History of Mercer and Henderson Counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc, Part 29

Author: Mercer County Historical Society (Ill.); Henderson County Historical Society (Ill.)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co.
Number of Pages: 1424

USA > Illinois > Mercer County > History of Mercer and Henderson Counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc > Part 29
USA > Illinois > Henderson County > History of Mercer and Henderson Counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc > Part 29

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).

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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 Henry 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, 373 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. H. 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 early 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 HI., 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

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IIISTORY OF MERCER AND HENDERSON COUNTIES.

pocket, yet 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. He 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. Ile 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. He 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-

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mencement of the great struggle to its close in 1865. Ile 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 Jolin and Avarilla Pratt, and brother of Rezin Pratt, was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, in 1815. His 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. His 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 Jonah. 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-

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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. HIarvey, 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 case. 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, each 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

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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 eaten 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. 2 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.

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HISTORY OF MERCER AND IIENDERSON 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 +, 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 pursued 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

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company first landed at Sugar Grove, April 24, 1834, and built a small cabin made of split linn logs, on the east side of the grove, on the claim of Abraham Miller, Sr .; and under the protection of this rude cabin the entire company were sheltered until they had each broken up and planted a piece of sod corn, interspersed with pumpkins and melons. The wife of Abraham Miller, Jr., did the cooking for the entire colony. None of the crops were fenced that season, for as soon as planted they all started back to Indiana, with the exception of Abraham Miller and family. At that time there were no other inhab- itants within a circuit of ten miles. Abraham Miller, Jr., with his family, remained in their cabin at Sugar Grove until the corn had got well ont of the ground, when he removed to New Boston, where he remained until fall, and until the balance of the company returned with their families from Indiana. Of the original company of settlers at Sugar Grove, all but the Millers and Elias Moore went back to Indiana to remain, or settled in the vicinity of New Boston, while a few addi- , tions were made to this colony by several families that returned with them in the fall. After the corn crops were all gathered, cabins were built for the different families and preparations were made to settle down for the winter. As the nearest grist mills were on Spoon river, most of the meal for subsistence was procured by pounding the corn in improvised and rudely-constructed mortars.

George Miller, Sr., father of Abraham Miller, Jr., to whom I am greatly indebted for many of these facts, emigrated to Oregon in 1847. In many respects he was a remarkable man, a noble type of the material out of which our early settlers were made. IIe was the father of twenty-four children, all of whom he lived to see grown men and women, and bought and gave to each of them a home. All of his chil- dren living, but one, are now in Oregon. IIe died in Oregon, Septem- ber 11, 1874, in his ninetieth year, and until a short time before his death was as vigorous as most men at forty-five. Nearly all of the Millers moved to Oregon about the same date. They were originally from the State of Tennessee, Crab Orchard, on Doe river, Carter county. They left there for Indiana in the fall of 1812, when the entire country embraced within the limits of that state was occupied by the Indians, and when pioneer life was one of constant danger. It 1834 they left Montgomery county, Indiana, for Mercer county, Illinois, which brings them to the time of our history. Of the four elder Millers who originally settled at Sugar Grove two were democrats in politics and two whigs; two were pro-slavery and two anti-slavery; two were Methodists and two old school predestinarian Baptists. The children followed their fathers in both politics and religion. Coming from

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HISTORY OF MERCER AND HENDERSON COUNTIES.

Tennessee and pioneering in Indiana these early settlers were indepen- dent of most of the aids of civilized society ; their clothing was mostly home-made, from wool and flax; a spring pole mortar pounded their meal; their axes built houses, fences and implements ; their rifles repleted empty larders. Those who were the earliest settlers of the ridge south of Camp creek were from Pennsylvania and other eastern states, and being less practiced in the art of pioneering were subject to more privations and experienced more difficulties in supplies of meat and bread. Mr. Perry says that they were obliged to go to Kickapoo, in Peoria county, for their milling in 1836, and to Henderson for black- smithing ; yet there must have been mills near Henderson, for William Doak relates an experience in going there to mill in the winter of 1837-8, when with two neighbors he made the trip with a wagon and three yoke of oxen. In order to pass two farms before a supply of corn for a grist could be obtained they were obliged to make a wide detour to the east, became lost in the night upon the trackless prairie, were obliged to break ice and ford streams, and only near morning, wet and frozen, they reached the second place, where they bought and shelled the last of their grist.

Soon after the Millers settled at the Grove they made of a boulder a small grist mill, and upon it they and their neighbors ground their grain. About 1839 they built a saw mill on Edwards river, and the year after a grist mill, and shortly after this a flour mill was built on the "slough," where Milan now stands. The following description of the first grist mill ever erected in Mercer county will no doubt prove interesting to the readers of this history. It was built by the Millers at Sugar Grove, and was used for several years. They sawed off an oak log about three feet long, stood it on end and placed coals of fire in the center of the top, burning out a hole in the shape of a basin, which they dressed out nicely to receive the corn. They then took a long pole and fastened the butt in or on the ground, set a forked stick in the ground and laid the pole in it, about the middle, something after the style of an old-fashioned well sweep. They then took another pole and fastened to the top of this, like a rope to the top of a well sweep. In the lower end of this pole was inserted an iron wedge, with the butt down. Then a hole was bored through this pole, about eighteen inches above the wedge, and a pin pu through it, which pin was seized with both hands and the pole worked up and down. Afterward the Millers found a stone of suitable grain, which they split open and made two good mill stones, twenty-two inches in diameter, which was an improve- ment on the first mill. Three of the Millers were blacksmithis and they made all their own mill irons when later they built a better grist mill and also a saw mill.

MRS MARTIN BEAR .

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Previous to the settlement of Perryton there was a road laid out by Warren county, of which Mercer was then a part, from Monmouth to Clark's Ferry, now Andalusia, on the Mississippi, which, like all the carlier roads, was laid with reference to fords and ridges, regardless of' section lines. Probably but little of the original road is now a high -- way, excepting that from the bluffs of Camp creek to section 9. Although this was the only laid out road, yet the nature of the prairie turf and the opportunity of selection of ronte in an open country made the traveling very good. Even the most spongy sloughs were covered with a soil firm enough to bear a loaded wagon.

In a community where all were dependent upon labor that brought food in abundance but no money, all were equally rich, or rather equally poor. Fashion in fabric or style was unknown. Those who were able to work their own wool and flax into garments were the most independent, and the tow-cloth kersey and jeans of the house- wives' loom sufficed for nearly all their wants. Dependent upon each other, a warm heart and a ready hand were of vastly more value in a neighbor than worldly possessions. Every house was a tavern where the traveler found hospitality, and the rude log cabin never was so full as to shut out the belated wanderer. No caste of wealth or birth interfered with the social relations of those who made up a community. Illustration of the plainness of dress : A young man of this primitive period, courting the daughter of one of our earliest settlers, proposed to his sweetheart and her friend a walk of two miles across the prairie to a neighbor's, and, like all young men in like circumstances, affected as much style as possible. The neighbor described the girls as clad in linsey dresses and sun-bonnets, each one hanging on the arm of the young man. He was clad in very short tow pants, a white shirt, with a high and stiff collar, and a home-made straw hat, holding an umbrella over his head, his big feet, brown and bare, a very visible means of support.

With the pioneer settler comes the pioneer preacher, usually a farmer. Knowing more of his Bible than any other book, he made up in spirit and earnestness what he lacked in education. Preaching in log cabins or groves, where the school-houses had not yet arisen, he always found an audience in the entire community. Denominational preferences, however strong, never prevented the attendance of all, no matter who preached. To show the plain style of one, a good old man, who most frequently preached in this neighborhood, in illustrating the doctrine of perseverance he said : "It is like the man who took a coon skin to the store, ah, and says he you may have this coon skin for fifty cents, ah, and the merchant said he did not want it for fifty cents, ah :

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History of Mercer and Henderson Counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc, Part 29

Author: Mercer County Historical Society (Ill.); Henderson County Historical Society (Ill.) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co. Number of Pages: 1424

Author: Mercer County Historical Society (Ill.); Henderson County Historical Society (Ill.)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co.
Number of Pages: 1424