USA > Illinois > Fulton County > History of Fulton county, Illinois > Part 82
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Newton Walker, farmer, sec. 22; P. O., Lewistown ; was born in Madison county, Va., in 1803; son of Merry and Elizabeth (Kirt- ley) Walker, natives of Virginia, where his father died in 1811; came to this county with his mother in 1835, traveling 60 days in a wagon and reaching this city, where he settled in the fall of 1835; four years afterward he settled on his present estate of 100 acres, which was patent land at that time and owned by Ossian M. Ross; it was on this elevated spot that Ross first built a rude hut and after- ward erected a log house which was for a few years occupied by Major Walker, but has given place to his present commodious dwel- ling. He was married in 1834 to Eliza A. Simms, daughter of Reu- ben C. Simms, who emigrated from Virginia in 1835, settling in this city, where he died in 1847. In 1837 Mr. W. was Commissioner of Fulton county, and represented this county in the Legislature of 1838-9 ; also served as Supervisor one or two terms, and identified himself with the interests of the county. He drew the plans for and erected the court-house in 1838, and ranks among the carly pioneers. He was appointed Major under the old military laws of Virginia, and is recognized by that title. He is the father of 4 children : Mollie, wife of Mr. Harris; Henrietta, Robert and Amelia, wife of Dr. Talbot.
J. M. Wallace, druggist, Lewistown, was born in Clay county, Ind., in 1846. His parents were E. G. and Isabel Wallace. The family came to the West in 1850 and settled in Knoxville, and the following year moved to Mahaska county, Iowa, where they resided three years. In 1855 they settled in Red Wing, Minn. Three years afterward they returned to Marietta in this county, and in the spring of 1874 moved to this city, where the subject of this sketch practiced dentistry for two years, when he opened his present place of business, where he has since continued in the enjoyment of a prosperous trade. In 1867 he was married to Miss J. R. Hobbs, a native of this county. They have one child,-Zuline.
James Watkins, farmer and stock-raiser, sec. 32; P. O., Lewis- town ; born in Indiana in 1824; his father, James W., was born in Kentucky, where he married Christiana Swarmse, by whom he had 12 children, James, jr., being the 3d; the latter was in his 3d year when the family settled in Menard Co., Ill., where he subsequently
817
HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.
married a daughter of Thos. Whitely, of Ky., and they have had 11 children, 4 now living. His first wife died, and in 1871 he mar- ried Mrs. Naney Butler, widow of T. J. Butler, of Kerton tp. Mr. W. served in the Mexican war and was honorably discharged at Metamoras. He moved from Menard to Mason county, taught school and followed farming until 1856, when he moved to this county and some time afterward bought the 80-acre tract on which he now lives. Was Justice of the Peace in Mason Co., and School Director in this county. Old School Baptists. Democrat.
Ferdinand Weirather, see. 6; P. O., Lewistown ; born in Germany Jan. 1, 1825 ; has always been a farmer, working at times, however, at cabinet-making; came to Illinois in 1846, spent 9 months in Peoria in 1856, then came to this place; he married in New York city, in 1850, a lady who was born in Germany in 1830; they have 10 children,-F. W., Edward, Henson, Amelia, Charles, Mary, Ida, George, Sidney and Henry F. Baptist. Has been School Director.
J. C. Willcoren was born in Estill Co., Ky., in 1829; his parents were Elijah and Charlotte (Calloway), natives of N. C., who emi- grated to this Co. in 1830 and settled in Liverpool tp., where he died in 1860. The subject of this sketch came to this city in 1869 and became identified with the banking interests of the city, of which he is an officer at the present time. Has for years been ex- tensively engaged in cutting and furnishing railroad timbers through- out the country. Perhaps no man in the community has done more for the advancement of the business interests of the city than Mr. W. He has an interest in the Beadles' block, the woolen mill, and two stores, besides working about 5,000 acres of land in various sections, being the largest land owner in the county. In 1851 he was married to Miss Clarissa Putman, a native of this Co., who died July 8, 1877, leaving 6 children,-Alice A., Lewis K., Henry C., Laura N., Mary C. and Oliver L. In Sept., 1879, he married Miss Mary Alice Hare. We present the portrait of Mr. W. in this volume.
L. K. Willcoren, son of preceding, farmer, sec. 27, was born in Liv- erpool tp., this county, in 1855. This young and enterprising agri- eulturist and stock-raiser now has 270 acres of land in this tp. In 1877 he married Alice Banghman, daughter of Harry W. B., of this city.
A. Willison, saddler and harness-maker, Lewistown, was born in Bradford Co., Pa., in 1831; his parents were Amon and Mary Wil- lison, who settled in Ohio, where he died in 1837. His widow, with children, came to this county in 1856 and settled in this city, where she died in 1874. The subject of this sketch enlisted in the spring of 1861 as 1st. Lieutanant in Co. H, 17th I. V. I., served one year; and in rank of Captain recruited Co. A, 103d Regt., in which he served until the close of the war ; participated in the battles of Ft. Donelson, where he received a slight wound, Vicksburg, Black
48
818
HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.
River and Resaca, where a minie ball passed through his leg while in command of the regiment; at Mission Ridge, while in command of the advance line, a shell pierced his hat, just grazing the skull. His horse was shot under him while in this charge, yet the troops fought nobly. At Pittsburg Landing his life was again preserved by a watch, which was a target for the minie ball. He was elected Major of the regiment and commissioned Lieutenant Colonel, in which rank he followed Sherman in his march to the sea. He was married in 1853 to Miss Catherine Conley, a native of N. Y. State, who died in Lewistown in 1867. His present wife, Mary, nce Clark, is a native of this city, by whom he has 2 children,-Nellie and Angusta. Mr. W. has been engaged in saddlery and harness business sinee the close of the war, and in 1875 opened a livery stable and is conducting a good business.
Wesley Willison, proprietor of Willison House, Lewistown, was born in Perry Co., O., in 1833, son of Amon and Mary Willison, natives of Maryland, who emigrated to Ohio, where he died in 1837. The subject of this sketch came to this county in 1856 and settled in this city, where his mother died in 1874. He first became prominent as a hotel-keeper in the Old Centennial, and afterward ran the Central House one year. In March, 1879, he purchased the hotel which was known as the Beet House and christened it after his own name. He also keeps a general stock of groceries, and enjoys a large patronage in both branches of business. He was married in 1854 to Miss Sarah A. Long, a native of Ohio, and is the father of 3 children,-Olive A., Abraham L. H. and Charles H.
John S. Winter, lawyer, was born in Mason Co., Ky., July 8, 1826, son of John and Margaret (Livingston) Winter, natives of Maryland ; was educated at Miami University, Oxford. O., and for a time was engaged in the Journal office at Louisville, Ky., and be- gan the study of law at Little Rock, Ark., in the office of Albert Pike and Senator Garland of that State. Three years later he be- gan practice in Chicot Co., Ark., and in 1863 removed to Lewis- town, where he has since been successfully engaged. Was married Nov. 24, 1856, to Miss Eliza Johnson, a native of Pennsylvania and a graduate of the Jacksonville University. She died Aug. 14, 1867, leaving 4 children,-Lizzie, Louvie, Willie and Mamie.
TOWNSHIP OFFICIALS.
SUPERVISORS.
N. Walker
1850
Robert B. Stevenson 1870
Joseph Dyckes.
1851
s. F. Shope. 1871
Newton Walker.
1852-53
John A. Gray.
1872
L. W. Ross.
1854
Joseph Dyckes 1873
James P. Slack
1855
John A. Gray 1874
N. Walker.
1856
John H. Peirsol. 1875
H. B. Evans.
1857-59
Henry B. Stillman 1876
N. Walker
1860
S. P. Shope. 1877
James W. Simms
1861-65
Robert Prichard 1878
Henry L. Rryant.
1866
W'm. J. Dyckes 187S
Thomas A. Boyd.
1867
Henry L. Bryant.
1879
John H. Peirsol.
186S-69
HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.
819
TOWN CLERKS.
Henry Young.
1850
F. P. Paull.
1861-63
James Veits
1851
George Whitaker
1864-65
George Humphrey
1852
F. P. Paull.
1866
John A. Criss
1853-55
E. A. Edgar
1867-68
F. J. Porter
1856
Milton Cain
1869
John Bliss
1857
Silas Dial.
1870
George Humphrey
1858
Wm. J. Dyckes
1871-73
Wm. McComb
1859
Wm. W. Fox
1874
Augustus Rice
1860
A. M. Barnett ..
1875-79
ASSESSORS.
F. J. Porter ..
1850
W. W. Brown
1863-64
Hugh Lamaster
1851
Moses Bordner
1865
Wm. P. Bissell.
1852
I. C. Worley
1866
Michael R. Campbell.
1853
Noah Seiver
1867
John Bliss ..
1854
John Prickett.
1868
W. Kirkpatrick
1855
R. M. Ewan
1869
M. R. Campbell
1856
Wm. McComb
1870-71
N. Walker
1857
John Bliss
1872
S. P. Walker
1858
Jonathan Harn
1873
N. Walker
1859
Wesley W. Hull
1874
Jackson Carter
1860-61
W. W. Brown
1875
Thos. W. Saunders.
1862
W. W. Hull
1876-79
COLLECTORS.
H. P. Kelley
1850
Wesley Willison. 1868
John Randall
1851-52
J. Clark Moorhead.
1869
W. C. Worley.
1854-55
Thomas Neil
1870
William McComb
1856
John Chambers ..
1871
John Bliss ..
1857-58
Isaac Livingston
1872
N. H. Turner
1859-61
Isaac Grier
1873
S. P. Walker
1862
John Hunter.
1874
H. V. V. Cute
1863
John M. Lewis
1875-76
N. H. Turner
1864
Robert Campbell
1877
F. M. Williams.
1865
John Hunter.
1878
John Wertman
1866
James H. Randall
1879
Wm. L. Scott
1867
LIVERPOOL TOWNSHIP.
This is the largest township in Fulton Co. It contains an area of 26,258 acres, 10,794 of which are improved. The first settlers of the township, who came as early as 1826, were Chas. Deprest, Joseph Allen and his wife, who was a daughter of Squire Willcoxen, John Farris and family, Francis Smith and family, and Seth Hilton and family. The first death to occur in the township was that of a son of Asa Smith and a grandson of Francis Smith. About the first marriage, if not the first, took place at the residence of Elijah Willcoxen in 1831. The contracting parties were Zerilda, his daughter, and Moses Johnson. The widow of Joseph Allen mar- ried Benj. F. Roebuck. She is still living in Liverpool township, upon see. 11, and is 79 years of age. She tells quite an amusing in- cident illustrating how easily the people were frightened by the re- port of Indians in the neighborhood on a raid. Some of the neigh- bor children came running to the house one day and said the Indians had killed their father. Her husband and other neighbors immedi- ately took their guns and went in search of the red-skins, determined upon having revenge. The cause of the seare soon became known. A German family recently came into the neighborhood, and most of the members of the family had black eyes and wore their hair long, which also was black. The children had seen some of them in the corn-field gathering corn and mistook them for Indians, and hence the scare.
Mrs. Roebuck in an early day made shoes for the entire neigh- borhood. She would take her tools and go from one family to an- other and make up their shoes. She changed around in this way until the neighborhood were all " shod." She probably made the first shoes ever manufactured in the township, and possibly the only female shoemaker ever in Fulton county. She also did much weav- ing for others. ( She says she has made enough shoes to pay for a good quarter-section of land. Mrs. Roebuck is one of those good- hearted, lovable old ladies whom it is a pleasure to meet.
The first grist-mill was built by Isaac Clarke on section 20, in 1833. The first saw-mill was erected by Leonard Lilly and Wil- liam L. Barker on Buekheart creek in 1835. This mill for many years was known as Maus's Mill, but has long since gone to decay and its remains have been carried away by the floods until not a stick remains to point out the old site. When this mill was in oper- ation the water in the ereek was abundant enough to enable them to
821
HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.
run for eight months during the year, but now it does not afford water sufficient to run a mill scarcely a month, on an average, dur- ing the entire twelve. It was owing to this diminished supply of water that the mill was abandoned.
THE HORROR OF 1849.
The most calamitous period in the history of Liverpool township, or indeed of the entire county, was the dreaded and fearful visita- tion of the Asiatic cholera in the year 1849. Homes were entered by the dark monster of death and loved ones carried off without a word of warning. Families were broken up and divided. Fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and children were taken with the fatal dis- ease and ere a day had elapsed were a corpse.
A very full account of the rage of the cholera in this tp. at this time was prepared by Robert Prichard, who was personally acquainted with the sad facts, and published in the Fulton Democrat during the year 1878. We re-publish his account of the horror :
From St. Louis the disease made its way up the Illinois river by steamboats, and many a poor wayfarer was taken from some steam- boat and buried in haste amid the shadows of the lonely shore-no human being left to tell the spot where he was buried.
By accident this dread disease was introduced into Liverpool tp., six miles east of Lewistown. This is the awful story :
July 3, 1849, Esq. Robert Summers, of that neighborhood, hap- pened to be in the village of Liverpool on the Illinois river. A steamboat lay at the landing. Hearing that a man was dying of cholera on the boat, it is said that Esq. Summers gave way to sympathy or curiosity and went to see him. He returned to his home, was two days afterward taken sick with what appeared to be dysentery, and died on the 10th. Job Macklin undertook to make him a nice cherry coffin, but got it eight inches too short ! He was compelled to make another, and thus the corpse was left unburied two days. This was a fatal blunder, as the sequel will show. Esq. Jordon Prichard, father of ex-Sheriff Robert Prichard, hastened at once to the bed-side of his friend and neighbor, Esq. Summers, and remained with him until his death. Esq. Prichard and Mrs. Sum- mers were taken ill on the 12th. Mr. P. died on the 13th. Ahijah Arnett made a very neat coffin for him and he was buried on the 14th. Mrs. Summers died on the 16th. The neighborhood was now panie-stricken. Three of the Summers children were taken with cholera on the 13th and died the same day.
Only a few brave men could be found to care for the sick or bury the dead. Mrs. Summers was buried in an hour after she died. They wrapped an old quilt about her, placed the remains in a rude box and buried her in silence and terror.
Mrs. Prichard was stricken on the 15th, died at 2 o'clock p. m., and was buried that evening. Alive and well at sunrise, the red
822
HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.
sunset lit up her new-made grave! Mrs. P. had spent the previous day in washing her dead husband's clothes. How sad was her burial ! Some of the neighbors dug the grave. Her son Robert and William Denny were left alone to bury her. Wrapped in a quilt, placed in a rude box, these two carried her to the grave. Those who dug it fled upon their approach. The two boys got the box partially in the grave, which was too short ; the box lodged, one end on the bottom, the other two feet higher. The boys could neither get the box down or out. So they filled up the grave.
Thomas Stockton was taken ill that day, and died and was buried the next, or 16th. John W. Pittman, now a prominent attorney at Havana, took care of him alone during his sickness. A little paling fence still marks the grave of this self-sacrificing hero on the hill near Jacob Maus's.
The cholera then took Alexander Prichard, aged 17, Rebecca Prichard, aged 2 (Robert's brother and sister), and a child of Mrs. Havens, also one of the Prichard girls. These all died on the 16th except the child Rebecca, who died on the 18th. The brave men who cared for and buried these victims were Jesse Flory, Robert Prichard (then aged 18), Wm. Denny, John W. Pittman, James Jennings and Jake Fisher.
One of the saddest incidents of the whole horrible visitation was the death of Mr. and Mrs. Fritz. They lived alone in a hut amidst the dark woods. The "burial band " heard that he was dead. They went with a box in a wagon to bury him. Arriving at the house the dying woman crawled over the body of her dead husband, im- ploring their aid. They put the corpse in the box, carried it away a few feet and buried it at the foot of a tree. They took the poor woman in their wagon and carried her four miles away to some of her relatives. They refused to take her in! The boys laid her under a tree and there she died in horrible agony with no brave hand to put a cup of water to her famishing lips! Mrs. Fritz was the last victim. The neighbors left alive had flown. The remain- ing Summers children were taken to friends in Henry county.
Seven of the Prichard children were left. Benjamin and Eliza- beth went to Jacob Maus's and were kindly cared for by him and his noble wife until they were nearly of age. Sarah and Ellen, the youngest, went to Mason county to live with their sister Mary Jane Havens, until they were grown. Robert and James worked among the farmers until they were married.
Mrs. Northup (whose husband had run off for shooting and kill- ing Beamas in Liverpool), and a Mrs. Phil. Numbers, who lived on the edge of the island just below Liverpool, sent for the Prichard children at first, fresh from their pestilence-stricken home, and cared for them until they could go to their future homes.
What grand, brave souls were these that braved death in taking these stricken children to their hearts and homes! No history of onr county will be complete that does not pay lasting honors to these heroie men and women.
823
HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.
As soon as the Summers children were taken away their house was burned to the ground.
Robert Prichard, with an eye to economy that was as admirable as the pluck displayed, took all the family clothing and sunk it in an adjacent stream for ten days. He then wrung them out and had them washed and preserved. Some of this clothing is still pre- served in the family as relics of that memorable visitation of the "angel of death."
The doctors whose services were tendered to these stricken ones were John B. McDowell, Thaddeus Nott, and a singular character named James Ashby, a mulatto. It is elaimed they all did noble work and mutually saved many lives.
The contagion lasted but about one week, and was wholly confined to the sparsely settled sections Nos. 11, 14, 15, 16 and 25 in Liver- pool township. But the dead numbered thirteen souls, as follows : Mr. and Mrs. Summers and three children ; Mr. and Mrs. Jordon Prichard and two children ; Mrs. Haven's child; Thomas Stockton, and Mr. and Mrs. Fritz.
Several persons were ill with cholera, but were rescued by the skill and heroic care of the brave physicians and neighbors named above. The following names are remembered among those who were ill and recovered : Wm. Dickson and wife, Charles Shaw and wife, James Prichard and Benj. Havens.
We have read with interest carefully prepared accounts of the cholera visitations in many cities and towns, but we doubt if ever this country witnessed so rapid and fatal an epidemic, all things con- sidered, as that which decimated the sparsely settled Prichard settle- ment in 1849.
LIVERPOOL.
Liverpool is situated on the upper end of a beautiful island, a little over a mile long and a little less than a mile in width, formed by the river on one side and overflowed lands, with lakes and ponds, on the other side. The village was founded Ang. 13, 1836, by R. E. Little, Wm. Elliott, Jos. Sharpe, Theo. Tarleton, E. D. Rice and Roger Veits. The place for a long time promised to be- come eventually an important shipping point, but the difficulty of building and keeping in repair a bridge or turnpike across the low land (mile and a half wide) between it and the agricultural com- munity north of it, retarded its growth. Besides, the steamboat landing there is not good most of the year. Being a small place and out of the way, it has never been reached by railroad, although grading for one was once done from Canton to this point, and thus all hope of prosperity for the place is lost. It now has about 200 inhabitants.
Maple's Mill, or "Slabtown," was started as a saw-mill village about 1851-2, Thompson Maple, of Canton, establishing here (at the corners of secs. 2, 3, 10 and 11) a saw-mill to furnish oak plank
824
HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.
for the Canton and Liverpool Plank Road. The mill has long since gone down and the remains all cleared away, but the village (of a dozen or fifteen houses, perhaps) survives. Maple's Mill is the name of the postoffice here, and there is a good church edifice and a school-house also at this point.
CHURCHES.
The Salem Baptist Church .- This was the first regular religious organization of Liverpool tp., and was constituted a Church on the 10th of August, 1830, at the house of Jeremiah Farris on the northwest quarter of sce. 10. The visiting officiating Elders and Deacons were Elders John Logan and Stephen Strickland and Dea- cons Landrian Eggers and James MeCan. The lay members at its first organization were Francis P. Smith, Preston Goforth, John Goforth, John Farris, Jeremiah Farris, Samuel Cozad, Nathan Thomas, Benj. Ford, James Pennington, James Pollitt and their wives and others. The records of this Church from 1830 to 1833 were lost, but among the first Elders and probably the very first, were Elders John Goforth, John Miner, John Holcomb, Squire Willcoxen. Samuel Cozad was probably one of the first Deaeons. The names mentioned may be considered the fathers of this society. At a meeting held May 24, 1834, according to the records, after opening with prayer, "on motion, the Church says that they will build a meeting-house, and that the meeting-house shall be 26 feet wide and 30 feet long, made of logs; the logs shall be hewed 7 inches thick and face 10 inches in the middle, and that the Church hold a call-meeting on the 29th at the house of Brother Francis P. Smith, to arrange the business for building of the same." At this meeting means were taken, and the house was built on the land of John Farris, which he appropriated for that purpose, on the south- east quarter of see 32, Buekheart tp. The congregation continued to meet in this house until about the year 1856 or '57, when means were raised to build a new house. Capt. Elijah Willcoxen deeded land to the church for that purpose on the northwest quarter of sce. 8, Liverpool tp., on which the society immediately erected a more . modern church edifice. It is a frame building about 28x40 feet with a 12-foot ceiling and seating about 300. This edifice was built, principally at the expense of Elijah Willcoxen, A. J. Will- coxen, Jesse B. Willcoxen, Major E. C. Willcoxen, J. C. Willcoxen, J. F. Willcoxen, Marshall N. Willcoxen, S. B. Snider, Ira Kuy- kendall, Robert Goforth and others. The membership of the Church at present is small. The present Elders are Cyrus Hum- phrey and Stephen Bolender. The Deacon is Nathan Turner. It would, perhaps, be interesting in these records to state that Elder John Goforth, a man well and widely known throughout this coun- ty for his thorough piety and earnestness in the cause of Christian- ity among the pioneers of this county, was Elder and Pastor of this Church from the time it was constituted up to 1852. He moved to
Q. Q. Vedge
BRYANT
Lemuel W. Falls
Jacob Maus
LIVERPOOL TP
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS,
827
HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.
Iowa, where he still continued in his Christian labors. He died some years since.
CHURCHES.
Mount Pleasant Methodist Church .- This society worshiped in a building on section 20: formerly called Apple Church.
Liverpool Church .- This building was ereeted as a Presbyterian edifice, but understood to be also for the use of other denominations as well. The Presbyterians have died or moved away, and the Methodists use it mostly. A. G. Little, of Altona, is the only liv- ing trustee.
Maple's Mill Church is on sec. 11, and is Methodist Episcopal.
New Bethel Methodist Church is on see. 18.
Union Chapel Methodist Church is on sec. 20.
SCHOOLS.
In Liverpool township are 8 district schools. The oldest is the Salem school, on see. 8; next was Apple school-house, now Mount Pleasant ; next, Liverpool, on see. 25; then Maple's Mill (sec. 10) ; Hall's school-house (sec. 6, range 5 cast) ; Prichard's school-house (sec. 15, now called No. 6); No. 8 (see. 21), and finally No. 7 (see. 20).
The first school Mrs. Wm. Hummel knew of in an early day was taught in the kitchen of John Farris, by Jordan Willcoxen; these schools were what was called " loud schools," i. e. each scholar in the school-room would study their lesson out loud. The first " silent school" that was started, a little girl told her mother she moved her lips, but had not said a word all day, and had fooled the teacher.
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