USA > Illinois > Effingham County > History of Effingham county, Illinois > Part 75
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BIOGRAPHICAL:
Summit Township. In early life, his father learned the trade of a carpenter, and soon con- tracted to build houses and bridges. There were twelve children born unto him, six of whom reside in this township. He was mar- ried, March 30, 1819, to Catharine Funk, in the State of Tennessee. Of the six surviving children of this union, Presley C., Samuel F. and Elizabeth were born in Tennessee, and Sarah A., Lewis J. and Mary Ann were born in Illinois. Elizabeth married O. L. Kelley, who was killed in a railroad accident during the late war while on the way to the field of action. Sarah A. married D. W. Powell ; Mary Ann married Paris Griffith ; Presley C. married Nancy J. Warren, October 24, 1850, two chil- dren surviving. The father and the subject were soldiers in the Mexican war, each be- longing to Company C, Second Regiment Illinois Volunteers, of which the father was Second Lieutenant, and Harvy Lec, Captain. They landed at Tampico ; from thence they went to Vera Cruz, and were then ordered to march to the City of Mexico, which was taken before their arrival. When William J. Han- kins, the pioneer of this family, came to what is now Effingham County, it was a wild prairie. Green-head flies were so plentiful that stock was often destroyed by them, compelling the early settlers to cultivate the bottom lands on the river. Provisions could be obtained at no nearer point than Wayne County and St. Louis, excepting meat, which was supplied by captur- ing bear, deer and wild turkeys. Hogs were fattened on the mast. The subject remarks, "it was truly, root hog or dic." Farms in their neighborhood were opened in 1839, which was very tedious, oxen being chiefly used for plow- ing, as horses were not plenty. Oats and corn were the principal erops, and the yield gener- ally good. Schools were supported by sub- scription until 1839, when it appears by the record in possession of the subject that "the residents of this township shall each pay the
sum of two dollars per quarter for each scholar they send to school; and non-residents shall pay the sum of two dollars and fifty cents per quarter for each scholar they may send." "T. J. Gillenwaters, President of Board of Trustees, August 17, 1838." Samuel F. Hankins was many years School Director. In 1871, he was chosen School Treasurer, in which capacity he still acts. He is a bachelor. In early life he became a Mason, in which honorable institution he was advanced to the Royal Arch Degree.
T. B. RINEHART, farmer, P. O. Effingham, was born in Effingham County in 1841. His father was Daniel Rinehart, who was born in Tennessee and educated in Fairfield County, Ohio, also a farmer by occupation. He was married in Ohio, in 1818, to Miss Barbara Keagy, of the same county. In his family there were six children, two girls and four boys, all living except Jemima, former wife of William C. Wright, who died. Our subject is the third child of the family. His father died in Jan- uary, 1868. He came to this State in 1841, and settled in Watson Township, where he re- mained until his election to the office of County Clerk, when he removed to Effingham. He served some years in this capacity, during which time our subject embraced the oppor- tunity of gaining a high school education, and after graduation at MeKendree College. He was once chosen Supervisor of his township, and in 1882 was a candidate for County Clerk, on the National ticket. In January, 1868, he was married to Miss Mary Crooker Blakely, by which union they have had six children, two of whom died in infancy. His father had been prominent as a Justice of the Peace for many years. Mr. Rinehart's father-in-law was the late Judge Blakely, who came to Effingham County at an early day, when the country was a vast wilderness and sparsely settled. In 1839, he was chosen County Clerk, and was several times elected to the Legislature, and was also member of the Constitutional Convention for
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SUMMIT TOWNSHIP.
the counties of Effingham and Clay, in 1847. In 1852, lie was elected to the Legislature, and again in 1872, after twenty years of private life. He was born in Columbia County, N. Y., October 16, 1808. In October, 1839, he was married, in Lawrenceburg, Ind., to Miss Aman- da Crooker, who was born in Greene County, N. Y., in 1814. The marriage ceremony was performed by the late Judge Holden, who was in early life a prominent clergyman. On ar- riving in Effingham, Mr. Blakely was engaged in merchandising, at which time money was searce, and he frequently had to exchange mer- chandise for furs and feathers and like com- modities.
NATHAN SKIPPER, farmer, P. O. Effing- ham, son of Nathan and Frances (Williams) Skipper, was born in Hickman County, Tenn., in 1842; while young, he removed with his father's family from that State to Illinois, in 1850. They made the long, tedious journey through the then wilderness of prairie grass and roadless prairies, with two yoke of oxen and wagons. Arriving in Illinois, they settled near Weston, where his father settled upon a piece of land, which was entered over him by another party. Soon after this, he left and came to Summit Township, where he purchased eighty aeres, which were partly improved. Here our subject received such advantages of an education as were offered by the school system of those times, and raised to farming on his father's farm. He was married in 1861 to Miss Sarah Tims; the result of the union was one child, L. C. They are both deceased and their remains repose in the cemetery at Watson. Mr. Shipper takes an interest in the educational and political affairs, of the community in which he lives, and is respected by his fellow-
men. In his father's family there were fourteen children, of whom Mr. Skipper is the tenth. There names are as follows, named in order : Mary Ann, William, Eli, Catharine, Sarah, Matilda J., Elizabeth, Margara and Louis. One not named died young. His father was of Irish descent, and was born in North Carolina October 19, 1805, and died July 14, 1880, and was buried at Blue Point Cemetery. His mother is of French origin, her age, etc., are not remembered. In politics, Mr. Skipper is a Democrat.
J. F. THOMPSON, farmer, P. O. Shumway, was born in Wayne County, Ind., in May, 1834, son of L. W. and Catharina (Whiting) Thomp- son, both natives of Virginia, and both died in this county, the father in 1877 and the mother the year previous. They were the parents of eight children, four of whom are living. Our subject received his early schooling in Tippecanoe County, Ind., and farming he chose for his occupation in early life. He was married, January 23, 1868, in this county, to Miss Emma E. Kagay, born in Ripley County, Ohio, August 28, 1840, daughter of Abram and Elizabeth Kagay, both Virginians by birth. Mrs. Thompson is a sister of Hon. B. F. Kagay, of this county. She had a brother in the late civil war, who died at New Albany, Ind. Her grandfather was Daniel Hall. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have six children-Laura, May, William Franklin, Charles Arthur, Ivy and Fealdon. Our subject came to this county in 1864. He ran a drug store in Etlingham three years, but has farmed mostly, having purchased in 1869, oighty aeres at $17 per acre, on which he does general farming. He and his wife are members of the Baptist Church. In politics, he is a Democrat.
APPENDIX.
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY,
INCLUDING A BRIEF
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.
W HEN the Northwestern Territory was eeded to the United States by Virginia in 1784, it embraced only the terri- tory lying between the Ohio and the Missis- sippi Rivers, and north to the northern lim- its of the United States. It coincided with the area now embraced in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and that portion of Minnesota lying on the east side of the Mississippi River. The United States itself at that period extended no farther west than the Mississippi River; but by the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, the western boundary of the United States was extended to the Rocky Mountains and the Northern Pacific Ocean. The new territory thus added to the National do- main, and subsequently opened to settle- ment, has been called the "New North- west," in contradistinction from the old " Northwestern Territory."
In comparison with the old Northwest this is a territory of vast magnitude. It ineludes an area of 1,887.850 square miles: being greater in extent than the united areas of all the Middle and Southern States, including Texas. Out of this magnificent
territory have been erected eleven sovereign States and eight Territories, with an aggre- gate population, at the present time, of 13,000,000 inhabitants, or nearly one-third of the entire population of the United States.
Its lakes are fresh-water seas, and the larger rivers of the continent flow for a thousand miles through its rich alluvial val- leys and far-stretelling prairies, more aeres of which are arable and productive of the highest percentage of the cereals than of any other area of like extent on the globe.
For the last twenty years the increase of population in the Northwest has been about as three to one in any other portion of the United States.
EARLY EXPLORATIONS.
In the year 1541, De Soto first saw the Great West in the New World. He, how- erer, penetrated no farther north than the 35th parallel of latitude. The expedition resulted in his death and that of more than halt his army, the remainder of whom found their way to Cuba, thenee to Spain, in a famished and demoralized condition. De Soto founded no settlements, produced no results, and left no traces, unless it were
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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
that he awakened the hostility of the red man against the white man, and disheart- ened such as might desire to follow up the career of discovery for better purposes. The French nation were eager and ready to seize upon any news from this extensive domain, and were the first to profit by De Soto's defeat. Yet it was more than a century before any adventurer took advan- tage of these discoveries.
In 1616, four years before the pilgrims " moored their bark on the wild New Eng- land shore," Le Caron, a French Franciscan, had penetrated through the Iroquois and and Wyandots (Hurons) to the streams which run into Lake IInron; and in 1634, two Jesuit missionaries founded the first mission among the lake tribes. It was just one hundred years from the discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto (1541) until the Canadian envoys met the savage nations of the Northwest at the Falls of St. Mary, be- low the ontlet of Lake Superior. This visit led to no permanent result, yet it was not until 1659 that any of the adventurous fur traders attempted to spend a winter in the frozen wilds about the great lakes, nor was it until 1660 that a station was estab- lished upon their borders by Mesnard, who perished in the woods a few months after. In 1665, Claude Allonez built the earliest lasting habitation of the white man among the Indians of the Northwest. In 1668, Clande Dablon and James Marquette founded the mission of Sault Ste. Marie at the Falls of St. Mary, and two years after- ward, Nicholas Perrot, as agent for M. Talon, Governor General of Canada, ex- plored Lake Illinois (Michigan) as far south as the present City of Chicago, and invited the Indian nations to meet him at
a grand conneil at Sault Ste. Marie the following spring, where they were taken under the protection of the king, and formal possession was taken of the Northwest. This same year Marquette established a mission at Point St. Ignatius, where was founded the old town of town of Michilli- mackinac.
During M. Talon's explorations and Mar- quette's residence at St. Ignatius, they learned of a great river away to the west, and fancied-as all others did then-that upon its fertile banks whole tribes of God's children resided, to whom the sound of the Gospel had never come. Filled with a wish to go and preach to them, and in com- pliance with a request of M. Talon, who earnestly desired to extend the domain of his king, and to ascertain whether the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean, Marquette with Joliet, as commander of the expedition, prepared for the undertaking.
On the 13th of May, 1673, the explorers, accompanied by five assistant French Can- adians, set out from Mackinaw on their daring voyage of discovery. The Indians, who gathered to witness their departure, were astonished at the boldness of the undertaking, and endeavored to dissuade them from their purpose by representing the tribes on the Mississippi as exceedingly savage and cruel, and the river itself as full of all sorts of frightful monsters ready to swallow them and their canoes together. But, nothing daunted by these terrific de- scriptions, Marquette told them he was willing not only to encounter all the per- ils of the unknown region they were about to explore, but to lay down his life in a cause in which the salvation of souls was
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
involved; and having prayed together they separated. Coasting along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, the adventurers entered Green Bay, and passed thence up the Fox River and Lake Winnebago to a village of the Miamis and Kickapoos. Here Marquette was delighted to find a beautiful eross planted in the middle of the town, ornamented with white skins, red gir- dles and bows and arrows, which these good people had offered to the great Man- itou, or God, to thank him for the pity he had bestowed on them during the winter in giving them an abundant "chase." This was the fa: thest outpost to which Dablon and AAllonez had extended their missionary la- bors the year previous. Here Marquette drank mineral waters and was instructed in the secret of a root which cures the bite of the venomous rattlesnake. He assembled the chiefs and old men of the village, and, pointing to Juliet, said: " My friend is an envoy of France, to discover new conn- tries, and I am an ambassador from God to enlighten them with the truths of the Gos- pel." Two Miami guides were here for- nished to conduct them to the Wisconsin River, and they set ont from the Indian village on the 10th of June, amidst a great crowd of natives who had assembled to witness their departure into a region where no white man had ever yet ventured. The guides, having conducted them across the portage, returned. The explorers launched their canoes upon the Wisconsin which they descende'l to the Mississippi and pro- ceeded down its unknown waters. What emotions must have swelled their breasts as they struck out into the broadening cur- rent and became conscious that they were now upon the bosom of the Father of Wa-
ters. The mystery was about to be lifte i from the long-sought river. The scenery in that locality is beautiful, and on that delightful seventeenth of June must have been elad in all its primeval loveliness as it had been adorned by the hand of Nature. Drifting rapidly, it is said that the bold bluff's on either hand " reminded them of the castled shores of their own beautiful rivers of France." By-and-by, as they drifted along, great herds of batfalo ap- peared on the banks. On going to the heads of the valley they could see a conn- try of the greatest beauty and fertility, ap- parently destitute of inhabitants yet pre- senting the appearance of extensive man- ors, under the fastidious cultivation of lordly proprietors.
On June 25th, they went ashore and found some fresh traces of men upon the sand. and a path which led to the prairie. The men remained in the boat, and Marquette and Joliet followed the path till they dis- covered a village on the banks of a river, and two other villages on a hill, within a half league of the first, inhabited by Indians. They were received most hospitably by these natives, who had never before seen a white person. After remaining a few days they re-embarked and descended the river to about latitude 33°, where they found a village of the Arkansas, and being satisfied that the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, turned their course up the river, and aseending the stream to the month of the Illinois, rowed up that stream to its source, and procured guides from that point to the lakes. " No where on this journey," says Marquette, " did we see sneh grounds, meadows, woods, stags, buffaloes, deer, wildeats, bustards, swans. ducks, par-
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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
roquets, and even beavers, as on the Illinois River." The party, without loss or injury, reached Green Bay in September, and re- ported their discovery-one of the most important of the age, but of which no record was preserved save Marquette's, Joliet losing his by the upsetting of his canoe on his way to Quebec. Afterward Marquette returned to the Illinois Indians by their request, and ministered to them until 1675. On the 18th of May, in that year, as he was passing the mouth of a stream-going with his boatmen up Lake Michigan-he asked to land at its month and celebrate mass. Leaving his men with the canoe, he retired a shore distance and began his devotions. As much time passed and he did not return, his men went in search of him, and found him upon his knees, dead. Ile had peacefully passed away while at prayer. He was buried at this spot. Charlevoix, who visited the place fifty years after, found the waters had retreated from the grave, leaving the be- loved missionary to repose in peace. The river has since been called Marquette.
While Marquette and his companions were pursuing their labors in the West, two men, differing widely from him and each other, were preparing to follow in his footsteps and perfect the discoveries so well begun by him. These were Robert de La Salle and Louis Hennepin.
After La Salle's return from the discovery of the Ohio River (see the narrative else- where), he established himself again among the French trading posts in Canada. Here he mused long upon the pet project of those ages-a short way to China and the East, and was busily planning an expedi- tion up the great lakes, and so across
the continent to the Pacific, when Mar- qnette returned from the Mississippi. At once the vigorous mind of La Salle received from his and his companions' stories the idea that by following the Great River northward, or by turning up some of the numerons western tributaries, the object conld easily be gained. Ile applied to Frontenac, Governor General of Canada, and laid before him the plan, dim but gigantic. Frontenac entered warmly into his plans, and saw that La Salle's idea to connect the great lakes by a chain of forts with the Gulf of Mexico would bind the country so wonderfully together, give nu- measured power to France, and glory to himself, under whose administration he earnestly hoped all would be realized.
La Salle now repaired to France, laid his plans before the King, who warmly ap- proved of them, and made him a Chevalier. He also received from all the noblemen the warmest wishes for his success. The Chev- alier returned to Canada, and busily en- tered upon his work. He at once rebuilt Fort Frontenac and constructed the first ship to sail on these fresh-water seas. On the 7th of Angust, 1679, having been joined by Ilennepin, he began his voyage in the Griffin up Lake Erie. He passed over this lake, through the straits beyond, np Lake St. Clair and into IIuron. In this lake they encountered heavy storms. They were some time at Michillimackinac, where La Salle founded a fort, and passed on to Green Bay, the " Baie des Puans " of the French, where he found a large quantity of furs collected for him. Ile loaded the Griffin with these, and placing her under the care of a pilot and fourteen sailors, started her on her return voyage. The ves-
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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
sel was never afterward heard of. He re- mained about these parts until early in the winter, when. hearing nothing from the Griffin, he collected all his men-thirty working men and three monks-and started again upon his great undertaking.
By a short portage they passed to the Il- linois or Kankakee, called by the Indians, " Theakeke," arolf, because of the tribes of Indians called by that name, commonly known as the Mahingans, dwelling there. The French pronounced it Kiakiki, which became corrupted to Kankakee. " Falling down the said river by easy journeys, the better to observe the country," about the last of December they reached a village of the Illinois Indians, containing some five hundred cabins, but at that moment no in- habitants. The Seur de La Salle being in want of some breadstuff's, took advantage of the absence of the Indians to help him- self to a sufficieney of maize, large quanti- ties of which he found concealed in holes under the wigwams. This village was sit- nated near the present village of Utiea in La Salle County, Illinois. The corn being securely stored, the voyagers again betook themselves to the stream, and toward even- ing on the 4th day of January, 1680, they eame into a lake, which must have been the lake of Peoria. This was called by the Indians l'im-i-te-wi, that is a place where there are many fut beasts. Here the na- tives were met with in large numbers, but they were gentle and kind, and having spent some time with them, La Salle deter- mined to ereet another fort in that place, for he had heard rumors that some of the adjoining tribes were trying to disturb the good feeling which existed, and some of his men were disposed to complain, owing
to the hardships and perils of the travel. Ile called this fort " Crevecoeur " (broken- heart), a name expressive of the very nat- ural sorrow and anxiety which the pretty certain loss of his ship, Griffin, and his con- sequent impoverishment, the danger of hostility on the part of the Indians, and of mutiny among his own men, might well cause him. His fears were not entirely groundless. At one time poison was placed in his food, but fortunately was discovered.
While building this fort, the winter wore away, the prairies began to look green, and La Salle, despairing of any rein- foreements, coneluded to return to Canada, raise new means and new men, and embark anew in the enterprise. For this purpose he made Hennepin the leader of a party to explore the head waters of the Mississippi, and he set out on his journey. This jour- ney was accomplished with the aid of a few persons, and was snecessfully made, though over an almost unknown route, and in a bad season of the year. Ile safely reached Canada, and set out again for the object of his search.
IIennepin and his party left Fort Creve- cœur on the last of February, 1680. When La Salle reached this place on his return ex- pedition, he found the fort entirely desert- ed, and he was obliged to return again to Canada. He embarked the third time, and succeeded. Seven days after leaving the fort, Hennepin reached the Mississippi, and paddling up the icy stream as best he eould, reached no higher than the Wis- consin River by the 11th of April. IIere he and his followers were taken prisoners by a band of Northern Indians, who treat- ed them with great kindness. Hennepin's comrades were Anthony Anguel and Mi-
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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
chael Ako. On this voyage they found sev- eral beautiful lakes, and " saw some charm- ing prairies." Their captors were the Isante or Santeurs, Chippewas, a tribe of the Sioux nation, who took them up the river until about the first of May, when they reached some falls, which Ien- nepin christened Falls of St. Anthony in honor of his patron saint. Here they took the land, and traveling nearly two hundred miles to the northwest, brought them to their villages. IIere they were kept about three months, were treated kind- ly by their captors, and at the end of that time, were met by a band of Frenchmen, headed by one Senr de Luth, who, in pur- snit of trade and game, had penetrated thus far by the route of Lake Superior; and with these fellow-countrymen IIennepin and his companions were allowed to return to the borders of civilized life in November, 1680, just after La Salle had returned to the wilderness on his second trip. Hen- nepin soon after went to France, where he published an account of his adven- tures.
The Mississippi was first discovered by De Soto in April, 1541, in his vain endeav- or to find gold and precious gems. In the following spring, De Soto, weary with hope long deferred, and worn out with his wan- derings, fell a victim to disease, and on the 21st of May, died. IIis followers, re- duced by fatigue and disease to less than three linndred men, wandered about the country nearly a year, in the vain endeavor to rescue themselves by land, and finally constructed seven small vessels, called brig- antines, in which they embarked, and de- scending the river, supposing it would lead them to the sea, in July they came to
the sea (Gulf of Mexico), and by Septem- ber reached the Island of Cuba.
They were the first to see the great out- let of the Mississippi; but, being so weary and discouraged, made no attempt to claim the country, and hardly had an intelligent idea of what they had passed through.
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