USA > Illinois > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson County, Illinois, 1810-1962 > Part 14
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That must have ended the land boom for the company. The land they now had Left was hilly and rough, and the timber on it had been cut over again and again. Perhaps they got paid for the best of the virgin timber, but most of the trees went to make a living for
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the tie-hackers and prop cutters who squatted so thickly on the land that it is hard to find forty acres of it that has not had at least one log cabin on it. As late as 1936 there was quite a settlement on this land in Grand Prairie.
In 1926 the shareholders were called upon to contribute $20.00 a shane to enable the trustees to pay the taxes on the land they still owned in Jefferson, Franklin and Penny Counties, In April of 1928 a contribution of $15.00 was called for, and in lay of the same year another bite of $40.00 a share was put on the stockholders. May, 1937, brought a call for another $20.00. The stock at that time was worth $500.00 a share.
By 1938 the company still owned, in fee simple, 1302 acres in Casner Township, 420 acres in Grand Prairie, and 145 acres in Bald Hill. They also owned the mineral night under 580 acres in Casner, 60 acres in Grand Prairie, and 600 acres in Bald Hill. On January 24, 1938, eighty-one years after it was founded, the Illinois Land Company sold all its Jefferson County holdings to B. K. Leach of St. Louis. The Land, owned "in fee, " sold for ten dollars an acre, and the mineral rights for five dollars. The total amount of the sale amounted to $23, 270. 30. In all the years prion to this the people had used this land as their own, and had gone their untroubled ways. Of course, there was an overseer most of the time who came around once in a long while to see that no one actually ran off with the land. There was a custodian named Shirley and another named Holbrook. He was the last and was the reason that the tract eventually became spoken of as "Holbrook's land."
Now the halycon days were ended, and there were vague numons of a change of ownership; then a man came around talking about waivers and quitclaim deeds and asked, "How Long have you lived here, and did you ever pay taxes on this Land?" The squatters began to look around for some place to go, and there was a great moving and shifting about.
On January 10, 1939, all of the land and mineral rights in Jefferson County which Leach had bought from the Illinois Land Company was sold to the Casner Oil and Gas Company. They wanted only the mineral nights, and so they had their local representative, Reinhard Germann, sell the surface for five dollars an acre. Some of the squatters had to be evicted so as to gain clean title to the land,
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and one non-fatal shooting resulted from the new owners' attempt to gain possession of his purchase.
In a short time all of the land was sold, most of it going to the farmers whose land joined it. Some of them today are still wondering why they bought it. The valuation on the tax books has risen over 400%, with no improvement of the brush covered hills and hollows; and, contrary to official belief, within the last year two separate tracts of this land have changed hands at the same old price: five dollars an acre.
JEFFERSON COUNTY MEN FOUGHT ON BOTH SIDES ON THE CIVIL WAR
(This is part of the text of an address given to the Jefferson County Historical Society and Mt. Vernon teachers the afternoon of April 5, 196.1, and printed in the Mt. Vernon Register-News the next day. The paper was delivered at the high school library after a student choin sang songs of a hundred years ago: "Dixie, " "Tenting Tonight," and "Battle Hymn of the Republic.")
The morning of the Sabbath, April 14, 1861, brought to the principal cities of the Union the announcement that the flag had been struck, and that, overbonne by superion strength, Majon Anderson had surrendered Fort Sumter, ...
On Monday, April 15th, President Lincoln issued his first proclamation, calling forth the militia of the Union states to the number of 75,000, and appealing to all loyal people to aid in the effort to maintain the existence of the national union. The northern states responded to every call made for troops during the war. Even the borden slave states of Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland furnished more troops for the Union than for the Confederate Army ....
The southern parts of the states of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio had been populated largely by people from the Southern states. While some had come from those states to escape the influence of slavery, many living here had relatives and friends still living in the South and were sympathetic with the secessionists.
However, so far as I can Learn, only two companies were actually organized in Southern Illinois which joined the Confederate
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Army. One of these was organized in Jefferson County in 1861 by John Bagwell, ex-sheriff of the county. He took about forty men and joined the Confederates. He was killed in the Battle of Shiloh, as were a number of his men. Robert Carpenter, one of his company, was severely wounded - shot through the liver -- and captured by the Union Army at Shiloh, He was sent to Jefferson Bannacks, where he recovered and was paroled and sent back to his home at Rome (Dix). He had a belly full of war and did not want to be exchanged. ..
There was considerable sentiment in favor of Southern Illinois seceding, and this was expressed openly after Fort Sumter fell. On April 15, 1861, a meeting was held in Marion at which a set of reso- lutions was prepared and passed. These expressed the sympathy of this section of Illinois with the interests of the Southern states, demanded that all Federal troops in Southern forts be withdrawn and the inde- pendence of the Southern Confederacy be acknowledged. It was further resolved that in the interest of the citizens of Southern Illinois a division of the state be accomplished so that this part could attach itself to the Southern Confederacy ......
Some of the Local Confederate sympathizers became members of an organization known as the "Knights of the Golden Circle," generally referred to in the North as "Copperheads." Some of its objectives were to discourage enlistments in the Union Army, to interfere with the furnishing of supplies, and to protect deserters,
lily father, who was a member of the 40th Illinois Regiment, had left my mother at home with six children, the oldest not yet twelve years old, From time to time an old man who was supposed to be one of the ningleaders of the Knights of the Golden Circle would drive by the farm and stop and holler, "Hello! Well, I understand the 40th has been in a big battle. A lot of them were killed and some were captured and sent o prison!"
Of course, that would alarm my mother, and she would send one of the children oven to get the facts from a neigison who had two sons in the army and usually knew what was going on. She would usually Learn that there had really been no word of a battle .....
Practically all of the counties of Southern Illinois fun- nished (to the Union Army) mone men than their quotas called for,
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except Jefferson County. With a quota of 1307, and 938 volunteers, it was deficient by 374, making it necessary to draft some. Of our neigh- boring counties, Marion to our north had 336 men in excess of its quota; Franklin to the south had a surplus of 270; Hamilton, 260; Wayne, 435; Perry, 344; and White, 769.
The average age of those who served in the Civil Jan was nineteen years and six months. 800, 000 were seventeen years old. In contrast, the average age of soldiers in the First World War was twenty-five.
lily near neighbor when I came to lift. Vernon was Ed Watson. He was only about thirteen years old when the war began, but he was large for his age and his associates were much older than him and they volun- teened. By 1864 he was old enough to enlist and he started to Spring- field with some other men who were also going to volunteer. At night they camped by the Sangamon River this side of Springfield, That evening a load of men who had been drafted from Jefferson County camped at the same place. In that number was a man named Buck Johnson who was anxious to hire a substitute to replace him in the army. Someone told him that Ed Watson was going to volunteer the next morning, so Buck contacted him and paid him thirteen hundred dollars to go as his sub- stitute.
Next morning they went on to Springfield, and Ed was sworn in as Buck's substitute. He was put on the train and sent to Nashville, Tennessee, "arriving there the next morning. There he was given a uni- form, gun and other equipment and assigned to one of the regiments in General Thomas' front line! The next morning Thomas' army attacked General Hood's army, and Ed's regiment was in the assaulting column and in the thick of the battle for three days. Hood's army was destroyed and it was not long until the war was over. Ed returned home without having received a scratch, but he had had a remarkable experience.
Because Secretary Floyd, during Buchanan's administration, had sent so much of the wan material to the South, it was some time before the North could put a large fighting force into the field. How- even, after four years of bloody conflict the Southern armies were ex- hausted, both in supplies and men. Toward the last the South conscripted men from the ages of fourteen to sixty. With the Navy blockading their
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ports and the Union preponderance of soldiers, equipment and food supplies, General Lee had little choice but to surrender, which he did at Appamattox, Virginia. His army had been reduced from 100, 000 to 28, 000 men and they had been Living for days on parched corn, A few days later General Joe Johnston's army surrendered to Sherman near Raleigh, North Carolina, which practically ended the war,
The antipathy between the North and the South continued for many years.
I remember going as a small boy with my parents to Benton in the fall of 1868 to attend a Republican nally. General Grant was running for his first term as president. There was a torchlight parade at night, and as the torchbearens were coming up the street, two men in a buggy, smartalecks who were either drunk on crazy, attempted to drive their horses through the marching sine, yelling, "Hunnah for Jeff Davis!" A gun was fired and one of the men fell out of the buggy dead, and the other whipped the horses and got away. No one was even convicted of that crime, if it was a crime!
Thirty years later, in 1896, I attended a political nally in Fairfield during the Mckinley campaign. Two Union veterans, General Sickles and Gen. O. O. Howard, both of whom had been wounded at Gettys- burg, spoke from a flat can at the back of a train. When they had finished some cheers for Jeff Davis were heard in the crowd. They probably came from some of the Knights of the Golden Circle,
I think the Spanish American War did mone to eradicate this antipathy than any one other thing. It was fought by the sons of the men who had worn the blue and the sons of the men who had worn the gray. President Mckinley exercised good judgment in appointing a number of men who had been conspicuously good officers in the Confederate Army as officers in the Spanish American War. One of these, Fitzhugh Lee, was the commander of the Seventh Corps, of which several Illinois regi- ments were a part. Another, Henry M. Douglas, who had been an engineer on General Lee's staff, was our brigade commander. The Fourth and Ninth Illinois regiments were in the same brigade with the Second, South (ano- lina. While serving in the Philippine Islands during the Insurrection, I met General Joe Wheeler who had been an active cavalry officer in the Confederate Army.
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Had rebellion and treason succeeded in planting two nations upon our soil -- one with its capital at Washington and the other at Richmond -- one free and the other slave -- the inevitable history of our country would have been that of perpetual conflict and disorder. Domestic difficulties and foreign intrigue, fattening upon the inflam- mable subject of human slavery, would have made of us the breeding ground of strife and conflict instead of a monumental power for world peace and tranquility.
السليم
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INFORMAL STUDY CLUB
In February, 1937, a group of ten women who shared a bond of literary interests organized the Informal Study Club. This has been an active cultural and social organization in Int. Vernon since its beginning. It meets twice a month, at which time the members -- now twenty-one in number -- review and discuss good books.
The original membership includes the following names: lins. Waller Buckham, ins. Lowell Deaningen, lins. Herman Delitt, lins. Lorenzo Eddy, lins. John Fiedler, Mins. Edward Hill, ins, M. M. Lumbattis, lins. A. G. Packwood, lins, Hadge Schneider, Ins. Ray Schweinfurth; and the present membership consists of livs. Joe Frank Allen, lins. Ray Blades, lins. C. Dale Carpenter, Ins. H. R. Cawood, Mrs. S. C. Covington, lins. Glenn Dane, ins, John D. Davis, livs. L. A. Dearingen, lins, Lloyd DeWitt, lins. Hanny Gearhart, ins. Clyde Hawkins, Mrs. Edward Hill, lins. H. ]. Hutchins, lins. Robert M. Krebs, lins. Donald Lee, lins. i. i. Lumbattis, Ins. G. E loone, lins. Ray Schweinfurth, lins. Paul Whitney, Sr., and Ins. D. C. ilson.
By lins. Edward Hill 912 Taylor lit. Vernon, ILL.
الضغط الغلا
اتاريخ الكهر المليء اد عتتطعي .إناء
النصر، ويتموالبي كر من للويط 4غانهل
سط الثلا عى الرق
' รูปรอบใหม่ บูลลอรี่ ,GO! لنللنه
تر سخان ماتق سيط الباقي لص بعد
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THE JOHNSON FAMILY
As is shown elsewhere in this volume, there were several families that migrated to the Mt. Vernon area and were the true pioneers of the King City area. One of those pioneering families was the Johnson family. They were among the first to settle in what was, shortly after their coming here, to be Jefferson County.
Three brothers came from Virginia by way of Tennessee to settle here. Of the three, James Johnson was the first to arrive in this county. As mentioned in the short history of the Maxey family, James Johnson came in the spring of 1818. His brother Lewis came the following year, and their brother John came in 1834. James was the son-in-law of William Maxey and came with the colony that arrived in licores Prairie a few months before Illinois was admitted as a state. Lewis Johnson was married to a widow, a Mrs. Winn, formerly a liliss Storie, and they had nine children. Lewis Johnson was licensed to preach in Tennessee the year that the Wan of 1812 began. He was ordained a deacon in Tennessee by a Bishop Roberts in 1816, and was made an elder by the same bishop in Illinois in 1827. He was a pious person, and it is reported that he held family prayers three times each day for more than half a century. Aside from his work in the ministry, it is presumed he was a farmer. He died in January, 1857 at the age of eighty years, and his wife died in December of that year at the age of eighty three years. Children of Lewis Johnson: Willy, Anna, Lucy, James &, John T., Nicholas S., Elizabeth, Nancy, and Susan. James Johnson was born in Louisa County, Virginia, in 1778, the third year of the Revolutionary War. He was married to Clarissa Maxey, in Tennessee, and James and Clarissa were members of the party that came to Illinois and first settled in the southeast part of what was laten Jefferson County. They were the parents of sixteen children, five of whom were born in Tennessee. His wife died in 1847, twenty nine years after they settled in Jefferson County. James later married a lins. Livingston. He spent the remainder of his life in the vicinity of lit. Vernon and passed away in 1860 at the age of eighty- two. The date of the death of his second wife is not known. The children of James Johnson included: John N. (married Sarah Hobbs); Lewis (married Patsy Hobbs); Billy Fletcher (married (retia Hobbs);
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Thomas (married Sarah Frost), George; Abe (married Francis Criswell); Herbert (died eight years of age); Henry (drowned at two or three years of age); Emily (married Anthony White), Betsey (married John R. Satterfield); Malinda (married Owen Wand); Jane (married Robert Armour); Katie (married John Waite); Sallie (mannied James Burge), Clarissa and Madonna,
Dr. John N. Johnson was well known in lit. Vernon. In addition to his medical practice, he was well known as a progressive business man. Dr. Johnson erected several buildings including the City Hotel, that was commonly known as the Johnson House.
John Johnson was the younger brother of James and Lewis Johnson. He did not come to Illinois for a number of years after his older brothers came and settled. He arrived in Jefferson County in 1834, and as far as is known maintained his residence in the lit. Vernon area until his death in 1858. John and Lewis Johnson were ministers of the Methodist faith. John traveled and preached for a quarter of a century in Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee; he was nated as a forceful speaker and possessed an excellent vocabulary. He demon- strated great ability in debate, and held the reputation of being one of the most capable ministers in the Methodist Conference. He died in lit. Vernon at the age of seventy-five years. Children of John Johnson included: Dr. T. B. Johnson, lins. Blackford. Casey, J. Fletcher, Washington S., Wesley, and Adam (. One son and a daughter died in childhood (names unknown).
JEFFERSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS, PIONEER ASSOCIATION
(Taken from an article in the lit. Vernon Register-News written by L. A. Dearinger)
On April 8, 1872, a preliminary meeting was called in lilt. Vernon to consider the organization of a pioneer association, "Dr. W. D. Green in the chair, A. Clarke Johnson, secretary." On May 8 and June 4 other meetings were held, and on June 7, 1872, was held the first annual meeting of the Jefferson County, Illinois, Pioneer Association, at which time a permanent staff of officers was elected as follows: Presi- dent, John G. D. Maxey; Vice-President, John T. Johnson; Secretary,
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James M. Pace; Assistant Secretary, Clinton M. Casey, Treasurer, Harvey T. Pace,
Membership in the association was limited to those citizens who had lived in the Jefferson County area fifty years on more. Later the restriction was changed to twenty years. Fifty-seven became members at the first meeting.
For the first meeting several committees were formed, one being of ladies who were to provide flowers and decorations. A general invitation was extended -- "All persons, irrespective of date of citizen- ship, are invited to come prepared with provisions for an old style picnic dinner, for themselves, and such other persons as they may desire to invite to participate with them.
The picnic was held at the old Fair Grounds southeast of Mt. Vernon, Services began at twelve noon, June 7, 1872. The program opened with a neading of Psalm LXV and part of Psalm LXVI. Following the reading of the Psalms, the assembly sang the hymn, "From all who dwell below the skies." (Later, another hymn became the traditional opening hymn - "And we are yet alive, ") Prayer was offered by John T. Johnson,
Governon Dougherty missed the first meeting, although he did speak at the third annual meeting, June 6, 1874. Substituting for. the absent speaker in 1872, Dr. A. (Lanke Johnson gave the principal address. The Rev. Josea Foster and Dr. Wm. M. A. lilaxey also spoke.
At this first meeting the oldest citizen member of the Association was Dr. Carter Wilkey, who immigrated to Illinois in 1814. The oldest native of Jefferson County present was Thomas Hicks, bonn April 29, 1877. Thomas Hicks was the second white child to be born in this area. The first white child born in the Jefferson County area died in infancy. "The name, if any, was unknown. " The father was "Clark Casey, a noted backwoodsman, and famed as a hunter of dee, panthers, and beans, " who laten moved to southwest Missouri.
Upon adjournment, the proper committee was ordered to have the proceedings published in the "News, " "Statesman, " and "Free Press." The most ambitious project undertaken by the Pioneer Associ-
ation was "The Grand Centennial Celebration, " which was held in It. Vernon on July 4, 1876. In spite of the handicap of an early and
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من للد يناهز متعلنتم.
طيلة ٥ علمه للد ماغطعم " (لسلعة معصتاحة النبي لمتقضى المنمصلتهما
الدقائق النعيز مصطنع انى ملطصيد بنكنجممن م وإ هد
المختمختوه معه بات معلقة للثلاجة حابه المستهدفلط فه اللاعمل نه ٢٩٢لر آايط سلطة منطقة ٢١يوني وسلو ومعايا نعم المعصم التجاري ووحد
ثلانته عمعت آنى النعهد ساندة طنطا قضعة لم طائف أو السا معلي بعقد طمط ه ماممدير ٣جم مفعم نؤمن منة بنتالخميس" آنن الستارجي بت "قطعا إممدير م مخطط لمطعمةمجم سط بعمل من ماسليم مو اني
العم مه أعلاه ٣٥٢). تهى مولة ١٠ كم إسطنهو + ت حتى bu
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severe electrical storm, the Centennial was such a huge success that the affair calls for a much more extensive report than the mere mention that we are able to give it here,
In the years following the Centennial, the Pioneer meetings continued to be an annual event in Jefferson County. Most of the meetings were held at the old Fairgrounds. One year, because of rain, the services were held in the court house. At least once, in 1878, the meeting was held at Casey's Grove, "south of, and adjacent to, the City of Mt. Vernon "
The programs soon fell into a pattern. First would be a reading from the scriptures. There would be group singing of a hymn, which as noted above came to be -- "And we are yet alive, " There would be a speaker, who usually was followed by more group singing on by special music. Special awards might be made. At one time a cake was presented to the oldest citizen-members, and bouquets to the most aged present, "male and female." The use and display of relics used, and sometimes made, by the pioneers were a common feature. And always there was the reading of the names of those who had died since the previous meeting.
The speakers liked to draw comparisons between the present (then) and the pioneer way of living. One favorite topic was the fact of growing old. A typical example of this subject is found in the following excerpt from an address given by the Rev. C. E. (line at the seventh annual meeting, held at Casey's Grove, Friday, June 7, 1878: "You play upon the same hillsides that you played on fifty
years ago; you attend the same old-fashioned singing schools and apple- cuttings of your youthful days; you hear the same powerful sermons preached by Thomas Giles and John Van Cleve, when you were children, and many of your hearts linger about the old home altan, where you so often heard the voices of your sainted father and mother, long since hushed in death, commend you to God and His grace. When you were young you lived in hope and anticipation; now you are old you live in the memories of the past. Much of your youthful enthusiasm has been con- nected by experience, for youth throws too sanguine hopes on the future."
The last minutes of a Pioneer meeting are dated June 7, 1899. At this time only five of the fifty-seven charter members of the Association were yet alive: Celia P. Hicks, age 80 years; Elizabeth P. Satterfield, age 83 years; Joel F. Watson, age 78 years; Clinton M. Casey, age 77 years; and Robert Harlow, age 82 years.
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KONG CITY FEDERAL SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATION
In the early part of the year 1914, a group of business men associated with the Ham National Bank met in that building to organize an association to make loans for new homes in this community. It was decided to call it the King City Building and Loan Association, The officers selected were G. F. M. Ward, president; Dr. J. T. Whitlock, vice president, J. W. Gibson, secretary and W. S. Fly, treasurer. The directors were Earl B. Hinman, C. F. Hoit, Lester C. Maxey, Dr. H. (i). Swift, Isaac Vermilion, G. F. M. Ward, Fred P. Watson, Joel Watson, and Dr. J. T. Whitlock.
The state issued a chanter on March 20, 1914, with a capital stock of $50, 000 and $18, 000 subscribed. Certificate No. 1 was issued to Judge Albert Watson. Other investors, besides the officers and directors, were John . Carlisle and ). S. Summers.
Those who have served as president are G. F. In. Jard, Fred P. "Watson, Carl Schweinfurth and Guy N. Wood.
Serving as secretaries have been James W. Gibson, Glen Kirk, Guy A. Wood and Guy Wood, 'Jr.
Treasurers have been "). S. Fly, J. W. Gibson, Charles R. Keller, H. J. Cossing, Marlin C. Rich and Margaret Benton.
Attorneys have been Joel F. Watson, Albert Watson and Maurice Dellitt.
Following is a list of directors who have served: Carl B. Hinman, C. F. Hoit, Lester C. Maxey, Dr. H. M. Swift, Isaac Vermilion, Albert Watson, Fred P. Jatson, Joel F. Watson, G. F. In. Hand, J. T. Whitlock, Gaylord B. Buck, W. S. Summers, John il. Carlisle, Walter N. Atkinson, Marlin C. Rich, Dr. T. A. Clark, Carl Schweinfurth, Ins. Ollie L. Sever, Guy A. Wood, Dr. Todd P. Ward, 1. Barney lilyers, Ray VI. Bundy, Hanny L. Fond, Maurice Delitt, Paul Fitch, George F. 11. Ward, D. Clarence Wilson, James L. Woodruff and Guy Wood, In.
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