History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches, Part 102

Author: Brink, W.R. & Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Edwardsville, Ill. : W. R. Brink & co.
Number of Pages: 698

USA > Illinois > Madison County > History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches > Part 102

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Charles Francis Mills, was born in Montrose, Pa., on the 29th day of May, 1843. Attended Shurtleff College up to the Sophomore year. Enlisted as private in the 124th Regt. Illinois Vols. Was appointed Hospital Steward, U. S. A. by Western Depot at Camp Butler, Illinois, and at Nashville, Tenn. After the war, was engaged in the insu- rance business in St. Louis, and subsequently removed to Springfield, Illinois, where he is engaged as Assistant Sec- retary of the Board of Agriculture of the State of Illinois, and also in the breeding of Clydesdale Horses, Jersey Cattle, Cotswold Sheep and Berkshire Swine, in all of which enter- prises he has achieved success. He was married on the 26th day of May, 1869, to Mary E. Bennett, and has three chil- dren, Minnie, William and Carrie.

Martha Lewis Mills, was born on the farm in Bridgewater township, near Montrose, on the 18th day of March, 1845. Was married to Captain Joseph H. Weeks, now Postmaster at Upper Alton, and died in Upper Alton, in 1869, leaving one son, Charles Henry Weeks, born in Upper Alton, on the 3d day of August, 1866. Henry Edmund Mills, was born

424

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

in Montrose, Pa, on the 24th day of June, 1850. Was graduated at Shurtleff College, in Juuc, 1869, taught school one year and entered the St. Louis Law School, and was graduated in May, 1872, having passed the best exami- nation in his class of 21 and being awarded the prize of $50 for the best Thesis. Received the degree of A. M. from Shurtleff in June, 1874. Was married to Emma Brown Sprague, at St. Louis, Mo. August 30th, 1877, and has two children, Edith Cynthia, born, in St. Louis, July 2d, 1878, and Constance, born at St. Louis, July 15th, 1880. In 1878 he published a work entitled a Treatise on the Law of Eminent Domain which was favorably received by the press and the profession. In July 1881, purchased his present residence in Upper Alton, and continues the practice of the law in St. Louis. Is a member of the Board of Trustees of Shurtleff College, and author of several valuable treatises on law.

Ruth Catharine Mills, was born in Candor, Tioga county, New York, on the 3d day of May, 1853. Was gradn- ated from Shurtleff College in June 1876, receiving the de- gree of A. B. Was instructor in Latin, French and Litera- ture at Mount Carroll Seminary, Mt. Carroll, Illinois, for five years. In 1831, took charge as principal of Almira College, Greenville, Illinois, in which capacity she is at present engaged.

Emma Brown (Sprague) Mills, was born on the 19th day of September, 1855, in Lowell, Washington county, Ohio: and was married on the 30th day of August, 1877, to Henry E. Mills at St. Louis, Missouri. She has devoted herself to instrumental music in which she has become proficient both on the piano and pipe organ, having been for five years or- ganist at Dr. Brooks' Church, in St. Louis.

CAPT. JOHN A. MILLER,

Is a native of Baltimore, Maryland, where he was born June 26th, 1826. He is the eldest child of Samuel L. and Susan (Kirby) Miller. His mother died in Baltimore when he was a child of five years of age. His father subsequently married Miss Mary, daughter of Henry and Frances Belk, a native of Leeds, England. He was born in Baltimore in 1802, emigrated to Alton in 1834, where he was among the first to engage in the manufacture of lime. This employ- ment was succeeded by that of brick-maker, which, in turn, gave way to farming, near Omph-Ghent, in which avocation he passed the evening of a well-spent life. Mr. Miller was one of the pioneers of Odd Fellowship in the West, and aided in establishing the first lodge of that order west of the Alleghanies. He was a charter member of the Lodge at Alton, and was regarded with the highest esteem and vener- ation by his brethren of the Mystic Tie wherever he was known. He was an earnest, active member of the Cumber- land Presbyterian Church, in which he became an elder. His life was characterized by devotion to principle, earnest- ness of purpose and exemplary action. He died in August, 1880.

The subject of this sketch was married on the 17th of March, 1853, to Miss Mary, daughter of Daniel and Jane Hagerman, natives of Pennsylvania, who moved to Lawrence- burg, Indiana, where Mrs. Miller was horn November 10th, 1822.

RESIDENCE OF JOHN WIEDMER, BETHALTO, ILLS.

RESIDENCE OF JAMES W. CLARK, BETHALTO, ILLS.

CUSTOM & MERCHANTI

CUSTOM & MERCHANT MILL'S BETHALTO, ILLS. THE PROPERTY OF J. T. EWAN.

THE RESIDENCE OF J. T. EWAN, BETHALTO, ILLS.

JOHN W KAUFFMAN

PRESIDENT MILLS

SOUTH.

PRESIDENT MILLS from

JOHN W. KAUFFMAN PRESIDENT MILL'S

JOHN WIEDMER, SUPERINTENDENT.

THESE MILLS ARE RUN ENTIRELY

PRESIDENT MILLS, BETHALTO, ILLS. PROPERTY OF JOHN W. KAUFFMAN.

JOHN W XAUFEMAN. PARK MILLS

PARK MILLS from

NORTH EAST.

JOHN W. KAUFFMAN PARK MILLS

KILER

J.W.S.

THE ROLLER SYSTEM.

PARK MILLS ST. LOUIS, MO. PROPERTY OF JOHN W. KAUFFMAN.

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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS

LITTLE

Maj. Franklin Moved

THERE is, perhaps, nothing of which a man may be more excusably proud than of gallant service in the cause of his country, nor is there any service which lives longer in the grateful memory of a people. Major Moore was among those who early offered their services to their country in its hour of peril, and who never deserted their posts until a con- quered peace had crowned their efforts. He was born in Madison county, Illinois, September 2d, 1826. His parents were North Carolinians, from whence they first emigrated to Kentucky, thence to Wood River, this county, in 1808. They had in all eight children, of whom Franklin was the youngest. Franklin's first attendance at school was to that taught by Sophia Loomis (Edwards) in his father's cabin in 1832. He subsequently attended Shurtleff College. He was married to Telitha Elliott, near Bunker Hill, Macoupin county, June 4th, 1846. By her he had six children, one of whom died during the war of the Rebellion, and the others are much scattered. One, a doctor, in Dallas, Texas ; 55

another, a farmer, same State; a daughter, now the wife of Shields Preuitt, lives in Fort Worth, Texas; another, the wife of H. E. Rupert, Dallas, Texas; the youngest is a student in Shurtleff College. His wife died May 31st, 1872.

Major Moore has principally followed farming, althoughi for six or seven years he operated a saw-mill on Wood River. Major Moore's military record is quite fully set forth in the chapter devoted to such history. His patriotic ardor found full vent on many a hard contested field of battle, where he was ever eager to discharge his full duty and more. Wounded by a rifle ball, August 27, 1862, we find him again a leader of the fight on September 3d following. As a com- mander, he was kind to his men, and ever aggressive towards the enemy. He accepted fearful odds, but his military genius ever triumphed. In political faith an earnest Re- publican, the Major has contributed no little to his party's success in various campaigns. Companionable himself he enjoys the society of hosts of friends.

HELVETIA.

HIS township is situated in the southeast corner of the county Its name is of recent date, to wit: 1876. In prior years it was known as Highland precinct, 1840 to 1876; from 1812 to 1817 it was part of Sugar creek precinct, and after the organization of Bond county, became a part of old Silver creek -- a township extending from the St. Clair county line in the south to the southern boundary line of Canada in the north. The township is designated as No. 3 north, 5 west of the 3d principal meridian line. The boun. dary lines, south and east, were established in April, and the northern one in May, 1808, by Messenger and Moore, United States surveyors. Section lines, etc., were run some five years later. The field notes of Madison county state that the area of this township contains 22.99812% acres.

The first arrival of white settlers may have been in 1804, when Joseph Duncan with a few others made the extreme southeast corner of the county their home. At, or very nearly the same time the Higgins and the Hobbs arrived also. Mrs. H. Hobbs stated she knew the settlement to have existed in 1808; the principal part of the settlement, how- ever, was located in Clinton county, only one-half mile south of the Madison county line. The buffalo had barely disappeared from the state; the elk was still seen at times, deer were roaming in herds, large carnivorous animals-the panther, the lynx and bear infested the timber, and when at night stillness was expected to reign, numberless wolves raised their hideous voices. The Carolina parrot yet roosted in the trees, and each season of spring rains brought countless numbers of water-fowl to lakes and ponds into which the prairies were then converted. The surfaces of these prairies were covered with high grass ; the hill tops bore occasional groves of trees, and the general proportion of timber and prairie was subject to alternate changes, caused by prairie fires, which at times swept down into the immediate vicinity of the creek banks.

The Howards settled in the south west corner of township 4-5, in the year 1809, but it is not certain whether they then knew anything of the existence of the Duncan settlements, six miles south of them. No progress seems to have been made in settling this part of the county prior to 1815. The war of 1812, between the United States and England, had broken out. England succeeded in making allies of the Indians on the frontier, who had before been friendly and inoffensive. They had roamed through this and other 426

counties as peaceful hunters, and were often seen at the log cabin of the pioneer. Now they were foes. Reports of murders and depredations reached the isolated settlers, and they realized the terrible fact that the greatest calamity of border life, Indian warfare, was upon them. It became a period of anxious care. Liable to surprise by a merciless foe at any hour of the day or night, the few scattered families huddled together in block-houses enclosed by a row of strong posts, called forts, whenever alarm was given. In the intervals they tilled their small fields, with the rifle on the shoulder. Cox's fort, near Old Aviston, afforded shelter to the settlers on Sugar creek. It was never attacked, hut a Mrs. Jesse Bailes, daughter of one Bradsby, then living on Silver creek, was shot in 1814, by Indians on Sugar creek. She fled across the prairie to her father's house, where she died of her wounds. Mrs Bailes was a relative of Joseph Duncan, probably a sister-in-law. Peace was concluded in 1814, and the Illinois settlements were generally restored to tranquillity. Joseph Duncan, James Good, Gilbert Watson and Jonathan L. Harris made their settlements on Sugar creek now per- manent. Duncan had been a ranger during the war, and on his return located on the east side of the creek, on section 15. Duncan was a man of fair education for that day. He was appointed justice of the peace in 1817, and when the office became elective in 1827, his neighbors chose him and continued to elect him their justice term after term. Duncan filled that office for nearly forty years. In later years he had a post office established at the place and was for many years postmaster. He died in 1852 His wife was a Cuddy, aunt of George Cuddy, so well and favorably known by the present generation of the township. The Duncans raised a family of five children, four daughters and a son, Hugh M., who became the father of a large family, and was looked upon as one of the best and most respected men of his time. He lost his life by accident ; being thrown out of his carriage while on his way to attend a funeral. The daughters, none of whom survive, were : Linnie, who married John S. Carrigan ; Sarah, Alexander Forrester; Rebecca, B. C. Plant, and Mary, married James A. Berry. Mr. Duncan and many others lived for years on their lands as squatters. The records of the county contain the following in reference to entering land : William Morrison * entered section 36 on the 10th of April, 1815, and thus became the first bona fide landowner

* William Morrison bought those lands on speculation; he had been a resident of Randolph county since 1790; was a merchant and contractor, and died in 1837.

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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

of the township. Gilbert Watson, the friend and companion of Joseph Duncan, entered the southeast quarter of section 22, directly south of where Duncan had squatted, and James Gingles (Jingles), the southeast quarter of section 26, on the 14th of November, 1816. Watson remained a resident of the township until his death ; none of his descendants, how- ever, remained in the county. His farm is now owned by A. Thalmann. The Gingles, or Jingles lived nearly fifty years in the township, but none of them are residing there this day. James Good, also a companion of Duncan, remained in the township until his death, but none of his descendants have remained

John L. Hearrin entered 160 acres in section 35, December 12, 1816, and James Ramsay, 160 acres on the 23d of December, 1816. Duncan and Good, who had been squatters since their arrival, entered their tracts on the 27th of October, 1817. J. Duncan's farm, which has remained in possession of the family to this day, is the oldest farm in the township. Jonathan L. Harris settled in the edge of the timber on the old trail from Duncan's to Carlyle. He had a horse-mill there, which he continued to operate until 1834. He left the county in 1840, and now resides in Clinton county, only a short distance from his old place.

Robin Craigg came to the settlement about the year 1818. He improved a farm on the east side of Sugar creek, and remained there the balance of his days. Madison Craigg, a son of Robin, was a skillful mechanic, cart- wright, and established himself in business at Edwardsville, Henry and William, his brothers, were farmers, and their sister became the wife of R. Shields.

Lee Cuddy, brother-in-law of Joseph Duncan, brought his family, consisting of George, John (still living), Shelby, Ephraim, Anna, and Elizabeth, his children, to Madison county in 1823, settling in the immediate vicinity of Joseph Duncan. The Cuddys had resided for many years in Union county, Illinois. Lee Cuddy cultivated a farm on the west side of Sugar creek, now known as the Bellm place. Sub- sequently he moved to Deck's prairie, where he died.

John Gracey settled on the north half of section 11 as early as 1518, cleared some 30 acres and continued his resi. dence there until 1835, when he removed to Hancock county. His brother, Joseph, had also cleared a small field in the same section, sold his improvement to Alexander Forrester, and removed to Bond county.

Allen Bryant, also an early settler, improved what is now known as the Anton Schuler place in section 2. He died on the farm, but none of his children, two girls and four boys, have remained in the county.

B. Gullick settled the H. Drancourt farm in section 26, and established a distillery there; which he operated for many years. He died on his farm ; his family left Madison and went to Bond county, where one of his sons is now sheriff.

Alexander Forrester says he came to the township in 1829. The families mentioned on this page, he says, were all personally known to him as living there at the time of his arrival. Forrester raised his first crop, a little patch of corn near Highland, just north of the township line. He

had come in company with Thomas Carr from Sumner county, Tennessee, intending to start a tan yard. This plan was soon abandoned, bark being scarce and lime high- priced. Carr returned south after sojourning three years in the township But Forrester remained, e.listed in the service during the Black Hawk war, and then joined a ranging company, on an expedition west, where the com- pany had to act as guards to traders freighting across the plains. This ranging company was enlisted out of Bond, Madison and Fayette counties, 100 strong, commanded by Captain Matthew Duncan of Vandalia. After having served eleven months the men were discharged and sent home. In 1833, Forrester bought Joseph Gracey's improve- ment, and married Sarah HI. Duncan, daughter of Joseph. He now went to work in earnest to improve his place. After the first year he moved his buildings to the edge of the prairie where he now lives. He has been married three times and raised a family of ten children. Mr. Forrester is 80 years of age, hale and hardy enough to be taken for a man of 65 or 70 years; a trip to Edwardsville and return (nearly 50 miles) on horseback in one day is but sport to the old gentleman.

Norris W. and James Ramsay came into the township at an early day. They were sons of John Ramsay, who settled in Clinton county in 1818 They first located in the south part of the township where James had bought 160 acres of land as early as 1816. In 1834, they settled the W. T. Ramsay place in section 12, where they farmed in common for many years. Norris was married early in life, and raised a family of ten children, of whom only four, one son and three daughters, lived to the age of maturity, two of whom are now living. William S., on the old place, and Rachel, now Mrs. James Lessley, living at Sparta, Randolph county, Illinois.

Elder James Ramsay did not marry until he was of middle age. He raised no family ; he was a Presbyterian preacher. Norris died in 1863, and James in 1864, both on the home place.

Norris W. was road supervisor when the Carlyle and Edwardsville road was laid out and opened to road from the east line of the township to Highland. Was a great worker, and started in life with nothing but his energy. The proceeds of his labor in breaking 40 acres of prairie land and making 4000 fence rails, enabled him to buy his first "property," a horse. Norris owned, at the time of his death, 1,016 acres of land and quite an amount of personal wealth. He was a Presbyterian in religion and a Democratin politics.

Herbert Hobbs, mentioned above, was a North Carolinian. He settled on the northwest quarter of section 34, in 1824, where he improved a small farm but never entered the land. About 1842 he entered land in section 32, and continued to live on that land until his death, in 1846. His widow was living as late as 1876. Two of his sons, T. A. and Frank Hobbs, are residents of the township to this day.

John Hobbs, a brother of Herbert, settled the Calvin Lee place (section 33) in 1826, and lived on the land until he died. James R. Hobbs, the only surviving son of a family of seven children, resides now in Joplin, Mo.

428

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

Thomas Savage settled in the township as early as 1827, and improved a small farm. He met with an accident in St. Louis, that caused his death some 25 years ago. He left a widow and seven children.

Adam Kile, a son of Adam Kile, Sr., one of the pioneers of Marine township settled in this township in 1825, a neighbor of Savage.

The settlements in the west half of the township were of later date, and less numerous than those of the east half. The prairie lands were at first overlooked and ignored Their advantages being once understood, they soon attracted the greater part of new arrivals.

Up to this time immigration was scarcely perceptible, and the increase of population very slow. The first white child born in the township was H. M. Duncan. His older sisters, born in 1806 and 1809, saw the light of the sun first in Clinton county, where their father's first cabin had been erected. Altogether, up to 1830, not more than 25 families inhabited the township, and they may have cultivated five hundred acres of ground. The agricultural pursuits were simple and limited ; each family cultivated from ten to twenty acres of ground, a farm of 40 acres tilled being almost deemed a hazardons enterprise. Corn and wheat were their main productions, and until 1830 they also raised cotton for home use, picking it in September.

The families held but a limited intercourse, mostly among themselves. The nearest church was at Pocahontas, in Bond county, ten miles off. Divine service, after the Presbyterian creed, was held, however, on Sugar creek, in a private cabin. In 1824 George Ramsay taught school there also. James A. Ramsay succeeded in 1828, and John Shinn in 1830. It seems that James A. Ramsay caused a school and meeting- house (church) to be erected about the year 1825 or 1826. It stood near Craigg's improvement, was constructed of hewn logs, and known as the Ramsay church (Presbyte- rian). Mr. Forrester remembers to have attended church here in 1829, and it is in this building where James A. Ramsay and John Shinn taught school. Subsequently the congregation built a church on section 28. This building was bought by R. N. Ramsay, and is now used as a tenant house. The neighborhood church is now in Clinton county, one mile south of the Madison county line.

About this time townships 3-4 and 4-5 formed an election precinct, and the elections were held at Joseph Duncan's residence, called Pleasant Hill. In subsequent years but few additions are to be made to the pioneers of American birth, among whom mention is to be made of Calvin Lee, a native of Illinois, born in Fayette county, Ill., who died here in 1844. His three surviving sons, Calvin, Pinkney and Green, farmers, are to this day residents of the township.

Oliver Hoyt, a New Yorker, settled on the farm where he now resides in 1836. He was the second man in the neigh- borhood to risk prairie farming. He bought the improve- ment of a man named Giloman, near Sugar creek, and moved the cabin and what rails there were to his place on the prairie. Ile occupied the cabin for seven or eight years as hi, dwelling ; he subsequently crccted better and more comfortable buildings, and the house now occupied as a

dwelling is the third one built on the same site. The farm of Mr. Hoyt has iu the course of time-forty-five years- become one of the finest and best farms of the township.

James Billingsley tried prairie farming a year or two earlier on W. Hagnaur's land. He afterward moved to Pike county, and from thence to Texas, where he died.

E. M. Morgan, born in Clinton county, just across the Madison county line, January, 1817, settled in 1844 on sec- tion 31. He was the only son of John Morgan, the pioneer of Clinton county, Illinois. A sister of E. M. Morgan, Mary A., was married to George Richardson, who resided at the old Morgan homestead during his life. E. M. Morgan was a good man in the trnest sense of the word. He was from 1857 to 1861 appointed associate justice of the Madison county court. In later years he opened a store on his land on seç- tion 31, and had a post-office established there, with himself as postmaster, and named St. Morgan. Judge Morgan died May 16, 1881, and was interred with all the honors and ceremonies of the Masonic fraternity. The site of the former post-office, St. Morgan, has now developed into a little village, with the tavern of Nicholas Zopf-the old democratic wheelhorse of his vicinity-as centre place, Frederick Hanzelmann as blacksmith, and John Kaeser as wagon-maker.

The attention of European immigrants was called to the fertile soil of Illinois at an early date ; a number of them h'd shared in the trials and hardships of actual pioneer life, as stated in the chapter on Immigration. The town- ship of Helvetia was now to receive her full portion of the foreign element, and a full portion it proved to be.

The first Europeans arriving did not exactly make this township their home, but were so intimately connected with the inhabitants of it as to become a part of them. Under the leadership of Dr. Caspar Koepfli, of Sursee, canton Lucerne, Switzerland, a cluster of Swiss parties arrived in 1831; among them Joseph Suppiger, whose name is honor- ably connected with every enterprise in the locality. He was one of the most useful men which the township ever possessed, equally devoted to the interests of the locality and to those of the country at large. For nearly twelve years he had filled the office of justice of the peace ; higher offices, though repeatedly tendered, had no charm for him. and were politely but decidedly refused. Mr. Snppiger died April 24, 1861. Anthony Suppiger, a younger brother of Joseph, was also of the party, and he alone remains to speak of their manifold experiences. Mr. Anthony Sup- piger, a public-spirited man and exemplary citizen, has repeatedly been called to fill local offices, and in 1865 he became a member of the county court.

Dr. Koepfli was accompanied by his sons, Joseph and Solomon ; Bernhard Koepfli, and Dr. Caspar Koepfli, Jr., arrived later. These earlier pioneers were re-enforced by constant arrivals. They all clustered around the home- steads of the Suppigers and Koepflis. In 1836 an event occurred that made the northern part of Helvetia township the centre of life and activity of this Swiss colony. It was the foundation of

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History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches, Part 102

Author: Brink, W.R. & Co Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Edwardsville, Ill. : W. R. Brink & co. Number of Pages: 698

Author: Brink, W.R. & Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Edwardsville, Ill. : W. R. Brink & co.
Number of Pages: 698