History of Crawford and Clark counties, Illinois, Part 44

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 826

USA > Illinois > Clark County > History of Crawford and Clark counties, Illinois > Part 44
USA > Illinois > Crawford County > History of Crawford and Clark counties, Illinois > Part 44

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The schools date from 1818. In this year an old log cabin on the Fitch farm, which had been used as a dwelling, was fitted up for school purposes. The windows were covered

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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.

with paper saturated with coon's oil, the desk and benches made of smoothed puncheon, and the floor made of split logs. Here Peleg Sanford bore the rule and proved a good teacher. Among his scholars were Samuel, William, Ira, Reuben and Polly Prevo, Will- iam Berkley, John Moore, - Richardson, Lewis Pease, Loyal Towsley, Lucy and Anna Moore. In 1821, another school was taught in the shed part of the Crocker house, by J. Niles. Another school was taught near the Handy settlement, in the deserted cabin of a squatter, by James Jewell. It was the cus- tom of the scholars to occasionally lock out the teacher to make him "treat." Jewell, however, was proof against all minor devices, and the older attendants of the school deter- mined to use more persuasive means. They seized him and carried him bound to the river, and were breaking the ice to "duck " him, when he yielded and promised to treat the whole school on a certain day. It was, of course, known throughout the neighborhood, and on the appointed day not only the whole school but the whole grown population of the neighborhood gathered and partook of the whisky and maple sugar provided, some of the older ones finding it difficult to walk steadily on their return home. Morrison was the name of an early teacher, who also con- ducted occasional singing schools. Robert F. Taylor was among the earliest teachers of this township. He came to the county in 1818, and was a man of fine education. He

first worked by the month for John Handy, and afterward taught school on Union Prairie as early as 1825. He taught, in 1829, the first public school, in a frame building on the Mc- Gath farm in section 28, where the building still stands. Taylor was rather severe in his discipline, and believed in saving the child so far as a liberal use of the rod was con- cerned. Soon after 1830, a brick school house was erected in the village of York This was the first of its kind in the county.

York Lodge, No. 313, Free and Accepted Masons, finds its home in the village. Its charter was granted October 5, 1859, to Chas. Johnston, J. S. Cox, W. H. C. Coleman, Sam- uel Douglity, Chas. Gorham, L. D. McClure, Enoch Meeker, J. A. Parker, R. Falley and John Ketchum, as charter members. The lodge has had a prosperous experience; erected a hall in 1867 at a cost of $2,200, and now numbers thirty-two members.

York Star Lodge, No. 419, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was chartered in Octo- ber, 18:0, to William Evans, W. J. Martin, J. H. Daniels, H. S. Lee, and John W. Har- ris, as charter members. In 1829 the lodge bought a hall of Elisha Jackson in the Lind- ley Building. They have a membership of twenty.

The Grand Army of the Republic have a post here. It started with eleven members, which has since increased. Its meetings are held in the Odd Fellows' hall.

CHAPTER XI .*

DARWIN TOWNSHIP-DESCRIPTION AND TOPOGRAPHY-WALNUT PRAIRIE-FIRST STEP TOWARD CIVILIZATION-WORK AND PLAY IN A NEW COUNTRY- STERLIN -AURORA AND DARWIN-COUNTY SEATS-RELIGIOUS, EDUCA- TIONAL, ETC.

" Shall wholly do away, *

The marks of that which once hath been." -- Coleridge.

D ARWIN Township is the outgrowth of the second settlement in Clark County, though scarcely later than that of York. The Wabash River was then the great thorough- fare of this country, and the early immigrants, who appear to have learned little from the his- tory of the older settlements of the East, cherished the idea that the subsequent de- velopment of the country would leave the prominence of the river unchanged. It seems to have been expected that consider- able towns would grow up along its margin while the interior would never be settled, or at least, not until the eivilizing influence of the towns should penetrate the wilder- ness. The result was that the inflow of pop- ulation followed up the course of the river until land was found free for pre-emption, and there settled to grow up with the eoun- try. Darwin was well situated to attract early immigration. The river bank was cov- ered by a heavy growth of timber, and of suf- ficient height to insure against the rise of the river in times of freshet. The land gently rising as it receded, presented for the most part an unbroken line of fine timber, while a number of brisk streams converging near the central point of the river line, marked the site of the predestined eity. At this

point the first settlement of the township was made, and a village sprang up that would have reached the realization of the settler's fondest hopes, had they been founded on cor- reet premises. But the railroad and all the vast development of nineteenth century civilization touched this land, and the vain hopes of the pioneer vanished like the mi- rage of the plains.

The limits of the territory included in the present township of Darwin coincide with the lines of the congressional survey save on the east side, where the Wabash makes a deep and irregular curve to the westward, cutting off about eight sections of what would otherwise be a full township. Like other townships in the county. in the early history it passed under another name and included a much larger area, but was subsequently reduced to its present outline and named from the village that gave it prestige. Its surface is generally rolling, somewhat bro ,en, however, along the streams and in the northeast, and subsiding into a level prairie in the southeast corner. The general inclination and drain- age as marked by its streams, is toward the elbow of the river above the site of Darwin viilage, a little rise at this point forcing the streams to find outlets into the Wabash above the village. Big Creek, the largest stream, simply crosses seetion ? and finds an out- let by a nearly direet southern course. Sugar and Patrick's Creeks, rise in the north- western corner and empty into the Wabash on

* By J. H. Battle.

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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.

section 15; and Bohn Creek which drains the southwest corner, flows northeastly and enters the same bend of the river on sec- tion 22. Walnut Prairie covers about four sections and is defined by Bohn Creek, the site of Darwin, and the first " bench " above the river bottoms, and extends south- ward into York Township where it is sepa- rated from Union Prairie by a narrow strip of timber. The river bottoms of Darwin were distinguished from those in York by a heavy growth of poplar and walnut, the latter fringing the prairie here and giving it the distinctive title of Walnut Prairie. On the higher ground of the township the principal timber was hard maple, beech, linn, oak and hickory. Nearer the river, oak and hick- ory predominated, a considerable portion of the latter being small white hickory which fur- nished an important article of commerce. The soil of the woodland is a light yellow clay which is found particularly adapted to wheat growing. The bottoms are a rich al- luvial soil which is devoted to corn and con- tinually cropped without signs of exhaustion. The prairie is a sandy loam and has the pecul- iarity of never being excessively wet. The first settlers, it is said, found no difficulty in traveling across it at any season of the year, the turf not easily cutting up even when ex- cessively traveled upon by wagons. The com- munity have indulged in very little diversity of farm industry. The early demands of the pioneer settlement turned an unusual amount of attention to sheep raising, but this charac- teristic has long since passed away and the raising of corn and wheat with enough stock to supply the demands of the farm, is the oc- cupation of the Darwin community.

The early settlement of Darwin was hin- dered by its very attractions. In 1816, the lands first came into market for sale, and the popular notion in regard to this country being entertained by speculators, a large part

of the more eligible land was promptly taken up by these capitalists and for years held at such exorbitant figures as to exclude emi- gration. Among these were McCall and Pat- terson, C. and F. Buttet, Samuel Chambers and others. Others among the actual settlers, took advantage of the credit offered by the Government and put all the money they could raise into the first payment on lands, expecting to sell a part of their lands to sub- sequent settlers; but there was plenty of land to be got cheaper and there was no sale for it on such terms. The result was that the time for the second payment came around, the land had not earned enough to any more than sup- port the settlers, a panic ensued and good land could not be disposed of for seventy-five cents per acre. The Government extended the time of payment for eight years but this in many cases did not save the property to the sett.er. The speculators fared no better; and after holding for several years, the interest and taxes each year adding to the burden, the speculators brought their lands to the auction block where they were sold below government prices. Great losses were sustained in this, and the rapid growth of the community greatly retarded. In 1816, however, the settlement got a beginning in the family of John McClure. He was of Irish descent, though born in Kentucky, and made his way through the wilderness with wagons. For a considerable part of the way there was no trail, and he was forced to chop his road out before him, guided only by the surveyor's blazes. He settled on the west half of section 27, and entered this with the east half of the northeast quarter of the same section. His cabin was built on what is now the site of Darwin village. After erecting a cabin his first care was to dig a well which was made permanent by inserting a large hollow syca- more log.

The public lands coming on the market for

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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.

the first time in 1816, attracted attention to this locality, and quite a number succeeded in securing lands. Among these was A. Sni- der, a native of Pennsylvania. He was a shrewd German, pretty well advanced in age, and of a somewhat penurions disposi- tion. He secured 126 acres where Dr. Mitch- ell now lives, but subsequently sold it to Armstrong and removed to Hutsonville. Charles Neely came about the same time; settled on section 28, on the west side of Walnut Prairie, where the Indians had had a village and a cornfield. He was made the first probate judge of the new county, when he rented his farm to John Davidson and moved to Darwin Village. Another family that came this year was that of John Essarey. He was a native of Kentucky and made his way here through the wilderness in wagons, cut- ting his road much of the way. In the same year came Jesse Ezra. He settled near the village of Darwin, built one of the first houses erected in the village, and for several years kept a boarding house. Ile was a man of some means, and subsequently went to what is now Wabash Township and improved a fine farm.

An early settler in 1817 was Lewis Bohn. He was a native of Lancaster County, Penn- sylvania, and came here across the country in wagons. The route from the East was not then defined by any trail beyond the older settlements in what is now the State of Indiana. For a number of weeks he toiled through the unbroken wilderness, following the uncertain guide of the surveyors' marks and aiming only to reach the " Wabash coun- try." After a tedious experience of camp- ing alone with his family by night, and trav- eling almost unguided by day, he reached the Darwin settlement. He was well educated in his native tongue, and became a wealthy and prominent member of the community, living for years on the farm he entered west

of the village of Darwin. The Leonard brothers were early emigrants from New York. They settled on the eastern side of the township, near the site of Aurora. Ilere they built a double log house and small im- provements, which they subsequently sold to Dr. Patrick and returned to New York. In 1818, Zacheus IIassell came from Tennes- see and settled on land adjoining the Darwin plat on the south. He was a man of consid- erable enterprise, brought in a good deal of stock and cleared up a fine farm. In addi- tion to these permanent improvements, he found time to gain a reputation as a great hunter, and especially for his success in hunt- ing bees. In 1822 he sold his farm to Zach- ariah Linton and moved to Wabash Town- ship, subsequently going to Paris and thence to Texas. Linton was a native of Ohio, and soon after purchasing the Hassell farm, en- gaged in boating on the river. An early trip was to New Orleans with a flat boat load of wood. Here he got into an altercation in regard to selling his load, and in a moment of passion struck a man a fatal blow with a stick of wood. The authorities arrested, summarily tried him and hung him, with short shrift, in a few days. His son, Hatha- way, continued on the farm, became a fine scholar and prominent in the community and county; was elected county treasurer and served several terms.

Samuel Yocum, a native of Kentucky, was a settler of 1821. He was a brother-in-law of Nathaniel McClure and settled in the vil- lage of Darwin, but died soon after he came. Jacob Harlan was another accession of this year. He was a native of Warren County, Ohio, and an old acquaintance of the Archer family. Clark County had in the meanwhile been formed and Wm. B. Archer elected clerk of the county. The business was small and Archer had so much else to do, that he urged Harlan to come and take the office-

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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.

work and its emoluments. Harlan was a young unmarried man, and accepting this invitation, became a member of the new community. He was subsequently appointed post master, clerk of the county commission- ers' court, recorder, judge of probate and no- tary public, and held these several offices at the same time. He subsequently married a daughter of John Chenoweth and erected a hewed-log house, which is still standing and used as a residence. Mr. Chenoweth was a man of considerable wealth, and the official honors of Harlan seemed to call for a more than ordinary dwelling, and this build- ing may be taken for a specimen of an aris- tocratie residence of that time. It was a story and a half high, had two rooms and a ladder leading to the attic. The huge fire- place was at one end with one of the first brick chimneys on the outside, and stood on the corner of Water and ---- streets. Mr. Harlan was highly esteemed in the new com- munity and held his offices until his death in 1836.

Nathaniel MeClure came to Darwin from Kentucky in 1819. He started with his fam- ily in wagons from Mercer County with the intention of settling in LaFayette, Indiana, but pleased with the appearance of the settle- ment here, he stopped with the intention of raising one crop and then continuing his journey. In the fall of this year however, Mr. MeClure died, the first death in the commu- nity if not in the county, and the family re- mained here permanently. William Dixon was an early settler also, a native of Ken- tucky and an illiterate man. He was, how- ever, a shrewd man of business, and acquired the name of William X. Dixon because of his inability to sign his name. In 1822, James P. Jones came to the Darwin settlement and took a prominent place in the community. He was a native of New York, had emigrated to Vigo County, Indiana, and thence to New

Orleans. In the latter place he engaged ex- tensively in the lumber trade; but dissatisfied with the city, he came up the river to Dar- win, of which he learned through the traders from that point. He bought the Essarey property in Darwin and kept hotel for a time. In 1824, he was electedl sheriff, served until 1831, and subsequently moved to Coles County.

Though begun at nearly the same time, there were radical differences between the settlements of York and Darwin. They were rivals from the very start, though the compe- tition was not well defined until after the for- mation of the county. Up to that date the former settlement was a prominent contest- ant with Palestine for the honors of the coun- ty seat, but after the formation of Clark, while yielding all pretensions to such honors on account of its geographical situation, it did not abate one tittle of its pretensions to com- mercial superiority. In this, its cla ms seem securely founded. York was established by a class of active, wealthy business men who early gave the community a prestige which is a long stride toward success. Darwin, on the other hand, had hardly ground to stand upon. The land was no sooner open to purchasers, than speculators, who had imbibed the popu- lar notion as to the future of the Wabash country, began to out-bid actual settlers at the land auctions. The result was that the growth of the settlement was slow and dis- torted. The energies of the whole communi- ty were concentrated upon the village and its development seemed at first to begin at the top and go downward. The fixing of the county seat at this point did little for its early growth as there was but little business of a public nature and from the nature of the cir- cumstances could not bring its prime advan- tage -- the attraction of business -- to bear upon the place. Additions to the settlement at Darwin, were slowly made, however, spec-

J.g. Golden In.D

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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.

ulators forced to yield their grasp upon the land, allowed room for expansion, and with the advantages of a good river landing, and freed from any powerful rival distributing point for the country to the northwest and east it rapidly excelled its early rival. The earliest comers were those whose taste and experience fitted them best for farming, and it was not until about 1824, that an active business class of people came in and turned the advantages of the location to a valuable account. Succeeding the lower settlement with an interval of scarcely two years, Dar- win was for the moment almost on the fron- tier. The native " lords of the land " had not entirely surrendered their hold upon the country. The last lingering embers of the war of 1812 had died out, and the recognized home of the Indian had been removed west of the Mississippi, but large numbers of the different tribes, loth to give up their hunting grounds to the irrevocable possession of the white, still made their annual visits to the banks of the Wabash. Hunting, fishing, and making sugar in the season, they loitered about during the milder part of the year, beg- ging, bartering and thieving in a petty way until winter when they left for their stores of corn near their villages. While here the pio- neers were on the best of terms, the boys of both people playing together, and the okler ones engaging in feats of strength and marks- manship. Traders found them profitable customers with whom whisky was not only a " legal tender." but a highly prized commod- ity in comparison with which all other values rapidly shrank. Notwithstanding this free use of " fire water " the Indians seem to have maintained the most amicable relations with the settlers until the events of 1832 caused a cessation of their visits. The outbreak of hostilities in 1832, though menacing a distant point, did not fail to have a disturbing influ- ence upon the settlement of Darwin. There

was quite a strong minority that urged the advisability of the river settlements doing something to guard against a sudden incur- sion of these merciless foes of the whites, but nothing was done in this direction save the formation of a company under the command of John Stockwall, which, however, saw no part of the military activities pertaining to this outbreak of savage hostilities.

It was upward of ten years before the set- tlement of Darwin began to depend upon its own resources for supplies. During the earlier years, Fort Harrison on the upper Wabash and Vincennes below, were the points to which the settlers made long, tedious journeys for provisions and mail. These journeys required three days if there was no delay in securing prompt service, but as that was almost unprecedented good fortune, the average grist cost much nearer a week than three days. Care was usually taken that a season's supplies should be provided before the winter set in, but it was no uncommon thing to find the best judgment thwarted by unforeseen circumstances when even the in- genuity of the pioneer was taxed to supply the meagre fare of the frontier table. Corn was the staple article in the early settler's bill of fare. Lye hominy was easily prepared, but this could not suffice for even the moderate demands of a pioneer, and various devices were resorted to, to secure a substitute for mneal. Perforated tin bent upon a board served as a grater on which the corn was torn sufficiently to pieces to make a sort of mush and dodger. Huge mortars, made by hollow- ing out a firm stump or large block, were used in connection with a large wooden pestle for pounding corn fine enough for food. The coarser part was served up in hominy, while the finer part did very good service as a coarse meal in the form of dodgers. The early mills of the lower settlement did much to re- lieve this embarrassment, and there were few

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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.

who could not either by themselves or through neighbors, get meal and later, flour for the purposes of the cabin. The lack of streams of sufficient capacity and stability, but far more effectively the lack of available mill-sites in the hands of actual settlers, prevented the erection of those pioneers of manufacturing interests, and no mills were erected until about 1830, and then in the vicinity of the village of Darwin.

Even with no mills in the close vicinity of the settlement, the people were not obliged to live on a corn diet. The second crop, and often the first, was wheat, and flour was not a rare thing by any means, after the first few years. Every settler brought in more or less stock which his earlier experience had taught him to be necessary to his comfort, and but- ter and milk, with the wild fruits and honey, left little to be desired as accessories to a pal- atable meal. Besides, cows, oxen and horses, the Darwin settlement was marked for the number of sheep brought in early. It was hardly to be expected that they should escape the general fate of such defenseless animals in a new country, but by dint of great care and fresh importations the stock was main- tained. The wolves were especially trouble- some, attacking beside sheep, young pigs and calves and occasionally a cow. During the daytime these animals kept in the timber and seldom molested even sheep. At night, how- ever, they were abroad and sheep were not safe, even in the village, unless protected by a high stake and ridered fence too high for the animals to jump over. Even persons were not altogether safe from the large tim- ber wolf that was the prevailing species here, and no one thought it prudent to go out at night without a torch, which served the double purpose of light and a means of defense.

The early members of this community were not especially well-to-do. Most of them

brought sufficient capital only to improve a farm in a country where but little more than energy and frugality were required, and these were, fortunately, sufficient to found a home liere. After the very first arrivals, immigrants found open doors, and willing hands to assist in raising a cabin. A single day sufliced for the united neighborhood to erect the rude structure, build a fire-place and chimney and saw out the logs for doorway and windows. Into houses in this condition the new arrivals were generally glad to remove, for free as the hospitality of the pioneer may have been, it had no power to increase the capacity of the cabin, and two families packed a little dwell- ing, designed for one, to overflowing. Blank- ets supplied the place of windows and doors, and furs, skins and blankets spread on brush or the puncheon floor supplied the beds. Furniture of all sorts was improvised out of such boxes and barrels as were brought into the country containing household goods, or manufactured from the timber with the ax and drawshare. Each man was the architect of his own fortune, and while the whole neighborhood lent willing assistance in case of special need, each one was too busy with his own affairs to ply any trade for general hire. There was scarcely any medium of ex- change by which such interchange of labor could be effected on any extended scale. Corn and wheat were ground, wool carded, and cotton ginned on a system of tolls; schools a little later were maintained by the subscription of pork, corn or wheat, and shoes were sometimes made by men who lacked the small means to start a farm, in the same way, but the interchange of labor was mainly ef- fected by " swapping work." The cabin once erected, the first care was to provide for a crop. On the prairie land, this preparatory work consisted of " breaking " and allowing the land to lie fallow until spring if possible, but generally a crop was put in at once, the

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History of Crawford and Clark counties, Illinois, Part 44

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 826

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 826