History of Mercer and Henderson Counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc, Part 74

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 74
USA > Illinois > Henderson County > History of Mercer and Henderson Counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc > Part 74

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In 1854 the first assessment under township organization showed that there were in the township 163 horses, 405 cattle, 5 mules, 226 sheep, 649 hogs, 45 wagons and carriages, 39 clocks and watches; moneys and credits $779. The total personal property assessed was $19,821; the total real estate assessed was $35,238.29; total assess- ment, $55,059.29.

The New Windsor Observatory, located at New Windsor, and

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owned by Edgar L. Larkin, is an object of much interest. It was erected for astronomical purposes, and is provided with a telescope made especially for celestial observation. The diameter of the object- ive is six inches in the clear, and its focal length is eight feet ten inches. The observatory is in free telegraphic communication with the Smith- sonian Institute at Washington, D.C., and with the Howard College observatory at Cambridge, Massachusetts. The telescope is called an equatorial ; that is, it rests on two strong, cast-iron axes, that have motions so adjusted that when the telescope is set on a star it will remain so, since it is revolving on axes that move as the earth does. The telescope and all its belongings are first-class, and it would be a pleasure to note all of its peculiarities and appliances, but space forbids more than the above mention.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

REUBEN H. SPICER, Sr., was born in the town of Kent, county of Litchfield, state of Connecticut, June 24, 1810. In 1819 his father removed to western New York, then a new country. The schools there at that day were of the frontier type, but such as they were Mr. Spicer had the privilege of attending from two to three months during the year. Such was the advantage he took of the limited opportunities that at the age of fourteen he was spoken of for a teacher. Daboll's arithmetic, Webster's spelling book, with writing, comprised the entire curriculum of the common school then, but through the partiality of one or two teachers and a Baptist minister, Mr. Spicer was enabled to go a little beyond the standard course and obtain an introduction to mathematics, geography and grammar. At the age of eighteen he left the home farm at his father's suggestion, and spent some time in southern New York and northern Pennsylvania, which being an older settled portion of the country, brought him in contact with a higher grade of society, and better opportunities to gratify his ardent desire for knowledge and self-improvement. One of the first steps taken by him was to form a temperance society of one, for at that time the use of liquor was almost universal, standing upon the sideboard of every well- to-do gentleman, and in the closets of poorer people; greeting the guest upon arrival and following his departure as a stirrup cup. See- ing the degradation and misery which too frequently resulted, especially among young men, from the use of intoxicating liquors, he resolved to deny himself the use, and faithfully did he adhere to that resolution, and now as he reviews his past life he does not hesitate to award to that resolve the credit for his being a better man and more useful citizen than he could have been with the associations of those who had

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a greater fondness for liquor and smoke than for mental culture. After traveling considerably through the middle, some of the southern and eastern states, in the fall of 1831 he went to Michigan, the only new country then thought to be habitable, with the expectation of making it his home. He spent the winter in Ann Arbor, then a flourishing town with good society. Early next spring with a pony he started out and during the season traversed the territory in various directions, Indian trails being the substitute for roads. Indians were numerous and he often found them useful in mapping the geography of the country for him ; with their ramrods tracing in the sand the course of trails, rivers, ravines and sloughs, and marking the crossings, all with an unerring accuracy that would have done honor to a learned pro- fessor. While stopping for the night at Bronson, now Kalamazoo, in the early summer, the people were aroused to great excitement by the arrival of a messenger announcing the breaking out of the Black Hawk war, and claiming to have been sent for aid to arrest the advance of the hostiles, which was represented to be rapid and not far distant. The people were panic stricken; old men and women traversed the streets wringing their hands, not knowing which way to turn for safety. Mr. Spicer's destination, Prairie Ronde, now Schoolcraft, led him directly toward the advancing foe, and he resumed his journey next morning against the earnest protests of the people of the village. He made the journey in safety, transacted his business, and, returning on the second day met the volunteers en route for the seat of war. Among them was every man from the Gull Prairie settlement, where he had been stopping, even Deacon Mills, the old man of the settle- ment, with whom Mr. Spicer had been boarding. By taking his place in the ranks Mr. Spicer induced the deacon to return to his home, and thus he was led into making a campaign in the Black Hawk war. With the desire for a higher education as strong as ever, he returned east in the fall of 1832, and at the age of twenty-two began that course of education that most young men now finish before that age. For two years he applied himself with untiring assiduity to his studies. In the spring of 1835 he again started west, this time with Texas as his objective point, that state being engaged at that time in the struggle to free itself from Mexican rule. Arrived at Cincinnati he found the funds too low to proceed farther, so crossed over to Kentucky and pro- cured a situation in a school and began to teach. He applied himself with such diligence in his new profession that he soon found himself at the head of one of the most flourishing local schools of the state. Two years of such intense application told upon his health, and he was forced to give up his school. In the spring of 1837 he married Miss

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Sophia Whitehead, of Covington, Ky., who was a native of London, England, and they started at once for Illinois. Arrived at Peoria he found speculation a mania, corner lots selling far up in the thousands. After inspecting the country about Peoria, he proceeded up the river to Peru, thence to Aux Plaines and Chicago. While stopping with a brother at Aux Plaines he incidentally heard of a wonderfully fertile country bordering on the Mississippi south of Rock river. A place where a man of small means had a chance to become the peer of his neighbor with no greater means. Chancing to meet a former acquaint- ance from the east, he started for the new Eldorado on foot, there being few inducements then for even stage lines to traverse the trackless prairies. After viewing the country he purchased a claim that is now embraced within the limits of his farm. He returned to his claim with his wife in July. The improvements on the claim con- sisted of two acres broken and a log cabin erected, 14×16 feet dimen- sion, with a place ent for a door and a fire-place, and a place 6×8 feet in one corner covered by a puncheon floor. Mr. Spicer, writing of this cabin, says : "This domicile had its conveniences. First, it was well ventilated, then the open door and fire-place made ample provision for the easy ingress and egress of itinerant dogs and prowling wolves, the latter being much the more numerous." Speaking of these times Mr. Spicer remarked that "Political organizations at this time had not disturbed the unity of the settlements. In 1838 the first breeze, faint, but yet perceptible, swept over these prairies. In 1840 the invader arrived and the two parties, democrat and whig, for the first time measured their strength." Mr. Spicer was a democrat, and though he foresaw that the probabilities were against that party acquiring a per- manent ascendency, he preferred to be right in his own estimation rather than yield his opinion to expediency. In 1841 he was sent as delegate to the state convention ; the first delegate of either party from the county to a state convention. He found some difficulty in making the geographical location of the county known. In answer to questions as to its whereabouts, he replied that "Time would make it known as one of the first counties of the state." This was received with very incredulous smiles. He there formed the acquaintance of many of the prominent men of the state, which became a source of much pleasure to him in after years. In 1843 he was elected to the legislature from the district composed of the counties of Mercer and Knox. In 1848 he was put in nomination for the state senate for the district composed of Mercer, Rock Island, Henry, Knox, Warren and Henderson counties. The canvass of that year was the most spirited in this section up to that time ; Gov. Joseph B. Wells and Col. E. D. Baker, candidate for congress,

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participated. By the defection of a small portion of his party in Knox county he was defeated. This virtually closed his political career, as impediments beyond his control prevented his taking any further part in that direction. Yet in 1851, withont his consent or knowledge even, he was again put in nomination for the same office, to fill a vacancy. His business arrangements were such then that he could not accept it and took no part in the canvass. He has always been an earnest advo- cate of the public schools, laboring officially and individually for their improvement, having served over twenty years as a school officer in his district and township. At the breaking out of the rebellion he was among the first to advocate its suppression, believing that the union must and should be preserved. Loss of hearing has for many years been a serious obstacle to the transaction of business, and still greater to the enjoyment of social intercourse, for which he is so eminently qualified, and from which he would derive such great pleasure. Nat- nrally of a studious disposition, this deprivation has caused him to turn more of his attention to books, and especially in that greatest of all books, the book of nature, where he finds his greatest solace. His father was a man of more than ordinary energy, and had executive faculties of a high order. Starting with a very imperfect education, he made his way through life a success. Frequently having large busi- ness operations under his supervision, he won the confidence of an ex- tended circle of friends. He held many of the local offices of his county, and when over sixty years of age removed from New York to the vicinity of Lawrence, Kansas, for the benefit of his younger children. The climate and change seemed to affect his health, but he lived to reach nearly four score years. His grandfather gave his services to his country during the entire period of the revolutionary war. His grand- mother resided at New London. Connecticut, at the time Arnold invaded that place, but was one of those who escaped to the hills in the rear of the place. Mr. Spicer's first claim and residence was on the S. E. of the S. E. of section 25, in Greene township; his present resi- dence was not built until 1841, and is on the N. W. of the S. W. of section 30, in Rivoli township. Of the ten children, nine are living : Sarah A. (wife of C. V. Shove, Viola, Illinois); S. Augusta (wife of Wm.C. Garrett, farmer, Rivoli township); E. Levis (member of Co. H, 84th Ill. Vol. Inf., was mortally wounded at the battle of Stone river, Tennessee, and was buried in the cemetery at Nashville); Talbut T. (farmer, married daughter of Elihu Rathbun, lives near Chariton, Iowa); Charles F. (senior partner of firm of Spicer & Gilmore, dealers in agri- cultural implements, Aledo, Illinois); Lucy A .; Reuben H., Jr. (mar- ried to Laura C., youngest daughter of L. W. Conger, now of Putnam

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county, Missouri); Franklin P .; Minnie I. (wife of John L. Stewart, farmer, Rivoli township); and Mary E.

Hon. ALEXANDER P. PETRIE was born at Rosendale on the Hudson, in Ulster county, New York, August 31, 1837. He came to Illinois with his father's family in 1844, via the lakes to Chicago, and thence by wagon to Richland Grove township, arriving at the house of Samuel Clark, one of the pioneers of that township, June 6, 1844, the next day after the great tornado that had blown from their foundations the MeMullen and Wilcox houses, the only two houses then on the prairie south of Edwards creek. His youth was spent on the farm with only the very limited advantages for education afforded by the common schools of that day. He afterward took a course in a commercial school at Chicago. On August 9, 1862, he enlisted in Co. C, 112th reg. Ill. Vol. Inf., and at the company organization was elected orderly sergeant, was mustered into the United States service as second lieuten- ant, at Peoria, September 22, 1862, went with his regiment to Covington, and thence to Lexington, Kentucky, where he wintered; went with a detachment from his regiment in the summer of 1864, on Saunder's raid into east Tennessee, destroying railroads and confederate supplies. Some of his command were captured near Cumberland Gap, but he escaped. Reaching Lancaster, Kentucky, they celebrated July 4, 1863, there, and afterward rejoined his regiment at Danville, Kentucky; was at the siege of Knoxville, Tennessee, and at Kelly's Ford, cast Tennessee. January 27, 1864, he was wounded by a shot in both legs during a cavalry engagement. For his wound he received a furlough for two months and visited his home. He rejoined his command, then a part of Gen. Sherman's grand army, rendezvoused near Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the spring of 1864, taking part in that wonderful hun- dred days' campaign which resulted in the fall of Atlanta, his command being in the Twenty-third Army Corps under Gen. Schofield. He com- manded his company after the battle of Resacca, in the spring of 1864, until after the battle of Franklin; Tennessee, November 30, 1864, in which his brother, Edward R., a member of his company, was killed and borne from the field by Lieut. Petrie in person. He was also with his command in the right wing of the army under Gen. George H. Thomas, when Gen. Hood received his final defeat at Nashville. His command having been sent to Fort Fisher after the battle of Nashville, to take part with Gen. Sherman in the Carolina campaign, he joined it at Kingston, North Carolina, in March, 1865. He was mustered out at Greensboro, North Carolina, June 20, 1865, as first lieutenant, reaching home on July 9, following. August 28, 1862, Mr. Petrie united in marriage with Miss Alice, daughter of Dr.

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T. S. Petrie, probably a distant relative, as both parties trace their lineage back four or five generations to one James Petrie, gardener and florist, Forest, Elginshire. Scotland. Miss Alice was born in Liverpool, England, April 1, 1839, and came to America with her parents in 1840, via New Orleans and the river, to Peoria, Illinois, settling first at Trivoli, in Peoria county, thence moving to Brimfield, and thence to Rivoli, Mercer county. Mr. and Mrs. P. have four children, two sons and two daughters. The oldest, Maggie, being now in attendance at St. Mary's school, Knoxville, Illinois. In the spring of 1867 Mr. Petrie was elected supervisor for Rivoli township, to which office his neighbors continued to call him until he had served them ten years. He has been an active member of the republican party ever since his majority, but not in the roll of an office seeker, the offices having songht him. In 1880 his party called on him to represent the twenty- second senatorial district in the house of representatives of the Illinois legislature, which position he fills with as much honor to himself and his constituents as any of the new members of that body. Mr. T. is a member of the Congregational church, of New Windsor, and of Oxford Lodge, No. 367, A.F.A.M., of New Windsor, of which lodge he was W.M. for two years. His farm, consisting of 560 acres, lies near the village of New Windsor; his residence, where he has lived since Feb- ruary, 1866, is on the southwest quarter section 12. The farm is in a high state of cultivation and has 1,600 rods of drain tile laid at present. His business has been farming and stock raising, and for a few years, he was engaged quite extensively in raising hedge plants. His father, William F. Petrie, was born at Forest, Elginshire, Scotland, April 19, 1803, and came to America in 1828, and was overseer several years for Commodore Stockton, of the United States navy, at his place, near Princeton, New Jersey. Here he married Miss Ann Regan, who was born in Ireland in 1809, and was at the time a nurse in the family of Commodore Stockton. Went from Princeton, New Jersey, to Rosendale, New York, and engaged in mercantile pursuits; then on to a farm in Oneida county, New York; thence to Illinois in 1844, settling on the southwest quarter section twenty-five, in Richland Grove township, Mercer county. In 1849 he crossed the plains of California, where he remained two years, most of the time plying his vocation as gardener, near San Francisco. While there he took the contract to grade Stock- ton street in the above named city. Having sold his farm in Richland Grove township, he bought land on sections 12 and 13, in Rivoli town- ship, and moved on to the northeast quarter section thirteen, in 1857. He was one of the original proprietors of the village of New Windsor, part of the town plat being on the northeast of section 13. Mr. P.

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had nine children, one daughter and eight sons, four dying in in- fancy and one, Edward R., killed in battle as mentioned before. The four survivors reside in and near New Windsor, viz : Mary C., (wife of W. D. Fleharty), Alexander P., Richard S., and Cornelius L. Mr. P. was an energetic, thorough going man in all that he undertook, being awarded the premium three successive years by the Mercer County Agricultural Society, for the best cultivated farm in the county. He died August 19, 1866, his worthy wife surviving him until September 10, 1874. Their remains are deposited with those of their heroic son, Edward R., in the village cemetery north of New Windsor, the site for which was donated by Mr. Petrie.

Hon. ALSON J. STREETER, one of Mercer county's most prominent citizens, was born in Rensselaer county, New York, January 18, 1823. His father, Roswell Streeter, was born in Massachusetts in 1799, and his mother, Eleanor Kenyon, was born in Westerly, Rhode Island, August 20. 1798. There were six sons and two daughters the offspring of this union, of whom the subject of this sketch is the oldest, and the only one living in this county now. His sister, Mrs. Shumway, living in Oxford, Henry county, is the only member of the family living near him. Mr. Streeter came to Illinois in 1836, when only thirteen years old, with his father, who settled at that early day in what is now Lee Centre, Lee county, Illinois. His father died April 11; 1850, in Iowa, en route for California. His mother survived until June 8, 1871, when she died, in the seventy- third year of her age, at her son's residence near New Windsor. His youth was spent on the farm and in trapping, hunting and fishing, which were his favorite employments at that time and at which he was very successful. The furs and pelts of the wolf, mink, otter, muskrat, etc., being about the only medium of exchange obtainable at that time. He has treasured up many interesting incidents connected with his early pioneer life, when the settlers who had endured the hardships to which they were subjected at that early day were obliged to form societies for mutual protection, to prevent by the force of might the greedy speculator from entering their homes, which the set- tlers could not purchase, there being no money in the country with which to buy. He also relates how they used to burn charcoal and hanl it fourteen miles to Grand Du Tour, on Rock river, where one John Deere (now of Moline plow fame) had a blacksmith shop with two forges in it. He would sometimes get fifty cents and sometimes a dollar in cash on his load, the balance would be taken in blacksmith- ing as it was needed. It was when making one of these trips that he first saw a steel plow that would seour, Mr. Deere having just begun

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the manufacture of a diamond-shaped steel plow, the only plow then in use having a wooden mold-board, with a piece of iron fastened on the lower edge for a share. Returning home he reported to his father what he had seen, and they concluded they must have one of the new plows. So, taking a load of charcoal, he went to the shop and traded for a plow. Repairing to a neighboring sand-bank he hitched his oxen to the plow and drove, while Mr. Deere held the plow, to scour it, not having any implement to grind with at that time. While living in Lee county he attended two terms of school in an old log school-house. At the age of twenty-three, with an ardent desire to improve his edu- cation and $12 of hard-earned savings in his pocket, he went to Gales- burg to attend Knox college. By the industrious use of the frower and knife riving and shaving hard-wood shingles, he maintained him- self two and one-half years at school. In 1849 he went overland to California and spent two years in the mines, returning in 1851. In 1853 he went across the plains with a drove of cattle, and repeated the trip again in 1854. On his return from this last trip he bought 240 acres of land in section 11, Rivoli township, to which he has continued to add until his farm at present spreads over 3,100 acres, about one- half of which is in pasture at present and on which he raises large numbers of hogs and cattle, having one of the finest herds of thorough- bred short horns in the county. Farming and stock raising has been his business, and although his private affairs have grown to such large dimensions of late years, he has always kept himself posted on the course of current politics, taking deep interest in everything affecting agriculture and education. Thongh having business interests that would seem to require all his time, he has always held himself in readiness to serve his neighbors in any position they have called upon him to fill. He has represented his town several years on the board of supervisors. In 1872 he was elected by the cumulative system the minority representative to the state legislature from the twenty-second senatorial district, composed of Knox and Mercer counties, serving two years as a member of the twenty-eighth general assembly to the satisfaction of his constituents and honor to himself. Serving on the committee on agriculture and education, he helped to shape all the legislation upon those two subjects, in which he takes so great interest. A democrat until about 1874, he deemed that neither of the two lead- ing parties was serving the people's interests as it should, and since that time he has identified himself with the national greenback labor union party. Standing for that party as candidate for congress from the tenth congressional district in 1878, he received over 3,600 votes. Again in 1880, the candidate of the same party for governor of the

your, Truck

A. Petrie

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state, he received 28,808 votes. He is always found on the side of the masses, battling against the encroachments of the great moneyed cor- porations, and believes most firmly in enforcing our railroad and ware- house laws. He is a member of the Congregational church of New Windsor, and is also a Royal Arch Mason. On his place is one of the curiosities of this section of country : a crows' roost. Near his house is a patch of brush land densely covered with a young growth of black oaks. In this the crows assemble every evening to roost, departing early in the morning on their daily foraging expeditions. When they are all congregated in the evening they cover about five aeres, sitting so closely together that they completely cover the trees, making each a veritable quercus niger. Mr. Streeter says they were there when he came, and lie does not see that they have either increased or dimin- ished in number during the now nearly thirty years of his acquaint- ance with them. IIe does not allow them to be disturbed, and they have never done any damage on his place. He has never heard of but one other roost in the state, and that is in the southern part. He thinks his crows range over a circle whose radius is more than one hundred miles. During the brooding season they do not return to the roost, but as soon as the young can fly they take them there. His children, in the order of their ages, are: George A., Frank W., Mary, Nellie May, Fannie Rose, Minnie Grace, and Charles Dallas. The four last-named are children of his second wife (Susan Menold), to whom he was married in August, 1861. George A. married a daugh- ter of Joshua Goddard, of Viola. Frank W. married a daughter of Samuel Park, near Viola, and now lives on the place, having charge of the farm and stock. Mary is the wife of Thomas Burling, and lives in Nebraska. Minnie Grace died January 23, 1882, from the effects of diphtheria, deeply mourned by a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. She was a girl of more than ordinary promise, for whom a very brilliant future seemed just opening. February 22, 1882, Nellie May was married to Mr. Frank Crane, of Osco, Henry county, Illinois. Fannie Rose and Charles Dallas are all that remain at home. By energy and perseverance he has wrested from the soil his present ample means, and has earned a justly merited reputation for honor and probity that is worth more than money or lands. Mr. Streeter resides on his original purchase in section 11, two and one-half miles northwest of the village of New Windsor.

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History of Mercer and Henderson Counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc, Part 74

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