History of Macoupin County, Illinois, Part 9

Author: Brink, McDonough & Co.
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 440

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In 1828, Mr. Welch, a genuine pioneer, held a squatter's claim, built a log cabin and cleared a few acres, but he was not contented, and soon left.

Another resident of the county, who came this year, was Aaron Husong, who settled in Brighton township.

According to some accounts Joseph Borough became a citizen here in 1827. Others made the date later. He was raised in Virginia, from which place he moved to Madison county, Illinois. Of his early history nothing certain can now be gathered. He attained considerable prominence in the early history of the county, and his name will be found in the civil records. He settled east of Carlinville, on the hill, where he lived and raised a family. He served the people as their representative and senator in the General Assembly of the State.

J. W. Fork, the well-known stock raiser and farmer, settled in 1828. In this year, 1828, Fletcher H. Chapman, a prominent attorney of Carlinville, was born in this county, in what is now Staunton township.

Ezekiel Good, " who had character enough to mould a whole community," moved from Green county and built a log house just east of the old plat of Carlinville. His wife was a most excellent and hospitable lady.

In 1828, also, with his large family, came Peter Akes, Sr. Peter had four sons, Alfred, Isaac, Peter, Jr., and John-who were voters in 1829- and several daughters. John S. Greathouse, a lawyer, bought property of Joseph Borough in the fall of 1829, and lived in Carlinville until '46.

Huriah Smith, an honored citizen of the county, settled in Western Mound September 7th, 1828. About the same time his father, Richard Smith, and family, settled on Hodge's Creek. Andrew Brownlee about the same time came. He was one of the first justices of the peace.

In 1829 John Yowell arrived from Shelby county, Kentucky, and bought out Charles McVey. Judge Yowell served as first lieutenant in Captain Nolan's company in the Black Hawk War, was a captain of militia, and prominent in the history of the county.

G. M. McGinnis, of Bird township, also came in 1829.

Among the many who came this year, or the preceding, may be further mentioned, James Howard, who taught school in 1829, in a log school-house in North Palmyra; Samuel Harris, who was the father of twenty-six children; Norris Hayes and family ; Jairus Coddle and family, from North Carolina ; James McFarland and family from Tennessee ; Aaron Tilley, brother of Bennett Tilley previously mentioned, and William Barrett, who sold goods in the first store in the county in 1829.

It is not, perhaps, possible to name all who had settled in the county prior to 1829, the date of the county's organization. Many who came remained but a short time, when they went back to their old homes, or moved away to a newer country, as the settlements began to fill up. Thus the settlers may naturally be grouped into two classes, the pioneers and the permanent settlers. As stated in the beginning of this chapter, the pioneer is not to be despised, for he is a man with a mission. But pressing closely on his foot- steps came the other class, scarcely less inured to hardships and fatigue, or fitted to combat the dangers and difficulties on the frontier, but animated by different hopes, and pursuing a nobler ambition. These left the abodes of

civilized life, not from love of adventure or dislike of society ; they came where land was cheap and soil rich, in search of a permanent home.

They brought with them a love of church and school, and an appreciation of the blessings of civilized life, and the " wilderness and solitary place was glad for them, and the desert rejoiced and blossomed as the rose."

In the township histories, and the biographical department, may be found more fully recorded the characters, trials and struggles of the earlier settlers, who subdued, and made fit for the habitation of man, this wilderness of coarse grass, dense forests and unhealthy morass.

In this year, 1829, the county of Macoupin was created by act of the legislature in session at the then capital of the state, Vandalia, and com- missioners were appointed to select a site for the seat of justice. The chap- ter on the "Civil History" treats fully of the birth of the county, and con- tains all records pertaining to its origin,

At the first election held after the organization of the county seventy- eight votes were polled. At the second election about one hundred and seventy, and the population of the county was probably about 1,500 souls.

But the county was yet for the most part a wilderness and contained not a single town.

The untutored savage, happily no longer hostile, still came southward, to the " Black Hawk Hunting Grounds," in quest of game, and the howl of the wolf, and scream of the panther, still rang out upon the midnight air.

But no backward step was ever to be taken, and progress was henceforth to be more marked. Here, at no distant day, were to tread the footsteps of a mighty and busy population. Hither, lured by reports of the fertility of the land, and the promise of its greatness, were to come the capitalist to in- vest his thousands, and the honest immigrant in search of a home.

It seems proper here to give a list of those who voted at the first and second elections held in the county in 1829.

" A poll book for an election held at the house of Joseph Borough, in the county of Macoupin and State of Illinois, on the thirteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine.

NAMES OF VOTERS.

John Hope, Edward Mckendley, Reuben Harris, Isom Dalton, Charles McVay, Lewis Stiller, Peter Akes, Jr., William Smith, Howard Finley, Alfred Akes, Robert Patton, Jesse Cox, Isaac Akes, Robert Palmer, Robert Harris, Shadrach Reddick, David Coop, Henry Weeks, John Chandler, Joseph Carter, John D. Chapman, Joseph Vincent, Charles Lear, Jr., Levi Day, George Shelly, William Lovel, Thomas Loveless, Daniel Stringer, Samuel Jackson, Aaron Jackson, William Cormack, Reuben Jackson, John G. Wright, David T. Taylor, Samuel Lear, Joseph Borough, John Snell, Theodorus Davis, Sr., William Wilcox, Richard Chapman, William G. Coop, John Davis, Larken Richison, William Commings, James B. Cowell, Andrew Russell, Isaac Massy, Hiram Russell, Abel Russell, Isaac Bristow, Reuben Clevenger, Morris Hilyard, John Gray, Newton Vance, Hugh Gib- son, Charles Lear, Sr., Joseph Hilyard, Michael Best, David Coop, Sr., John Harris, John W. Cox, Joshua Simmons, Samuel M. Harris, Peter Akes, Sr., Elijah Bristow, Seth Hodges, George Mathes, Solomon Davis, Roger Snell, Tristram P. Hoxsey, John Powell, Abraham Wyatt, Lewis Solomon, Alex- ander Carson, John Lee, Sr., John Lee, Jr., Theodorus Davis, Jr., John Coop. (78 votes).

I certify that John Powell, Abraham Wyatt, Judges, and T. P. Hoxsey, and Theodorus Davis, clerks of the Election, were severally sworn before me as the law directs, and that I was sworn agreeably to law by John Powell, he being one of the Judges of the election, previous to our entering upon the duties of our respective offices, dated at the house of Joseph Borough, this 13th day of April, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine.

LEWIS SOLOMON, J. P.

" A poll book of an election held at the house of Felix Hoover, in the 3d precinct in Macoupin County, on the 16th of May, 1829.

NAMES OF VOTERS.

Levi Day, Isaac Prewet, David Faulkner, Felix Hoover, T. N. Vance, I. Lee, Jr., I. Magennis, G. Mathis, J. Nevins, I. Massey, Thomas Morris, S. Hodges, Russell Taber, William U. Vance, I. Bristow, E. Wells, I. How- ard, Charles Lear, Andrew Russell, Wyatt Wardup, Green Weaver, David Taylor, Edmond C. Vancel, William Cummings, E. Bristow, James Bristow, T. C. Mabry, T. Nevens, Hugh Gipson, Henry Quyle, Solomon Davis, John Cummings, Lewis Solomon. (35 votes)."

" A poll book of an election held at the house of Joseph Borough, Macou-

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HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

pin County, State of Illinois, for Macoupin district, to elect three magis- trates and two constables in and for said district, this 16th of May, 1829.

NAMES OF VOTERS.

David Stringer, Andrew Brownlee, John Harris, Robert Palmer, Samuel M. Harris, Samuel Leir, Theodorus Davis, Bennet Tillya, Abraham Smith, Tristram P. Hoxsey, David Coop, Sr., Daniel Daddrick, Richard Smith, Shadrach Reddick, Norris Hays, Nathan Mabey, Aaron Tillya, John L. Davis, John Powell, Joseph Borough, Peter Akes, William G. Coop. (23 votes)."

" At an election held this sixteenth day of May, 1829, agreeably to an order received from the County Clerk of Macoupin County, we the under- named Judges and Clerks do return the following list of names to be acknowledged as sufficient votes at said election :

NAMES OF VOTERS.

Lewis Cormack, Joseph Vinson, Henry Weaks, John Vinson, James Grant, Abraham Wyatt, Peyton Samands, William Wilcox, Joseph Hilyard, Alexander B. Miller, Joshua Samands, Cornelius Wood, Edward Mckinley, James B. Cowell, William G. Cormack, John W. Cox, Samuel Jackson, Roger Snell, John Chapman, Joseph Best, Michael Best, John Snell. (22 votes).

MARRIAGE IN 1829.

Huriah Smith, still a resident of this county, now of Western Mound township, was the first man married after its organization. An inaccuracy of the marriage record makes necessary the proof of this claim.

Mr. Smith and Sally Tilley, the daughter of John Tilley, of North Caro- lina, were married on the 5th day of May, 1829, by William Kinkaid, a jus- tice of the peace of Greene county. Some doubt arose as to the legality of this marriage. Thereupon a second license was procured, and he was re- married on July 6th, of the same year, the ceremony being performed by Andrew Brownlee, a justice of the peace of this county. The date of the first record was erased, and that of the second substituted, as an examina- tion of the record reveals. The other marriages of 1829, are on record, as follows :-

May 27th, Nathan McVey to Susan Akes. June 1st, Michael Welch to Lucy Richardson. August 15th, William G. Coop to Nancy Harris.

21st, David Coop, Jr., to Elizabeth Harris.

21st, Belden Davis to Mary Hodges.

« 25th, John L. Davis to Narcissa Hall.

November 5th, Nelson Alexander to Rachel Smith. 11th, Peter Akes to Elizabeth Powel.

= 26th, Abel Russel to Elizabeth Shelby.

" 27th, Andrew Thompson to Sarah Woodring.

A wedding in " ye olden time " was a very different affair from one of our day, and was marked necessarily by extreme simplicity. The groom's hands were not tightly encased in white kid-gloves, nor was his a lavender tie. The fair bride was not arrayed in modern fashion, nor was it necessary to hire a dexterous boy to manage her trail as she swept up to the altar. The wedding presents were few and were intended for use, not ornament. But they pledged their faith in holier and more solemn affection than characterizes many of the fashionable weddings of this day. Life to them was a sterner thing than it is to us, and while there was less of sentiment, there was, per- haps, more of love in their unions.

When Isaac Pritchard married, he and his wife, the daughter of Charles Lair, hand in hand, set out on foot to visit some friends in Indiana, and this was their bridal tour. Mrs. Pritchard or " Aunty " is still living in Carlin- ville. After 1829, it seems to be no longer necessary to name the date of the advent of families, in this chapter ; the township sketches, which have been compiled from data, contributed by old citizens, and the biographical depart- ment, furnishing such information. Immigration poured in steadily after that date. John Gray, Thomas and Daniel Marfoot, Mr. and Mrs. Sherrill arrived in 1829.

The next year population was increased by the advent of James Simmons, Thomas Kinder, Arter Taylor, Mrs. Daniel Huddleston, C. A. Walker, a leading lawyer of Carlinville, James B. Pinckard, Michael Brown, William Palmer,-whose name was given to Palmer's prairie,-Brice Robertson, Susan Adams, and Benj. Adams, Mrs. Permelia Baird, Mr. and Mrs. David Holmes, Mrs. Elizabeth Foster, Jarrett Dugger, A. S. Walker, J. A. Pep- perdine, the McCollums,-parents of John McCollum,-the Adams,-pa-

rents of Giles M. Adams,-John Andrews, E. B. Clark, David Gimliu, a Baptist minister, and many others.

In 1831, came Newton Berry, who was one of the early teachers of the county, D. B. Sawyer, J. L. Plain, William Mckinney, James B. Gray, Stith M. Otwell, a faithful minister of the M. E. Church, John Gelder,-the father of Capt. Thomas S. Gelder .- Mrs. Elizabeth Edwards and Mrs. Job Sperry, William Phillips, the Rhoads',-John, Josiah, Jesse, Henry, and C. C.,-Peter B. Karnes, still living, and hearty and hale, Samuel Howard, John Kinder, Amos Snock, the Huddlestons, Stephen Sawyer, Rev. Levi Mitchell,-a Baptist clergyman, earnest and faithful,-and the Weather- fords, and the Gimlins.

In 1832, came the celebrated Dr. Blackburn, whose memory is fragrant as the founder of Blackburn University, L. P. Stratton, William H. Car- son, Thomas Leach, Richard Skaggs, William Jolley, Col. J. R. Miles, Mrs. Elizabeth Duckles, J. D. Wagner, Daniel Huddleston, F. M. Adams, William Hilyard, Hon. Hamp. W. Wall, and many others.

John Morris, William Chism, G. B. Carson, Jas. M. and Mrs. W. H. Car- son, Thomas E. Carson, W. H. Rhoads, Capt. Jas. P. Pearson,-his wife, Rebecca Gwin, came in 1831 with her father's family,-Mrs. Nancy Challa- comb, Thomas Leach, James Raffurty, George W. Rhodes, and the Bostons arrived the next year.

But more space cannot be allowed for this chapter. Others of the old settlers will receive mention in the township histories.

In the first years of settlement there was no physician here, and when medical attendance was necessary, a doctor was summoned from Madison coun- ty. The diseases were usually of a malarial nature. Chills and fever were common in summer and fall, and few escaped them. In the winter pneumo- nia sometimes prevailed, and was much more fatal than now. Dr. Wm. King was here as early as 1832. Dr. Jno. W. Goode came in 1833. Another early physician was Dr. Palmer, who settled near the site of Scottsville. In 1834, came to Carlinville two brothers, Drs. Joseph and Thomas Conduitle, Frenchmen and graduates in medicine of a Paris University. They remained but a little more than a year. The same year came Dr. Jno. R. Lewis, of Massa- chusetts, a regular graduate of medicine. In 1838 Dr. John Logan, of Car- linville, who came to the county in 1833, began the practice of his profes- sion, under the guidance of his preceptor, Dr. Zopher Jayne, a good physi- cian, from Tennessee, and a graduate in his later years of a Louisville Uni- versity, and who came to the county in 1835. Dr. John R. M. Smith, of Virginia, a man of fine education and a partner of Dr. Jayne, arrived the same year. Dr. Howell, a good physician, settled at Bunker Hill in an early day. Dr. Halderman came as early as 1846, and soon had a good practice. He was a good doctor of the old school, and his enormous doses have never been forgotten by his patients. During the epidemic of cholera, in 1851, when about thirty-five died of that dread disease in the county-seat, two prom- ising physicians, Drs. Wright and Wood were among the number.

In the winter of 1830-31 occurred what has been called all over the west " The Big Show," which caused much suffering among the settlers who were poorly prepared for such a rigorous winter. The snow began falling on the 15th of December and fell without intermission for five days, and reached a depth of several feet on the level, while in places it attained a depth of fifteen feet. It began to melt in the latter part of February, and was about as long going off as it had been on the ground. The severity of the winter and the unparalleled depth of the snow may be appreciated from the fact that "The Great Snow," which extended all over the west, is the time from which old settlers estimates the date of events. They speak of an occurrence as having taken place "two years before the Great Snow," or one year after it, etc.

In 1852 the modern history of the county may be said to have begun, for in this year was completed from Alton to Springfield the Chicago and Alton railroad. From this time onward the progress of the county has been very rapid. Immigration came in like a flood. Good markets stimulated the agriculturist to greater exertions, and population and wealth increased in prodigious ratio. . Just one-half a century has passed since Macoupin County had her birth, and what wonderful changes have taken place in that short period. Then people traveled in carts and wagons, now in palace cars ; then they lived in log cabins, now in spacious and comfortable homes; then their homes were lighted by the flickering flame of the rude tallow-dip or candle, now by the brilliant gas-jet or the steady light of the kerosene ; then men reaped their grain with the rude sickle and thought one-fourth of an acre a good day's work, now the self-binder cuts and binds fourteen acres a day ; then there were no roads worthy of the name and few bridges, and for

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HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

a portion of the year travel with a wagon was scarcely possible, now good roads bind all parts of the county together, and elegant and substantial bridges spring from bank to bank over the water-courses ; then men trudged after the rude plow, now they may ride ; then the good mother sewed by hand, now the sewing machine enables her to do four days' work in one ; then she hung the pot upon the crane and bent over the hot fire to cook her bread in the dutch-oven, now the elegant cooking range has taken half the burden of cooking from her, and preserves her complexion at the same time ; then the farmer tramped out his wheat, or beat out the yellow grain with the flail, and winnowed it with the aid of his neighbor and a sheet, now the steam thresher comes to his farm and threshes 500 bushels in a day ; then the Indian maize was beaten in a mortar, or ground grain by grain in a hand mill, now no town or hamlet is without a mill whose ponderous ma- chinery is driven by the strong giant-steam.

But a day of yet greater brightness dawns for this county ; our soil is fer- tile, our climate healthful ; our timber is plentiful and of good quality, and our stores of fuel absolutely inexhaustible ; our markets are near and easily accessible; our citizens moral and industrious, and the voice of the school- master is heard in the land. All elements of greatness are at hand. Our county has produced great men, whose voices heard amid the din of conflict, have given courage and hope in the contest, or when heard in legislative councils have commanded attention. She shall yet produce the poet and scholar whose " words shall fire men's hearts till the world's mad race be run."

" But all too long through seas unknown and dark, By shoal and rock hath steered my venturous bark, And landward now I drive before the gale, And now the blue and distant port I hail, And nearer, now, I see the port expand, And now I gladly furl my weary sail."

CHAPTER IV. CUSTOMS OF EARLY DAYS.

HABITS AND MODES OF LIVING OF THE PIONEERS AND FIRST SETTLERS.

T is a trite but true proverb that " Times change, and we change with them ;" and it is well illustrated by the changes in dress, condition and life, that have taken place in this county in less than half a century. We doubt not that these changes, as a whole, are for the better.

To the old man, indeed, whose life-work is accomplished, and whose thoughts dwell mainly on the past, where his treasures are, there are no days like the old days, and no song awakens so responsive an echo in his heart as " Auld Lang Syne."

The very skies that arch above his gray head seem less blue to his dimmed eye than they did when, in the adoration of his young heart, he directed to them his gaze; the woods appear less green and inviting than when in the gaiety of boyhood he courted their cool deaths ; and the songs of their feathered inhabitants fall less melodiously upon his ear. He marks the changes that are everywhere visible, and feels like crying out in the language of the poet :

"Backward, turn backward, oh, Time, in thy flight!"

It is natural for the aged to sigh for a return of the past, nor would we at- tempt the hopeless task of convincing them that with the changes of the years there have come also an increase in happiness, an improvement in social life, a progress in education, an advancement in morality, and a tendency upward in all that relates to the welfare of mankind.

We may learn useful lessons, however, from a study of that land over which the pardonable and fond imagination of the old settler has thrown the "light that never was on sea or land," if, withdrawing ourselves from the dizzy activities of the present days, we let the old settler take us by the hand and lead us back into the regions of his youth, that we may observe the life of those who founded a grand empire in a great wilderness Let us leave the prow of the rushing ship, from which may be discerned a mighty future rich in promises and bright with hope and take our place upon the stern and gaze backward, into the beautiful land of the past.

No doubt we shall be led to regret the absence among us of some of the virtues of dwellers in those early days. Gone is that free-hearted hospitality

which made of every settler's cabin an inn where the belated and weary traveler found entertainment without money and without price. Gone is that community of sentiment which made neighbors indeed neighbors ; that era of kindly feeling which was marked by the almost entire absence of liti- gation.

Gone, too, some say, is that simple, strong, upright, honest integrity which was so marked a characteristic of the pioneer.

So rapid has been the improvement in machinery, and the progress in the arts and their application to the needs of man, that a study of the manner in which people lived and worked only fifty years ago seems like the study of a remote age.

It is important to remember that while a majority of settlers were poor, that poverty carried with it no crushing sense of degradation like that felt by the very poor of our age. They lived in a cabin, it is true, but it was their own, and had been reared by their hands. Their house, too, while inconve- nient and far from water-proof, was built in the prevailing style of archi- tecture, and would compare favorably with the homes of their neighbors.

They were destitute of many of the conveniences of life, and of some things that are now considered necessaries ; but they patiently endured their lot and hopefully looked forward to better. They had plenty to wear as pro- tection against the weather, and an abundance of wholesome food. They sat down to a rude table to eat from tin or pewter dishes; but the meat thereon spread-the flesh of the deer or bear; of the wild duck or turkey ; of the quail or squirrel-was superior to that we eat, and had been won by the skill of the head of the house or of that of his vigorous sons The bread they ate was made from corn or wheat of their own raising. They walked the green carpet of the grand prairie or forest that surrounded them, not with the air of a beggar, but with the elastic step of a self-respected free- man .*

The settler brought with him the keen axe, which was indispensable, and the equally necessary rifle; the first his weapon of offence against the forests that skirted the water-courses, and near which he made his home; the second that of defence from the attacks of his foe, the cunning child of the forest and prairie. His first labor was to fell trees and erect his unpretentious cabin, which was rudely made of logs, and in the raising of which he had the cheerful aid of his neighbors. It was usually from fourteen to sixteen feet square, and never larger than twenty feet, and was frequently built entirely without glass, nails, hinges or locks.

The manner of building was as follows: First, large logs were laid in posi- tion as sills ; on these were placed strong sleepers, and on the sleepers were laid the rough-hewed puncheons, which were to serve as floors. The logs were then built up till the proper height for the eaves was reached ; then on the ends of the building were placed poles, longer than the other end-logs, which projected some eighteen or more inches over the sides, and were called " butting-pole sleepers;" on the projecting ends of these was placed the " butting-pole," which served to give the line to the first row of clap-boards. These were, as a matter of course, split, and as the gables of the cabin were built up, were so laid on as to lap a third of their length. They were often kept in place by the weight of a heavy pole, which was laid across the roof parallel to the ridge-pole. The house was then chinked, and daubed with a coarse mortar.

A huge fire-place was built in at one end of the house, in which fire was kindled for cooking purposes, for the settlers generally were without stoves, and which furnished the needed warmth in winter. The ceiling above was sometimes covered with the pelts of the raccoon, opossum, and of the wolf, to add to the warmth of the dwelling. Sometimes ;the soft inner bark of the bass wood was used for the same purpose. The cabin was lighted by means of greased paper-windows. A log would be left out along one side, and sheets of strong paper, well greased with coon-grease or bear-oil, would be carefully tacked in.

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History of Macoupin County, Illinois, Part 9

Author: Brink, McDonough & Co. Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Number of Pages: 440

Author: Brink, McDonough & Co.
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 440