USA > Illinois > Macoupin County > History of Macoupin County, Illinois > Part 61
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STOCK FARM AND RESIDENCE OF RANDAL CLARK , SEC. 20. GILLESPIE TP., MACOUPIN CO., ILL.
RESIDENCE AND STOCK FARM OF W. H. WHITFIELD, SEC. 27, GILLESPIE TP., MACOUPIN CO., ILL.
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HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
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Randal & lack
Lucy Clark
AMONG the leading farmers and enterprising citizens of Gillespie town- ship, the name of Randal Clark deserves mention in this work. He is a native of the Palmetto state, and was born within ten miles of Greenville, in the Greenville district, South Carolina, November 30th, 1815. His fore- fathers had been settlers in that same part of South Carolina from a date previous to the revolutionary war. His father's name was Joseph Clark, and his mother's maiden name, Mary Taylor. His grandfather, William Taylor, was a brother to the father of Gen. Zachary Taylor, the hero of the Mexican war. William Taylor had been a soldier in the war of the Revo- lution, and served several years in that memorable and important struggle. He was in several engagements, among which were the battles of Cowpens and King's Mountain. He died in Cherokee county, Georgia.
Randal Clark was the oldest of a family of five children. He was raised in South Carolina. His father died when he was about twelve years of age. There were no public schools at that time in South Carolina, and the only advantages he had in the way of securing an education, was seven months schooling in a subscription school. He was chiefly his own instructor, and picked up knowledge as best he could. Two of his uncles' had visited Illinois in 1831, and had volunteered in the Black Hawk war which was then in progress. Mr. Clark resolved on visiting the far-famed western country, and in company with his uncle, Arter Taylor, left South Carolina for Illinois on the 12th of February, 1835. They made the journey all the way from South Carolina on horseback. Their route was through the Cherokee nation, up through East Tennessee, by way of Nashville, and then through Kentucky to Illinois. They reached Bloomington on the 1st of April, 1835. Mr. Clark was not then twenty years of age. He hired his services to a man named Dodge, who ran a grist mill and worked for him till August, 1835, when he left Bloomington and came to Gillespie township. What is now Gillespie township, was then wild and unsettled, and contained few inhabitants. The season was very sickly, almost every one was afflicted with the shaking ague, and he was not very favorably im. pressed with the country. In the winter of 1835-6 he made sufficient rails to pay for the horse which he had ridden to Illinois, and which he had bought on credit from his uncle. The next fall he sold the horse, and with part of the proceeds (sixty dollars) bought part of the pre-emption right of his cousin, Marion Taylor, and thus became the owner of twenty acres of timber land. This land, the first he ever owned, is still in his possession.
His home was with his uncle, Arter Taylor, till his marriage, which took place February 14th, 1839. Mrs. Clark was formerly Miss Lucy Gray. She was born in Cabell county, Virginia, and was the daughter of James P. Gray. Her father moved from Virginia and settled on Lick creek in San- gamon county, about sixteen miles south-west from Springfield, at a very early date, about the year 1823. He moved from Sangamon county to Hil- yard township in 1831. Soon after Mr. Clark was married, he built a cabin on the same spot, in section twenty, where his present residence now stands, and moved in and began housekeeping. He has lived at the same place from that time to the present, and has carried on farming, at which he has been highly successful. He is one of the men of the largest means in the township. He is the owner of 755 acres of land lying in Gillespie town- ship, besides 320 acres in Summer county, Kansas, and 240 in St. Clair county, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have had thirteen children. The oldest daughter, Mourning, is the wife of William Whitfield, of Gillespie township ; Mary, now deceased, was Mr. Whitfield's first wife; Manoah, the oldest son, is farming for himself in Gillespie township, as is also the next son, James P. Clark. Elizabeth married James Culbertson, moved to Bates county, Missouri, and died there. Josephus Clark is living in St. Clair county, Missouri ; Elijah and Vespasian are living in Gillespie township, Randal and Edward are deceased. Ann is the wife of Newton Gwin, of Gillespie township, and Lincoln and Isabella are still living at home.
Mr. Clark in his early life, was a member of the democratic party, and cast his first vote for President, for Gen. Jackson in 1836. He had always, however, been opposed to the system of slavery, from what he saw of the workings of the institution in South Carolina. He voted in 1856 for Fremont, the first republican presidential candidate, and has been a republi- can ever since. He is now one of the oldest settlers of Gillespie township, and has witnessed many improvements and changes since he came to the county. In these improvements he has borne his full share, for he is a man of enterprise and public spirit. He began life with nothing on which to rely except his own energy, and has fought his way up by his own exertions. He has succeeded by the exercise of industry, prudence, enterprise and su- perior business management. He was the first member of the Board of Supervisors from Gillespie township after the adoption of township organi- zation.
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HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
FRANCIS M. ADAMS.
THE Adams family was one of the first to make a permanent settlement in Gillespie township, and the name of Mr. Adams' father, GILES M. ADAMS, was familiar to the early pioneers of the county. Daniel Adams, the grandfather of Francis M. Adams, was a Virginian. He purchased 700 acres of land at Poplar Cove, in Kentucky, but lost his land through an old claim which had been located prior. He then moved from Ken- tucky to Tennessee. Giles M. Adams had been born in Virginia on the 10th of September, 1801, and was a boy when he moved with his father to Kentucky. He was married in Tennessee to Elizabeth Taylor, who was born April 19, 1809, in the Greenville district, in South Carolina, and was connected with the same Taylor family of which Gen. Zachary Taylor, pre- sident of the United States, was a member. In the year 1828, Giles M. Adams moved from Tennessee to Illinois, and settled on the Flagg farm, about five miles north from Edwardsville, in Madison county, where he farmed one season.
He came to Gillespie township in the fall of 1829, and settled on the west half of the north-east quarter of section twenty. This is on the same farm where his son, Francis M. Adams, now resides. In those days there were few people living in what is now Gillespie township. When he built his cabin in the edge of Dry Fork timber, it took a hard day's ride to get six men to assist in raising the structure. The winter of the deep snow was long to be remembered for the many trials and hardships which it brought the early pioneers. The ground was covered with snow several feet in depth, confining the settlers to their houses and preventing travel and communication with the rest of the world. To get water for household pur- poses, Mr. Adams was obliged to go to the neighboring sloughs, cut chunks of ice, and suspending these before the fire, catch the water melting from the ice in buckets. The conveniences of life were few, and for some time after coming to the county he was obliged to go to Alton and Edwardsville to mill, and found it necessary to travel to Carlinville to get his axe ground, that being the nearest place in the county where he could find a grindstone. He had settled in this locality without entering land, but afterward entered forty acres, embracing the spot where stood his cabin, and subsequently a larger quantity. He had come to Illinois without any capital. When he reached Edwardsville he had a light team and wagon, and a dollar and a half in money, which amount he found diminished by one-half the next morning, after paying for his night's lodging. He was a man accustomed to hard work, and was ambitious to get along in the world and become pos- sessed of considerable means. He had abundant energy and good business qualifications. As he had opportunity he entered land and bought other tracts which had been improved. At the time of his death he owned about 1000 acres, 430 of which were situated in Montgomery county, 100 in Bond county, and the balance in Macoupin. He died in the fall of 1870, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. He had accomplished a great deal of hard work through life, and had undergone considerable exposure. He had also once been thrown from his horse while on the road to Carlinville, and sus- tained injuries from which he was insensible for a week, and all these causes combined to break down his constitution and cause his death. In politics he had always been a democrat, and supported the principles of the democrat- ic party from youth to old age. He was elected justice of the peace and held that office several years, till he resigned it. His widow is now living in Montgomery county, near Harvel. Giles M., and Elizabeth Adams were the parents of five children, as follows : Daniel, now deceased; Nancy, wife of Luke Dilliard, of Gillespie township; Francis Marion Adams ; William W., living in Montgomery county, and James I., who is deceased. He lived on the old stage road between Carlinville and Bunker Hill, which, in the early history of the county, was a popular thoroughfare of travel. For some years his house was one of the principal stands on this route. In 1842 he erected the substantial frame building which is now used by his son, Francis M. Adams, as a residence.
Francis M. Adams, now living on the old homestead farm, was born in Gillespie township, July 1st, 1833, and has been living in the township ever since. He was married February 2d, 1864, to Elizabeth K. Grimes, who was born at Carlinville, February 27th, 1841. Her father, William Grimes, was a native of the city of Baltimore, Maryland, and was one of the early settlers of Macoupin county. When a young man he came to the county and married Nancy Wagner, whose father lived two miles north-west of Plainview, in Hilyard township. William Grimes resided in Hilyard town- ship and Carlinville, and his home is now mostly in Christian county. He
owns large tracts of land in Montgomery, Christian and Macoupin counties, Illinois, and in Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Adams have had five children, whose names are as follows : William Martin Adams, born November 24th, 1866, died February 1st, 1870; Mary S., born June 25th, 1868, and now living ; James Lawrence, born December 14th, 1872, died December 27th, 1874; Stephen N., born October 26th, 1875, died September 18th, 1878; Oscar Eugene, born November 15th, 1877, died March 18th, 1878. Like his ancestors Mr. Adams has been a democrat. While in county and town- ship contests, and on local issues, he has always felt himself free to support the best man for the office, without regard to politics ; still, on general elec- tions he has adhered to the support of the democratic party. He was the second member of the Board of Supervisors from Gillespie township, and was elected to that office in 1872. He is well known throughout the county, and although still a comparatively young man, may be regarded as one of the old settlers ; few persons having lived in the county longer than himself. He can recollect when Edwardsville was the place where his father went to mill. He is a good farmer and an enterprising and public-spirited citizen.
CAPTAIN P. H. PENTZER,
WHO for the last six years has represented Gillespie township in the Board of Supervisors, is a native of Missouri. His grandfather was of German descent, and first settled in the state of Maryland, and from there moved to Pennsylvania where Valentine Pentzer (Capt. Pentzer's father) was born. Valentine Pentzer was educated for the Presbyterian ministry, and graduated at Jefferson College, in Pennsylvania. He came to Missouri, and was first employed as a teacher in Marion College. He married Ann M. Owen, who was born and raised in Powhatan county, Virginia, moved to Missouri with her father, and before her marriage lived in Marion and Boone counties. Captain Pentzer's father moved to south-east Missouri, and was principal of an academy at Greenfield, in Dade county, which school was under the care of the Presbyterian Church. At the same time he preached in Greene, Lawrence and other counties in that part of the state. Captain Pentzer was born in Marion county, Missouri, September 24th, 1838. He was five or six years old when his father moved to South- west Missouri, locating first in what is now Jasper county, and afterward at Greenfield. The first school he attended was the academy at Greenfield, of which his father was principal. In 1847, when he was about nine years of age, the family removed to Illinois, and settled in Jersey county, a short dis- tance south-west of Brighton, and the next year changed their residence to Madison county, five miles south of Brighton. In 1849 the family settled at Dry Point, in Gillespie township, Macoupin county, but in three weeks after their removal to this place his father died. The death of his father left the family without any means of support. Captain Pentzer was the oldest of six children, and he was obliged to devote his time to the assistance of his mother and the support of the family. This condition of affairs made it possible for him to have the advantage of only a moderate amount of schooling. He attended the district schools at rare intervals after coming to Macoupin county, and for three months during the winter of 1857-58 was a student at the " Old Seminary " at Carlinville.
He was still living at home with his mother in Gillespie township, at the time of the commencement of the war of the rebellion. He was then in his twenty-third year. Promptly on the first call for troops in April, 1861, he enlisted, and was mustered in Co. H of the 9th Illinois regiment. During the summer of 1861 the regiment was stationed at Cairo, and while laying there he was taken sick, sent to the hospital, and in the fall discharged from the service by reason of disability. He came home almost a complete physical wreck, the change in his appearance being so great that he was recognized with difficulty by some of his most intimate acquaintances. His recovery was rapid during the succeeding winter, and on the 15th of July, 1862, he re-enlisted in the army for three years. He was mustered in as sergeant-major of the 97th Illinois regiment, and was detailed to drill re- cruits at Springfield, where he remained till November, 1862, when the regiment was ordered to Kentucky and attached to the Division com- manded by Gen. A. J. Smith. In December the 97th moved to Memphis, and was made a part of the 13th Army Corps. The regiment took part in the campaign against Vicksburg, forming a part of the right wing of the army of the Tennessee under Gen. Sherman, which attacked Vicksburg by way of Yazoo City. During this attack he was placed in command of Co. C, which had become destitute of officers. The regiment
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FAIRBANKS
CIOUR MILL
RESIDENCE & STOCK FARM OF GUY A. SNELL, SEC. 4. HONEY POINT TP. MACOUPIN CO., ILL.
RESIDENCE & STOCK FARM OF SAMUEL J. WILLIAMS, SEC. 1. GILLESPIE TP, MACOUPIN Cº ILL.
H.C.
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HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
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next proceeded to Post Arkansas, on the Arkansas river, where Gen. McClenard succeeded to the command of the 13th Corps. At the fight at Post Arkansas, on the 11th of January, 1863, Capt. Pentzer commanded Co. C, and was recommended for promotion on the battle-field for bravery displayed during the engagement. The 97th Illinois was next stationed at Young's Point, Louisiana, where the men were engaged in digging the canal intended by Gen. Grant to change the course of the Mississippi, and cut off Vicksburg from river communication. Capt. Pentzer, in charge of a corps of men, was employed for some time in assisting to lay out the canal. The regiment subsequently crossed to the east side of the Mississippi at Grand Gulf, and took part in the battle of Port Gibson, the first engagement on the east side of the Mississippi below Vicksburg. Gen. Grant then took personal com- mand of the forces against Vicksburg, and Capt. Pentzer took part in all the important movements of the campaign which culminated in the capture of Vicksburg, on the 4th of July, 1863, including the battle of Champion Hill and other important engagements. In June, 1863, he received his commission as captain, which dated back to his promotion the preceding February.
After the surrender of Vicksburg his regiment formed part of the force with which Sherman drove back the Confederate Gen. Joe Johnson, and then returned to Vicksburg. After a short furlough he rejoined his com- pany at Carrollton, Louisiana, the regiment having been placed under Gen. Banks' command. He took part in the Bayou Teche expedition, and was then . ordered to New Orleans. While en route from New Iberia to New Orleans the train bearing the regiment collided with another train coming around a curve. This accident occurred at night, and was unusually fatal in its consequences, occasioning the death or permanent disability of about a hundred men belonging to the regiment. The 97th Illinois was assigned to post duty at New Orleans, and for seven months Capt. Pentzer had charge of rebel prisoners at the Custom House. From eight hundred and eighty- four active men the regiment had dwindled down to two hundred and eighty, and while in New Orleans the ranks were filled up by recruits. From July to November, 1864, the regiment was engaged in river patrol duty at Mor- ganza Bend, two hundred miles above New Orleans, and was kept constantly alert scouring the country for the guerrillas who infested the river banks. While there Capt. Pentzer saw the hardest service he experienced while in the army. His command was subsequently sent to Dauphin Island in Mobile Bay, and thence to the mouth of Pascagoula river. In January, 1865, they reached Barancas, twelve miles below Pensacola, on the coast of Florida ; the following March went into camp at Pensacola; and subsequently marched across Florida, cutting their way through timber and swamps, and constructing corduroy roads, miles in length, to Mobile Bay. He took part in the capture of Fort Blakely, on the 9th of April, 1865, the last battle of any prominence which occurred during the war. He had the honor of re- ceiving in person the surrender of Gen. F. M. Cockrell (now United States Senator from Missouri), in command of the Confederate forces. His com- mand then proceeded up the Alabama river to Selma, and returned to Mobile, and took part in the capture of a small railroad station. This was two or three weeks after the fall of Richmond, but news of the end of the war had not yet reached that part of the army. June, 1865, he was detailed for service on a general court martial, which sat for a month in the Custom House at Mobile, and afterward during the month of July at Galveston, Texas, to which point his regiment had been ordered. In the early part of August he was mustered out at Galveston and discharged at Springfield, in this state.
Returning to Macoupin county he engaged in farming. June, 1870, he married Miss Mary F. Adams, born in Ohio, daughter of John Adams, who settled in Gillespie township in 1847. The anti-slavery sentiments of Capt. Pentzer's father had been one reason of the removal of the family from Missouri to Illinois. Naturally, therefore, on growing up he became a re- publican, and voted for Lincoln for President in 1860. His service in the army is sufficient indication of his patriotism during the war of the Rebel- lion. Two younger brothers also served in the Union army. In 1868 his views differed from the policy of the republican party as represented by the Grant administration, and believing that the best intervals of the country demanded a change he became a democrat. In 1873 he was elected asses- sor of Gillespie township. In 1874 he was chosen supervisor, and has since been re-elected each year to that position. He has been known as one of the most active members of the Board, for six years has been chairman of the Finance Committee, and has served on other important committees. His course regarding the Court House and other difficult questions with which
the Board has had to deal, seems to have met with the cordial approval of the people of the county. He opposed the payment or recognition of the old Court House debt, but advocated a settlement of the claims against the county on a just and equitable basis and then their prompt payment. He was appointed a committee to visit eastern citics and confer with the bond- holders as to the basis of a proposed settlement, and was influential in secur- ing the passage of the act through the legislature of 1877 by which the couuty was enabled to fund the bonds on such a basis as the county and its creditors could agree upon. His efforts have been successful, and he has the satisfaction of knowing that the exertions of the Board have left matters in a better shape for an equitable settlement than has been the case in all the history of these transactions. He has two children, Chatty F. and Henry Earl Pentzer. For four years he has been a member of the democratic central committee.
DAVID CAVENDER
WAS born in the town of Hancock, Hillsborough county, New Hampshire, April 19, 1821. His grandfather, Charles Cavender, belonged to an Irish family in independent circumstances, and came over to this country, land- ing at Boston during the Revolutionary war. He volunteered his services on the side of the colonies and served in the American army during the several years of the war. He was in several engagements, among which was the battle of Bennington, and the next day captured with his own hand seven Hessians and marched them into camp as prisoners, an incident which is narrated in some of the histories of the Revolution. After the war was over, he purchased, with the continental money, many large quan- tities of land, at ten cents an acre, in the town of Greenfield, New Hamp- shire, and in company with a man named James Ramsey, made the first settlement in that part of the state. Charles Cavender, father of David N. Cavender, was born at Greenfield in 1794. About the year 1818 he mar- ried Mary Nahor, who was descended from a Scotch family. Her father was born and raised at Litchfield, New Hampshire, and at an early date settled at Hancock. Charles Cavender, in 1828, removed from Hancock to Antrim, and in 1835 to Northfield, New Hampshire. In 1838 he came to Illinois and settled at Bunker Hill. His brother, John Cavender, a mer- chant at St. Louis, was one of the parties who laid out the town of Bunker Hill. He bought land at Bunker Hill, and was farming there till 1851, and then moved to Cahokia township. He died at the house of his son in Gilles pie township, October 30, 1877.
David N. Cavender was seventeen years of age when he came to Macoupin county. His first marriage occurred in March, 1845, to Celestia Hovey, who died the next January. He was married the second time on the 12th of November, 1849, to Eliza J. Stockton. Mrs. Cavender was born in Stockton's Valley, in what was then Cumberland (now Clinton) county, Kentucky, July 12, 1828. Stockton's Valley received its name from her grandfather, who settled there when that part of Kentucky was full of In- dians, and the nearest neighbor was twenty miles distant. It was necessary to establish forts in which the settlers could take refuge in case of an attack by the Indians; and when plowing or cultivating their fields, a constant guard had to be maintained against the approach of the savages. Her father, David Stockton, was born in Kentucky, and married Elizabeth Ber- tram. The Bertram family were from the Carolinas, and during the Revolutionary war lived within a short distance of where the battle of Cow- pens was fought, so that the firing could easily be heard while the battle was in progress. Mrs. Cavender's grandfather, Andrew Bertram, took part in the Revolutionary war. Davis Stockton came to Illinois in 1831, and settled twelve miles north of Jacksonville, where is now the town of Jordan- ville, in Morgan county. The next winter after settling there, was " the winter of the deep snow," and he came to the conclusion that the country, though a fine one, would never be settled, and in 1832, moved back to Kentucky. In 1834 he moved to Missouri, and in 1835 back to his original location in Morgan county. There were still only a few settlements in that vicinity, and Mrs. Cavender, then a little girl, seven years old, was obliged to go six miles to school. Her father moved to Bunker Hill township in this county in 1840, and to Gillespie township in 1855; his death occurred in October of the same year. Her mother died in 1857.
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