History of Effingham county, Illinois, Part 33

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, O. L. Baskin & co.
Number of Pages: 650

USA > Illinois > Effingham County > History of Effingham county, Illinois > Part 33

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Up to this time, the following convents sprung up from that of Teutopolis: Quincy, Ill., 1859; St. Louis, Mo., 1863: college in Teutopolis. 1861; Cleveland, Ohio, 1868; Memphis, Tenn., 1869; Hermann, Mo., 1875.

As so many new members were added, the Franciscans built, in 1875, convents at In- dianapolis. Ind .; Chicago, Ill .; Radom, Ill .; Rhineland. Wis .; Mt. St. Mary's, Mo .; Col- nmbus and St. Bernard, Neb. ; Jordan, Minn. ; Joliet. Ill. : Chillicothe, Mo .; and Indian

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HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.

missions at Keshena, Minn., and Bayfield, Chaska, and Superior City, Wis.

The number had increased from the origi- nal 6 to 400 members, therefore a new prov- ince, under the title of "The Sacred Heart," was erected April 26, 1879, a decree was is- sued by the Pope, and on the 2d July of the same year, the new provincial or superior was installed in Teutopolis.

Teutopolis is the mother-house, as it is called, of this branch of Franciscans, con- tains the novitiate, where the aspirants are tried for one year to test their vocation for re- ligious life. Also rhetoric is taught in the house as a preparation for ministerial duties, by Rev. Francis Albers and Rev. Richard Van Heek. The course of philosophy is taught in Quincy; theology in St. Louis. At present there are forty members in Teu- topolis.

Superiors of this convent were Rev. Damian Hennewig, Rev. Kilian Schloesser, (first guardian), Rev. Mathias Hiltermann, Rev. Francis Moenning, Rev. Gerard Becker, Rev. Damasus Ruesing, Rev. Dominicus Florian, Rev. Paulus Teroerde, the present Superior since July 13, 1881.

Volumes in library, about 6,000. Num- ber of deaths of this branch, forty, of which twelve died in Teutopolis. The Franciscans have charge of the congregation of Teutopo- Jis, Sigel, Pesotum, Neoga, Shumway, Alta- mont, St. Elmo, Bishop's Creek, Montrose, Island Grove, Lillyville, Big Spring, Green Creek.

Church .- A church building (log) built be- tween Effingham and Teutopolis on Masque- lette's place, 1839; another log church build- ing in town near railroad track; third and present brick, 1850, consecrated by R. Rev. H. D. Junker. Addition to sanctuary of choir built 1872.

Teutopolis. Effingham, at the time called Broughton, 1859; Bishop. 1864; Sigel and Neoga, 1866; Lillyville, 1877; Island Grove, 1874; Montrose, 1879. Pastors were secular priests till 1858. At that time, the Francis- cans took charge, first pastor: Rev. Damian Hennewig, who was succeeded by Mathias Hiltermann, Gerard Becker, Damasus, Do- minicus, and Paulus, the present pastor.

Pastors before 1858: Joseph Masquelette, Rev. Charles Oppermann, 1845; Rev. Zoe- gel, 1853-54; Rev. Joseph Weber, S. J., 1854; Rev. Charles Raphael, 1854-56; Rev. W. Liermann, 1856; Rev. T. Frauenhofer, 1857; Rev. J. H. Fortman. 1857; Rev. Barth. Bartels, 1858. Others are known to us by name.

From its early days of settlement, Teutop- olis has improved, and so has the surround- ing country. It can be truly said that it is one of the most beautiful country villages in the State. In schools, we are unequaled, having a good public school, a college and a female academy, also a fine church and convent, two first-class mills, four general stores, two hardware stores, one drug store, three shoe-makers, two cabinet-makers. two hotels, one livery stable, four saloons, one bakery, a brick yard, four blacksmith shops, two wagon-makers, two doctors, two grain merchants and one clothing store. The village has a population of 456, and the township 555 inhabitants. It has a St. Peter's men's society, which was organized in 1850; a St. Mary women's society, organized in 1855; a young men's society, organized 1857; a St. Rosa young ladies' society, organized in 1865; a reading society and a dramatic club.

The first village election was held under the incorporation law. the first Thursday in April, 1846. There were then in the town only eight voters and all voted. The result of

Many other congregations were taken from | the election was Clemens Uptmor, President;

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J. Rabe, Clerk; Theodore Prumer, Treasurer; Andrew B. Klausing. Trustees; B. Klausing, Justice of Peace, and also Bernard Brock- mann. There only remained one citizen who had no office. It has often been said that these Trustees had no trouble to keep order.

The first Postmaster was C. Uptmor, who was in office for twenty-eight years, and there has only been made the following changes: J. Habing after Mr. Uptmor, then G. G. Habing: these only held the office for a short time. Dr. F. F. Eversmann was the next. and held the office for twelve years. Frederick Thoele succeeded Eversman in the spring of 1883. All of these Postmasters were strong Democrats, and up to this day there has not been a Postmaster but what was a Democrat. This is owing to the fact that tho township is solidly Democratic, and the administration could not find any Republican timber in the township out of which to make a Postmaster. The township has a voting population of over two hundred and thirty-five votes, and the

highest vote ever cast for a President was for Gen. Hancock in ISSO. The highest vote ever poled by the Republicans was two.

The village is now incorporated under the general law; and the present officers are C. Eversmann, President: H. Sander. Treasurer; G. Kreke and E. Kolker, Street Commis- sioners; A. Brumleve and J. M. Fulle, Trust- ces; T. C. Thole, Clerk; and J. Il. Wernsing, Police Magistrate.

The Vandalia Railroad runs through the village, and has a fine depot in the town. The Effingham & South Eastern Narrow Guage runs through the township one mile south of the village. The township aided the Vandalia Railroad in building, by subscribing to its capital stock $15,000. The town gave its bonds payable in fifteen years at a rate of ten per cent per annum. The bonds fall due in the years ISS4 and 1885, and the township will pay them off when due. The township has no other debts, and is in a flourishing condition.

CHAPTER XXIV.

WEST TOWNSHIP-INTRODUCTORY AND DESCRIPTIVE-TOPOGRAPHY AND PHYSICAL FEATURES- TIIE FIRST SETTLEMENTS-PIONEER INDUSTRIES AND INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS- AN INCIDENT-SCHOOLS, CHURCHIES, ETC .- VILLAGE OF GILMORE- WAR RECORD AND EXPERIENCE, ETC.

"All the world is full of people, Hurrying, rushing, passing by, Bearing burdens, carrying crosses, Passing onward with a sigh; Some there are with smiling faces, But with heavy hearts below;

Oh, the sad-eyed, burdened people, How they come, and how they go."

T THIS is a beautiful section of the county. Fancy yourself standing upon yonder swell of the ground fifty years ago. It is June, say; your senses are regaled with the

beauty of the landscape, the singing of the birds, the fragrance of the air, wafting grate- ful odors from myriads of flowers of every imaginable variety of size, shape and hue, blushing in the sunbeam and opening their petals to drink in its vivifying rays, while gazing, enraptured, you descry in the dis- tance a something moving slowly over the prairies, and through the forest and among the gorgeous flowers. As the object nears yon, it proves to be a wagon, a " prairie schooner," drawn by a team of oxen, contain-

* By W. Il. Perrin.

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HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.

ing a family and their earthly all. They are moving to the " far West" (now almost the center of civilization), in quest of a home. At lengthı they stop, and, on the margin of a grove, rear their lone cabin, amid the chat- tering of birds, the bounding of deer, the hissing of serpents and the barking of wolves. For all the natives of these wilds look upon the intruders with a jealous eye, and each in his own way forbids any encroachments upon his fondly-cherished home and his long un- disputed domain. From the same point look again in midsummer, in autumn and in win- ter. And lo! fields are inclosed, waving with grain and ripening for the harvest. Look yet again, and after the lapse of fifty years, and what do you see ? The waste has become a fruitful field, adorned with ornamental trees, enveloping in beauty commodious and even elegant dwellings. In short, you be- hold a land, whose

"Rocks and hills and brooks and vales With milk and honey flow."

And where abound spacious churches, schools, etc., and other temples of learning; a laud of industry and wealth, checkered with railroads and public thoroughfares. A land teeming with life and annually sending off surplus fruits, with hundreds, not to say thousands, of its sons to people newer regions beyond. A land whose resources and im- provements are so wonderful as to stagger belief and surpass the power of description.

When the first whites came here it was the great West, just as we now call the country beyond the Mississippi the great West. To the emigrant from Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio, with their wagons and ox teams, it was a great undertaking to move out West -- to Illinois. Fifty years ago, to load up all one's worldly goods in a wagon, hitch four horses to it, or three yoke of oxen, and start on a journey of two or three hundred miles over

bad roads, and often where there were no roads at all, was a trip that most of us would shrink from now. It was a greater under- taking than it is at the present day to cross the continent, or even to go to Europe. Yet that is the way the pioneers came to Illinois half a century ago.

West Township is situated in the southwest part of the county, and is an unexceptionally fine farming country, being mostly prairie. The western part of the township is very level, but the eastern portion is more rolling and drains well without artificial means. There is considerable timber in places and along Fulfer Creek, which runs through the entire township, there was originally a great deal of fine white oak timber, most of which has been cut away. The other growths are walnut, hickory, cottonwood, several kinds of oak, hackberry, buckeye, sugar maple, etc. The principal water-course is Fulfer Creek, which traverses the entire township from east to west, or vice versa. A few other small streams flow in different directions, but are without names. West has Mound Township on the north, Mason Township on the east. Fayette County on the south and west, and taken all in all is one of the finest agricult- ural regions in the county. According to the Congressional survey of the State, it com- prises Township 6 north, in Range 4 east, of the Third Principal Meridian. It is inter- sected by the Springfield Division of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad, to which it contrib. uted liberally and aided materially in con- structing. Gillmore Station, as a shipping point, amply repays the people for the money they invested in building the road.

Settlements were not made in West Town- ship as early as in many other portions of the county, owing to the fact that the land was principally prairie and the pioneers did not believe in attempting a settlement on the

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IHISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.

open prairies. They believed these vast plains would never bo fit for anything but pastures, and hence shunned them as wholly unfit for farming purposes. Thus it was that not un- til nearly 1840 that a settlement was made in what now forms West Township. When Mr. Gillmore came here, in 1845, there were then living in the township the following families, viz., Nelson Simons, Abraham Riddle, Jesse Newman, Jacob Nelson, Jack Houchin, Jerry and Abraham Hammonds and Morgan Kava- naugh. These were mostly Tennesseans. Simons settled near the present Gillmore Sta- tion, about a mile from the east line of the township. He was a live, energetic man, full of fun and fond of his " toddy." His motto was, " drink plenty of whisky and keep the ager off." He finally sold out and moved away, probably to Missouri. Riddle settled about a mile west of Simons. He was a quiet, casy-going man, possessing but little energy; ho died in the township several years ago.

Newman settled on Fulfer Creek, and was a fine business man and a useful man in the community. He kept a store, the first in the township, and bought the surplus produce of the settlers. This he hauled in wagons to St. Louis, and in return brought back goods which, he supplied to the neighborhood, thereby creating a market at home. He finally sold out and moved into Mason Town- ship, where later he died, much respected. The Hammonds settled near Newman. Abra- ham still lives in the township, but Jerry died a few years ago. Mr. Kavanaugh settied in the same neighborhood, on the creek. He is dead. but has a son living in the township and other descendants in the county.

Jacob Nelson and Houchin have been ac- credited by some as the first actual settlers in the township, but this is not known of a certainty at this time. They are said to

have movod in about 1829 or 1830. Nelson afterward moved into Jackson and died there. Houchin was from Kentucky and settled there soon after Nelson. Later, he moved up into Shelby County, where he built a mill, and some years afterward moved into Coles Coun- ty, near the village of Paradise, and died there at a good old age.

These families above mentioned were the earliest settlers in the township. If there were others here as early their names are now forgotten. A number of families, however, came in shortly after, beginning about 1844- 45. From this time a continual stream of immigration was kept up until all the avail- able land was occupied. Among the first of those later emigrants were the Gillmores, Isham Mahon, Judge Jonathan Hook and Jeff Hankins. J. L. and William Gillmore, both of whom are still living in the township, came originally from Kentucky with their father, when quite small, and settled in Fay- ette County. From thenco the boys came here, as above, in 1845. Mahon came a year or two after the Gillmores. He is from Virginia and is still a resident of the town- ship.

Judge Hook was from Ohio, and settled abont the same time. He was a man highly respected in the community in which he lived. For many years he served as a Justice of the Peace, and was elected County Judge, which office he filled acceptably for one term. When he died, ho was followed to the grave by the largest funeral procession ever seen in tho township. He was buried in Edgewood Cemetery. Hankins settled near Mahon. He was a relative of the Hankinses, who set- tled in the county at an early day, in Sum- mit and Jackson Townships. He came hero from Fayette County, and after remaining a few years returned whence he came.

About this time, quite a number of settlers

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HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.

were moving in from Indiana and Ohio. These did not assimilate readily with the Southern people, who formed by far the larger portion of the early settlers. The Kentuckians and Tennesseans looked upon everybody born and bred north of the Ohio River as Yankees, and the very word Yankee to them implied all that was bad and wicked. But a home in the wilderness, a life on the frontier, is a grand leveler of human prejudice; so, as they were made better acquainted with each other by constant intercourse, their old antipathies were swept away, and they became the best of friends.

West Township possesses little of historical interest beyond its settlement and occupation by white people. There is not a town-ex- cept Gillmore Station, which can scarcely be called a town-in the township; there is not a mill, and never has been, save a saw-mill or two; nor is there a church building. This leaves but little to say, beyond the fact that the people are moral, industrions, energetic and intelligent, attending strictly to their own business and cultivating and improving their lands.

That there is no church building in the township, it does not follow that the people are all Bob Ingersolls. They are not of that class by any means. The schoolhouses are used for church as well as for school pur- poses, and with the towns of Altamont, Mason and Edgewood in close proximity, the people have no laek of spiritual consolation and teaching. Many of them attend religious services at these places, and are members of the churches there located. One of the first things our Pilgrim Fathers did after erossing " the stormy seas," was to assemble upon the barren rocks of Plymouth, in the great tem- ple, whose majestic dome was the over arching skies, and offer prayers of thanksgiving for their safe voyage and successful landing.

So it was with the first settlers of Illinois, and the pioneers of West Township were no exception. Whenever a few families were near enough to each other to be called a neighborhood, they often assembled, either in the open air, or within the narrow confines of some pioneer cabin, blending their hymns of praise with the moan of the winds, and amid the scream of the panther and the howl of wolves, returning thanks to the Giver of all good. In all their trials and sufferings, their early privations and hardships, the pio- neers never once forgot that God was the great source of blessing and would not for- sake them in their time of need. With all the churches surrounding them that there are, the good people of the township are well supplied with the Gospel.

The first schoolhouse in the township was built on Section 10, on Fulfer Creek, near where Jim Beck now lives. The name of the first teacher is not remembered, nor the date of the school taught. At the present time there are five good, substantial schoolhouses in the township. They are all neat frame buildings, in which schools are tanght each year for the usual term by competent teach- ers.

Jesse Newman, as we have said, kept the first store in the township. He was one of the most useful men in the sparsely settled community, and bought everything the farm- er had to sell, giving him the necessaries of life in return. He bought wheat and hauled it to St. Louis at 60 cents a bushel, and our farmers now grumble at having to sell for $1 a bushel and haul it a few miles to the railroad. But then some people would grum- ble if they were going to be hung. Mr. Newman had a large peach orchard, and manufactured peach brandy. He always kept a large supply of this exhilarating bev- erage in his cellar, and furnished his custom-

comWright.

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HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.

ers liberally with it, particularly when he headquarters for this section, and by some wanted to make a good bargain with them. Everything was then hanled to St. Louis in wagons. Mr. Gillmore says he has hauled many a load of wheat to St. Louis for 60 cents a bushel and was very glad to get even that. The old National road was a great thoroughfare in those days, and fully as many wagon trains went over it as trains of cars now go over the Vandalia Railroad.

By reference to the chapter on township organization, it will be seen that the county was previously divided into districts, or pre- cinets, for election purposes, and that when the county adopted township organization, Township 6, in the fourth range, was called West Township, being the first designated on the west side of the county. Mr. J. L. Gillmore was the first Supervisor, and has served in that capacity for fourteen years, which proves conclusively that he is the " right man in the right place." Since him other Supervisors have been N. T. Wharton, Au- gustus Wolf, -- Willett, then Gillmore again and William Velter. The present offi- cers are William Velter, Supervisor; N. T. Wharton, School Treasurer; Robert Mahon, Township Clerk, and William Donnelly and Angustus Wolf. Justices of the Peaco.

Like all of Effingham County-except Lu- cas Township-West is largely Democratic upon the political issues of the day. In the late war, it was patriotic, and furnished more than its full quota of men. A large number of them, however, enlisted at Effingham and other places, for whom the township did not get credit. This resulted in one draft being imposed, for two men only. The first time, we are told. two Republicans were drafted. They reported at Olney, then the military

sleight-of-hand work, got off and came home as " unfit for service." A new draft was or- dered, and this time the lightning struck two Democrats-Nick T. Wharton and John W. Wilson. They got off too-by paying the moderate sum of $1,600 for substitutos. The dealer in substitutes who furnished these two to West Township made a little fortune in this rather questionable business, But as a proof that it was questionable, he eventually lost it. and at the last accounts of him he was peddling sewing-machines in the southern part of the State. Verily, "the way of the transgressor is hard."

There is but one small village or hamlet in the township, viz , Gillmore or Welton. The place was established as a station on the rail- road when it was built and was called Gill- more. The post office still goes by that name. Recently, however, the place has been surveyed and laid out as a town and called Welton, after the proprietor of the land -H. S. Welton. It was platted August 2, 1SS2, and is situated on the northeast quarter of Sectlon li. of this township. The post office was established in 1872, and John Fur- neanx appointed Postmaster. The first store was also kept by Furneaux, who is still in the business and who still keeps the post office. A. Carlston had a small store hero some time ago, but has quit the business. Mr. Randall keeps a good store at the pres- ent time. He also buys grain for Welton, who lives in Springfield and does a large business in that line. A blacksmith shop is kept by Cole. There is no church, but a good school building, which is used both for church and school. These with some half dozen or I more residences comprise the little town.

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HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.

CHAPTER XXV .*

BANNER TOWNSHIP-TOPOGRAPHY-TIMBER GROWTII, ETC. - THE SETTLEMENT - BINGEMAN, RENTFROW AND OTHER PIONEERS-WOLF HUNTS-CHURCHES AND CHURCH INFLU- ENCES-SCHOOLS-VILLAGE OF SHUMWAY-ITS GROWTH AND DEVELOP- MENT-RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES.

"We cross the prairies, as of old The pilgrims crossed the sea, To make the West, as they the East, The homestead of the free."

B ANNER is a fractional township, lying in the north central part of the county, and was formerly included in the territory of Summit, from which it was separated in the year 1874. It is bounded on the east, south and west by the townships of Douglas, Summit and Liberty, on the north by Shelby County, and comprises the south half of Township 9 north, Range 5 east. The prin- cipal streams by which it is watered and drained are the Little Wabash, Shoal Creek, and Moot's Creek. The first named flows through the southeast corner, and is a stream of considerable size and importance; Moot's Creek flows nearly east, through the central part of the township, uniting with Shoal Creek in Section 33, and finally emptying into the Little Wabash. Aside from those mentioned. there are several smaller streams that are nameless on the county map. The land is diversified between woodland and prairie, the latter predominating. The tim- bered districts are confined principally to the eastern and northeastern portions and the creeks, while the prairie occupies the central and southern parts, and comprise about three-fourths of the townships. The timber consists of hickory, ash, maple, elm,

and sycamore, several varjeties of oak and walnut in limited quantities. The prairies, when the first pioneers made their appear- ance, were covered with a dense growth of tall grass, so tall that a person riding through it on horseback could hardly be seen, and so dense that the sun's rays were wholly ex- cluded from the ground, thus rendering the surface of the country damp and wet the entire year, and proving a prolific source of malaria during the hot months of July, August and September. These facts caused the early pioneers to give this part of the country a roomy berth, and it was not until many years after the first settlements were made in the timber that any one was found foolhardy enough to venture even a suggestion that the prairies could be cultivated. Years after, as the country became more thickly populated, and all the available timber land had been bought up, a system of drainage was adopted, and the land made comparatively dry. The prairie farms are now the best and most fertile in the township. This region is exclusively agricultural, there being no fac- tories of any kind, and but one flouring mill in the township.

The first settlement within the present limits of Banner was made in the timber along the little Wabash, about the year 1840, by John Bingeman. He had been a resident of the county several years before moving . here, having located in Jackson Township at

* By G. N. Berry,

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HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.

an early day, though this seems to have been his first permanent improvement. He moved to Southwestern Missouri in 1865 and died there ten years ago at an advanced age. Jefferson Rentfrow was a prominent pioneer of Banner and came into this part of the county in the year 1843, and located the farm upon which he still resides. About the time of their arrival, or perhaps a few months later, a man by the name of Ramsey made some improvements in the timber near Rentfrow's place and was prominently con- nected with the early history of the town- ship; his death occurred about the year 1855. The place he improved is at present owned by George Section. Robert Shumard was an early settler also, and located near the timber, where he lived for a number of years. He disposed of his improvements about the year 1860, and went to the city of Mattoon, his present place of residence. Nathan Ramsey settled on land lying about one mile east of where Shumway now stands, about the year 1849, where he lived until 1877, when becoming restive under the rapid ad- vances of civilization, and thinking there were more congenial quarters for him further west, turned his face in that direction and is now a resident of the State of Texas. A son, William Ramsey, occupies the old place. The same year and about the same time that Ramsey settled here, Hugh Dennis came to the township and located near the present site of Shumway, on land now in possession of Henry Bernard. He afterward purchased a large tract of land, including the ground which the village now occupies, and sold it later to the Paducah Railroad Company when that route was first surveyed through the country. Dennis was a man of fine qual- ities, and like the majority of early settlers in a new country, came here poor, but by industry and frugality soon acquired a com-

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History of Effingham county, Illinois, Part 33

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? ed Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago, O. L. Baskin & co. Number of Pages: 650

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, O. L. Baskin & co.
Number of Pages: 650