USA > Illinois > Massac County > History of Massac County, Illinois with life sketches and portraits > Part 5
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On September 6th, 1847, suit was ordered brought against Wilcox & McBane, proprietors of Metropolis, to compel them to finish the court house. A settlement was reached by Wil- cox & McBane deeding a number of town lots to the county, which were later sold at auction.
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MASSAC COUNTY .
William Richardson, the first colored boy, by his attorney, T. G. C. Davis, appeared July 14, 1849, before the county board and presented proofs that he was free born.
Benton precinct was formed Sept. 6, 1843. September 18th was set as the day to receive bids for the building of the county jail. On the same day John Hynes, Henry Eddy, Alex. Kirkpatrick and others were licensed to keep a ferry at Massac and J. H. G. Wilcox was licensed to keep a ferry at Metropolis. The rates were fixed as follows:
6 horse team and wagon (low water). $2 50
4 horse team and wagon. 2 00
3 horse team and wagon 1 75
2 horse team and wagon 1 50
1 horse and wagon 1 25
1 horse and cart 75
1 man and horse 50
1 footman 25
On November 4, 1843, John King was awarded the contract to build the first jail on lot 417, block 35, for $349.00. The jail was to be of good hewn timber one foot thick, hewn to a joint and dove-tailed corners.
The first assessment of the county cost $36.00, one-half paid by the county and one-half by the state. The tax rate for 1844 was fixed at 50 cents one the one hundred dollars.
At the December term, 1852, one William Morgan, a pau- per, was ordered "sold out," and R. H. Foy was paid five dol- lars to sell him. A certificate was issued at the same time as follows: "That John B. Hicks is a man of probity and good demeanor." Mr. Hicks was a member of the county board and only he and John Shirk were present.
John W. Read was appointed to take the first census of the county, September, 1845. About 250 voters lived in the county.
The early records abound in orders granting license to the ancestors of many of our leading citizens of today and to some of our leading citizens yet living, to keep a grocery in which at that time liquors were vended. The plan in many respects ex- celled the present "exclusive license" because no loafers were allowed to congregate at these stores and no liquors were sold to inebriates.
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HISTORY OF
Massac county has never adopted what is termed "town- ship organization." Under such organization the county board consists of one member from each township into which the county is divided. The office of "Assessor and Treasurer" as we now have it would be abolished, and a county treasurer would be elected, while each township would elect separate officers to assess and collect the taxes. The sheriff would also be no longer collector of taxes. Each township would elect its own justices of the peace, coustables, and minor officers. Nine-tenths of the counties of Illinois have adopted township organization.
COUNTY OFFICERS.
The record of county officials from the organization of the county to the present is here given as complete as could be ob- tained from various sources.
CIRCUIT CLERKS.
The first circuit clerk of the Massac county circuit court was John B. Hicks, an early pioneer and life-long Democrat. He was appointed by Judge Walter B. Scates in 1843, and served until 1852, consecutively. In 1860 he was re-elected and served until 1864. Upon the deatlı of James Elliott, then cir- cuit clerk, in the spring of 1866, Judge Sloan appointed him to serve as clerk pro tem until the fall election.
James Elliott, another early pioneer citizen, school-teach- er, father of Messrs. John M. Elliott, merchant, and James L. Elliott, cashier of the National State bank, was elected in 1852 and served until 1860. He was re-elected in 1864, but died within about eighteen months.
At the general election in the fall of 1866 Major E. P. Cur- tis, yet living and resident of Metropolis, Ill., was elected to fill out the unexpired term of James Elliott, deceased, and con tinned in office for twenty-six (26) consecutive years.
In the general election of 1892, Capt. S. B. Kerr, whose sketch appears elsewhere, was chosen, and served until 1896.
Colfax Morris, the present incumbent, was elected in 1896,
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MASSAC COUNTY.
and is a candidate for re-election at the coming November elec- tion. His opponent is W. F. Tucker.
Of the number serving John B. Hicks was always a Demo- crat, James Elliott was elected as a democrat until 1864, when he was the choice of the Republican party, since which time the officials have been Republican.
SHERIFFS.
John W. Read was the first sheriff of Massac county. In 1850 W. P. Bruner was elected. George Gray, 1852. W. P. Bruner re-elected, 1854. J. F. Mears, 1856. Larkin H. Simp- son, 1858. J. F. Mears, re-elected, 1860. George Corlis, 1862. Benjamin Rankin, 1864. Samuel Atwell, 1866. Robert H. Leek, 1868. Abram Bruner, 1870 and 1872. William Tindall, 1874. Abram Bruner, 1876. Thomas J. Taylor, 1878 and 1880. William Karr, 1882. William Tindall, 1886. Robert C. Bar- ham, 1890. Green W. Smith, 1894. John W. Evers, 1898.
William Karr was the first sheriff elected for four years, since which time they are ineligible to succeed them- selves until another has served at least a term.
Thomas J. Taylor, yet living, is the only sheriff to perform a legal hanging in Massac county. During his second term he executed one, Samuel Redding, convicted of murder in the Massac county circuit court on a change of venue from Pulaski county, where the crime was committed.
STATES ATTORNEYS.
Willis Allen, afterward Congressman Allen, was the first State's Attorney. William A. Denning, afterward Judge Den- ning, succeeded hin. Samuel S. Marshall, who became Con- gressman and was once candidate for the United States Sen- ate, served after Judge Denning, and was succeeded by W. K. Parrish, afterwards Judge Parrish. John A. Logan was pros- ecutor from 1854 to 1856 and directed the famous trial result- ing in the conviction of Decatur Campbell, but later advised the basis upon which the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Circuit Court. His fame since then is known to all. Munro C. Crawford was elected but the district was altered be- fore he appeared at the Massac county circuit court, and Thom-
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HISTORY OF
as H. Smith became the next state's attorney. He was suc- ceeded by Milton Bartley and he by G. W. Neeley, who died be- fore the expiration of his term of office. Capt. J. F. McCart- ney, yet living in Metropolis, all the others who actually served being dead, was appointed to the vacancy and in 1866 was elected for a full term. Captain McCartney was the last State's Attorney to serve for the district. John R. Thomas was elect- ed State's Attorney in and for the county of Massac, 1872. He later served ten years in Congress from Metropolis and is now a Federal Judge on the bench of the Indian Territory. In 1876 Theodore B. Hicks, formerly a member of the Legislature, and son of John B. Hicks, was elected. Benjamin O. Jones, also a former representative, succeeded Mr. Hicks in 1880. John W. Peter, son of Colonel R. A. Peter, was elected in 1884. D. W. Helm was chosen in 1888 and has served consecutively for twelve years.
Frederick R. Young is the Republican candidate for State's Attorney subject to the general election, Nov 6, 1900. H. A. Evans is the Democratic candidate.
COUNTY CLERKS.
As in the case of the Circuit Clerks, the number of County Clerks is small. Several have a long and honorable career.
John W. Carmichael heads the list. He was succeeded by J. W. Bailey in 1849. A. B. Browne comes next in 1853, and Nehemiah Williams in 1857. Mr. Williams soon died and was succeeded by his son, D. E. Williams, 1860. B. F. Taylor was elected, 1861, and L. P. Stalcup in 1865. Samuel Atwell was elected, 1869. He was succeeded by S. S. Shoemaker in 1877, who served for five years because of a statute altering the date of the election.
Samuel Atwell was again chosen in 1882, and still serves in the same capacity.
COUNTY JUDGES.
The present office of County Judge did not at first exist. What is now the county board was composed of a probate jus- tice and two associates. Later this order was changed and one of the county board was a County Judge with two associates. S. G. Allen, Jonathan Moody, John B. Hicks, Elijah Smith,
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MASSAC COUNTY.
Benjamin J. Delavan and Edward M. McMahon served consec- utively until the office of County Judge was divorced from the county board with probate, civil and criminal jurisdiction in certain cases.
In 1873 R. W. McCartney became County Judge. In 1882, Robert N. Smith; in 1886, J. C. Willis; in 1890, Benjamin O. Jones; in 1894, George Sawyer, re-elected in 1898 and still pre- siding.
SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS AND COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS
At first the director of the public schools of Massac county was termed the "school commissioner." He then held private oral examinations of applicants for license to teach, "Readin, 'Ritin', and 'Rithmetic," or the three "r's" which practically covered the scope of the examination. The first teachers in what is now Massac county were John B. Hicks, William Clan- ahan, father of Rev. C. L. Clanahan, and B. G. Roots, who taught at Belgrade.
The first commissioner was Rev. H. G. Estell, who served until December, 1844, at which time B. S. Enloe came into office. Enloe proved to be negligent and a defaulter, self-con- fessed. He was accordingly removed Sept. 1, 1846, and R. S. Nelson succeeded him. Nelson proved also to be unfit and was removed by the county board Dec. 22, 1846. James Elliott was chosen and filled the office with such satisfaction that he continued until 1855.
Between 1855 and 1865, the record is not complete, but Ike Armstrong and a Dr. Munson are known to have served.
In 1865 W. H. Scott was elected county superintendent, serving until 1873. He was followed by Henry Armstrong, 1873 to 1877, who also served 1882 to 1886, William Priestly having been elected 1877 to 1882. Fowler A. Armstrong be- came superintendent, 1886 to 1890, and J. M. Reynolds suc- ceeded him, 1890 to 1894. Robert T. Alexander was chosen 1894 to 1898 and Mr. Reynolds was again chosen, being the present incumbent.
The schools of Massac county have gradually and mater- ially increased in efficiency. The last log school house has
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HISTORY OF
long since been abandoned. The number of rural ungraded schools has gradually increased. The number of graded schools comprises Metropolis, Brooklyn and Gilliam. Metrop- olis has one of the largest and best equipped high school buildings in Southern Illinois, a commodious high school for colored pupils, and an extra ward school for the whites.
Eighteen instructors-four colored and fourteen white- comprise the faculty. The course is so comprehensive and the instruction so efficient that graduates are admitted to the State University at Champaign without examination. Brooklyn has an elegant brick structure and a house for the colored pupils. Four white and one colored teacher is maintained. Gilliam has two grades. Seventy-five teachers are now busy "wielding the birch" at monthly wages ranging from $25 to $110, and the amount of good they yearly accomplish cannot be estimated.
Elegant frame and brick buildings have superceded the old log house. Modern windows, the hole in the wall and greased paper; comfortable hygienic seats with desks, the old puncheon seat made of half a sapling and peg legs, and the rough slab writing desk made on the side of the wall. Stoves and furnaces supply the place once held by the fire place long as the end of the school house; the paddle with the "A. B. C.'s" the old Webster's Blue Back spelling book, and a conglomerat- ed mixture of just any kind of text books have all passed away. Today we even have the same kind of books throughout the county and should have them under a "Free Text Book Law." Almost every school is now equipped with plenty of fine slate blackboards, maps, encyclopedias, dictionaries, charts, and many are adding circulating libraries-things unknown to our pioneer fathers. Districts are being made smaller, decreasing the distance children must travel and often a large bell calls the pupils together. Flags, pictures of national heroes, great statesmen, literati, and geniuses, with mottoes adorn the once uncouth walls.
With due respect to the teachers of the past it is certainly true that our present teachers excel in breadth of learning and understand better the laws of pedagogy. More professional dignity characterizes the teacher of today. The old way of
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MASSAC COUNTY.
"studying out aloud" has been displaced by a quiet, commen- surate with earnest study. Annual institutes with scholarly instructors are held "at home" each summer, college training is at our very doors and our schools not only do but should advance. For a child in Massac county to enter life today illit- erate is a crime against humanity and the state.
ASSESSORS AND TREASURERS.
In the early history of the county Messrs. D. P. Hughey, Saybert G. Choat, A. B. Browne, S. H. Pfrimmer, Jacob Gates and James Stone were Treasurers.
James Robinson served until 1871 for a number of years and was succeeded in 1871 by Harmon Warneke. Samuel L. Wells was elected in 1873, and appointed to fill the unexpired term of C. N. Jones in 1881. John D. Craig was elected, 1877. E. Carmichael in 1879, and soon died. C. N. Jones was ap- pointed to fill out the unexpired term and elected to another term, but later resigned. James H. Leech was elected in 1886 and Green W. Smith in 1890. George Verbarg was chosen in 1894 and Curt Roby, the present incumbent, came into office in 1898.
CORONERS.
Travis Wethers held the first coroner's commission in Mas- sac county. S. H. Pfrimmer, Jacob Bumgarner, L. W. Willis, Benjamin J. Delavan, J. L. Copland, J. E. Roberts, J. W. Smith, H. Tucker and Jacob Mussulman appear on the early records. Many times justices of the peace did coroner's duty.
In 1874 William Summers was elected, Thomas M. Patter- son in 1878, E. B. Cropper in 1880, I. V. Casey, 1888, Thomas L. Wallace in 1882, and is still coroner. Dr. A. C. Ragsdale is the Republican and Solomon Grace the Democratic candidates for Nov. 6, 1900.
SURVEYORS.
No record of surveyors is accessible until 1865, when W. C. Crow's name appears. Since then appear the names of William Martin, 1871 to 1875; William Johnson, 1875 to 1879; Thos. J. Hancock, 1879 to 1884; Thomas A. Giltner, 1884 to
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HISTORY OF
1892; and the present incumbent, W. Thomas Perkins. Sher- idan Waters is the Republican candidate without opposition.
MASTERS IN CHANCERY.
This office is appointive and controlled by the presiding Circuit Judge. John B. Hicks was the first master. E. P. Curtis, while circuit clerk, was appointed in 1868 and held the office continuously until the appointment of R. A. Davisson in 1896. Upon the death of Mr. Davisson, Lannes P. Oakes, the present master, was appointed.
COUNTY BOARD.
Not being under "Township Organization" the county board, or board of county commissioners, has always consist- ed of three members. Each member serves three years and one is chosen each year.
At the first election, S. G. Allen, Jonathan Moody and J. T. Collier were elected. Lots were cast and resulted in Moody one year, Collier two years, and Allen three years. In 1844 Moody was re-elected; 1845 Samuel Shirk succeeded Collier; 1846 Jacob Kidd succeeded Allen; 1847 Green B. Choat suc- ceeded Moody; 1848 Thomas Harrington succeeded Shirk; 1849 Jacob Kidd was re-elected; 1850 three were elected, Messrs. John B. Hicks, William Emmerson and John Shirk; 1851 the same members served; 1852 Benajiah Thompson succeeded Em- merson; 1853 Phineas Oakes succeeded Shirk; 1854 Elijah Smith, D. T. Walker and Thomas Dusouchet were elected; 1855 Thomas Stum succeeded Dusouchet; 1856 the same members served; 1857 Elijah Smith, William Armstrong and W. Mc- Dowell were elected and served until 1861; 1861 J. S. Copland succeeded McDowell; 1862 Benjamin J. Delavan succeeded Smith, and Anson Gibbs succeeded Armstrong, which three served un- til 1865; 1865 James Robinson succeeded Gibbs; 1866 Messrs. Delavan, William Boyles and J. L. Todd were members; 1867 Richard Thompson was elected; 1869 Edward M. McMahon, Charles Staton and U. S. Morse were elected; 1873 George W. Young, H. Quante and Andrew Brady constituted the county board as it is today; 1874 Brady was re-elected; 1875 Young
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MASSAC COUNTY.
was re-elected; 1876 Burton Sexton; 1877 G. W. McCammon; 1878, T. R. Dugger; 1879 J. R. Jones; 1880 J. W. Heideman; 1881 R. C. Barham; 1882 William Mountain; 1883 J. C. Willis; 1884 N. J. Slack; 1885 William Mountain; 1886, J. W. Gurley; 1887 John E. Staton; 1888 C. W. Teitloff; 1889,G. L. Gray ; 1890 Thomas L. Morgan; 1891 William Mountain; 1892 W. D. Thompson; 1893 R. A. Adcox; 1894 Thos. R. Dugger; 1895 C. W. Brennen; 1896 Henry Arensman; 1897 J. C. Willis; 1898 Louis Moller; 1899 J. M. Allfrey; 1900 H. D. Fry is the Repub- lican candidate without opposition.
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HISTORY OF
CHAPTER VIII.
REMINISCENCES.
(BY JOSHUA COPLAND.)
I
WAS born in Sumner county, Tennessee, Nov. 27th, 1812, settled three miles southwest of Vienna, Johnson county, 1816. Indians came to my father's house on the old Wilkinsonville, Cape Girardeau and Kaskaskia trail. Wilkinsonville was the remains of a fort with no soldiers or houses. Graveyard hill stood near, an open field of sixty acres, was about one-half mile from the fort, which stood near the head of the upper dyke. In 1833, I moved near Sharp's Landing.
Among the old settlers were John W. Read, Jacob Kidd, Robert McCormick, Ebenezer and Jessie Simpson, the Lairds, Hamilton Mitchell, Mr. Boyles, James Kincaid, Benajiah Thompson. Read lived at Belgrade.
Hillerman was a village in 1835 named after L. D. Hiller- man, a river man, who purchased it of William Parker, and the latter went to New Orleans. Hats were made there.
Capt. Burt Sexton came to this county, 1837 and settled at Indian Point. Metropolis did not exist. There was Wilcox's ferryman's cabin. D. May's father lived five miles out. Hardy Taylor lived under the bluff. Americus Smith lived four miles beyond New Colombia.
In 1854 rain fell June 14th, and no more fell until late in the fall. This was the "dry year."
I delivered my corn at Copland's Ferry (Joppa) and got.
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MASSAC COUNTY.
$1.20 a bushel. Wheat was 75 cents to $1.40 a bushel. Joppa had a store kept by Dick Venable for Sam Copland of Vienna.
There were bear, wolf, elk, deer, panther, otter and beaver. Near Tucker's Mills in Lower Massac, was an elk-glade where an elk was killed in 1855, and a bear was killed by David Sherer at Indian Point.
I remember John Renfro, a Methodist preacher; Stephen Renfro, a protestant Methodist; Hezekiah West and William Stanley, also Methodists; William Standard, Presbyterian, and Peter Cartwright, the great pioneer Methodist preacher, dedi- cated the Methodist church at New Colombia. Numbers had the jerks, dancing mania, etc., at revivals in 1847, '48 and '49. Revs. Thomas Lopez, Jacob and Valentine Lingumfelter, Meth- odists, conducted these meetings. Rev. George W. Hughey came later.
William Humphreys, one mile from Hillerman, was called out of his house and killed in 1863. He was in good circum- stances. Tracks showed three assassins; object robbery. J. R. Jones, keeping store at Fletcher's Landing, was also called, but his wife kept him in. Nathan Evans, father of Attorney H. A. Evans, was hanged by three robbers the same night until he gave up $211. Nobody was arrested.
Joseph P. Bowker was an early teacher in the "'50's." "Old Bethlehem" Methodist church and school house was used, built in 1845. Here in 1857 was fought a celebrated fist-fight between men on different sides of a debate. The decision was unsatisfactory. They fought until exhausted. No one was killed. I remember the old Cave Creek school house-a five cornered log, with dirt floor, stick chimney and split-poplar benches for seats. The first teacher was Elder Champion Wil- son of near New Colombia. James Elliott succeeded him. The first schools were subscription schools.
ROBERT McCORMICK.
Mr. McCormick was born in Davison county, Ky., Nov. 11. 1812. He moved to Illinois Jan. 1st, 1819. His father Wil- liam, and mother, whose maiden name was Keziah Bennett, ac- companied by George McCormick, William's father, and John
5
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HISTORY OF
McCormick, William's brother, and Alexander Douglas and their families, emigrated from Davison county, Tenn., in that early day on a flat boat, down the Cumberland river.
There was a little town where Smithland, Ky., stands, Joseph Daniels lived in a little log cabin where Paducah now is, and a family of negroes lived in a log cabin on the present site of Brooklyn, Ill. They landed at the site of Brooklyn. His father's family were, father and mother and children, Rob- ert, Edmund, and sister Jemina. The father, William Mc- Cormick, died in 1822, and the mother later. (This was twenty- one years before the organization of Massac county.) Edmund died in January, 1835, and Jemina is dead.
We moved near Unionville, Massac county, to a farm known as the Hamlet Ferguson farm, owned by a man of that name who lived at Hamlettsburg and it took his name.
With my uncle I visited Fort Massac about the time we came here, 1819. An embankment and ditch enclosed about an acre and strong log cabins at intervals with gates between were built around the walls of the fort. I went into an empty underground room about sixteen feet square in the east end of the fort in 1822. No guns or implements of war were there and no trees inside the fort. My grandfather, George McCor- mick cleared the land below the fort, cultivated it many times and died there in 1850. There was a cleared space of about five acres around the fort, traversed with gravel walks. The fort buildings soon burned down. There were no full-blooded Indians in Massac county in 1819, although many could be seen at Paducah.
Some men lived here who did nothing but hunt, among them John Simkins, who died near Bay City in the "'50's." John Bennett, my mother's brother, was also a hunter, but did other work. A saddle of venison, the half with the hind-quar. ters, sold for three bits" (37}c.) Simkins often gave one deer to have another carried out of the woods for him. Wild tur. keys were so abundant hunters never wasted ammunition on them but caught hundreds in turkey pens.
Many men wore buckskin suits. Women wore such clothes as they made at home, with carding, spinning, weaving and
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MASSAC COUNTY.
dyeing. The settlers tanned their own leather, made their own pegs, lasts and shoes. Some things were bought at Smith- land and a village was at Golconda. Mr. Loroth kept a mixed store and Dr. Sims lived there.
Paths led from Fort Massac back into the country. Scarce- ly a wagon and no carriages were in the country. Sleds and wooden trucks were used to haul. Trucks had wheels sawed off a log. All houses were log, with puncheon floors. Some lumber was sawed for floors, lofts and doors with a whip-saw, on a scaffold about eight feet high, on which a log was placed. One man stood on the ground, the other on the log and could cut 100 feet a day.
Reuben King or David Rossen built the first saw mill with water power on Seven Mile creek, at the Henly place. They also ground our corn. We raised no wheat. Before this we had to depend on horse power to grind our grain. It took a horse mill two hours to grind a bushel of corn. It was a rude contrivance. For motive power one or two horses were hitched to a long lever attached to an upright shaft in which were sev- en or eight arms extending outward about ten feet. In these were holes bored for pins, and a band worked around these pins, which could be tightened by moving the pins. The band passed over a trundle-head, which turned an iron shaft or spin- dle on which was fixed the upper mill-stone. In this way our corn was ground. We also used a hand-mill, a tin grater and pounder. The pounder was made of a solid log four or five feet high, sawed off square at the top and a fire built on the top- burning a hole to contain a peck of grain. Then a sweep was erected over it similar to the old well sweep. On the end of this sweep was made a wooden maul, to be pulled down upon the corn in the rude hopper by hand, the sweep raising it up each time until the corn was sufficiently pounded.
The hand mill was made by fixing up a small stone upon a steady platform, four feet high. Upon this stone an upper stone was fitted and held in place by frame work. To this up- per stone a handle was fixed, and the stone turned by hand. The mill was operated by the right and fed by the left hand. A frame work steadied the mill. The meal descended through
+
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HISTORY OF
a miniature spout, and was sifted through a seive made of dried deer-skin, perforated. Biscuit were unknown. Corn bread was rongh. The first wheat I ever saw was in 1822 on my grandfather's-George McCormick's farm, near where Unionville now stands. There were about three acres, cut with a reap hook, a curved knife with saw teeth. The grain was grasped in one hand and cut while held, the reaper being in half recumbent position, advancing in a zig-zag line.
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