USA > Illinois > Effingham County > History of Effingham county, Illinois > Part 9
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The following is the substance of an act of the Illinois Legislature, and is the final chapter in the official life of Richard John Hill, of date February 3, 1845 :
" Whereas, Richard J. Hill was appointed Collector of the County of Effingham for the taxes for the year 1841, and was charged with the collection of the taxes of that year, amount- ing to the sum of 8227.16, and died without having completed the collection of the same and it appearing by the books of said Hill, as, returned to the County Commissioners' Court of said county, by William J. Hankins, ad- ministrator of said Hill, and that there re- maius uncollected the sum of $182.47. There- fore
SECTION 1. Be it enacted, etc. That Samuel B. Parks, Charles Gilky and Presley Funk- houser be released from a judgment obtained in the Sangamon Circuit Court against them as securities of said Richard J. Hill, as collec- tor as aforesaid, on payment of the sum of $44.69 with interests, costs of suit, that being the amount that appears to have been collected
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by the said Hill as collector at the time of his death.
A type of a class of men developed by the times were the fighting, roystering, drinking, devil-may-care fellows of whom "chief among ten thousand and the one altogether lovely" was Rod Jenkins. He had boon companions, many imitators, but no equals. He stood alone " like some grand ancient tower " except when he had to steady himself by leaning on some one not so tired as he was. There was nothing small about Rod; he " longed" for the spiritual in this life, and, like the old woman when telling how she liked corn bread, he " honed " for liquid joys. In the language of the hard-shell funeral sermon, " he had hosses and he run 'em-had dogs and he " fit " 'em- had cocks and always bet his bottom dollar on the high-combed cock.
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To hunt a little, frolic much, go to town often and never miss a general election day, and get " glorious " carly and fight all day for fun, was the pleasure and delight of his life.
We mean no offense to the readers of the prize- ring literature of to-day by informing them that even in the early times there were men here nearly as big fools as they are. Their intelli- gence, like these, had a strong admixture of the bulldog and hyena. Their real worship was an image of the bullet-head and thick-necked tribe of bruisers. It is this base-born admiration of the thug that makes such characters possible among civilized men. The bully is the com- panion piece of the religio-militant dogmatic preacher. They are admirably mated in igno- rance, but in all else the blood-tub is the best of the two. It has been said that of all disgust- ing sights for gods or men, the worst is that of a prize-ring with two human brutes turned loose, like Spanish bulls, to batter and bruise each other to the point of death. But, in truth, a yet worse sight is an ignorant dogmatic ass in the pulpit, sacrilegiously proclaiming his Godly authority to damn mankind, and rudely
invading the sacred confines of that border land of the linite and infinite, where each one is unto himself a secret and a covenant with his God alone; where no earthly power should ever at- tempt or does attempt to go, but where the long-cared dogmatist would forever " bray " you in the gnashing teeth. the sobs and wails of a superheated hell and brimstone.
There were redeeming traits often about the fighting bully in those olden times. He was the foundation upon which the present thugs may place their first start in the world, and from the good that was in him his successors have wholly departed, until they now present an instance of perpetual degeneration and total depravity.
Rod had many redeeming qualities. At home he was sober, industrious and honest. Ilis fault was he wanted to go to town too often. He only wanted to quarrel with those who had, like himself, a passion for such discussions, and here was a small class of men who found their fun and enjoyment in thus expending the pent- up vital forces that were in their large and splendidly developed physical organizations.
Among barbarous people, to drink and get drunk are not grievous crimes, and generally from the highest to the lowest the rule is to in- dulge to excess upon every opportunity. There was a time when anywhere in Illinois whisky was to be found in every house; it was a com- mon beverage for men, women and children. and common hospitality commanded it to be offered to every guest upon nearly all occasions. It was cheap, in common use, fresh from the still and fiery, but neither adul- terated nor poisoned. It made men drunk and foolish and beastly, but probably did not so fearfully eraze them then as now.
Rod was not wholly vile nor evil-looking, morally or physically. In fact, a kindly-faced, good old grandmother who knew Rod when she was a fair-haired lass, has often described him to the writer as she saw him with her young eyes in his early manhood. She insists he was
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not her sweetheart, yet she pronounces him, at one time, " the prettiest man in the county." But he was never vain of his beauty, however much he may have been of his prowess. Even if he had been proud of his manly beauty of face, he met with an accident that changed all this just as effectually as did the mule cure the boy that attempted to climb his tail. This ac- cident gave him the name of " Old Snip Nose," and came about as follows:
On one occasion, in a nice, friendly fight, he bit off a portion of his friend's nose. When he sobered up, he no doubt regretted the accident so much that he would have replaced the missing link if he could. But seeing he could not do this, he gave him- self no further concern. His victim did not relish the very practical joke, but nursed his wrath to keep it warm, and as patiently as he could, bided his time. It was not a great while before he saw Rod start home from Ewington so very drunk that before he had gone very far beyond the city limits he fell off his wagon, the fall not disturbing his sound sleep. His enemy improved the opportunity, rushed upon him, and cut off his nose. Whisky had been the Delilah that caressed Rod in her lap until he was shorn thus cruelly. 'From that day he had about the poorest excuse for a nose in the whole county. At all events he missed it so sadly that he eventually took an old shoe-vamp, soaked it well, and made a leather nose, which was fastened to its place by a string around his head above the ears.
One morning he rode into Ewington to spend the day, as usual, and as he came into the crowd, Dan Williams (Blue Dan) saluted him cheerfully with, " How are you, old Snip Nose?"
He paid little or no attention at the time to this salutation, but during the day Rod and Dan got into a fight, when Rod bit off Dan's nose, and then pushed him away, saying with a leer, " How are you, Brother Snip?" The whole county enjoyed the joke finely, at least as well
nearly as did Blue Dan, and from this time forth the two were better friends than ever. They often met in the village and spent the day in admirable harmony together, never after meeting with more serious mishaps than some- times loosing their leather noses, and then they would go arm in arm roaring through the vil- lage, sending the women and children, and some of the men too, flying in terror to their homes and hiding places.
Rod and Dan were admirable types of a class that were here from the first, and that will be here yet for mayhap a long time. It is not insisted on that their abnormally developed bumps for fights and whisky were either essential to the early pioneer or models to be hung up in the schoolroom. But there is little donbt but that they had other essential traits, such as reckless bravery, strong resolution and endurance for the sore trials of their times that made them valuable factors in the struggles of the fathers.
Boleyjack .- Another and a different character entirely from any we have attempted to por- tray in the preceding chapters was Boleyjack, sometimes styled the parched corn, summer preacher. He was a magnificent specimen of the coon skin pioneer exhorter in many re- spects. He lived hard, preached brimstone sermons and was paid his ministerial salary in old clothes, and at rare intervals, a full feed on " hog and hominy " at a brother's or neighbor's. From his early days-the years intervening between his childhood gambols and his back- woods preaching-little or nothing is known. He was here-as to how. whence or why he came no one asked, perhaps no one cared. He was naturally pious and dirty, in fact, the prince of dirt if not a paragon of piety. His laziness was only equaled by his tatters and rags. He despised all manual labor, and dread- ed soap and water with an intensity that kept him preserved always in his ancient sweetness and purity. He was the great unwashed sal- vation shrieker, yet there was within him the
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smoldering fires of a rough eloquence that when once in his pulpit and warmed to his work, were soon fanned into fierce flames as he drew frightful pictures of an angry God, or the horrors of a hell of literal fire and brim- stone. He preached the Gospel pure and sim- ple, as he understood it ; not for pelf, but sole- ly for the good of mankind, and because he was too lazy to do anything else. Many, who have seen him hundreds of times, have at- tempted over and over again to describe him- to draw in words a picture so strong and clear that his true likeness would stand out upon the canvas strong and distinct. It is feared they failed to that extent that it will be im- possible for us to place him in his deserved niche of immortality. In appearance he is de- scribed as a man of medium size, angular, un- couth and very ungainly ; swarthy complexion, large month, heavy lips, long black, coarse un- kempt hair, stooped shouldered, sluggish of movement, and listless, careless air. Ilis whole features were heavy and stolid ; a large under jaw and a thickness of neck that indicated the preponderance of the animal, the eye being the only feature that bespoke talent of any kind. He was a summer preacher mostly, and his dress was not of royal ermine or purple silk and fine linen. It was coarse, home-made tow linen, and consisted of shirt and " breeches, " the breeches foxed with buckskin in front and rear, and a coon-skin cap, and as a rule bare- foot, but on great occasions he wore a shock- ing pair of shoes-no socks. His shoes never fit, and he stuck his toes into the vamp while his heels braved the wind and weather. The shoe and foot were kept together by hickory bark strings. There was a mile of shin between the " breeches " and shoes exposed to the elements. This exposure had given them much the ap- pearance of a young shell-bark hickory. To make up for the shortness at the bottom of his " breeches," they were drawn up nearly to the neck by a single hickory bark " gallus " which
was fastened by goodly sized wooden pegs in lieu of buttons.
Such was Boleyjack, and, such as he was, he never seemed to tire of proclaiming to the world that he was not "ashamed to own his Lord and Master." Whether this compliment was returned or not is not material to this in- quiry. Boleyjack was no sunshine, band-box dandy. He was not a Beecher, a Talmage. a mountebank nor a monkey. He was a humble, sincere, great pioneer preacher, with fists like a maul and a voice like the fabled bull of Ban- she, and thus arrayed and equipped he went meekly forth upon his mission, and waked the echoes of the primeval forests, made reprobates tremble, women to cry and shout aloud, and many a tough old sinner to fall upon his kness and plead with Heaven in agonizing groans and sobs. In squalor and poverty in his floor- less log cabin he dreamed out his indolent ex- istence, tasting in a vague way, perhaps, some of the pangs of endless punishment. Yet there is no doubt he found surcease of sorrows in his vivid imaginings, which brought him sweet foretaste of the eternal Sundays in that city not built with hands, and whose streets are paved with gold, and whose rivers flow peren- nially with milk and honey. Boleyjack's wife and helpmeet was an instance of remarkable adaptation to a remarkable husband. She was not too much civilized ; was coarse, rongh, of great physical strength and endurance. Her unadorned beauties had been materially aggra- vated by a savage hook in one eye, by a furions cow, which, while it had not " put out " the eye, had sadly " rucked " it up, and for the balance of its life it dissolved partnership with its mate and seemed to set up business on its own hook. A circumstance or two will tell much of her history. Not a great while before her death, a railroad train killed her cow. The old lady witnessed it all from her cabin door. She rushed out, took her position on the track and demanded pay for her cow before the train
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HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.
could move. It was only after much trouble and some force that she could be gotten out of the way and the train allowed to pursue its voyage. It is said that she regularly soaped the track until an agent was sent down, and a good round price paid the old lady for her cow. Not a great while after this, she was walking along the track of the railroad when a train came along. The engineer whistled and whis- tled, and slowed up and whistled and barked and coughed but all in vain. She gave it no heed, never once turned her head. Finally, when almost upon her, it was stopped, the con- duetor and brakeman rushed forward, believing they had barely saved the life of a poor deaf mute, and seized her by the arms and forced her to one side. "Oh !" says she. "you may hoot and toot, and keep a hooten and a tooten,
but you can't skeer me, if you did kill my cow !" When the good woman died there were strange whispers went abroad, some of them, in short, charging absolutely that Boleyjack had starved her to death. He was eventually taken to task upon this charge, and asked to explain it. He repelled the vile slander, and confused his accusers by the erushing reply : " It is false, for there was at least a half-pint of parclied corn at her bedside when she died." Boleyjack soon followed his companion to that happy land, it is to be hoped, where soap and water are an unknown necessity, and where parched eorn and hickory bark "galluses " are not the essential stays of life. In their hum- ble way and in their hard lives they found their places and filled them to the best of their ability. Let them sleep in peace.
CHAPTER V.
LEGAL LIFE OF THE COUNTY-LIST OF OFFICERS-BOARDS OF SUPERVISORS-THEIR OFFICIAL DUTIES-FARMING AND STOCK RAISING-AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES, THEIR MEET-
INGS AND OFFICERS-THE GOOD ACCOMPLISHIED, ETC., ETC.
SOMETHING of the history of the legal life of the county, that is, its officials in their regular order, is the following :
1833-T. W. Short, Isaac Faneher and Will- iam J. Hankins were the first elected County Commissioners' Court ; Joseph H. Gillespie, County Clerk ; John C. Sprigg, Cireuit Clerk ; Henry P. Bailey, Sheriff; John Loy, County Treasurer ; William J. Hankins, County Sur- veyor ; William J. Haukins, Probate Judge. Isaac Fancher only served as Commissioner a few months, and was succeeded in office by James Turner.
1834-Commissioners' Court was John Mar- tin, William Freeman and Eli Cook.
1835-June term. William J. Hankins ap- : pointed County Clerk ; Sam Huston, Treas- urer ; John Trapp, Sheriff.
1836-William S. Clark, Presley Funkhous-
er and Isaac Slover were the County Commis- sioners' Court ; Silas Barnes, pro tem., County Clerk.
1837-John C. Gillenwaters. Treasurer ; William Freeman, Sheriff; William J. Han- kins, Circuit Clerk ; John Funkhauser, School Superintendent.
1838-Thomas M. Loy, Probate Judge ; John Loy, Treasurer; T. J. Gillenwaters, Presley Funkhouser and Isaac Slover elected County Judges. They drew lots, when Gillen- waters drew the three-year term, Funkhouser two years, and Slover one year. December, 1838, a vacancy occurred in the County Clerk's office. To fill the vacancy, W. H. Blakeley, John C. Gillenwaters, and Newton E. Tarrant were applicants. The court by vote appointed Newton E. Tarrant.
1839-Law provided for Commissioners to
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HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.
appoint two Assessors and a Collector for the county. Joseph C. Wheeler and Harrison Iliggs were appointed Assessors, Joseph C Wheeler, Colleetor.
1839 - Thomas M. Loy, County Clerk ; Thomas J. Renfro, Sheriff ; Presley Funkhous- er. T. J. Gillenwaters and Daniel Parkhurst, Commissioners.
1840-Martin, Parkhurst and Gillenwaters, Commissioners.
1841-J. Martin, S. B. Parks, N. E. Tarrant, Commissioners.
1842-John O. Scott, Sehool Superintend- ent, and James Devore succeeded Tarrant as Commissioner. At August term of this year, Thomas M. Loy resigned County Clerkship and William J. Hankins appointed to his place.
1843-A. B. Kagay elected County Clerk ; James Cartwright, Treasurer ; John O. Scott, County School Superintendent.
1844-Elisha W. Parkhurst, Probate Judge; Daniel Rinehart, County Treasurer; James De- vore, Isaae Slover and William Dunham, Conn- ty Commissioners. Briek court honse in Ew- ington built this year.
1845-Charles F. Falley, County School Superintendent ; Isaac Slover, W. E. Tarrant and Charles Kellim; County Commissioners.
1846-S. B. Parks, Sheriff; A. B. Kagay County Clerk ; W. E. Tarrant, Thomas Doute and Isaac Slover, Commissioners.
1847-Daniel Rinehart. County Clerk ; Charles Kellim, School Superintendent ; James Levitt, Treasurer ; Thomas M. Loy, Surveyor.
1849-Thomas Doute, Isaac Slover, Gideon Lowder, Commissioners ; W. J. Hankins, Pro- bate Judge ; John Broom and W. E. Tarrant, Associate Judges ; Richard MeCraner, Treas- urer ; John O. Scott, School Superintendent ; John S. Kelly, Cireuit Clerk ; S. B. Parks, Sheriff.
1851-T. J. Rentfro, Sheriff.
1846-John M. Brown. Superintendent of Schools.
1850-John B. Carpenter, Superintendent of Schools.
1852-S. B. Parks, Sheriff.
1853-John S. Kelly, Circuit Clerk ; W. E. Tarrant, County Judge; Samuel H. Pullin, James Devore, Associates ; T. M. Loy, Coun- ty Clerk ; R. A. Howard, County Surveyor.
1854-John G. Gamble, Sheriff; John M Brown, School Superintendent.
1856-Orville L. Kelly, Sheriff ; John B. Carpenter, Sehool Superintendent ; A. B. Ka- gay, Treasurer.
1858-W. E. Tarrant, County Judge ; T. J. Gillenwaters and H. H. Huels, Associates ; D. Rinehart, County Clerk.
1859-Samuel Winters, Sheriff.
1861-John Trapp, Circuit Clerk; O. L Kelly, Sheriff.
1861-Robinson McCann, School Superin- tendent. Never served out his term. Went to the war, and eourt declared bond insufficient and appointed Calvin Kitchell to fill the vacancy.
1863-William Gillmore, Sheriff.
1865-S. B. Parks, County Judge ; D. Rine- hart, County Clerk ; J. C. Brady, Cireuit Clerk; Jesse Surrells, Treasurer ; W. I. N. Fisher, School Superintendent ; A. S. Moffit, Surveyor; William Gillmore, Sheriff; T. G. Vandever. Coroner.
1869-Jonathan Hooks, County Judge; J. W. Filler, County Clerk; Jesse R. Surrells, Treasurer; S. F. Gilmore, School Superintend- ent; Calvin Mitchell, Surveyor; L. J. Willien, Coroner.
1871-J. Surrells, Treasurer; C. Mitchell, Surveyor.
1872-W. C. Leerone, Circuit Clerk; W. C. Baty, Sheriff; W. H. Gillmore, States Attorney; J. H. Kroeger, Coroner.
1873-J. B. Jones, County Judge ; J. W. Filler, County Clerk; 1I. G. Habing, Treasurer; Owen Scott, School Superintendent.
1874-W. C. Baty, Sheriff; Levi Reutfro, Coroner.
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HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.
+1876-W. C. Lecrone, Circuit Clerk; W. H. Gillmore, County Attorney; Thomas H. Dobbs, Sheriff; W. L. Goodell, Coroner.
1879-Barney Wernsing, Treasurer; C. A. Van Allen, County Surveyor.
1880-R. C. Harrah, County Attorney; W. W. Simpson, Circuit Clerk; A. H. Kelly, Sheriff; J. N. Groves, Coroner.
If to these names he added the various ones of the numerous boards of Supervisors of the county that have assembled from time to time to guard the people's interests and carry on the business of the county, then you will have a complete list of the names which bear the honors, whatever they may be, of the legal life and doings of the county, as well as the names of those on whose shoulders must perpetually rest the foolish, unwise, and positively injurious public acts, if there have been any, in the coun- ty's history to date.
To the day of the adoption of township or- ganization in the county, there is but little, if any, doubt that many errors slipped iuto the administration of county affairs, but, at worst, they were venial and the inflictions that fol- lowed them were temporary, and the county's financial affairs never verged upon the borders of criminal extravagance. In many things they would now be termed old fogyish probably, and they would deserve the mild reproach, but they were always rigidly conservative and econom- ical in handling the people's money, and but precious little of the public "blood money " (not a bad name for all taxes) found its way, under any pretext, into any official's pocket.
Let justice be rendered these plain, unpre- tentious men in this respect. Their sterling official honesty is now beautiful to behold, and it is well to constantly revive its cherished memory. True, temptations were not scat- tered along their pathway, but it should be borne in mind that those officials who handle and manage the public funds, usually have the making and creating of their own temptations,
and it is not, and should not be, an answer to say, " he was sorely tempted."
A few hundred dollars was all the county gathered from the people annually prior to 1860.
It is the misfortune of the Board of Super- visors that it came into existence in the county when all the country was in the first throes of the civil war. Communities had gone daft, and madness and folly ruled everywhere, and pretty much all the few remnants of sanity left in the few individuals were either ostracized or hung by mobs. The bloody carnival had commenced, the end of the evils of which will not come in our day or generation, or in the day and gen- eration of our immediate children's children. When a great people have been completely de- moralized, it is not yet a fact demonstrated by cither ancient or modern history, that the plague can ever be cleansed from the blood, and real health restored. National demoraliza- tion, when it honeycombs the body politic and penetrates every hamlet and home in the land is leprosy-incurable and loathsome.
For the year 1882, the Board of Supervisors calls for the sum of $17,000 for county revenue only.
This is not so high as it has been in some years, and it is higher than it has been in some years.
In 1SS1, it was $14,623.74; in 1869, $14,758; in 1878, $20,561.99; in 1877, $24,379.50.
To explain these extraordinary levys, it should be borne in mind that they were caused by the large defaults made by many tax payers.
The call for $17,000 this year will all be col- lected, so that this may be put down as the true expense for the year 1882 of the county. This is the county's money, for county pur- poses, county expenses.
Schools, roads and bridges, townships, rail- roads, State and about every other of the in- numerable taxes piled on our people, are ex- cluded from this $17,000 the county wants and
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HISTORY OF EFFINGHAM COUNTY.
. will get. The Poor Farm and the pay of the county officers are, so far as the public may see, the only places where this money is des- tined to go. A part of this money may be used necessarily in the matter of the county's tax sale lately, where the county bid off the land, and holds the certificates of purchase. Other portions, judging by the past, may be appropriated by the board to aid in the build- ing of certain much needed bridges in the county, and thus all this sum of money may be both justly and judiciously expended, and the people have, not only no eause to complain, but much to commend most heartily.
In the way the county's book-keeping is done it is very difficult, next to impossible, for a tax payer to go there and tell how much of the money has been used for county purposes, and how much for county expenses in the dis- charge of the county's business. In this the board gives the people just ground for some of the complaints against it.
The county has, at one time or another, employed experts to investigate nearly every officer in the county, except the Board of Su- pervisors. There is a fine vein of irony run- ning through all this employment of experts (the qualification necessary being the ability to keep a set of books) to come in on every emer- gency and explain to the board its own busi- ness. It is on a par with the appointment of Postmasters that cannot read and write.
A generation ago the County Commissioners built bridges that were very regularly washed away, and this heroic work is patiently going on in the same way to-day. It was once said that somebody never learned and never forgot anything. That probable somebody has come to Effingham to superintend the public works across the streams of the county.
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