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 70
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Daniel C. Schmahlenberger, the eldest child, was raised in this township. He obtained a common school education, and when seventeen, began learning the blacksmith trade at Millstadt. After completing his trade, he went to Wisconsin, and from 1872 to 1874, was working at the blacksmith business at Fort Atkinson, in that state. He came back to Millstadt, and in 1877 started a shop of his own, and has since carried on business. He was married July 31st, 1876, to Carolina Ohlendorf, who was born near Millstadt, and was the daughter of Henry and Philopena Ohlendorf. He has three children, whose names are Richard, Edward and Sophia. He is independent in politics, and generally votes for the man whom he considers best fitted for the office, without regard to the party to which he belongs.
CASPAR BOEMER
WAS born at Warstein, Prussia, May 8, 1813. He was the only child of Frank Boemer and his wife, Clara, whose maiden name was Semmelmann. His father was a farmer, and died when Caspar Boemer was six years old. Mr. Boemer went to school at Warstein till thirteen, and afterwards was eighteen months at a college at Liepstadt and one year at a college at Geseke. In 1833 he volunteered in the Prussian army and served till 1836. After leaving the military service he determined to emigrate to America, and in company with his mother's brother sailed from Bremen and landed at New York, June 27, 1837. He was then twenty-four. After a few months stay in Ohio he came to St. Louis where he lived till 1841. He was married in St. Louis in November, 1840, to Catherine Rodemich, daughter of Philip Rodemich. She was born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, and came to America in 1836 when fifteen.
In 1841 he came to St. Clair county, and for five hundred dol- lars bought eighty acres of land in section eight of township one south, range nine west. IIe had lost in St. Louis all the money he had brought from the old country and borrowed one hundred and twenty-five dollars with which to make the first payment on his purchase. There were then no improvements, not even a fence rail .on the land. He began the improvement of the place, put in a crop, and through the winter season, worked in St. Louis to secure money with which to meet the payments. He was obliged to exercise great industry and economy in order to obtain a start. Once in St. Louis, when left unable to work by a spell of the ague, he had to borrow money with which to buy bread for his family. His first crop of wheat he hauled to St. Louis, and received for it thirty one and a third cents a bushel, and worked two days to pay for the use of the wagon in which the wheat was hauled. Under these circumstances it took some years to pay for the land. He built a small house in which he lived till Novem- ber, 1846, when one night it burned to the ground, his wife and children escaping without even their clothing. In 1851 the first eighty acres were all paid for, and that year he bought twenty additional acres. He received that year eighty-five cents for his wheat, the highest price he had so far obtained.
From that time he was prosperous and successful. He mostly raised wheat, and more of it to the acre than any other farmer in that part of the county. He was ready to adopt modern methods of farming, and used on his farm the first thresh- ing machine ever seen in the vicinity of Millstadt. As soon as he was able he bought more land. He still owns the eighty which he first purchased, on which stands his present residence and farm buildings. His judgment in selecting this particular tract of land @.1 coming to the country is justified by the fact that the location is considered one of the best for a farm residence in that portion of the county. He owns two hundred and fifty-five acres of land besides property in the town of Millstadt. He has had twelve child- ren. Of these nine are now living. The oldest, Catharine, is the wife of Louis Diesel, a farmer of Centerville township. William Boemer resides in Millstadt. Frederick Boemer is farming near Millstadt. Mary married William Schuette, a millwright, who resides in St. Louis. The remaining children, Louisa, John, Henry, Henrietta, and Amelia, still have their homes under the parental roof. The youngest son, Henry, graduated from a com- mercial college in St. Louis in 1877, and for several winters has taught school.
In early life Mr. Boemer was a member of the democratic party, with which he acted up to the time of the war of the rebel- lion. In 1864 he supported Lincoln for the presidency, and has been a member of the republican party ever since. He has held no public office, but has been content with the quiet and peaceful life of a private citizen. During the many years he has resided near Millstadt he has been a respected member of the com- munity, and maintained the reputation of an honest and upright man.
CHARLES L. PROBSTMEYER,
WAS born at Bockenem, Hanover, February 26th, 1835. He was the second of four children, of Henry and Regina Probstmeyer. His father was a middle class farmer, and died when the subject of this sketch was eleven years old. After leaving school at the age of fifteen, Mr. Probstmeyer learned the butcher's trade. In 1857, he emigrated to America, and after living a year in St. Louis, be- came a resident of Millstadt. He followed the butchering business
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
till 1865. From that date to 1870, he was in the coal mining busi- ness, purchasing one mine and opening another. In 1873, he was elected justice of the peace, and re-elected in 1877, and has been filling that office ever since with credit to himself and satisfaction to the people. Before he was elected justice of the peace he served two terms as constable. He was married on the 26th of March, 1859, to Elenora Wagner, a native also of Germany.
JOHN M. LITTLE, (DECEASED.)
AMONG the former residents of Centerville township was John M. Little, who died in 1865. He was born near Boonesville, Ken- tucky, on the 8th of November, 1814. He was the fifth child and only son of seven children of Henry and Elizabeth (Jackson) Little. In the fall of 1820, when he was six years old, his father moved with the family to Illinois, and settled in the Badgley neighbor- hocd, north of Belleville. A few months after coming to this state his father died, and his mother soon afterward bought land in sec- tion five of township one south, range nine west, where the family settled, and where Mr. Little afterward lived till his death. He obtained an ordinary education, and was obliged to walk three miles during the winter months to school.
February 28th, 1838, he married Nancy Atchison, who was born July 23d, 1817. Her father and grandfather were both named George Atchison ; they emigrated from Pennsylvania, and settled in the American Bottom, in the present county of. Monroe, and were among the earliest American settlers of Illinois. The place where they settled adjoined the old farm of Gov. Bond. Mrs. Little's father and grandfather lived in a fort for protection against the In- dians, and her uncle, Alexander Atchison, was killed by the red skins. When Mrs. Little was twelve years old, her father moved to St. Clair county, and settled on land which he entered, four miles west of Belleville. Mrs. Little's mother's name was Elizabeth Smirls, whose father was an early settler of Jefferson county, Missouri.
John M. Little died on the 4th of September, 1865. He was a good citizen of the county. In his politics he was first a democrat, but became a member of the republican party when it was first formed. He was the owner of one hundred and seventy-two acres of land. He had ten children. Henry, George, James, and Eme- line are deceased. Sarah is the wife of Joseph Leach, and lives in Harvey county, Kansas. Mahala married Monroe M. Stookey. Hester is the wife of Edward Anderson of Jackson county, Illinois. Elsie married James Proffitt, and lives at Alma. Jackson and Lucinda still reside at home. The three oldest sons, Henry, George, and James, served in the Union army during the war of the rebel- lion. Henry enlisted in January, 1864, in Co. E, 59th Illinois re- giment, and served two years, or till after the close of the war. He returned home in bad health, and died June 9th, 1869. George enlisted in 1863, and while at Camp Butler, Springfield, died of the measles on the 3d of February, 1864. James enlisted in the 154th Illinois regiment on the 11th of February, 1865, and served till the following September. He came home sick from disease contracted in the service, and died on the 28th of October, 1865. Emeline married Alpheus Badgley. She died February 13th, 1875.
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EVAN BAIRD, (DECEASED).
EVAN BAIRD, one of the early residents of Centerville township, was a native of Kentucky, and was born in Fleming county of that state, on the 18th of December, 1804. His parents were among the early settlers of Kentucky. " His father died when he was small,
and his mother having married again, he lived with his step-father till twenty-one years of age. He secured a fair business education in the old-fashioned subscription schools of Kentucky, held in log school-houses with floors of puncheons and benches of slabs. He was apprenticed to the tanner's trade, in Kentucky, at which he worked as long as he lived in his native state, and several years afterward. In 1827 he came to Illinois, reaching Belleville on the 27th of May of that year. He went into the tanning business at Belleville, and after carrying on that occupation some time, entered forty (40) acres of land in section four of township one south, range nine west, on which he moved and went to farming. This entry was made under Gen. Jackson's administration, and the original patent bears his name. While living at Belleville he married Mary Miller, daughter of Wm. Miller. She was born in Pennsylvania. Her father came to St. Clair county, and settled a short distance south- west of Belleville, and lived in a log house which may still be seen standing on the Centerville road.
Mr. Baird afterward entered additional land, and at the time of his death owned one hundred and seventy-one acres. He died February 8th, 1860. He was a man respected for his good qualities as a neighbor and a citizen. He was first a member of the demo- cratic party, with which he acted till new parties were formed on the question of slavery, when he became a republican, and was one of the early members of that organization in St. Clair county. He never filled any public office, but gave his time to his farm and business affairs. He was an industrious and hard-working man, and all that he accomplished in life was the result of his own ef- forts. He carried on the tanning business for some time after moving on the farm. His widow is still living on the old homestead at the age of seventy-four, having been born March 7th, 1807. There were six children whose names are as follows : William, born Apl. 30th, 1831 ; Mary Jane, born Apl. 4th, 1834, died in infancy ; Ed- ward, born September 23d, 1837; Margaret Ann, born December 20th, 1840, married Thomas Lask, and died February 11th, 1869 ; Elizabeth, born September 20th 1843; and David Winfield, born November 15th, 1847. The four who are living all reside on the old homestead farm, carry on farming operations, and own two hundred and eleven acres of land.
JACOB E. HENRICI,
WAS born at Anspach am Usingen, Dukedom of Nassau, September 25th, 1833. He was the second of seven children of John George Henrici and Catharine Wueirich. Three brothers by the name of Henrici came from Sweden and settled at Anspach during the thirty years war, and from one of these Mr. Henrici is descended. After leaving school at fourteen, he assisted his father in the brewing business. In the fall of 1846, he came to America. The family landed at New Orleans. While ascending the Mississippi, seventy miles below St. Louis, his mother was accidentally drowned, falling from the side of the boat while trying to draw a bucket of water from the river. His father settled in Marion county, Missouri, where he died in 1856. After staying ten days in St. Clair county, Mr. Henrici found employment as a baker in St. Louis, receiving, four dollars a month wages. In the spring of 1847, he worked at Columbia in Monroe county, and afterward went to Marion county, Missouri, and with his father established a brewery. While living at Palmyra, Missouri, he married Elizabeth Lindenstruth, born at Reiskirchen, Hesse Darmstadt, daughter of Christian and Catharine (Magel) Lindenstruth. In 1848, he returned to St. Clair county. In 1849, he was employed in St. Louis as a coach- man by a physician who, finding that he had a good education,
Da
STOCK & GRAIN FARM OF DR. JOHN SALTENBERGER, Sec. 21, T.I.S.R.9. (CENTREVILLEPRECINCT) ST. CLAIR CO. ILL.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
made him a clerk in his drug store. Mr. Henrici resided in Marion county, Missouri, fifteen months, and then in the fall of 1850, came back to St. Clair county, where he has since resided.
Before leaving the old country, he served three years in the Ger- man army. When the war of the rebellion broke out, a company of home guards was organized at Millstadt, in which he held the po- sition of first lieutenant, and did the active drilling for the company. He was offered a lieutenant's commission in a regiment raised in the county for the war; but on account of his health was obliged to re-
main at home. He began teaching in the fall of 1861, and has taught school every winter since, with the exception of from 1862 to 1864, during which period he suffered from sickness. He has four children : Catharine, now the wife of Adam Bohley ; Conrad August ; Mary Magdalena, wife of Joseph Geissel of St. Louis, and Elizabeth. He was first a democrat in politics, and has been a re- publican since that party was formed. His education has been ob- tained by his own efforts, and is the result of self-study.
ATHENS PRECINCT.
THENS is situated in the south-eastern part of the county. It is separated from Fayetteville on the north by the Kaskaskia river; on the east and north-east from St. Clair by Big Mud Creek, ex cept that part lying along the line of Washington county ; on the south it is bounded by Randolph county ; on the west by Monroe county and Fayette- ville precinct, from both of which it is separated by the Kaskaskia river. Geographically it embraces most of T. 3 S. R. 7 W .; T. 3 S. R. 6 W., and parts of T. 2 S. R. 7 W., and T. 2 S. R. 6 W., in all 44,470 acres. It is well watered by the streams which are its boundaries, and numerous small affluents among them. Dosa creek, which enters the town- ship three miles south of Marissa, on section 34, flows a north- westerly course, then westerly and southerly, leaving the township on section 33, seven miles west of where it enters. Belts of timber skirt the streams, but it is principally a beautiful prairie, in a high state of cultivation. Passing through it, diagonally, from north- west to south-east, is the Cairo Short Line Railroad, which fur- nishes means for transportation of surplus products, stock, etc. The honor of having been the first settler belongs to John Lively, who came from South Carolina, and located on section 34, T. 3 S. R. 7 W. in 1805. On November 28th, 1816, he entered the S.W. quarter of section 34, where he lived for several years.
A few years later, probably 1810, Nathaniel Hill, Joshua Per- kins, Reuben Stubblefield, James and Reuben Lively and Richard Beasley, senior, located in the same neighborhood. As a protection against the Indians, they constructed a block-house on Dosa creek, near the present site of Hillstown, (named for Nathaniel Hill.) It was built in the prevailing style of such structures, two stories high, the lower one provided with port-holes to shoot through, and a'so with strong puncheon doors, securely barred against entering from the outside. The second story projected over the first, enabling parties secreted within it to shoot down upon Indians attempting to gain access into the lower story. It was to this block-house that a son of Lively, who had been murdered in Washington county in March, 1813, and a hired man, made their
escape before blood-thirsty savages. An account of this terrible tragedy may not be here amiss. Lively had left his home in this precinct to make a new one near Covington, Washington county, in company with David Huggins, a brother-in-law. They made one crop without being molested, in 1812. In 1813 Huggins re- turned to Monroe county. Friends importuned Lively to give up his place and join them at the block-house. He resolutely de- clined, saying, he had no fear of the red skins. His wife seemed to have a presentiment of the terrible scenes that were soon to be enacted. An account of the massacre, in the History of Washing- ton county, is as follows : Lively had an enclosure into which he had his stock driven at night, to protect them from marauding bands of Indians. For several nights previous to the night that witnessed the fearful tragedy, Lively and his family were greatly dis- turbed. The stock gave evidence of their alarm by their unusual conduct ; the dogs barked continuously, and Lively began to realize the imminent danger of himself and family. He frequently, with rifle in hand, would go out and search for the cause of the alarm, but his efforts to discover the source were unavailing. He en- deavored to calm his wife's fears by telling her it was nothing but wolves or other wild animals that created the disturbance. This, however, did not suffice to quiet her feelings, and she labored more assiduously to convince her husband that their safety depended on their immediate removal to the fort. The last night before the massacre was so exceedingly noisy that Lively began to lose his composure, and agreed to accede to the request of his wife and go to a place of safety. He began preparatious for moving about two hours before sundown. He directed his son, hired hand and his nephew, to get up the horses while his wife and daughters milked the cows, and got things in readiness to start to the settlements. The young man and boy started in quest of the horses, leaving the old gentleman in the cow-pen with his wife and daughters, who were milking the cows. He was on the stump of a fallen tree with his loaded rifle across his knees ready for use, chatting with his wife and daughters, whose spirits were buoyant in anticipation of leaving that dreaded place. But alas! their fond hopes were never to be realized ! The young man and boy had proceeded but a short
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
distance in the direction of the horses, when they were alarmed at the report of fire-arms in the direction of the house. They hurried to the scene of the firing, and when they had come in sight, a scene met their gaze that was calculated to freeze their hearts! The premises were covered with Indians; the death-dealing tomahawk and scalping-knife were doing their work of destruction. All were found where they were slain, on the premises, scalped, and their bodies horribly mutilated, except one boy, who was found by a party that followed the Indians, beheaded and with a hole cut through his body, with his buckskin shirt drawn through it."
The young man and boy made their way on foot to the block- house, wading Little Mud creek, whose waters were so high, that they reached the boy's chin. They gave the alarm, and all occupants of the fort able to bear arms followed the savages, some of whom they killed.
Upon the abandonment of the block-house its occupants scattered to various parts of the country, only two or three families remain- ing in the neighborhood.
There are yet living representatives of the Hills and Livelys in this county. These pioneers followed the usual avocations and endured the hardships incident to such life. One of the Livelys located on section 34, where he lived for a number of years. To him whilst living here was born Mary Lively, who first enlivened the humble cabin of the Livelys iu the spring of 1816. Peace had spread her fair wings, and when bands of Indians of the Tamarois tribe occasionally stopped at the house, they admired the little pale face, and bestowed on her presents more brilliant than useful.
In the fall of the same year, a man of great enterprise, who en- tertained, what at the time were considered extravagant ideas of the future of the country, a man among men,-a man whose love of liberty was learned amid the mountains of Switzerland, wended his way from the city of Philadelphia, where he had landed, across the Alleghenies ; across the states of Ohio and . Indiana ; across Illinois until he halted upon the banks of the Kaskaskia, and looked upon a country fair to behold, a fit habitation for himself and friends. He determined on its possession, and lost no time in making his way to Kaskaskia, where he laid claim to a number of sections of land, paying earnest money on the same. The following year he returned to his native land, doubtless with fairy sounding stories of the wondrous land of his adoption. In 1818 Bernhardt Steiner, for that was the name of the Swiss Pioneer, returned, bringing with him several families, among them Jacob Hardy, the Wildys and others. His operations were all planned on a liberal scale. He commenced merchandizing on what is now called Dutch Hill. A great scarcity of salt was complained of throughout the scattered settlement. He in 1820 went to Kaskaskia, con- structed a raft, loaded it with salt and goods, and by the aid of others, poled it up the river. A stroke of enterprise highly com- mended by the early pioneers. In 1822, through his persuasion, a nephew, Peter Baumann, a scholar and a gentleman of means, came from Switzerland, it is supposed, to form a co-partnership with him. Before his arrival Steiner died, or was killed. As re- lated by those most likely to be conversant with the facts, he had started with considerable money in his possession, on horseback for Kaskaskia, to complete his payment on lands he had already se- lected. On his way he was intercepted and killed, his body being found, some time during the night, near a cabin where a dance was going on. His relatives and friends knew not of his death for several days, when his body was obtained and buried on section 10, near by, a mile from the present site of Dutch Hill. Baumann heard of this tragic death while on his way hither. Among the pleasant dreams of Steiner was that of founding a city on the river
near his home. His untimely death for a time checked the pros- pects of the Swiss settlement, although the arrival of Baumann gave it fresh impetus. It is yet firmly believed by many that Steiner buried large sums of money near Dutch Hill, for which fruitless search has often been prosecuted.
There were no schools in reach, so Mr. Baumann determined to make the best of a bad outlook, taught his own children, giving them fair educations. He was the scholar of the settlement ; an ad- viser in trouble. To him all looked for guidance, or for drawing up any papers. Often did he wish he had never left his native land, and as often picked up fresh courage to surmount the diffi- culties which beset the pathway of a pioneer. To him was born Peter Baumann, Jr., June 23d, 1823, believed to have been the first born Switzer in the county. In 1825 he erected a horse mill, which was run for many years, each patron furnishing his own power for grinding his grist. He also was the first postmaster, ap- pointed in 1840, to keep the office called Lively, which he did at his own house.
To the south of the Swiss settlement, in the immediate neighbor- hood of John Lively, already mentioned, there came a New Eng- lander, direct from the "land of steady habits (Connecticut)," Chauncey S. Burr in 1820, after a sojourn of two years at Kaskaskia. His conveyance hither was a singular Yankee combination of car- riage and boat. Upon reaching a river he took off the running gear, put it into the bed, and paddled or poled his way across the stream. It is related that on the banks of the Wabash he was thought by the inhabitants to be possessed of a spirit. So he was, but it was the indomitable spirit of enterprise which drives success before it. In his humble cabin, on sect. 27, he had a looking-glass, the first brought to the locality. Wyatt Stubblefield, then a lad, espied himself therein and rushed out of doors to find "that other boy." He was the first Justice of the Peace in his vicinity. The first wedding ceremony he performed was that of Jacob Hardy to Elizabeth Wildy, Aug. 2d, 1832. He was a conspicuous character at every sale that came off in his vicinity. His wife, Mrs. Per- melia Burr, was the first elder of the Presbyterian church at Kas- kaskia, to which point although it was twenty miles distant she rode horseback whenever the weather would permit. Norton's Presbyterianism in Illinois, says, " In 1819 or 20 she became the owner of a colored woman. But she was illy satisfied with the re- lation and often plead for her freedom, but could not prevail. At length they parted with her. After being owned by another for a time the poor colored slave woman was murdered. Mrs. Burr says she could never think of it, but with horror."
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