History of Sangamon 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 33

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084

USA > Illinois > Sangamon County > History of Sangamon 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 33

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).

"I am necessitated, as it were, in self-defense, to speak some words of the second and third class, with sub-classes and varieties. The fourth class needs none. The original west- ern and southwestern pioneer-the type of him is at times a somewhat open, candid, sincere, energetic, spontaneous, trusting, tol- erant, brave and generous man. He is hos- pitable in his tent, thoroughly acquainted with the stars in the heavens, by which he travels, more or less; he is acquainted with all the dan- gers of his route-horse fiesh and human flesh. He trusts to his own native sagacity -a keen shrewdness, and his physical power- his gun and dog alone. This original man is a long, tall, lean, lank man; he is a cadaverous, sallow, sunburnt, shaggy-haired man, his face is very sharp and exceedingly angular; his nose is long, pointed, and keen, Roman or Greek as it may be; and his eyes are small, grey or black, and

sunken, are keen, sharp and inquisitive, pierc- ing, as if looking through the object seen, and to the very background of things; he is sinewy and tough, calm or uneasy, according to circum- stances; he is all bone and sinew, scarcely any muscle; is wise and endless in his determina- tions-obstinate. He wears a short linsey-wol- sey hunting shirt, or one made from soft buck or doeskin, fringed with the same; it is buckled tightly about his body. His moccasins are made of the very best heavy buck. His trusty and true rifle is on his shoulder or stands by his side, his chin gracefully resting on his hand, which covers the muzzle of the gun. The gaunt, strong, hungry cur, crossed with the bull dog, and his hound, lie crouched at his feet, their noses resting on and between their fore paws, thrown straight out in front, ready to bound, seize master and defend. The lean, short, com- pact, tough and hardy, crop-eared, shaved-mane and bob-tailed pony browses around, living where the hare, the deer, mule or hardy moun- tain goat can live. It makes no difference where night or storm overtakes him, his wife and children sleep well and sound, knowing that the husband, the father, protector and defender, is safe from all harm. He sleeps on his rifle for pillow, his right hand awake on the long, sharp, keen hunting-knife in the girdle, carved over and over with game and deer. The will in the hand is awake. Such is the conscious will on the nerve and muscle of the hand, amid danger of a night, placed there to watch and ward while the general soul is asleep, that it springs to defense long before the mind is fully con- scious of the facts. How grand and mysterious is mind! The family makes no wild outery - ' He's shot or lost" This man, his trusty long rifle, his two dogs-one to fight and one to scent the trail-the long, sharp and keen butcher knife, that never holds fire or flashes in the pan, are equal to all emergencies. As for himself, his snore on the grass, or brush-pile, cnt to make his bed, testify to the soul's con- scions security. Whether in a hollow tree or log, or under and beneath the river's bank for shelter-screen or fort-in night or daytime, his heart beats calm; he is a fatalist, and says ' what is to be will be.' He never tires, is quick and shrewd, is physically powerful, is cunning, suspicions, brave and cautions alternately or all combined, according to necessity. He is swifter than the Indian, is stronger, is as long-winded, and has more brains-much more brains. This man is a bee-hunter, or trapper, or Indian fighter. Heis nervous, uneasy, and quite fidgety

24-

210

HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

in the village where he goes twice a year to ex- change his furs for whisky, tobacco, powder, flints and lead. He dreads, does not scorn our civilization. Overtake the man, catch him, and try to hold a conversation with him, if you can. Ilis eye and imagination are on the chase in the forest, when you think you are attracting his simple mind. He is restless in eye and motion about towns and villages; his muscles and nerves dance an uneasy, rapid, jerking dance when in presence of our civilization. Ile is suspicious here, and dangerous from his ignorance of the social world. This man is a man of acts and deeds, not of speech; he is at times stern, silent, secretive and somewhat uncommunicable. His words are words of one syllable, sharp nouns and active verbs mostly. Ile scarcely ever uses adjectives, and always replies to questions asked him -'yes,' ' no,' 'I' will,' 'I won't.' Ask him where he is from, and his answer is-'Blue Ridge,' 'Cumberland,' ' Bear creek.' Ask him where he kills his game, or gets his furs, and his answer ever is-'Illinois,' 'Sangamon,' 'Salt creek.' Ask him where he is going- 'Plains,' 'Forest,' 'Home,' is his unvarying

answer. See him in the wilds, as I have seen him, strike up with his left hand's forefinger the loose rim of his old home-made or other hat, that hangs like a rag over his eyes, impeding his sight and perfect vision, peering keenly into the distance for fur or game, Indian or deer. See him look and gaze and determine what the thing seen is-see him at that instant stop and crouch and crawl toward the object like a hungry tiger, measuring the distance between twig and weed with his beard, so as to throw no shadow of sensation on the distant eye of foe or game-the thing to be crept on and inevita- bly killed. See him watch even the grass and brush beneath his feet, as he moves and treads, that no rustle, or crack or snap, shall be made by which the ear of foe or game shall be made aware of his danger. See him wipe off and raise his long and trusty gun to shoulder and to cheek - see him throw his eye lockward and along the barrel -watch him, sec first upcoil of smoke, before the crack and ring and roll and roar comes. The bullet has already done its work of death. Cantion makes this man stand still and reload before moving a foot. Then he eyes the dead keenly. 'There's danger in the apparent dead,' he whispers to himself, cocks his gun and walks, keeping his finger on the trigger.

"The third class which I am about to describe -the brave, rollicking roysterer-is still among

us, though tamed by age into a moral man. He is large, bony, muscular, strong almost as an ox. He is strongly, physically developed. He is naturally strong-minded, naturally gifted, brave, daring to a fault. He is a hardy, rough-and- tumble man. He has a strong, quick sagacity, fine intuitions, with great good common sense. He is hard to cheat, hard to whip, and still harder to fool. These people are extremely sociable and good-natured-too much so for their own good, as a general rule. They are efficient, ready, practical men, and are always ready for any revolution. I wish, I am anxious, to defend these men, as well as the God-given spirit of pioneering. One of the writers on Mr. Lincoln's life says, in speaking of Thomas Lincoln, 'When inefficient men become very uncomfortable, they are quite likely to try emi- gration as a remedy. A good deal of what is called the pioneer spirit is simply the spirit of shiftless discontent.' But more of this hereafter, not now and just here.

"These men, especially about New Salem, could shave a horse's main and tail, paint, disfigure, and offer for sale to the owner, in the very act of inquiring for his own horse, that knew his master, but his master recognizing him not. They could hoop up in a hogshead a drunken man, they being themselves drunk, put in and nail down the head, and roll the man down New Salem hill a hundred feet or more. They could run down a lean, hungry wild pig, catch it, heat a ten-plate stove furnace hot, and putting in the pig, could cook it, they dancing the while a merry jig. They could, they did, these very things occasionally; yet they could clear and clean a forest of Indians and wolves in a short time; they could shave off a forest as clean and clear as a man's beard close cut to his face; they could trench a pond, ditch a bog or lake, erect a log house, pray and fight, make a village or cre- ate a State. They would do all for sport or fun, or from necessity-do it for a neighbor-and they could do the reverse of all this for pure and perfectly unalloyed deviltry's sake. They at- tended church, heard the sermon, wept and prayed, shouted, got up and fought an hour, and then went back to prayer, just as the spirit moved them. These men-I am speaking gen- erally-were always true to women-their fast and tried friends, protectors and defenders. There are scarcely any such on the globe for this virtue. They were one thing or the other -praying or fighting, creating or destroying, shooting Indians or getting shot by whisky, just as they willed. Though these men were rude

211

IHISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

and rough, though life's forces ran over the edge of its bowl, foaming and sparkling in pure and perfect deviltry for deviltry's sake, yet place before them a poor, weak man, who needed their aid, a sick man, a man of misfortune, a lame man, a woman, a widow, a child, an orphaned little one-then these men melted up into sym- pathy and charity at once, quick as a flash, and gave all they had, and willingly and honestly toiled or played cards for more. If a minister of religion preached the devil and his fire, they would cry out, 'To your rifles, oh boys, and let's clean out the devil, with his fire and all; they are enemies to mankind.' If the good minister preached Jesus, and him crucified, with his pre- cious blood trinkling down the spear and cross, they would melt down into honest prayer, pray- ing honestly, and with deep feeling and humil- ity, saying aloud, 'would to God we had been there with our trusty rifles, amid those murder- ous Jews.'

"I wish to quote the author's sentence again. It reads: 'When inefficient men become very uncomfortable, they are quite likely to try emi- gration as a remedy. A good deal of what is called the 'pioneer spirit,' is simply the spirit of shiftless discontent.' Here are two distinct allegations, or assertions, rather charges: first, that the inefficient men, through the spirit of dis- content at home, emigrate as a remedy for that uncomfortableness; and, second, that a good deal of the spirit of pioneering comes from the spirit of shiftless discontent. I wish to say a few words on this sentence, first, as to fact, and secondly, as to principle. It is not, I hope, necessary for me to defend the particular man spoken of-Thomas Lincoln, the father of Pres- ident Lincoln. It is not necessary that I should flatter the pioneer to defend him, yet I feel that other men and women in New England, possibly in Europe, may be grossly misled by such an as- sertion, such an idea, as is contained in this sen- tence. It is admitted by me that man's condi- tion at home sometimes is exceedingly uncom- fortable. To throw off that condition of un- comfortableness, is the sole, only, and eternal motive that prompts and drives men and women to pioneering. Men of capacity, integrity, and energy-for such are the generality of pioneers in the West-emigrate to this new land from their old homes, not because they are inefficient men, men unable to grapple with the home con- dition, but rather because they refuse to submit to the bad conditions at home. Their manly souls and indomitable spirits rise up against the cold, frigid, despotic caste crystalizations at

home-a glorious rebellion for the freedom of man. All men emigrate from their homes to new lands in hope of bettering their conditions, which at home are sometimes chafingly uncom- fortable. The spirit of pioneering is not a spirit of shiftless discontent, nor any part of it, but is the creating spirit, a grand desire, wish, and will to rise up in the scale of being. It has moved mankind-each man and woman-since God created man and woman and placed them on the globe, with genius in their heads and hope and

faith in their souls. God's intentions, purposes, and laws, as written on the linman soul, forever interpret themselves thus: 'My child, my good children, man, woman, and child, each and all- hope, struggle; I am with you, and will forever be; go on, go upward, go westward, go heaven- ward, on and on forever.' Good men and women do not, from the spirit of shiftless dis- content, quit the sacred ashes of the dead loved ones, and wildly rush into a cold, damp, un- cleared, gloomy, unsettled, wild wilderness, where they know they must struggle with disease, poverty, nature, the wild wolf and wilder men, and the untamed and ungeared ele- ments of nature, that sweep everywhere uncon- fined. They do not go for game, nor sport, nor daring adventure with wild beast, nor daring sport with wilder men. They go or come at God's command-'Children, my good children, and all, man, woman, and child, all, all-hope, struggle, to better your condition-onward, for- estward, upward-and on and on forever, or miserably perish, and quit the globe, to be re- peopled by better beings.' Men, tender and lovely women, do not quit their homes, where are comforts, luxuries, arts, science, general knowledge, and ease, amid the civilized and civ- ·ilizing influences at home, to go westward, from a spirit of shiftless discontent. What! are these brave men and women all through the West, and such as these the world over, inefficient men, inactive consumers, unenergetic inefficients, lazy and do-nothing people, bursting westward from the spirit of shiftless discontent, where they in- voluntarily clap their hands to their heads, and spasmodically feel for their crowns, in order to preserve their scalps, as the quick flash and fire- steel gleam of the Indian's knife glints and glistens against the western sky! What! are Grant and Jackson, Douglas and Benton, Clay and Lincoln inefficient men, coming west from the spirit of shiftless discontent? Is fire efti- ciently hot? Is lightning efficiently active? Is nature efficiently creative, massing and rolling up all these visible worlds to heat and life and

212

HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

light, and holding them suspended there by God's will-called by men gravity-for a human idea's sake? If these things are so, then these men and women whom I have described, the pioneers, with their brave hearts and their defi- ant and enduring souls, are and were efficient men and women-efficiently warm, for they con- sumed and burnt the forest, and cleared and cleaned it. They had and have energy and ere- ative activity, with capacity, honesty, and valor. They created States, and hold them to the Union, to liberty, and to justice. They and their children after them can and do point with the highest pride and confidence, to the deep, broad-laid, tolerant, generous, magnanimous foundations of these mighty several Western States, whereon our liberty and civilization so proudly and firmly stand, that they, the pioneers, in the spirit of pioneering embodied in them, made and created, and hold up to light and heat and life, suspended there rolling, by the electro- magnetic power of the intelligent popular will. " My defense has ended. The wild animals that preceded the Indians are gone, the Indian treading closely on their heels. The red man has gone. The pioneer, the type of him, is gone, gone with the Indian, the bear, and the beaver, the buffalo and the deer. They all go with the same general wave, and are thrown high on the beach of the wilderness, by the deep, wide sea of our civilization. He that trampled on the heels of the red man, with his wife and children, pony and dog, are gone, leav- ing no trace behind. He is the master of the bee and beaver, the Indian and the bear, the wolf and buffalo. He and they are gone, never to return. God speed them on their way, their journey and destiny. As path-makers, blazers, mappers, as fighters and destructives, they have had and have their uses and purposes in divine plan. Such are succeeded by the Armstrongs, the Clarys, the Rutledges, the Greens, Spears, and Lincolns, who too have had their uses and purposes in the great idea, and are succeeded by others, now among us, who are forces in the same universal plan. And let us not complain, for the great Planner knows and has decreed

what is best and wisest in his grand and sublime economies. The animal is gone; the Indian is gone. The trapper, bee and beaver hunter is gone-all are gone. A few of the third class . still remain among us, standing or leaning like grand, gray old towers, with lights on their brow, quietly inelining, leaning, almost dipping in the deep, the unknown, the unknowable and unfathomable deeps of the future, that roll through all time and space, and lash up against the Throne. They did not come here from the spirit of shiftless discontent, nor shall they take up their soul's greatest pioneer march on to God, through the cowardly spirit of shiftless discon- tent. They are fast going one by one. Respect them while living, reverence them when dead, and tread lightly on their sacred dust, ye all. The children of such may be trusted to preserve and hand down to all future time what they created, wrought and planted in the forest. The fourth class is ready to clasp hands with the third, taking an oath of fidelity to liberty, sa- cred as Heaven. We thus come and go, and in the coming and going we have shaded-risen up, progressed-during these various and varied waves of immigration, with their respective civilizations, through force, cunning and the rifle, to dollars, the steam engine, and the idea. We have moved from wolf to mind. We have grown outward, upward, higher and better, liv- ing generally in more virtue, less vice, longer and more civilized, freer and purer, and thus man ever mounts upward. So are the records of all time."

In concluding his address, Mr. Herndon gave a description of Illinois, giving its geography, length, breadth, its good people, etc. He de- clared that Illinois was the real Eden of the world, and that the central portion of Illinois was the best part of that Eden. He closed by showing by facts and figures the extent of the Union, its area in 1790 and its area in 1880; said that its present population of fifty-one mil- lions would be increased in 1901 to one hundred millions of souls-the wisest, most intelligent, richest, bravest and most patriotic people, as a mass, on the face of the globe.

213

HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

CHAPTER XI.

THE PRESS.

There is no instrumentality, not even except- ing the Pulpit and the Bar, which exerts such an influence upon society as the Press of the land. It is the Archimedian lever that moves the world. The talented minister of the gospel on the Sab- bath day preaches to a few hundred people; on the following morning his thoughts are repro- duced more than a thousand fold, and are read and discussed throughout the length and breadth of the land. The attorney at the bar, in thrill- ing tones, pleads either for or against the crimi- nal arraigned for trial, often causing the jury to bring in a verdict against the law and the testi- mony in the case. His words are reproduced in every daily reached by the telegraphic wire, and his arguments are calmly weighed by unpre- judiced men and accepted for what they are worth. The politician takes the stand and ad- dresses a handful of men upon the political ques- tions of the day ; his speech is reported and read by a thousand men for every one that heard the address. Suddenly the waters of one of our mighty rivers rises, overflowing the land for miles and miles, rendering thousands of people homeless and without means to secure their daily bread. The news is flashed over the wire, taken up by the Press, and known and read of all men. No time is lost in sending to their relief -the Press has made known their wants and they are instantly supplied. "Chicago is on fire ! Two hundred millions worth of property de- stroyed! Fifty thousand people rendered home- less!" Such is the dread intelligence pro- claimed by the Press. Food and clothing are hastily gathered, trains are chartered, and the immediate wants of the sufferers are in a measure relieved.

The power for good or evil of the Press, is to- day unlimited. The short comings of the poli- tician are made known through its columns; the dark deeds of the wicked are exposed ; and each

fear it alike. The controlling influences of a Nation, State or county is its Press, and the Press of Sangamon county is no exception to the rule. Since Hooper Warren started the Sangamo Spectator, in 1826, the Press of Sangamon county has been an important factor in all things tend- ing to the general welfare of the county. Not only in the county, but throughout the State its influence has been recognized and acknowledged, and even beyond the borders of the State has its opinions been eagerly sought after, especially in the political world.

The local Press is justly considered among the most important institutions in every city, town and village. The people of every community regard their particular newspaper or newspapers as of peculiar value, and this not merely on ac- count of the fact already alluded to, but because these papers are the repositories wherein are stored the facts and the events, the deeds and the sayings, the undertakings and achievements that go to make up final history. One by one these things are gathered and placed in type ; one by one the papers are issued ; one by one these papers are gathered together and bound, and another volume of local and general, indi- vidual and local history is laid away imperish- able. The volumes thus collected are sifted by the historian, and the book for the library is ready. The people of any city or town naturally have a pride in their home paper.

As already intimated, the Sangamo Spectator was the first newspaper printed in Sangamon county. Hooper Warren, who had been pub- lishing a paper at Edwardsville, called the Edwardsville Spectator, removed his office to Springfield in the winter of 1826-7, and imme- diately commenced issning from that place. So far as is known not a copy of the paper is now in existence. Mr. Warren, in a letter to P. P. Enos, Secretary of the Old Settlers' Society,

214

HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

dated October 20, 1859, says of this paper: "It was but a small affair, a medium sheet, worked by myself alone most of the time, until I made a transfer of it in the fall of 1828 to S. Mere- dith." Mr. Warren was considered a good writer, an intelligent man, but a not very sue- cessful manager.

The Springfield Journal and Sangamo Gazette was built upon the ruins of the Spectator, the first number bearing date February 16, 1829. This number was chiefly occupied with the mes- sage of Governor Edwards. It was a five col- umn folio, well edited, but never received suffi- cient encouragement to make it a paying institu- tion, and therefore after the expiration of a few months it ceased to exist.

The Illinois Herald was the next attempt in the newspaper line, and was commenced some time in the year 1830. Samuel S. Brooks and Mr. Fleming were the publishers, Mr. Brooks being the editor. Like the previous attempt in the business, the Herald was short-lived, going out with the melting of the big snow.

ILLINOIS STATE JOURNAL.

On the 10th day of November, 1831, the first number of the Sangamo Journal made its ap- pearance, with S. & J. Francis, editors and pub- lishers. The paper was a six-column folio, and presented a neat appearance. The salutatory of the editors was short, containing no special promises easily broken. Says the editors: "We know that it is usual on occasions like this to eulogize the advantages of the Press-to make promises that can never be realized. All we have now to say is-give us a fair opportunity; and we doubt not that the reasonable wishes and expectations of our patrons will be gratified. We have cheerfully embarked in the establish- ment of the Journal, a good portion of the little means at our command, with a firm determina- tion to apply ourselves to the duties of our office with unremitting industry, and it now rests with others to say whether our hopes shall be blasted, or our exertions rewarded with the cheering con- fidence and patronage of the citizens of this part of Illinois."" In addition to the salutatory ap- pears well written editorials on the "Missouri Election," in which strong ground is taken in favor of a national bank, protective tariff and in- ternal improvements; "The Eatonian Contro- versy," a controversy that arose in regard to the exclusion of Mrs. Eaton, the wife of a member of President Jackson's cabinet, from Washing- ton society ; "Calhoun on Nullification," "Anti- Tariff Convention," and several shorter articles.

A fair number of advertisements appeared, among them being one of Mr. Wadley, in which he proposed to show his mode of teaching Eng- lish grammar; John Williams, H. F. Hill & Co., H. Yates, William P. Grimsley, Jabez Capps, Bell & Tinsley, Thomas D. Potts, general mer- chandise; H. M. Armstrong & Co., hat manu- factory; E. S. Phelps, watch repairing; John H. Ebey, potter's ware; Bennett C. Johnson, gro- ceries and liquors; Drs. Merryman & Rutledge, physicians, Smith & Moffett, cabinet makers, and several legal notices.

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 Sangamon 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 33

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company Number of Pages: 1084

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084