USA > Illinois > Effingham County > History of Effingham county, Illinois > Part 28
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In the regular course of human nature, births follow marriages, and the first birth in the township was a pair of twins with different fathers and mothers. They were,
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HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.
however, born in the same house, on the same night, and was a son of Stephen Austin and a daughter of Thomas I. Brockett. The circumstances attending this "phenomenon " are detailed in a preceding chapter. They were soon followed by others. With so many pioneer weddings as we have accredited to Jackson, an increase of population is but a natural consequence. We were informed that the crop of children in the community was sure and large, hence it follows that these new married couples essayed to follow. or rather to carry out, the Biblical injunction -to " multiply and replenish the earth."
The first death in the township was the result of an accident. Isaac Fulfer, in cut- ting a bee tree, was caught in some manner by a falling limb and crushed to death. The accident was a melancholy one, and the vio- lent death it involved cast a gloom over the entire settlement. The first person who died a natural death was a young man named Cummings, a nephew of Rod Jenkins. He came to the neighborhood with the intention of making it his home, and was taken sick soon after his arrival and died. He was buried at Jenkins', in a quiet spot where no graveyard had been laid out then, nor has been since. The first graveyard was near Freemanton, and was laid out in a very early day. A number of private graveyards, or family burying grounds. have been made and peopled by the the "pale nations of the dead."
Mills were one of the first improvements in which the people took an interest, after becoming settled down to work. Brockett had a mill down on the river, but there is some question as to whether it was in Jackson. Mason or Union Township. Funkhouser had a horse mill a little east of Freemanton. It would be thought a poor excuse as a mill at this day, but then it was considered a
grand improvement. Tucker had a mill very early. It was on the Little Wabash, and had what was called a tub wheel. A man named Meeks built it for Tucker. He was a sort of a millwright, and an early set- tler of the township, but no one knows now what became of him. Jonathan Parkhurst had a little horse mill, with stones about fif- teen inches in diameter. Some mischievous fellows, without the fear of God before them, stole them one night, and carried them off by running their arms through the hole in them, and they were not found for three months. It happened that this mill was the only " dry weather " mill then for a circuit of many miles. Mr. Turner says that during all that time they had to " grit " meal; and when the corn got too dry for that process, they would boil it in water until it got tight enough on the cob to enable them to " grit " it into meal.
Roads and highways were not laid out for several years after settlements were made in the townships. The first roads were trails through the forests and prairies, made by the Indians. These were improved upon by the white people, and served as highways until roads were laid out and made by county authority. The old National road passes through a corner of Jackson, and is fully writ- ten up in preceding chapters of this work.
When the county was organized, one. of the first voting places was at the house of Thomas I. Brockett, and even before the county was formed, while it was yet a part of Fayette County, it was a voting place. The last election, before the organization of Effingham County, there were bnt thirteen votes polled at Brockett's-and they were solid for Gen. Jackson. We may add, that a majority of the voters in that neighbor- hood are still voting (figuratively) for Old Hickory.
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HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.
The first goods sold in the township was by John Funkhouser, about the year 1833. He opened a store on the place where he settled, which is claimed by many to have been the first one established in the county, while others reject the authority. If Funk- houser's was not first, it was among the first. It certainly was the first in Jackson Town- ship. He carried on an extensive business in early times. Besides his store and mill, he was a great trader, and bought all the surplus products of the people. But so much has already been said of this pioneer business man that we can add nothing with- ont repetition.
By reference to the chapter on education it will be seen that the first school in the county was taught in this township by Elisha Park- hurst, then a boy but twelve years old, and that his schoolroom was a quarter section of Thomas I. Brockett's stable. Brockett was the sponsor or godfather of this school, and what the boy Elisha could not do in man- ageing it, Brockett did for him, and between them they carried on a pretty good school for the time.
Another of the pioneer schools, and which Judge Broom believes to have been the first in the county, was taught by Col. Houston in the south part of the township, near the line between it and Mason Township. It was taught in tho first regular schoolhouse erected, perhaps, in the county. Mr. Turner says he helped to build it, and that it was constructed of round logs and had a wooden chimney, puncheon floor, etc. As population increased, and children likewise, other schools were established in the different neighborhoods, and schoolhouses built to ac- commodate them, until. at the present time, the township enjoys the most liberal educa- tional facilities.
Churches were established cooval with the
settlement of the township by white people. The Baptists were the pioneers of religion in this neighborhood, and mingled their hymns with the screams of the panther and the howł of the wolf. The first preacher here, and probably the first, at least among the first, in the county, were Elders Whitely and Surrells, regular Baptists, or as they are sometimes irreverently called "Hardshells," or "Ironjackets." Rev: Surrells was the grandfather of Mr. W. P. Surrells of Effing- ham. They preached at people's houses long before there were any churches built in the county. James Turner's house was for years, a preaching place for these and other pioneer ministers. Old Sulphur Springs Baptist Church, and the old Methodist Church at Freemanton were the first churches built in the township. Sulphur Springs Baptist Church stood near the center of the township, and was built very early. It was burned in 1879. Its destruction resulted from a defective flue: there had been services, and scarcely had the people reached their homes, when the house was discovered to be on fire; many rushed back but were too late to save the building, or anything else, except a few benches and other little things. A young man, at the risk of his life, entered the burning building, and saved the church bible, which was a very fine one, and highly prized by the congregation.
The Sulphur Springs Baptist Church was rebuilt, and is now known as the First Baptist Church. It stands on what is called "Little Prairie," near the site of the old one, and was built during the winter of 1881-82, at a cost of about $1,000, It is a comfortable and substantial frame building. The pre- sent membership is over one hundred and is under the pastorate of Elder T. M. Griffith. A Sunday school is kept up all the year around.
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HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.
Salem Methodist Episcopal Church South is located in the southwest corner of the township, and was built some twenty years ago. It has a strong membership and a good but plain frame church building. Rev. Herbert Reed is the present pastor. A Sunday school is kept up regularly.
Union Baptist Church, a kind of offshoot of the Sulphur Springs Baptist Church, is located on Section 9, and the building was put up in the spring of 1882. The organiza- tion of this church resulted from some dissensions which arose in the parent church, and the dissatisfied members withdrew and built this church. It is a union church, free to all orthodox Christians; is a substantial frame building and was put up at a cost of about $700. There is no regnlar preaching at present, but a good Sunday school is maintained. These, with the church at Dexter, and the one that formerly stood in the village of Freemanton, comprise the religious history of the township. The people have never wanted for church facil- ities, and if they are not moral and religious, it must be their own fault, and not for lack of Christian influences; neither was it for lack of these that the early years witnessed much dissipation and wickedness in the country.
The village of Freemanton was laid out June 21. 1834, on the east half of the north- west quarter of Section 7, of this township. It was surveyed and platted by William J. Hankins, surveyor, for the proprietors of the ground. William and John Freeman were early residents and business men of the place, and from them the town took its name. It was originally called "The X Roads," and if all the reports in circulation concern- ing it are true, then Nasby's "Confedrit X Roads, wich is in the State of Kentucky," was a moral, dignified and circumspect place, as compared to Freemanton in its palmy
days. It was a great place for drinking and figliting, and its reputation abroad was any- thing but enviable. Men were killed in Freemanton, but such incidents are better forgotten than perpetuated on the page of history. It was on the old National road a few miles west of Ewington, and when that great thoroughfare (the road) was in the course of construction, the hands engaged upon it would assemble regularly at Ewing- ton and Freemanton, and filling themselves with the "craythur," the lively "scrim- mages " of Donnybrook would be re-enacted with compound interest. Many of the deni- zens, too, of the Little Wabash Bluffs and of "Fiddler's Ridge" would come out semi- periodically, and then the fun between them and the road hands would be lively, and carried on in earnest. But as the country grew older, society improved, the rough and lawless characters that frequented Freeman- ton, to the terror of the more quiet people, left for other fields and for the country's good.
As will be seen from the date of its survey, Freemanton is an old place, or was, for. like several other towns of Effingham County. it has passed away and is "numbered among the things that were." But it was once quite a business point, as well as a noted place morally, and-socially. The first store is believed to have been kept by Mr. Johnson. A store was opened very early by Toothacre and one by Bishop. A man named Jenks had a blacksmith shop, and later there were several other shops opened of different kinds. "Dr." Bishop had a carding machine, which was run by horse power. He afterward put in mill machinery and had a grist and saw mill, carrying on quite an extensive busi- ness. A post office was established at Free- manton, and Milton Flack was Postmaster. This was afterward discontinued, or removed
1
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HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.
to Dexter. A tavern was kept by Toothacro; he also kept the stage stand, when those vo- hicles (the stage-coach) got to running over the National road.
A church was built hore very early, by the Methodists. It was a log structure, and stood down by the graveyard. It was never used by any other denomination regularly except the Methodists, who once had a strong church here. When the schoolhonse was built, it was used for church purposes by all sects who so desired. Rev. Mr. Lowry was a local Methodist preacher about Freemanton in an early day.
The village of Freemanton flourished as all snch places do, until the building of the railroads. The building of the National road gave it birth; the building of the Van- dalia Railroad sounded its death-knell. The construction of these modern internal im- provemonts has overwhelmed many a puny village, as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions overwhelmed cities of old. When the Van- dalia Railroad was built and opened for business, Freemanton "wrapped the drapery of its couch " about its " disgruntled " shops and stores and "laid down to unpleasant dreams." The site upon which it stood is now a flourishing farm. Quantum sufficit.
The village of Dexter, if a collection of half a dozen houses can be called a village, is on the Vandalia Railroad, but a few hun- dred yards from the original site of Freeman- ton, and is merely a railroad station. It has never been laid out as a town, and probably never will be. The first store was opened by H. H. Brown, soon after the completion of
the railroad. Brown sold out to Joel Blake- ly, and he to J. H. Said, and the latter sold to McClure & Pope. There are now two stores in the place; one kept by J. W. Mc- Clure, and the other by Pantry. A hotel, the "Ohio House," and a few shops, com- prise the business of the place. The post office was moved from F'reemanton.
A Methodist Episcopal Church was built at Dexter in 1875, and is a handsome frame building, costing about $1,500. The present pastor is Rev. Mr. Walker. The church is strong and flourishing, with an interesting Sunday school, which is kept up all the year round. A district schoolhouse has been built here, and is occupied for the us- ual school term.
Granville, to which reference has been made elsewhere, is one of those towns that has disappeared from the very face of the --- map. The exact place of its location is somewhat doubtful, and it is claimed both for Summit and Jackson Townships. From the records, however, it appears to have been situated on Sections 4 and 5, of Township 7, and in Range 5 east, which places it in Jack- son, near the Summit line. It was surveyed by Samuel Houston for John Funkhouser and William Clark, the proprietors. As to whether the town covered the two sections named, the records are indefinite, but we venture to give it as an historical fact that it did not, and that it never got beyond a few shops and stores, and a half dozen or so of dwellings. It was finally vacated by legis- lative enactment, when "its glory departed forever," and its sun went down in darkness.
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HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.
CHAPTER XIX .*
UNION TOWNSHIP-INTRODUCTORY-BOUNDARIES AND TOPOGRAPHY-WHITE SETTLEMENT- FREDERICK BROCKETT -OTHER PIONEERS -INCIDENTS OF EARLY LIFE THE FIRST ROADS-EDUCATIONAL-SCHOOLHOUSES-CHURCHES, ETC .- FLENSBURG VILLAGE-A TRAGEDY AND ITS RESULTS.
" The wolf and deer are seen no more Among the woods, along the shore ; And where was heard the panther's scream, The farmer drives his jocund team. Where once the Indian wigwam stood, Upon the border of some wood, The stately mansion now is seen, Amid broad fields and pastures green."
T THE history of this township dates back to the advent of the first pioneers in Effing- ham County-not the very first solitary strag- gler who wandered into the wilds, as aimless in his movements as the Argonaut of old in his quest for gold over the face of the earth -- but the first real pioneer, who came hunt- ing game as well as the fabled mines of pre- cious metal, game being the one supreme thing of life. This section of country is mostly heavily timbered, and its numerous streams supply it with abundance of water, as well as give it a most excellent drainage. It was these that, ages ago, made this point in the county the resort of many wild ani- mals, and the rendezvous of Indian tribes. The hoary trunks of tall, majestic trees, the commingling of their variegated foliage. their deep and dense shades, the wild fruits, bubbling springs, with their cool and grate- ful water, the natural beauties and the pro- tection from storms and the elements, all combined to make this the home of birds, beasts and men. All this was sufficient evi- dence to the pioneer hunter that here he
could find that which he sought -- game; and when he beheld these, he stopped, kindled his camp-fires, sat down on his log seat, and, in happy content, cooked his frugal meals. And as the blue smoke struggled up through the branches and leaves of the trees, and the fire threw its glaring light upon the weird, surrounding objects, the story was first told to the wild denizens of the woods that man, civilized man, with his death-dealing weap- ons, was come among them.
. Union Township lies in the south central part of the county. It is considerably un- even and broken, and was originally about three-fourths heavily timbered, though of Jate years much of the timbered land has been cleared and brought into cultivation. There is a considerable tract of prairie in the southern and southeastern parts, and a very beautiful scope of level land extending into the timber in the northeast corner; but, aside from these portions, the township surface is very rolling and hilly, with numerous ra vines traversing it in various directions. The banks of the Little Wabash, the princi- pal water-course, are very high, rugged and precipitous, and in places are composed al- most wholly of large masses of shelving rock and huge bowlders. Back from the stream a short distance, the land stretches away into a broad, flat bottom, especially in the north- ern part, which are covered with a dense for- est of the largest timber to be found any-
*By G. N. Berry,
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HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.
where in the county, consisting mostly of elm, sycamore, ash, walnut, and a variety of other growths, while the uplands are covered principally by forests of large oaks, the best timber in this section of the country. The Little Wabash enters the township near the northwest corner, in Section 7, and flows in an easterly course about two miles, when it makes an abrupt turn in a southward direc- tion, crossing the county line about two miles from the western boundary in Section 32. This is a running stream all the year, and, during certain seasons, it becomes a raging torrent, frequently overflowing its banks for considerable distances on either side, doing a great deal of damage to the country. The chief tributary of the Little Wabash is Bish- op Creek, the second stream in size in the county. It flows through the township in a westerly direction, and empties in the for- mer. Ramsey Creek, a stream of consider- able size and importance, traverses the east- ern part of the township and empties into Bishop about one mile east of the place where the latter unites with the Wabash. The other water-courses worthy of mention are Coon Creek, in the southwestern part of the township, and Little Bishop, in the northern part. As an agricultural district, this divis- ion of the county is not so good as some of the sister townships more recently settled, as the soil is not so fertile as that of the prairie. By proper tillage, however, it yields very fair crops of corn, wheat and other cereals commonly raised in this part of tho country, and produces the best varieties of fruits, to which the soil seems well adapted. The bot- tom lands that have been cleared and bronght into cultivation are much more fertile than the higher wooded portions, the soil in some places being several feet in depth, and of a rich vegetable mold. Union is bounded on the north, east and west by the townships of
Watson, Lucas and Mason, in the order named, while Clay County forms its southern boundary.
The first white man who broke the solitude of nature within the present limits of Union was Frederick Brocket, one of the earliest pioneers of Effingham County. He settled in the northeastern part, on the Little Wa- bash, about the year 1829, and cleared forty acres of land in Section 18. A few years later. he erected a small " tub " mill on the river, the first piece of machinery of the kind ever operated in the county, and for several years the only flour and meal supply nearer than Vandalia or Terre Haute. Brocket op- erated it abont eight years, when it was com- pletely destroyed by fire. The life and char- acter of this noted pioneer demand more than a mere passing notice. He was born in Ten- nessee, and his youth and early manhood were passed amid the genial, bracing airs of his mountain home, where he acquired, by following a life of constant exercise, a stock of that rugged vitality so necessary for a man who locates in a new and wild country. He came to this State when it was in the infancy of its existence, when there were but one or two sparse settlements within the present bounds of this county, and passed the vigor of his manhood in helping to build up and develop the country, in which he always took great pride. Unlike many of the first set- tlers on the frontier, he was a man of charac- ter, sterling integrity, a true Christian, and was widely and favorably known throughout the entire country during the early days of its history. He was first to take an interest in the cause of education in the township, and, as soon as there were children sufficient to start a school, fitted up a part of his resi- dence at his own expense, which he gener- ously donated for that purpose. When the school was in readiness, no one could be found
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HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.
in the neighborhood sufficiently well quali- fied to act the part of instructor, so he took upon himself the labors of that position, also, and taught the first school in the southern part of the county.
At the first election held in the precinct of which Union was formerly a part, he was elected Justice of the Peace, which office he discharged very creditably for several consecu - tive terms. He accumulated a very hand- some property during the period of his resi- dence here, and built one of the first frame houses in the county. His death occurred in the year 1856, at a ripe old age. The old place where his first little cabin stood is now owned by Henry Bushne and the Robinson heirs, and the mill site is in possession of William Bradley.
Martin K. Robinson, a son-in-law of Brock- et, was the next settler who came into this township. He arrived about one year later (1830), and the place where he settled is a short distance east of the Brocket farm, on the same section. He cleared forty acres of ground, and, some six years later, purchased the mill site of his father-in-law, rebuilt the mill, which he operated for eight or ten years, and made, while running it, consider- able money. This he afterward invested in lands in the vicinity. His mill was de- stroyed by fire also, after having been in op- eration for some cleven years. It was after- ward rebuilt by a Mr. Bradley. At the time of Robinson's death, in 1857, he was in afflu- ent circumstances, and one of the largest land-owners in the county. Two of his daughters are at this time living in the coun- ty-Mrs. Bradbury and Mrs. McManaway- the former in this township, and the latter in the village of Mason. About this time, a number of transient settlers, or, as they are generally called, squatters, located in the timber along the Little Wabash and Bishop
Creeks, and built several cabins, around which small garden patches were cleared. They ap- pear to have been a very thriftless, do-nothing set, and spent the greater part of their time hunting and trapping, and, when the lands were entered by the settlers who came in af- terward, they left and moved on further West, all the time keeping just in the ad- vance of civilization.
From this time nntil the year 1835, there does not appear to have been any additional settlements made in the township, as far as we have been able to learn. The latter year was signalized by the advent of a family of five brothers by the name of Gordon, who settled temporarily on the Little Wabash, a short dis- tance south of where William Wilson now lives. Their names were William, Pleasant, Abra- ham, Joseph and Nelson, the last-named be- ing the only one that made any permanent improvements. The others were rather care- less, thriftless fellows, who spent most of their time in hunting and watching their large droves of wild hogs, which. at that time. required no feeding. as the abundance of mast found in the woods was their chief subsistence. In the fall of the year, these hogs would be hunted down and butchered, and the meat hauled to the nearest market place, or traded to the other settlers in the neighborhood. Nelson Gordon sold his land, in 1947, to William Wilson, and, with his family, moved to Texas, where he was soon after joined by the rest of the brothers.
The first legal entry of land in the town- ship was made in the year 1836, by Isaac Gordon, near Flemsburg Mill, in Section 30. He was an uncle of those already named, but, unlike them, was a man of considerable pub- lic spirit and enterprise, and did as much. perhaps, toward developing his township as any other man in it. The farm was pur- chased about ten years later, by a man
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HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.
named Samilson, a Dane, who laid out the village of Flemsburg and built the second mill in the township. Hastings Hughes, a colored man, was an early settler, having come to the county as early as the year 1836, and settled in the northern part of the town- ship, where he entered and improved abont eighty acres of land. He was the first black- smith in the township, and workod at his trade in connection with his farm labor for several years. He afterward sold his land and moved to Flemsburg, where he built a shop which he, operated for over twenty years.
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