History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches, Part 25

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 25

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Several of these hand mills were erected in the Goshen settlement. Before their coming into use the pioneer settlers usually procured their supplies of meal at Cahokia. Wheat flour at that time was but little used. Previous to the year 1807, several pioneer mills were built within the present limits of the county, one of which was a band mill, erected by the Preuitts, on the edge of the prairie, a few miles east of the present site of Collinsville. On the Cantine ereck, south of Collinsville, a man named Talbot had, first, a horse mill, and afterward a water mill. Cornelius built a water mill on the same creek below. Elliott had a horse mill about three miles south of Edwardsville, and Nathan Carpenter one on the Six mile prairie. Adjoining the site of Elwards- ville, Thomas Kirkpatrick built a water mill on Cahokia creek.

William Whiteside, of Whiteside station, in the present

county of Monroe, and his brother, John Whiteside, in the year 1806, purchased a land warrant of one hundred acres, and located it on Wood river, where that stream is erossed by the road leading from Edwardsville to Alton. They prepared, and hauled much timber with which to construct a mill, but for some reason never built it.

After the population of the county became more numerous, several of the settlers, who had a mechanical turn of mind, were tempted to try their skill at building horse, or ox mills. There were many failures, and sometimes financial ruin resulted. Especially was this the case with the attempts to build and operate water mills. It was a saying of Isaac Priekett, one of the Edwardsville merchants, that however great a falling out he might have with an old settler, if he undertook to build a water mill, he always forgave him the grudge. At Edwardsville in the year 181, Josias Randle built a good cog-wheel horse mill. John Messinger was the machinist and mill-wright who did the work. In 1832 this mill was transformed into a steam mill, one of the first in Madison county. It burned down in 1834. Near the pre- sent site of Bethalto, there was a band-mill at an early day operated by Mr. Finley. George Moore had one on his place in section ten, of township five, range nine, the ma- chinery of which was brought from Kentucky. About a mile and a half west of Edwardsville was a mill owned by Joshua Delaplain, on land now owned by S. O. Bonner. Prior to the year 1817, a band-mill was erected on Gov. Coles' farm, three or four miles east of Edwardsville. It was run by George Coventry, and afterward by William L. May, who removed it to Edwardsville. Henry Keley, the pioneer settler of Hamel township, put up a band-mill on his farm about 1820. This mill had a good bolting eloth and chest. It was in operation only a short time, and the enter- prise did not prove a financial success. George W. Farris had a band-mill, west of Silver creek, near the line between Hamel and Alhambra townships. Robert Collet, one of the most ingenious, useful, and enterprising citizens on Rattan's prairie, built a good mill, two or three miles southeast of the present town of Bethalto, which was well patronized, and a great convenience to the inhabitants of that part of the county. It was destroyed by fire in 1842, or 1843. Robert MeDow, a Kentuckiao, who settled near the present Kinder station, had a horse-mill in operation at an early period.

A water-mill was built on Cahokia creek at Edwardsville, by Joseph Newman, who sold it to Samuel Lockhart, and he to Paris Mason. The mill was in operation several years, and a great advantage to the people residing within several miles of Edwardsville, but so treacherous was Cahokia creek, and so difficult and expensive was the work of preserving the mill-dam on account of the frequent floods which devas- tated the bottom, that Mr. Mason finally concluded to aban- con the mill. Three or four miles southeast of Edwards- ville, a mill was built by Jacob Gonterman, and for some years did good service. George Barnsback built a good cog- wheel horse-mill, southeast of Edwardsville, and Calvin MeCray put in operation a mill of the same description in the neighborhood of Troy. In the forks of Wood river, two or three miles east of Upper Alton, Abel Moore built a

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

good cog-wheel mill about 1823 or 1824. On Cahokia creek, three or four miles above Edwardsville, a water-mill was built by Robert Harrison, at which for many years large quantities of corn and wheat were ground, and a great deal of lumber sawed. Mr. Harrison was a publie-spirited and enterprising citizen, and afterward carried on the pot- tery business for many years at Upper Alton Both at Newman's and Randle's mill at Edwardsville, lumber was sawed at an early day. John Estabrook and Oliver Liver- more built a water-mill on Cahokia creek, in the northwest part of Hamel township about 1829, or 1830. A great amount of lumber was sawed here, and some meal and flour manufactured. On Indian creek, in Fort Russell township, John Newman built a saw-mill at an early period, which he, and others after him, ran to a good purpose for many years. West of Edwardsville, on Delaplain's branch, an early mill was built by George Coventry.

William Rabb, who in 1812, purchased claim 1653, on the Cahokia, about three miles northwest of Collinsville, in the spring of the next year, built a large four-story frame water-mill-an extensive concern for those days. In 1820 it passed into the possession of Joseph Hertzog, who added a distillery. Hertzog's mill was a well-known place to the early settlers of the county.

Soon after 1840, there were several steam-flour and saw- mills in operation in the county. The first two of these were the Randle mill at Edwardsville, and the large steam flour-mill built by William Manning at Alton. The building of the Alton mill commenced in 1831, and was completed in 1833. Farmers sometimes came to the Alton mill from Sangamon county, a distance of eighty miles, and then would often have to wait several days to get their grist ground. The expense, however, was but little more to them than at home. Time, in those days, was not a matter of much consequence. Provisions and feed were either brought from home, or purchased on the way, and the covered wagon made a convenient place for lodging as they camped along the road at night. It was lawful to cut sufficient timber by the wayside for camp fires.

AGRICULTURE.

Heavier crops of corn were generally raised in pioneer times than now, but the crops of wheat were lighter. The superior erop of wheat at the present day is probably due to better culture and better varieties. The manner of seed- ing wheat was to scatter the seed broadcast in the standing corn, and plow it in with a one-horse plow. The wheat at harvest was reaped with a sickle. Solomon Preuitt once raised, from a small field, a crop of forty-two bushels of wheat to the acre, but the usual yield was from ten to fif- tcen bushels. The fresh and fertile prairie lands yielded heavy crops of corn. Curtiss Blakeman of Marine, writes, under date of April the twentieth, 1820, to the secretary of the State Agricultural Society, that the previous year he gathered from nine acres, three-quarters and six rods of ground, sixteen hundred bushels of' ears of corn of a very superior quality. One bushel and a half of ears (consisting of one hundred and thirty-four ears) just as they ran from

the crib, on being shelled, made one bushel and four quarts of shelled corn. The seed of this corn was brought from - Kentucky. He deseribes the corn as being white and hard, the grains a little indented and the cob very small in propor- tion to the size of the ear. The mode of culture was quite common, the corn being planted late in May, in hills about four feet apart, and ploughed three times. Somewhat less than ten acres of ground made thirteen hundred and fifty bushels of shelled corn, a yield of one hundred and thirty- - five bushels to the acre. The field in which the corn was grown was newly-turned up prairie, and that year was culti- , vated for the first time.

There was considerable cotton raised in the county in early days, and its cultivation was kept up by some as late as the year 1835. Thomas Good built, and operated, a very good cotton gin, on his farm two miles south of Edwardsville. Oats were not much raised, and only small crops of either Irish, or sweet potatoes. Nearly every farmer had his patch of flax which was used for some articles of clothing because of its superior strength to cotton. At a later day castor beans were cultivated and readily sold at Edwardsville, where John Adams had an oil mill. The hay used was eut from the wild prairie. Melons, which were raised in large quanti ies, were planted in corn fields by the public roads, and the travelling public were expected to help themselves. The house garden of early times, beside vegetables for table use, grew the medicines of the family-the senna plant for a cathartic, garlics for vermifuge, saffron for soothing syrup, wormwood and tansy for strengthening bitters, all the mints for sudorifics, and sweet basil and summer savory for essences and cooking.

The methods of agriculture were slow and laborious. Harvesting wheat with a sickle was a severe labor. A good hand could reap half an acre a day. Grain was threshed with a flail, or tramped out on the ground with horses and oxen, and then cleaned by letting it fall through a breeze created by the motion of a sheet in the hands of two persons -a slow and hard process. The old Barshare plow, with a wooden mold-board, was the main implement used for cul- tivating the soil. This plow was very good for turning prairie sod, but was poorly adapted for plowing up and pul- verizing the ground. For cultivating corn the shovel plow was much used.

In one respect the farmer of the olden time had a great advantage over the modern agriculturist. His crops were not injured by insects. There was no chinch bug, Hessian fly, nor weevil ; no vine bugs, lice, potato bugs, or bee moth to annoy the farmer, nor any insect to bore, or sting, his fruit. The prairie grass was set on fire each year, and all the country burned over, so that little hiding place was left for insect life, and the erops grew so rapidly on the new and fertile soil that, if any pests existed, to injure the crops, the damage they did was so small as not to be noticed. There was one exception in the tobacco plant which had to be watched elosely to keep the worms from eating it up. Chinch bugs first made their appearance about 1847, and have since rapidly increased. Wheat, in early times, never winter- killed, though sometimes it was affected by the rust. The

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

seasons then, are claimed to have been better than now, with not so much excessive drouth.

In the summer of 1817 corn at Elwardsville sold at thirty-three and one-third cents a bushel, in the spring of 1818 at fifty cents, and in the summer at seventy-five cents. Potatoes were from fifty cents to a dollar, oats fifty cents, and wheat one dollar. Iu 1819 wheat was one dollar, and corn, oats, sweet and Irish potatoes cach fifty cents a bushel. In 1820 there was a cry of hard times. Money became very scarce, and the prices of agricultural products fell-wheat to fifty cents a bushel and corn to twenty-five eents. The price of land depreciated one-half within eighteen months. Cows which in 1819 sold at twenty-five dollars, in 1820 brought only fifteen, and the price of a yoke of oxen fell from one hundred and twenty to eighty dollars. Matters grew worse in 1821. Corn sold at twelve and a half cents, and wheat at fifty cents. Prices raised a little in 1824, but again dropped to a low standard in 1825. The latter year beef sold at one dollar and a half per cwt., cows at from five to seven dollars, oxen from twenty to forty dollars a yoke, and horses at from ten to eighty dollars. There were times in territorial days, when corn sold as low as six and a quarter cents a bushel, and wheat thirty cents.

THE FIRST ORCHARDS.

In the year 1802, or 1803, Samuel Judy planted an orchard of seedling apple trees on his farm in section 5, of township 3, rauge 8. This was the first orchard planted by an American settler, but long years previous fruit trees had been planted by the French residents on Big, or Chouteau, island. There were apple and pear trees on this island, which, from their appearance in 1820, must have been planted fifty or sixty years before that date. Also ou section 9, of township 4, range 9, and on the Squire farm in section 6, of township 3, range 9, there were pear trees which must have been planted previous to the settlement of the county by the Americans. There were several orchards planted at an early date in the neighborhood of Troy, one planted by Robert Seybold on section 12, of township 3, range 8; one set out by Titus Gregg on the farm now owned by Ignatius Riggin, north of Troy ; and another on section 18, of town- ship 3, range 7, on the farm settled by Robert McMahan. There was another early orchard, which must have been planted soon after 1803, on claim six hundred and two, near Collinsville. This orchard was set out by Peter ('asterline and was in bearing in 1814. Near Rabb's (afterward Hertzog's) mill an orchard was planted at an early date. Major Cook, on his farm at the foot of the bluff; on the old Edwardsville and St. Louis road, plauted an orchard of which the apple trees were of a large size in 1-17. It is said of Major Cook that he sold his last cow to get the money with which to purchase apple grafts.

There were few grafted trees before 1820. A specimen of the Lady apple was planted in 1819, on the farm afterward owned by Daniel A. Lanterman in township 5, range S. Solomon Preuitt set out in 1820, forty trees, grown from the scel of a yellow apple brought up from the French settle- ments. Six or eight of these trees produced very good fruit.

In township 5, range 8, soon after 1820, orebards of im- proved varieties were planted by John CoHet, Emanuel J. West, and Gershom Flagg. The two former procured their trees from the state of New York, and the latter from Greenville, Bond county. Gershom Flagg, in the spring of 1822, planted three hundred seedlings, and in the fall of the same year about two hundred trees of Kirkbridge White, Rambo, Pryor's Red, Pennock, Pennsylvania Red Streak, Newtown Pippin, Rawle's Jauct, Gilpin, and other varieties. The grafted trees proved equally hardy and long-lived with the seedlings. The first orchard in Hamel township was on the farm of Robert Aldrich. The grafts were procured in 1819 from a nursery at Portage des Sioux in St. Charles county, Missouri. Henry Keley and Anson Aldrich went after them, wrapping deer skins around the middle of the packages, so that they could lay them before then on their horses. Soon afterward Archibald Lamb and Thomas Barnett set out apple orchards in the same township. William Hoxsey set out an apple orchard as early as 1819 or 1820, and Robert McKee had a large orchard of choice apples on the Troy road, three miles south-east of Edwards- ville. The first nursery men in the country were John Collet and Masson. The latter was a Swiss, who came to this country with a countryman, Mr. Talon, on whose farm, in section 22, of township 5, range 8, he had his first nursery. He removed thence to Mr. Collet's farm, about the year 1825, and thence, about 1832, to a farm in section 8, of the same township. George Barnsback also had an early nursery.

BIRDS AND ANIMALS.

Many of the animals and birds common in early days have disappeared. Grey wolves were plentiful in the first settlement of the country, and there were also black and prairie wolves. Wild cats were also numerous. The wolves were a great trouble to the farmers, for the reason that they killed many of the young pigs and sheep, and sometimes colts and calves. A panther was occasionally met with, and often attacked men and the larger animals. Ezra Gilman, in township six, range ten, killed a panther with a heavy stick as his only weapon. The panther had engaged in a fight with his dog, and Gilman seized a stake from a sled near by, and by repeated blows on the head succeeded in killing the ferocious animal. Samuel P. Gillham was accustomed to tell of a neighbor of his, who, when riding through the timber at night, was attacked by a panther which lit on the back of the man, and with its claws raked his body from the head downward, tearing his clothing in slits, and then ripped open the horse's rump. Both horse and rider were terribly frightened. The horse gave a terrific jump, and the panther slippal off. The horse then leaped a stake-and-rider fence, and reached home, how, the man never knew. When he came to his senses the horse was galloping around the house. The man died in two days afterward from the effects of his fright.

The horns of the wild elk could still be seen, showing that they had once inhabited this country. A badger was occasionally killed, but not after 1830. Buffalo horns were scattered over the prairie, for years after the first settlement.

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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

Bears were not common. One was killed in the county after 1830. The Lynx was sometimes seen. Deer, of course, were plentiful in early days. There were four varieties of squirrels, the fox, grey, flying and ground squirrels.

The grey and bald eagle were common in pioneer times. Paroquets were once plenty. They used to stay in the timber along the creeks, and when they came out the settlers regarded their appearance as a sure harbinger of a storm. There were several varieties of the wood-pecker the red head, the yellow-hammer, and the sap sucker. Par- tridges were scarce. The southern mocking bird was seen in the country for a year or two, and then disappeared. The pheasant has come since the first settlement of the coun- try. There were several varieties of owls, among which were the screech owl, the large prairie owl, and the large horned owl. Water hens have come since the country was first settled. Wild ducks and geese were plentiful, and cranes, herons and swans were found about the lakes.

PRAIRIE FLIES.

The green-headed flies, which infested the prairies in the summer, were a great annoyance. From the middle of June to the first of September it was almost impossible to cross the prairies in the day time. Wherever a fly lighted upon a horse a drop of blood started. In a journey of twelve miles horses were frequently killed. Travellers were aceustomed to lie by in the timber during the day, and to cross the prairies at night.

INDIANS-TREATY AT EDWARDSVILLE.

There were no Indians resident in the territory now eom- prising Madison county within the time of its settlement by the whites. There was originally a Kickapoo town near the Salem camp ground. It was their second town in im- portanee, the first being at Peoria. The hunting lodges stood there till 1820. In early days, however, the Indians frequently visited this part of Illinois, mostly with the object of having conferences with Gov. Ninian Edwards at Edwardsville. Large companies or bands of Indians, some- times to the number of one hundred and fifty canoes, each canoe containing three or four men, women, and children, not unfrequently passed down the Mississippi. These com- panies sometimes passed on to St. Louis to see William Clark, governor of the territory of Missouri, and sometimes stopped at Gillham's landing, on the Mississippi, just below the mouth of the Missouri, there left their canoes moored to the shore, and proceeded on foot to Edwardsville, to see Gov. Edwards who held councils and made treatics with them. One of the old residents of the county states that he had seen the men marching along the road to Edwards- ville in a single file, a mile in length. The squaws and papooses were generally left at the river to guard the eanoes and baggage. These Indians were Sacs, Foxes, Pottawato- mies and Winnebagoes, who then inhabited the country on the upper Mississippi about the present towns of Rock Island, Davenport and Galena, the country on the Illinois river in the vicinity of Peoria, and other portions of north- ern Illinois. They were then perfectly friendly to the

whites. The squaws usually wanted to barter strings of beads for green corn, and the braves showed a great fond- ness and anxiety for whisky. Often before their return homeward they would encamp for several days at a time near the Mississippi, and the men would hunt deer and other wild game which, with boiled eorn, would constitute their stock of provisions for the voyage up the river.

Another pioneer settler of the county relates that among the Indians traveling and camping near Edwardsville, the young men were full of fun. He often saw them when the Cahokia was full of water, wallowing in the mud in the road, and then jumping into the creek. He had also seen them playing cards.

On the sixth of August, 1819. at Edwardsville, a treaty was negotiated between Auguste Chouteau and Benjamin Stephenson, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the chiefs of the Kickapoo tribe of Indians, by which the Kickapoos ceded all their land on the northwest side of the Wabash river, including their principal village and a tract of land covering the central part of the state of Illinois, estimated to contain upward of ten million of acres, bounded by a line commencing at the mouth of the Illinois River, running eastwardly to the line dividing the states of Illinois and Indiana, thence north to the Kankakee river, and thence down the Illinois river to the place of beginning. The United States agreed, in return, to pay the Kickapoos two thousand dollars in silver, annually, for fifteen succes- sive years, at their town on the waters of the Osage river, and to guarantee them peaceable possession of their country on the Osage and to restrain all white persons from hunting or settling therein. The United States also promised to furnish two boats in which to transport the property of the Indians from some point on the Illinois river to their new place of residence, and to select some judicious eitizen to accompany them in their journey through the white settle- ments.

Proclamation was made of this treaty on the thirteenth of January, 1821. Indians still eontinned to visit Edwards- ville till 1827 or 1828. Traces of their camps and the peculiar marks made in their stripping the bark from trees were visible ten years afterward. The Kickapoos at one time had a temporary encampment near the mouth of Indian ereek and buried many of their dead there. About the year 1824 some Delaware Indians who came from Indi- ana, were accustomed to camp in the timber bordering the Cahokia. In a year or so they moved westward. After 1835 a large body of Pottawatomies passed through the county on the way to their reservation.

ITEMS CONCERNING SLAVERY.

The ordinance of 1787 prohibited the introduction of slavery into the northwestern territory, of which Illinois was then a part. This ordinance was construed not to operate on the slaves already owned by the early French settlers. After the organization of the Indiana territory in whose government Illinois was included, laws were passed by the territorial legislature, permitting slaves to be introduced or indentured servants, and many thus came to the territory

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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

Under this arrangement the owner went with his slaves before the clerk of the court of common pleas, and there the negroes agreed to serve their master a certain number of years and then become free. This agreement was to be made within thirty days after the slaves entered the terri- tory, and if the slaves would not consent to the agreement they might be removed out of the territory within sixty days.

The following is a copy of a bill of sale of one of these indentured servants from Etienne Pensoneau of St. Clair county to Samuel Gillham of this county, with subsequent conveyanees. First appears the record certificate of inden- ture and then the conveyance from Pensoneau to Gillham :

I, John Hay, Clerk of the County Court of St. Clair county. Illinois Territory, do hereby certify that Etienne Pensoneau and Frankey a negro woman, abont the age of twenty-three, entered into an indenture an l agreement in the Clerk's office of the said county of St. Clair, whereby the said Frankey agrees to serve the said Etienne Pensonean, the term of thirty years, and that the same was duly registered the 9th of November, 1811.

Given under my hand this 12th of August, 1815. JOHN HAY, C. C. C. St. C.

Know all men by these presents that I, Etienne Pensoneau of the county of St. Clair, have this day assigned and do hereby assign all my Right, Title, and Interest in the within named Frankey to Samuel Gillham, and do moreover, warrant that the said Frankey was a slave and my property before and at the time she indentured herself. In the above assignment made for and in consideration of the sum of five hundred dollars, currency of the United States, to me in hand paid by the said Samuel Gillham, and I do hereby assign over all my right and title to a child of said Frankey, a girl of about one year old. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal at Cahokia this 12th of August, 1815.

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History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches, Part 25

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