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 93

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co.
Number of Pages: 1180

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 93

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

S. G. Staples, grain dealer, Crescent City, was born in Canton, St. Lawrence county, New York, in 1824. His parents were Quakers from Rutland county, Vermont, where many of the family still reside. The originators of the family in America came from the north of Ire- land to Massachusetts, one going from thence to Vermont. Levi * Staples moved early to the Wyoming valley, where he was killed at the time of the massacre, but his wife escaping, took her young child and rode on a mule all the way back to Connecticut. Mr. Staples, at the age of thirteen, being thrown on his own resources, went to Lewis county and worked on a farm. At nineteen he went to Taberg to learn the trade of turner and cabinet-maker. He attended school awhile at Delta, and afterward went to Whitestown, Oneida county, where the then famous Beriah Green was preaching " abo- lition sentiments" of a decidedly radical nature. Few who listened to him failed to drink in the effects of his cogent reasoning, or to be moved by his terrible invective. Young Staples was no excep- tion. He continued in school, teaching a portion of each year to acquire the means to meet his expenses. He then followed his trade for a few years, and was carrying on a shop on the farm of Jesse Williams, the originator of the cheese-factory system, at the time lie built the first factory. The machinery for the mammoth cheese, which was exhibited all over the country, was made in his shop. He was married to Miss Barber, of Lee, Oneida county, New York, and removed to Oneida, Knox county, Illinois, in 1856, where for seven years he carried on an extensive and prosperous grain and broom- corn trade. He returned to Whitestown to engage in the lumber trade in 1864, and then came to Crescent city in 1869, and built the elevator here, continuing in the general grain trade until recently, and is now engaged in the flax-seed trade. Of his three children, Wilbur A. is married and lives in Middleport; Nettie E. and Emma B. are at home with their parents. Mr. Staples' political views were early in life molded into radical anti-slavery shape. He has for some] years been a justice of the peace.

Alexander Swords, farmer, Watseka, was born in Perthshire, Scot- land, in 1815. After receiving a good classic and scientific education he devoted liis life to engineering. He served as coalgreave of the Town Hill Colliery for seven years. On leaving he was given a public dinner, and the silver snuff-box presented him on that occasion bears the date of 1842. He was then employed by Mr. A. Allison, of Edinburgh, to prospect for minerals, with a view to erecting large iron works. The six blast-furnaces erected by the Ockley Iron Works, in the county Fife, were the result of the investigations lie tlien 'made. After the

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erection of the works he engaged in railroading, which was just then coming into importance in that country, in Ayrshire and Lanark- shire, and some of the magnificent works of railroad engineering and building on the Edinburgh & Northern railroad still attest his skill. He served very efficiently as county officer in Clackmannanshire for eighteen months. He then concluded to come to America, and on August 5, 1855, landed in New York, and before the end of the month had located his land, five miles southeast of Chebanse. In 1869 he came to live on section 3 of Iroquois township, where he still resides. He was educated a Presbyterian, and holds strongly to that faith. In 1876 he received a sunstroke, from which he has not entirely recovered.

CRESCENT TOWNSHIP.

Crescent township occupies a central position in the county, and . embraces the entire congressional township, town 26, range 13 west of the second principal meridian. It was originally entirely prairie land, except something less than two acres near the center of its eastern boundary, and from this reason had no early settlers upon it. The surface of the soil is finely rolling and has a gentle declivity toward the north, where its streams find their way into Spring creek and the river. It has comparatively few wide stretches of flat land, and all are capable of drainage. In the eastern half of the town the soil is sandy, and some knolls rise high enough to give a sightly view. A considerable portion of the land was purchased, or is now held, by non-residents. Some 2,000 acres are owned by the brothers Ainsworth,-Thomas living at Chandlerville, and Richard at Mason city, and other parties hold considerable quantities. The farmers are principally engaged in raising corn, though flax and other small grains are raised in considerable quantities. Few have engaged in cattle-raising and feeding to a great extent. Indeed such of the farms as are held by actual residents on them, are generally too small for cattle-farms, and most of them, especially through the central portion of the town, are yet too new to have good and sufficient fences or hedges. A good work is being done in grading and ditch- ing the roads. For this purpose a grader is owned by the town and is used in working out the road taxes. The town. is whollyt within the artesian region, and flowing wells are everywhere to be found, the depth of which, though varying some, is less than it is in the township north, and more than in those south of it. The earliest settlements were made near the northeast, northwest and southeast

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

corners of the town, these points being nearest the timber of adjoin- ing townships.

EARLIEST SETTLERS.

So far as any records can be obtained from the memory of those now here, John Johnson appears to have been the first who made a home here. He came to live on the southwest quarter of section 1, about 1846. He lived there until his death, about 1855. His widow and two daughters live in Watseka; another daughter, Mrs. Lewis Wilson, lives on section 36 of this township ; another daughter lives in this town, and a son in Vermilion county. In 1848.Joseph Myers bought, where he now resides, the east half of the northwest quarter of section 1, of Thomas A. Norvell, of Gilman, where he has resided thirty years. Things were pretty wild here at that day. Deer were plenty. John Flesher was returning from Middleport one day, and came across two bucks who had got their horns so interlocked that they could not be separated. He drove them home in that condition, and with sundry regrets that he had taken such a cowardly advantage of the noble brutes, on account of their necessities, killed them. Mr. Sleeth came to reside on section 2, about 1849, where Mr. Arris Boughton now lives. Moses Tullis came here to live on the east part of section 2, about 1850, and his brother on section 1. Moses died here in 1874, and his widow still owns her portion of the land, and lives with a daughter near Milford. George W. Lovett, now of Watseka, came here and made a farm on the northwest corner of section 11, about 1859. Nathan Harrison, Edward Hitchcock, the Hutchinson family, Jacob, Isaiah, Daniel and John, were all early settlers in the township. The first settler in the northwestern part of the township was Ben. Wright, on section 7, in 1849. He had a habit of stuttering, by which he is best remembered. He is also remembered by William Wilson by another habit, which in this particular case was a bad one. His memory was treacherous, and he forgot to tell Wilson that there was a mortgage on the farm when he sold it. Mortgages were not as common then as a few years later, and the honest farmer in buying did not think it necessary to demand an abstract of title. It was probably the first case on record of mortgaging a farm in Crescent township, for at that day insurance companies were investing their money in Missouri, Tennessee, Georgia, and other southern state bonds, in preference to taking such security as an Illinois farmer could give. After selling his farm, Mr. Wright went west.

Robert Clark entered the two western eighties of section 19, as early as 1852, and James Lewis, who lived at the timber northwest of

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here, entered the next eighty east of that in 1854. It had on it the first house put up in this part of the township. The house built by James Crow, on section 20, in 1858, was the next.

The house on the northwest quarter of section 8, known as the Hunter House, was built in 1859 by Thomas Davie. He lived there one year, and went to Onarga. Benjamin Hunter bought it in 1861, and came here to live in 1866. He was a blacksmith; and as he lived on the highway of travel between Onarga and Watseka, he established a shop there, and for a few years did a very considerable business. In the general settlement of the country he found himself not only off the thoroughfare of travel, but even cut off from a road entirely. There were two houses on section 15 built soon after this one was built by Davie. David Schoolcraft lived in one of them, and the other is occupied by Mrs. Spring. Hiram Dunn took up a part of section 6 in 1854. He erected buildings and got a post-office established, and named it Crescent, and expected to secure a station there. But the ways of railroad officials are past finding out. John F. Wright put up a store just west of Dunn's house, which was occupied for a store but a short time.

The first who settled in the southeast corner of the township was Mr. Hoover. He entered the land where Mr. Hurd now lives, on section 25, and built on it in the summer of 1853. Henry Cobb, and Jedediah, his brother, entered section 27,-the former building on it in the spring of 1854, and the latter in the fall. William Cunning- ham and his sons-in-law, Harvey Roll and Russell Search, came in 1855. Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Search entered land on section 33, and Mr. Roll on 23. They had trouble in securing the entry of the land they had selected. A portion of the land belonged to the Illi- nois Central railroad, and a considerable portion was wet, so that really there was not much space for choice. After having looked up the land they wanted they went to Danville and "put in their numbers," when they were informed that applications were on file for those very pieces, and they could not now attend to the matter. The plain trutlı of the matter was, that a half-score of land-sharks had filed applications for all the land in this vicinity, and the officers were aiding them by permitting the applications to lie dormant until some one came along who was willing to buy them off. Mr. Search was a young man of little experience in such matters, and still he had good, plain sense enough to see that " something was rotten in Danville," and went around town inquiring of every body how he could secure the entry of his land, but did not get any light, and went back to Indiana. Unsatisfied with his former trial he returned to Danville

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to renew the attempt. This time some one told him that if he would go up in a certain office he would find a certain man there who would accommodate him. He found his man and stated his case, and was told that if he would give him $15 per tract he would undertake to secure the land for him. This he felt to be an outrage; but the land he must have, and closed the bar- gain with the "shark" and entered the southeast and northwest quarters of section 33. Mr. Cunningham did not fare so well; he was obliged to pay $60 to secure his entry. There was a gang of men around Danville who grew rich on what they extorted from those who went there to do business. This was called doing a "land- office business," and became a by-word. Settlers came in slowly after this. The financial panic of 1857 retarded the development of the new country, and crippled those recently coming here. There were no roads, and those living here were warned out to work the roads over at Watseka. At those times when the water was high, it was impossible to travel.

About 1865 the Germans began to come in here, and they very soon made a change in the condition of things. Always industrious, they soon changed the wild lands into waving fields, and the wet lands into fruitful meadows. They built their church, store and shops at Woodworth, a mile south of here, and are bringing the land, which so long lay idle, into the high cultivation, for' which they are noted everywhere.

The general reader who has not lived in this portion of the town, and has had no occasion to cross it before bridges were thrown across, may need to be told that "Shave Tail" is the wide slough extending from just north of Woodworth, in a northwesterly direc- tion toward Spring creek, and becomes Jefferson's Branch after it becomes a stream of dignity enough to be called by that name. Its name, though partially hidden in unauthenticated rumor, has the following history : The upper end is a broad lake during the wet season, and afforded good trapping grounds for those in quest. of musk-rats. A solitary bachelor hunter, who in an early day had his traps there, whiled away a part of his tedious hours in courting a fair damsel who resided at Jefferson's Point. The boys of that neighborhood, who are acknowledged to have been a little uncivil in their treatment of strangers, seemed to have entertained the opinion that there were no more girls at the point than would go 'round. Mccutcheon had recently gone off to Missouri with his wagon-load of girls, nicely dressed up in their store clothes, which he got in exchange for his farm, and there was fear that marriageable ·

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girls were about to become something of an object in that neck of the woods. Not with the intention of being cruel, but simply to notify the trapper that his visits were no longer considered advis- able, some of the boys one night shaved off the tail of his horse, and then, when he started back to his traps in the morning with a blanket thrown over the rear of his horse, the boys hooted at him derisively. It is perhaps unnecessary to add that he did not come courting to Jefferson's Point any more.

During"high water it was practically impossible to cross Shave Tail, and many a ducking resulted from attempts to ford it. In 1869 the terrible rains put half of this country under water so much of the time that but very little was raised. It was a discouraging time for men who had payments to make on their land, and had nothing to depend on but their own] hands. There was no school, and so much of the land in this district belonged to the Central railroad that but little of it was accessible, and taxes were higher than they have ever been since. The expense of building the school-house fell on two or three men.

The fires were the greatest danger. All was open prairie. One day when Mr. Deitz was returning from Crescent the first year he was here, he saw his place entirely enveloped in the smoke of a great fire. He had done but little plowing on the west side of his house, and everything indicated that the fire would sweep over all that he had, in which case his family could hardly escape alive. Putting his horse to the very best speed it had, he got home too late to be of any assistance, but found that his wife, by the timely assistance of a lad named Roderick Stocking, had kept back the fire from reach- ing the buildings at the expense of badly blistered hands and scorched clothing. It was, indeed, a narrow escape, but such were the early dangers of those who changed this prairie into fruitful farıns.

The United Brethren have a church organization at Providence school-house, belonging to the Ash Grove circuit. A class was formed by Rev. Martin Connor in 1874, at Prairie Center school- house. Rev. Elias Bruner, Rev. Jehu Garrison, Rev. Harrison Jones and Rev. Mr. Meredith have since preached there. The class now numbers about twenty. Frank Mitchell, J. J. Edwards, Tim- othy Hoag and D. Underwood have acted as class-leaders at different times in its history.

Crescent remained a part of Belmont township until April, 1869, when it was erected into a separate one, and named Grenard, from Mr. E. Grenard, who was the first supervisor. Two years later the

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

name was changed to Crescent, because the name of the station was Crescent City. At the first election E. Grenard was chosen super- visor; David John, clerk ; H. C. Boughton, assessor; E. Hitchcock, collector, and C. M. Potts and A. J. Harwood, justices of the peace. At that date the number of votes cast was 103. The voting popu- lation has just about doubled in the intervening ten years. The pres- ent township officers are : E. Hitchcock, supervisor; J. S .. Harwood, clerk ; E. C. Barber, assessor ; O. M. Boughton, collector; and R. A. Lower and M. B. Gifford, justices of the peace. Previous to the separation of the township from Belmont, the united town had voted bonds to aid the construction of the Chicago, Danville & Vincennes railroad. After the separation (July 28, 1877), a special town meet- ing was held to vote for or against the payment of such portion of that indebtedness as should be equitably apportioned to Crescent. The vote stood for such payment, none ; against such payment, 50,- showing a unanimity of public sentiment against assuming respon- sibility for the debt. The township, which was then known as Gre- nard, had, in 1870, 522 native-born inhabitants and 19 foreign-born, making a total of 541. The census to be taken this year will show a large increase to near 1,000.

CRESCENT CITY. .

As the country became settled up between Watseka and Gilman, the authorities of the railroad saw that they must give the farmers better facilities for marketing their grain, and decided to put in a switch and establish a station on the farm of Mr. Hiram Dunn, in 1866, or about that time, on section 6. With this in prospect, Mr. Dunn got a post-office established, and Mr. Riggles was appointed postmaster. To this Mr. Dunn gave the name of Crescent, deriving the idea from the circular shape of the timber, which skirted Spring creek and the Iroquois river, in its curved stretch from section 6 in this to section 6 in Belmont township. While Mr. Dunn was await- ing the slow motions of the railroad officials, he learned, -what he never would have discovered in his home down in the wild woods of Clinton county, New York, where no railroad ever penetrated,-that station-starting on these prairies goes by favor, and while he had not thought of buying a station on his land, the officers were await- ing a proposition. The post-office at Crescent had been held by various parties there, as they could be induced to take it. Mr. Harwood, George Close, George Wright, and P. F. Dunn had it in turn for a short time each. In the fall of 1868, Mr. J. D. Young opened a store in a small building on section 31, opposite Mr. Dunn's

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lands, and the post-office was shoved on him as his first honor when coming to the new place. During the year, Samuel Crumpton, of Chatsworth, became interested in the property where Crescent City now stands, and had no difficulty in inducing the railroad company to put down a switch and establish a station there. About the last of the year Mr. Young moved his store there into a building he bought of David Scott, where he continues to do business. When the post-office was removed here by Mr. Young, the name was changed to Crescent City. He continued postmaster until 1874, when C. E. Barber, the present postmaster, was, appointed. David Scott owned all of section 5, except 80 acres, and Mr. Crumpton, his brother, and Charles E. Allen and his mother, became interested in, or purchasers of, the entire interest which Scott had. The town was laid out and platted in 1869. Fred. March commenced business here next after Young, and J. B. Mires at the same time started the blacksmith business. A. J. Harwood built the first residence which stands just south of Young's store. Mr. Scott had put in scales and commenced to buy grain, when S. G. Staples bought his trade, erected the elevator and commenced the luniber business. Charles E. Allen afterward engaged in mercantile business in the building lately occupied by Mr. Matkin as a hardware store. When Mr. Egley came here, he bought Mr. Allen's business, and continued it a while, and in 1873 built the store he now occupies. Charles Sykes, a carpenter, came here from Maryland and built the house where Solomon Kaylar lives, in 1869, lived there one year and sold it to Dr. Plowman. Mr. Eno lived in it one year and taught the school. The next house was built by Elisha Ferguson the same year. It is now occupied by Dr. Brelsford.

The school-house was built in 1870. It is 26×36, two stories high, and cost $1,250. Harry Fink came here to buy corn, and built the house now owned by Mr. Egley. Mr. Fink remained here two or three years. In 1870 Mr. Short moved the hotel building in from his farm, and kept tavern for a few years, and sold it to J. B. Mounts. Mr. McConan kept it awhile before Mr. Mounts. J. B. Grice built the hotel known as the Union House, on the corner south of Egley's store, and kept it till 1879, when Mr. Littell bought the building and moved it across the railroad and fitted it up for a resi- dence. A. Cousan was first to engage in the drug trade. Drs. Mendenhall & Plowman followed. They sold to Gifford & Critzer, and went to Georgetown. When Dr. Critzer was elected coroner, he sold to R. E. Fidler and removed to Papineau. Mr. S. G. Staples built the elevator in 1869, and continued to run it for some

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years. It is 28×42, cost $4,500, and has a capacity of 7,000 bushels. The grain trade has been large here from the beginning, and is constantly increasing. During the last year about 300,000 bushels were shipped. The village has always been remarkably healthy, owing in a great measure to the excellent water. There are twenty- eight artesian wells in Crescent City. The range of depth is from 70 to 130 feet, and cost from $24 to $33 each.

CHURCHES.

The First Congregational church was organized by Rev. Joseph E. Roy, December 4, 1869. Rev. M. W. Pinckerton, a student of the theological seminary, came here under the direction of Mr. Roy, who for many years had charge of the church organization of that denomination in this part of the state, and assembled the people of Congregational views, meeting at first in Union school-house, No. 3, Iroquois township. At the first meeting, November 21, J. G. Johnson was elected moderator, and J. B. Eno, clerk. A committee, con- sisting of Messrs. Johnson, Eno and Robert Carson, was appointed to examine candidates. Rev. Mr. Roy was present at the meeting, December 4, and preached the sermon, after which the following members were constituted a church: Robert Carson and wife, Isa- bella Carson, J. B. Eno and wife, J. G. Johnson and wife, Julia Dunn, Sybil Davis, J. W. Williams and wife, Ada E. Harroun, A. S. Harroun, George Carson and Josephine Alexander. Robert Carson was elected deacon; George L. Hemperly, treasurer; J. B. Eno, clerk ; and Messrs. Carson, Harris and S. G. Staples, trustees. A constitution and rules were adopted. Mr. Pinckerton continued to serve the church until July, 1871, when receiving an appointment by the missionary board to the Zulu mission in South Africa, he re- signed his position here. Services were regularly held each alter- nate Sabbath here in the school-house and in the elevator, and in 1870 the present church edifice was erected. It is 28×38, with spire and bell ; cost $1,365.87, and is free of debt. The house was dedicated July 28, 1871, Revs. Messrs. Palmer and Roy officiating. Rev. James W. West was chosen pastor in 1872, and has filled the relation ever since, preaching each alternate Sabbath. He resides in Onarga township, and preaches at the Onarga Second church, which is near where he resides. He was educated at Franklin Col- lege and Lane Seminary, graduating in 1852. He preached ten years in Ohio and five at Tonica before coming here.

There had been a class established by the Methodists, and meet- ings held at the Washington school-house, of which Father Riggles

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was the leader, previous to the present organization, the data of which were not at the disposal of the writer. Rev. Mr. Sullivan preached for a time. The organization now existing dates from 1865. S. Harris and wife, Tobias Danner and wife, Mrs. James Mitchell, J. D. George and wife, J. M. Calkin and wife and two daughters, were the members of the class then formed. Rev. Mr. Thorp was preacher ; he remained only a short time. Rev. W. T. Kerr is now serving his third year. There are two other preaching appointments besides the Crescent church. A portion of the time there have been three or four. These appointments have been at the Pierce, Sturte- vant, Johnson and Hitchcock school-houses. With the liberal chris- tian spirit which has ever pervaded the two denominations here, the Methodists have occupied the Congregational church ever since that building was erected each alternate Sabbath, and the Sabbath school has been maintained as a union school all this time. The first Sab- bath school was organized when Mr. Eno came here to live in 1858. All christian people united in the work, including members of the Congregational, Christian, Presbyterian, Methodist and United Brethren. Mr. Eno was elected superintendent ; Nelson Riggles, secretary ; Miss Alma French (now Mrs. Harris), treasurer. The school was held at the Washington school-house. Mr. Eno contin- ued to act as superintendent until 1864, when Father Harris acted for one session. When Mr. George came here in 1865 he was chosen superintendent, and has continued to act, with very little intermis- sion, until the present day. It has always been an interesting school, and full of life and animation.

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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 93

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903 Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co. Number of Pages: 1180

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co.
Number of Pages: 1180