USA > Illinois > Lee County > Harmon > History of Harmon Township, Lee County, Illinois > Part 4
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Dancing to a certain extent had a place in our recrea- tions and there was some rivalry along that line. One of our principal townsmen, wearing the belt. Thomas Sutton while he was one of the principal factors in the early doings of the town, having filled successively and success- fully some of its most important offices and an all around good man and worthy citizen, yet was peculiar in that he had a partiality for fancy stepping. Time and tune seemed to have been abnormally developed in his composition. He would rattle off a jig to the liveliest tune and hit every note besides improvising a lot of extras. I used to make a
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neighborly call on him occasionally, in an early day people called on one another then and before I went away he was sure to bring out a violin and tune it up. He would not trust to my tuning because he said his ear was quicker than mine, hand it to me, strike an attitude and say, "now go" and soon the dust would begin to rise from the cracks in the floor. He enjoyed it so much I was glad to help him out what I could. In fact I rather enjoyed it myself. He could give pointers to present dancers in solid dancing, not two step, but more like twenty two steps. He did not fling his pedal extremities to as high an altitude as we see by the papers some of our high toned dancers do. He had a regard for the proprieties.
George Stillings could dance very well, but not in the same class with Thomas. But those were just harmless, prim- itive diversions thrown in by way of variety a sort of a let up in our work-a-day lives.
PATRICK GROGAN.
Mr. Sutton's brother-in-law, Patrick Grogan, also had the musical touch. He was an expert at playing different musical instruments, for him to hear a tune though difficult, was to know it. He was one we liked to meet, always had a pleasant word, would lend a hand to help or crack a joke for a laugh with equal readiness and facility regardless of the common hardships of the pioneer.
UNCLE JOE AT THE FUNERAL.
Joseph Sutton, father of Thomas, had an odd way of his own in all things. I attended the funeral of his grandson. As the services of the funeral progressed I noticed that Uncle Joe seemed troubled and uneasy. Finally he broke out in the midst of the sermon. "And hasn't the lad gone to heaven ?" The minister, slightly disconcerted, replied, "As he was so young, we can assuredly believe that he has." Uncle Joe solved the question at once to his own satisfaction by saying with much emphasis, "But I know he has," and I thought a distinction without a difference, both being the same basis. He had what he called a broomstick dance. He would take a broomhandle, put one end on the floor and hold the other end in his hand at an angle of about twenty degrees, and
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dance back and forth over the stick with wonderful agility for one near the nineties. Uncle Joe had an odd and peculiar accent and inflection in his talk. When he was excited or very much in earnest his tone was highly flavored with "pep". Nevertheless he and I were pretty good friends. I never opposed him, but I always took the line of least resistance.
The religious element was not lacking in him. He would sit with head uncovered for half an hour or more with a large print Bible in his knees, slowly and laboriously spelling out the words, following the line with his finger. Bible study was one of Uncle Joe's oddities and one well worthy of imitation and it is no compliment to this day and age that regular Bible reading is as much an oddity as it is.
SCHOOLS.
Human nature is queer and sometimes a source of sur- prise when tested out. There was George Stillings whose self confident way and concise, clean-cut oaths (he swore by note) would make a person believe that he was equal to any emergency; that he feared neither man or the other fellow. But when called upon to lay out a dead person he wilted and walked nearly three miles to put me on the job. But as a horse trader he was keen and next best foot actor. It has become the style and habit in these latter days of banishing the rod or coercion in bringing up children and more espe- cially is it the rule in our public schools. If a scholar is refractory the teacher is expected to speak soft words and if that fails an appeal to the powers that be is in order and he is expelled as incorrigible. When a proper application of Solomon's method would meet the situation. At an early period in Harmon schools one of the teachers, his name was Bill Edwards, wanted me to take his school one Friday after- noon as he wished to go away. I hesitated as I understood that he did not get along well with the boys, but finally con- sented. He suggested that I need not give them any after- noon recess, but close school a little earlier. Everything went smoothly enough. At the usual time I gave intermis- sion. When I called school they all came in, but four or five of the larger boys, just about entering their teens; just the right age to receive impressions on their plastic limbs.
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I went to the door and said as pleasantly as I could, "School's called, boys. Come on in." They only looked at one another and grinned. I said again nicely as I could "Come, boys, come in." No move only more grinning. Then I knew it was mutiny. I went back into the house and took a stick I had observed standing in a corner and which to all appear- ances had been worn down to about four feet in length. When I came out they had moved to the side of the house. They had mistrusted something. I turned the corner quickly and went after them and raced them around the house three times, cracking it to them at every jump, before the last one dodged in and it was certainly amusing to see them scoot ahead as they were touched up one after another. It was an awful jolt to my dignity but the method was success- ful. Yes, I stand with Solomon. Some of those boys are alive today and have grown up into good American citizens, due no doubt to the start I gave them that afternoon.
THE OLD TRAILS.
Before the people were circumscribed and hemmed in by fences and cultivated fields, there were well defined tracks or lines of principal travel between important points. There was an old stage route crossing Green river at what was known as Meeks' mill, thence by the Welty place, passing the double block house through Marion, entering Harmon near the southeast corner of what is now the farm of Peter Blackburn, thence in a northwest direction along the high ground on land of R. M. Long through corner of estate of H. J. Durr and through Dietz estate and northeast part of J. Lieben's land to quicksand or Sterling slough where were the remains of a corduroy crossing; then in a general north- west course through lands of Pohle, McKeel, Ross, Porter, Dumphy, Harris, R. W. Long, Leonard Emmitt and leaving the town at that point. It was a fairly well beaten track. It was said to have a state road surveyed by the state and on record at Springfield. It was called by some the Peru and Sterling road which may be an error. I have traveled what I supposed was the Peru road from LaMoille crossing Green river at Rock Ford and also leaving it about half way and striking across and hitting that other route near Meeks' mill
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and following it to Harmon. A prairie track started from where the house of Lynn Parker stands, running northeast passing the Tuttle house to knoll of northeast corner of H. J. Durr estate; thence a little east of north striking east of James Morrisey's big pond and then veering westerly and crossing forks of five mile branch and intervening half mile of slough north of where James Cougran's buildings now stand and running northeast to the end of lane at Ludwig Baker's now C. B. Swartz stock farm.
Another track started from the lake running northeast to what was then the Chris Shell farm one mile east of the Swartz place. Those were the main Dixon routes.
A track ran from the west county line east to the school house knoll near the Moriarty corner now owned by T. H. Mannion; thence northeast hitting the Amboy trail at H. J. Brill's southwest corner. This was the circus route between Amboy and Sterling.
Our first route to Sterling left the Amboy road which had been laid east and west previous to its organization, at H. J. Brill's southwest corner running northwest and strik- ing the river or Rock Island road just west of Howland's bridge. Sometimes we took the old stage route which hit the river road one mile east of Howland's. Both of these were soon closed. The track ran from opposite house now occupied by H. Schoaf southeast one-half mile; thence south one-half mile; thence southeast over J. R. McCormick's building grounds and on past T. Sutton's place through the swamps to point of Palestine.
Another ran from knoll at northeast corner of the Durr estate, two miles south, connecting with the Sutton route. This was a feeder to the Tuttle route, which was the principal one to Dixon, and made it the through line from the Baker corner to Palestine Grove, which for two or three winters was a famous resort for fuel hunters from far and near; a sort of a timber squatter sovereignty, whatever that may mean. Sixty-three teams were counted there one day at high tide.
From Woodman hall corner a track ran north across Quicksand slough, thence northeast, intersecting the Tuttle route near where James Cougran's buildings now stand.
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From the knoll at northeast corner of H. J. Durr estate seven tracks diverged in as many different directions. There were other minor tracks of less importance.
THE COLD NEW YEAR'S.
I can not pass up this inventory of persons and events without making record of a day surpassing all others in extent and wind and cold combined, which statement is borne out by all authorities. That day was January 1, 1864, and the storm covered nearly the entire Union. I place it in this collection, because of its exposed location Harmon would seem to be necessarily hit harder than a great many places. A gentle breeze has more force when unobstructed; much more a hurricane. Miles of prairie, without shrub or tree or bush, gave the wind an almost irresistible sweep. It was not safe to venture out without being thoroughly wrapped. To have been in the slightest degree exposed to the wind was almost instantly to feel the fearful frost. I attempted to carry water to my horses, but as soon as I came in range of the wind, the water was blown out of the pail and it fell over me, together with the driving snow, in a spray of hail. Those horses got no water that day, but they did get liberal rations.
I was in Amboy the day previous, which was fine and nice. The wind began to rise just at night, and when we struck the prairie on our return it was a howling gale and bitter cold air full of driving snow right directly in our teeth. Only for the persistence and intelligence of the team, it would have been a tossup if we were to make that four miles of prairie. The next morning it was worse. With a wind that almost took people off their feet; the air full of blinding snow; mercury 35 degrees below zero, some said 40; persons caught out were badly frozen. Cattle were frozen to death in their stables. Chickens fell from their roosts, dead, and every- thing else was strongly on the congealed order, which made it a day well worthy its name, "the cold New Year's."
Following is a list of the names of those now living who resided in Harmon at the time of its organization in 1857: Mrs. Emeline Perkins Harding, Memphis, Tenn .; Mrs. Mary Perkins Houston, St. Louis; Mrs. Elvira Perkins Redding, Wye, Ark .; N. R. Perkins, Harmon; David Perkins, Dixon;
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B. H. Perkins, Chicago; Mrs. Mary J. Rosbrook Ackert, Nor- tonville, N. D .; Anda G. Rosbrook Ackert, Dixon; Mrs. Hat- tie E. Rosbrook Williams, Monson, Iowa; Mrs. L. R. Ros- brook, Oskaloosa, Iowa; Mrs. Kate Tuttle Murphy, Sterling, Ill .; Mrs. Hannah Brill Rhodenbaugh, Harmon; Mr. H. J. Brill, Harmon; Mr. Hero S. Siefkins, Trumbull, Neb .; Mr. James Sutton, Artesian, S. D .; Thomas Sutton, Jr., Ferris County, Neb .; Oliver Sutton, Meriden, Ill .; Joseph Sutton, Trumbull, Neb .; Alvin Sutton, Trumbull, Neb .; John Sutton, Harmon.
Names of those who had lived in or enlisted from Harmon during the Civil War: Freeman D. Rosbrook, Ephraim Wil- son, A. T. Curtis, Hero S. Siefkins, Samuel Robinson, I. J. Curtis, John Smith, Charles Williams, George Pierson, Theo- dore Smith, J. B. Smith, Fred Clark.
RETROSPECTION.
Dixon having been our post office, market and trading point, my mind naturally goes back once in a while to a gen- eral and personal reminiscence of Dixon in part as it was then. I remember the transfer teams of Becker & Underwood in the interest of their large flouring business, between their mills at the dam and the depots. Adjoining their mill on the west was the Farmers' grist mill. A livery stable stood on the corner where stands the opera house today. Daniel W. McKenney bought horses there for the army, and later Charles M. Smith, and still later, the same McKenney ran a livery. A small one-story building stood nearly opposite across the street, where I drew my first swamp-land school funds from David Welty, commissioner. S. S. Williams had an office in the same building. It stood next to the big frame hotel, afterwards bought by I. B. Countryman, who built a fine brick building next to it. The site is owned now by A. C. Warner. Another livery owned by Fred McKenney occupied the site later occupied by C. J. Rosbrook as a hardware store. An unpretentious brick building owned by Cropsey, the blacksmith, occupied the site of the present Hotel Dewey and the Howell block. Two or three antiquated frame buildings extended to the west. The Emerson Lumber Company, now the Wilbur Company, was in its infancy. Though then a
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perfect stranger, I remember of being hospitably entertained by its founder one dark and stormy night at his farm in South Dixon.
E. B. Stiles' palatial mansion has become a car barn. The Christian Church stands where were his splendid grounds. The Dixon Inn and Dixon Fuel and Lumber Com- pany were vacant spaces. The James Benjamin place was the limit on the south side of West First Street. Nearly the en- tire country west of the car track up to and including West Third Street, was exclusively a public common, except the Morrill and Mckay houses, a pasture for the town cows and a site for circus tents. It was a part of Morrill town. We always found plenty of room to feed our teams in back alleys. E. B. Baker, followed by James L. Camp, handed us our mail. E. B. Stiles flourished as banker, while Charles Ruxton counted the cash and shaved paper.
Doctors Everett and Phillips were among the doctors. Moses Jerome sold me and two of my neighbors a combined reaper and mower. They were common implements at that time, largely designed and patented by himself. He after- wards engaged in flax bagging manufacture, buying the straw, rotting it and manufacturing bagging. I think Joseph Utley was associated with him part of the time. A great deal of the new land about Harmon was sowed in flax for some years. Hon. John V. Eustace presided on the circuit bench. He afterwards was provost marshal. W. W. Heaton, who suc- ceeded Eustace as judge; James K. Edsall, later Attorney General, residents of Dixon, and William E. Ives and B. H. Trusdell of Amboy were prominent practitioners. Harvey Morgan and Edwin W. Hine sat in justice of the peace seats.
In 1862 I attended a marriage ceremony performed by Justice Hine at his office, then near River Street. The con- tracting parties were the man whose wife and the woman whose husband were killed in the cyclone of 1860. Father Dixon, with his silvery locks, was an honored and familiar figure in the Dixon streets. Prophet Myers of Palmyra con- tended strenuously and eloquently for the gold standard. Joseph T. Little, afterwards county treasurer, a Christian gentleman whose practical Christianity was shown by the notice at the entrance to his grounds: "Visitors welcome at
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all times except Sundays," furnished us our nursery goods and his foreman, James Lowry, afterwards established a nur- sery in Harmon.
My remembrance of Mr. Little is associated with a sad circumstance of years ago. One winter day I saw on the river, north of the west end of the island, a hole in the ice, with small pieces of ice lying around the edges, indicating a struggle, and was told that that was where a son of Mr. Lit- tle's, 12 years of age, while skating had broken through and was drowned. Mr. Little obtained the services of a diver from Chicago, who put on his queer suit, and by having air pumped to him, was enabled to remain under water a day at a time. It was two or three days before he recovered the body.
This takes me back a number of years to an incident in which I held the center of the stage. In the winter of 1861 or 1862, I and a neighbor were in Dixon on Jury service. The river was frozen and considerable numbers of skaters were enjoying themselves there nightly. To pass away the time we concluded to go down one evening and see them skate. We went on the ice just above the mill and started to go where they were, which was some way up. Seeing what I thought to be a spot of clear ice, I said: "Hurrah, Frank, let's have a slide," and ran a few steps and sprang off. But I did not slide. Instead, I went head and ears into the water. It was where ice had been taken out. I never was so sur- prised in my life. I swam to the edge, thinking I could easily climb out, but my arms would slip. Besides, there was some anchor ice projecting over the edge which would crumble and I would submerge. My friend was going to help, but I told him "no," as I would certainly have pulled him in and he could not swim. Things began to look serious, and I shouted for help, in which my friend joined me. Soon a lot of skaters came trooping along. During the meantime I had drifted down to the lower side of the hole and the current was crowding me under. There was some quick work done. Two or three lay flat on the ice, holding each other's feet. One grabbed my hand as I began slipping. A small fraction of a second more would have been too late. It took a strong pull to lift me against the suction. I always attributed my rescue to a timely Providence working in my especial favor. I was not in the least flustered or confused while in the
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water, but on my way back the whole situation, the close margin, came over me with a rush and grip that left me so weak that for a few minutes I could scarcely keep my feet. That may seem somewhat unnecessary and superfluous, after it was all over, but such was the fact, just the same.
My landlord, Mr. Hatch, mixed me up something strong, loaned me some dry clothes, and I was all right. But ever since I have a sort of dread of bodies of water. It seems almost personal when I hear of fresh victims to Rock River.
Dentist C. J. Reynolds was an expert at lifting a molar, as I can testify, and mine host Remmers of the Washington House provided fitting substance for the inner man. There was an eccentric lawyer, Mackay. Though his legal abilities may have been all right, yet his acts were odd and out of the ordinary. He would go into a grocery, take a handful of smok- ing tobacco from a barrel-smoking tobacco came in barrels then. He would rub it fine in the hollow of his hand, throw his head back and with one tremendous intake the contents would disappear. I regarded him as strong intellectually, but lacking a balance wheel.
Isaac Means did a large buying and selling business in a small office near the Third Street arch. Genial Barton B. Higgins and Hilon T. Matthews sold drugs, musical instru- ments and notions on the corner where Martin's dry goods store stands today. Alexander & Howell and G. L. Herrick, hardware. E. Petersburger and S. Rosenthal were clothiers. A. S. Dimick sold shoes. Van Epps & Brubaker kept a gen- eral store. Charles Mousseau sold groceries. They all were prominent firms. Mousseau started a branch store in Har- mon for staple articles at the residence of A. T. Curtis, now H. Schoaf place. A. T. Murphy and J. Gates were grain mer- chants at Illinois Central. The old frame building still stands where I sold my first load of wheat in 1859 to A. T. Murphy, now J. P. McIntyre's coal office. The Dixon Telegraph fur- nished weekly installments of news, politics and select reading; later, the Dixon Sun.
In looking backward to the Dixon of over one-half cen- tury ago the thought at once comes to the mind that the march of progress has not halted. New and modern business houses, churches, schools and official buildings and residences
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and all general and up to the minute improvements are in evi- dence on every hand. It contains the site of one of the largest benevolent institutions in the State and one of the most important historical landmarks on the Lincoln High- way and Lee County's hard roads center. Place the Dixon of the early sixties side by side with that of today and a stranger would find difficulty in detecting a similarity, were it not for the railroad arches, the river and its beautiful loca- tion and scenery, which serve as Dixon's visible, perpetual connecting links with the past.
The changes come so steadily, and to those in frequent contact so imperceptibly, that they are scarcely realized. The old is forgotten when the new appears. But still the trans- formation goes on. Judging by the past, Dixon will long retain its well earned reputation as a progressive city. I have made these rather desultory remarks on the side because of the fact that Harmon, from its first settlement, has always considered Dixon its home town, outside of its own flourish- ing burg, and their interests were in a corresponding sense mutual.
THE DARK DAY.
I suppose most people have an historical knowledge of the mysterious dark day of May 19, 1780, but to get it first hand from an actual eye witness seems a great deal more realistic. Harmon has been the residence of such an eye witness. Mr. William Ingersoll, father of Mrs. I. H. Perkins and Mrs. E. A. Balch, came to this country from New Hamp- shire in 1854 and died in Harmon in 1860, at the age of 93 years, and he has related to the writer and others some of his personal experiences and observations of that event; that it was so strange and unusual that it always had been vividly remembered and closely corresponded with that of other observers. He said that he was a young lad, and that morning he was in the field hoeing. About 9 o'clock the sun, which had been shining clear, began to turn yellow and a yellow haze or cloud came over it. The sky and everything looked yellow. After a while it got so dark he could not see to work and he went to the house, where they had candles lighted, just the same as at night. Chickens went to roost, cattle would not stay in the pasture, but came lowing up to the yards.
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Sheep stood huddled together. All was still as midnight out- side, except an occasional crow from some chicken house, chirp of some night bird or dismal howling of some dog. Objects could be seen but a very short distance, and then not distinctly. The night was darker yet; pitch dark, he said, although it was full moon. Some observer has said that near the next morning the moon shown through the darkness, red, with every appearance of blood. People thought the Day of Judgment was at hand, and they had prayer meetings at their houses. Some had services in churches. Sermons were de- livered the following Sunday on the theme suggested by Matthew 24:29 and Acts 2:20. The general testimony of all observers has been along the same lines, that although it was darker in some places than in others, nowhere could business be done without artificial light. The following night there was some wakefulness and apprehension as to what the next day would bring forth. But the sun rose the next morning just the same as if a day had not been changed into night. This darkness covered the entire New England states, and one author says that its exact boundaries have never been determined nor the cause satisfactorily explained. Herschel the great astronomer, has said "that phenomenon of the Dark Day of May 19, 1780, has baffled all astronomical solution and must remain an unsolved mystery to the end of time."
Now, to sum up: I will briefly say that Harmon is still on the map and doing business as usual at the old stand, and aiming, as always, in all business and occupations, both public and private, to keep abreast of the times. In regard to loca- tion it is favored. Besides its own first-class markets, busi- ness and trading point, it is within daily reach of the great metropolis of the west, and also by auto, team or rail, of four other thriving business places. It has unexcelled church and school privileges, the excellence of which are best shown by results.
Harmon has contributed to religious and educational in- terests seven ministers of the gospel, one foreign missionary, thirty-four school teachers, four lawyers and one physician. Nor are modern improvements altogether lacking. It has rural delivery, a 'phone in almost every house, autos, plenty to eat and drink to spare. Take it all in all, Harmon certainly
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occupies a seat not far removed from the grandstand. I know of but one seat that is nearer. Possibly she will occupy that one some day and be no longer upholding and in partnership with the liquor interests by means of the licensed saloon.
It is believed that the dates and subsequent succession of Harmon business as herein given are substantially cor- rect, and the writer wishes to acknowledge the valuable assistance of A. A. Connor and others, without which it could not have been fully accomplished.
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