USA > Illinois > Logan County > History of Logan County, Illinois > Part 73
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John Buckles, of Mount Pulaski, is a fine type of the early set- tlers of Central Illinois. A native of the State, born October 7, 1822, in White County, he came when an infant in arms to Logan County, and has spent his lifetime on practically the same farm which he now owns. His boyhood and young manhood were spent in the saddle in caring for the herds of his father, in deer hunting, and the manly athletic sports of that early day. He dressed in homespan, and knew nothing of the ways of the modern young man, or of "plug " hat and patent leathers. He attended the schools taught by Uncle " Billy " Copeland, Thomas Skinner, etc., the same being taught in a floorless log building belonging to his father. Arrived at his majority he took charge of a drove of hogs which he sold in Racine, Wisconsin. The following year he led
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the advance ox of a goodly drove of cattle bound for New York, actually walking nearly the entire distance. His pay was $12 per month. The trip was repeated the next year on better pay, in a better position. In December, 1847, he married Esther Jane Scroggin, daughter of Carter T. Scroggin, a pioneer of 1828. in Logan County. Mr. Buckles rived out the shingles for his first house, cut and hauled the logs to the saw-mill and built the house which stood sixty yards south of his present mansion. The new house bilt in 1864 of brick manufactured on the ground is one of the stately homes of this county. Mr. Buckles has about 1,400 acres in the home farm, and, with his sons, owns about 4,000 acres of fertile Illinois land. On his farm Mr. Buckles has always made a specialty of the breeding, buying, rearing and trafficking in cat- tle, being regarded as one of the large cattle dealers of Central Illi- nois. From his youth he has been an active member and supporter of the Christian church, and none have done so much in its interests and support, his ample means being held at the disposal of church advancement. From his early manhood Mr. Buckles has affiliated with the Republican party, advocated its principles and worked for its interests when a large per cent. of his neighbors and pioneer- day friends were of a different political faith, and entertained ideas radically at variance with his own. The same sturdy manhood and resolute courageous indifference to the opinions of others leads Mr. Buckles to the advocacy of the formation of a third party on a temperance platform. No stubborn, wrong-headed willfulness actuates him in taking this stand, but it is rather the outgrowth of years of calm, careful, dispassionate consideration of the subject, and a broad-minded, unselfish desire to benefit his fellow creatures. As in politics is it in every question with which he is identified. Doing a "seven by nine" scale was never to his liking or practice, and his entire life has been modeled on an essentially broad-gauge, liberal, enlightened Christian-like plan. In the busy and active life of John Buckles we find a wonderful exhibition of vital power and endurance. From the time that he first became a stock-dealer and trader, reaching over a period of twenty years, he was almost constantly in the saddle. In those twenty years, deducting for sundries, he averagad no less than twenty miles a day, making in that time, counting 300 days to the year, 120,000 miles, enough to span the circumference of the earth more than four times. These figures may astonish many living men, and there may be some who will feel inclined to discount them, but there are many things that
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have occurred in the early life of many men and many things that have been done in the lives of the early pioneers that the rising gen- eration of to-day can not grasp and comprehend. The state of the weather was of no consequence; through wind and storm, rain and cold, he moved unchecked. His mind and energy were directed toward a given point; nothing turned him to the right or the left. In these twenty years, while his headquarters were in the saddle, he often rode as far as forty or fifty miles in a day, and in that time scarcely ever took his dinner at home, save on Sunday. Mrs. John Buckles was born February 29, 1828, in Logan County, where she has spent her life, a prudent, careful wife and faithful mother. The children are-Elias Buckles, born September 30, 1848 (see sketch); Darius Buckles, born February 18, 1850, married Miss Alice Turley, daughter of Robert Turley, of Mount Pulaski; Cath- erine, married J. O. Turley (see sketch); John Marion Buckles, born March 16, 1858, married Alice Rankin, of Mount Pulaski, and will inherit the homestead which he is now managing with his father.
Robert Buckles, deceased, was a descendant of an old German family founded in the colonial days of America. Born April 29, 1796, in Tennessee, he was brought by his parents, John and Anna Buckles, to White County, Illinois, where he grew to manhood and married, in 1818, Mary Birks, who survives him. She was born in Georgia, May 26, 1803, and is a remarkable woman. In 1822 Robert and Mary Buckles made a wonderful horseback jour- ney to the home of her father, Jeremiah Birks, in Missouri or Ar- kansas, a ride of 800 miles over the swamps, hills and prairies. Each carried a child before them-the children who grew to be stalwart men and well remembered substantial Logan County farmers Jeremiah and William R. Buckles. The hardships and privations of such a journey can be but faintly comprehended by the people of this day. Disliking the country South, the two fami- lies resolved to return North and make a final settlement in the "Sangamon country," through which Mr. Buckles had previously traveled. He and his wife made the return trip in their saddles, Mr. Birks and family coming in a two-horse wagon. Arrived at the mouth of the Lake Fork in May or June, 1822, Mr. Birks bought a "claim" of a Mr. Chapman, a log cabin constituting the "improvement." Mr. and Mrs. Buckle returned to White County, where a son, John Buckles, was born, and a few weeks later, or in the fall of 1822, they returned and built a very small,
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rude cabin of logs near Mr. Birks's house. Mr. Birks moved far- ther np Lake Fork that fall, however, and the long, dreary winter was passed by Mary Buckles in a room ten-feet square. It was floored with puncheons, roofed with "shakes," was windowless, had a door swung on wooden hinges, and a mud chimney or fire- place. Robert Buckles built this primitive home with only an ax and his strong hands. It was a wet, cheerless winter, and Mrs. Buckles did not see a white woman until spring. A more lone- some, wretched experience falls to the lot of but few of the wives and mothers of our land. The family lived on game and the fine fish taken from Salt Creek. In the spring of 1823 Robert Buckles removed to the farm on which he died. Here was a log house which was a slight improvement on the one already described, and in this the family lived several years. For more than a quarter of a century Mrs. Buckles did without a cook stove. A good brick chimney was built by Mr. Buckles, he and Thomas Skinner having started a brick-yard early in the " '20's." Both flax and cotton were raised by the early Lake Fork settlers, the cotton being " ginned " by hand, the staple being placed before a fire, and so heated as to loosen the seeds. It was carded, spun, woven, colored and made into garments wholly by hand labor, and about the same tedious method was taken with the flax. Many a day did Mrs. Buckles walk over a mile to her father's house, spin or weave all day, walk home and repeat next day, meanwhile caring for a large family absolutely without help of any kind. What would the housewives of to-day say or do were they confronted by the difficulties, hard work, and awk- ward implements and furniture of that olden time ! A bench and a beadle instead of a washing machine, and a hollow tree split in halves for a cradle, and in just such a cradle were rocked all the older children of Robert and Mary Buckles. Corn was beaten in the end of a log hollowed out for the purpose by a spring pole and iron wedge rigged for this business. This was sifted, sometimes through the perforated hide of an animal, the coarse part made into hom- iny, the finer into corn bread, rather unpalatable bread though, as remembered by the few now living who ate of it. It was baked on a smooth board placed before the fire, though later a tin " reflector' took its place. Wolves were very troublesome, and sheep-raising practically a failure. Bounties of corn were offered the men who could produce the greatest number of wolf scalps, and on one occa- sion Robert Buckles carried off the first prize, 250 bushels of corn. George Girtman took the second, 125 bushels. "Bee trees " were
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common and the settlers used to vie with each other in finding them. Mrs. Buckles herself found three well-stocked trees in one day. Honey took the place of sugar, though the rock maples of Lake Fork were regularly tapped with fair results in the early day. Robert Buckles was a successful and enthusiastic hunter, and hun- dreds of deer, wolves and wild turkeys fell before his steady rifle. In 1827 he enlisted in the Winnebago war and did good service. It was said that he was the strongest man and best shot in his battalion. Abraham Lincoln was a fellow soldier. They roughed it side by side, and between the two sprang up a close and lasting friendship which endured throughout the lives of both-lives so eventful and closing so nearly together. In his home, surrounded by his wife and children, Mr. Buckles showed the happiest phases of his character. As a husband he was kind; as a father he was just and generous. He became the father of fifteen children, all of whom are living but five. No man of his time and generation passed through more hardships and endured more privations than did Mr. Buckles. His life was early devoted to raising and driving stock to the then distant markets -Galena, St. Louis and Chicago. He drove cattle to Chicago in 1835. Chicago was then but a small trading post, situated, as it were, in a dreary swamp. "On 'Change " was then an item of the future. "Corners " had not invaded the marts of trade in the Northwest. "High freights" did not at that time disturb the populace. In those days monopolies did not sway imperious scepters over the heads of the people. The highway of that time was one of great antiquity. No bonds had been voted as a bonus. The rates upon the road were uniform and regular. Robert Buckles was not taxed as much for moving his cattle 100 miles as he was for moving them 200. That was indeed a golden day of equity and cheap freights. There were no stopping-places along the way -no " middle-men " with habitations and stock yards had been provided for the weary drover. In driving hogs to Galena Mr. Buckles was compelled to remain night after night out upon the prairie with them, the broad canopy of heaven being his only shelter. He also drove hogs to St. Louis and other points, and upon these various trips he endured many hardships in the open and wild country. The territory was full of Indians, who caused him much trouble and involved him in many difficulties. These troubles and difficulties which he was called upon to encounter in this, at that time, unsettled country, the dangers he was called to meet, his 49
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toils, his adventures and his conflicts incident to pioneer life, were of a most trying character. The history of the "deep snow," in the winter of 1830 and 1831, has been many times detailed and portrayed by writers of pioneer history. The trials and bitter pri- vations of that winter the young people of to-day can form but a faint conception of. In fact, they can poorly comprehend the various hardships and conflicts through which the early settlers of this country passed in the whole period of pioneer history. Such days can never come to the pioneers who still advance toward the West. For to-day we behold that a restless civilization has rolled its wheels across the mountains to the golden shore, and calls to the pioneer to follow and "possess the goodly land." In the next fifty years the pioneer will not face as many difficulties as was faced by the pioneers of fifty years ago. Mr. Buckles died Feb- ruary 18, 1866, and it is the least that can be said that his decease left a vacancy in the ranks of the old settlers that must be a source of lasting sorrow to all who survive him. His children were- William R., Jeremiah, John, Elizabeth, Levinia, Andrew, Peter, Chalton C., Mary, Robert, Wiley, Henry H., Sarah, Jemima and Lucinda. His widow, a hale, strong woman, is to-day, at the ad- vanced age of eighty-three years, a wonderfully interesting person to meet. In full possession of all her faculties, her memories of the eventful past are keen and her vivid descriptions of singularly graphic power. She was the mother of fifteen children, ten of whom are now living, and is grandmother to seventy-three people, great- grandmother to 101, and great-great-grandmother to one-there thus being five living generations of this historic family. Conver- sation with one whose life spans so great a portion of this century is like an interview with one of a past and almost forgotten age; but not forgotten, for there should come joy and honor to a woman who, like Mrs. Buckles, faced the storms and privations of an an- tried wilderness, without seeing the face of a white woman for six months at a time, in the midst of savages, being compelled to fasten with props the doors of their log cabin when alone with her children for successive nights, to shield her and her charge from the inhumanity of the Indians of that day, which marked the era of the Black Hawk and other Indian wars. Such a woman should be loved and cherished until life's latest hours; and when she has passed from earthly toil to a rest beyond the tomb, she should be remembered as a light and power, who left the impress of her life and character so grandly upon the earth. Although her life was one of
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toil and hardship-one full of burdens-she never faltered. Her sim was victory. She gained it, and, having lived more than four-score years, she looks over the times and places of her life's struggles with a happy contentment, standing upon the shore, waiting to be- hold the stars show their faces through the glimmering twilight of the evening of life. By and by the harvester will come to gar- ner the golden sheaves for immortality; and in going from home to home, the tireless and unselfish energy of this aged pilgrim for the comfort of her children, and that motherly love and devotion when the north winds sighed around the lonely pioneer cabin, will not be forgotten.
William R. Buckles, deceased, was the eldest son of Robert and Polly Buckles, and was born July 10, 1819, in White County, Illinois. In 1819 he came with his parents to Lake Fork, and spent his entire life here as a farmer. Perhaps no man who ever lived in Logan County was more successful as a hunter. In the days of his young manhood game of all kinds abounded in the timber on the prairies, and hundreds of deer, turkeys, wolves, etc., have been slain by him. As a bee-hunter he excelled all, even in his later days pursuing this amusement with more zeal and success than any younger and more active man. He located on the farm where he died and where his widow now lives, in 1841. He was mar- ried October 12, 1841, to Mary A. Scroggin, born November 27, 1820, in Gallatin County, Illinois, coming with her people to Logan County early in 1827. She is the daughter of Carter T. Scroggin. Mr. Buckles died February 11, 1885, and is buried in the Carlysle burying-ground, the last resting-place of so many of the early set- tlers of Lake Fork. Both Mr. and Mrs. Buckles were for abont forty years connected with the Lake Fork Christian church, Mr. Buckles being a trustee of it for most of the time. At his death his large landed estate was willed to his wife and children, save two acres, which he dedicated to religious purposes. His children were-Louisa, who married James T. Wright, and died April 2, 1878, leaving three children, who have the care of a parent in their grandmother; Phebe C. Buckles, born November 30, 1842, married D. C. Ridgeway; H. H. Buckles, born November 29, 1845, now a prosperous hardware merchant of Oxford, Kansas; C. T. Buckles, born October 15, 1848, residing with his mother on the homestead, and R. F. Buckles, born June 16, 1850, now State's Attorney of Brown County, Kansas. All the children were born on the Lake Fork homestead, which was the first settled farm in
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Lake Fork, it being the "claim" of James Turley, a settler of 1820. Jabez Capps, Sr., is of Saxon and Huguenot lineage and was born September 9, 1796, in London, England. At the age of twenty- one he decided to come to America, and after a three-months voy- age landed at Boston. Later he visited New York and Philadelphia, traveling on foot from the latter city, over the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains, to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He then voy- aged on a flat-boat to Cincinnati, where he remained two years. He then visited Louisville, Kentucky, and from there proceeded on foot to St. Louis, where he spent the winter of 1819-'20. He then came to Illinois. Mr. Capps has been twice married; the first wife was Prudy Ann Stafford, born in Vermont, married December 7, 1828. She died May 13, 1836, leaving three chil- dren-Charles, Ebenezer and Oliver. Another son, Thomas, died in youth. Charles S. Capps is now manager of Mount Pulaski nursery, which he and his father founded in 1858. Ebenezer is a resident of Kansas, and Oliver is in California. By the second marriage, with Miss Elizabeth Baker, of Kentucky, there were ten children-John H., now of Mount Pulaski; Prudence, Mrs. S. Linn Beidler, of Mount Pulaski; Mary, wife of M. McNattin, died in 1877; William, Benjamin D., Jabez, Jr., Edward, Harry and Maud are at home; Frank died in youth. Mrs. Capps died May 8, 1877. Jabez Capps, Sr., now in his ninetieth year, is active, clear-headed, and in full possession of all his faculties, even to the reading of ordinary print without the aid of spectacles. He was the first school-teacher in Sangamon County, and taught his second terin in the old log "court-house" in Springfield, erected at a cost of $62. He was also one of the first merchants in Springfield, where he owned much real estate, and carried on a large dry-goods and general mercantile business, with a branch store at Vandalia, then the State capitol. He at one time owned the ground on which the tomb of Abraham Lincoln is built. He was one of the three found- ers of Mount Pulaski, at one time owning most of the town site and all the land north to Salt Creek. He was considered the leading business man and capitalist of Logan County. He served one term as recorder of deeds, when the county seat was at Postville, and was postmaster at Mt. Pulaski for fifteen years. In early life he had been a Whig, but since the organization of the Republicans has cast his vote for that party. He has a large home-like residence in the village and is peacefully passing his time, rich in the es- teem of all fortunate enough to know him.
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Jonesthan bombs
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MRS. JONATHAN COMBS.
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Jonathan Combs, grain dealer at Mount Pulaski, came to Logan County in 1860, buying eighty acres of wild prairie on section 23, Chester Township, paying $11.25 per acre. Two-thirds of the town- ship was wild land at that time, the average price being about $7 per acre. Mr. Combs built a frame house 24 x 26 feet and be- gan farming operations in the fall of 1860, which has resulted in his present ownership of a well-improved and valuable farm of 320 acres in Chester Township, besides which he owns 240 acres on sections 5 and 8, Laenna Township. These farms are leased under his supervision, he having resided in Mount Pulaski since 1877. He has a pleasant and well-appointed home, a block of ground, well fenced, and the needful buildings erected by himself. In 1880 he formed a partnership with Z. K. Wood for the purpose of car- rying on the grain business. Mr. Combs still keeps up the active babits of a busy life, attending to the outside business and street buying. Mr. Combs was born March 11, 1829, in Ross County, Ohio, and was reared a farmer. His father, Joshua Combs, was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and was in early life a car- penter and cabinet-maker. He married Sarah Braucher, born in Pickaway County, Ohio, who died in 1863. She was of a pioneer family in Ohio and a sister of Colonel I. R. Brancher. The father came to the home of his son, our subject, and there died during the same year. Four sons and one daughter had been born to them. One son, Albert Combs, died in Mount Pulaski Township in 1883, after a residence of about three years in Illinois. His family re- sides near Lake Fork. Jonathan Combs was married in Pickaway County, Ohio, in 1849, to Anne Rose, a native of Germany, born March 17, 1826. Her father settled in Albany, New York, when she was eight years old, and a year later removed to Ross County, Ohio. They have six living children-Nelson, Mary, Sarah, Augustus, Eliza and Katie. The three eldest were born in Picka- way County, Ohio, and the others in Logan County, Illinois. Mr. Combs is a Republican, of Whig antecedents and is a member, with his wife, of the Universalist church.
Andrew Danner, Sr., farmer, section 23, was born in 1808 in Wurtemburg, and is the son of Christian Danner, a blacksmith who was crippled by the freezing of his lower limbs in Andrew's boyhood. This compelled him to drag himself around on his hands. Andrew Danner served as a blacksmith's apprentice four years and worked at the trade for eight years, in the fatherland. In 1839 he came to America, working at blacksmithing for four
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years, in Hagerstown, Maryland. He came to Springfield in the fall of 1839, walking from there to Mount Pulaski soon after. Here he found only Jabez Capps and Dr. Robinson, living in log houses. He purchased an outfit of tools in Springfield and im- mediately opened the first permanent blacksmith's shop in Mount Pulaski, and worked at that trade for eighteen years. In 1841 he bought eighty acres of Government land, which he still owns, his faria now consisting of 120 acres, besides forty of timber. Mr. Danner has made good improvements on this farm, in the way of building, tree-planting and fencing. He married Magdalena Mer- ganthaler, by whom he has six children living-Christiana, now Mrs. Becker; Margaretta, now Mrs. Sommer; Christian, Mrs. Catherina Epting, John, and Marian, now Mrs. John Rhinder. The sons are with the parents, on the homestead, and the family are members of the First Lutheran Church, Mount Pulaski.
Christian Danner, section 23, Monnt Pulaski Township, is one of the pioneers of the township, locating here in the spring of 1840. He and his brother Andrew were the first permanent blacksmiths of the township. Jabez Capps and Dr. Robinson were the only residents of the village at that time. Each of the brothers was given a lot and on one they built the first frame house in Mount Pulaski. It stood south of the square, now the site of Danner's clothing store. Mr. Capps was the only merchant and the Danners were the only blacksmiths between Springfield and Clinton. There were no roads nor bridges in the country, and prices for labor were very low, $1.50 being the price for shoeing a horse all around with new shoes. They bought their iron on credit of Jabez Capps, and made their own shoes. Late in the fall the farmers would take their pork to Mr. Capps, who paid them $1.50 per hundred pounds for it, deducting the amount of their blacksmith's bill, and from that his own bill for iron and pay the Danners the balance. " Many a time," says Mr. Danner, " has a farmer rode up to my shop, saying . I want a couple of old shoes set for two bits and will pay in venison,' and while I was setting the shoes he would go out on the prairie, in plain sight, and shoot the deer." At the close of the Mexican war, the Californis gold excitement brought in money more plentifully, and Mr. Danner went to St. Louis and bought a quantity of damaged iron at 1} cents a pound. He then began the manufacture of heavy wagone, which he sold to the gold hunters for $125. He also made the first iron plows in Mount Pulaski, buying the pattern in
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Sorell Dolan
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