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 28
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86
WILLIAM SHIELDS was born in Wayne county, Indiana, January 9, 1819. Ile there received a common school education, and was also raised to farining. His father was a native of Westmoreland county, Virginia ; and his mother, of Kentucky. They moved to Hamilton county, Ohio, where they were married. William Shiekls came to Mercer county in the spring of 1840, and first settled in New Boston township, after which he moved to Eliza and settled on section 33, which land was then owned by Abijah Wilson, whose daughter Lucy
292
HISTORY OF MERCER AND HENDERSON COUNTIES.
he married April 12, 1849. His father and mother following in the same fall, settled in New Boston township, in sight of their son's resi- dence. William Shields has long been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and also a Mason for thirty-two years; he is a mem- ber of New Boston Lodge, No. 59. Out of a family of eight children only three are living: Mariah Willits, Ira, and Jo. The two last named are living with their parents.
JOHN GLANCEY, a farmer and stock raiser, was born in York county, Pennsylvania, January 11, 1800. He moved with his brother from that state to Indiana in 1820, where he received a common school education, and for a while after followed wool carding and cloth dressing. Joseph Glancey, his father, was Irish ; and his mother, whose maiden name was Maith Willits, was English and the second wife, his father having been twice married. Mr. Glancey was the sixth child of that family. His father's third wife was Lura Chambers. Mrs. John Glancey's father's name was Robert Moore, Scotch-Irish ; his mother's maiden name was Deborah Willitts, of English descent, and having formerly lived in York county, Pennsylvania, moved from that state to Ohio, and then to Indiana in 1812. Mrs. Glancey's father was married twice, and Mrs. Glancey is the seventh child of the second family. John Glancey, the subject of the sketch, came to Illinois and settled in Eliza in 1837, and still resides where he first settled. Mr. Glancey's name has been familiar to the public for many years. The most striking points in his character are his disposition to help others in their life struggles ; his generosity ; his animated and kind nature; his earnestness in his neighbors' success ; and these have made for him friends everywhere, and he lives to see his bright dreams realized at the golden age of eighty-two. Mr. Glancey was elected first super- visor of his township; he was also one of the first county commis- sioners.
JOHN MASON was born in Switzerland, December S, 1812. Casper Mason, his father, was born in the same parish in 1787, as was also his grandfather, Casper, July 11, 1762. Jacob John Mason, son of Casper, was born in the same parish, October 28, 1722. Susana, wife of John Mason, was also born in the same parish, May 3, 1816. They were married January 10, 1834, by which marriage they had eight children : Jacob, Henry, Albert, August, Jacob John, and Jolin. Two not named died in infancy. John Mason received a high school educa- tion in the parish, which school was controlled by the family. He also served as a soldier in the Zurich war before coming to this country. Ile left his native country for America June 20, 1847, and arrived at New York city July 21. After his arrival in this country he spent
293
ELIZA TOWNSHIP.
several years traveling from place to place, finally settling in Berks county. Pennsylvania, where he remained six years, from which place he moved to Wayne county, Indiana, where he stayed ten months. He then came to Illinois, settling on the Essley place. After a resi- dence of five years he moved where he now resides. Like many others of the first settlers. Mr. Mason's circumstances in life were exceedingly limited, but by industry and economy in his business he has managed to acquire a good farm, with plenty around him.
THOMAS BEVERLIN was born in Wayne county, Indiana, November 10, 1843. His father was born in Hamilton county, Indiana, and his mother in Virginia. They were married in Indiana, and moved to this state in 1846. Thomas Beverlin received a common school educa- tion in this state, having come with his parents while young. His occupation is that of farming. He enlisted in the three years' service in the late war in 1862, in company K, 102d III. Vol. Inf., commanded by Capt. J. Y. Meritt, and after serving for nearly three years was mustered out of the service in 1865, having been engaged in all the battles with his regiment. On arriving in Illinois Mr. Beverlin's father first settled in Rock Island county and afterward in Eliza, Mercer county, on the place where Henry Brockett now lives, at which place he died August 8, 1878. His family consisted of eight children, of whom only two are now living. Thomas Beverlin was married July 16, 1866, to Miss Mary L. Denison. Four children born to them are all living : Emaranda, Fannie E .. Estel, and Carrie. Mr. Beverlin is a member of the republican party, and also a member of the Masonic fraternity, Illinois City Lodge, Rock Island county.
AUGUST SCHRADER, a native of Germany, was born in King county, Hanover, December 27, 1830. He was educated at a common school, and afterward learned the wheelwright trade, which he followed until he came with his parents to America. The family first landed in New Orleans, where they remained a short time, and then moved to Mercer county, settling at New Boston, where August followed his trade for a while. After a residence of twelve years at New Boston he moved to Eliza, settling on the old Martin A. Cook farm, which he improved and still resides upon. Mr. Schrader was married in New Boston in 1851. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and also of the masonic lodge of that city. In politics he is a republican.
JACOB BEAR was born in Pickaway county, Ohio, November 29, 1812. Peter Bear, his father. was a German, a native of Hamburg, who on first coming to America settled in Pennsylvania, after which he moved to Pickaway county, Ohio, about the year 1811. Catharine. his mother. was a native of Pennsylvania also. Jacob Bear is the third
-
294
HISTORY OF MERCER AND HENDERSON COUNTIES.
child of a family of eight, six of whom are still living. He came to Mercer county in company with his brother Martin in 1836, and immediately began improving a farm, upon which he broke ten acres the first year. He was married in 1844 to Miss Jemima Carson, of Morgan county, Ohio. His family are Clinton, Carlton, and Rolland. Clinton is at home. Carlton is at present absent from home. Rolland is deceased. Mr. Bear received a common school education in Indiana and was brought up to farming. He is now engaged in farming and stock raising.
JOHN HUMPHRIES LEECH was born April 8, 1811, in Monroe county, now West Virginia. His parents were Chichester and Margaret Leech. His mother's maiden name was Humphries. Chichester Leech was born in Culpepper, Virginia. His parents were Andrew and Elizabeth Leech. Chichester Leech was of English origin. his grandparents being among the first early settlers of America. Losing his father very young, his mother married one Burns and moved west to Monroe county. He had two uncles in the revolution, George and Valentine Leech, who. entered that service at the age of sixteen and eighteen. They went to Georgia and were never after heard of. Margaret Humphries was the daughter of John and Catharine Hum- phries, whose name before marriage was Dickison. Her parents were from Ireland, but raised in America, near the Cow Pasture river in Virginia. John Humphries was raised in Ireland, near Dublin. His mother was the only daughter of Sir Toby Butler, lord mayor of Dublin. Young Humphries first landed in Pennsylvania, and from thence went to Virginia, where he became acquainted with and married Catharine Dickison, after which he moved to West Virginia. He there laid a warrant on 1,000 acres of land, had the same surveyed and recorded at Richmond. He there made his home, and raised a family of ten children, six boys and four girls, namely : John, James, William, Samuel, Richard, Robert, Elizabetlı, Isabel, Margaret, and Martha. John was a miller by trade, Robert a shoe- maker; the rest were all farmers. Samuel and Robert were in the
war of 1812. Robert was present at the surrender of Hull in Canada. After the war he moved to Calloway county in 1818. Richard, follow- ing in 1820, settled in the same county where, after a short time, they were followed by their grandparents, accompanied by Isabel Carlton and husband, the rest of the family remaining in Virginia, where they died. William was elected high sheriff of the county where he was raised. Richard was elected county judge in Missouri, and was also there elected to the legislature of that state. In 1832 Chichester Leech and a family of nine children, all single but Samuel, started for Madi-
295
ELIZA TOWNSHIP.
son county, Indiana, on which journey they lost one of the family. On the fourth morning of their journey they met thirty-five droves of hogs being driven from Kentucky to the markets of Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Richmond. The journey was an exceedingly hazardous one, it having rained almost incessantly and the muddy roads were almost impassable. On the first day of December the party arrived at Ilenry Warner's, in Wayne county, where they went into a log cabin for the winter. Here they found times good ; wheat 50 cents per bushel ; corn, 373; pork, 83 per hundred : day's wages, 37} cents; rail-making, 37₺ cents per hundred. When the spring opened up the party started for Madison county, forty miles distant, which place they reached in a week's travel. J. II. Leech at this time was twenty-two years old. and he concluded to begin life for himself, and accordingly apprenticed himself to C. T. Hoover, a cabinet maker of Pendleton. At this place in 1842 malarial fever was prevalent and the family suffered terribly from its ravages, their father falling a victim to the malady in the spring of 1835. The family still stayed at Madison, where they experienced the financial crash of 1837. This caused a reverse in the family affairs, ending in great financial difficulty to them. At this time J. II. Leech went into partnership with Samuel Dale, his old employer, bought his uncle's interest, and they carried on the business until 1839, when Leech entered the carpenter trade with Isaac Williams. In the fall of that year. money being scarce, they wound up that business, and from that time till 1842 they were en- gaged in fixing up their business preparatory to moving farther west, and in that fall they came to Illinois, first landing in Mercer county near where J. Y. Merritt now lives, on section 31. In the carly part of 1839 Mr. Leech was married to Elener R. Sibley, by which mar- riage they have had eight children, as follows: James W., Marianna IT., Leander M. (who was a member of the 9th Iowa cavalry), Corydon, Adolphus M., Sarah E., Virginia C. and Mary B.
The Leeches are widely and favorably known throughout Mercer county. They came to Mercer county in an early day, with but little means with which to begin life in the new country, but by energy and honest diligence have attained an enviable position in the community in which they live. The three brothers, William, Andrew, and J. H., live but a few miles apart in Eliza township. WILLIAM LEECH was born in Monroe county, Virginia, in 1821, and came to this state at the age of twenty-one. He was married in Eliza township to Miss Eliza Spirling. Viewing his fine residence now one would hardly suppose that he came to this country with but half a dollar in his
296
HISTORY OF MERCER AND HENDERSON COUNTIES.
pocket. vet such was the case. Andrew Leech was born in Virginia, in 1819, and when he left that state for Indiana was but twelve years old. After his arrival in Mercer county he first bought eighty acres before he was married to Miss Matilda Spirling. His wife was born December 25, 1830. From this union they had born to them : Daniel, William. Eliza J .. Delphia A., George R., Mary E .. Ulysses G .. Susan F., and D. A. Leech. His daughter, Eliza J., married S. W. Anderson, who died October 22, 1873. George married Maggie Sloan December 26, 1878. Delphia died June 27, 1867.
MRS. HARIET NOBLE, widow of Jonathan Noble, formerly a native of Indiana, was born in that state in 1821. IIe spent his youth in that state where he also received a part of his education, finishing in Illinois after his removal here with his parents. He was married in 1861 to Miss Harriet Irvin, a native of Pennsylvania. Eight children resulted in this union : Peter, George, Cora, Omar, Charles, Jennie, Beecher. and Henry, named in order. Mr. Noble first began business with his father which he continued for some length of time, when he removed to Iowa where he purchased 160 acres of land near Iowa City. Then returning he was married and soon after bought a farm of 280 acres on sections 17 and 18, upon which Mrs. Noble is now living, and which is superintended by the oldest son. Mr. Noble was a hard- working, thorough business man, and highly esteemed by all who knew him. He was a member of the masonic fraternity.
IRA NOBLE, son of D. F. Noble, was born in Mercer county in 1839, and was married in 1860 to Miss Caroline Reed, of the same county. She died December 28, 1878, leaving a large family of children, all of whom are residing at home with their father: Sarah, Eva, Blanch, Clarinda, Gertie, Avarilla. Tom, and Caroline. The two oldest, Fred and Flora, were twins and died while young. Mr. Noble is a repub- lican in politics, and a member of the masonic order of New Boston.
MRS. ELIZA MARTIN. wife of the late sergeant J. Martin, was born in Franklin county, Ohio, and went from there to Burlington, Iowa, in company with her sister in 1859. Mrs. Martin has been twice married, first to Charles Sabin, after whose death, July 19, 1865. she married a second time to J. Martin, who was well and favorably known, especially among his army associates, whose friendship and esteem he merited. Ile was chosen first sergeant of his company, 124th Vol. Inf., and credibly distinguished himself in the battles of Raymond, Jackson, Fort Gibson, Champion Hill. Fort Hill. Siege of Vicksburg, Browns- ville, Spanish Fort, Yazoo City, Benton, and was present with his regiment during the Meridian campaign. He served from the com-
297
ELIZA TOWNSHIP.
mencement of the great struggle to its close in 1865. He died in 1870, leaving four children to lament his death: Albert J., Laura, Grant, and Jenny. Grant is superintending the farm.
L. B. NOBLE, son of Lewis and Matilda Noble, was born in Eliza township in 1839. His great-grandfather was Irish and his great- grandmother English. They settled in Virginia in an early day, where our subject's grandparents were born and raised near Lynchburg, and where his parents were also born. They moved from that state to Tennessee, then to Ohio and from there to Indiana, in an early day. Here they resided about twenty years, after which they moved to this state in 1834, and were among the first early settlers of the township. Immediately after arriving here he took a claim and began improving a farm upon which our subject was raised. L. B. Noble enlisted in the late war, in the 27th Ill. Inf .. in which he served three years. He was wounded at Kenesaw Mountain in 1864. After the close of the war he returned home and continued farming. In 1873 he was married to Miss Irabell Stephens, of Adams county, Iowa. By this marriage they had four children : Archer L., Elsie M., Don L., and Ethel J., all whom are residing at home.
JOHN PRATT, son of John and Avarilla Pratt, and brother of Rezin Pratt. was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, in 1815. ILis father, a German by descent, and a native of Maryland, moved with his parents to Fayette county, Pennsylvania, in a very early day, where he was married to Mrs. Avarilla Boner. Eleven children was the result of this union, all born in Pennsylvania. His father first moved to Union county, Indiana, in 1830, where they remained until 1838, at which time they moved to Mercer county, Illinois, first settling in Eliza township, on section 29, where he lived until they moved to his son Jonas' house in New Boston township. Here he died. his wife following seven years later. Ilis oldest daughter. Eliza, died in 1839, and was the first death in Eliza township. They are all reposing in the Eliza Creek cemetery. Benjamin died in 1868, Lacey, in 1866, and Rezin in 1880. Jonah resides in New Boston township where he settled about the year 1852. Nancy, widow of Wesley Wicks, resides with her brother JJonah. Avarilla, wife of Elisha Essley, resides in Kansas. Tamar resides in New Boston. Annie, wife of John Dun- gan, in Kansas. The subject of this sketch was married in 1852 to Miss Nancy Fergason, by which marriage they have had nine children born to them. Sarah. the oldest, married Joel Woodward, a farmer, and they reside in Adams county, Iowa. Avarilla, wife of Oliver Essley, also resides in the same county. Louis married Miss M. Mol-
298
HISTORY OF MERCER AND HENDERSON COUNTIES.
inger, of Iowa. Mary, wife of Henry Taylor, resides in Adams county, Iowa. Nancy, wife of John Jones, resides in Adams county, Iowa. Harvey, Malisse, Ruth. and Nellie are at home with their parents. Our subject began the busines of farming in Eliza township, on section 30, where he lived five years and in 1853 bought a farm in section 36 and soon after eighty acres adjoining it, where he built a handsome residence and is now living in comfort and ease. His business has been farming and stock raising.
PERRYTON TOWNSHIP.
In writing a history of the town of Perryton, I have considered it desirable to embrace in it only those facts that at present have no historical record in existence elsewhere, and which would otherwise be lost with the present generation. I have also endeavored, as far as possible, to place myself with the people who will occupy our places at the recurrence of our national centennial anniversary, and relate such things as will be of most interest to them, as well as our more imme- diate successors.
Owing to the fact that the earlier settlers kept no written history or record or even regular accounts, and also to the fact that many of them have died or moved to distant localities, it has been very difficult to gather the facts herein recorded, and they must be my excuse for any errors of matter or data herein contained.
I would here acknowledge my indebtedness to all those who have kindly furnished assistance in this historical record of the town of Per- ryton, and I would especially acknowledge my obligations to William Doak, now living among us, and to Abraham Miller, Jr., who since 1847 has resided in Oregon.
The physical features of the town that will not change with time, are only those that are affected by amount of prairie woodland and such features of water courses as would be affected by cultivation and by domestic animals. When the white man came he found the surface in the condition created by natural causes, or as affected by the annual prairie fires of the Indians. The better and more level land was prairie covered by a coat of mixed natural grasses and plants that grew in stools, cach independently, to the height of eighteen to twenty-four inches; some like the polar plant, or rosin weed, running up in alternate years to five or six feet. The ground seemed covered like a meadow, yet there was no sward as in blue grass, although the matting
299
PERRYTON TOWNSHIP.
of roots below bound the soil very firmly, each plant growing by itself as a tuft. As a pasture and for hay, it would yield from one to two tons per acre, and most of the plants were caten by stock, but when closely pastured were sure to die out, giving place, subsequently, to the cultivated grasses. The broken grounds furnished the same grasses but in much less quantity, and in many places the coat was so light that the autumn fires were not hot enough to destroy certain kinds of timber in the most protected places, as on the south sides of ravines and creeks, and such as black oak and white hickory. In some few places the more valuable white and burr oaks had established small groves.
As it may in the future be desirable to know what part of the town once grew timber, I will in brief specify tracts which it occupied in 1845. In the fork of Camp creek, on sections 23 and 24 was some sixty acres of very fine white oak, and there were forty acres of good mixed timber in the southeast corner of section 21. The land that lay between the level and Camp creek on the north on sections 30 and 19, and a little on section 29 had large old white oak trees upon it. On the north side of the creek there was timber, white and burr oak. on N.E., N.E. 18, on S.E., N.W. 18; a little on S.E. of N.W. 17, and N.E. of N.E. 16. The broken ground in the southeast corner of the town had some scattering timber, mostly grown since the Indians had left; also most of section 24, and that part of sections 12, 13 and 14 that lay between the two large ravines up to the centre of section 12. The N. & of 19, S. 3 of 18. S. W. 17, and north to section 20 was more or less occupied by scattering young black oaks, or, as commonly called. blacks jacks, and white hickory ; also a small body of mixed timber on northeast corner of 16 and southeast corner of 9.
In the early settlement of Perryton none of the woodland was con- sidered as of any value but that containing white and burr oak, and for that reason was the last entered or bought of the Government. The ravines (or sloughs, as called by early settlers) were covered with a dense growth of grass and weeds, rising often to the height of six to ten feet, and were the hiding places of deer and wolves. Where there was sufficient water to create a channel, it was often not more than one or two feet wide and deep, even a mile from its source on the prairie. The channel being tortuous, and the bottom soil bound by very strong roots, it was only a channel for low water that apparently rarely changed or increased in size, the flood water running over the level bottoms without washing. Where now channels are washed twenty feet wide and six feet deep, the writer has stepped across the original channel without much effort.
300
HISTORY OF MERCER AND HIENDERSON COUNTIES.
.
After the removal of the Indians, and previous to 1846, they returned to hunt by permission of the Indian agents. The last evidence of their visit was in that year. Besides their knives and arrow heads, of which numbers are still found, they left no mark save the great trail their tribes followed in cutting off the bend of the Mississippi to the west, in their navigations up and down the river. This trail entered the town on the south side of 31; thence along the divide to Camp creek, crossing at a ford in 19; then along the ridge through 20 and 17, and nearly diagonally through the north half of 9, southeast of 4. and northwest of 3. In 1845 there were still five or six distinct, deep worn paths throughout the entire distance, and were the guiding path to Rock Island and Oquawka, the two points where it left the river. It is said that the army pursned Black Hawk upon this trail, and that Camp creek got its name from having been one of the camping places of the army. The pioneers found the country abounding in deer. wolves and prairie chickens, with many quails, turkeys, rabbits, and occasionally the wildcat and badger. The elk and buffalo had been abundant at no very distant period, as attested by their horns and skeletons, which were found all about this region even as late as 1845.
As was the case everywhere in the prairie country, the earliest settlers made their claims adjacent to a body of timber suitable for fencing and building, and believed almost universally that farms could only be made by the few who were early enough to secure a tract, or take from the government land the scattering white oaks; and it was for this reason that the best prairie land was the last selected. Although not strictly belonging to the history of the town of Perryton, the early settlement and history of Sugar Grove is so thoroughly inter- mixed, that no record of either can well be complete without encroach- ing somewhat on the domain of the other. The first settlement in this vicinity was at Sugar Grove, April 24, 1834. In the month of March, 1834, the following named persons left Montgomery county, Indiana, bound for the Mississippi river: Abraham Miller, Jr., and family, consisting of self, wife, and wife's sister; George Miller, Sr., Abraham Miller, Sr., Isaac Miller, Jr., Jacob Miller, John Miller, Elias Moore, Ben. Welch, Dr. John Kester, William Shuck, Thomas Dauson, James Kester, and William Moore. This company was fitted out with six ox teams, with breaking plows and other necessary farming utensils. They intended putting in crops and then returning for their families. George Miller, Sr., was selected as guide, because of his extensive experience as a pioneer, and he steered his trackless route through the boundless prairies for days and days, without the aid of a compass, consulting only the stars to guide him to his destination. This
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.