USA > Illinois > Henderson County > History of Mercer County : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc., gathered from mattter furnished by the Mercer County Historical Society, interviews with old settlers, county, township and other records, and extracts from files of papers, pamphlets, and such other sources as have been available : containing also a short history of Henderson County > Part 12
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The first visible results of civilized society are mail privileges, religious exercises and public instruction of the young.
Postoffice .- The "Bluff" postoffice, the pioneer in this vicinity, was established some time about 1837 at the house of Frederick Frick, in Abington township, five miles northeast of Keithsburg. As late as 1846 the people of the village, yet inconsiderable in numbers, went away out there to post their letters and to bring back their own and their neighbors' mail.
First Schools .- The first school in Keithsburg township, as we learn from Mrs. Samuel Scott, who was one of the pupils, was kept by Mrs. William Sheriff, in the summer of 1841 or 1842, in one room of her double log house, situated close to the site of the present farm house of James Wilson, northeast of Upper Keithsburg. The next was in John McH. Wilson's cabinet shop, in the summer of 1845, and Miss Lucy Wilson, now Mrs. T. B. Cabeen, was the teacher. The third school was in Keithsburg ; but we shall defer the account of this and others until we come to the history of the town.
Early Preaching .- The earliest preaching was by the Rev. John Montgomery, who settled in Preemption township in the spring of 1836. He was a Presbyterian and held services throughout the coun- try in different places, and usually in these parts once in two weeks, sometimes at William Sheriff's in this township, at other times at Frederick Frick's in Abington, or at Thomas Candor's in Ohio Grove. He died over thirty years ago.
The first Methodist minister of whom we have heard any account was the Rev. Asa McMurtry, who preached at the house of John Nevius in 1838. Religious services for some years after, no less than at this period, were irregular and only occasional. The Revs. Frank Smith and Samuel P. Burr came among the people soon after McMurtry.
For a long while at first the inhabitants were mostly Universalists, and they were ministered to from about 1842 to 1850 by the Rev.
8
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Gregg, who came from Galesburg and occupied the church at the bluff in New Boston township, and when passing through Keithsburg to and from his charge, held services in the place.
The outward evidence was that the Master's kingdom did not more than hold its own. B. L. Hardin, who came in the spring of 1841, was here three months, he says, before he discovered a professing christian, though like Diogenes he hunted the bailiwick over, but not with the same cynical philosophy. The first meeting he attended was four miles north of his home, in New Boston township, at a Mr. Rader's, where the congregation numbered just six persons, including Mr. Rader's family. The Rev. Wiley was the itinerant. Preaching followed at that place every four weeks during the summer, and has been kept up in that neighborhood nearly ever since.
In the autumn of the same year services were begun at Mr. Hardin's house, and the first sermon was by the Rev. Burr, who had a charge in New Boston township. When the appointment was given out Mr. Hardin set himself to making benches out of common slabs to seat the crowd that he could see with the eye of faith would come to the meeting. He labored with zeal and the pile of benches grew. Unwittingly though done, it was successful advertising, rivaling the subtlest conception of the down-east Yankee. Curiosity and inquiry were the result, and as Noah when building the ark was the butt of questioners and doubters, so Mr. Hardin was beset with questions and skeptical objections, and if he was ridiculed a little it was all the same ; the work went on. The preacher was early at hand, and as the hour for service approached, the door was thrown open to surprise the wait- ing minister with the inspiring sight of people swarming from every direction. He said the house would not hold the people, and it would not but for their standing up in a densely packed throng. The benches and the Christian perseverance of Brother Hardin had done holy work, but the former were now as useless as the open roof of the Arkansas traveler. However, they had subsequent use. This meeting showed that souls were hungry. Either an influx of orthodox Christians had come into the settlement between spring and fall, or the Universalists had turned ont like boys to a circus.
The appointment was regularly continued at this place, and in the autumn of 1843 the first class ever organized in the township was formed at Mr. Hardin's house. The original members were James Gibson and his wife Polly, John Nevius and his wife Hannah, B. L. Hardin and his wife Minerva, and James Nevius, Jr. Mr . Kel- logg joined at the next meeting. In the summer of 1846 preaching was begun at John McH. Wilson's by the Revs. Whitman and
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Geddings, circuit riders, and services were kept up here one year. In warm weather day meetings were held in the grove; and at night in Mr. Wilson's cabinet shop. Other preaching points in the country were at John Nevius' and James Gibson's; and all four places were used until about 1850, when Keithsburg became the center where the people came together for worship.
The Vannattas made the beginning here. As early as 1834 Rousy Bowen was living in a little house on the bank of the river, and chop- ping wood for these men. By the next year Jesse Mount had come to the settlement, and the same season Robert Keith bought Benjamin Vannatta's claim, which embraced the site of the present town, and in the spring of 1836 took possession of his purchase. He continued keeping the wood-yard which his predecessors had started, and hence- forth the place was called Keith's Landing. It was in this same year that the insane policy of internal improvement inaugurated an era of the wildest speculation ever witnessed in this country. It is next to incredible that men could have been capable of so visionary schemes. In the absence of epidemic excitement, half-grown boys would have shown more reason. But as it was, towns were planted everywhere by being laid off, as this was cheaply done ; for the proprie- tors imagined they saw in it the source of sudden wealth. Although Father Keith could not have escaped the ruling influence of the times, it is plain that he did not reckon without some judgment, and that he was not mistaken as to the right place for the town, but it was with several years of patient suspense that he waited for the fruition of his. hopes and plans.
The original survey was made by Hiram Hardie, deputy county surveyor, on July 29, 1837, and the plat was acknowledged before Abraham Miller, Jr., county clerk, by Mr. Keith, on November 18. The location is on Sec. 23, T. 13, R. 5. Two principal streets, Main and Washington, were laid out east and west, and these were crossed by seven others designated as First, Second, etc., beginning next the river. The plat comprised thirteen blocks. The first sale of lots took place in July, the same year, and several of them were bought at prices varying from $20 to $60. Subsequently a few familles came here to settle, and prominent among the number was Joseph J. Wordin, the first wheelwright, who still resides in the town. But the place lingered along in discouraging inactivity until 1845. We refrain from calling it a town at this date, for its actual townhood has always. been reckoned by the citizens from 1847, when it succeeded to the dig- nity of county-town. When emigration had brought to the back country a moderate but sturdy population, a convenient shipping point.
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HISTORY OF MERCER AND HENDERSON COUNTIES.
was of the first necessity. Even yet capital was scarce, and the times had not altogether abated their stringency, and business men did not stand ready then to invest in town property in a new country, in advance of the real demands of trade. So an association of farmers, living mostly in Abington and Ohio Grove townships, undertook, in 1844, to erect a warehouse in Keithsburg for storing and handling their grain. To encourage the project, Robert Keith gave lots six and seven, in block three, on which the building was begun, facing north at the foot of Main street ; and when the frame was up, title to the property passed to William Willett. The evident prospect of future business brought Col. J. B. Patterson, of Oquawka, here, and he secured an equal interest in the warehouse on condition of finishing it. Keith had put up a small building for a business stand, and he per- suaded Patterson to fill it with a stock of goods. "The Colonel put Spence Record into the new warehouse to receive grain, while he and Boothe Nettleton sold dry goods and groceries over on Washington street."
Writing afterward of the small beginnings of the place, Col. Pat- terson said: "At this time, 1845, we visited Keithsburg with a view of making it a trading point; to sell goods and buy produce. The improvements consisted of one frame house (which we had fitted up for a store), one log house, and three cabins. The trade of that season amounted to 3,690 bushels of wheat, 512 barrels of flour and 2,250 bushels of corn. At the close of the season we retired, leaving the work we had begun in the good hands and stout hearts of Messrs. Noble & Gayle; and Nobly have they kept the banner we entrusted to them waving in the Gayle until many a Doughty champion has risen up to proclaim the glories of a town which, though a wilderness a few years ago, is now Rife with business (the Spice or life we may say of prosperous progress), and ranks high among her sister towns."
Noble & Gayle, young and enterprising business men, erected a one-story frame store on lot 1, block 2, corner of Main and Second streets, and a warehouse on lot 10. In 1848, they built a brick packing house, which stood on lot 6. In the same year that Noble & Gayle began business, McConaha & Rife started a saloon, called in those days a grocery. The next store was opened the following year by Jonathan Judah, a Jew, and occupied lot 7, block 4. The old building is still standing. In 1848 Wilford J. Ungles arrived with his family and began trading at the foot of Washington street, where, in 1855, he erected a large warehouse, which is yet in use. Wilson Redmon began the erection this year of the brick building on Main street now owned and occupied by Mrs. McManus. While in process
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of building he sold it to Dr. A. B. Campbell, who finished it. In the spring of 1849, McConaha & Rife dissolved partnership, and the latter embarked in the grocery trade, afterward adding dry goods, first occu- pying the Campbell building until he erected, the same year, the brick house adjoining it on the west. The brick store on the northeast corner of Main and Second streets was built by T. B. Cabeen, in 1848. On the second and third floors he fitted up a suit of rooms which were occupied by his family, while the business part of the house was filled the next year with a stock of goods by Mrs. E. Smith. In 1851, R. H. Spicer & Co., Mrs. Smith being the other member of the firm, started in trade in the same place.
In 1847 a series of elections having taken place, the ultimate choice for the county seat fell to Keithsburg. Donations from the citizens in and around the place were nearly, if not fully, sufficient to build the court-house. Keith gave half of the fractional tract known as Keith's first addition, which was shortly after laid out (January 12, 1848), and then the division of blocks was made by alternate choice. Those fall- ing to the county were subdivided into lots, which were sold and the proceeds applied to the erection of the court-house ; but Keith did not commence the sale of his for some years. The first term, and several subsequent ones of the circuit court, after the removal of the seat of justice, were held in Willett's warehouse, which use in various ways became a public convenience. The court-house was built on the secluded campus covering four-fifths of block 7, and all that part lying within the addition. It was finished at the end of the summer of 1851, and was considered a building that the county might be proud of in its infancy, though its squat appearance called out the malicious remark that it might be mistaken for a church. It is a one-story brick, 40×50 feet on the foundation.
Col. Patterson having wound up his business here in 1846, William Willett, who emigrated in 1838 and had just settled in the town this year, started up in the grain trade in the warehouse in which he and Patterson held joint ownership. When the latter transferred his interest to Burr P. McConaha, in 1849, the two formed a short-lived partnership, the last-named withdrawing early in 1850 and joining the emigration to California. Willett then leased the building for one year to Willits & Donghty and accepted a situation in their service. Next year Willits, who was the heavy member of the firm, and had stocked the house and sent Doughty down from New Boston, where both lived, to manage the business, sold out to A. B. Sheriff, William Willett and J. W. Donghty, and these men carried on business together a few years, Doughty finally selling to his partners. The
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partnership of Sheriff & Willett lasted till 1864, when the latter retired just in time to save himself from the prodigious decline in prices following the close of the war, which overtook his partner and swamped him, as had been the issue with nearly all of the tradesmen in the crisis of 1857. The building was used for grain storage till about 1875, and from that time as a livery until January 20, 1879, at which date it was burned down. Thus disappeared the original land- mark in which the real business history of Keithsburg had birth. Phelps & Brewer occupied it, but the loss, reaching $1,000, fell upon Willett.
Dropping back to 1850, we find trade and industry in lively growth and activity, and the other attributes of townhood multiplying in social, benevolent and literary organizations. Before railroads came into use produce was hauled to the Illinois and Mississippi rivers ; and prior to the construction of the Illinois & Michigan canal farmers went all the way to Chicago from this and adjoining counties with ox and horse teams to sell a little grain and pork, and to bring back a few store goods. Some of the pioneers who toiled in this manner are still living, and we have heard them say that the expenses of a trip were sometimes greater than the receipts. In point of business Oquawka was the senior of Keithsburg by a number of years, but now she had a spirited rival which was diverting a generous share of her hitherto large trade.
October 16th Col. Patterson published in Oquawka the first num- ber of the "Oquawka Spectator and Keithsburg Observer," this title being confined to the inside of the sheet, and the "Observer" depart- ment to the third page. The Keithsburg editor was James W. Doughty, of the mercantile firm of Doughty & Willits.
At this time there were two places of public entertainment: the Calhoun House, built by John Moore in 1850, and kept by H. G. Calhoun ; and the Keithsburg House, with J. B. McConaha as land- lord.
A division of the Sons of Temperance was in a flourishing state, and in the early spring of 1852 "Star Union" of the Daughters of Temperance came to its support in the same beneficent work.
Late in the season a debating society was formed by some of the leading men for mental culture and entertainment during the winter, the most active being Robert Keith, John C. Pepper, B. C. Taliaferro, N. C. Adams, R. C. Cabeen, O. C. Allen and Dr. E. L. Marshall.
At the opening of the packing season James A. Noble put in oper- ation his large, new slaughter-house, and about the same time Gayle finished an additional warehouse. Next spring Noble began selling the first drugs.
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A little later occurred the remarkable flood of 1851. The water began rising near the end of May, and on the 29th was encroaching upon the streets ; it continued to spread until it reached nearly to Fifth street, when it was standing over the lower part of the town from four to seven feet in depth, according to the inequalities of the surface. In the main quarter the ground has since been raised four feet by filling. The river kept up, at its highest stage until the 11th of June, when it commenced falling slowly. The "Observer" of that date said : "Our town is flooded. Goods and household furniture on platforms and second floors. We share the fate of our neighbors." It adds that the Mississippi covers the country from seven to ten miles in width 1,800 miles above its mouth. Rafts circulated in the streets in the course of business; and the row and sail boats Kate and Fawn went about the town by moonlight, bearing "lovely women and brave men," in pleasuring and serenading parties. The river was not within its banks again till after the 20th. This rise was compared to those of 1844 and 1828, and it is said surpassed them.
The high water of October, 1881, rose within a few inches of the same mark. Half a mile of the railroad track was submerged ; and skiff's tied up on Second street. There was a notable freshet the previ- ons June, and also one the preceding year.
July 15, 1852, by a vote of the citizens, Keithsburg became a corporate town under the general incorporation law; and on Monday, the 26th, the first board of trustees was elected, consisting of William Willett, J. J. Wordin, T. B. Cabeen, Alexander Davis and N. B. Partridge.
The same year William Gayle built a steam saw mill on Pope creek, where the railroad bridge crosses, and sold it to John H. Mar- shall & Co., by whom, in 1856, it was converted into a flouring mill. Subsequently it was known as the Ogden mill, and was burned after a few years. The second saw mill was built by Ender & Eckly at the foot of Van Buren street. This was burned down, and they immedi- ately built another, which was run unsuccessfully some three years. when, being abandoned to creditors, it was bought by William D. Smith, who moved it to Jackson street, between Eighth and Ninth, where it was used for planing and sawing out dimension and hardwood lumber. The next saw mill was removed in 1857, or the year after, to the foot of Jackson street, by Alexander Frick, it having been first put up on John E. Willit's land to saw ties and timbers for the Warsaw & Rockford railroad. It was leveled by fire in 1859.
The fourth saw mill is the one standing at the foot of Van Buren street, on the site of the Ender & Eckly mill, and was built about 1865
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by Smith & Hersey. It was the largest mill in the county when built, and was run with profit, employing some thirty-five men, till 1872, since which time it has not been operated, except in a small way. James C. Stevens erected a grist mill on Eighth street, between Main and Washington, about 1864. This was never a success, and was dis- mantled between 1877 and 1879. The Elevator Flour Mills were put. into the Rife warehouse on Second street, at the foot of Washington, by W. D. Smith, in 1868. This building was consumed January 1, 1878.
About 1855 a distillery was erected on the river, in Mechanics' addition, by W. L. Matthews and O. C. Richardson. After operating it a year they sold it to William Gayle. Through his failure it passed out of his hands in 1857, and was idle till Benjamin Phelps became the owner. He ran it very successfully three years and sold it to Pickering. Stewart and Colvin each owned it afterward, and finally Mason & Crosby, of Chicago, who refitted it at large expense, when it was burned down in 1872, before they had put it in operation. It was insured for the sum of $10.000. This distillery was not exempt from certain infirmities of transaction which was common to the distiller's business after the war had induced the high tax on spirits.
In 1880 C. A. & L. L. Mertz erected a saw and planing mill at the base of the sand bluff in Keith's first addition, which they are now operating in conjunction with their hunber trade.
In July, 1853. the ferry boat Dove, owned by Seth H. Redmon, began making daily trips between Keithisburg and Huron and Prairie Point. The same proprietor was "running the swift, staunch and capacious steam ferry boat Iowa," three years later.
Mr. Gayle erects a large two-story packing house in 1853. Keiths- burg is in the middle of the period of its greatest growth, which extended from 1850 to 1856, and two more additions are laid out : Keith's second, April 1. and Sheriff & Cabeen's, June 3. The country for thirty-five miles back was tributary to this point, which was becoming, and soon became, the leading produce market above St. Louis. Trade got to be immense for a town of so moderate size. One "big day " in February, 1854, 250 teams were counted in the town, and it was believed that 300 had been in from the country. Of this. number eighty remained over night. Gayle & Co. and Noble & Bro. were the packers at this date. In the following autumn the first- named firm erected a slaughter house near the steam mill. It might be well to say that the first packing done in the place was by Noble & Gayle in the winter of 1846-7. Gore & Gamble began business in the spring of 1854. The latter retired at the end of two years and Mr. Gore remained in trade till after the war.
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KEITHSBURG TOWNSHIP.
The storekeepers and produce dealers in 1855 were W. Gayle & Co., A. Rife, Sheriff & Willett. B. P. Frick & Co., Gore & Gamble and P. T. Hughes. Three of these firms were doing the packing at the close of the year.
At this period goods were sold on long credit, a year's time. After a day of large sales hardly money enough could be found in the drawer to take the salesmen to a show. At the end of the year debtors settled their accounts by note. Many of these ran one, two and three years, and some are running yet. For ten years from 1850, when the popu- lation of the county was 5,300, the country east of Keithsburg, like all parts of the west, settled up rapidly. The settlers were generally men of small means, who depended npon the heavy dealers for money to make payments on their land, expecting and engaging to discharge these second obligations with their crops. It was the custom of Messrs. Gayle and Rife to advance large sums in this way, and they often took . the risk of crippling their own credit by these accommodations. The necessities of trade also required that the more extensive tradesmen should buy their patrons' grain and hogs, and these two kinds of busi- ness, dissevered now, naturally fitted together then as parts of the same system. Accordingly the heavy merchants combined a warehouse and slaughtering business with merchandising.
A few statistics will show the growth and amount of business better than any other form of statement. From the first of October, 1850, to the first of October, 1851, the shipments of grain purchased here amounted to 169,366 bushels of wheat, corn and oats, besides some meat and other products. In the same time there were received 4073 tons of merchandise. February 24, 1852, 3,176 bushels of grain were taken in, "this being no more than an average day for the last ten. The receipts for the week ending the 28th exceeded 20,000 bushels."
During the packing season of 1854-5 there were slaughtered 6.852 hogs by the several packers, as follows: William Gayle & Co., 4, 790 ;. A. Rife, 1,064; J. A. Noble, 853; and W. H. Ungles, 145.
Between May 10 and June 14, 1856, there were shipped 48,231 pieces of bulk pork, 374 barrels of pork, 75 casks of hams, 344 sacks. of hair and 250 sacks of potatoes. From May 10 to October 11 the aggregate amount of grain taken on board here (in addition to heavy shipments in April) reached 108,291 sacks, or 270.727 bushels. During the two weeks ending October 11 the shipments by the varions firms were as follows: William Gayle & Co., 16.162 sacks; A. Rife, 10,284; B. P. Frick & Co., 3,536; W. II. Ungles, 7,018; and Sheriff" & Willett, 2,054.
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HISTORY OF MERCER AND HENDERSON COUNTIES. 1
The largest single shipment ever made was 33,000 bushels of corn by William Gayle. in April of the present year (1882). The total receipts at this market between the opening of navigation in 1881 and the same time this year were 550,000 bushels.
The first shipment ever made from here was by Thomas B. Cabeen. March 25, 1842. and consisted of about 1.400 bushels of wheat in 437 barrels. The grain was raised by himself and his father in Ohio Grove township, and was transported by the steamer Huntsville, which was a week making the passage to St. Louis.
In 1855 Mr. Gayle erected the three-story brick structure, now the Larue House, on the corner of Main and Second streets, for a store. and the next year put up the addition on the west. The same year B. F. Gruwell built a three-story brick addition to his hotel on the corner of Main and Third streets where Whiting's store stands. The ·main part was also briek, and from September, 1850, until it became the property of Mr. Gruwell in 1852,. it was conducted by H. G. Cal- houn. The entire establishment was destoyed by fire in February. 1860.
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