USA > Illinois > Macoupin County > History of Macoupin County, Illinois : biographical and pictorial, Volume I > Part 13
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Peter Denby, Sr., came from Liverpool, England, in 1834, and first located in Morgan county, Illinois, where he rented land. In 1835 he visited South Palmyra township and entered government land on section 36, which was one of the finest tracts of the county. He lived here until his death, which occurred December 3, 1862. His wife had preceded him in 1847.
Joel and Miriam (Haycroft) Parker came from Kentucky in 1835, settling in Shipman township, where he died November 28, 1843. His widow became the .wife of Oliver C. Forwood. Benjamin E. Parker, a son, was born in Shipman township, October 9, 1839, where he grew to manhood.
Henry Solomon was born in Franklin county, North Carolina, and came with his father, Lewis Solomon, to Morgan county in 1825. In 1835 Henry sold his property in Morgan county and with the proceeds bought government land in South Palmyra township, this county, where he erected a log house. With the exception of one year he continued to occupy his farm until death closed his ca- reer at the ripe old age of seventy-six. He was twice married, the third child of his first wife being Rebecca Jane. She was the mother of Ariel M. Solomon, who was but four years of age when his father came to Illinois. Ariel continued an inmate of his father's home until he was twenty-four years old. When he was seventeen his father gave him fifty dollars and told him to do whatever he liked with it. The enterprising youth wisely invested it in forty acres of gov- ernment land in South Palmyra township. Two years later his father gave him another fifty dollars, which he judiciously invested in forty acres in Barr township, adjoining his first entry. He never located on the land but eventually sold it at $5.25 per acre. He then bought one hundred and ten acres in Barr township and took up his residence there. In the fall of 1888 he removed to Palmyra.
Randall Clark at the age of twenty arrived in Macoupin county from his na- tive state, South Carolina, in 1835. He finally settled on a farm on section 20, Gillespie township, where he lived many years.
John and Emily A. Lumpkin settled in Macoupin county in 1835. Mr. Lump- kin purchased a tract of wild land on time and located in Bird township, where he erected a log house, riving the boards to cover the roof, which was held in place by means of poles. The floor and door were made of split puncheons. Here James W. Lumpkin, who was for many years editor and proprietor of the Macoupin County Enquirer, was born November 15, 1836.
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James P. Pearson located in Macoupin county in 1835. He was a native of England. After his arrival he married Tabitha Gwin, a daughter of Elias and Tabitha (Weatherford) Gwin, natives of South Carolina. and Kentucky, respect- ively. After the death of his wife, Mr. Gwin, with a family of ten sons and daughters, left Tennessee and in 1830 settled in Macoupin county.
Isaac B. Johnston was born in Kentucky and came to Macoupin county about the year 1835 from Madison county, this state, where he had previously resided for a short time. He settled in North Palmyra township, where in 1843 he married Elizabeth Berry.
Joseph King was born in Todd county, Kentucky, and after his marriage came to Illinois with his wife and two children, in 1835. He settled in Macoupin county, where for a time he rented land and then entered forty acres of timber and brush land on section 32, North Palmyra township, on which he built a log cabin.
William Metcalf, Jr., was a Kentuckian and arrived in Macoupin county on the 22d of April, 1835. He entered a quarter section of land in Barr township, also a part of a quarter section in Western Mound township. On the latter tract was a log house, which he and his family occupied.
George Wagner, a native of Maryland, arrived in Macoupin county in 1835, when his son, James E. Wagner, was but five years of age. He settled in Brighton township.
Moses Smith was born in Pennsylvania. He married Parmelia Aiken, a na- tive of North Carolina. After his marriage he came to Macoupin county from Tennessee in 1835, settling in North Palmyra township, where they spent the remainder of their lives. They were the parents of seven children.
His acquaintance with John Cavender, John Tilden and others, who had bought land in the vicinity of Bunker Hill, was the means of bringing Moses True to Macoupin county. He traveled from the east in an ordinary covered wagon and on Christmas day of 1835 arrived at the spot which is now the town site of Bunker Hill, then a wild prairie, inhabited by wolves. In January, 1836, he brought from St. Louis a wagon load of groceries and dry goods and opened the first store in Bunker Hill. His cabin on the west side of Washington street was the first hotel in'the town.
William Duckles, a native of England, arrived in the United States in 1834, and in the month of February, 1835, settled in Macoupin county on section 14, Chesterfield township.
Andrew Jackson Rose came with his parents, Enos and Rachel (Stout) Rose, from New Jersey, in 1835. The family settled on forty acres in section 21, Gil- lespie township.
Arter Taylor, a native of South Carolina, emigrated to Illinois in 1835 and in the spring of that year-settled in Gillespie township, where his sister Nancy, wife of Giles M. Adams, was then living. He married Sarah Ann Rose in 1836.
Howard Clark and his wife, Eliza J., with their children, removed to Illinois from Kentucky in 1831; and settled in Macoupin county, two and a half miles west of Brighton, in 1835. He passed the last years of his life in Brighton, where he died in 1866. His wife had preceded him in 1858.
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Beatty T. Burke was a native of Jefferson county, Virginia, and was born in 1806. He arrived in Macoupin county in 1836 and purchased the grocery store of Jefferson Weatherford, at Carlinville. In 1837 he became major of militia and was always designated by that title. He was elected sheriff in 1838 and held the office twelve years. In 1852 he was elected to the state legislature and was defeated for the senate in 1854 by John M. Palmer. He was returned to the legislature in 1856, and in 1871 became senator, which office he held four years. He represented Carlinville on the first board of supervisors and held the office until his death, which occurred in 1876. Major Burke took first rank as one of the county's able and most trustworthy men.
Charles Holliday was a Methodist preacher of his day. He was a native of Pennsylvania and came to Macoupin county from Kentucky in 1836, at which time he entered land in Chesterfield township, where he acquired considerable property. While on his way to conference at Quincy, Illinois, in the fall of 1849, he was taken sick, and never recovered. He died the following year.
Henry Etter, Sr., was a native of Tennessee and came from, that state to Il- linois in 1826, first locating in Greene county. In 1836 he disposed of his posses- sions there and settled in Macoupin county, buying a tract of land in Western Mound township. A log cabin stood on the place and a few acres of land had been tilled. In a short time he erected good frame buildings and had a valuable farm, upon which he spent his days in prosperity and contentment, departing this life in 1853.
John Keller, a native of Maryland, removed to Kentucky with his parents and there married. He found his way to Macoupin county in 1836 and became one of the pioneers of Chesterfield township, where he entered a tract of land. He spent the remainder of his days in the village of Chesterfield.
Joshua Ragan was a Virginian but went to Tennessee when a young man and was there married. In 1831 he removed to Missouri, where he lived until his re- moval to Illinois in 1836. In June of that year he came to Macoupin county and bought a claim in what is now Bird township.
Joseph B. Steidley was born in the Old Dominion, near Fredericksburg. In 1836 he came to Illinois with his wife and six children and bought a tract of land four miles from the present site of the village of Palmyra. On this land was a log house, in which Samuel R. Steidley was born, March 25, 1838. Joseph B. Steidley died in 1861, his first wife having preceded him in 1849.
George Caldwell, a native of Ireland, came from Philadelphia with his family to Macoupin county in 1836, and located on land in Staunton township. His death occurred at the home of his son Henry J. Caldwell, July 6, 1887, when he was eighty-five years of age.
Solomon and Elizabeth Groves were natives of Kentucky. They came to Macoupin county in the spring of 1836 and took up their residence in the then sparsely settled village of Carlinville, where Mr. Groves worked at his trade of carpentry.
Nathan D. Barber, who died in 1878, was a native of New Hampshire and came to Alton, Illinois, in 1836. In the winter of that year he removed to a farm a mile and a half north of Brighton, where he made his home until his death. In 1841 he married Emeline Moore, daughter of Captain James and Arethusa Moore,
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who settled a mile north of Brighton, in the fall of 1837. Mr. Barber's wife died in 1879.
Thomas Jefferson McReynolds was born in Kentucky. in 1803, and came to Illinois in 1832. The year 1836 found him in Macoupin county, where he en- tered the south half of section 31 in Honey Point township and also a tract in Brushy Mound township. On the latter tract of land he lived until his death, which occurred in 1869.
Robert Meatyard's birth place was in Dorcestershire, England. He came to the United States in the fall of 1835 and in the spring of 1836 settled in Shipman township, Macoupin county, where he entered land and commenced farming. The town of Piasa was afterward laid out and built upon a portion of the land origi- nally entered by him.
Samuel Trible emigrated from England to this country in 1836. He came di- rect to Illinois and settled in Shipman township.
J. W. Gilson, a native of Pennsylvania, married Miss M. Merrewether, a na- tive of Louisville, Kentucky. In 1836, with his wife, he settled in Macoupin county, near Brighton, where he engaged in general merchandising, real estate and stock-raising. Mr. Gilson died in 1864 and his wife in 1873.
Francis G. Brown came to Macoupin county in 1837 from West Virginia and entered a tract of land on section 23, in what is now Western Mound township. Having removed to Tennessee, he brought his family from that state in 1838 to their new home, the journey being made on a flat boat on the waters of the Hol- ton, Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi rivers to within fifty miles of Paducah, Kentucky, thence by steamer to Alton and from there by team to their destina- tion. Mr. Brown rented a log house on section 4, Bird township, in which the family lived until November. In 1851 he sold his farm and removed to Chester- field, where he engaged in merchandising and kept a hotel. He died in 1878 at a ripe old age. His wife Mary preceded him in death in July, 1864.
Achilles Tongate, a native of Virginia, after having lived in Kentucky and Mis- souri, removed to Illinois in 1836. After spending a year in Morgan county he located near Palmyra with his wife and children. He was a good farmer and was amply rewarded for his industry and frugality. He reached the venerable age of ninety-three before answering the last call, surviving his wife but a few years.
Joseph and Candace Penn, both natives of North Carolina, arrived in Ma- coupin county in 1837 and settled in Shaw's Point township, where Mr. Penn died in 1840. His wife survived him seventeen years.
Joseph Montgomery came to Macoupin county from West Virginia in 1837 and settled on a farm which he purchased near Scottville.
Lewis L. O'Neal, with his young bride, Elizabeth (Crum) O'Neal, came to Macoupin county from Morgan county in 1837, and in the spring of that year settled in North Palmyra township, on section 34, where Mr. O'Neal died in 1854.
Samuel Welton came from Connecticut in 1837 and settled on a tract of land six miles from Carlinville.
Hugh Caldwell came to the United States from Derry, Ireland, in 1837. After a short stay in Philadelphia, he continued his journey west and settled in Staunton township, where his brother George had previously taken up a claim.
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He began improving a tract of land and his house at that time was the only one between Staunton and Silver Creek.
John A. Pettingill was born in New Hampshire. He came to Illinois in the fall of 1837, when twenty years of age. After visiting Bunker Hill, he went to Peoria and clerked in his brother's store until the spring of 1839, when he re- turned to Bunker Hill and began improving a farm one mile north of the village -the first farm ever opened on the prairie north of the town.
Jackson Sisson, of Culpeper county, Virginia, arrived in Macoupin county in 1837. In November of that year he settled on a farm on which was after- ward built the principal part of the town of Gillespie.
Taylor G. Chase was a native of New Hampshire and in 1837 journeyed from that state by wagon to Macoupin county. He had previously, in 1833, entered one hundred and sixty acres of land on section 18 of the present Brighton township. In 1837 he brought with him his family and lived in a rented cabin on land on section 20, until the fall of 1839, when he settled on a quarter section he had entered.
Richard Bacon, a native of England, arrived in this country in 1835 and in the fall of 1837 settled in Carlinville. Shortly thereafter, he moved with his fam- ily to the Dr. Blackburn farm near Carlinville and lived there one year. He then moved to Chesterfield township and died there in 1839. In the spring of 1840, Mary K. Bacon, his wife, entered forty acres of land on section 19, South Otter township, where she lived for some years.
Joseph Liston came to Macoupin county from Marion county, Kentucky, set- tling near Eagle's Point, in North Palmyra township, where he remained until his death, which occurred January 31, 1877. Joseph B. Liston, a son, was born in Macoupin county, August 19, 1838. In 1866 he was elected sheriff of the county and fulfilled the duties of his office faithfully and well. He was a demo- crat, casting his first vote for Stephen A. Douglas in 1860.
Gottlob Rumbolz was a native of Stuttgart, Germany. He came to the United States in 1838 and entered land in Bunker Hill township.
Henry F. Martin became a resident of Brighton township, Macoupin county, in 1838. He was a native of Rhode Island. His father died about 1836 and the mother married Samuel Avis, who owned land in Brighton township, which was the occasion of Mr. Martin settling in Macoupin county.
Joseph Loomis, the father of Thaddeus L. William and Horace J. Loomis, came to Illinois with his family in 1838, settling on section 1, Chesterfield town- ship, where he engaged in farming quite extensively. He was the first man in the county to engage in the dairy business and made large quantities of cheese. He was mainly instrumental in founding the Chesterfield cemetery in 1848. He died in 1850.
Sargeant Gobble was born in Virginia in 1811. He arrived in the vicinity of Carrollton in 1832, where he married Amelia Johnson. In the fall of 1838 he settled in Scottville, which had been laid out three years previously. In 1844 and 1864 he was elected to the legislature from this district.
Edward H. Davis came to Macoupin county in 1839 and settled in Bunker Hill township. In 1840 he married Jane H. Cavender, daughter of Charles Cavender, who settled on an unbroken farm of one hundred and sixty acres just
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west of Bunker Hill in 1838. Here he spent the remainder of his life, dying at the age of eighty-three years.
Peter Edwards, a Virginian, removed from his native state to Kentucky and resided there until 1825, when he came to Illinois and settled in Morgan county. In 1839 he came to Macoupin county, entering eighty acres of land in Scottville township, where he resided until his death in 1847.
John Maze, a native of Tennessee, married Sarah Morrow, also a native of that state, and they emigrated to Greene county in the early '30s. Shortly after- ward they removed to Barr township in Macoupin county. Mr. Maze's death occurred some time after his removal here, while on a business trip to Kentucky. His daughter, Martha, married William J. Bates, a native of Tennessee, who was one of the pioneers of Macoupin county. Mr. Bates' death occurred September 16, 1890.
Henry J. Ferguson, a native of Ireland, arrived in this country in the sum- mer of 1839. Striking west from Philadelphia, he continued across the country until he arrived at Staunton, Macoupin county, which was then a small hamlet. Here he purchased a partially improved farm of forty acres and eventually be- came prosperous. He died in 1883 at the age of eighty years.
Horatio Adams emigrated from Kentucky to Illinois in 1828, and after a resi- dence in Clay and Greene counties of some five or six years, came to Macoupin county, settling in Bird township. Here he continued to live until his death, which occurred in 1874.
Martin Dickerman, a native of Kentucky, was born in 1816 and came to Macoupin county with his widowed mother and six other children, when a young man.
John'England and wife Linnie came from Tennessee to Macoupin county in · the '30s, having spent a year previous in Morgan county. They settled in North Otter township, where they lived until their death.
Samuel Smalley, of New Jersey, settled in Bunker Hill township in the '30S, when the city of that name was a mere hamlet. Here he and his wife both died at an advanced age. On this farm their children and grandchildren were born, among the latter being. James H. Smalley, whose birth occurred in 1840.
Richard Wall was in Macoupin county before 1832. This is apparent from the records, as his son, Hampton W. Wall, was born on West prairie in Dor- chester township, November 10, 1832. The latter, when four years of age, went to live with his maternal grandfather Telemachus Camp, who was one of the earliest settlers of Staunton township.
Elijah Mills, a native of North Carolina, emigrated to Illinois in 1829 and settled in Morgan county. Some time in the early '3os he came to Macoupin county and entered. land on section 6, South Palmyra township. After several changes he removed to Missouri and died there in 1869.
Samuel T. Mayo can hardly be placed in the category of those who settled in Macoupin county in the '30s. He did not locate here until in 1843, but in 1835 spent a short time at a hotel of which Samuel Keller was the host. Mr. Mayo had stopped over in Carlinville to relieve the tedium of a horse-back journey from Carrollton back to his old home in Albermarle county, Virginia, where he re- mained until 1841, at which time he returned to Carrollton and entered the em-
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ploy of a merchant. While on his way there the coach, in which he was riding, stopped at a point in Jersey county to let off a lady passenger, and it was there Mr. Mayo met Elizabeth Palmer, his future wife.
In 1843 S. T. Mayo formed a partnership with the mercantile firm of Wright & Lynn of Carrollton and took charge of a branch of the concern, which he es- tablished here in 1843, in the building now occupied by the Sonneman shoe con- cern, on the east side of the public square. Taking into the store with him Nicholas (Nick) Boice, business increased from day to day and Mr. Mayo and those associated. with him prospered. His biography, written by Professor J. D. Conley, from which these excerpts are made, speaks of him in a kindly and rever- ential spirit voicing the opinion of its author and the estimate of those who knew him well in that Mr. Mayo was an upright, honest man, and true as steel to friends and principles. His reputation for honesty and faithfulness reached the superlative degree and these characteristics of the man were given generous recognition by the many who placed the administration of their estates within his keeping. He retired from active business pursuits in 1857 and enjoyed the income from a competency until his death, which occurred on the eighty-eighth anniversary of his birth, November 24, 1906.
General John I. Rinaker is authority for the story that upon a certain occasion a great, strapping big fellow entered Mr. Mayo's store. The man was noted for his physical strength and prowess at wrestling and boasted before "Uncle Sam" of what he was capable of doing. This did not strike Mayo's fancy and grabbing the man he threw him sprawling upon the counter, very much to the surprise and evident satisfaction of all who saw the test of strength and agility of the unassum- ing storekeeper. This incident goes a long way in proving the assertion that S. T. Mayo was entitled to being credited with a goodly stock of courage. When he accompanied John M. Palmer on one of his campaigning tours, he fully expected to get into trouble. It was in the '50s, and William T. Harris was running for congress. Palmer was billed to speak in opposition to Harris' election at Plain- view. Harris was noted for his hotheadedness and the Plainview meeting was looked forward to with no little anxiety by the opposition. In part, as a means of protection to the speaker in case of trouble, B. T. Burke, James Fishback, James (or John ) McWain, and Sam T. Mayo accompanied Palmer to the place of anticipated hostilities. There had been threats thrown out by Harris' partisans, but Palmer was fearless and amply able to care for himself and the fears of his henchmen were not realized. Mr. Mayo's birthplace was in Albermarle county, Virginia, and he knew Thomas Jefferson, philosopher and "Sage of Monticello," who lived in the same county.
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CHAPTER VI.
MEMORY'S STORE HOUSE.
RECOLLECTIONS OF A PIONEER-HON. CHARLES A. WALKER HERE IN 1828, THREE YEARS BEFORE THE COUNTY WAS ORGANIZED-HE WAS ACQUAINTED WITH MANY OF THE PIONEERS OF MACOUPIN-REMINISCENCES ENTERTAININGLY RELATED.
The present generation cannot have a very definite idea of the grandeur and beauty of Illinois at the time of coming into the state of the first pioneers. My first recollection of life finds me in a new, wild, unsettled, and beautiful region. I rejoice that my young eyes were permitted to view nature before the vandal man had marred its beauty and destroyed its virgin loveliness. When my father, with his young family, landed in Macoupin county (1828), the for- ests were fresh and unscarred by the ax of the coming thousands. The millions of acres of prairie grass were waving on our lovely prairies. The land was unplowed and no barbed wire fence destroyed its grand appearance. It was a beautiful land, looking as though it had just emerged from the hands of the Builder of the Universe. The pioneers, where are they? They have performed their labors on this earth, and we feel that they are worthy of being enrolled in this history.
There are many historical monuments in our county, of former generations. When my father moved to Carlinville, he found on what is now Sunny Home Stock Farm, in asssisting in the building of John Harris' water mill, two smelt- ing crucibles, which induced him to believe that there were lead mines' some- where in our county. So much did the early inhabitants of the county believe that, that "little" Johnny Hull concluded to sink a shaft within a few yards of where were found the smelting crucibles. He dug down one hundred and seventy-five feet and found nothing except natural gas which drove him out of the shaft.
Another place of interest was an Indian cemetery, situated eight miles south- west of Carlinville, near what was then known as the Holliday ford of Ma- coupin creek. The Indians who had lived here buried their dead by sinking a square hole about three feet deep, placing large, flat rocks in the bottom and thin slabs of rock at the sitles, head and foot. They then put the dead body in the grave in a sitting, upright position, facing the east. Then- they placed in the tomb all the valuables that the Indian possessed at the time of his death, except, perhaps, his live animals. I have, on many an occasion, aided in the opening of those tombs, finding the Indian bones just as they were placed by
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those who buried the bodies. I still possess many warlike and domestic im- plements taken from these Indian graves.
In the south part of our county there was a beautiful mound of considerable dimensions, perhaps thirty or forty feet in height above the level of the prairie. There ran at the east edge of that mound a beautiful specimen of a mountain stream; clear, pure water, that did not dry up during the summer. This place was a great resort, not only for Indians, but for wild animals that roamed the forests and prairies at that time, especially wolves that denned on the mound and brought forth their young in great numbers. From that fact it took its name. "Wolf Mound," and on Wolf Mound stands today the beautiful town of Bunker Hill.
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