USA > Illinois > St Clair County > History of St. Clair County, Illinois. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 16
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
there, as also at Kaskaskia, many good citizens were injured by the excessive use of ardent spirits.
The Sabbath, among the American pioneers, was often employed in hunting, fishing, getting up stock, hunting bees, breaking young horses, shooting at marks, and horse and foot-racing. It was, how- ever, a custom to cease from ordinary labor, except from necessity, on that day, and when a farmer cut his harvest on Sunday, public opinion condemned it more severely than at present. There was no dancing and hut little drinking. In many localities there were no religious meetings. The aged people generally remained at home and read the Bible and other books. The French observed Sunday in a different manner. After the conclusion of their reli- gious services, the rest of the day was passed in amusements, mer- riment and recreation. Dancing was common on the Sabbath, and frequently houses were raised and the militia trained. Public sales of land and other property were held, in early times, by the French at the church door on Sundays, after the close of the ser- vice. The French rarely engaged in common broils and disturb- ances. They detested a quarrelsome, fighting man. With the Americans personal combats were frequent. A slight dispute led to a fight; but the combatants often good-humoredly made it up before parting. These combats scarcely ever occurred unless the parties had been drinking. No rules were observed. At times eyes and ears were much injured, and were sometimes destroyed.
All species of gaming were common. Card-playing was sustained by the best classes. A person who could not, or would not play cards, was considered destitute of one of the accomplishments of genteel society. The French delighted much in this amusement, and this assisted in giving card-parties more standing and popu- larity among the Americans. During the hot summer months, in early times, the French played cards incessantly in the shade of the galleries of their houses. They frequently played without betting, but at times wagered heavily. The most common game of cards was called "loo." The voyageurs indulged in this sport more than any other class of citizens. The ladies often amused themselves at the game.
Horse-racing was one of the most popular amusements. The quarter-races were the most common, and at these the most chica- canery and juggling was practiced. The most celebrated and famous horse-race in Illinois, in early times, was run in the upper end of the Horse prairie, in Randolph county, in the spring of the year 1803. The two horses which made the race were of the same sire. They ran three miles and repeat, for a wager of five hundred dollars. The bye-bets and all must have amounted to a thousand dollars, or more, which in those days was considered a very large sum. In 1806 Robert Pulliam, of Illinois, and a Mr. Musick, of Missouri, made a bet of two hundred dollars on a race between two horses, of a quarter of a mile, to be ran on the ice in the Mississippi river, a short distance above St. Louis. The race came off, and was run without injury to either the horses or riders. Foot-racing, jumping and wrestling were much practiced by the Americans. Bets of some magnitude were made on foot-races as well as on horse-races. Governor Reynolds, in his youth, was one of the best in a foot-race, and won many wagers in Randolph county, then his residence.
With the Americans shooting-matches occurred frequently. These were generally held on Saturdays, and as often as every week, in summer. A beef was usually the prize. A keg of whiskey was generally carried to these shooting-matches, on horseback, and sometimes a violin made its appearance, and the crowd danced for hours. Aged matrons frequently attended, with a neat, clean keg of metheglin, which they dispensed to the thirsty. This drink was
made of honey and water, properly fermented, was pleasant to the taste, and had no power to intoxicate, The old lady sometimes brought her knitting and sewing with her, and would frequently relate tales of the tories "back in North Carolina," during the Revolution.
Agriculture was at first, of course, carried on only to a limited extent. The inhabitants of the New Design settlement in Monroe county were the first to begin the cultivation of fall wheat to any considerable extent. In cutting the wheat, sickles, or reap-hooks, were the only implements used. There were no cradles. Reaping with a sickle was a severe labor. Wheat at that day sold for a dollar a bushel. A short distance from the farms, on the prairies, or in places in the timber, good groves were selected and mowed, and this, as well as reaping wheat, was hot, hard work. The Americans at that day, generally stacked their hay and wheat out, but the French had barns which they used for this purpose. The French barns were made of large cedar posts, put in the ground some two feet, and set apart four or five feet-the space between filled up with puncheons put in grooves on the posts, and the whole covered with a thatched roof. Threshing and cleaning the wheat was in olden times a great trouble. The process of winnowing with a sheet was slow and hard work.
Considerable quantities of corn were shipped from Illinois in flat- boats to New Orleans before the purchase of Louisiana It was an uncertain market, and the navigation of the river was more uncertain still. Stock, cattle and hogs were raised for the New Orleans market. The commerce on the river and the Indian trade consumed the small surplus product of the farms. Irish potatoes were raised in abundance, and the crops scarcely ever failed. Only small quantities of cheese and butter were made, scarcely enough for home consumption. The French scarcely ever troubled them- selves with milking cows, but turned the calves out with the other cattle, and made little or no butter. That portion of the popula- tion scarcely ever used a churn, a loom, or a wheel. The apple orchards in proportion to the population were numerous. The French also cultivated orchards of pears, but the peach-tree was almost entirely neglected. The greater portion of the merchants made the Indian trade their main object. The furs and peltries are articles in great demand, and were generally shipped to Mackinaw, Philadelphia, and New Orleans. The French horses, known as "French ponies," were sold in great numbers to the Indians. Guns, powder, lead, and all Indian goods, blankets, blue strouding and made-up calico shirts, formed large items in the commerce of the day-as the Indians were much more numerous than the whites.
INCIDENTS OF INDIAN WARFARE.
The early settlements of St. Clair county experienced little trou- ble from the Indian attacks. The French at Cahokia lived in general on friendly terms with the savages. The American settle- ments in the present county of Monroe were much harassed, but after Wayne's treaty with the Indians in 1795, (subsequent to which date the American settlements in the present county of St. Clair were made), peace prevailed on the frontier up to the war of 1812.
The territory occupied by the county was, however, in early times the scene of several stirring incidents in the Indian warfare. In 1793, a little company of the pioneers in the American Bottom, composed of Samuel Judy, John Whiteside, William L. Whiteside, Uel Whiteside, William Harrington, John Dempsey, and John Porter, with William Whiteside in command, pursued through St. Clair county a number of Indians who had been committing depre-
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
dations in the Bottom. They passed on the trail near the present city of Belleville, and attacked the Indian camps on Shoal creek. The eight men divided into two parties of four each, and made the attack from two sides at once. This made the Indians believe that the whites were in large force, and after one of their number was killed and others wounded, the chief, Old Pecan, begged for quar- ter. On discovering his foes to be an insignificant number, and his own party numerous, he called aloud to bis braves to return and retrieve their honor. He had surrendered his own gun to the whites, but now he seized the gun of the captain and exerted all his force to arrest it from him. Captain Whiteside was a powerful man, and a stranger to fear ; but lie compelled the Indian to retire, deeming it dishonorable to destroy an unarmed man who had pre- viously surrendered. The whites were now in a critical situation, in the heart of the Indian country, where hundreds of warriors could be raised in a few hours time. They immediately started and traveled day and night, without eating or sleeping, till they reached in safety Whiteside's station.
In the year 1795, a Frenchman at Cahokia, informed Capt. Whiteside that a band of Indians were camped at the bluff, a short distance south of the macadamized road which now runs from Belleville to St. Louis, and that they meditated some injury to the settlements in the Bottom. Whiteside organized a company, four- teen in number, among which were Samuel Whiteside, William L. Whiteside, Samuel Judy, Isaac Enochs, and Johnson J. Whiteside, and just before day the Indian camp was surrounded, and all the Indians killed except one. It is said that although this one escaped, the Indians killed him afterward for his cowardly running off. The bones of the Indians killed in this contest were seen on the battle ground for many years afterward. In this battle Capt. Whiteside was wounded, as he thought mortally, having received a shot in his side. As he fell he exhorted his men to fight bravely, not to yield an inch of ground, nor let the Indians touch his body. Uel White- side, his son, who was shot in the arm and disabled from using the rifle, examined the wound, and found that the ball had glanced along the ribs and lodged against the spine. He whipped out his knife, gashed the skin, and extracted the ball. Holding it up he remarked, "Father, you are not dead yet !" The old man instantly jumped to his feet and renewed the fight, exclaiming, "Boys, I can still fight the Indians!"
It is said that after the battle Captain Whiteside and his party on their return to Whiteside's station, halted at Cahokia to dress the wounds of the Captain and his son. A widow lady, by the name of Rains, who had two beautiful daughters, resided in the village, and it was at her house that the party stopped. The ac- quaintance thus accidentally formed resulted in the marriage of two Whiteside brothers to the two young ladies. The Whiteside family were celebrated in the carly history of Illinois as Indian fighters, and many of their descendants still reside in this state.
The massacre of the McMahon family in December, 1795, is else- where referred to. Robert McMahon had settled that year in the " Yankee prairie," a few miles south-east of the New Design settle- ment. His wife and four children were killed before his eyes, and he and two small daughters taken prisoners. The Indians hurried away from the white settlements with the utmost speed, fearful of pursuit. The first night they camped on Richland creek, about half a mile below Belleville. The next day they crossed Silver creek, above the present town of Lebanon, and the second night camped near the sources of Sugar creek. That night McMahon slipped off the cords from his arms and body, and escaped. He subsequently settled a short distance north-east of Lebanon, in this county, and died in Madison county.
PIONEER MILLS.
The first water mill erected within the present limits of the county was erected on Prairie du Pont creek, built by the Mission of St. Sulpice in the year 1754. The village of Prairie du Pont was formed around this mill. In 1764, after the country east of the Mississippi passed under the English control, the mill and plan- tation of the Mission of St. Sulpice were sold to M. Gerardine, and the members of the mission returned to France. Jean Francais Perry, about the year 1794, purchased this. mill site, and built a new mill, which for a number of years he carried on successfully.
About the year 1744, the Jesuits built a wind mill on the prairie, two miles south-east of Cahokia. About the time the English took possession of the country this mill was allowed to go into decay. The mill stones could have been seen on the prairie where the mill stood a hundred years after it was built.
At Falling Spring, two miles south-east of Prairie du Pont, a mill was constructed about the year 1770. Hollow logs conducted the water to the wheel of the mill. The mill, however, was only a small affair, and was soon abandoned. This spring, which here gushes out of a perpendicular rock of the Mississippi Bluff, and falls sixty or eighty feet to the bottom below, was called by the French, " L' Eau Tomb."
Early attempts were made to establish mills on Cahokia creek in Madison county, but they were not attended with success. A man named McCarty, called English McCarty, built a mill about three- quarters of a mile north-east of Illinoistown, now East St. Louis. He expended much money and time, but on account of the banks of the creek being washed so easily away, the dam could not be made to stand. It was a large mill, and at times did much business. McCarty obtained an improvement right of four hundred acres of land, covering his mill site, which to his heirs would have been ample compensation for his labor and disappointment, could they have retained possession of the property to the present day.
A horse mill at Cahokia, built by Major Nicholas Jarrot, was much used and of great service to the public. During the war of 1812 it furnisbed the troops with meal. Jarrot was fond of build- ing mills, and spent much time, and lost much money, in his efforts to maintain a water mill on Cahokia creek, some miles north-east of Illinoistown.
In early times the settlers went either to Cahokia to mill, or to Judge's mill near Whiteside station. This was the case also with the frontier settlements in Madison county. Some of the pioneers who had pushed out the farthest were compelled to journey fifty miles. To relieve absolute want resort was had to the grater or the hand mill, and in a later day the hand-mill, propelled by horse power, came into use. The first water mill built in the county, outside of the American Bottom, was by Lawrence Shook, on Mill creek, west of Belleville, in the year 1800. Elijah Chapman built a mill on Richland creek, above the bridge, west of the Centreville road, in the year 1810; this mill was used till about 1830. Moses Quick, in 1815, built a water mill on the creek south of the St. Clair county Fair grounds, and sold it to Major Washington West. This mill soon afterward was swept away by flood and never re- built. In 1820, Hugh Alexander erected the first ox mill in the state, near the farm on which the late Dr. Schott resided, ou Shiloh, and built a distillery at the same time and place. The next ox- mill was the one started in Belleville, by Wilkinson & Ringold, in 1822, who sold it to Jacob Whiteside, of whom Thomas Harrison bought it in 1826. Hosea Riggs had a hand mill in 1817, about two miles and a half east of Belleville, north of the road leading to Mascoutah, and Matthew Roach had one at his residence, about six miles south-west of Belleville, south of the Centerville road,
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
about the same time. A man named McCann had a hand mill at an early date a few miles east of Turkey Hill, which re- ceived a wide patronage. Among other mills may be mentioned that of William Phillips on the lower St. Louis road; and that of Samuel Ogle on the St. Louis macadamized road, six miles north- west of Belleville. Thomas Harrison & Sons built the first steam flouring mill in Belleville in the year 1831. It stood on the lot on the south-east corner of First South and High streets.
Of the early contrivances for manufacturing meal the most rude and primitive was the Grater.
A plate of tin was pierced with numerous holes, and one side thus made very rough. The tin was then bent to an oval shape and nailed to a board. By rubbing an ear of corn on the grater meal was made, though in a very slow and laborious manner. An improvement on this was the band-mill. This consisted of two mill- stones, one above the other. A hole was made in the upper stone in which was placed a staff of wood, which ran through a hole in a plank above, so that the whole was free to act. One or two persons took hold of this staff and turned the upper stone with as much velocity as possible. There was no hopper, but through an eye in the upper stone the mill was fed with corn in small quantities. To make a mortar, wherein to beat corn into meal, the pioneers took a large round log, three or four feet in length, and, by cutting or burning, made a cavity in one end capable of holding, perhaps, a peck of corn. The log was then set perpendicularly in the ground, and the cavity filled with corn. A weight attached to a sweep was then used to crush the corn. The weight was forced down by the hands and was raised again by the spring of the sweep-pole.
In the band-mill the horse-power consisted of a large upright shaft, some ten or twelve feet in height, with some eight or ten long arms let into the main shaft and extending out from it fifteen feet. Auger holes were bored into the arms on the upper side at the end, into which wooden pins were driven. This was called the "big wheel," and was, as has been seen, about twenty feet in diameter. The raw hide-belt or tug was made of skins taken off of beef cattle, which were cut into strips three inches in width ; these were twisted into a round cord or tug, which was long enough to encircle the circumference of the big wheel. There it was held in place by the wooden pins, then to cross and to pass under a shed to run around a drum, or what is called a " trunnel head," which was attached to a grinding apparatus. The horses or oxen were hitched to the arms by means of raw-hide tugs. Then walking in a circle, the machinery would be set in motion. To grind twelve bushels of corn was considered a good day's work on a band-mill.
PUNISHMENT FOR CRIME-LYNCH LAW.
In the early history of the State there was no penitentiary, and the whipping-post and pillory were made use of in punishing crimi- nals. From five to forty lashes were inflicted in proportion to the enormity of the offence. It is said that two or three walnut trees, in the vicinity of the public square in Belleville, were made to save the county the expense of erecting a special whipping-post, and there many a poor fellow answered for his violation of the law. It is believed, however, that only one man was ever punished by being put in the pillory. His name was Wm. D. Noble, and his crime was forgery. He was sentenced both to punishment in the pillory and to pay a fine of two thousand dollars and costs of prosecution ; one thousand dollars to go to the person he had attempted to defraud, and one thousand dollars to the State. The judgment was carried into execution on the thirteenth of April, 1822. Nohle was exposed for about one hour in the pillory, which was erected about the centre of the public square in Belleville. There it was allowed
to remain for many years, though only used for tying up the teams and horses of those who came in from the country.
John Reynolds was judge in the above case, Wm. A. Beaird, sheriff, and John Hay, clerk.
But the people in those days very frequently took the administra- tion of the law into their own hands. They held that it was unne- cessary to trouble the courts of the county with some grades of criminals ; and that as Judge Lynch's court was always in session, and that as but very few criminals had ever been known to prose- cute a writ of error from that court after being tried before it, a preference should be given to it over all others, on economical grounds if on no other. Soon after the close of the war of 1812, the territory was flooded with counterfeit notes, and, for the purpose of detecting and punishing the guilty parties, a company of regula- tors was made up of many of the best citizens in St. Clair county, of which Dr. Estes was elected captain. This company was estab- lished in Belleville in 1815, and during the short term of its exist- ence, which was but a few months, by its prompt infliction of pun- ishment on all who were found guilty, by them, of crime, it created great excitement throughout the country. Criminals became ter- rified and fled, and good men deplored the necessity for the organization of any such society. The Lynch court was usually held in the neighborhood of the Silver creek, and there, too, were all the punishments generally inflicted. Many, however, were allowed the privilege of leaving the country, and so avoided the summary inflictions that otherwise would have been their almost certain doom.
FIRST MACADAMIZED ROAD.
During the session of 1846-7 the legislature granted a charter under which was constructed a macadamized road from Belleville to St Louis. Previous attempts had been made to secure a charter, but the only one which the legislature would grant contained two provisions which would have prevented the successful conduct of the enterprise. One of these provisions was that the charter could be repealed at any time, and the other, that the private property of each stockholder should be liable for all the debts of the company. In 1846 Gov. Reynolds was elected a member of the house of representatives from St. Clair, with the principal object in view of sccuring a satisfactory charter for the proposed road. The charter was secured, and the road, almost fourteen miles in length, was built. This was the first macadamized road in the State. The improvement was one of great value to the county, and gave the city of Belleville its first advance toward prosperity.
Before this road was built it had been at times almost impossible to reach the river on account of the mud and mire. A story was accustomed to be told in those days to the effect that a man on his way to St. Louis saw, in the American Bottom, a hat on top of the ground. He got off his horse to pick up the hat, but found a man's head in it. The man under the hat said, " under him was a wagon and four horses mired in the mud ; that he was safe, but he sup- posed the horses and wagon were in a bad fix."
THE AMERICAN BOTTOM received its name because it was here the early American families made their homes in Illinois. Shad- rach Bond, Robert Kidd, and James Garrison settled in the Bottom (in the present county of Monroe) in the year 1781, and other American families followed. In early times the Bottom contained a dense settlement almost from Fort Chartres to Cahokia, and probably three-fourths of the American population in Illinois resided there. It is the largest body of fertile soil in the country, extend- ing from Alton almost to Chester, nearly one hundred miles, and averaging five or six miles in width. The settlements of the early
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
American families were mostly comprised in that part of the Bot- tom now lying in Monroe county.
The Bottom has at various times been overflowed by the waters of the Mississippi. There was a great rise in the river in 1725, and again in 1772. The latter year encroachments were made on the banks of the river opposite Fort Chartres. The next extraordinary freshet was in the year 1785. The inhabitants of Kaskaskia and Cahokia were compelled to seek refuge in the bluffs. Many of the Cahokia people retired for relief to the rocky bluff, south-east of the village, which, for that reason, was called " Bon Succour." Others went to St. Louis. The next very high water was in 1844. The flood of this year is still remembered and referred to, not only by the residents of the American Bottom, but by the people then living along the whole course of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The Bottom was covered with water many feet deep. Large steam- boats sailed from bluff to bluff. The villages of Cahokia, Prairie du Pont, Prairie du Rocher, and Kaskaskia were almost destroyed.
CHAPTER IX.
EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION.
BY B. E. HOFFMAN.
LL our western states contain a large proportion of naturalized citizens and their descendants. Illinois came in for its share at an early period ; in fact, its first colonization is the work of Europeans. At the time of the organization of the county, in 1790, the white population living within the present limits of the county must have amounted to seven or eight hundred souls. Cahokia and environs counted one hundred families as early as 1783. An election held in the county in 1799 brought out 185 voters, and the population of 1800, according to the census was 1255. The only means to ascer- tain whether any foreigners had settled in the county at that early date, are the county records on naturalization. The period is so remote that recollection does not reach it, and tradition is, to say the least, not reliable.
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