USA > Illinois > Pike County > History of Pike County, Illinois : together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons and biographies of representative citizens > Part 19
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"Although the immediate descendants of these old pioneers grew up without an opportunity to get an education, many of them are, yes, I may say most of them, are noble, high-minded men and wo- men, and are generally among the foremost to make a sacrifice to secure for their children a substantial education; and while on this subject I will say, if there was a school-house in the county I was not aware of its location. The first school-house near Griggsville was built in 1831. It was located a little northeast of town, a small log cabin, stick-and-clay chimney, the floor laid from slabs split from lind logs, and the seats made of some material mounted on wooden legs. For light, one log was cut out of the building, a hewn slab put under this opening and paper pasted over it in cold weather; then with a rousing log fire, Webster's speller, the Testament, sometimes the Life of Washington, sometimes Jack Downing, Rob- inson Crusoe, or whatever happened to be in the library at home, and a few copies of Daboll's or Pike's arithmetic, and a long 'gad' or two, Master Robert Rankin used to 'teach the young idea how to shoot.' Some of my young friends no doubt will laugh at my description of our educational privileges in those days, but this happened less than half a century ago and within less than half a mile and in sight of that fine school-house that so adorns the town and adds so much to your educational privileges. My description of this one will answer with very little variation all the first schools in this part of the county.
"The next settlements to those already mentioned were along the bluff near Chambersburg and a few in the neighborhood of Detroit. The first settlers were poor, honest and brave, always kind to
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friends and ready to resent an insult, but rarely with any weapon only such as nature furnished them with.
"The first settlements were nearly entirely confined to the edge of the timber where small fields could be cleaned and plowed with one yoke of oxen or a span of horses, the prairie sod being tough, requiring heavy teams to plow it.
"At this time game was very abundant. Deer, turkeys, prairie chickens, quail, raccoon, opossum and skunk were here in immense numbers. The buffalo had disappeared, but from the amount of horns and bones that lay bleaching on the prairies they must have been here in vast numbers.
" At this time occasional bands of Indians would come in to hunt, but the settlers would form into companies, shoulder their rifles and march out to their camps and drive them away.
"Now, I can imagine some of my young friends would like to know how these poor settlers lived and what kind of houses they had, how they dressed themselves, and many other questions. Well, I have told you game was plenty ; so was wild honey; the land pro- ductive and every man and boy who was large enough knew how to use the rifle and bring down the game. And up to the winter of 1830-'1 the winters had been very mild. Flax grew well, and cot- ton for the first few years did well. The women had all been raised to spin, weave and manufacture all the clothing that was needed in the family; but a large portion of the men dressed deer-skins and made themselves pants and coats, or what they called hunting- shirts. Some wore moccasins made of the same material, others would buy leather and manufacture shoes for their own family, or perhaps some neighbor would become quite an expert at cobbling, and besides doing all the shoe work for his own family, would do also a good deal for his neighbors; and I have seen women that could make quite a respectable shoe. The men would frequently manufacture caps for themselves and boys from the skins of foxes, coons and muskrats. Honey, at that day, was almost the only sweetening, besides maple sugar, that was used. Very little tea and coffee were used. Cows were cheap and the rich and nutritious grass caused them to produce choice milk and butter. Everybody used milk in those days. Potatoes, squashes, pumpkins and the various vegetables were securely stored for winter. The people had no money; they made but very few debts and very little dealing at the stores. What they did was mostly trade in furs, peltries and beeswax; and some of the oldest settlers would have a little surplus to sell to new comers.
" It was several years before there was any grain shipped from this part of the country. The only means of transportation was a keel-boat owned and run by Ira Kellogg from Naples to St. Louis. It would make a trip once in five or six weeks. Naples was the only trading point for all the east side of the county. All the mills I can think of now that were then in Pike county, were Johnson's little grist and saw mill, two miles above Chambersburg, built in
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1830 or 1831, Van Deusen's little corn-cracker on Blue river, that would grind from one to two bushels per hour according to the stage of water, and Barney's horse-mill, some four or five miles from where Pittsfield now stands. As these mills did not accom- modate half the settlers, hand-mills, mortars and pestles were re- sorted to, and quantities of hominy were used during the winter season.
"Now, for the habitations. Well, they were all built of logs after the fashion of the school-house I described. All had fire- places and only one room. The cooking was done in iron vessels on and around the log fire. If the weather was cold, the family large, or company in, which very frequently happened, the wood was piled on so as to raise the heat and cause all hands to sit back to give the cooks room to work. In at least two corners of the cabin would be one-legged bedsteads, made by boring two holes at right angles into the logs and two to correspond into a single post. to receive the outer ends of the two rails. Clapboards, being laidi across, formed quite a convenient bedstead; and besides these I have often seen a loom and spinning-wheel in use in the same cabin. This state of affairs would often last for years before another room would be added.
" At the time of which I write, settlements were not very rapid. The land was not in market. Congress had passed an act that all actual settlers who had lived for one year upon the public lands were entitled to enter or buy 160 acres at any time before the land was offered at public sale, which was in the fall of 1830; but very few of the settlers had any money to buy the land upon which they lived. The land office for this district was at Edwardsville, at which place a loan office was opened by Mason & Co. They would loan $200 to a settler which would pay the Government for 160 acres of land, the settler giving mortgage on the land and personal security for the payment of the $200 with 35 per cent. interest.
"Soon after this, settlements became more frequent, many of the new comers bringing some money with them. Many of the old settlers who had borrowed money at the enormous rate of interest referred to, sold their land and improvements, thereby enabling them to pay the mortgage and have some money left to buy another tract of unimproved land. The most of these early settlers were from the Southern States. Very few of them had ever had many advantages of an education; and, coming into a new country, where for several years schools were unknown, and then for several years more the only schools we had being gotten up by the individual efforts of the poor settlers, we see how limited their education must have been. We had no school fund then, no law to levy tax for school purposes, and school-houses were built by individual effort, and teachers hired in the same way. Books and papers were very scarce. I think the nearest paper published in the State was at Vandalia, the seat of Government at that time. Our postoffice was
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at Naples, in Morgan, now Scott, county, where we paid twenty-five cents postage on a letter.
"With these limited advantages nearly all the children of that day grew to be men and women with but little education, or what is considered so at the present day. And let me say to my young friends, when you feel disposed to laugh at the speech, orthography, or grammar of old fogies who have come up from, those days, just laugh and feel good, and then remember them with gratitude for the many sacrifices and noble efforts they have made to secure to you the grand educational advantages you now enjoy under our free-school system.
"In December, 1830, snow fell to the depth of three feet on a level and drifted in many places to eight or ten feet. This was kept up by snow-falls until the middle of March. This has been known and referred to as the winter of the deep snow. During this win- ter vast numbers of deer, turkey and other game died, or were killed by thoughtless hunters. During these early settlements wolves were very abundant and very destructive on pigs and sheep. This county had a great many snakes, of which the rattlesnake was the most numerous and dangerous, persons and animals being fre- quently bitten by them, causing the most intense pain and occa- sionally producing death. The habits of these reptiles were to gather up late in the fall at some rocky bluff or other place where they could make their way underground beyond the reach of frost and remain there until warm weather in May, when they crawled out and lay around in the sun a few days and then dispersed for miles over the surrounding country. During the time of their coming out in May we used to visit their dens and kill them in large numbers. This practice, in the course of a few years, greatly lessened their numbers, but still, in some localities a few remain.
" In the fall of 1830, if my recollection is right, we had the first preaching, by a Methodist minister named Hunter, whose circuit or mission covered all the territory south of Rushville and Warsaw, lying between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. He went around this circuit once in four weeks. The preaching place for a little society that was formed in the neighborhood of Griggsville was at my father's house, on the S. W. quarter of sec. 14, T. 4 S., R. 3 W.
" ASA HINMAN."
MR. GARRISON'S LETTER.
In 1876, when F. M. Grimes was preparing the history of Monte- zuma township, he received the following very descriptive letter from Z. A. Garrison, of Oregon:
" Fifty years ago I with my father and his family crossed the Illinois river in a small hand ferry-boat at Meacham's Ferry, where Montezuma now stands. We went west four miles and settled in the timber, a pretty country abounding with game of all kinds. Deer, turkey and bees were very plenty. The Indians were our most numerous neighbors, being about twenty to one white man. In the
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winter of 1829 and 1830, the deep snow fell, which was four feet on a level. The summer following I was tending the ferry for Solo- mon Seevers at Montezuma and saw the first steam-boat that ploughed the Illinois river. It was a small stern-wheeler. When opposite the ferry the wheel rolled up so much grass that it could not turn, and the men had to cut it loose and pole her through the grass. There was but one water mill in the county and that was on Big Blue. It was a tub-wheel and a very faithful one it was. When it got one grain cracked it would jump upon another with a powerful vim and crack it too. The nearest store in the county was kept by Col. Ross at Atlas. Women wore homespun cotton dresses, and deer-skin moccasins. Men and boys dressed in buckskin from head to foot, and on the head a coon or fox skin cap; ate hog and hominy, lived sociably and enjoyed each other's company with true friendship."
COUNTY-SEAT MOVED TO PITTSFIELD.
By the year 1831 it was seen that the county-seat could not long remain at Atlas, and a movement was started to fix its future and permanent location. The Legislature of the following winter authorized the appointment of three commissioners to locate the permanent seat of justice, which commissioners were Hawkins Judd, Geo. W. Hinman and Benj. Barney. After thoroughly can- vassing the situation they chose that beautiful site, centrally located in the county, whereon the present town of Pittsfield stands. The parties who wished to make the best of the situation had not the necessary $200 to enter the land with. It was difficult to borrow it anywhere in the county except of the Ross family, and they were interested in Atlas and opposed to Pittsfield. Of course some ill- feeling was engendered, and Mr. Hinman and Col. Barney got so mad they swore they "would never hold office again," and the Colo- nel has kept his word. They signed a note and obtained the money of Col. Ross, had the ground surveyed, let the building of the court-house to a Mr. Burke, and the commissioners held court in it in the fall of 1833, and the next spring the Circuit Court was held there. The Commissioners favoring the location were elected by a handsome majority at the next election, showing how the people of the county felt on the subject.
THE BEAUTIFUL PRAIRIES.
The large prairies of the county presented a most beautiful sight before they were settled. The following very descriptive lines on "The Prairies of Illinois," by Capt. Basil Hall, graphically por- trays their beauty in their wild and native state:
" The charm of prairie exists in its extension, its green, flowery carpet, its undulating surface, and the skirt of forest whereby it is surrounded; the latter feature being of all others the most signifi- cant and expressive, since it characterizes the landscape, and defines the form and boundary of the plain. If the prairie is little, its
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greatest beauty consists in the vicinity of the encompassing edge of forests, which may be compared to the shores of a lake, being inter- sected with many deep, inward bends, as so many inlets, and at in- tervals projecting very far, not unlike a promontory or protruding arm of land. These projections sometimes so closely approach each other, that the traveler passing through between them may be said to walk in the midst of an alley overshadowed by the forest, before he enters again upon another broad prairie. Where the plain is ex- tensive, the delineations of the forest in the distant background ap- pear as would a misty ocean beach afar off. The eye sometimes surveys the green prairie without discovering on the illimitable plain a tree or bush, or any other object save the wilderness of flowers and grass, while on other occasions the view is enlivened by the groves dispersed like islands over the plain, or by a solitary tree rising above the wilderness. The resemblance to the sea which some of these prairies exhibit is really most striking. In the spring, when the young grass has just clothed the soil with a soddy carpet of the most delicate green, but especially when the sun is rising be- hind a distant elevation of the ground and its rays are reflected by myriads of dew-drops, a more pleasing and more eye-benefitting view cannot be imagined.
"The delightful aspect of the prairie, its amenities, and the ab- sence of that sombre awe inspired by forests, contribute to forcing away that sentiment of loneliness which usually steals upon the mind of the solitary wanderer in the wilderness; for, although he espies no habitation, and sees no human being, and knows himself to be far off from every settlement of man, he can scarcely defend himself from believing that he is traveling through a landscape embellished by human art. The flowers are so delicate and elegant as apparently to be distributed for mere ornament over the plain; the groves and groups of trees seem to be dispersed over the prairie to enliven the landscape, and we can scarcely get rid of the impres- sion invading our imagination, of the whole scene being flung out and created for the satisfaction of the sentiment of beauty in refined men.
"In the summer the prairie is covered with tall grass, which is coarse in appearance, and soon assumes a yellow color, waving in the wind like a ripe crop of corn. In the early stages of its growth it resembles young wheat, and in this state furnishes such rich and succulent food for cattle that the latter choose it often in preference to wheat, it being no doubt a very congenial fodder to them, since it is impossible to conceive of better butter than is made while the grass is in this stage.
"In the early stages of its growth the grass is interspersed with little flowers,-the violet, the strawberry-blossom, and others of the most delicate structure. When the grass grows higher these disappear, and taller flowers, displaying more lively colors, take their place; and still later a series of still higher but less delicately formed flowers appear on the surface. While the grass is green
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these beautiful plains are adorned with every imaginable variety of color. It is impossible to conceive of a greater diversity, or dis- cover a predominating color, save the green, which forms a beauti- ful dead color, relieving the splendor of the others. In the summer the plants grow taller, and the colors more lively; in the autumn another generation of flowers arises which possesses less clearness and variety of color and less fragrancy. In the winter the prairie presents a melancholy aspect. Often the fire, which the hunters annually send over the prairies in order to dislodge the game, will destroy the entire vegetation, giving to the soil a uniform black ap- pearance, like that of a vast plain of charcoal; then the wind sweep- ing over the prairie will find nothing which it might put in motion, no leaves which it might disperse, no haulms which it might shake. No sooner does the snow commence to fall than the animals, unless already frightened away by the fire, retire into the forests, when the most dreary, oppressive solitude will reign on the burnt prairies, which often occupy many square miles of territory."
PRAIRIE FIRES.
Fires would visit the grassy plains every autumn. The settlers who had pushed out from the timber took great precaution to pre- vent their crops, houses and barns from being destroyed, yet not always did they succeed. Many incidents are related of prairie fires. The great conflagrations were caused either accidentally, or designedly from wantonness, or with a view of bewildering the game. The fire often spread further than it was intended it should. Wherever were extensive-prairie lands, one-half was burned in the spring and the other half in the autumn, in order to produce a more rapid growth of the naturally exhuberant grass, destroying at the same time the tall and thick weed stalks. Violent winds would often arise and drive the flames with such rapidity that riders on the fleetest steeds could scarcely escape. On the approach of a prairie fire the farmer would immediately set about "burning back," -that is, burning off the grass close by the fences, that the larger fire upon arriving would become extinguished for want of aliment. In order to be able, however, to make proper use of this measure of safety, it was very essential that every farmer should encompass with a ditch those of his fences adjoining the prairie. When known that the conflagration could cause no danger, the settler, though accustomed to them, could not refrain from gazing with admiration upon the magnificent spectacle. Language cannot convey, words cannot express, the faintest idea of the splendor and grandeur of such a conflagration during the night. It was as if the pale queen of night, disdaining to take her accustomed place in the heavens, had dispatched myriads upon myriads of messengers to light their torches at the altar of the setting sun until all had flashed into one long and continuous blaze.
The following graphic description of prairie fires was written by a traveler through this region in 1849:
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"Soon the fires began to kindle wider and rise higher from the long grass; the gentle breeze increased to stronger currents, and soon fanned the small, flickering blaze into fierce torrent flames, which curled up and leaped along in resistless splendor; and like quickly raising the dark curtain from the luminous stage, the scenes before me were suddenly changed, as if by the magician's wand, into one boundless amphitheater, blazing from earth to heaven and sweeping the horizon round,-columns of lurid flames sportively mounting up to the zenith, and dark clouds of crimson smoke curl- ing away and aloft till they nearly obscured stars and moon, while the rushing, crashing sounds, like roaring cataracts mingled with distant thunders, were almost deafening; danger, death, glared all around; it screamed for victims; yet, notwithstanding the immi- nent peril of prairie fires, one is loth, irresolute, almost unable to withdraw or seek refuge."
INCIDENTS OF PIONEER LIFE.
The amusements of the pioneers were peculiar to themselves. Saturday afternoon was a holiday in which no man was expected to work. A load of produce might be taken to " town " for sale or traffic without violence to custom, but no more serious labor could be tolerated. When on Saturday afternoon the town was reached, " fun commenced." Had two neighbors business to transact, here it was done. Horses were " swapped," difficulties settled and free fights indulged in. Blue and red ribbons were not worn in those days, and whisky was free as water; twelve and one-half cents would buy a quart, and thirty-five or forty cents would buy a gallon, and at such prices enormous quantities were consumed. Go to any town in the county and ask the first pioneer you meet, he will tell you of notable Saturday-afternoon fights, either of which to-day would fill a column of the Police News, with elaborate engravings to match. Indeed, fights on Saturday in the villages and settle- ment centers were so customary that when a Saturday passed with no fight in the neighborhood, it was the occasion of considerable remark for weeks.
Rough, ready to fight, as these pioneers were, their latch-string was always out. No stranger ever stopped at their cabins without receiving a hearty welcome.
The settler in the early days was not only hospitable but also philanthropic, and never neglected. an opportunity to aid a neigh- bor. House-raisings were his special delight. Let a new-comer arrive in the neighborhood and all were ready to help him. One would send a bushel or two of potatoes, another a piece of meat, another some other article that could be used to eke out the larder; but when the new-comer had his logs ent and all ready for the rais- ing, then the fun commenced. Teams, men, axes, all were on the ground at an early hour, logs were hauled, scored, one side hewed, it may be, and before night willing hands had erected a residence as comfortable and commodious as any in the settlement, and at
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night was ready for the "house-warming," where dancing was kept up until the " wee short hours," and where all enjoyed themselves in a manner unknown to the people of to-day. Let a neighbor get sick in the fall, as frequently occurred, and some neighbor would inaugurate a "chopping bee " or corn-gathering, for his benefit, when all his fall work would be done in a day,-corn gathered and cribbed, wood chopped and hauled, and everything put in good shape for the winter. After the day's labors were completed, song and dance were in order, and until morning, perhaps, the younger members of the community would keep up their hilarity.
The only amusements of the pioneers had a hospitable, kindly core and were connected with some helpful act for needy neighbors. It was not only in amusements, but in all other acts of life that this kindliness was manifested, as instances which living witnesses can testify to will illustrate.
TRADE.
The earliest commercial transactions carried on in this county were but neighborhood exchanges, in great part. True, now and then a farmer would load a flat-boat with beeswax, honey, tallow and peltries, with perhaps a few bushels of wheat or corn or a few hundred clapboards, and float down the Illinois or Mississippi river to St. Louis, or even to New Orleans, where he would exchange his produce for substantials in the way of groceries and a little ready money, with which he would return by some one of two or three steam-boats then running; or if the period of the trip was before the advent of steam-boats he would turn his load into cash and come home on foot.
After the advent of steam-boats a new system of commerce sprang up. Every town would contain one or two merchants who would buy corn, wheat and dressed hogs in the fall, store them in ware- houses on the river at some of the " landings," and when the river opened in the spring would ship his winter's accumulations to St. Louis, Cincinnati or New Orleans for sale, and with the proceeds visit New York and lay in six months' supply of goods. So far as the farmer was concerned in all these transactions money was an unknown factor. Goods were always sold on twelve months' time and payment made with the proceeds of the farmers' crops. When the crops were sold and the merchant satisfied the surplus was paid out in orders on the store to laboring men and to satisfy other creditors. When a day's work was done by a working man his employer would say, " Well, what store do you want your order on ?" and the order was always cheerfully accepted.
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