USA > Illinois > Macoupin County > History of Macoupin County, Illinois : biographical and pictorial, Volume I > Part 39
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About the same time Braxton Eastham came from Kentucky and settled in Carlinville, living for several years in a house southeast of the public squarc. Afterwards they removed to a cabin near where they now live. This cabin was in later days used for a schoolhouse and called "Good Intent." Later it was used as a chicken house. Mr. Eastham was, and is, a truly honest man. ever faithful to any engagement he may have undertaken or promise made. I never knew him to fail. Finding the temptations of the town too much for his strength, he finally decided that the better way to resist them was to keep out of the way of temptation. According to the resolution then made "never again to enter the town," he, although living at its very edge, has not (so far as my knowledge extends) for over twenty years been beyond the railroad. His hair is now very white with the winter of old age.
Another of our white haired men is Dr. Robertson, who also came from Kentucky. It was long ago, near about the same time as the other, that he canie, and even then his hair was heavily streaked with silver. His wife was a sister of Mrs. John S. Greathouse, who lived where T. L. Loomis now does. After her death, he married Miss Nancy Holliday, daughter of "Father" Hol- liday, so well known in the early days of Carlinville. He made his fortune in merchandising and in dcaling in real estate.
I think it was about the year 1834 that Colonel Anderson, also from Kentucky, came to the county, and after entering several thousand acres of land made his
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home four or five miles northeast of Carlinville. Some of his children set- tled near the old homestead. His son Crittenden and grandson, W. E. P., son of Erasmus Anderson, are living in Carlinville, while Hal is settled upon a farm near the fair grounds-the old Dugger farm-as the place is called where Uncle Jarrett lived.
Uncle Jarrett assisted in organizing the first Sunday school in the place and afterwards to carry it on, filling, I believe, the office of superintendent. His sons, Joseph, Wesley and Ferguson, were old enough to teach classes, while of the other children there were enough to form a little school. At least there was a beginning around which to gather in the other children of the town. Jarrett Dugger was a great Sunday school man and his grandson, George W. Dugger, present superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday school, is following in his footsteps.
FIRST CHILD BORN IN THE COUNTY SEAT.
The first child born in Carlinville was Thomas, son of Ezekiel and Alice Good.
A while before the arrival of the writer, Mrs. Williamson Brown died at the home of Mr. Good, of a fever, and hers was, I believe, the first death in the place.
The people in those early days found it very difficult to get their corn and wheat ground, having to go to adjoining counties for that purpose. About 1830 John Harris built a water saw and grist mill on the Macoupin creek one and a half miles east of town at and on the farm now owned by C. A. Walker. After a few years, Mr. Weatherford built an ox mill east of town for grinding corn, but it was not at all certain to be in running order. As for flourishing mills in the county, there were none for many years afterwards, until, I believe, the old red mill was built where Weer's now stands. There were times in those days when the flour being gone and the ox mill not running, and it not being convenient to send the corn away, people had to subsist for a while on lye hom- iny, and that is a thing at which a person may eat continually and never have their hunger satisfied.
The citizens of Carlinville were always respectful listeners when they had respectable men to talk to them, but sometimes there were curious cases that called forth all the latent mischief in their natures and then they were ready for anything. One morning when Mr. Otwell was working in his garden near the square, a half witted looking man came and asked him to go with him to the court house and help hold a meeting. He said he had been holding meet- ings in a certain place he mentioned and had a "'vival of 'ligion" there. Mr. Otwell told the man he was hurried and could not go, so the fellow went away and held the meeting himself, having the wild fellows for his hearers. When he got through with his talk they asked if he had a license to preach. When he could not show one, they told him he had broken the law and they should try his case. Organizing themselves into a court they tried and sentenced him to death-hanging. He threw himself upon his knees, crying, "O! for the Lord's sake let me go home to my wife and children." He wept and wrung his hands
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but they were obdurate and told him he would "pull hemp" in less than an hour. When all hope seemed gone, the men, but one (according to agreement) looked another way and he whispered "run for your life." And he did run if ever any one did. Soon the court seeming to discover his absence, came pouring out of the house and raised a terrific yell. They put.a boy upon horseback with an unloaded gun over his shoulder to pursue him, but of course he was never overtaken.
FIRST TEMPERANCE MEETING.
It was some time before this that the first temperance meeting had been held at Mr. Good's. That meeting was the "day of small things" compared with the recent great movement. Those meetings, the Sons of Temperance, the Good Templars and other kindred societies since then were but as the clearing away of underbrush, the cutting away of larger trees, preparing, digging deep for the foundation of our temperance building.
For years Carlinville was without any church building, each society being too poor to erect one. The first addition to the Methodist society was about the year 1834, when Jarrett Dugger and his large family moved to this place and decided to build a church and the little company built the frame house where bought a farm of A. Pepperdine (now Hal Anderson's farm). Soon after, it was John Keeler now lives. It seemed very good to have a house to worship in after having so much trouble. Not long after, the hearts of the little company were inade glad by the arrival among them of Dr. John Logan, who for over forty years has been a true and faithful member. Afterward many were converted and added to the church but of the original five members all are long since gone to the good world but one, who still lingers on the shores of time, patiently wait- ing the Master's call.
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CHAPTER XXI.
"JERSEY STREET."
INTERESTING SECTION OF THE COUNTY-FROM ROCKBRIDGE TO PIASA CREEK-LY- .
MAN L. PALMER WRITES WITII A FACILE PEN OF EARLY DAYS AND THEIR PEOPLE -SWEET SINGERS OF MEDORA-OLD TOBE-BILL DAVIS' OX TEAM-THE VILLAGE DOMINIE-THE VILLAGE PLOW MAKER-A HARD NUT TO CRACK.
In 1909, early in the spring, there began to appear in the Medora Mes- senger, a series of reminiscent articles from the facile pen of Lyman Palmer, that at once attracted the interested notice of the local readers of that excel- lent sheet and its exchanges throughout the county. Being a man of large mental calibre, broad experience and superior journalistic training, coupled to a retentive and reliable memory, these pen pictures of Mr. Palmer lent such a charm to his narratives and so clear an atmosphere of historic truth as to make for each article a value and importance all its own. Eventually, they came under the notice of the present historian and at a glance their value to the work in hand by him was apparent and quickly recognized. Hence, a condensation of Lyman Palmer's recollections of the early history and peoples of Chesterfield township and vicinity is here produced, with only one regret-that the manu- script could not have been published in full in these pages.
A word or two as to Lyman Palmer: He tells us he was the firstborn of Luther Bateman Palmer and Louisa A. Brainard, daughter of Samuel D. Brain- ard, and that his parents were married in 1847 by Rev. Elihu Palmer, brother of General John M. Palmer, but of no immediate relation to Luther. That he grew to manhood in the vicinity of Medora and "stuck type" on the Carlin- ville Democrat. Moved to California, where he taught school and was con- nected with San Francisco papers. Returned to Macoupin county, then took up his residence in Chicago and, in 1911, finally settled in Florida.
The initial article starts with the following :
FOREWORD.
This series of sketches is not intended to be history in any true sense of the word but simply personal reminiscences of days long since gone by and of people most of whom have "joined that innumerable throng" in "that bourne whence no traveler hath yet returned." It is true that much which is of histor-
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ical nature and interest will, perforce, creep into these sketches, and because of that fact it is hoped that possibly they may prove of sufficient value to be preserved by many in scrap bock form at least.
The places which knew our pioneer ancestry can know them no more for- ever, and it is also true that the people who knew them are becoming fewer and fewer in number, and very soon "taps" will sound for the last one, hence it behooves some one who stands as a bridge, as it were, between the pioneers of "lang syne" and the whirling mazes of the living present, to gather together the threads of romance and tragedy, the prose and poetry of those early days and denizens, and weave it all into a tapestry of beautiful design.
As far as I am able, that is what I hope to do in these sketches. On the stage of life, as on the mimic stage, there is always the hero that I shall call forth to play the parts in the life dramas which I shall depict. It is true that some clouds flitted across the social skies in those days just as they do now. Some failed of reaching the high mark of perfect living in the '50s just as they are now doing in the early days of the new century. But of none of these shall I speak. The mantle of charity shall be drawn over it all and truly "the dead past shall bury its dead." "With malice toward none and charity for all" is this work, which is really a labor of love, begun, and so it will be prosecuted to the end.
It is more than probable that inaccuracies will creep into these sketches as I am writing entirely from memory, and am not so situated that I can even refer to an old timer either for the purpose of refreshing my memory or verifying my statements. Therefore I trust that the readers of the Messenger will be charitable towards me for it is truly "a far cry" from the days of which I am to write, some fifty years ago, to the present time. My life has been divided into three eras, each superimposed upon the other like great geological stratas. They are (1). The years of which I am to write coming up to my departure for California in 1873. (2). My life in California extending to 1890. (3). My life in Chicago to the present. Hence it is that I am compelled to look far down the vista of time and view the things of which I am to write across the ever widening chasm of years which lie between the then and the now.
It may seem at times that I am showing a little partiality in that I shall write more fully or make more frequent mention of some than of others. I want to.say at the outset that I shall endeavor to treat all with perfect fairness, and if I mention some more frequently than others or give more full sketches of some than others it will simply be because of my closer personal relations with the one so mentioned.
I have one request to make and that is, should I make any misstatements I trust that some one, in a spirit of good fellowship and love, and for the sake of truth, may correct the same by a short letter to the editor. I do not want any errors to go down into time unchallenged and uncorrected, and now is as good an opportunity as we will all have to get things right once for all.
IN THE BEGINNING.
As the veil of years is drawn down closer and ever closer the past becomes more and yet more dim and misty until the commonplace events are lost to
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view entirely, and the greater ones are wrapped about with a haze of mystery and romance. As vessels which meet in mid-ocean and then drift farther and farther apart until, at the close of day, the sheen of the crimson light of the setting sun gilds into a blaze of glory only the top gallants of the stately masts, so it is with the events and the people of whom I am to write. They have drifted on and still further on and out upon the limitless sea of the past till now only a halo of loving remembrance enwraps them.
If this were real history I would search the records, look into the archives, and consult with the oldest residents now living and thus be able to give a de- tailed list of the names of the pioneer settlers of Palmer's Prairie, Rhoads' Point and Delaware and also the exact date of their arrival, whence they came, etc. Should these sketches stir to action some one who is in a position to do this "history act" for the Messenger in proper manner then will they not have been written in vain.
EARLY SETTLERS.
That whole section of country from Piasa to Rockbridge, and from Kemper to the Blackburn bridge was as fully settled as far back as I can remember as it is today, or nearly so. Some of the old homes and homesteads have disap- peared but those which are of more recent date will not much more than offset
I shall mention some who were gone even before my time. I do not know who the first settler in that section was, but among the very earliest pioneers may be named the Rhoads, Easthams, Loves, Chiltons, Carsons, Chisms, Fitzjarrels, Twitchels and Palmers. My own immediate ancestry comprising my grand- father, Daniel Palmer, and a large family of sons and daughters, arrived at Delaware in October, 1843. They came overland from Knox county, Ohio. and were originally from Vermont. They had been preceded by my grand- father's brothers, William and Elias, and their families.
"JERSEY STREET" IN 1842.
,I am just in receipt of a letter from my father, Luther B. Palmer, in which he says : "I will give you Jersey street as it was in 1842. (By "Jersey street" he means that section of the country lying between Rockbridge on the north and Piasa creek on the south and along the road through that section.) I will com- mence at Rockbridge. A man by the name of Barnett owned the mill then. The rock bridge was there, from which the place took its name. William Palmer had built it and it was a good bridge. The first house as you went south was that of Daniel Fitzgerald, the Baptist preacher. The next was Henry Saun- der's, then Benjamin Saunder's and then the widow Twitchell. Then Elias Palmer and next came Leonard Brown, and then William Palmer. Next came the home-made schoolhouse, built of logs with puncheon floor and seats.
"I now come to the town of Delaware, the present site of Kemper. First was a log house, then came the frame house which a man by the name of Smith had put up, but just then the Mormons came along and he joined them and never finished his house. Next came Elfrith Johnson. Then there were improve- ments and a house which they called the Swallow place and then came the Cov-
.
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entry place. Over on the west side of the road were the homes of William Tompkins, E. Barnes and the Goacher place. Then following along up the edge of the brush there were the homes of James Rhoads, Benjamin Cleaver, who was then justice of the peace, and Josiah Rhoads. That was all there was of that immediate settlement.
"Going on farther south through the brush we come to Elder Mound, a very fine tract of land upon which the town of Fidelity was afterwards located. John Sullivan was the first settler and he was a blacksmith. South of that was the Simmons prairie, which was a fine belt of land. The Rhine people were liv- ing somewhere on west of the road, and Samuel Rich was living up near Fidelity."
I will add to the above a note stating that Orville Hayward spent a summer some twenty-five years ago up in the foothills of California back of Stockton, and while there met John Sullivan, who then had a fine stock ranch up there in the mountains. He told Orville all about the old days at Fidelity and how he used to have to get up before daylight to sharpen the plows for the settlers in Palmer's prairie. According to his story they were a hustling lot in those early pioneer days.
A BIRD'S EYE VIEW.
In these sketches I shall write from the view point of my old hoine, 'lately the residence of Gilbert Palmer, some two miles north of Medora. The time of this bird's eye view of the neighborhood is 1860.
Beginning at the southeast corner of the neighborhood some mile and a half southeast of Summerville, there stood in those days the home of James Carson. Farther east toward Cook's creek, somewhere in the woods, lived the Cooks and Burns, though just where I am unable to say as I was never at the home of either. To the northward was the home of Harvey Carson, and, still farther north the home of Thomas Carson. Turning eastward in the road running east from Summerville we come first to the home of William Searles, and somewhere beyond him down in the woods lived a German by the name of William Bramen- kamp. North of William Searles lived Allen Searles, and probably the Parker family, at least Silas Parker always came to school with the Searles boys. Then right in there somewhere lived "Raash" Burns and family and also families by the name of Howorton, Swafford and Hudspeth. Just where any of them lived I never knew.
Then still farther north was the old Dr. Blackburn place, and away on to the northward was the old Cove Spring, about which in those early days before I can remember, there must have been quite a settlement, as the present Pres- byterian church at Summerville had its initiative among the people in that vicinity. Possibly its official name is yet the Spring Cove Presbyterian church. It was in my day.
Coming westward, and back south on the road from Piasa to Summerville, away down in the ravine about midway between the two towns was the cabin occupied by the Overton brothers. Then north of them and some west of the road was the home of Benjamin Rhoads. Then still farther north and about at the point where the present road east from Medora intersects that road, lived a brother-in-law of William Rhoads, but the name is just a mist to me. Pos-
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sibly it was Caywood, as a young woman by that name once attended school and came from out that way. Just north of that on a little hill on the west side of the road lived Elder Jacob Rhoads, and still farther north of him was the home of William Rhoads, and eastward on the road to James Carson's was the home of Edward Brewer.
Then on farther north came the village of Summerville. Its first house was erected on the site of the present residence of Silas Parker (the southwest corner) by Lester Hoisington. Approaching the village from the south as far back as I can remember one came first, on the west side of the road, to the home of George Loper, and then, on the corner above referred to, was the home of Mr. Kenworthy. On the east side of the road were the homes of John Simp- son, Stroud Keller, "Boss" Wheat, his blacksmith shop, the residence of John F. Roach, and lately the store. There might have been another house near Kel- ler's but I do not seem to be able to locate it or to recall any one who ever lived in it.
Turning eastward, the first house on the south side of the street was Gideon Carson's, then came Enoch Keele's place, then the home of David Hartwell, and then the Presbyterian church. Across the street north of the store was the home and hall of Edward Corey, then east of him was the place now occupied by Mar- tin Haynes. I do not know who lived in it in the olden days, but Leonard Tra- bue occupied it during the war. East of that there was nothing but Searles' cornfield in those days. At that time there was a road leading north just east of the Trabue place which led to Blackburn bridge. Taking that road north from Summerville one came first to the home of John Haynes, and just to the west of that, and back in the field was the home of Elias Haynes. Going on eastward one came next to the home of "Pit" Burns, and farther on to the right out toward the Searles place lived Lewis Haynes. To the north of this road and some distance back were two or three houses but I cannot recall who lived in them. Later on one of them was known as the Chris Morris place and possibly Philip Odell, the Gleasons, and the Wiltons lived in the other later on.
Coming back to the store in Summerville again and starting west we come at once, on the northwest corner, to a store building erected by John Farrow, and next to it westerly was his residence, later known as the Joseph Haynes place. Then next came the Albert Eastham place, and then, on the south side of the road, the Baptist church and schoolhouse. Crossing the branch and the road we come to the home of Lewis Love. On the south side of the road and some farther west lived a man way back there by the name of Runion Willet.
Going back to the Baptist church and taking the road northward toward Harmony schoolhouse the first place we come to is the old Albert Eastham farm house. At the time of my earliest recollection Thomas Derr lived there and later on Andrew Farrow and James Eggleson. The Easthams had a shin- gle mill there.
Passing on farther north there stood a house back from the road a quarter . of a mile east, in which lived William Lee, and a little later, John Derr. Across the road and a little farther to the north lived George Palmer on the site of his present farm house. Going still farther north, and on the west side of the road was a house probably built by Thomas Derr and occupied by him long before
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my day. As far back as I can remember the Shadrach brothers lived there. Across the road and to the east stood a carpenter shop and George Garret was in charge of it when I was a wee lad going to my first school. Down a little lane some distance east was the home of Cyrus Hayward. A short distance north of the carpenter shop was the home of Ansel Hayward, and still a little farther north was the old Harmony schoolhouse. North of that, as now the road ended in an east and west road, and some distance north of that junction, out in the field, long before my day, was the home of the Thurstons.
Taking the road eastward, back in the field on the north side, was the home of James Hartwell. Farther east and on the south side of the road, lived Robert Carter, Sr. Farther east, and at the bend in the road, where Horace Warner now resides, lived George Jenks, and still on north of that was the home of Charles Goodsell. Thence the road ran on down through the bottom, much as the railroad does now to Loper's ford. On the top of a ridge there was a house, but George Newberry is the only occupant of it that I recall. East of Jenks' and on the top of the mound was the Challacombe homestead.
Passing again westward to the road leading from Brighton to Rockbridge, and beginning a couple of miles south of Rhoads Point, we come to the home of Charles Wales and sons, William and Edward. Thence going north, back in the field to the east, was the residence of John L. Rhoads. Across the road and farther north at the corner of the Fidelity road lived William Bowker. Proceed- ing northward, on the west side of the road was the home of Thomas Rice, and west of that, back in the fields, was the home of the Artmans. Across the road from Rice's and farther north on the top of the hill' there was a log house but I have no remembrance of any one living in it. Across the road and just north Thomas Payne had built a house I think as early as 1860, at least it was there during the war. As far back as I can remember there was a little cabin in among the trees right about where the former school building stood, which was occupied by a family by the name of Bell. Farther to the northwest stood another log house occupied by George Blackburn and family. North of that some distance, and a little nearer the road, stood another log cabin. It was not straight with the compass, and I can see it now basking in the sun, but I am unable to link up any family in connection with it. I know some one lived there for I can see the children playing about the yard as I think of it. Close by this, on the west side of the road and just to the north stood "Old Tobe's" "department store." Then farther, north and on the west side of the road stood the original Mt. Pleasant Baptist church. Next to that on the north was the home of the Perrys. Adjacent to it and a part of the building was a harness shop, and just north of that was a wagonmaker's and a blacksmith shop combined in one long build- ing, and as I remember, both conducted by the Perrys, though about 1860 a man by the name of Coonrod came to the "Point" and did wagon making. Still farther north and across the little branch was the old house of "Doc" (Frank- lin B.) Simpson, and across the road to the east, and across the present rail- road right of way stood a small house occupied by the Calverd family. Farther north on the west side of the road and back in the field was the home of George Eastham, and way down in the woods to the west of that was a little cabin occupied by Dr. Nathaniel Jayne.
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