USA > Illinois > De Witt County > History of De Witt county, Illinois. With illustrations descriptive of the scenery, and biographical sketches of some of the prominent men and pioneers > Part 13
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FIRST JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.
Obadiab looper, John llughes, Ilenry Barns, Marion precinct.
Thomas N. Glenn, Long Point precinct.
Abraham Marquiso, Sangamon precinct.
Malon S. Hoblett, Peter Crum, Long Point Precinct.
John Smith, Charles H. Simonson, Clinton precinct.
John Montgomery, Jeremiah P. Donham, Orrin Wakefield, Marion precinct.
David Montgomery, Waynesville precinct.
Jesse McPherson, Robert H. Pool, Mt. Pleasant precinct.
William Anderson was also an acting justice of the peace. His bond however is not on file, and he seems to have been a justice for MeLean county.
FIRST CONSTABLES.
William Gadberry, Isaiah S. Davenport, Alexander Scott, James M. Cantrall, Hiram Crum, John P'ratt, Josiah Harp, Gabriel Bennett, Samuel Bevans, Henry Cundiff, Nathan Brittain, Wil- liam Morain, Lucas Graves, Andrew Scott, Thomas Blalalek (?).
Having mentioned the names of those officers of the peace, it is but proper to recite some of their early acts, to wit :
Isaac MI. Cudy was fined six dollars for contempt of court by Esquire Anderson on the 12th of September, 1839. Isaac paid his fine. Probably the first case of contempt of court in the State was committed by Joseph Mairie, a Frenchman, in autumn 1794. The justice, Jean Dumoulin, at Cahokia, pro- nounced the fine, when Joseph extended a very insulting invita- tion to Dumonlin. The latter jumped upon Monsieur "and admitted a merciless " thrashing. Dumoulin was indicted for
assault and battery, but acquited. Monsieur Marrie, who had prosecuted Dumonlin in the name of the State, bad to pay the court costs besides.
Hiram Bernard, assault and battery, ten dollars, and Daniel Fourdice, two cases of assault and battery, six dollars, all by Squire Anderson, September 2, 1839. Hiram's battery must have been of a more violent character than Daniel's two. cases.
Henry Summers, October 12, 1839, assault and battery, three dollars, and John French on December 2, 1839, assault and bat- tery, twenty-five dollars, J. C. McPherson justice of the peace.
Noah Grant, November 1, 1839, assault and battery, three dollars, and Cornelius Cavey, same day and same offence, five dollars, fines assessessed by R. H. Pool, J. P.
Daniel G. Craig, fined six dollars for assault and battery upon the body of Mary Craig, his wife, March 2, 1840, Orrin Wakefield, J. P.
Cost of the county government in pioneer times, May to De- cember, 1839: Compensation of county-officers, $221.00; furni- ture for court house and office rent, $181.74; roads, 8104.62 ; elections, 854,35 ; paupers, $1.25 ; total, 8562 96.
1840. Compensation of county officers, 8768 35 ; conrt honse expenses, $47.66; roads, $33.25; elections, $90.70; paupers, 87.00; guarding and dieting prisoners, $36.37; total, $983.33.
The first failure to pay taxes occurred in the third year of the county's existence. The following citizens had failed to make the required payment : Daniel Smith, dead, due by him, 40 cts .; HI. Ilornbaker, removed to Sangamon county, 74 cts. ; David Graham, removed to Iowa, $1.15; Noah Sneddaker, removed to Otawa, 46 ets .; Jesse Dalby, removed to Ohio, $1.00; J. C. Bellew, removed to Bloomington, 67 cts .; Clark Bousine, re- moved to Logan county, 35 ets .; Ervin Bergen, dead, 46 cts. ; W. W. Allen, removed to Tazewell county, 80 cts .; total loss, $6 03.
The first assessment of taxable property is mentioned in the chapter on Civil History. The readers perceive that the pioneers of their county were by no means in poor circumstances, a large number of the then residents bad good farms. Abont 35,000 acres of land had become taxable by having been entered at least five years previously. The lands were owned by about one hundred and sixty resident and fifty non-resident citizens, and were valued at over $150,000. Horses-not numbered-were assessed at $17,420, and cattle at $11,600, other property in pro- portion, the totals approximating a quarter of a million of dollars.
A few capitalists were met in the county at that time, we men- tion W. Morris with 8800, Thomas Ward with 8400, John Hob- blett with $200, Sam Bevan with 8100 at interest.
James Glenn was credited with a forty dollar watch-must have been a gold one. A number of taxpayers were sporting carriages, for instance, S. M. Richardson, the merchant; Dr. Wheeler, Daniel Dragstrem, Sam Hammet. R. T. Doolittle, Juel Jackson, Thomas Ward, Jos. Cantrall, F G. Paine, the probate judge, and E. W. Fears, the sheriff, whose carriage, not a very expensive one, was assessed at $23.00.
The following r sidents paid taxes on $1000 00 and over, viz .: Andrew Brock, John Richards, John Miller, William Dyre, Adam Stephens, Sam Hoblett, Benjamin Shipley, John Hoblett, M. S. Hoblett, Charles Counsil, Stephen Foley, Sampson Rees, John Barr, M. L. Knapp, Zebulon Cantrall, David Ellington, Samuel Hammet, Allen Turner, Samuel Glenn, Thomas M. Glenn, Abraham Onstott, J. S. Strange, John Robb, Thomas Cuppy, Russell Post. George Isham, S. M. Richardson, R. T. Doolittle,
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HISTORY OF DE WITT COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
John Slatten, D. H. Lawrence, T. T. Sampson, J. T. Atchison, Z. B. CantraH, Prettyman Marvel, Joshua Cantrall, Thomas Ward, Abraham Swearingen, Fred Troxell, Jr., John Young Samuel Spencer, Peter Crum, Mahlon Hall, John Humphrey and others.
DESIGNATION OF PIONEER COUNTY OFFICIALS.
Several of the pioneer officers of the county must have looked upon their respective offices with disgust, as a great number of resignations w. re tendered.
The treasurer's office was not coveted at all.
J. C. McPherson, the first treasurer of the county, resigned before the expiration of a year. IIe certainly could not have been afraid of the great responsibilities of his office, for he never had as much as 825.00 in the county's cash box. Peter D Spain elect d treasurer in August, 1840, threw np his commission on the 8th day of June, 1841. Charles Maltby beat this record by Que day, as bis resignation was filed on the 7th of June, 1842. E. W. Fears held out three months longer as collector, resigning on the 5th of September of that year. William Mitchell did not serve that long by two weeks, as he resigned on the 23d of August. He too had been treasurer. F. G. Paine, probate justice, served five years and two months. He chose Iudepend- ence dav, July 4, 1844, for the date of his resignation.
Patriotic resig ation of Richard Murphy :-
STATE OF ILLINOIS, DEWITT COUNTY. 1
Mr. J. J. McGraw, Clerk of the County Court :-
Be it known to thee that I, Richard Murphy, constable of De Witt county, do hereby resign my office for to depart for Mexico, therefore I pray thy honor to receive my resignation this June 11. 1845. RICHARD MURPHY.
PERSONAL MENTION.
JUDGE JOHN J. MCGRAW.
There is no man in the county more intimately connected with its entire history than the honorable judge, this fugleman of the Old Guard. None has ever carried the three score and ten with better grace and more vigor than he, the very picture of healthful beauty in age. His forty years in the harness of official life scarcely tell on him. His broad shoulders are still unbent, his stalwart arms would crush a foe as surely now as half a cen- tury ago, and writing these lines, methinks I could see that bright old face, beaming with intellect and benevolence, before me. He was the friend of Lincoln in our days, he remembers the festivities of the fiftieth anniversary of the Republic, the day on which the sage of Monticello closed his weary eyes, he remem- bers the visit of Gen. Lafayette, and further back, in his school- boy days, in his South Carolina home, heard the proud Albion had triumphed over the great Napoleon and that the famous " Old Guard " had died, man after man, on the fields of Waterloo.
Born in South Carolina of Irish parents in the year 1806, he came to Illinois in 1830, and as stated heretofore, was a resi- dent of what is now De Witt County, before the winter of the " deep snow." At the time of the organization of the County, he was elected County clerk and remained in that office until 1857. On the 16th of May, 1839, he was appointed superintendent of schools, was subsequently elected and repeatedly re-elected to said office until 1855, when Lawrence Weldon succeeded him, served the people of the County as master in chancery from 1839 until 1865, assisted the circuit clerk in the first years of the County's existence, held the office of County treasurer by app intment
during a vacancy caused by the resignation of Jesse C. MePher- son, was an acting and active justice of the peace during that period of time, was elected County judge in 1877, resigned that office April 12, 18st, and Cincinnatus like, took charge of the modest office of justice of the peace. Such is MeGraw! The records of the county will forever show the careful and accurate work, written out in the bobl John Hancock style, of this her faithful servant.
The readers will observe that there is no gap in the early his- tory of the County, and this fact is due to the judge's diligence and conscientiousness.
A good portion of the ink, with which the maunscript of these sketches is written, was dipped from the very inkstand carried hither by the judge in his saddle bags in 1830.
THE BARNETTS
We have above stated that the original settlers of De Witt hailed from Kentucky and other southern states. and it should be said to their credit, that none of them made an effort to bring slaves iuto the state, which, under the then existing laws of Illin- ois, could have been done very easily. But, more than that, these very men selected Illinois for their future home to escape from the curses of the institution of slavery. William Lowry, of whom we shall speak below, stood not alone as an advocate of free- dom, but had the support of the Barnett's, McGraw, Hall, Kenney, Wallis, Bowles and others, and it is proper that a few words be said of them. The Barnett family are of Scotch-Irish stock, and made Virginia their home in the beginning of the eighteenth cen- tury. Alexander Barnett, the grandfather of Alexauder L. Bar- nett, the present surveyor of De Witt County, was born in Vir- ginia about the year 1754, and served during the revolutionary war as regimental surgeon in the Virginia continentals. Some of his books and writings are still in the possession of his grand- son as highly treasured relics. Being a cotemporary of Thomas Jefferson and a glowing admirer of the liberal and broad views of the writer of the declaration of independence, he firmly resolved that his descendants should dwell on a soil not tainted with slavery. He did not get to see this land of freedom, but in his will he arranged that his sons aud their families should carry ont his wishes. In those days a father's will was gospel to his children.
Two of the three sons of Alexander, Robert and William, died without issue, a daughter, Eliza, was married to J. G. Brown, and John, the surviving son, and the sire, of the Barnetts in De Witt, was intrusted with the execution of the old Dr's plans. The family had removed to Kentucky after the close of the rev- olutionary war, and settled in Bourbon county, where two large farms, one of 390 and one of 320 acres, were purchased. The former was the homestead of the old man Alexander, and the latter that of his son John. It was arranged in the will of Alex- ander, that these 320 acres should be sold, and the money thus realized be invested in real estate in free soil for the benefit of John's and his sister's descendents, and the 390 acres were willed to John in fee simple. John, who had served in the army of the U. S. in the war against England, in 1812 and 1813, made two ex- ploring trips through Indiana and Illinois, in 1829 and 1830, and decided to locate in the latter. His son Franklin had accompanied him on his second expedition, and remained in Illinois-the first Barnett to settle in the present limits of De Witt county. He bought 160 acres of land in section 33, T. 20, R. 1, east. He was a member of the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and Sth, board of county commissioners from 1841 to 1847. Ile removed to Kansas in
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HISTORY OF DE WITT COUNTY, ILLINOIS,
1874 or 1875. One of his sons, Gideon, is still a resident of this county in Tunbridge.
Robert F., the oldest son of John Barnett, arrived in 1832, and settled on lands previously entered by his father in Section 34, T. 20, R. 1, and Sec. 2, T. 19, R. 1, east. Robert represent- ed his county in the House of Representatives in the 12th Gener- al Assembly, 1840 to 1842, in the Senate of the 13th General As- sembly, 1842 to 1844, and again in the House the 17th General Assembly, 1850 to 1852. For years, term after term, our read- ers will find him presiding at the numerous ses-ions of grand juries. The time and manner of his death is mentioned else- where. Five sons are still surviving him. Nathan M. as super- visor of Barnett township, wore out a mandamus of a United States Court, as he expressed it How it was done will be told in the township history. Ilis brother Lyman, formerly Sheriff of De Witt, is at present wearing out another mandamus, but does it in a less unpleasant way. Alexander L. Barnett, the 3d son John, born Oct. 15, 1810, came to De Witt in 1831, and made the township of Clintonia his home in 1834.
He was elected county surveyor in 1839, against George D. Smallwood, after quite a hot contest, and was re-elected, term after term until 1859, when he retired voluntarily on account of failing sight. Ilis friends gave him a rest of twenty years, when in 1879 they re-elected him to the same office. Mr. Barnett was at that time on a deer hunt in Mi souri, little dreaming that theo- dolite and Jacob's staff were again awaiting him on his return. He told the writer but a day ago, that, dispite the three score and ten with an odd one added, he intended to serve the people to the end of his term-providence willing.
It should also be stated that John Barnett, the father of Rob- ert, Franklin and Alexander, spent the eveing of his life in De Witt county, to which he had removed from Kentucky years after his sons had come there.
WILLIAM LOWRY, whose name appears in the roster of the coun- ty officers, merits more than a passing notice. He was a mem- ber of the state legislature in 1822, representing the county of Clark. This legislature had succeeded by foul means, to call a convention, with the avowed purpose of introducing or more prop- erly legalizing the system of slavery in this state. Lowry voted in opposition to this measure and became a member of those fa- mous "Fifteen," who prepared an address to the people of Illinois, iu which they boldly denounced slavery. Speaking of it, they say : What a strange spectacle would be presented to the civi- lized world, to see the people of Illinois, yet innocent of this great national sin, and in the full enjoyment of all the blessings of free government, setting down in solemn convention to delib- erate and determine whether they should introduce among them a portion of their fellow beings, to be cut off from those blessings, to be loaded with the chains of bondage, and rendered unable to leave any other legacy to their prosperity than the inheritance of their own servitude? The wise and the good of all nations would blush at our political depravity. Our professions of republican- ism and equal freedom would incur the derision of despots and the scorn and reproach of tyrants. We should write the epitaph of free government upon its tombstone." The address closes with the following pathetic and eloquent appeal : "In the name of unborn millions who will rise up after us, and call us blessed or accursed, according to our deeds-in the name of the injured sons of Africa, whose claims to equal rights with their fellow men will plead their own canse against their usurpers before the tribunal of eternal justice, we conjure you fellow citizens, to ponder upon these things."
There were fifteen members of the legislature who signed this appeal to the people of Illinois, to wit: Risdon Moore and Jacob Ogle, of St. Clair, William Kinkade, from Wayne, George Cadwell, of Morgan, Andrew Bankson, of Washington, Curtis Blakeman and George Churchhill, of Madison, Abraham Cairnes of Lawrence, William Lowry, James Sims, of Sang: - mon, Daniel l'arker, of Crawford, G. T. Pell, of Edwards, David McGahey, of Crawford, Stephen Stillman, of Sangamor, and Thomas Mather, of Randolph.
The strenuous efforts, the undannted spirits and the energetic labors of these men and their friends have saved the State from slavery. The stupendous consequences which would necessarily have resulted from the success of the pro-slavery party, could of course not be realized in 1822; we, who have lived throughout the civil war of 1861 to 1865, may now contemplate them with a silent shudder.
De Witt county may well be proud of her pioneer William Lowry, who made the county his home some time after the year 1830. Lowry was a native of Kentucky, had been associate judge of Greenup county, and came to Clark county at an early day. After the organization of Edgar county, formerly a part of Clark county, Ill , Lowry served for a time as circuit clerk, and became the first recorder of the new county of De Witt, on the 16th of May, 1839.
JAMES KENNEY, a Kentuckian, of Scotch Irish descent, a friend of John Barnett, located iu town 19 R. 1, about the year 1834. The town, laid out by his sons, was named after him.
ANDREW WALLIS, ( Wallace,) another pioneer of this class, arrived in 1831, and settled in Tunbridge township. Wallis, like John Barnett, had served in the war of 1812 and 1813. He lived to a high old age, being over eighty years of age when he was called to the grand reveille on the other side of Jordau.
HUGH BOWLES, a native of Bourbon county, Ky., came to Sangamon county, Ill., in 1830, and removed in the spring of 1831 to what is now called Tunbridge township, De Witt county. He served as county commissioner of Macon county prior to the organization of De Witt.
PRETTYMAN MARVEL, the first settler of Waynesville, came from Georgia in 1825. IIe died in 1842, leaving a numerous family, most of whom are still living in the county. His widow married again in 1847, and is now loved and honored by all, the oldest resident of the county. John Barr, her brother, came with the Marvel family to Illinois, and is now a resident of Logan county.
The GLENNS, who followed in the next year, were from South Carolina. The sire of the family, John Glenn, was an old man when he arrived; he remained only a few years. Thomas M. Glenn, a son, had come with his father, and remained in the county for nearly thirty years. Later, about the year 1856, he emigrated to Iowa. S. P. Glenn, another son, came in 1827. S. P. was a man of family at the time; he was probably the first bona fide land owner in De Witt county. S. P. Glenn, now the patriarch of the county, represented it in the State's legislature from 1846 to 1848, and the first county assessment charges him with the ownership of a watch valued at forty dollars; his watch must have been the first gold watch brought into the county.
JOHN DONNER was one of the actual frontiermen who never come to stay until death overtakes them. Donner had made the township of Santa Anna his home as early as 1830, a few years later he folded his tent and continued his course westward. He is said to have perished on his way to California in 1846.
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HISTORY OF DE WITT COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
Another frontierman named Bridges had come with Donner, left even before Donner did.
PETER GIDEON was the first outspoken abolitionist of the county.
NATHAN CLEARWATER, still surviving, will be mentioned elsewhere.
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THE HARPS .- One of the finest townships of the county is named after them. Tyre and Joseph Harp were originally from Tennessee, and had first lived in or near Waynesville. The brothers were ardent friends of public education, and made great personal sacrifices in order to raise funds out of which to pay competent teachers.
EDOM SHUGART, one of the first five white people in the coun- ty, taught school in Harp's dwelling as early as 1836. Edom is still living, he resides now in Nebraska.
The Harps had been preceded by Solomon Cross, Jesse Mulkey and Isaac Davidson.
G. B. LEMEN arrived in 1836, and is still an honored citizen of his county, which he represented in the constitutional con- vention of 1847. Mr. Lemen was also associate county justice from 1854 to 1857.
THOMAS DAVENPORT, a Kentuckian, had removed with his father to Illinois as early as 1820, aud made De Witt his home prior to the "deep snow." His foot-race with Judge MeGraw some fifty odd years ago is mentioned in the township sketches.
The writer saw both contestants of the foot-raee of 1830 a few days ago, and would be ton MeGraw, giving odds at that.
THE CLIFTONS and Lisenby's arrived in the county in 1830, the former were Kentnekians, the latter Caroliniaus.
REUBEN LISENBY, father of Abraham, the first settler in Creek township, had been a soldier in the revolutionary army, and had lost his life in the service. Abraham Lisenby died within a year of his arrival in De Witt, when Benjamin Lisenby became the head of the family.
JOHN MILLER, from Kentucky, was the second settler or pio- Deer of the township.
The SCOTTS, eame with their kinsman, S. P. Glenn, in 1827. They were Caroliuians, and held in high esteem by their pioneer brethren. James K. Scutt represented the county of De Witt in the state legislature for two consecutive terms, 1842 to 1846.
ABRAHAMI ONSTOTT, from Kentucky, arrived in 1829, and has lived now almost fifty-three years in the county.
THE ROBES came from Tennessee in 1830, and the Cantralls from Virginia in 1835.
The American pioneer, as a rule, brings up a large family. Malthus' Essay on Population, and the evils occasioned by a rapid increase of population, has not found its way to the frou- tier. Cuntemplating this numerous progeny-families of from eight to twelve children seem to have been the rule-one may suppose that Oliver Goldsmith's Viear of Wakefield, or at least the first sentence of the first chapter was put into practical nse. The worthy vicar opeus his memoirs with a philosophical re- mark, " I have always been of the opinion," says he, " that he, who marries and brings up a large family, does better service to the state than he who continues single and only talks of popu- lation." Little did the Vicar at the time dream of the troubles and sorrows to be eaused to him by a wayward daughter, not to speak of his son Moses, who sold a valuable colt for a number of worthless green spectacles.
The reader is referred to the historieal sketches of the various townships, and the biographical department of this work for
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further information as to our pioneers and early settlers, their hardships and trials, their frugality and hospitality.
The few who remain may look with just pride upon the present prosperity of the county. Their labors have not been in vain. The little " path " of eorn has grown into immense fields of plenty, beautiful and comfortable habitations occupy now the sites of the windowless log-hut, stately school-houses are scattered all over the county, and Edom Shugart, the pioneer teacher of the county, rejoices to hear, in his Nebraska home, of the prosperity of the public schools in De Witt. The ox-eart of the early times is not seen any more. The substantial wagon, the gy earriage have been substituted, not to speak of the rail- roads traversing the county in all directions.
CHAPTER VIII.
CUSTOMS OF EARLY DAYS.
HABITS AND MODES OF LIVING OF THE PIONEERS AND FIRST SETTLERS.
T is a trite but true proverb that "Times change, aud we change with them ;" and it is well il- lustrated by the changes in dress, condition and life that have taken place in this county in less than half a century. We doubt not that these changes, as a whole, are for the better.
To the old man, indeed, whose life-work is accomplished, and whose thoughts dwell mainly on the past, where his treasures are, there are no days like the old days, and no song awakens so responsive an eeho in his heart as "Auld Lang Syne."
The very skies that arch above his gray head seem less blue to his dimmed eye thau they did when, in the adoration of his young heart, he directed to them his gaze ; the woods appear less green and inviting than when in the gayety of boyhood he eonrted their cool depths; and the songs of their feathered inhabitants fall less melodiously upon his ear. He marks the changes that are everywhere visible, and feels like crying out, in the language of the poet :
" Back ward turn, backward, oh, Time in thy flight !"
It is natural for the aged to sigh for a return of the past, nor would we attempt the hopeless task of convincing them that with the changes of the years there have come also an increase in happiness, an improvement in social life, progress in education, an advancement in morality, and a tendeney upward in all that relates to the welfare of mankind.
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