family of Jas. Whitlock. He was a native of Richmond, Va., and came to Jonesboro, in this State, about 1825. After remaining a year or two at this place he removed to Vandalia, then the site of the State capital. Here his ability obtained recognition and he was soon elected to the Legislature where, after serving two or three terms, he was appointed as registrar of the first land-office opened in Chicago. He performed the duties of this office but a short time, however, when his eyes failed him, and attracted in some way by the growing prospects of Marshall, he bought a stock of dry-goods and came at onee to the new vil- lage. The site was certainly not the most attractive for business enterprises of this sort. The most of the large trees had been cut off the plat, but the streets and lots, which were marked by the surveyor's stakes, were only to be discovered by a careful search among the luxuriant under-brush. The only build- ings were the deserted eabin of Washburn, west of the village site, the cabin ou the east of the town, which Washburn then occupied, and the hotel buildings. But unstinted hos- pitality was the virtue of the age, and Bart- lett did not hesitate to take in even a dry- goods store. One of the rooms of the hotel was at once fitted up for the purposes of a store, and here Whitlock opened up his stock. In the following year he put up a one-story brick building, which is still stand- ing on the corner of Franklin and Cumber- land streets, and to this he transferred his family and business.
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