USA > Illinois > Iroquois County > History of Iroquois County, together with Historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources > Part 108
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Alexander P. Shipley, farmer and gardener, Papineau, was born January 28, 1826, in White county, Illinois. He lived there till seventeen years old, when he removed to Washington county, Illinois, and there engaged in mercantile business, and so continued till 1860. He thien engaged in milling in a steam flouring-mill, in Richview, in the same county, till 1865. He then went to Cairo, Illinois, where he remained till 1870, when he came to Iroquois county, Illinois, and settled in Papineau township, and engaged in farming and gardening, which business he still follows. He is justice of the peace and com- missioner of highways. In 1849 he married Miss Mary A. Bingham, who died March 12, 1864. He was again married October 28, 1866, to Mrs. Martha Phillips. His children are : Georgiana H., Eliza and Bell, by his first wife; and Adelbert and Abba by his present wife.
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
Narcisse Gaudreau, farmer, St. Anne, Kankakee county, is a native of St. George, Canada, and a son of Fabien Gaudreau. He was born May 22, 1841. At the age of six years lie with his parents came to Illinois, and settled at Aurora, Illinois, but four years later came to Iroquois county, and permanently located in Papineau township and engaged in farming. November 17, 1863, he married Miss Mary Tatro, a native of Canada. In July, 1872, he bought the farm of 160 acres on which he now lives, and is engaged in farming and stock-raising. He has made all his property by industry and close attention to busi- ness. He has six children : Ismeal N., Henry W., Samuel, Henry, Jolın and Frank. He is a quiet, unassuming citizen and neighbor. He lias filled the office of township clerk for three years, and school director many years. .
Samuel H. Byrns, lawyer, Papineau, a son of James Byrns, one of the early pioneers of this county, was born October 4, 1846, in Kan- kakee county, Illinois. His youth was spent at home farming and stock-raising and attending school. At the age of twenty he went to study law at the law school of Ann Arbor University one term, and then went to Chicago. Law School, where he finished his .course, and engaged in the practice of his profession in that city. In 1875 he returned to liis old home, and for awhile engaged in farming. In the autumn of 1877 he located in the village of Papineau, and engaged in school-teaching, in which profession he is still employed. In April, 1872, he married Miss Lena Wadley, daughter of Mr. Case Wadley, the oldest settler in this part of the state, coming here in 1826. He has one child, Walter Herbert.
Henry Jones, the first settler in Papineau township, was born.in Meigs county, Ohio, January 17, 1811, and died May 24, 1859. On March 23, 1835, with his wife (Sarah Hester), and their infant son, (William S.), Seth and Hepsabah (lıis parents), two brothers, three unmarried sisters, Jephtha Hayman (a son-in-law of Setli Jones), Ophania (his wife), and two children, Hamilton Jefferson, his wife and ten children, twenty-six in all, he embarked at Graham's station, near his home. They floated down the Ohio, and forced their boat up the Wabash to Tillotson's ferry, where they arrived May 8. On the 10th they reached Georgetown, Vermilion county, Illinois. The next sea- son Henry Jones and his father, with Jefferson, made a trip to Spring creek and the Iroquois river. The subject of this sketch located on fractional N.E. ¿ of Sec. 34, T. 29, R. 13 W., and his father a short distance from him. In 1837 they moved their families to the cabins pre- pared for them. His first wife, Sarah, to whom he was married Feb- ruary 7, 1833, was born June 10, 1811, and died February 6, 1853.
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ONARGA TOWNSHIP.
Their children were: William S., Philip, Harriet and Sarah E. On January 6, 1854, Mr. Jones married Maria Sammons, who was born in Montgomery county, New York, February 10, 1833, and emigrated with her parents, Thomas and Sarah, who settled at Saminon's point, near the Joneses. Henry C. was his youngest son. By his industry and good inanagement Henry Jones accumulated a large property, con- sisting of over 500 acres of valuable land, and left a good farm for each of his sons. Being a man of uncommon energy and thrift, his neigh- bors consulted him on all occasions of importance. At an early date he commenced keeping medicines, and for years the sick of the neigh- borhood thanked him for relief. He made boots and shoes for his family and many others, working on the bench at night. In fact, he was a kind of universal genius. He never learned a trade, but like his father could make anything, from a spinning-wheel to a house. His own buildings were evidences of his skill. In 1847 he hauled lumber from Chicago and built a large barn, doing all the framing himself. He was a man greatly respected and honored by all who knew him.
Henry C. Jones, farmer and stock-raiser, Papineau, is a son of Henry Jones (one of the pioneers of this county), and was born Decem- ber 25, 1856, in Papineau township, in this county. When he was about three years old his father died, and he was left to the care of his affectionate mother, who also died when he was about eighteen years of age. She was a daughter of Thomas Sammons (deceased), who came to this county in 1836 or 1837, when she was three or four years old. His early youth was spent with his mother in the old home, engaged in farming and attending school until the death of his mother. He then went to Kenosha, Wisconsin, and attended high school about two years, when he returned to his old home and engaged in farming and stock-raising, in which business he is now actively employed. He now owns, besides his stock, 150 acres of valuable land, and is a sharp, energetic young man.
ONARGA TOWNSHIP.
BY M. H. MESSER, ESQ.
In the original division of the county into political townships Onarga embraced all of town 26 north, of ranges 10 and 11 east and 14 west of the 2d principal meridian, and four tiers of sections in town 27 through the same ranges, making a territory twelve and three-quarter miles east and west, by ten miles north and south. In 1861 two tiers of sections of T. 25, R. 10 E., Secs. 1 and 12 ; R. 11 E., and Secs. 3 to 10 inclusive
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
in same town. Ranges 14 west were taken from Loda and added to Onarga, and the northi boundary was changed to the line five and a half miles further south, commencing at the quarter corner on the west boundary of Sec. 12, T. 26, R. 10 E., and running east to the corre- sponding corner on the east bonndary of Sec. 12, T. 26 W., R. 14 W. In 1864 the sonth boundary was changed to the half section line, through the first tier of sections in T. 25 N., ranges 10 and 11 E. and 14 W. Another change was made January, 1879, when the town of Ridgeland was organized from territory in the west part of it, leaving the boundary as follows : Commencing at the quarter section corner between Secs. 11 and 12, T. 26 N., of R. 10 E., thence east on the half section line to the quarter corner on the east boundary of Sec. 12, T. 26 N., of R. 14 W., thence south to the southeast corner of T. 26, R. 14 W., thence west two miles, thence sonth to the quarter corner be- tween Secs. 2 and 3, T. 25 N., of R. 14 W., thence west on the half section line to the center of Sec. 2, T. 25 N., of R. 10 E., thence nortli on the half section line to the center of Sec. 35, T. 26 N., of R. 10 E., thence east to the section line, thence north to the place of beginning. The records of the September meeting of the board of supervisors, 1879, show the west line was straightened so as to run on the half sec- tion line from the center of Sec. 11, T. 26 N., of R. 10 E., south to the center of Sec. 2, T. 25 N., of R. 10 E. The legality of this last change is questioned.
Spring creek enters the town by three branches in the southwest part, and leaves it near the northeast corner. Shave Tail from the southi unites with it in the east part of the town. When the first settlers came there was a fine body of timber along the stream. The land is of good quality ; that portion east of the creek is not surpassed in the county, while that on the west side is a little lighter, a sand ridge extending through its entire north part.
Long before the white man traversed the wilds of Grand Prairie, the Indians hunted the deer, the elk and buffalo on its grassy plains, fished in the streams flowing through it, and had their camps and vil- lages on their banks. Their trails leading from point to point on the streams, and from grove to grove, were common and well defined. - The one from the mouth of Sugar creek to Kickapoo (Oliver's) 'Grove, crossed the creek in section 12, then along the north side of the timber over the site of D. K. Thomas' dwelling to the round grove, thence near the northwest corner of S. H. Harper's farm, then south of the beaver swamp to the highest ridge in the village of Onarga, thence west on the highest land to the northwest quarter of section 19, where it left the county and continued to the grove. G. S. Hubbard was over
(DECEASED.)
LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 1
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ONARGA TOWNSHIP.
this route as early as 1822, and he says at that time it was nearly abandoned by the Indians. Save the United States surveyors, who were here May 15 of that year, Hubbard is the first white man known to have been in this town. The Indian camping grounds were designated by ~ the remains of their wigwams and the bluegrass growing at the places. - There were several of them. The lone tree in Sec. 28, T. 26, R. 10 E. was a great resort in certain seasons ; the numerous springs near by made that neigliborhood a place for deer and elk to come for water. Here at an early day there were several acres well set in bluegrass, and - July 4, 1839, Samuel Harper and T. M. Pangborn, with their sickles, cut several bundles of it for the seed. At Del Rey was a sugar camp used by them in 1834, and several wigwams were there in good condi- tion when the first settlers came on the creek; west of the Pierce farm were camp-poles and wigwam bark. The Pangborn grave-yard is on the other of them. About a quarter of a mile east of this was one of similar character, camp-poles and holes in the ground being at the latter place, a few rods northeast of the east end of Pangborn bridge ; at round grove, and on the creek bluff, southeast of the latter, all three on section 16, and another, the last, on the east bank at the crossing on section 12. On the sand ridge where the trail passed over blocks 19 and 20, of the village of Onarga, was the only camping ground out of the timber. At this place numerous poles for wigwams, quantities of bones, both of animals and fish, and parts of brass kettles were found ; and three years since a stone spear head, seven inches long, was found two feet below the surface, in front of M. H. Messer's dwelling. A silver bracelet was found by Daniel Wiswell near the basin, and M. H. Messer found a part of a pistol on his lot. In June, 1834, the last band of Indians, thirty or forty in number, were on Spring creek ; they were seen by Amos and Miller to cross near W. A. Boswell's and go toward Kickapoo Grove.
The Butterfield trail, the second great thoroughfare through the county, over which all the early settlers on Upper Spring creek came, crossed at the gap on Sec. 13, T. 25, N. of R. 10 E., turned abruptly north, toward Philip Reed's dwelling, then straight to the west side of the big bog at Jolin Lehigh's, along its west border, where the road now is, crossed one branch of the creek at H. Lyons', the other near Boswell's house, then to the point of timber a quarter of a mile further north, then northeast on the north part of B. F. Lindsey's farm to E. Doolittle's south dwelling, to S. H. Harper's, (the road past his house is the old trail) then through C. S. Pangborn's farm, and to the big slough about a mile west of the creek, on the Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw railroad, then to a point a half mile east of the Barden Farm, 34
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in Sec. 24, T. 27, R. 14 W., where it turned north. Ben Butterfield looked out this route from Lockport to Danville in April, 1831, on his way from the former to the latter place. (See description of this trail in county history.) Prior to Butterfield making this trail, and as early as 1829, Enoch Van Vickle, of Vermilion county, came to this neigh- borhood hunting bees ; the early settlers of that county often came for that purpose. Samuel Copeland, of Blount township, same county, informed E. S. Ricker, in 1879, that Solomon Kooder was on Spring creek in the fall of 1832, hunting bees, and discovered a vast quantity of them, most all through the timber; the ground was covered with - acorns, and wild artichokes grew in great abundance along the skirt of the prairie. Kooder reported the fact to his neighbors. Samuel Cope- land, Evart Van Vickle, his two sons, Enoch and Benjamin, David Reeiz, William Rees, William Wright and Lewis Swisher, immedi- ately drove 300 hogs to this creek to fatten. Copeland, Van Vickle and his son Benjamin rode the whole length of the creek, crossed at its mouth, and back to their camp on the other side, and saw no hogs or any signs of them. Some of the owners came frequently to look after their property, and when fattened, they drove thein away. There were a few left, and for the three succeeding years the same men hunted their winter pork in this timber. At this time, the fall of 1835, they sold their interest in the hogs on Spring creek to Lindsey and Lehigh, and after this they were common property for all the set- tlers. In 1826 Hubbard brought hogs to his farm at Bunkum; some of them soon became wild and stocked the timber along the streams, and doubtless they strayed to Spring creek. As early as 1829 wild hogs were found near Pigeon Grove.
The first settler in the present limits of the town, or anywhere along the creek, was Jesse Amos. He had been living on Sugar creek for a year or two, and in 1833 was with the Indians a part of the sum- mer and fall, near the present town of Del Rey. Early in the spring of 1834 he moved his family, consisting of his wife and three children, and made a claim on the S. W. ¿ of Sec. 36, T. 26 N. of R. 10 E. Their first habitation was made by the Indians. It consisted of poles and bark; was about ten feet long and eight wide, closed at the sides and west end ; the east end was open, and faced a large burr-oak log, against which Mrs. Amos built the fire and did the cooking. Tom Lindsey and John Miller pointed out to the writer this log, on the 24th of March, 1880. The limits of the wigwam can now be traced ; there is a small ditch at the western end, leading south, to carry water away. About eight rods west of this log was their well-it can be readily recognized. That fall he sowed about one acre of rye in this natural clearing, and
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for many years it was known as the rye-field, or patch. In the latter part of the season he erected a cabin further west, and near the edge of the timber where the old frame house, built by James M. Smith, now stands. It was built of small logs, such as could be readily handled without calling on his neighbors, who were twenty miles away. This claim he sold to James Smith, in the fall of 1834, for $300, and built a cabin on the south bank of Amos creek, at its junction with the southi branch of Spring creek, where he made a second claim. In a year or two he made another dwelling southwest of the second, where William Hollingsworth's young orchard is. At his new home he had a hand- mill for grinding corn ; the burrs were procured of William Pickerell. This mill he had as early as 1836, and probably in 1835. A few years later he procured a pair of burrs much larger than the first. These were arranged to be run by horse-power, and are now in the possession of John Miller; they are twenty-three and a half inches across. Set- tlers came to this mill to grind corn, when prevented going to water- mills from thirty to sixty miles distant. Mr. Amos' family consisted of Rachel, his wife; Betsey, who married Moses Lacy (this was the second wedding on Spring creek), and lived on the bank of the creek where plastering sand is now obtained. It was east of Amos' last dwelling. Rebekah, the second daughter, married Blanchard Free- man. She died at John Miller's, at twenty-two years of age. Wilson, the only son, died June 12, 1847, aged twenty years. Spico was born at their last home and went with her parents when they moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the fall of 1848. Lacy had moved to that place before 1840.
The second settler, John Miller, was born in West Virginia, Feb- ruary 12, 1801. He married Peggy Stewart, November 2, 1826, in Bath county, same state, and on April 7, 1831, arrived with his family in Covington, Indiana, where they stopped till the spring of 1834. In May of that year they started for Fox river, and arrived at Amos' on the 17th. Amos had preceded him about a month. Liking the loca- tion, Miller made a claim of his present farm, and at once built a shelter about fourteen feet square, of thin puncheons split from lynn and walnut, fastened to poles. This shelter was open on one side, but in it they lived two seasons, returning, however, to Covington the first winter on account of sickness in the fall. The first spring he broke about five and the second about twenty acres, and the latter year raised a good crop. Miller came with four good horses, and the second time he brought from Covington three cows. George Kirkpatrick helped drive them through. In the fall of 1835 he moved into a comfortable log cabin (destroyed by fire February 13, 1868), converting the first
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
shelter into a stable. Kirkpatrick left with Philip Procus for Milwau- kee early in the fall, and returned to the Wabash next winter. George Procus worked for Miller and Lehigh the same season. On Miller's land there was a wigwam in good condition ; his horses fled to it for shelter from the green-head flies." Near it was an oak log under the side of which the Indians had hid their brass kettles. Amos bought and took them away. Miller paid him $1.50 for one. By trade. he was a wagon-maker, and did repairing for himself and neighbors. His family at that time consisted of his wife, who died February 5, 1840, and four children. Miller is hale and hearty, and lives with his third wife. Frontier life snits him.
Ira Lindsey, Jonas Smith (James, his son), and J. B. Grice, left West Virginia, September 10, 1834, and by wagons arrived at Perrys- ville, Indiana, in fifteen days, where Lindsey's family stopped with Abram Lehigh, an old acquaintance, and Smith's went to Grand View to Jonathan Wright's. The men made an extensive trip into Illinois to select land. Lehigh had left the same place in Virginia a few years before, and concluding to emigrate with his friends, he accompanied them in search of a new home. They traveled over much of the northi part of the state, and not finding places to suit thiem turned toward their families, and following the Butterfield trail in that direc- tion, brought them to Amos'; liking the place as it then appeared in its natural state, and finding the timber better than elsewhere, they concluded to stop. Lindsey made his claim on the S.E. ¿ of Sec. 36, T. 26, R. 10 E., where B. Frank Lindsey and his mother now live. . James Smith bought the claim made by Amos, and Lehigh made a claim to lots 5 and 6, N.E. ¿ Sec. 1, T. 25, R. 10. Jonas Smith, an old man .sixty-six years of age, lived with his son; J. B. Grice was a single man, and neither of them took land. Lindsey and Lehigh at once built cabins for their families, and the Smitlis went on to Grand View. Lindsey by mistake built his cabin on Smith's claim; it stood a few rods southwest of the brick house which he built in 1843. Lehigh located his on the bluff south of the passenger house at Del Rey. Grice helped build both cabins. These preparations being made they returned for their families, and November 4, 1834, Lindsey moved into his new home. Smith reached liis a few days sooner, and in March, 1835, Leliigh, with his son William G., Mary and Alvira, and a hired man (Merideth Print), with an ox-team moved from Perrysville to the new home. As soon as the children were well settled Mr. Lehigh returned for his wife and the other children. Mrs. Mary Har- per says it was a long and anxious seven weeks before father, mother, and the smaller children arrived. In the meantime the young folks
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ONARGA TOWNSHIP.
had made about a half-barrel of maple sugar. Lehigh had secured his timber land and at once made another claim on lots 4 and 5, N.E. ¿ of Sec. 2, and moved into a new cabin, where H. Lyons now lives. The next winter Mr. Lehigh went to Indiana to work at teaming, and in April, 1836, word came to his wife that he was dangerously sick. She, on horseback, with Frederick A., about six months old, (the first white child born on Spring creek, August 14, 1835,) in her arms, and her son William, made the trip (sixty-three miles) in a day and a half. Her husband was speechless and died in an hour after her arrival. Mrs. Lehigh always thought he recognized her. Thus early in the efforts to secure a home was she left a widow, with a family of eight children. A neighbor woman said of her: "She did nobly ; her judgment and management are seldom surpassed." The farm was paid for and the family kept together, and received all the advantages a new country affords. She died March 28, 1860, at fifty-eight years of age.
Jonas Smith was a well educated man and a most excellent surveyor ; he had been employed on some of the United States land surveys in Arkansas, and was the first county surveyor, and held the office till 1839. He died March 22, 1843, at seventy-five years of age.
James Smith was a genial, whole-souled gentleman, full of energy, and did all he could to develop the country ; he had a clearer and a more comprehensive view of its future than any other man in the county. He died September 24, 1839, thirty-two years old. At his house was held the first election in Spring creek precinct in the fall of 1835. The judges appointed by the county court were Levi Thompson, Ira Lindsey and John Johnson. The precinct was bounded as follows : Commencing at the mouth of Beaver creek, then west to the county line, south to southwest corner of the county, then east to the west boundary of Sugar creek precinct (about on the line between ranges 13 and 14), then north to the northwest corner of Sugar creek precinct, east to line between ranges 12 and 13 west, north to Beaver creek and down it to its mouth. Smith was road supervisor for this whole territory, and one of the petit jurors for that year. The last of this family has passed away and not one of their descendants remains.
Ira Lindsey had considerable means, and entered a number of choice tracts of timber which he sold to those who came in after years. In 1843 he built a brick house, now the residence of Mrs. Boyd ; also a large frame barn. The pine lumber in both was purchased in Chicago and delivered at his farm at a cost of $10 per thousand. The bricks were made close at hand by Lorenzo Dow Northrup, at a cost of $4 per thousand, and were laid by Joseph B. Dean ; Seneca Amsbary and
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
his father (Hamlet) did the carpenter work on both buildings. This was the first house, other than log cabins on the creek, and the bricks were from the second kiln made here. He was justice of the peace, and officiated at the wedding of R. B. Pangborn and Margaret Harper. This was his first effort in that direction, and he was more frightened than they. After this he was often called upon for similar official acts. He was the first grand juror from this precinct; in May, 1836, he paid $9 into the county treasury, fines he had collected. He was one of the jury that tried Joseph Thomason for murder, and hung the jury three days, the evidence being circumstantial. He was one of the leading men in the settlement.
James Martin, an Irishman, was a character that must not be over- looked. Martin drove a team from Virginia for Lindsey, worked for him for two years, then for Ayers till about 1846, when he married Hannah Gillitte, a widow. This man was one of "the four or five men " who rowed the boat that took Commodore Perry from his sinking flag-ship Lawrence to the Niagara, at the battle of Lake Erie. He died about 1848, and was buried in the Lehigh grave-yard. No monument marks this hero's grave.
Jonathan Wright came in the fall of 1835. His family, Rachel his wife, and Charlotte, who married John Paul, of Sugar Creek, Louisa, Nancy, Noah, Joseph and Benjamin stopped with his son-in-law, Smith, that winter, and the next year opened the farm where Philip Reed lives. The first wedding on Spring creek was that of Louisa Wright with Jacob A. Whiteman, of Bunkum, in the summer of 1836. After her death he married Nancy.
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