History of La Salle County, Illinois, Part 21

Author: Hoffman, U. J. (Urias John), b. 1855
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1286

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"Words needed not to tell it; 'twas before me! I

was stunned- chilled- almost paralyzed ! Suffering came hours afterward. Very soon

Brother Cyrus came to me self-charged with the duty of telling me my life had been darkened. He was spared the task; his work was already done. He gave me some of the details. Will's division was falling back under orders and in order, he leading them. They had been out- flanked by the enemy and at the time were under a heavy cross-fire of rebel musketry. Cyrus had just directed Will's attention to some move of the enemy and he raised in his stirrups apparently to see better; but a shot had reached him, and the next moment he fell upon his face on the ground. He was in full view of the whole divi- sion at the time and from that moment confusion reigned. Their hopes of success had gone; Cy- rus and an orderly (one who loved Will) carried him-whom they supposed dead-over a quarter of a mile. They had passed by their own lines and the enemy was madly upon them. To remain was to court death and with no hope of finally saving their precious charge. They laid him ten- derly beside some ammunition to shield him from the trampling feet and tearfully left him ---- narrowly escaping with their own lives.

"My husband was dead, and the enemy had possession of the ground where he lay. 'Twas all they could tell and it was enough !

"In a few minutes Cyrus left me to go to Col. Ransom of the Eleventh, who lay wounded on a steamer near by, and he was by mistake car- ried down to Savannah. So I was quite alone that fearful night. God gave me strength and I spent much of the night in bathing the fevered brows and limbs of the sufferers around me. Action was a relief to me and some slight help to aid men who were suffering in the cause for which 'Will' had given his life.

"On Monday morning about 10 o'clock, as I was sitting beside a wounded man just brought in, Cyrus came to me with the word that Will had been brought in (after the rebels were put to flight) and-oh, joy,-he was breathing! I flew to the adjoining boat where he was. There on a narrow mattress on the floor in the middle of the cabin, he lay mortally wounded. His face was flushed, but he was breathing naturally, so like himself, save that fearful wound in the temple. A ball had passed through his head in a manner that made it marvelous that he could still live. But the greatest joy was yet to come- Will recognized my voice at once and clasped my hand. I was thrilled and exclaimed, 'He knows me-he knows me! Others said that could not be, but Will's lips moved and with difficulty uttered 'Yes.' Words fail to tell how sweet it was! I believed my husband dead, and he is alive and knows me! Father, I thank thee! I could appreciate the feelings of Mary and Martha at the tomb of Lazarus. The boat was

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now taken to Savannah, and we were permitted to place him in a large room at post headquarters. Brother Cyrus Dickey, Martin Wallace, Hitt Wallace, and several of Will's staff were there, and all was done that ready hands and loving hearts could do. He seemed so happy and satis- fied to have me near him, but lay in calm self- control even in death, conscious that his moments of life were continued only by this rest. But hope with us grew brighter until after periodical delirium, caused by excessive inflammation. passed away, and his pulse began to fail; we knew his moments with us were few. My darling knew that he was going and pressed my hand long and fondly to his heart. Then he waved me away and said, 'We meet in heaven.' They were the last words upon those loved lips, and he faded away gently, and peacefully, and hope- fully. My father snatched a moment to come to my side, as he was breathing his last. I had now lost him in very deed, but the blow was not so heavy as when I first heard he was killed on the battle-field. Those last days had been so cherished, so unexpected. I raised my heart in grateful thanks for this, and also that the dearest friends of both were with him at his death. God had led me there, so that I should not meet the great sorrow alone. He had permitted me to soothe the last hours of my husband and had given him appreciated knowledge of the act.

"After he could no longer see me, he would pass his fingers over every hand he touched to assure himself by the ring that he held mine. In his restlessness he would drop the hand for a moment, but the next instant he would reach for it and search for the ring. If the took the right hand and found no ring, he would pass quickly on the left hand, and touch the ring as evidence of my presence."

The body of General Wallace was brought home. Thousands of people paid their tribute of respect and he was laid to rest in a private bury- ing ground at his home on the north bluff of Otta- wa. Honored in the history of his country, his memory cherished by the soldiers who knew him and to be loved by all who shall in future learn of his kindly, gentle, brave and faithful soul, he sleeps well.

COLONEL SETH C. EARL.

Colonel Seth Clark Earl, of the Fifty-third Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, was born on the Island of Nantucket, April 15, 1809. His fa- ther, Captain Joseph Earl, was for many years commander of a whale ship, and his son, the subject of this sketch, was left during his child- hood to the sole care of a most worthy mother. under whose influence his character was molded.

At the age of twelve he engaged as a clerk in the hardware establishment of Peter Grinnell & Sons in Providence, Rhode Island, where he re- mained eight or nine years, and acquired those correct business habits for which he was remark- able. In 1830 his father abandoned the sea, and removed with his family to Cayuga County, New York, his son, who had just attained his majority accompanying his parents. During a residence of three years in Cayuga County, Colonel Earl was married to Miss Deborah Lathrop, of Nor- wich, Connecticut, antecedents and in 1833 re- moved with his family to Nashville, Tennessee, and engaged in business. During his residence in ·Nashville his upright character and courteous bearing joined to the natural kindness of his heart, secured for him the esteem and respect of those with whom he was associated to a very marked degree. In 1844 Colonel Earl suffered severely from the financial revulsion which swept over the country, which fact, together with the desire to educate his family in a free state, induced him to move to Ottawa, where he en- gaged in business, and until he entered the army as a captain in the Fifty-third Regiment en- joyed the esteem and confidence of those who knew him, having hosts of friends and not a single enemy.

The breaking out of the rebellion found him pleasantly and comfortably situated and sur- rounded by hosts of friends with nothing want- ing to make the decline of life tranquil, and happy, but he could not hear his country's call unmoved, and influenced, as all who knew him well understood, by as pure and ardent a pa- triotism as ever prompted human action, he re- solved to give up the society of his family and the comforts of his home and devote himself to the service of his country; and in the autumn of 1861 he enlisted in Company F, of the Fifty- third Regiment, which was raised by William H. W. Cushman. He was soon elected captain of the company, and from that time until the day of his death he never left his regiment, but devoted himself with all his strength and energy to the discharge of the duties of his position. The Fifty-third Regiment was sent south in March, 1862, and became a part of the division commanded by General Hurlbut. Very impor- tant services were rendered by it in clearing the country about Memphis of guerrillas and in af- fording protection to loyal citizens. Colonel Cushman resigned September 3, 1862, and Lieu- tenant-Colonel Hitt was promoted to the colo- nelcy of the regiment and Captain Earl was made major. Colonel Hitt had been severely injured just before his promotion and in consequence of those injuries was never able to take command of the regiment, and from the time of the resig- nation of Colonel Cushman, the command of the

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regiment devolved upon Major Earl. At the battle of the Hatchie, October 5, 1862. Major Earl greatly distinguished himself by his intrepidity and coolness, and led his men into the thickest of the fight in a manner that secured to him the consideration and confidence of his men and the warm approval of his general.

On the 2d day of January, 1863, Major Earl was promoted to the colonelcy of the regiment, which was then in the Army of the Mississippi under General Grant, and took part in the mem- orable siege of Vicksburg. Perhaps no com- mander ever secured more throughly the affection of his men than Colonel Earl. All loved and honored him. High-minded, just and generous, no personal considerations could induce him to swerve from an impartial discharge of every duty, and his officers and men felt that they could safely trust him. After the surrender of Vicksburg, the Fifty-third Regiment was at- tached to the division of General Lawman, and with the Twenty-eighth and Forty-first Illinois and Third Iowa formed the First Brigade com- manded by Colonel Pugh. This brigade led in the unfortunate attack upon the rebel works at Jackson, Mississippi, on the 12th of July, 1863. It was evidently the design of the general com- manding to advance upon a line with the com- mand of General Hovey, but from some misun- derstanding the First Brigade was thrown con- siderably in advance of its supporting brigades and the .Fifty-third Regiment came upon a rebel battery composed of a number of Parrott guns, variously reported at from nine to fifteen, which opened a terrible fire of grape and canister upon them.

Colonel Earl immediately halted and formed his regiment under the destructive fire, and for fifteen or twenty minutes the regiment held its ground. During this time Colonel Earl was seen to pass along the front of his regiment coolly and quietly encouraging his men to stand firm. After maintaining their ground for fif- teen or twenty minutes under the terrific fire of the rebel battery, the regiment, having suffered fearfully, began to give way slowly and just at this moment Colonel Earl was struck by a grape shot in the right thigh, which nearly severed his limb from his body, and fell to the ground. The lieutenant-colonel, who was also wounded, directed four men to carry the colonel to the rear. These men were all wounded while en- deavoring to do so, and two other soldiers made the effort to raise him from the ground, and while so doing the colonel was struck by two grape shot, one of which passed through his head and one through his body, instantly kill- ing him. The two soldiers who were assisting him were severely wounded at the same time, and

left the colonel's body upon the field. When the battle-ground was occupied by our troops the place was found where the colonel was buried. Suddenly and without warning he was called upon to give his life for his country and he fell at the post of duty, the post of danger. and the post of honor.

MAJOR JOHN HI. WIDMER.

Major John H. Widmer, attorney-at-law, Otta- wa, Illinois, was born in Wayne County, Ohio, February 17, 1835, the fourth of five children of Frederick and Elizabeth (Horner) Widmer, his father a native of Switzerland and his mother of Montreal, Canada. He was reared in his native state, receiving a good education, and in Sep- tember, 1856. began teaching school in Magno- lia, Putnam County, Illinois, remaining there till 1859, when he began the study of law with O. C. Gray, of Ottawa, a prominent attorney of La Salle County at that time. In the fall of 1860 he began the practice of law with Frank J. Craw- ford, continuing with him till April, 1861. After the firing on Fort Sumter, he was one of the first to enlist in defense of his country, from La Salle County, and was a private.in William Gibson's company, Eleventh Illinois Infantry. After the expiration of three months he assisted Greenbury- L. Fort, of Lacon, Illinois, to recruit that company for three-years' service, and was 'commissioned its first lieutenant. They were in camp at Bird's Point, Missouri, till February, 1862, making several raids in Missouri in the meantime. They then participated in the en- gagements at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, where Lieutenant Widmer had command of the company, and was subsequently promoted to cap- tain for meritorious conduct in the latter engage- ment. At the time of the battle of Shiloh he was in the hospital at St. Louis, that being the only engagement of the command of which he was a member that he did not participate in during the war. In September, 1862, he was promoted to major of the One Hundred and Fourth Illinois Infantry, recruited in La Salle County, and with it participated in the battle at Hartsville, where he was captured and taken to Libby Prison. On being released, he rejoined his regiment at Brent- wood, Tennessee, thence with it to Murfreesboro, and from there on the Tullahoma campaign, and the battle of Chickamauga, the siege of Chatta- nooga, the battles of Lookout Mountain, Mis- sion Ridge, and the Atlanta campaign; thence with Sherman to the sea, through the Carolinas and to Raleigh, where the regiment, then com- manded by him, was the first infantry that en- tered the city. From there to Richmond, and to Washington, where he was in line at the

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grand review of the army. He was discharged at Chicago, June 19, 1865, after a service of four ycars and two months. After the close of the war he located at Henry, Marshall County, Illi- nois, remaining there till 1869, when he came to Ottawa and formed a partnership in the prac- tice of law, the firm being Mayo & Widmer. In politics Major Widmer is a stanch republican. He is in no sense a politician, preferring the quiet practice of his profession to the vexations of public life.

COLONEL DOUGLASS HAPEMAN.

Colonel Hapeman's portrait and the record of his services are found elsewhere in this history.

SOME OF THE MAKERS OF LA SALLE COUNTY.

ELSIE STRAWN ARMSTRONG.

A history of La Salle County would be in- complete without something more than a pass- ing mention of Elsie Strawn Armstrong, who was a sister of John, Joel, Jeremiah and Jacob Strawn, all early settlers of this part of the state of Illinois.

Mrs. Armstrong was the daughter of Isaiah Strawn and Rachel Reed; was born in Sumerset County, Pennsylvania, November 24, 1789; was married to Joseph Armstrong of the same place, May 19, 1808; and was the mother of nine sons. She spent her life until marriage with her par- ents in her native state, of which she wrote in her old age :

"I do love Pennsylvania, It is the place that gave me birth ;

I love it still the best Of any place on earth."

At the age of twenty-one she went upon horse- back with her husband to Licking County, Ohio, where they cleared away the forest and built their home in the wilderness among the wild beasts and still more savage Indians. There she and her husband endured all the privations of frontier life and were often in deadly fear of the scalping knife of the treacherous red man, for she tells in one of her poems how the Brit- ish bribed the Indians to murder the whites for eight dollars per scalp; how Squire Ruffnors and his large family were slaughtered, their cows driven off and their house burned; and how all the people of the frontier were warned by Cap- tain Coulter, who came on horseback to tell

them to flee for their lives, in much the same way as she says she was warned twenty years later after she had settled in Deer Park, La Salle County, by Squire Cloud, who came riding in great haste along the frontier settlements on the 21st day- of May, 1832, to warn all to flee, for the Indians had massacred the Davis family and captured Rachel and Sylvia Hall upon In- dian Creek.

In the year 1831 she took her large family of boys, with the exception of the oldest, who had come to Illinois two years before, with the sec- ond son, George W., then but nineteen years old, as her chief reliance, and with her train of wagons and horses, bedding, furniture and pro- visions, made her way for hundreds of miles through the trackless forests and the wild prairie, until at length she arrived at Lacon, Illinois, and in the fall of that year her caravan appeared in what is now Deer Park township, as she says, "below the mouth of the Fox," only to be met by the very important officials of the town and de- tained for a considerable time before she was allowed to pack her belongings lest she should become a pauper and a public charge. And this august body having satisfied themselves upon examination of her fat horses and many vole of oxen, her wagons with their wide and deep wagon beds and her household implements, that she would not be liable to become a charge upon the town, graciously permitted her to unload upon the spot she had examined upon horse- - back but a little time before, and which she had selected because it had springs of water, build- ing stone and timber, the three indispensable requisites. The prairies were considered to be too cold and coal unheard of; hence she chose the timber lands.

Here at the age of forty-two this remarkable woman settled, and the following year the hos- tile Indians were making war along the fron- tier. At Ottawa was the fort and here were assembled the state militia. In the spring of 1832, on the 21st day of May, came the not un- expected messenger, Colonel Cloud, upon his horse, crying, "Indians ! Indians! Indians !" and "send a son on horseback to warn the people below." and she says :

"He said to my second son, 'You must come to town this night ·

With your gun and ammunition And be ready for the fight.'"

And next morning found the said son with his flint-lock in camp at Ottawa, having come under cover of the night and the timber, and mother and children many miles in the opposite direction at Bailey Falls, where they but narrowly es-

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caped drowning in their efforts to ford the Ver- million River, which was swollen with the spring rains. After Mrs. Armstrong and her family were reseued from the river at this point, she was invited to remain over night with Mr. Bai- ley's family, and on the following day went on her way southward, not, however, until Mr. Bailey returned from Ottawa, where he went to learn the news, and reported as she says, thus :

"Three families in one house ; When the Indians came that day They killed and sealped fifteen And took two girls away."

And after describing the capture and rescue she further says in verse :

"They are living in this county And both are living still, Both Rachel Hall and Sylvia, Not far from Munson's mill.

"They both long since were married, And families they have raised, As wealthy and respectable As any in those days."

After a month or more she returned with her second son to look after the property, but the season was so far spent that little of crops could be raised, but she says that she and her son Washington planted potatoes on the 18th of June, and the yield was very good. She did not dare bring her family from Lacon until later in the summer. There she settled seven miles from the nearest neighbor.

These are but a few of the trials and priva- tions the pioneers and frontiersmen had to suffer as told by Mrs. Armstrong in her poems. Mrs. Armstrong lived on the spot where she settled near Deer Park township until 1853, when she left her farm and moved to Ottawa, where she owned several houses and here she remained until 1861. Then she went to Brookfield and lived with her son Washington until 1866. She then went to Morris, purchased a home near her son Perry's and there she spent her declining years and died May 31, 1871.

Mrs. Armstrong the first twenty-one years of her life lived with her parents in Pennsylvania ; the next twenty-one years as a pioneer in Ohio ; her third twenty-one years as a pioneer in Deer Park township in La Salle County, Illinois, rear- ing her sons. She was never idle, for up to the time of her last sickness she was ever busy and when her hands were not at her needle work she was composing and writing poems, for she found time after retiring from farm life to chron-

icle much of the lives and deeds of the pioneer life of which she herself was a prominent factor, which she did in verse.

Her sons John, William, George Washington, Joel, Perry, Jeremiah and Isaiah have performed well their part, and the history of La Salle and Grundy counties could not be written with- out recording the deeds of the Strawns and Arm- strongs of the last generation, and their descend- ants are legion. And notwithstanding her busy life, Mrs. Armstrong took time to write a large number of poems which she modestly called rhymes, most of which were written in her old age while she resided with her son Washington, and at a time when she could not see to do her own writing.

These poems have been published by her grandchildren, Marshall N. Armstrong and Charles G. Armstrong, and this brief account of this very remarkable woman could not be bet- ter coneluded perhaps than by quoting a few lines, written by Charles G. Armstrong by way of preface in dedicating a copy of his grand- mother's poems to his father, George W. Arm- strong, wherein he pays tribute to the memory of his grandmother thus :

With palsied hand and dimming eye She wrote these lines, as silently

The sands of life ran down so fast Upon the hill, that marked the past,

In the upper glass the minute store Had faded 'till but little more

Remains ; but in the lower chamber lav The countless grains that marked each day

That together made the glorious whole Of a life near to its heavenly goal.

Her fearless heart seemed made of steel Yet quickly could she see and feel

The sorrowings of humankind. Throughout her verse I cver find

The guide and beacon of her days, The Star of Bethlehem's shining rays.

Within these tales so quaintly told The secrets of her life unfold.

And tell in no uncertain way Of the noble spirit of that day ;

When men and women left the east And builded where the fiereest beast

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And still more savage red men roam, Disputing them their humble home.

'Tis thus they lived and made this land A Nation ; that on every hand,

From north to south, from east to west, The world fears most, yet loves the best.

GEORGE WASHINGTON ARMSTRONG.

The Hon. George W. Armstrong, the subject of this brief sketch, more generally known as "Wash" Armstrong, was born in Licking County, Ohio, December 11, 1812, and came to La Salle County, Illinois, with his mother, Elsie Strawn Armstrong, and his younger brothers, William, Joel, James, Perry, Jeremiah and Isaiah, his old- est brother, John, having settled in this state prior to that time.

He was but nineteen years old and had the responsibility upon him of bringing his mother and this large family of small children, with the horses and cattle and household effects for hundreds of miles, often fording the rivers and cutting their road through the forests, until at length he succeeded in settling his charge in Dee. Park, where he constructed a log house and the following year "broke up" the prairie and planted the corn and sowed the wheat, carrying his old flint-lock gun and keeping his horses tethered nearby ready to escape in case of an attack by the Indians. Here on May 21, 1832, when a messenger came announcing the massacre by the Indians at Indian Creek, he got the cattle, horses and wagons together and sent his mother and younger brothers off with their effects for Lacon, after which he finished sowing wheat, hid his tools, ran some bullets, locked up the house and went to Ottawa, eight miles away to the fort as his mother says,

"With his gun and ammunition, To be ready for the fight." **

Several weeks later, he gathered the family together and brought them home, but the season was too far advanced to get much farming done. In November, 1831, he, with his brother, Wil- liam, and Shabbona, the Indian chief, built a two-story house, at a point which is now the south end of the Illinois River bridge, to be used by Mr. Walker as a store. It was made of logs and shingled with clap-boards. This was the first public house constructed in South Ottawa, the writer believes, if not the first build- ing there of any kind, and it was occupied and used as a store and dwelling for many years.

Mr. Armstrong later attended a business col- lege at Jacksonville, this state, and there while at his uncle, Jacob Strawn's home, met Miss Anna Green, a younger sister of Mr. Strawn's wife. An attachment grew up between Miss Green and Mr. Armstrong and in March, 1835, they were happily married, the father of the bride, a minister of Jacksonville, performing the ceremony.

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History of La Salle County, Illinois, Part 21

Author: Hoffman, U. J. (Urias John), b. 1855 Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1286

Author: Hoffman, U. J. (Urias John), b. 1855
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1286