History of Fulton county, Illinois, Part 18

Author: Chas. C. Chapman & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Peoria : C.C. Chapman & co.
Number of Pages: 1096

USA > Illinois > Fulton County > History of Fulton county, Illinois > Part 18

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

First Grain Raised .- The first wheat raised in Fulton county was in 1823, by O. M. Ross. It had to be eut with a siekle or reaping- hook, and threshed with a fail, winnowed with a sheet, ground in a horse-mill, and bolted with a hand bolt. Mr. Ross also raised the first ten aeres of corn. The trnek wagon was the principal one used in the first settlement of the county. They have been known to do good service on a farm for several years, and there was not a pound of iron or a nail used in their construction.

First School .- Hugh R. Colter taught the first school ever taught in Fulton county. The school-house, which stood about where the

216

HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.

Circuit and County Clerks' offices now stand, was built of round logs, provided with a mud chimney, and puncheons for floor, seats and writing-desks, and oil-paper for window glass. Those who are living that attended this school are Mrs. Steel, of Canton, for- merly Miss Ross, Mrs. Howard (Putman) Martin, Hon. Lewis W. Ross, Harvey L. Ross and Henry Andrews.

First Steam-boat .- The first steam-boat to run up the Illinois river was the "Liberty." Harvey L. Ross was a passenger on board. It was commanded by Captain Samuel Bailey, one of the proprietors of Pekin, and a co-commander with Gen. Stillman of this county during the Black Hawk war. This boat was advertised to run "from St. Louis to Peoria, touching all intermediate ports." It landed at Havana, then nothing but a ferry erossing, and at Pe- kin, which at that time was known, from its fine location, as " Town Site." A steam-boat was a novelty, and even a mystery, to many of the early settlers. Coming up the river the boat passed Kings- ton in the night. Hugh Barr, who lived near that point, heard it coming, and being on rather unfriendly terms with the Indians, then quite numerous in the vieinity, concluded that it was some infernal contrivance of theirs to frighten or harm him. Seizing his gun and setting his equally bewildered dog at it, he pursued the offending mystery. The pilot, not being familiar with the channel, ran into Clifton's lake, and finding no outlet, he had to back the boat out. Barr, witnessing this, drew off his dog, and, though still hugely puzzled to know what manner of craft it was, gave up pursuit. William Haines, who lived at Pekin, hearing the puff of the escap- ing steam, hastily left his bed, and, half dressed, crossed the street to Thomas Snell's, now the Bemis House, ealled neighbor Snell out of bed, and inquired as to what manner of creature was coming up the river. Snell replied: "I don't know, Bill; but if I was on the Ohio river I would think it was a steam-coat." Old Jacob Tharp, hearing the noise of the paddles and the steam whistle, thought it was Gabriel blowing his horn; that sure enough the end of the world had come in the night ; and calling up his family, engaged in praver as a fitting preparation for the advent of a higher and better life.

The First Turning-Lathe .- The first turning-lathe in Canton and perhaps in the county was owned and operated by Deacon Nathan Jones. It was a spring-pole lathe, with the eord wound around the stick to be turned, in such a manner that the stick ran half the time one way and half the time the other. Upon this lathe the deaeon turned his chair-stuff. This lathe was a part of the outfit of the first chair-maker's shop in Canton. It is related of the deacon, while engaged in this shop, that on one occasion he had carried a lot of chair-stuff into the kitchen to season by the kitchen fire. The deacon had neglected to provide Aunt Matilda-his wife-with wood, and this neglect had so excited the old lady's ire that she siezed and burnt an armful of chair-rungs. The deacon stood and

217

HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.

contemplated the destruction of his chair-rungs in solemn silence for some moments. As the flames began to curl around them, the deacon's lips parted, and his hand was raised, not in anger, but in sadness. He tipped his hat to one side with the uplifted hand, and exclaimed, " Matilda, I wish you were in heaven !" And this, it is recorded, was the most nearly an oath the good old man had ever allowed to escape his lips.

First Mills .- Ossian M. Ross built the first horse-mill, Jacob Ellis built the first water-mill. Who erected the first steam-mill we are not able to say. There was one erected at Canton at a very early day, and one at Vermont. John H. Gardner, of Joshua town- ship, also put up one among the first of the county.

First Distillery .- As early as 1833 Rafe Dixon, Ensley Fouts and George Smith owned and operated a small distillery on Duck creek. This was a small, old-fashioned copper still, and made pure if not palatable whisky from corn. It is related of some of the pioneers that they would, when in need of their accustomed bever- age, shell a bushel of corn, put it on a horse, mount on top, and ride to Gabriel Walling's little band-mill on Copperas Creek, get their grist "cracked," then ride over with it to the Duck-creek Dis- tillery and wait until it could be turned into "sperrits." They were some times plagued very much while at the distillery by a fellow of the name of Garron, who, it was asserted, would drink the whisky as fast as it ran from the still.

First Sale of Land .- The first conveyance of land contained with- in the boundary of Fulton county ever made was that of section 8, Kerton township. On this 6th day of May, 1817, John DeMott transferred this section of land to Richard Berriam. The first on record was the northeast quarter of section 30, Cass township, which was transferred May 20, 1818. Both these deeds are recorded at Edwardsville.

First Two Children Born .- The first white child born in the county was Lucinda C. Ross, reliet of the late Judge William Kellogg, and a resident of Peoria, Ill. She was born at Lewistown Oct. 17, 1821. Abner C. Barnes, son of Capt. D. W. Barnes, was born in the fol- lowing month, and was the first male child born. He is an attorney at law and resides at Bushnell, Ill. A son of John Eveland was one of the first children born on the Military Tract, if not the first. His birth occurred while Mr. Eveland was residing in Calhoun county.

First Cotton-Gin .- In an early day cotton was quite extensively grown in this county. During the period when the pioneer women manufactured all the clothing of the family from the raw material, cotton and flax might be found growing on every farm. Jacob Ellis erected a cotton-gin that proved a source of great help to the settlers. They would come for many miles to this mill to have their cotton ginned. Hon. L. W. Ross has a pair of quilts that were made by his mother in 1825 or '26, when they lived where

218

HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.

Major Walker now does. The cotton and every other article that entered into them was raised on their place in this county.

First Hotel .- The first hotel in the county, perhaps in the Mili- tary Tract, was built at Lewistown in 1827, by John Jewell, and kept for many years by Truman Phelps. It was then considered the best hotel in the West. Such men as Abraham Lincoln, Ste- phen A. Douglas, O. H. Browning, Cyrus Walker, Gen. E. D. Baker, Wm. A. Richardson and other prominent men of early times were often guests of this hotel.

Organization of Fulton County .- In the latter part of the year 1822 it was thought by some of the enterprising settlers of this section that a sufficient number of inhabitants were living here to justify the organization of a county. An effort was at once made, and on the 28th day of January, 1823, the organization was granted by the Legislature and an election appointed to be held on the 14th of April, for the election of county officials. The law required that a county should contain 350 legal voters before an organization could be effected, yet there were scarcely that number of individ- uals within the boundaries of Fulton county, although it embraced the entire northern part of the State. The same territory now con- tains a greater portion of the wealth of the State and a population of about two million souls. On the organization of Illinois Terri- tory in 1809 it was subdivided into the counties of Randolph and St. Clair. Fulton was included in the county of St. Clair. On the admission of the State into the Union what is now Fulton county was a part of Madison. Afterwards, by an act of the Legislature approved June 30, 1821, it was placed within the boundaries of Pike, which is the oldest county in the Military Tract.

When Fulton county was organized, and for over two years thereafter, it extended east and west from the Illinois to the Mis- sissippi rivers, and from the base line near where Rushville, Sehuy- ler county, now stands, to the northern boundary of the State, in- cluding the country where Rock Island, Galena, Peoria and Chicago now are. It was indeed a large county, and embraced what is now the wealthiest and most populous portion of the great West. The great lead mines of Galena had not yet been discovered, and Chi- cago was only a trading and military post. As will be seen in the following chapter the officials of Fulton county- exercised full au- thority, so far as the duties of their respective offices were concerned, over all this vast region. In 1825 the Legislature ercated Peoria county and attached to it for all county purposes all the country lying north of it within this State on both sides of the Illinois river as far east as the third principal meridian. The Commissioners' Court of that county convened for the first time March 8, 1825. Thus was Fulton county greatly diminished in size.

Soon the Military Tract began to settle up quite rapidly, and a vear had scarcely passed before Knox county was cut off of Fulton. This was done by an act approved Feb. 10, 1826. At that time,

219

HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.

however, there was not a settler within the boundaries of that county, and although laid off it was still attached to Fulton county for all judicial purposes. In the early part of 1828 the pioneers ap- peared in that county and it was rapidly settled. On the 15th of May, 1830, a meeting was held in Henderson township to inaugu- rate steps for the organization of the county. A committee consist- ing of Riggs Pennington, Philip Hash, Stephen Osborn and Dr. Chas. Hansford was appointed to present a petition to the Hon. Richard M. Young, Judge of the Fifth Judicial District, praying for the organization of Knox county. These gentlemen shortly afterwards came to Lewistown, where Judge Young was holding Court, and laid their petition before him. The Judge, believing the county contained 350 inhabitants, the number required by law, and that a majority desired the organization, did, on the 10th day of June, 1830, declare by virtue of the power invested in him, the said county of Knox to be organized and entitled to the same rights and privileges as other counties of the State. An cleetion was held July 3, and three Commissioners chosen. These gentlemen con- vened in official capacity on the 7th and perfected the organization of Knox county, which completely severed all the vast territory outside of the present boundaries of Fulton that at one time belonged to our grand old county. This reduced the county to its present size, which in number of acres ranks fifth in the great Prairie State.

By an act of the Legislature approved Jan. 28, 1823, as above mentioned, Fulton county was given authority to organize. A commission consisting of Hugh R. Colter, John Totten and Stephen Chase was appointed to locate the county-seat. A full account of their labors is given in the following chapter. An election was held on the 14th day of April, 1823, for the selection of three Com- missioners, a Sheriff and a Coroner. The only voting place was at Lewistown, and men came from so great a distance that it consumed several days in making the trip. William Eads of Ft. Clark was elected Sheriff over O. M. Ross, and Wm. Clark, Coroner. David W. Barnes, Joseph Moffatt and Thomas R. Covell were chosen County Commissioners. They convened for the first time on the 3d of June, same year. We refer our readers to the following chapter for a full and detailed account of all the important labors of this Court.

Trade .- The earliest commercial transactions carried on in this county were but neighborhood exchanges, in great part. True, now and then a farmer would load a flat-boat with beeswax, honey, tal- low and peltries, with perhaps a few bushels of wheat or corn or a few hundred clapboards, and float down the Illinois river to St. Louis, where he would exchange his produce for substantials in the way of groceries and a little ready money with which he would return by some one of two or three steam-boats then running ; or if the period of the trip was before the advent of steam-boats he would gurn his load into cash and come home on foot.

220

HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.

After the advent of steam-boats a new system of commerce sprang up. Every town would contain one or two merchants who would buy corn, wheat and dressed hogs in the fall, store them in ware- houses on the river at some of the "landings," and when the river opened in the spring would ship his winter's accumulations to St. Louis, Cincinnati or New Orleans for sale, and with the proceeds visit New York and lay in six months' supply of goods. So far as the farmer was concerned in all these transactions money was an unknown factor. Goods were always sold on twelve months' time and payment made with the proceeds of the farmers' crops. When the crops were sold and the merchant satisfied the surplus was paid out in orders on the store to laboring men and to satisfy other creditors. When a days' work was done by a working man his employer would say, "Well, what store do you want your order on ?" and the order was always cheerfully accepted.

Hogs were always sold ready dressed. The farmer, if forehanded, would call in his neighbors some bright fall or winter morning to help "kill hogs." Immense kettles filled with water had been boiling sinee dawn. The sleds of the farmer covered with loose plank formed a platform for dressing, and a cask or half hogshead, with an old quilt thrown over the top, was prepared in which to scald. From a crotch of some convenient tree a projecting pole was rigged to hold the dead animals. When everything was arranged the best shot of the neighborhood loaded his trusty rifle and the work of killing commenced. To make a "hog squeal" in shooting or "shoulder-stick," i. e., run the point of the knife used into the shoulder instead of the cavity of the breast, was a disgrace. As each hog fell the "sticker" mounted him and plunged a long, well sharpened knife into his throat, and others caught him by the legs and drew him to the scalding tub now fillled with hot water, into which a shovel-full of good green-wood ashes had been thrown. The cleaners now took the departed porcine, immersed him head first into the scalding tub, drew him back and forward a time or two, tried the hair, and if it would "slip" easily the animal was turned and the other end underwent the same process. As soon as taken from the water the scrapers with case-knives went to work and soon had the animal denuded of hair, when two stout fellows would take it up between them and a third man to manage the "gambrel" (which was a stout stick about two feet long, sharp- ened at both ends to be inserted between the muscles of the hind legs at or near the hock joint), the animal would be elevated to the pole and the entrails removed by some skillful hand.

When the work of killing was completed and the hogs had time to cool, such as were intended for domestic use were cut up, the lard tried out by the women of the household and the surplus taken to town to market. In those days almost every merchant had, at the rear end of his place of business or at some convenient neigh- boring building, a "pork-house," and would buy the pork of his ens-

221

HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.

tomers and of such others as would sell to him, and "eut" it for market. This gave employment to a large number of hands in every village cutting pork-work which lasted all winter; also to a large number of teams hauling to the river, and coopers making pork barrels.

Prices of pork then were not so high as at present. Thousands of hogs dressed for market have been sold in this county at $1.25 to $1.50 per hundred lbs. ; sometimes they were sold by the dozen, bringing from $12 to $18 per dozen, owing to size and quality. When, as the county grew older and communication casier between the seaboard and the great West, prices went up to $2 and $2.50 per 100 Ibs., our farmers thought they would always be content to raise pork at such a fine price.

There was one feature in this method of buying pork that made any town in Fulton county a paradise for the poor man in winter. "Spare-ribs," "tender-loins," "pigs'-heads" and "feet" were not con- sidered of any value, and were given freely to all who asked. If a barrel were taken to any pork-house and salt furnished, the barrel would be filled and salted down with tender-loins or spare-ribs for nothing. So great in many cases was the quantity of spare-ribs, etc., to be disposed of, that they would be hauled away in wagon loads and dumped in the woods out of town.

In those days if wheat brought half a dollar per bushel the farmer was satisfied. The writer once knew a farmer to sell five hundred bushels of corn to a distillery, for which he received five cents per bushel, and took his pay in whisky at thirty-five cents per gallon.

A good young milch-cow could be bought for from $5 to $10, and that payable in work. In those days one of the wealthiest farmers in the county was notified that there was a letter in the postoffice to his address, and that the postage was twenty-five cents. He went home immediately, killed a fat cow, took her to Canton and peddled her meat in the hope that in the transaction he woukl get his quarter in cash to "lift" his letter; but when the cash pro- ceeds were footed up he found he had but twenty cents, and had to borrow the balance before he could get his letter.

Those might truly be called close times, yet the citizens of the county were accommodating, and no ease of actual suffering for the necessaries of life was known to exist before each vied with the other to relieve it.

Early Milling .- One of the greatest difficulties encountered by the early settlers was in having their milling done. By a liberal application of enterprise and musele they experienced but little trouble in producing an abundance of the cereals, but having it converted into breadstuff was a source of much hard labor. The hand-mill introduced was a great improvement over the mortar or tin grater, a description of which is given elsewhere in this vol- ume. Then the band-mill was introduced. John Walters tells us

222

HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.

that he and his brother William used to strap their sacks of corn upon their back in knapsack fashion and take their guns and go eight or ten miles to mill. They often went to Jennings' band-mill. These mills ground only corn, and in order to have wheat ground the settlers would have to go to some distant water-mill. Pioneers often were gone an entire week with a load of grain to one of these mills. Mr. Jacob Silvernail relates that upon one occasion he went to the Little Mackinaw mill on the east side of the Illinois river, a distance of 25 miles. He took some 40 bushels of wheat, and was gone from home nine days before he got his grist and, as Mr. Silvernail says, "the ague at the same time." There are a multitude of milling incidents that would be interesting to read, but space in this chapter forbids the giving of others. These suffice to illustrate the difficulties the early settlers encountered in procuring breadstuff.

Wild Hogs .- Among the settlers who came to Fulton county previous to 1835 were many who, accustomed to the advantages of an older civilization, to churches, schools and society, became speedily home-sick and dissatisfied. They would remain perhaps one summer or at most two, then, selling whatever elaim with its improvements they had made, would return to the older States, spreading reports of the hardships endured by the settlers here and the disadvantages which they had found, or imagined they had found, in the country. These weaklings were not an unmitigated curse. The slight improvements they had made were sold to men of sterner stuff, who were the sooner able to surround themselves with the necessities of life, while their unfavorable report deterred other weaklings from coming. The men who stayed, who were willing to endure privations, belonged to a different guild ; they were heroes every one,-men to whom hardships were things to be overcome and present privations things to be endured for the sake of posterity, and they never shrank from this duty. It is to these hardy pioneers who could endure, that we to-day owe the wonder- ful improvement we have made and the development, almost miraculous, that has brought our State in the past sixty years, from a wilderness, to the front rank among the States of this great nation.

When the earliest pioneer reached what is now Fulton county game was his principal food until he had conquered a farm from the forest or prairie,-rarely, then, from the latter. As the coun- try settled game grew scarce, and by 1850 he who would live by his rifle would have had but a precarious subsistence had it not been for "wild hogs." These animals, left by home-sick immi- grants whom the chills or fever and ague had driven out, had strayed into the woods, and began to multiply in a wild state. The woods cach fall were full of acorns, walnuts, hazelnuts, and these hogs would grow fat and multiply at a wonderful rate in the bot- toms and along the bluffs. The second and third immigration to

223

HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.

the county found these wild hogs an unfailing source of meat sup- ply up to that period when they had in the townships contiguous to the river become so numerous as to be an evil, breaking in herds into the farmer's corn-fields or toling their domestic swine into their retreats, where they too became in a season as wild as those in the woods. In 1838 or '39, in Banner township, a meeting was called of citizens of the township to take steps to get rid of wild hogs. At this meeting, which was held in the spring, the people of the township were notified to turn out en masse on a certain day and engage in the work of catching, trimming and branding wild hogs, which were to be turned loose, and the next winter were to be hunted and killed by the people of the township, the meat to be divided pro rata among the citizens of the township. This plan was fully carried into effect, two or three days being spent in the exciting work in the spring.

In the early part of the ensuing winter the settlers again turned ont, supplied at convenient points in the bottom with large kettles and barrels for scalding, and while the hunters were engaged in killing, others with horses dragged the carcasses to the scalding platforms where they were dressed; and when all that could be were killed and dressed a division was made, every farmer getting more meat than enough for his winter's supply. Like energetic measures were resorted to in other townships, so that in two or three years the breed of wild hogs became extinct.

Many amusing anecdotes are related of adventures among the "wild hogs." Esquire W. H. Smith of Banner township relates the following incident : "I had gone to help one of my neighbors catch and mark some hogs that were running out in the bottom. He knew where his hogs ran, and we had no difficulty in finding them. Our dogs were called into requisition, and we had dogs then trained to the business, and soon I had a shoat down and was marking it when I heard a shout of warning, and looking up I saw my companions making for the nearest trees while a herd of wild hogs, led by a powerful boar, was rushing through the grass and was almost on me. It was no time for argument I saw, and like my neighbors, I 'stayed not on the order of my going, but went at once' to the most convenient sapling, up which I found my way with a celerity that would have astonished those who know me now, and I was not in a hurry to come down until the herd had left."

D. F. Emry, one of the early surveyors of this county, relates that once while surveying in the bottom he had his compass stand- ing in a path used by the wild hogs, and while adjusting his needle observed a very large boar with tushes five or six inches long com- ing down the path toward him. "When the boar observed the obstruction in his pathway," says he, "he began to come sideways, champing his teeth and erecting his bristles in a way to convince me that I had better give him right of way, which I proceeded to do with commendable speed."

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Fulton county, Illinois, Part 18

Author: Chas. C. Chapman & Co Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Peoria : C.C. Chapman & co. Number of Pages: 1096

Author: Chas. C. Chapman & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Peoria : C.C. Chapman & co.
Number of Pages: 1096