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 38
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Micajah Stanley, then a single man, was in his field planting corn. When he quit work at night and went into the settlement he found it abandoned ; the cabin doors were open and everything gave evidence of a hasty departure. Mr. Stanley met one of the neighbors, and the two went about together and closed the doors of the houses, and let the calves out of the pens to the cows. Samnel Rush and Samuel McFall were away on a trip to Danville, and the latter on returning followed the refugees and overtook them at Pine creek, with word that there was no occasion for their flight. The men returned in a week to give attention to their crops, but the women staid about two months.
The settlers around Bunkum gathered at that point for mutual pro- tection. No incursion was made by the hostiles into the county, but a party of Pottawatomies taking advantage of the chance to commit depredations when they would be charged to the enemy, entered the dwelling of John Hougland, when his family was away, and destroyed the bedding. George Courtright, Henry Endsley, and two other young men discovered their work and reported it to the trading- post. They and about twenty Pottawatomies set out in pursuit of the marauders. They followed down the river to the mouth of Pike creek-losing the trail before they reached there-and crossing the
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river camped for the night. Next day, traveling along the west side to Spring creek and up that stream to the site of Del Rey, they bivouacked in a deserted Indian camp. On the third day they re- turned home, having had no sight of Indians during the scout. About this time Bunkum was made a rendezvous when the troops were con- centrating to march to the Fox river country. Col. Moore's Danville regiment lay there a few days until joined by volunteers and a few regulars from Indiana, whence the command went directly to Hickory creek.
Up to 1833 Iroquois county formed a part of Vermilion county. At that time the latter extended as far north as the Kankakee river, which was the dividing line between Vermilion and Cook counties. On the minutes of a meeting of the county commissioners court at Danville, on the first Monday of September, 1830, is. the following entry : "This day Gurdon S. Hubbard presented a petition of sundry inhabitants praying for an election district for one justice of the peace, and for one constable; and that all elections therein be held at the house of Allen Baxter. Ordered, that Isaac Courtright, Allen Baxter and Isadore Chabert be, and they are, appointed judges of the above election district, and that an election be held in said district on the 15tlı day of November next." It will be remembered that Allen Baxter was Hubbard's farmer and lived at Bunkum.
At the June term, 1831, of the commissioners court it was again " Ordered, that all that tract of country on the waters of Sugar creek and the Iroquois, and their tributary waters, be an election district to be known by the name of Iroquois; and that elections therein be held at the house of Toussant Bleau. Ordered, that Robert Hill, John Hougland and Hezekiah Eastburn be, and they are, hereby appointed judges of election in Iroquois district." The same persons were again appointed judges of election for Iroquois district at the June term, 1832, of the county commissioners court. This was for the general August election. The polling place was changed to the house of Timothy Locy. This man kept an inn at Montgomery. Isaac Courtright served as judge in place of Hill. Jesse Moore and Lemuel John were the clerks of this election. On the first Monday of November of this year was the presidential election at which Andrew Jackson was re-elected, and Martin Van Buren was chosen vice-president. William John, James Cain and John S. Moore were the judges, and Lemuel John and Jesse Moore the clerks. Judge John Pearson and Squire James Newell, of Danville, canvassed the Iroquois district in the interest of " Old Hickory." A special election was held Monday, August 5, 1833, for one justice of the peace, at which Robert Hill received 37 votes.
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It is said that a year or two before this an election had been hield for two justices, but it was not understood at the time that more than one was to be chosen. Isaac Courtright and Hill were the candidates ; the former received the larger number of votes and qualified. When the latter was elected as above stated he had to take his commission dating from the first election.
In 1832 and 1833 Gurdon S. Hubbard was representative in the general assembly from Vermilion county. At that session he procured the passage of an act, approved February 12, 1833, establishing Iroquois county with its present territory and that part of Kankakee county which lies south of the Kankakee river. The law made it the duty of the judge of the circuit court of Vermilion county, whenever he should be satisfied that the new county contained three hundred and fifty in- habitants, to grant an order for the election of three connty commis- sioners, one sheriff, and one coroner to fill those offices until successors should be chosen at the next general election ; to fix the day and place for the election, and to designate the judges. We were unable to find this order either on the records or among the papers in the offices at Danville, where, if extant, it ouglit to be preserved.
The special election for first officers was on Monday, February 24, 1834. Samuel M. Dunn had thirty-three votes for sheriff, and was chosen over Henry Enslen, who had twenty. For county commission- ers, John Hougland received fifty-one votes, William Cox forty-seven, Samuel McFall thirty-one, and John S. Moore twenty-four. The first three were elected. Micajah Stanley had forty-four votes for coroner. On March 17 the county commissioners conrt convened at the house of Robert Hill, below Milford. In pursuance of the act to organize the county they fixed the temporary seat of justice, selecting their present meeting-place. Hugh Newell, a young man from Ver- milion county, son of James Newell, twenty-four years of age, wlio had served under Amos Williams in all the offices at Danville, was on hand, at the suggestion of Williams, when the county was organ- ized, to obtain the appointment of county clerk. He possessed first- class business talents, and by his special training was well qualified for the office. He forthwithi received the appointment, gave bond, quali- fied, and entered upon his duties. It was a most favorable circum- stance for the county. At the same term, Samuel Rush having offered to assess the taxable property of the county for the year 1834 for $5, he was appointed assessor and treasurer with that salary, and there- upon gave the necessary bond. He had the same office the next year, and was allowed $10. The county was then divided into three road districts. The first embraced all that part lying south of the line
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between townships 26 and 27, which runs through the cities of Gilman and Watseka. The second contained all between this line and Beaver creek, and a line from its mouth due west through the county. The third comprised the remainder of the county which extended to the Kankakee river. At the June term in 1834 three election precincts were established, with the same boundaries. The south one was des- ignated "Sugar Creek Precinct," and the polling place was fixed " at the house of John Nilson, late residence of Robert Hill." The north one was called " Kankakee Precinct," and elections were to be held at the house of William Baker, near Kankakee. The middle one was nanied "Iroquois Precinct," and the house of David Meigs, at Mont- gomery, the place for holding the elections. The bounds of the districts and of the precincts did not long remain as at any one time established, but were changed or subdivided at short intervals as popu- lation increased. At the general election, August 4, 1834, the same county officers were elected as in February, except that William Thomas displaced Micajah Stanley as coroner.
By an act approved February 10, 1835, William Bowen and Joseph Davis, of Vermilion county, and Philip Stanford, of Champaign county, were appointed commissioners to locate the permanent seat of justice of Iroquois county, and to give it a name ; for this purpose they were to meet at the house of Col. Thomas Vennum ; but they failed to per- form any of the duties required of them by this law, and accordingly the representative, Isaac Courtright, who lived close to Bunkum, and was figuring for that locality, procured new legislation on the subject. An act was passed naming Noel Vasseur, of Will county, and George Scarborough and George Barnett, of Vermilion county, as commis- sioners to make a selection. In case their choice should fall on pri- vate land they were required to exact a donation of twenty acres; and in the event of refusal they were then to locate the county-seat on the nearest eligible public land, and to purchase a quarter of a section for a site. Agreeably to the act Barnett and Vasseur met at the house of William Armstrong, in Montgomery, April 11, 1837, and made their report to the county commissioners court on the 15th, selecting 20 acres adjoining Montgomery on the southeast, which was surveyed and platted for the commissioners in August, by James Smith, deputy county surveyor, assisted by Andrew Ritchey, Blewford Davis and Esock Hecock, all under the superintendence of Henry Enslen, county agent. In consideration of the location of the county-seat thereon, this tract was conveyed by warranty deed to the county com- missioners and their successors, by Amos White and William Arm- strong. The locators called the site " Iroquois." Vasseur was allowed
.
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$20 compensation for ten-days service, and Barnett $28 for fourteen days. Isaac Courtright, a stirring and influential man, having an eye to his private interest, had been manenvering from the beginning to get the location at Montgomery, and when at last it was done, the connty commissioners had been meeting at his house, three-fourths of a mile south of Montgomery, since June 1, 1835-nearly two years- having at that date transferred their sessions from Nilson's. The seventh term of this court was held at Conrtright's. The county-seat having been now established, after mnuch anxiety and labor on the part of those personally concerned, was destined by the location itself to be of short continuance in that place. The site was without buildings for the use of the county, and none were ever erected ; but offices were rented in Montgomery, and there courts were held and business trans- acted until a removal became imperative. A frame building on lot 10, owned by William Armstrong, was at first rented for the clerk's office, for which he was paid $2 per monthi, but afterward Charles M. Thomas furnished an office on the same terms. A room was furnished at dif- ferent times by Benjamin Lewis and by Jolin and Amos White for sessions of the circuit court. One of the Whites kept the tavern.
The notable event in the judicial history of this period was the first trial for murder, and the hanging of Joseph Thomason, who gave the alias Joseph F. Morris. The trial took place on the 16th, 17th and 18th days of May ; and the execution on June 10, 1836.
On December 20, 1836, occurred the most remarkable change of weather ever recorded. Its suddenness and severity are fully attested by many living witnesses. The water that everywhere covered the ground froze sufficiently in five minutes to bear a man. Many assert that the change was even more sudden, and that, improbable as it may seen, the "strong wind threw the water into waves, which froze as they stood." Early in the day nearly a foot of snow lay on the ground. The air turned warm and a slow rain set in and continued several hours, causing a heavy fog. There was a thaw ; in a little while a slush was over all the surface, and the streams were out of their banks. Men were laboring about their homes with left-off coats. About four o'clock in the afternoon a black cloud appeared in the west, and in a few moments overspread the sky. A gale of wind, sharp and piercing, came sweeping over the prairies, and almost instantaneously the face of the country was a solid sheet of ice. This extraordinary event was rendered more signal by a tragic occurrence which was discussed at the time throughout the Northwest, and stirred the profoundest sensibilities of the people. Many accounts have been given to the world of the painful death of Thomas Frame by freezing, and of the exquisite suf-
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ferings and narrow escape of his companion, James H. Hildreth ; but none that the writer has seen has correctly detailed the circumstances, and few spared Ben Burson, a man wholly innocent, from the odium of the most atrocious heartlessness that could ever disgrace our humanity. Since our version of the affair is to some extent contradictory of what has gone before through the press, it is proper that we should state the sources of our information. The principals are dead, but if actors in the later events, who had every opportunity to learn directly from the survivor himself all the earlier facts, are trustworthy and authoritative, then our relation cannot be wholly devoid of credit. Clement Thomas, of Ash Grove, whose recollection of remote history is not excelled, if equaled, by that of any other person whom we have inet, lived at the time near Milford, and was one of four young men who removed Frame's body from the place on the prairie where he perished. While Hildreth was under care at Robert Williams', he saw him nearly every day and attended him frequently at night for several weeks. Dr. A. M. C. Hawes, of Georgetown, rendered Hildreth surgical treatment. To these gentleman we are indebted for the personal features of this narrative.
Thomas Frame was a son of Col. James Frame, who lived on Spring creek in the present limits of Onarga township, about five miles northeast of the village. He had been to the registrar's office at Danville, where he entered the N.W. ¿ of the S.W. ¿ of Sec. 15, T. 26, R. 14, on the 19th. Returning home on the morning of the 20tlı, he left Bicknell's, on the north fork of the Vermilion, in com- pany with the fellow-traveler just named. The latter lived near Georgetown and was going to Chicago. There was a striking con- trast in the amount of clothing worn by these two men. Frame was thinly clad-a most singular circumstance, considering the length of his journey and the season of the year. Fortunately for Hildreth his prudence had supplied him with an exceptionally large outfit of gar- ments. Both rode mettled horses. Frame's had some reputation for speed. They journeyed along during the day through the misty rain, imbibing freely from a flask which they had brought with them to enliven their spirits and reduce the discomforts of their travel. They were proceeding on the Ash Grove road when the change already described took place. They urged forward with all possible haste and reached Burson (now called Fountain) creek about sundown. The banks of the creek were overflown; the stream was deep and broad; and much ice had formed along the sides. Finding it impossible to cross they decided to return to Bicknell's, and began to retrace their way. They had not gone far when darkness
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came on. The cold was growing more and more intense. They were stupefied by their potations and bewildered by their situation. The labor and difficulty of travel kept on increasing, and the prospect of reaching any house becoming more and more gloomy, and at last altogether hopeless, they turned away from the road, leaving it to the right, and wandering off a short distance, halted on a pond in the midst of the prairie. From this place they did not stir. The storm raged. Increasing cold lashed into cutting and stinging tongues of frost by the pitiless blast, to be endured through a night longer than life, was an extremity to make the stoutest heart quail. The fading out of hope followed close upon the deepening shades. Shelter must be found or the men perish. They agreed to kill their horses. Hild- reth was first to kill Frame's, and when that became cold Frame was to kill Hildreth's. They had but one knife, and that belonged to Hildreth. Accordingly Frame's horse was killed by severing a vein in the neck. The carcass was opened but not disemboweled. Frame lay next it with his arms and legs thrust into it, and Hildreth snug be- hind him with his hands and feet also inside. As the night wore on Hildreth, recovering from the effects of the strong drink, became con- vinced that Frame must perish, and began to reason that as he himself was freezing, he, too, would perish if he should not save his horse to bear him to a habitation when the morning should appear. His knife was in his pocket and he determined not to sacrifice his horse. At last, the carcass becoming cold, Frame suggested that the other horse be killed. Hildreth inquired what he had done with the knife, and Frame replied that it was not about him. Hildreth added that it must be lost. After this Frame lay still and said no more. About sunrise he expired in great agony. Hildreth, now badly frozen, after much difficulty succeeded in mounting his horse, and descrying a house distant about a mile and three-quarters to the northeast, started in that direction. The place where they had passed the night lies between Burson creek proper, and a branch which diverges from the east side about two and one-half miles above the mouth. Ben Burson lived on the east bank of the branch, which placed this tributary between his house and Hildreth, who was approaching from the southwest. The stream was about 300 yards wide; the current deep and running swiftly ; and the sides were frozen over. Hildreth rode np and hallooed. Burson came out but was powerless to assist lıim. The current was full of anchor-ice and forging down in a heavy torrent. So he advised him to try to get to Robert Chess' on the south side of Mud creek. Burson creek, which had turned the two back the night before, traversed the route to that place. On reaching it he searched
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along np the stream for a crossing place, which he at last fonnd where there was an ice jam, over which he forced his horse, the animal being rongh-shod. Instead then of striking for Chess', he followed down- stream through the woods, where he found, some distance below the junction of the branch with the main stream, another ice jam on which he crossed to the other side. He had by no means now far to go to reach Burson's house. Once there, Burson helped him in, and then the latter rode to Asa Thomas', about a mile sonth of Milford, and gave notice of what had transpired. Clement Thomas, Daniel and Benjamin Mershon, and Levi Williams, all young men, set out for Burson's. Arrived there, they found the creek frozen clear across. The ice was not strong in the middle, bnt with the aid of a slab they got over. Taking a hand-sled from Burson's, they had no trouble to follow Hildreth's track, and were soon at the spot which witnessed the sufferings of that terrible night. Frame's body was taken to Burson's house; next day word was sent to Col. Frame, and on the second day he removed it home. Robert Williams, living near Milford, knowing that Burson had no conveniences for taking care of Hildreth, sent a team the next day and brought him to his house, where he was kept four or five weeks. His mother came up from Georgetown as soon as the news could reach her by mail. Dr. A. M. C. Hawes, of the same place, amputated all his toes, and all his fingers and thumbs, except one of each of the two last named extremities. The locality of this event is in the northeast corner of Fountain Creek township, on or near section 1, town 24, range 13.
Alvan Gilbert, from Ligget's Grove, on the north fork of the Ver- milion, was driving hogs to Chicago. When the stormn came up he was about four miles south of Milford, or near the place since known as the " Old Red Pump." He left his drove, and with his hands was able to reach Asa Thomas'. Many of the hogs froze. It was a week before he could resume the drive.
In 1838 an interesting contest occurred for representative to the general assembly. Isaac Courtright had served one term, having been elected in 1836. Montgomery being within three miles of the county line, and far removed from that section whose physical fea- tures would for many years (and as was then supposed, would for- ever), make it the center of population, it was understood from the outset that a removal could not long be deferred. This year the issue was made by the people. The democrats were in a large majority. Courtright, next to Hugh Newell, was the chief of the party. In this campaign he was a candidate for reflection. But his known hostility to the removal of the seat of justice to any other
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place than Texas, where he owned property, arrayed his political asso- ciates generally with his opponents in the support of Squire Lewis Roberts, of Ash Grove, who was a wliig, and deservedly popular. The latter was elected, and procured an enabling act for the reloca- tion of the county-seat. As there will be no further occasion to refer to Mr. Roberts' public life, an incident connected with his serv- ice in the legislature may be recorded here. At the session of 1836-7 an internal improvement bill was passed. To satisfy the counties which did not directly share the benefits of the measure by having a canal or railroad built through them, an appropriation was made to such counties, to be paid to their agents by the fund com- missioners. The total amount credited to Iroquois county was $3,133, a handsome sum at that time for a new county. Mr. Rob- erts was appointed to receive the money and execute vouchers for the same. On March 22 he paid over $2,833 of these funds, leav- ing a balance of $300 still to be transferred. He was asked by the fund commissioners to draw the remainder, and he did so, while hav- ing yet several weeks to stay at the capital. For want of a better place for keeping the money he put it into a small box and concealed it under his bed, from which place it was stolen. At the December term of the commissioners court, he not having accounted for the deficit, the clerk, Hugh Newell, was directed to employ an attorney to bring suit against him for the recovery of the money. It was finally considered that he was not liable for the loss, and the matter was dropped.
In 1836 the people lost their heads in the rage for speculation. A great system of public improvements had been devised, and chi- merical private schemes, on a grand scale, were pressed and adver- tised. Paper towns were platted upon eligible sites, and the pro- prietors confidently wrote up immense fortunes. All this prosperity was only apparent, and the first contrary breath burst the bubble. Iroquois county did not escape a certain development of this lunacy. Much enterprise was displayed by several in their efforts to pocket the county town. The seat of justice was the great prize. During the year eight towns were laid out, and in the following spring one other. Two of these -- Concord and Milford - had a prospect for settlement ; for the latter, and perhaps the former, was actually begun. Plato, Savanna, Middleport, Point Pleasant and Iroquois City were laid out in season to receive the golden egg. Elsewhere is shown the location of Plato and the ado that was created in its name. Savanna was situated about two miles north of Milford, on the state road, "in the heart of a fine, rich country, " and (as the
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term ' savanna' imports) "on beautiful, gently rolling, dry and rich prairie," so we are informed by the certificate attached to the plat by one of the owners, Hugh Newell. This was even so ; but with these advantages there were not attractions enough to build a city in a day ; nor to lay a stone until the child of great hopes - the county- seat - should first be rebaptized on that spot. Newell was, without doubt, the projector, and Solomon Barbee the proprietor, as he owned the land on which the town was surveyed. After Middle- port was selected for the county town this plat was vacated by act of the legislature. Burlington fully answered the description of what was for years afterward synonymous in the east with any project having no real foundation, but conceived in fraud -a "western enterprise." James Davis, of Indiana, discovering an " eligible site " about two miles south of Milford, on land belonging to Asa Thomas, suggested the propriety of making a fortune while fortunes were to be made, seeing it. was so easy of accomplishment as the lay- ing out of a town. Accordingly, it was surveyed and platted. Davis went to New York and sold lots, representing that the town was building and in a thriving condition. Afterward some of the pur- chasers came to view their western property, doubtless reckoning high on its advanced value, especially such as held "corner lots." Asa and William Thomas were the only occupants of the "village." When the expectant lot-owners beheld the naked area of this " peg town" of 60 acres, they were covered with stunning surprise and chagrin. Waiting just long enough to call down a shower of anath- emas on the rascally head of Davis, they returned to New York " wiser, if not better men." Iroquois City was an heir-expectant to the county town ; it was laid off on the north bank of the Iroquois, opposite Texas, by Hiram Pearson. When tlie proprietor failed of a fruition of hope the plat was vacated. Texas was also a competing point. Point Pleasant was laid out at the confluence of Spring creek with the Iroquois river, in the acute angle fornied by those streams, by Nelson R. Norton and Smith Northrup. Norton was the " solid " man in this venture in which there was nothing to lose, and his part- ner was the procurer. At that time it was impossible to see that this would not at an early day be a center of commerce and the civ- ilized arts. It had every advantage of water communication; was below Middleport and Bunkum, and, of course, would take the cream of every thing that came up the river. It was fertile with aboriginal associations, having been the seat of an Indian village ; even the rude contrivances over the graves were yet in complete order and preservation. These, however, were not to be blindly relied on for
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