USA > Illinois > Morgan County > History of Morgan county, Illinois : its past and present, containing a history of the county; its cities, towns, etc.; a biographical directory of its volunteers in the late rebellion; portraits of its early settlers and prominent men [etc., etc.] > Part 26
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narrates the fact of coming from that settlement on horseback carrying two plow shears to Mr. Reeve's airy shop for the purpose of having them sharpened. He remarked to Mr. Huram Reeve that he would not have done this had there been a shop in his own immediate neighborhood.
Of the settlers we have named Messrs. John and William Wyatt settled on land now occupied by Alexander Edgemon. Mr. Deaton and his son Lewis made their claim about four miles northwest of the present city of Jacksonville, on the Meredosia road. Mr. James settled in the same neighborhood. During the same Spring, 1820, but somewhat later, settlements were made in two other neighborhoods. Mr. Swin- erton, Mr. Olmstead, and Mr. Pierce, fixed their location and com- menced improvement at Olmstead's Mound, now known as Allison's Mound ; and on the north fork of the Mauvaisterre settlements were made by Samuel Scott, and Seymour and Elisha Kellogg. The latter settled on the north side of the creek, and the first- improvements were com- menced on what is now known as the Huffaker place, by Isaac Edwards. Mr. Buchanan settled near the head of the south fork of the Mauvaisterre. The same Spring Mr. Roberts and his sons settled at Island Grove. The Kelloggs with their families, being the first permanent settlers within what is now Morgan County, deserve a more extended notice. When the erection of the monument to the memory of Isaac Fort Roe, took place, it was supposed that he was one of the first three settlers in the territory of which we are writing. He was one of the three explorers passing through this region, as narrated in the article of Judge Thomas, and was the third settler in the present limits of the county. Mrs. Min- erva Richards, now living in Jacksonville, a daughter of Ambrose Collins, distinctly remembers the settlement of the Kelloggs. She states that in the Summer of 1818, her father, a native of Ontario County, New York, left his home with his family, a few articles of household furniture and provisions enough to last some time, came with two wagons to the Alleghany River, above its junction with the Susquehanna, where he procured a flat-boat on which he embarked his possessions, and proceeded down the Ohio River. His designation was the southern part of Illinois. On the way down the river he fell in with Seymour and Elisha Kellogg, who with their families were proceeding in a similar conveyance to the same destination. Mr. Collins and Seymour Kellogg had been acquainted in their native State. The latter had been a Colonel in the war of 1812, and was known by that title. At Shawneetown they disembarked and proceeded in their wagons to. Carmi, on the little Wabash River. They remained here during the winter, and the following summer. Early in the Autumn of 1819 they loaded their effects again into their wagons, and went on westward to Edwardsville. Here Mr. Collins was taken sick and was compelled to remain through the winter. The Messrs. Kellogg with their families and Charles Collins, a son of Ambrose Collins, with their teams, some cattle and provisions for the winter, started for the Sangamo country. They followed a more northern route than that generally adopted by emigrants. Their only guide was the compass and a few indistinct trails, made by the roving Indians or adven- turous bee hunters. Late in the Fall of 1819, they arrived near the head of Mauvaisterre Creek, erected two cabins and made provisions for the winter, now rapidly approaching. The country lay about them in all its
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native wildness. No signs of life were seen, save foot-prints in the brown paths, worn by Indian feet ; and the shy, frightened birds, squirrels, or deer, that darted away into the wildwood, at the approach of the emigrants. No foot of white men save that of the adventurous scout, or wandering hunter, had pressed the sod of these wild prairies, or roamed through the trackless forests. Mauvaisterre Creek had not known the abode of a white man. Anxious to build homes where they could rest secure, and where they could gather the fruits of a life-time, these pioneers braved the dangers of a frontier life and founded their homes where now are :
---- spacious mansions firm and strong, In place of forests dark and dense : And now instead of underbrush Runs many a line of even fence.
" But times will change ! The verdant hills Are covered o'er with growing grain; And white men till the fertile soil, Where once the red man used to reign.
" The Indian's voice is hushed and still ; Existing but in Mem'ry's hall, Where now with echoes of the Past We hear his war-whoop rise and fall !"
The winter of 1819 and '20 proved to be an unusually severe one. The long grass of the prairies had been destroyed by fires lighted by the ' Indians or hunters, and much of the undergrowth in the woods was destroyed by the same. element. Before the close of the winter, the provisions gathered by them for their stock, from places where it had escaped the ravages of the fire, gave out and they were compelled to cut down trees, from the boughs of which the cattle and horses could procure a scanty supply of food. Many of these wandered away and were lost, while several of them died from the effects of cold and hunger. The supply of food for themselves and families proved to be sufficient, yet their suffering from the cold was often intense. Mr. Seymour Kellogg in his search for some of his stock, one bitterly cold night, lost his way and saved his life only by walking vigorously between two trees standing several rods apart. He did not dare to leave this track during the night for fear of being irrecoverably lost. He did not know how far he was from either his own or his brother's cabin. On the appearance of day-light, he found himself about two miles from the latter place, to which he immediately repaired. His feet were badly frozen during the night, making him a cripple for several months.
Early in the spring Charles Collins returned to Edwardsville with his wagon and team, to aid his father, should he be sufficiently recovered, in bringing his family to the new settlement. It was just before his start to Edwardsville that the three explorers, whose names and explorations we have already recorded, came,. and one of them, Mr. Roe, settled at the place to which he gave the name " Diamond Grove." Mr. Collins with his family started on their journey about the first of March. On the way they were compelled to camp out two nights, there being no settlers be- tween Edwardsville and their destination. On their arrival, they re- mained one night with Seymour Kellogg, and then went to an unfinished cabin, erected by Mr. Olmstead, who had been exploring this country,
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and had built the cabin entered temporarily by Mr. Collins. The location not being a desirable one, Mr. Collins selected his claim, erected a cabin thereon as soon as possible, and moved his family to it. When Mr. Olm- stead returned with his family, he was not satisfied with the claim he had selected, and chose another, afterwards known as " Olmstead Mound," where he made his permanent home. In 1820 Dr. George Caldwell, the first physician in the county, located.
We have now fully described the earliest settlement in what is now Morgan County. We have also stated the names of others who came here during the spring of 1820, and noted the places of their settlement. We have described at some length the settlement of the Kelloggs - Charles Collins being then a young man, not making a claim or founding a home for himself, can hardly be termed one of the early settlers-because they were the first settlers of the county, and deserve more than a pass- ing notice. The information can be relied on as correct, as Mrs. Richards distinctly remembers the emigration and settlement of these families.
These and the other pioneers came from the southern part of the State, generally about Edwardsville, where some had remained but a short time on their journey to a western home. They came in emigrant wagons over the unbroken prairies, through the wild forests, fording unbridged streams, and encamping wherever the shades of night overtook them. They were seeking a home that in old age would afford them protection and comfort. Upon reaching their destination, their first care was the erection of a cabin in which to shelter themselves and their families. As these primitive abodes were generally built alike by all pioneers, we will note hastily their manner of construction. A site was generally selected under the shelter of the timber, near a spring or running stream. And soon " the ax rang sharply 'mid those forest shades which, from creation, toward the sky had towered, in unshorn beauty." Suitable trees were selected, which, after being felled, were cut into proper lengths with the ax. The lengths, after being split open with the maul and wedge, were rived into clapboards, to be used in covering the cabins. These boards were held to their places on the roof by weight-poles laid on them as each layer was placed, the eave-pole being pinned fast, and each succeed- ing weight-pole up to the comb being kept from slipping toward the eave' by blocks placed at each end and in the center between them. The rail cabin being raised and covered, a door was cut out, jams pinned on, and a clapboard door made and hung with wooden or leather hinges, to be fastened, when closed, with a latch or pin. Dry grass was then collected for under bedding, clapboards fastened over the cracks, or bed-quilts hung up over the walls to keep out the wind and rain. The next pro- ceeding was to mark out the boundaries of each clain, each settler being entitled, under the rules of the frontier, to so much land as he thought he could pay for when the land came into market. The claim lines were marked by blazing the trees through the timber with an ax, and driving stakes into the ground at short distances over the prairie. The lines- thus established were respected by new comers, and if they did not hap- pen to correspond with the government surveys when made, the claim title of the settler to parcels cut off or divided was not affected, and transfers. were often made between neighbors after the land had been entered, in order to make the old claim lines good to each particular owner. The
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.
next step was to mark out five or ten acres of ground in the young tim- ber skirting the prairie, as a patch for the first crop of corn. The timber land was selected as being better fitted for immediate cultivation, and more easily broken than the tough, wild prairie sod. The work of making rails for fencing was now commenced, to be followed by the clearing, grubbing, and breaking of the ground, and planting of the crop. The corn having been planted in the fresh soil, required but little further at- tention for some time, enabling the settler to finish his fencing, which was usually done at this period and during the intervals of working the crop. This was the experience of the pioneer settlers of Morgan County during the first season.
The settlers mentioned as locating in 1820, brought with them suffi- cient provision to last them until the crop could be gathered. It happened however, that Mr. Deaton and his son exhausted their supply of corn meal and bacon sometime about the first of June, compelling them to leave their partly made crop and travel a distance of eighty-five miles, to Ed- wardsville, to renew their supply. The journey was made chiefly at night, to avoid the greenhead flies of the prairie, which would, in the day time, almost bleed a team to death. Shaping their course by the stars, and without a road or trail, they started on the trip provisionless. Their first camping place was on Apple Creek. The country had been pretty well cleared of game by the Indians, but here they were fortunate enough to kill a squirrel, which they roasted at their camp fire. During the next day they succeeded in killing a deer near where the town of Jerseyville now stands, and thus they were enabled to reach Edwards- ville in excellent condition and good spirits. They returned with a sufficient quantity of provisions to last until their crop of corn was gathered. Although, at this period, game was exceedingly scarce, having been killed out or driven off by the Indians, bees were abundant, and in the fall, after the corn crop had been made, the first settlers reaped a rich harvest in honey and wax, the latter constituting at that time, in connec- tion with furs, the circulating currency of the frontier. Successful bee hunters would often find a half dozen or more bee trees in one day. In later years Mr. Wyatt is known to have found twelve bee trees in one day. The wax, when a sufficient quantity was collected, was taken to Edward's- ville, or St. Louis, and bartered for articles of household use. Wax or coon skins was about the only money in use among the settlers. Diamond Grove was a favorite resort for bees, the luxuriant prairies abounding with wild flowers afforded them a rich field from which to gather their stores. Honey was commonly used to sweeten tea and coffee, and, until maple sugar was made, was indeed the only article kept by the settlers for such purposes. The common query of the good housewife now is, "do you take sugar in your tea or coffee?" Then it was, do you take honey in your tea or coffee ? If the land did not flow with milk and honey it cer- tainly abounded with the latter, and to the settlers was an article greatly prized.
As the new corn began to harden it was made into coarse meal for family use by rubbing the ear on a tin grater until the grains were rasped off close to the cob. Of this meal bread, very sweet and palatable, was made. . The work of grating was very laborious, and the youngsters of that day would often spend an unwilling evening hour in preparing meal on this
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.
old grater for the family use. Late in the autumn, after the corn became hard enough to grind, Isaac Fort Roe and Jedediah Webster con- structed a hand mill at " Diamond Grove," to which the settlers repaired to grind their corn. Like all other mills of this class it was quite prim- itive in its construction. Two stones of the kind known as "lost stones," some two feet in diameter were procured; these were dressed into mill-stone shape and a hole drilled in the center of the one intended for the upper stone, which, by an ingenious contrivance, was made to revolve on the lower. A hole was drilled in the upper side of the top stone, near the outer edge, into which a short handle was inserted. By this means it was revolved the same as a common mill-stone. While the stone was turned with the right hand, the left was used in slowly pouring the corn into the center hole. When the corn was ground it worked its way out from between the stones, where it was caught in a vessel used for that purpose. If the grater required strength and tired its operator, the hand mill was little better in this regard. It would, however, grind much more rapidly and produce a finer quality of meal. This mill could be changed into a horse mill by fixing it firmly between two posts and attaching a sweep to it. Another contrivance for making meal was the mortar; this was made by burning or excavating the end of a stump or log. As the hole in the stump or log became deeper, it was narrowed until it came to a point. A pestle was made to fit closely into this aperture; in the end of the pestle an iron wedge was fixed. When the pestles were made of great weight they were attached to a sweep, made like a. well sweep; by this means they could be raised and dropped into the mortars. Meal was made in this manner by simply breaking or pounding the corn until it was thoroughly pulverized. The mortar in this country was probably the invention of the Indians, as it was in use when discovered by the white men. The hand mill is spoken of in the Bible, and is probably as old as the world.
After the hand mill and mortar came the horse mill, made after various plans, which, in its day, was considered a great improvement on its primitive predecessors. During the first years of the settlement of Morgan County, the pioneers of that time, did they desire better accommo- dations than that furnished at Diamond Grove, were compelled to go to Edwardsville, eighty-five miles away. The settlers were greatly dependent on each other during this period, and were noted for their hospitality and kindness toward one another and to strangers. Their latch strings were always out, and though frugal their fare and humble their accommodations no one was ever allowed to go away hungry or uncared for. Long journeys would have to be made to procure tools to use in their daily avocations. It was not uncommon for men to go fifteen or twenty miles for an iron wedge, an ax, a chain, or any such articles when needed.
The rail cabins built by the settlers afforded shelter only during the summer months. After the corn and other crops were well cultivated and laid by, as the settlers termed it, each one made preparation to erect for himself a comfortable log cabin. Logs of the proper length were chopped, puncheons and clap-boards were split, and necessary prepara- tions made to erect these frontier habitations. As the manner of constructing these cabins has been described in the article on Agriculture,
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printed elsewhere in these pages, it is unnecessary to repeat the descrip- tion here. The raising of these cabins was always the occasion of a neighborhood gathering, each one of the pioneers deeming it not only a duty but a pleasure to assist his neighbor in establishing a home. By the time the crops were gathered all the pioneers we have mentioned were provided with homes, and the settlement of Morgan County had become a reality.
Aside from the settlers already mentioned, no others are known to have settled here during the Summer of 1820. Late in the Autumn of that year Mr. John Bradshaw visited the settlement, and marked out his claim on what is now known as the "Chestnut " farm, lying a mile southeast of the present city of Jacksonville. He did not, however, remain during the winter or make any improvements until the following spring, when he returned and began cultivating his claim.
Gen. Murray McConnell, a gentleman afterwards well known throughout the county, and who has held many important offices of trust in the State, also made his first visit to the new settlement in the Autumn of 1820. He made his settlement on the place now owned and occupied by Milton Riggs, Esq., in what is at present known as the Gilham Neigh- borhood, within the present limits of Scott County, but did not commence improvements or remove his family to his claim until the following spring.
Under date of July 11, 1867, Murray McConnell contributed to the columns of the Jacksonville Sentinel, a highly interesting sketch, descriptive of the valley of the Illinois River and its early settlement. After some prefatory remarks he says :
" Take as one diversion of the State, the valley of the Illinois River, including all the country drained by that stream and its tributaries : then the reader can cast his eye over the map and see that said river drains nearly one-third of the surface of the State, properly known as central Illinois.
" You might say, without fear of successful contradiction, that a more fertile and beautiful region of land of the same size, lying in one body, can not be found on the continent of America. The river and its tributaries pass from the east-north-east to the west-south-west, fully across the State, draining about an equal amount of country on each side. formed into long arms of beautiful, dry, rolling, fertile prairie lands, and corresponding lines of timber land, much narrower in width than the prairie land, but so distributed as to be convenient to any section of prairie land. The surface of the timber land is equally rolling and healthful as the prairie ; and upon every section of the timber and prairie living water may be had.
" This Illinois River is the central water line of the great upper valley of the Mississippi. It lies and runs in a deeper groove in the earth than any other river emptying into the Mississippi. The fortieth degree of north latitude crosses it in Cass County, about mid way of its course across the State, and on that line of latitude the country rises as you follow it east from this river to the Alleghany Mountains, and west to the Rocky Mountains : there not being one spot of land or water on that line east or west from that river that is not higher than the land near the mouth of Indian Creek, near where the line of north latitude crosses the river. As an evidence that this river lies deeper in the earth than any
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other stream in the upper valley, it is known that it is the last river to freeze at the beginning of winter, and the first to thaw in the spring, among all the streams in the valley crossed by that line of latitude.
" This fact accounts for the total absence of extensive swamps and morasses in the valley of this river, such as are found upon the upper portion of the Wabash valley, in Indiana. The central hydraulic groove is cut so deeply in the earth that all the adjacent country is drained ; yet living springs of pure and healthful water abound in all its parts.
" Why so beautiful, rich, and healthly a country should have remained unsettled so long-occupied only by savage men and wild beasts-while the sterile hills and rocks in the freezing climate of New England, and some similar parts of the Middle States, became densely populated, is a question which arises, but which I will leave others to solve, and will now turn my attention to the history of the first settlement of the valley by white men.
" It is known by those who have looked into this question, that the first white inhabitants and Christian civilized people that located any- where in the country now known as the State of Illinois, came in the seventeenth century, from France, by way of Quebec and Montreal, up the line of the lakes to Mackinaw, and up Lake Michigan across into the Illi- nois River: all the way by water, and down that stream to the Mississippi, and across the country and down the Wabash River, and formed the settlements at Peoria, Kaskaskia, Kahokia, Dupro, Carondalet, and St. Genevieve, on the Mississippi River, and Vincennes on the Wabash River.
" The French also afterward came by way of New Orleans. No set- tlements worthy of note were made on this long line from Detroit to Kaskaskia with a view to a permanent location, for many years after these last-named settlements were made. Trading-houses were established as depots of commerce with the Indians at many places ; but no farms were made and houses built with a view to a permanent settlement. The peo- ple were traders, navigators, trappers and hunters, and were people with- out homes, and were called by the French inhabitants ' voisseres.'*
" This was the situation of the inhabitants of the country in the year 1775, or about that time, when some French inhabitants from Kaskaskia, being attracted by the beautiful lands on the western banks of Lake Peoria, near a trading-house some distance above, where the city of Peoria now is, made a permanent location with a view to building a village and farming a common field to raise grain, which was the French mode of set- tling the country. There was a tradition of there having been an earlier settlement, and as early as 1717 the King of France made a grant of all the Mississippi country, including Illinois, to John Law ; and in 1723 John Law granted thirty thousand acres to one Phillip Renaults, which was supposed to include this land on Lake Peoria, on the west side of the Illinois River. But the calls of the grant were evidently written out by a person who had never seen the country, and knew nothing about its localities, and were so vague and uncertain that the grant never could be located ; and consequently it is uncertain as to whether it included this land or not, and consequently it is doubtful whether any settlement was made here before 1775 by the French colony from Kaskaskia.
" Whether the ancient settlement was made or not, it is certain that
*Voyageurs. There are evidently a few misstatements in this letter of Mr. McConnell's.
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in 1775 one John Bapties Malet, and several other French families, made a permanent settlement, and built houses and fenced and planted land at a place above the present city of Peoria, and in 1778 a settlement was made at the foot of the lake, where Peoria now stands.
" Those settlements were permanent, and continued until the war of 1812, at which time a large number of Americans, as they were called, settled in the southern part of Illinois. opposite St. Louis, and south to the mouth of the Ohio. The French people took very little interest in the war. They were mostly traders, and spake the Indian language as well as they spake English, and often better. The Indians were allies of the English, and made war upon the Americans, but made no war upon the French. Thus it came about that the French were charged with aiding the enemy, and the French colony at Peoria was charged with furnishing the Indians with powder, and lead, and guns, to murder the whites down on Wood River, near where Alton now is ; the Indians having made a raid on that settlement and murdered several families, which occurred in 1813.
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