USA > Illinois > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson County, Illinois > Part 38
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From the first, the building of a house of worship was discussed. Various changes were made in the Board of Trustees, and various plans were proposed and rejected. April 17, 1871, a deed was made by Pollock Wilson, conveying Lots No. 9, 10 and 12, in Block 3, to the following Trustees: James M. Pollock, R. P. Rider, Daniel Sturgis and James M. Ferguson. To perfect their title, they afterward obtained a deed from Peter Hayden, of New York, November 28, 1873. The building, begun in 1871, was finished, and dedicated by Rev. Mr. Ford, of St. Louis, the second Sabbath in August, 1872. In 1875, the Southern Methodists were granted the use of the house one Sabbath in each month, paying for lights and fuel; but this did not last long. Perhaps the most mem orable service in this church was the ordi- nation of Mr. Vassar, April 5, 1881. There
were present Rev. [. N. Hobart, D. D., Su- perintendent of Missions for the State of Illinois, as Moderator; Rev. Gilbert Fred- erick. of Centralia, as Clerk; Rev. D. Sech- man, of Ashley; Rev. William Lowry. of Moore's Prairie; Rev. W. H. Carner, of McLeansboro; Rev. W. W. Hay, of Zion's Grove; Rev. John Washburn, of Ewing, and Rev. J. Barry, of North Star Church, Chi- cago.
This church was first connected with Salem Association: then with Vandalia, and is now connected with the Association of Centralia.
It was much embarrassed for several years, the cost of the church building having run up to about $4.000: but it is now in a com- paratively easy financial condition. The membership is about sixty; average attend- ance at Sabbath school. sixty-five, with seven teachers.
The Catholic Church .- For many years there was scarcely a Catholic in Mount Ver- non. Then a few came in-Mrs. T. S. Casey. Mr. Maloney and others; and these were visited occasionally by their priests, and the rites of the church performed. Their meet- ings were held at the private houses of the members, seldom in more public places. The first step toward an organization was taken by Rt. Rev. Peter Joseph Baltes, Bishop of Alton, and Very Rev. John Jansen, Vicar General of the same dioces. January 20, 1871, they appointed Rev. John F. Mohr, priest of the church at Alton, and William O'Connell and Lorenz Fahrig, laymen, as Trustees of the diocese. May 20, 1872, Bishop Baltes and Vicar General Jansen, with Rev. John Neuhaus, who had been ap- pointed pastor of "St. Philip Neri's Roman Catholic Church and Congregation of Mount Vernon, Illinois," appointed Michael Ward and Phillip Russell to act with themselves as Trustees for the church in Mount Vernon.
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For several years'the services were still held in private houses, and at irregular inter- vals. At length, under the leadership, in this undertaking, of Mrs. T. S. Casey- without whom, it is safe to say, it would not have been done for years-means were raised to purchase ground; and May 21, 1880, James Bell, of Cobden, in Union County, for $1,500, conveyed to the Trustees of this church the block-four lots with the vacated alley -- north of the Supreme Court House, Lots No. 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., Casey's Second Ad- dition. Father Hissen, of Belleville, now took charge of the church, and under his su- pervision the present very neat church edifice was erected in 1881. It cost about $2,000, mostly raised by the untiring efforts of Mrs. Casey. And we are requested by some of their own people to say that without the generous aid of Protestants and "outsiders." the means to secure the completion of the house could not possibly have been secured, as the members were comparatively few in number, and a large proportion of them poor. Father Becker succeeded Father His- sen, and after remaining about a year went to Kaskaskia. Just at present, the church is without a settled pastor, but is under the oversight of Father Spaeth, of Carmi.
The Episcopal Church,-For some years Bishop Seymour, Episcopal Bishop of Illi- nois, now of the diocese of Springfield, re- siding at Springfield, has been hunting up his scattered sheep in Southern Illinois, and seeking to gather and crystallize whatever strength could be found in this section, by sending out missionaries and organizing churches. Rev. Martin Moody was appoint- ed to labor in this part of the field, giving special attention to Ashley, Mount Vernon, McLeansboro and Carmi. These were, and we believe still are, called mission stations. On the 15th day of March, 1878, a church
was organized in Mount Vernon by Mr. Moody, when William Pilcher and H. W. Preston were elected Wardens, and H. H. Simmons, T. T . Wilson and J. J. Beecher, Vestrymen, and the name adopted was " Trin- ity Episcopal Church." Still under the pas- toral charge of Mr. Moody, the church services were held first at a private house; then at a room in the Supreme Court build- ing; then at Strattan's Hall. After the death of Mr. Moody, Rev. I. N. W. Irvine was ap- pointed as his successor. Mr. Irvine was a man of remarkable zeal and energy, and, to the admiration of every one, succeeded in se- curing handsome church edifices both at McLeansboro and Mount Vernon.
It will be remembered that the Methodists went into their present church in 1854. They had already sold the old church to Harvey T. Pace November 3, 1853, for $345. Pace at once improved it in every part, even supplying cushions for the seats, so that its old acquaintances could hardly recognize it. It was then used as a church by the "Chris- tian order," or Campbellites, all at Pace's expense, until his death, August 13, 1876. As he grew old, however, services were less reg- ular, he being Sexton and everything else but preacher. After his death, his heirs divided his estate by deeds, and this lot fell to W. H. Pace, a grandson of H. T., and the only child of George T. Pace. W. H. P. now rented it out to anybody that wanted it, and for almost any purpose. It was once rumored that a saloou and billiard tables were going into it; but instead of this, Fer- guson went in with his carpenter shop, the steeple was cut off, and a huge sign put up on top, so its old acquaintance could hardly recognize it again. Pace at length sold out to Mrs. Cramer, and after a few turns, "the Trustees and Rector of the Protestant Epis- copal Church of the city of Mount Vernon "
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got a deed to the property from Mrs. Annie Pace, wife of W. H., February 25, 1881, and a deed from Gottsworth and Minnie Eilenstine April 27, 1881. The lot is forty- one feet north and south by sixty-six feet east and west, at the southeast corner of Block 19. This was accomplished chiefly by the efforts of Mr. Irvine, who also had the ' whole building renovated within and with- out. After Mr. Irvine's term expired, the Bishop appointed as pastor the present in- cumbent, Mr. R. B. Hoyt. Last April's pa- rochial report shows 27 families, 39 commu- nicants, 7 baptisms, 6 teachers aud 35 schol- ars in Sunday school, and a total of contri- butions of $467. 79, parochial and diocesan.
The Second Baptist Church. - This is a church of colored people. For many years there were very few of these in Mount Ver- non. Cesar Hodge and Maria his wife, their daughter Amanda Guyler, and Sam, her husband, Guyler's two boys, William and another, and Old Nick, were all. But about 1850, others came in, aud in three or four years they became quite a colony. They had meetings in the old academy, and Overton and Loggins and others preached for them. They settled in between the creeks east of town, till that section became well known under the name of Africa. They had Sunday school and a church organization, and so moved on for a few years, till about 1857, when some evil-disposed persons played Ku. Klux on them, and they soon scattered; Africa was depopulated, and scarcely a col- ored family was left in the county. After the war, their numbers increased very slowly for a time, then more rapidly, until they found themselves iu force sufficient to again organ- ize a church. This was done in the spring of 1879, Willis W. and Rosa Wilson, Mar- shall and Margaret Campbell, Margaret Scott, Henry Bradford and William H. Jones were
the members. Wilson was their preacher, and, May 27, Bradford, Campbell and Jones were elected Trustees. They had Sunday school awhile in the house south of Hobbs' mill; then they rented the Pace church of Mrs. Cramer, tried to buy it, failed, and at length bought of Mr. Strattan their present house of worship, west of the Episcopal Church, for $300. Wilson was pastor two years; then Henry Jackson, of Richview, two years; the pastor last employed is named Williams, of Carmi. There are seventeen members; all attend Sunday school, in which are two regular teachers.
The Colored Methodist Church .-- Perhaps our readers know that, after the war, the Sonthern Methodist Church encouraged its colored members to form a separate organiza tion; and by easy steps they at length, in 1875, reached the point of absolute inde- pendence, under the name of " The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America." A section of this was called the " Missouri and Kansas Conference." A member of this con- ference, formerly from Kentucky, W. C. Davis, visited the colored people in Mount Vernon in May, 1881, and organized a church of ten members -G. W. Persons, S. P. Tandy, Charles Steager, and their wives, D. B. Bell and his two sisters and Thomas Slaughter. G. W. Persons was appointed pastor, and has continued. Their meetings have been held sometimes in private houses; for a time they used the Colored Baptist Church, and now hold meetings up-stairs north of Wlecke's Hotel. They have secured a lot, and are pre- paring to build a church.
The Camp Ground, or Pleasant Hill. - The first house erected here was for the Cumber- land Presbyterians. David Summers moved down from the Samson Allen place, south of Rome, to the place in this township, where he lived so long, in 1838. It was not long
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
before Rev. Mr. Finley, of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, found him, and began to preach at his house. There being neither church nor schoolhouse on that side of Seven Mile, the neighbors agreed to build a church. The host included David and Caltin Sum- mers and their boys. Coleman Smith, Nathaniel Parker and his boys -"only that and nothing more." But they built a small house of logs. It was used for several years as a place of worship. But Mr. Finley was sent to labor in other fields, and Arthur Bradshaw, preach- er on Mount Vernon Circuit, formed a Meth- odist Society here, 1846-47. A camp ground was prepared. and for five or six years camp meetings were held here every fall. August 8, 1848, George Leonard, son-in-law to Mr. Parker, conveyed a lot beginning at the northeast corner of the southwest quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 23, Town- ship 2, Range 3, thence running south twelve rods, east twelve rods, north twelve rods to beginning, to Bennett Short, Thomas Short, William Brookman, Benjamin Webber, Na- thaniel Parker, Aaron Yearwood and W. H. Lynch, Trustees of Pleasant Hill Mee ing- House. The description of the lot was imper- fect, but every one knew where it was. The camp meetings were now less regular, and finally ceased; but it was a regular preaching place, services being held in the house in cold, and under the "shed" in warm, weather. October 10, 1853, James T. Parker conveyed an additional lot, beginning at the northwest corner of the southeast quarter of the north- east quarter of Section 23, Township 2. Range 3, sonth twelve rods, east six and two- thirds rods, north twelve rods, and west to beginning, to the Trustees; the board then being Coleman Smith, R. A. Grant, Aaron Yearwood, George Graut, Thomas Short, Jr., Littleton Daniel, Samuel Musgrove and James Kelly. But deaths and removals made
sad inroads on the society; churches sprang up in adjoining neighborhoods; other denom- inations came in, and after the war there was little of the old society left. I suppose it would be impossible to tell just at what point the organization went down. The house went into a heap, and was finally hauled away.
As Pleasant Hill began to decline, W. F. Johnson and other born Methodists, some four miles northwest, could not be satisfied without a church. John Thatcher was the circuit preacher. The neighbors agreed to build, and met to select a site, but failed to agree. Some wanted it east of where Mont Morrow lives, some west. They compromised by leaving it to Tommy Casey and Jick Maxey. Mr. Thatcher would not interfere; he sat on the ground, leaning against a tree, and read Peter Parley. At length, the " Commissioners" drove down the stakes just east of where the present handsome church stands, and there the house of logs was built. It was several years before they got a deed of the ground. At length, July 15, 1854. James A. Donoho conveyed the lot, beginning at the northwest corner of the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 4, Township 2, Range 3, running south eleven chains, east eighteen rods, south seventeen and three-fourths rods, west eight- een rods, north seventeen and three-fourths rods to beginning, to James J. Maxey, Mont Morrow, W. H. Chastain, S. D. Misenheim- er, W. F. Johnson, Jobn Sproul, James Dodson, Matthew Humphrey and William H. Maxey, Trustees. This log house stood for about fifteen years, when it was sold to Dr. Cam Frost, who moved it home and uses it for an office. In 1869, it was determined to build a better house; but they were in danger of being shut out from the public roads, so they got an outlet by two deeds,
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one from John Mclaughlin, for twenty feet off the west side of the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 4, Town- ship 2, Range 3, and one from Ed R. Collins, beginning three rods west of the southeast corner of the southwest quarter of southwest quarter of Section 33, Township 1, Range 3, north eighty rods, west one rod, south eighty rods, east one rod to beginning; the latter dated November 7, 1870, the former dated August 19, 1867, and made to J. Sproul, M. Morrow, G. A. Collins, F. M. Bates, W. F. Johnson, Jehu J. Maxey, M. Wilson, A. S. Way and E. R. Collins. The new building is one of our best country churches, and the society there honor themselves and their profession by uprightness of life and zeal in maintain . ing the institutions of their church. Their Sunday school is of the evergreen variety.
The Methodist society at Liberty was or- ganized by Rev. J. Thatcher or J. A. Robin- son, in 1851. It included Anthony and John Waite, James Hails, Ransom Wilkerson and a few others. They built a log church in the usual way, every man working at what- ever he could do till it was done; and it was a preaching place as long as it stood, the so- ciety experiencing the vicissitudes of decline and revival common to country churches. The house stood on James Hails' land, and he was always willing to make a deed, but never ready. So it went on till 1874, when H. began to talk of selling out, when, Feb- ruary 4, a Board of Trustees was elected to receive the deed. It was composed of George Stitch, James Hails, John Waite, Elijah Thickston, John W. Coates, James D. Askew. Alonzo Paine, Patrick Presslar and Joseph Howard. But even this effort failed. Mr. H. sold his land to the present owner, Daniel Hershey, conveyed to him without re serve, and Mr. Hershey took the house down and moved it away. The meetings are now
held in the schoolhouse. The society is growing in numbers and in activity, main- tains a good Sunday school and has regular services.
The Baptist Church at Salem was organ- ized in 1856, by James A. Keele. Some of the earliest members were Bird Warren, Johnson Mofield, Zebulon Sledge, R. Hawkins, R. A. Grant, Robert Harlow, G. W. Luster, Will- iam Stroud, Jesse Clark and William Hutchinson and their wives.
Their meetings were held for several years in the Seven Mile Schoolhouse. They pro- cured a lot from Bluford Harlow, March 13, 1860, beginning at the northwest corner of the southwest quarter of the southwest quar- ter of Section 11, Township 2, Range 3, run east twenty-three rods, south eight rods for beginning corner, then south sixteen rods, east twenty-three rods, north sixteen rods and west to beginning. The Trustees were Richard V. Hawkins, William Hutchison, William C. Beal, George W. Lester and Zeb- ulon Sledge. Here was erected a substantial house of hewn logs, and afterward a large shed in front to accommodate the overflow on special occasions. Thus it remained till last year, when a new house was begun on a lot bought from Hiram Duncan, November 1, 1882. It was finished this spring. This lot begins 12.57 chains east of the southwest corner of the northwest quarter of the north- west quarter of Section 11, Township 1, Range 3, runs north 6.20 chains, west 2.75 chains, south 121° west 1.85 chains to road, south 57º west 3.06 chains, south 2.68 chains, east 5.72 chains to beginning, being just half a mile north of the old one. The pastors of this church, since its organization, have been James A. Keele, George W. Grant, Thomas J. Burton, W. P. Proffitt (for a short time), F. W. Overstreet, J. T. Tenison, B. D. Esmon and S. W. Derrickson.
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Southern Methodist Church .- The career of this denomination in Mount Vernon has been rather inglorious. After all its strug gles, the writer remains almost its sole rep- resentative. and has to confess that he feels like a tall rag-weed in the middle of a frost- bitten turnip patch, " whose lights are fled," etc. Soon after the war closed, and largely through the efforts of Rev .- or Hon., per. haps both-John W. Westcott, the Methodist Episcopal Church South was planted in Mount Vernon- planted a little too deep, and the ground was heavy, so it didn't come up well. They got the use of the Presbyte- rian Church, and Rev. Dr. Reed had services there for some time in 1867-68. A preacher by the name of Frost organized a church at the Summers Schoolhouse; and this church being planted while the Frost was on the ground, the soil was mellow, and under good cultivation the crop turned out well -about sixty bushels; that is, about sixty members. Davis, Halsey, Jones and others preached for us, but we still grew " small by degrees and beautifully Jess." Then, for a year or two, we had no preacher. Afterward, about 1872, a little man by the name of Ward-a sickly young man, with a Bible and hymn-book and two shirts in one end of his saddle-bags, and about five bottles and three pill-boxes in the other-came to preach for us. He was irri. table, of course. We got the use of the Bap- tist Church awhile, and he preached and flew around like whiz; but the bottom of his tender fell out, and he blew the crown sheet off his boiler and quit. The writer then switched off, and ran on the Presbyterian track awhile, but his drive-wheel slipped on the rails so badly that he went back to the Southern Methodists. In the meantime, 1877-78, we tried to build a church in East Mount Vernon, for the joint use of the Pres- byterians and Southern Methodists. We met
at Hinman's saloon and elected the writer, John Yearwood and George Haynes, Trust- ees, and got about $100 subscribed in a week or two. We bought Lots 8 and 9, Dewy's Addition, and gave notes and trust deed. We took a deed, and while one thought an- other had it recorded, it got lost-we have no idea what became of it. Rev. Mr. Prine almost wore all the nap off his plug hat try- ing to get up a Southern Methodist Church, but failed and abandoned the field. The writer had to pay off the notes and assume the debts; so he was out about $200, and in for about $100 more. He got a deed from the Trustees and one from Hobbs & Guthrie, and a resolution of a called meeting confirm- ing the action of the Trustees and accepting their resignation. The church was " busted;" so was the writer. He tried to sell to some church, or somebody for a church, or any- body for anything, at almost any price, but no -- not any. Yet the building was a church, or stood for one, about four years. And now, as far as Mount Vernon is concerned, the Southern Methodist Church is no more . indeed, not near so much.
Schools- In Town .- The people of Mount Vernon, for several years, patronized schools in Shiloh Township. In 1830-31, a log schoolhouse was erected on the point, now in the northwestern part of city, north of the Tolle property, or nearly south of Gen. Pavey's. But in 1831 it was ont of sight of town-purposely so, that the children might study with less disturbance, and that the neighbors north and west might be accom- modated. Scholars came from the west as far as Bullock's Prairie. Here Mr. Tally taught our first schools, in 1831-32. In the winter of 1833-34, John Baugh, Sr., taught here; the next winter, Abner Melcher, aud his daughter Priscilla the following summer; and both father and daughter the next win-
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ter. In 1836-37, John Downer, who is still living among us, taught; after which I think the house fell into disuse. Miss Rand, one of the teachers sent West by an association in the East, taught in a room over Dr. Parks's dwelling-the south end of the re- constructed dwelling in which Mrs. Thorn lives, west of the square. To all these schools scholars came from a circle six or eight miles in diameter. We believe Joshua Grant, brother of A. M., taught the next school, in the Methodist parsonage, a small frame building on the northeast corner of Block 19, where Varnell's three little brick houses stand. 1838-39. Here Miss Elizabeth Bullock also had a summer school. It was in the edge of the woods, and we remember seeing the school thrown into excitement by the appear- ance of snakes in the room.
At length the people of the town became ambitious to do something better; it was de- termined to have an academy, and the site was chosen. In February, 1839, the Legis- lature passed the act of incorporation, and the names of the Trustees augured well for the result. They were Zadok Casey, Stinson H. Anderson, Joel Pace, W. S. Van Cleve, H. B. Newby, E. H. Ridgway. D. Baugh, Thomas Cunningham, J. W. Greetham, An- gus M. Grant. On the 5th of July, 1839, they received from S. H. Anderson a deed to a lot 180 feet square. It was in a very pret ty grove, just out of town, on the southeast. A Building Committee had been appointed, Tom King, et al., and the building, furnish- ing materials, etc., was let to John H. Wat- son for $350. Of course, at this price, the house was not long in being completed; John and Asa Watson and John Leonard doing the work. There were large schoolrooms- one below and one above-a hall and stair- way on the north below, and over these a room for apparatus, etc. A fine little appa-
ratus, with chemicals, was furnished, chiefly, we believe, by Gov. Casey's liberality, at a cost of about $100.
The first sessions were taught by Lewis Dwight, "a down-easter." a graduate, per- haps, of Yale College, and a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His assistant, the first term, was a Miss Evans, the next term Joel F. Watson. Dwight began in the fall of 1839, and taught two terms. In the meantime, he married Mahala, oldest daugh- ter of Gov. Casey, who died the following year, leaving an infant son-now Samuel L Dwight, Esq., of Centralia. People were pretty well pleased with Dwight, as Princi- pal, except Bowman, Sheriff, father of two extra bad boys -- Frank and Jim-one of whom Dwight ventured to correct. Bowman tried to raise an altercation with Dwight on the street, and threw a brick bat at Dwight's head, inflicting a very severe wound. Bow- man was fined $1 for this cowardly assault.
The writer feels some pride in having been a pupil in the academy, though he re ceived of Mr. Dwight the only blow he ever received in school. Many of the pupils have since risen to some degree of eminence. Among them may be mentioned Dr. Newton R. Casey, of Mound City, Mayor. and member of the Legislature; Thomas S. Casey, now Judge of this judicial circuit and also of the Appellate Court; Robert F. Wingate, of St. Louis, ex-Attorney General of Missouri; Tom B. Lester and Ab F. Haynie, of Salem, both distinguished in medicine, the latter also a poet and scholar, the former Professor in Kansas City Medical College; Isham N. Haynie, Adjutant General of Illinois; James M. Pace, first Mayor of Mount Vernon; G. W. Johnson, Superintendent of Schools; Lewis F. Casey, of Centralia; Charles T. Pace, long a leading man here in business and in his church; Dr. W. C. Pace and E.
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C. Pace, bankers, of Ashley; Moses Shep- herd, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church; Robert Yost, a lawyer of Thebes; John H. Pace, many years in various offices here; Thomas H. Hobbs, Alderman, and yet more prominent in other positions; Joel F. Watson, for sixteen years County Clerk, and others.
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