History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches, Part 119

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 119

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509

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

During six months of the year 1819 he taught school in Edwardsville. He was elected surveyor of Madison county in 1825, and held that office ten years. In 1834 he took a contract to survey a tract of land forty miles southeast of Chicago. In 1838 and 1839 he surveyed public lands in Illinois in 1844 and 1845 in Missouri and Arkansas, and in 1848 and 1849 in Wisconsin. From 1849 to 1853 he was the chief clerk in the surveyor's office in St. Louis, and in December, 1853, was appointed Surveyor General of the district comprising Illinois and Missouri with his office in St. Louis. In 1854 he received an appointment as clerk in the general land office at Washington, and soon afterward was sent to Florida to adjust the accounts of the Surveyor-General of that state, and for three years was stationed at St Au- gustine. Mr. Spaulding, in the year 1828, settled on section twenty-nine of this township, and four years later on section twenty-eight, where he has since resided He is now eighty- five years of age, and has probably done more active work in surveying the public lands of the United States than any other person now living. He united with the Baptist church in Vermont, and assisted in the organization of the Baptist church at Alton.

Joel D. Spaulding, father of Don Alonzo Spaulding, be- came a resident of Madison county in 1825. After living some months in Edwardsville he moved to Rattan's prairie, and from there moved to Godfrey township in 1828, and set- tled on the place where Don Alonzo Spaulding now lives. He died in the year 1844. Henry Spaulding, brother of Don Alonzo Spaulding, became a resident of the township also in 1828. He served as a justice of the peace for a num- ber of years. He died in Macoupin county.

Among the early citizens of the southern part of the township was Major George W. Long, who died in the year 1881. He was born at Hopkinton, New Hampshire, in 1799. He entered the Military Academy at West Point as a cadet in 1820, and graduated in 1824. After his gradua- tion he was one of the corps of instructors at West Point for a year. He was subsequently employed as a govern- ment engineer in Louisiana and Florida till 1836 From that time till 1839, he held the position of State engineer for the state of Louisiana. In 1830 he entered land in sec- tions thirty-three and thirty-four, and here during the year 1831 and 1832 he built the large brick house which was his subsequent residence. At the time of the erection this was probably the largest and best building in the county. It was occupied by his youngest brother, Edward Preble Long, for some years, and became the home of Major Long on his retiring from the profession of an engineer in 1839.

His brother, Dr. Benjamin F. Long, now a resident of Godfrey township, became a citizen of the county in Octo- ber 1831. He was born at Hopkinton, Massachusetts, in 1805, graduated in the medical department of Dartmouth college in 1830, and the next year came to Alton on a visit to his brother, Deacon Enoch Long, then intending to enter on the practice of his profession in Louisiana. He, how- ever, remained at Upper Alton and practiced medicine there for twenty-one years. He assisted in the organization of the Illinois Mutual Fire Insurance Company, was a member of 69

its first board of trustees, and was its president for nearly a quarter of a century. He is the only surviving one of five brothers-Colonel Stephen H. Long, Deacon Enoch Long, Major George W. Long, Dr. Benjamin F. Long, and Ed- ward Preble Long-who were among the most useful and respected citizens of the county. Col. Stephen H. Long was connected for many years with the United States Engi- neering forces. He made several early explorations under the direction of the government of the West and the North- west, and secured a national reputation for scientific achieve- ments and engineering skill. lle retired from active service in 1862. For some years he resided at Upper Alton. Deacon Enoch Long became a resident of Upper Alton in 1821. In 1844 be removed to Galena, and in 1863 to Sabula, Jack- son county, Iowa, where he died.

Moses B. Walker was one of the first settlers on the Graf- ton road. He was a native of Tennessee, and came to the township about the year 1828. His wife was a sister of Samuel Thurston, one of the proprietors of the town of Clifton. Walker first worked at the mill in Clifton when he came to the township, and then entered land in section twenty-nine, on which he lived till his death. He filled the office of constable for a number of years, serving in that capacity while Henry Spaulding acted as justice of the peace. Mr. Copley, a native of Massachusetts, entered land, and settled in section twenty-seven. His sons, John and George Copley, live on the place where their father settled. The farm now owned by Charles Merriman, adjoining the Copley place, was entered by Mr. Buckley. Parker Dela- plain was also one of the settlers in this part of the town- ship.

William Squire, who was born in the year 1814, in Dev- onshire, England, came to this country in 1835, and became a permanent resident of Godfrey township in 1838. 1Ie was a good eitizen, and for many years an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He died on the twelfth of March, 1865. His sons, James, William Frank, and Heber Squire, are now residents of the township. James Squire filled the office of justice of the peace four years, and in 1877 was elected to represent the township in the board of supervisors, and has been re-elected every year since. Wm. Frank Squire served as township assessor twelve years, and is the present collector of the township.

Elijah Frost became a resident of the township in 1840. He was born near Troy, New York, in 1812, and emigrated to Illinois in 1837. He lived at Kane, Greene county, till 1840, and then came to this township, first settling on Coal branch. In 1841 he built the house in which he has since lived The land had been entered by a man named Emer- son, but Mr. Frost bought it of Robert W. Finch. He was one of the original members of Bethany Methodist Episco- pal church. He taught school at the Bethany church in 1840, and has, altogether, taught thirty-six terms of school, mostly in Godfrey township. He has served eighteen years as township treasurer.

Among the early residents of the village of Godfrey was Timothy Turner, who was born at New Haven, Connecticut, in 1784. He became a resident of Godfrey in 1839. He

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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

opened a small store, which was the first in the place. Ou the establishment of the pos .- office in 1340, he was appointed post master, and held the office till 1369, when he resigned on account of advancing age and debility. He died in August, 1863. Ilis son, Jarius B. Turner, still resides iu Godfrey.

Abijah W. Corey, who, for many years, was a resident of the village of Godfrey, was born in Orange county, New York, in the year 1803. He taught school in early life and intended to enter the ministry, but his feeble health obliged him to relinquish this purpose. From 1825, with slight intervals, to the time of his death, he was an agent of the American Sunday School Union. He came to this county in 1837. While in the employment of the Illinois Temperance Society, he edited for five years The Temperance Herald, published at Alton, a journal devoted to the inter- ests of temperance. He was appointed financial agent of Monticello Seminary in 1838. At the time of his death, which occurred in May, 1880, he was a member of the Board of trustees of the seminary.

John Pattison, a native of the State of New Jersey, was one of the early residents of the township: His son, Mi- chael H. Pattison, is living ou the place which his father im- proved. Isaac G. Howell, Benjamin S. Howell, H. Howell, U Howell, and James Howell, all came from New Jersey ; Uriah and Heury in 1836, and the others in the spring of 1837. They assisted in the building of the seminary, and then settled in the township Henry followed the carpen- tering business in Godfrey. In company with his brother, Uriah, now a citizen of Jerseyville, he built the mill at Godfrey in 1857. He is now living at Princeton, New Jer- sey. Isaac G. Howell married the daughter of George De- baun, and is now living in the township. Henry Caswell built a house at an early date on the site now occupied by the residence of Benjamin Webster. This place was also the residence of Father Chamberlain, a Presbyterian minister, an early citizen of this part of the county.

We insert the following communication from the Hon. William F. De Wolf, of Chicago, believing that it will be interesting to his many friends and acquaintances in Madi- son county. He came to the county in 1836, and was for several years a resident of Godfrey and Alton :

W. R. BRINK, Es2., Edwardsville, III.

At your request I write a few of my recollections of dear old Madison county. I fear they will be meagre and unin- teresting for all of my papers and memoranda of early ex- perience in Illinois were burned up in the great Chicago fire of 1871. Indeed all the original matter I can give you must be taken from a memory, none too retentive. I say dear old Madison, for there I really began active life. There with a young wife, I looked back on our ancestral homes in New England and having left the comforts, not to say luxuries, of highly cultivated society, undertook to breast the storms of life amid the new and uncultivated fields of the vast West, Illinois then being comparatively a frontier State. In Nov. 1836 in company with my wife and brother, Fitz Henry De Wolf, now of Bristol, R. I. I left

our native state and after nearly a month's travel reached St. Louis, and after a few days' stay in that city, then contain- ing about 12,000 inhabitants, started for Alton, our destina- tion, on the steamer Alps. The steamer was a frail bark, and I remember that when we met the strong current at the mouth of the Missouri it seemed as if the trembling vessel could hardly stem the rush of waters that came pouring from that mighty river. I remember having pointed out to me the widow Gillham's farm on the Illinois side, as an old place. On this farin I could see from our deck, an orchard of apple trees, large and thrifty and in full bearing. The farm lay on the river bank while behind it the vast forest of .m uense trees stood intermingled with groves of smaller growth. Alas " the orchard, the grove, and the deep tangled wild wood " have all been swept into the Mississippi. We arrived at Alton after dark and found shelter at the Alton House. Such an hotel in almost any town or village in Illinois, would now, 1882, be considered very inferior. But we had made up our minds to meet the deficiencies of the new West with the best grace we could, and soon came to enjoy the life about to be entered upon. In a few days we removed to Liberty Hall, Upper Alton, kept by Mr. Randle. Here we passed three weeks very comfortably and then removed to the Piasa House in the "Lower Town." This hotel had just beeu finished by the owner, Judge Haw- ley, and was well managed by Mrs. Elizabeth Wait, a motherly, kind-hearted old lady whom I shall always re- member with pleasure aud gratitude. At the Piasa my first child was born. Judge Hezekiah Hawley, referred to, was a native of New England who had passed most of his life in Kentucky. He was a gentleman of the Henry Clay period and an enthusiastic admirer of the great Kentuckian. To Judge Hawley, Alton owed much of her early prosperity. Her enterprise was such that many thought she would be the successful rival of St. Louis. Indeed in 1836 and for a time after, the great firms of Godfrey Gilman & Co., Stone, Manning & Co., C. B. Roff & Co, Simeon Ryder, Lewis Kellenberger and many others compared favorably with the largest wholesale houses in St. Louis. But two large cities could not exist so near to each other, and the capital of St. Louis, together with the splendid location, won the day at the time spoken of; Madison county already contained a very superior population. No county of the State could boast of better citizens than Capt. Benjamin Godfrey, Ben- jamin Ives Gilman, George Churchill, Winthrop S. Gilmar, Capt Simeon Ryder, Dr. Maish, Cyrus Edwards, Robert Smith, Alfred Cowles, Dr. Benjamin F. Edwards, John T. Lusk, Judge William Martin, John Bailhache, Moses G. Atwood, and a host of others somewhat advanced in age, not to mention the younger men then just buckling on their armor for the battle of life, among whom I will name the now venerable Judge Joseph Gillespie, J. Russell Bullock, since United States Judge in Rhode Island, Newton D. Strong, Junius Hall, John W. Chickering, George T. M. Davis, the talented but erratic Usher F. Linder, and the still more brilliant McDougal, afterward United States Sen- ator for California. Among the clergy I remember with ever growing esteem Graves, Norton, Depuy and the vener-

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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

able Father Rogers of the Upper Town. Soon after Hon. Nathaniel Pope and David J. Baker took up their residence in Middletown, and increased the intellectual and social attraction of the neighborhood. About the year 1842, I re- moved from the city of Alton into Godfrey township. Here among my neighbors I counted Major George W. Long, Don Alonzo Spaulding, the Mason and Scarritt families, and many others, all of whom I look back upon with the kindest neighborly remembrances. Six of my eight children were born in Madison county. I take pride in saying two of my sons, both born in that county, served in the war for the suppression of the Rebellion. The eldest entered the ser- vice as a private at the breaking out of the war, leaving a lucrative position in the office of the President of the Illi- nois Central Railroad. He was one of the famous " Taylor's Battery," composed of some of the best young meu of Cook county, and commanded by Capt. Ezra Taylor, of Chicago. After participating in several battles, among others, Donel- son and Belmont, at the last named receiving a wound, young De Wolf was promoted for merit to a 2d Lieutenancy in the Regular Army, to wit: Battery C. 3d Regiment of U. S. Artillery, commanded by Capt. (now General) Horatio Gates Gibson. At Williamsburg, Va., in his first engage- ment after his promotion on the 4th of May, 1862, he was mortally wounded while gallantly leading his men He was taken to Washington, where at the hospitable residence of the Hon Isaac Arnold, then member of Congress from Cook county, after three weeks' suffering, he laid down his life on the altar of his country. His mother was with him from the first moment she could reach him, after he received his wound, till he closed his eyes in death. After knowing him for years, Gen. McClellan, then Commander-in-Chief, endorsed an application for his promotion to the Regular Army in these words, " no better appointment can be made from civil life." Capt. Gibson, Commander of Battery C. under date June 7, 1862, thus writes a friend in Chicago:

" In the battle of Williamsburg, one of my subalterns (a handsome, gallant boy from Chicago, named De Wolf), was wounded, and I regret to say has since died. I was much attached to him, and if your friends know his family please assure them of my sincere sympathy with them in their bereavement, and my high appreciation of his coolness and gallantry in the midst of no ordinary danger. Poor fellow ! he joined my battery on the 4th of April; was wounded on the 4th of May, and on the 4th of June he was dead." I have dwelt upon the services and death of this young hero because I feel sure that the people of Madison will rejoice that the noble old county gave birth-place to such a man.

Some remarkable events occurred during my residence in Madison county. The first was the murder of Elijah P. Lovejoy, and the riots preceding. On the 2d of November, 1837, was held a public mecting, of which I was secretary, called ostensibly for the purpose of endeavoring to allay the excitement then existing, growing out of Mr. Lovejoy's advocacy of anti-slavery doctrines in the Observer. The meeting was soon found to be in the hands of those not will- ing to allow Mr. Lovejoy the rights of an American citizen, | so far as public discussion was involved. This meeting,

which will ever remain a disgrace to the American character, adjourned after the passage of some resolutions only calcu- lated to influence the mob, and which I will not disgrace these pages by quoting. This meeting, had it been properly conducted, would have prevented the attack on the ware- house of Godfrey Gilman & Co., of the 7th of the same month, with all its horrible and appalling results. During the session of this meeting, Mr. Lovejoy made his great speech in defence of his principles and expressing his deter- mination, with the help of God and protection of the laws, to maintain his rights. I have heard many remarkable arguments in my life -some of the best efforts of Webster and Clay, and others of the great men of our country, and I have read of others uttered under the most thrilling circum- stances ; but never did I listen to or read of such an appeal to the judgment and feelings of men as I did on that 2d of November, 1837. I cannot except the immortal defense of Paul before Festus. In spite of the hateful spirit which possessed the breasts of his foes, many of them were made to shed tears. But I can pursue this subject no further now, except to add the expression of my belief to those who have recorded the praises of Lovejoy, that he died for his country, and did more than any one man, by so doing, to bring about the abolition of slavery ; thus wiping a vile disgrace from the constitution of our country. I was attending court at Carrollton, Greene county, on the 7th of November, when the assault on the warehouse and the killing of Lovejoy took place, and thus escaped being present on the occasion which proved a lasting disgrace to Alton and left a blot on the American name ever to he regretted.

The second event alluded to was the explosion of the powder stored in the magazine situated on the bluff behind the old penitentiary. A large amount of powder was there placed for safe-keeping, and it is supposed that fire was com- municated by some evil-disposed person, though what his particular object was could not be determined. So powerful was the effect produced that in St. Louis, twenty-four miles distant, it was distinctly felt, and people left the theatre and other buildings, fearing that an earthquake was about to topple the city into ruins. Almost every pane of glass in Second street, Alton, was broken, doors and windows blown in, plastering shaken down, and in one case at least a rock as large as an ordinary water-pail was thrown some twelve or fifteen hundred feet, falling on the roof of a house and breaking through a chamber, where a sleeping conple were suddenly awakened by the dreadful crash.

The third event to which I have alluded was the great flood of 1844. In the month of June the "Father of Wa- ters" rose higher than at any time previous or during the present century. Large steamers received and discharged freight from and into the second story windows of the ware- houses on the levee at St. Louis. At Alton the same thing was done. Opposite St. Louis (now East St. Louis), then called Illinois Town, the river was from eight to twelve miles wide, and of sufficient depth for steamers to cross to the bluffs, to a place then called "Paps's" or "Paapstown," where large transactions in cattle and swine, for the New Orleans and St. Louis markets, were made. The damage

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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

done by the overflow was as great, in proportion to the pop- ulation, as that caused this year (1882) on the Lower Mis- sissippi. Indeed, so great was the destruction of property that the Legislature, at its next session, exempted from tax- ation, for a time, that portion of the State which had suffered so much.

In 1846, while living in Godfrey township, I was elected to the State Legislature, my colleagues being William Martin and Curtis Blakeman. After a rather stormy session, dur- ing which many important questions as to the location and termination of certain railroads were discussed, we adjourned in the utmost good feeling. While at Springfield, I had heard great things of the then "coming Chicago," and in the autumn of 1846 removed to this city, then containing about fourteen to sixteen thousand people. I will not dwell upon the years that have passed. Suffice it to say, I have lived to see the State of Illinois become the fourth in the galaxy of States composing our glorious Union, and the city of Chicago grow from less than 16,000 to 600.000 in popu- lation. I have twice rode on horseback from Alton to Ga- lena, and from Galena to the head waters of the Wabash, and from thence to Cairo, returning to Alton along the shores of the Mississippi, when the whole State did not con tain a population equal to that of one division of the city of Chicago at this date. Orchards, now forty years old, are growing on lands which once were prairies that I have crossed, without a farm for forty miles ; and yet I am a new- comer in comparison with some of the old settlers now living in Madison county. Since my removal to Chicago, I have pursued a quiet life, not aspiring to office or political pre- ferment. I have been Treasurer of the city, and for four years a Justice of the county of Cook. As my record here would not be germain to your history, I here bid you good- hye, always assuring you, and through you the citizens of dear old Madison, that I remember my stay in that county with unalloyed pleasure, and look back upon it as a green spot, an oasis, in the great desert of life.

WILLIAM F. DE WOLF.

Chicago, April, 1882.

Judge Joseph Gillespie, having read the above letter, makes the following comments :

" Hon. William F. De Wolf was for many years an hon- ored citizen of this county, and her able and faithful Repre- sentive in the Legislature. He was one of the few citizens of Alton who took a stand in favor of sustaining the right claimed by the lamented Lovejoy, of expressing his opinions on the subject of slavery, as well as all other questions of a public character, being amenable to the laws for the abuse of such a right, and if the counsels of Mr. De Wolf had prevailed we would have been spared the necessity of having to apologize for the greatest iniquity of the nineteenth cen- tury ; the atrocious murder of one of the greatest and best men in the land, by a worthless mob, for the exercise of a right guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the coun- try. But the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church, and Elijah Lovejoy's blood fructified the whole land. In his death he pulled down the temples of Dagen. Mr. De Wolf

was a fine lawyer, an affluent and influential public servant and blameless in all the walks of life. He was fortunate and unfortunate in his family. Fortunate in rearing a large family of most estimable and affectionate children ; but sorely tried in the furnace of affliction in the loss of four lovely daughters by the explosion on the ill-fated steamer Bay State, in September, 1853, which was followed in 1862 by the death of his noble and heroic son, William De Wolf, Lieutenant Co. C, 3rd Regt., U. S. Artillery, who was mortally wounded while gallantly leading his command at the battle of Williamsburg, Virginia. Young De Wolf had been previously wounded at the battle of Belmont, showing that he was ever in the front, at the post of danger. Although he entered as a private into the service of his country, he very soon so signalized himself as to be transferred to the regular army. He was taken off at the age of 21, with bril- liant prospects, and hopes of rapid preferment before him. He together with his brothers and sisters were born in Madi- son county, and we have a right to be proud of him. I am gratified to be afforded this opportunity of paying this feeble tribute of respect to so worthy a scion of my esteemed friend with whom I have spent so much time at the Courts and in the Halls of Legislation. He and I are in the sere and yel- low leaf, but I trust he may be spared many years to bless his family, and reflect honor upon his country as he has so well done in times past."

The early residents of the township were obliged to en- dure the discomforts usual to pioneer life. Wild animals in early days were numerous. The wolves killed in one night, nineteen sheep belonging to Joel Finch, and in one night in the winter of 1842, six, out of nine sheep, belonging to James Meldrum. It is said of Ezra Gilman, that he killed a panther with no other weapon than a heavy stick. His dog, a large, heavy one, was in pursuit of a wolf, and ran around the head of a hollow, which Gilman crossed, to find that a panther had clinched his dog, and that the two were strug- gling together. Gilman took a stake from his sledge, and beat the panther on the head till he killed him, and thus saved the dog. Panthers were seen in the township as late as the year 1850.

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History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches, Part 119

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