History of Mercer and Henderson Counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc, Part 5

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 5
USA > Illinois > Henderson County > History of Mercer and Henderson Counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc > Part 5

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).

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

barn raisings. At all of these the young people took great interest and manifested their skill according to the adaptation of age or sex for such amusements.

The Fourth of July was, fifty years ago, kept more as a reminder of its origin than it is to-day, and some of the early celebrations were grand affairs. There was less of show and noise than to-day, but of all that goes to make up a grand holiday, and that conduces to a hearty rejoicing on account of our country's independence, was present in full force. The people were more democratic in their habits and thoughts, and consequently a gathering of the kind embraced all the citizens of the county. Not unfrequently a revolutionary hero honored the scene with his presence, and exhibited himself in the evolutions and drill learned by necessity in his country's birth.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

The Eastern, Middle and Southern states, from which the early settlers came, were densely covered with a vigorous growth of timber. A patch of prairie was a curiosity east or south of the center of In- diana. The avocations of the pioneer in the east and south had been, for the first half of his manhood, to cut down the giant trees of the forest, roll the logs together and burn them. With the unpleasant remembrances of log rolling, brush burning and stump grubbing, it seems a little strange that the prairies of the Mississippi valley and the tributaries thereto were not the very first to claim the early settler's attention. Here were open farms ready for the plow. Not a stump, or a root, or a stone, was in the way of immediate successful cultiva- tion. The oldest and most carefully cultivated fields of Ohio, Indiana or Kentucky, from which most of the first settlers came, were not as clear of obstacles to the agriculturist's implements as were the prairies of Mercer county.

Then where shall we seek for the reasons for the neglect of the more generous soil of the prairie and the preference for groves and the poorer soil bordering thereon? We must not forget that times have greatly changed within a half century. Implements that could not be used'on rough and stumpy grounds are a modern invention. Corn planters, grain drills, reapers and cultivators were invented after the prairies began to be cultivated, and their uses admissable. These machines were not invented for the rough lands of the east, but for the broad, level fields of the western states.

Again, we must keep in mind, habits of thought and action are not very easily changed. In parts of the old world implements of agriculture have not changed, much in some thousands of years. The

HISTORY OF MERCER AND HENDERSON COUNTIES.

pioneers of this county were used to a wooded country. They were used to having stake and ridered fences ; houses and barns made of logs ; used to having large, blazing fires of wood in the large chimney place in the winter, and used to wasting large quantities of fine logs by burning in great heaps every year. So when they came here, with all these habits and predispositions, it must naturally have occurred to them that the supply of wood was limited and everyone sought for a. good piece of timber, which should adjoin another piece .of prairie, whether that prairie was of the best or not. So we find all of the first. settlers hugging close to the water-courses upon whose banks grew the only reminder of their foriner southern or eastern homes.

One need not in this respect be told the early history of any locality in the state. The same rule governed all over, and Mercer county was no exception. Of course, navigation had something to do with settling the shores of such streams as were large enough to allow the steamboat to ply back and forth upon its waters. Steamboats began running along the Mississippi in 1823, and to this circumstance, doubtless, we can trace very many of the first settlements in the valley. The vicin- ity of New Boston was permanently occupied first by parties who sup- plied the boats with wood, and this, indeed, was the very first settle- ment made by white men in the county. It was in the year 1827 that. the Dennison family came to that point to supply the boats with fuel, and in the plat of the town of New Boston they as proprietors reserve the right to the monopoly of that trade, and of running a ferry. The Dennisons were a large and respectable family, who had come origi- nally from Indiana, but had lived a year in Sangamon county.

These were the first to make what is now embraced in Mercer county a permanent home. Through the influence of this family others came in, a year or two later, and settled in the immediate neighbor- hood. Indians were still plenty on this side of the river and some of them were quite unfriendly to the encroaching settler, though they endeavored to keep up a show of friendship with the government. This hostile disposition on the part of the Indians made it not only desirable, but imperative, that settlers should keep within a reasonable distance of each other, and of the river, and for this reason, more than any other, no settlements were made far up the Edwards or Pope rivers until after the Indians had been removed in 1832.

Among the earliest records of Warren county we find the names of . parties who voted once or twice in this vicinity, but of whose identity all other trace seems to have been lost. The earliest settler cannot now even remember the names. These were probably steamboat men, hunters or laborers, who possibly may have been here but a few days.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

In those times the ballot was not guarded so closely but that a man could have deposited his ballot, even if he had not been in the precinct the prescribed number of days. The names of such cut no figure in the history of the county, and need not be even repeated here.

We have to do especially with those who came here to reside, to subdue the forest and the soil, to provide for families who have since made themselves known and felt in the community, who founded society and moulded opinions, and who, in a general way, have left their mark upon the county. They are yet known, or if departed, they are remembered for their bravery, their endurance of hardships, their virtue and honor. 'Of such we desire to write, and of such we desire to perpetuate the memories.

The Dennison family came originally from Ohio, and lived a short time in Indiana. In 1826 they came to Sangamon county in this state and stayed about a year, and in the year above named came to the vicinity of New Boston. For two years the Dennisons and Shaunces, who at that time lived a few miles farther north, and the Vanatas at Keithsburgh, were almost the sole occupants of the county. In 1830 the census reports show Mercer county as having a population of only twenty-seven persons, and these nearly all belonged to the two families named. In 1831 the Indian troubles began, and did not end until the fall of 1832, and of course no additions were made during that time, nor indeed for a year or so after, when confidence in the peaceful solu- tion of the troubles was fully restored.

The year 1834 brought a number of settlers, not only to the Den- nison neighborhood, but to other portions of the county. In the spring of the year named, several persons from Indiana came in and took claims, planted sod corn, and went back in the fall and brought out their families. Among those worthy of record were Joseph Glancey, Wm. Drury, William, Newton J. and Joshua Willits, Isaac Drury, Joseph, John S. and Lewis Noble.

Several of the names mentioned will be found in future pages with extensive and numerous notices, as they proved to be valuable acquisi- tions to the then new but growing community. Jesse Willits was after- ward first probate judge, with his appointment from the governor. His name appears on the poll book as the first man to deposit a ballot, after the county was organized in 1835. Silas Drury was the first sheriff, and Isaac Drury was one of the first county commissioners. Other prominent settlers in the west end of the county (and then con- sidered in reality the same neighborhood), were John Long, first school commissioner, Wm. I. Nevius, Eli Reynolds, a physician, and Isaac Dawson, a carpenter.

HISTORY OF MERCER AND HENDERSON COUNTIES.

In the meantime a new and distinct settlement was forming, some ten miles up the Edwards river, at a point then and for years afterward known as the Sugar Grove settlement, and after the organization of the county, called the Sugar Grove precinct. A large family, consisting of: four brothers, John, Isaac, George and Abraham Miller, with several rel- atives and friends, settled at this point in 1834, completely surrounding the grove. The Miller family was originally from Crab Orchard, Tennessee, whence they had removed to near Crawfordsville, Indiana, in about 1820. From that place several members of the family came on here, in the latter part of April, 1834, bringing with them several yoke of oxen and some agricultural implements, for the purpose of making claims and of planting sod corn. All but Abraham Miller, Junior (son of George Miller), and his wife and wife's sister, returned to Indiana and came out subsequently. Abraham Miller, Jun., proved to be a man of much note in public affairs of this county, and indeed the whole family was, for ten years or more, during their sojourn here, an influential one.

Abraham Miller remained with the growing crops, built a cabin, and became the first permanent settler of the grove, and indeed of a radius of ten or twelve miles. Several other families, some relatives and others mere acquaintances, followed these during the next season, so that by the time the county was organized in 1835, it was found most convenient to divide the county into two precincts : the one at New Boston, which had just been laid out and given that name, instead of Dennison's Landing, and the Sugar Grove precinct. By the fall of 1835 there were probably about sixty inhabitants in and about the Grove, and between 200 and 250 in the whole county.

The groves along the Edwards river were gradually being occupied by settlers, who pushed farther and farther toward its source. In the spring of 1835 a distinct settlement, known as the Richland settle- ment, or Farlow's Grove, was begun. This was not in what is now known as Richland Grove township, but in reality along the north side of the Edwards, in what is now Preemption township.

John Farlow and family, who settled on section 22, came from Indiana in the spring of 1835, and settled as stated. In the fall of the same year Hopkins Boone, now a resident of Viola, occupied section 34. Mr. Boone, with his family, came from Pennsylvania. This was the farthest from the month of the river that any one had yet settled, and indeed at that time there was not a family residing between that point and the Rock river, nor for many miles to the east, and but one family on the south, between that and Monmouth. The next spring (1836) Rev. John Montgomery, a Presbyterian minister, and James

ORGANIZATION OF MERCER CONUTY.

Boone, came out from Pennsylvania and located in the Richland neigh- borhood. Gabriel Barkley, Rev. Joseph Jones, a Baptist minister, and C. Miller, came the same year from Indiana and settled in the vicinity of Farlow's Grove.

Thus have we traced the main settlements of the Edwards valley, from the mouth of that river to near the eastern line of the county. In the same way the banks of Pope creek were being occupied, but not quite so rapidly, nor were the neighborhoods quite so distinct, but were considered somewhat as branches of the three principal settle- ments named. Up the North Henderson, from the vicinity of Oquawka, the pioneer was gradually extending his domain, until the banks of these streams were lined on either side, where grew the native forests, with the pioneer's cabins and the pioneer's patches of corn and other crops.

As the settlements grew older and more populous they gradually divided in interest, and centers began to form at points which at the first were considered as being in the same neighborhood, and thus two or more new neighborhoods were by common consent, and by conven- ience, formed from one. Keithsburg and Eliza, on the west side of the county, separated their interests from New Boston. Ohio Grove, farther up the Pope, and North Henderson, became more dis- tinct and held less close relations with Sugar Grove or the Miller neighborhood. Most of these places had for their centers either a post office or a voting place, and in some cases a church organization was the distinctive feature.

ORGANIZATION OF MERCER COUNTY.

By the year 1835 the territory now embraced within the limits of Mercer county had received quite a number of permanent settlers. The Black Hawk war had ended three years previously, and the excite- ment caused thereby had almost all passed away. Information had been spread abroad that this country, so lately overrun by the Indians, and about which comparatively little was known, was one of the most desirable for settlement in the west. Accordingly, emigrants began to find their way up the Mississippi and overland, from the more thickly settled portions of Ohio, in search of cheap homes ; some in search of good hunting grounds, the game having begun to be scarce in their former haunts. So they came, some on horseback, some on foot, some up the river on boats, and some in wagons, bringing with them all their worldly goods, and their families. Nearly all were poor, but nearly all came with the one purpose of securing an independence and a home for their families, which could not be obtained in the older sections of

HISTORY OF MERCER AND HENDERSON COUNTIES.

the country, where land had already become comparatively dear. The first settlements were made along the Mississippi river, and from thence they gradually spread outward and followed the smaller rivers toward their sources. By the date named, there were probably forty or fifty families in the territory designed for Mercer county.

The act of the legislature organizing the county was passed January 31, 1835. By a provision of the act, an election was directed to be. held on the first Monday of April, 1835, in the town of New Boston, at the house of Eli Reynolds, and at the house of Geo. Miller, for county officers. James Irvin, George Piper and Benjamin Vanata, or any two of them, were to be judges at New Boston, and George Mil- ler, David Shaunce and Ebenezer Cresswell, or any two of them, at the house of George Miller. New Boston was designated as the tem- porary county seat. The following is an exact copy of the act, as will be found on page 156 of the session laws for the year 1835, and as it will be deemed a historical relic by many, we think it advisable to give it entire.

AN ACT TO ORGANIZE MERCER COUNTY.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the people of the state of Illinois represented in the general assembly, That on the first Monday of April next, between the hours of eight o'clock in the morning and seven o'clock in the evening, an election shall be held in the town of New Boston, at the house of Eli Reynolds, and the house of George Miller, in the county of Mercer, for three county commissioners, one sheriff, and one coroner, for said county, who shall continue in office until their successors shall be duly elected and qualified.

SEC. 2. That James Irvin, George Piper and Benjamin Vanata, or any two of them, shall be judges of the election to be held at the town of New Boston, and George Miller, David *Shonce and Ebenezer Cresswell, or any two of them, shall be judges of the election to be held at the house of George Miller. Said judges shall be authorized to appoint two clerks at each precinct, and said judges and clerks shall be qualified in the same manner as judges and clerks of elections are now required by law, and said elections shall in every respect be conducted in conformity with the election laws of this state.

SEC. 3. Until the county seat of said county of Mercer shall be located, it shall be the duty of the county commissioner's court of said county to procure a suitable house at New Boston, and the several courts shall be held at New Boston until suitable buildings are furnished at the county seat thereinafter to be located, and the said town of New Boston is hereby declared the temporary seat of said county of Mercer until the same shall be permanently located by law.

SEC. 4. Said county of Mercer is hereby declared to be organized, with such corporate powers as belong to other counties in this state.

This act to be in force from and after its passage.

Approved January 31, 1835.

The act was passed at Vandalia, which was at that date the capital of the state, to and from which the legislator of the olden time, unlike

* Shaunce.

VASHTI DRURY.

U. OF IL .. LIB.

ORGANIZATION OF MERCER COUNTY.

his more aristocratic successor who may travel in the palace cars, jour- neyed to and fro on horseback, with his changes of raiment strapped on behind his saddle.

The act of organization was completed on the 6th day of April of the same year by the election of officers, as provided in the law. Two voting places were designated. The one precinct embracing the terri- tory in the west part of the county, and the other the eastern settle- ments. At the election in the New Boston precinct there were thirty- five votes cast for Edward Willett for coroner ; twenty-five and twelve votes respectively for Silas Drury and John Long for sheriff; and twenty-four, thirty-three, sixteen and thirty votes, respectively, for Isaac Drury, . Abraham Miller, Joseph Noble and Erastus Dennison for county commissioners. Jesse Willits, Benjamin Vanata and Samuel Piper were the judges, and William C. Townsend and Ephraim Gil- more acted as clerks. At the Miller precinct, Isaac Drury, Joseph Noble, Erastus Dennison and Abraham Miller received five, nine, thirteen and twelve votes, respectively, for commissioners ; John Long received six, and Silas Drury seven, votes for sheriff, and Edward Willett received thirteen votes for coroner. David Shaunce and Ebe- nezer Cresswell acted as judges, and John and Abraham Miller as clerks. The result of the election can be seen by the reader without recapitulation.

We cannot think of a more interesting item of history than the list of names of those who took part in the election that day, as showing who were the residents, heads of families and politicians of Mercer county in 1835. A number of the names figure prominently in the history of the county, some drop out of sight in a very few years, and a very few, with whitening heads and bent forms, are still with us to tell the story of the early times, waiting only a little while when they will follow on to a new and better country beyond the river of time. As the list is short we give it entire, as recorded on the poll book of the two precincts. There may have been a few others entitled to vote, but if there were their names are not now remembered.

Jesse Willits, Samuel Piper, Benjamin Vanata, Hamilton Christie, Newton Willitts, John Long, Silas Drury, Lewis Noble, William Drury, George Fisher, Joseph Leonard, William Jackson, William Willitts, John Hall, Elias Fisher, William Wilson, John Kester, James H. Barnes, William J. Nevius, Joseph Dennison, William Pool, Adam W. Richie, John Richardson, W. Dennison, John Reynolds, Edward Willett, William Dennison, Joseph Noble, Joseph Glancy, Isaac Drury, M. Leeper, Jesse Kester, Robert Reynolds, E. S. Dennison, Ephraim Gilmore, William C. Townsend. Second precinct -- John W.

HISTORY OF MERCER AND HENDERSON COUNTIES.

Dennison, David Shaunce, Eli Reynolds, Isaac Dawson, Jolm Farlow, John Shaunce, George Miller, Ebenezer Creswell, Abraham Miller, Sen., John Miller, A. Miller, Jun., Harrison W. Riggs, George Miller, Jun.

One week after the first election was held (April 13, 1835) the commissioner's court, corresponding in later times to the board of supervisors, met at New Boston and transacted the first public business. The court consisted of the recently elected commissioners, Isaac Drury, Abraham Miller and Erastus Dennison. The first business was to appoint a clerk, which they did in the person of William C. Townsend. Ephraim Gilmore was then appointed treasurer, John Long, school commissioner, Harrison W. Riggs, judge of election in first, and Isaac Miller in second precinct. William Dennison was granted a license to run a ferry at New Boston, on the Mississippi river, for which Dennison had to pay four dollars tax. In his license he was allowed to charge for ferriage for 1835 : for each four-horse wagon, $1.50; two-horse wagon, $1 ; man and horse, 50c ; one horse, 18¿c ; cattle, each, 18¿c ; sheep and hogs, each, 61c; each footman, 18¿c (it will be noticed that it was somewhat cheaper for a man to send his horse across alone); eachı yoke of work cattle, 50c (cheaper to send them separately). The county was laid off into four road districts, of which Abraham Miller was designated as supervisor of first, Lewis Noble of second, Jesse Kester of third, and James H. Bane of fourth. Ordered that a tax of $1.20 be levied on each quarter section of taxable land in the county. The above embraced all of the business of the first day.

On the second day, Tuesday morning at eight o'clock, the court. consisting of the commissioners, the clerk, and Silas Drury, sheriff, met and transacted additional important business. The following per- sons were selected as grand jurors for the first term of circuit court in Mercer county : George Miller, Isaac Miller, John Farlow, Jesse Wil- lits, John Hill, Mark Willits, David Shaunce, Lewis Noble, Daniel Pinkley, John W. Dennison, William Willitts, Joseph Glancey, John Reynolds, George Blake, Benjamin Vanata, John Long, James Irvin, Wesley Wicks, Ephraim Gilmore, John Kester, Jesse Kester, Thomas Morgan and John Bates. And for petit jurors : John Miller, Isaac Miller, George Miller, Abraham Miller, Isaac Dawson, William W. Wilson, John Shaunce, Isaac Drury, Wm. H. Dennison, Joseph Noble, Joseph A: Dennison, William Drury, Harrison W. Riggs, William Jackson, Robert Reynolds, Newton Willits, Joseph Leonard, Joshua Willits, James H. Bane, Eli Reynolds, John P. Reynolds, Drury Rey- nolds, Christopher Shuck, John Rankins. This, with the addition of levying a tax of one-half of one per cent on certain personal prop- "erty, embraced all the business of the special term.

ORGANIZATION OF MERCER COUNTY.

At the first regular term, which was held June 1, 1835, though the first appointed clerk had recorded, as the first item, that he had taken the oath and given bond, he failed to get the bond approved, and so at the regular meeting it was found necessary to appoint a new clerk, in the person of William Drury, upon which Mr Townsend resigned. Mr. Drury did not experience the trouble in giving security, as did his predecessor, E. S. Dennison and Joseph Leonard going on the bond in the sum of $1,000. Mr. Drury made a good clerk and served until succeeded by Abaham Miller in October 1837. Mr. Drury, in signing his name to all of his legal documents, makes a peculiar flourish be- neatli his signature, which cannot be described without an engraving, and indeed which could not be easily imitated. Judge Gilmore is our authority for a story that has been received for more than forty years as genuine history, that when Miller was elected to succeed. Drury, he was found one day sitting on the sand bank barefooted trying to cut the figure in the sand with his great toe. The evidence in the record bear- ing on the case is quite strong. The first two or three times that Miller signs his name to the record there is an evident, but fruitless, attempt to imitate Drury's flourish, but after that it is entirely abandoned.

In the Recorder's office is a relic that marks its author as a. boss mechanic. It consists of a blank book of home manufacture, and to William Drury is given the credit of its construction. It is one of the first record books, and its description is worthy of a place here. The book consists of about one hundred pages of foolscap paper. This the maker evidently ruled himself with columns to suit his convenience, and also headed in a proper manner. The cord for binding the leaves together seems to have been a fishing line, or some other equally strong cord. The sides are two oak boards, evidently rived from a straight- grained tree and dressed down with a draw shave ; or if with the axe, must have been 'by an exceedingly. skillful hand. The sides are then covered with paper that seems to have been a window blind. The back and corners are buckskin, doubtless taken from the body of some deer shot by the rifle of the bookmaker and tanned by himself. The book is in excellent preservation, as are all the old records of Mercer county, which show that our first officers were not only men of ability and taste, but that they exercised proper care of what was entrusted to their keeping.

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.

History of Mercer and Henderson Counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc, Part 5

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