USA > Illinois > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell 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. History of Illinois Digest of state laws > Part 55
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HISTORY OF TAZEWELL COUNTY.
for the most important office in one of the leading banking houses in Central Illinois.
RELIGIOUS HISTORY.
The M. E. Church .- Fifty-two years ago a little band of movers might have been seen wending their way from Ohio, with faces bent on the prairie wilds of Illinois. At nightfall the weary oxen were loosened from their yokes and left to lazily graze and rest, while this little colony, as it were, prepared their evening's meal and couches for the night. Nor did they forget, on bended knees, to thank their maker and preserver for guiding them aright in that great wilderness of wild waving grass and dense woods, by the way side, where crouched in ambush lay the red men of the forest. Little children sleeping in the calm moonlight, the cattle resting from the toilsome march of the day, chewing their cud as they lay, the smoke slowly ascending from the camp fires which smouldered close by -when, hark ! what sounds echo through the still woods : "Praise God from whom all blessings flow," comes up in deep and earnest tones from grateful hearts, and, they retire for the night, with the wild wolves of the forest howling about them, and the red eyes of the catamount glaring upon them.
Methodism was the pioneer Church of Pekin and of Tazewell county. In 1826, Jacob Tharp and family pitched their tents on the banks of the Illinois river, and on the present town site of the city of Pekin. In 1823-4, Sangamon Circuit was laid ont, which comprised all territory lying between Springfield and Lake Michi- gan. Rev. Samuel Thompson was appointed Presiding Elder, and Rev. Jesse Walker was appointed as a missionary, taking in Pekin and Fort Clark. Jesse Walker is therefore booked as the first Methodist preacher in Tazewell county. We quote from the diary of Jacob Tharp :
"However, in the same season, but I cannot now remember whether before or after Dillon and Hinkle's goods arrived, the Methodists had established a mission or circuit for this part and range of the country. Religions services by that persuasion were first held at my friend's, Gideon Hawley, on Sand Prairie, when I first met our preacher, Jesse Walker, and invited him to give us a discourse at the 'Town Site.' He thought it unnecessary, as no body but myself and family, and my son Jonathan and family, re- sided there, but I insisted and he complied. We had quite an
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audience. Pekin then giving promise of being something in the future. Some came to examine the site, some to do some trading, and some to look at the river and to fish, etc. The meeting was held in my house."
Thus the first preaching and' meeting was held in the cabin of Jacob Tharp. During the same year, 1826, the first class was organized, with Jacob Tharp and Hendricks as leaders. The following persons comprised that class: Jacob Tharp and wife, Phoebe, and her mother, whose name was Winans; Jonathan Tharp and his wife, Sarah ; N. B. Tharp and wife, Margret ; Wm. Tharp and wife, Jane; Gideon Hawley and wife, Elizabeth ; Geo Hinkle and wife ; Mr. Clark and wife, Mr. Hendricks and wife, and John Rylander. This class met from time to time, giving in their relig- ious experience, singing their hymns of praise, and thanking God for His great mercy and goodness vouchsafed unto them. Preaching occurred occasionally in Mr. Tharp's cabin and that of his son Jon- athan's. The circuit extended from Chicago to Springfield, and it generally took from two to three months to make the trip. The eireuit rider's equipment was a horse and a pair of saddle bags, to contain his Bible and discipline of the Methodist Church.
The next minister we can find any account of, is Rev. Lord, and he, in turn, was succeeded by Rev. John Sinclair, in 1831. He and Zadoek Hall (then a young man in the full vigor of his manhood) formed the first regular organization. Old Peter Cartwright had then formed, for himself and family, a little habitation at a place called Pleasant Plains, this side of Springfield. At his home the weary and exhausted circuit rider found rest and encouragement in labors. Quarterly Meetings, in those days, meant a big time. Extra cooking and preparing went on for some days in advance of the meeting. Men, women and children came from miles about prepared to stay the meeting through, which generally lasted three days. The Rev. John T. Mitchell followed Rev. Hall. He was a man of great power and eloquence, and eccentric to a great degree. His flights of oratory at times were truly sublime. He began his labors as the first regular installed minister, in 1834, in a little room, about twenty feet square, in the old barracks or stockades, which stood on the ground now occupied by the old frame residence of Joshua Wagenseller. In this little room Judge David Davis, of the Supreme Bench, and now U. S. Senator, made his maiden speceh, the room being occupied as a kind of court-house during the week.
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We will give one or two illustrations which, in themselves, will speak for the plain-tongued man of God, John T. Mitchell. One of his congregation, and a widow, who had but recently laid off her weeds, sold a cow and purchased what in those days was termed an elegant cloak, and she disposed of a brass preserving kettle and bought a bonnet (we presume a love of a one). This piece of whole- sale extravagance had gone the rounds of the village, and loud were the censures for this wanton outlay, when to wear a bow or an arti- ficial flower was cquivilent to receiving sentence with the damned.
Well, one Sunday morning when Father Mitchell was coming down on the pomps and vanities of the world, and earnestly hoping that none of his congregation would be guilty of putting on the flippery and flummery as worn by the worldings, just as his eloquence waxed warm on the subject of dress, in walked the widow with her new clothes, whereupon the sight of her was too much for him, and he said (pointing his finger directly at her,) "Yes, and there comes a woman with her cow upon her back and her brass kettle on her head." The rebuke and the lesson must have been severe, and in ruminating over those days and fashions we have wondered what Father Mitchell would say if he were to wake up and open his eyes in the chapel of to-day. We think he would find many cows and kettles decorating the devout of the present age.
Rev. Richard Haney, as Presiding Elder, figured conspicuously in the carly history of the Church. But more of Father Mitchell. In those days all the excitement the populace had, by way of break- ing the monotony, was the landing of the steam-boats, and we are told that more always came on Sunday than any other day. Father Mitchell was exceedingly annoyed, from time to time, by many of his congregation jumping up and running to the river every time a boat whistled. Once, when the stampede began, Father Mitchell, with voice raised in tones of thunder, cried after them, "The wicked fleeth when no man pursueth." Whereupon a waggish fellow turned in the doorway, hat in hand, and, looking calmly at the divine, answered back, "and the righteous are as bold as a lion."
In 1839 the old brick church was founded. It was commonly called, in after years, the old Foundry Church. For this Father Mitchell labored hard and zealously. The Church was, in its incep- tion, to be quite a grand and imposing edifice, built of brick, with basement for schools, and an auditorium above. Grandfather Tharp went back to Ohio to raise money to finish it, and raised $100 and
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spent $200 of his own in getting it. The basement was completed, but the dreams of the vast auditorium, which was to hold the com- ing multitudes was never fully finished, and their visions and dreams remained as castles in air. The old Foundry Church was situated immediately west of Crittenden's livery stable.
We think Father Mitchell must have been a firm believer in total depravity. There was a Universalist minister by the name of Carey, from Cincinnati (who was afterwards sent to Congress), came to Pekin and held a series of meetings in the two-story frame house directly opposite the old Foundry Church. This preacher, Carey, was brilliant and fluent of tongue, gathering about him, apparently, the whole village, to the disgust of Father Mitchell and his members. This was something new to them, it being the first time the broad- guage religious track had struck Pekin, and many there were who were charmed with the doctrine. Still, some of the young men felt an innate sense of delicacy in openly and glaringly cutting old faith- ful Father Mitchell's teachings, and they would walk about and reconnoitre until they would get to the corner of the building, and then stand and look around them for a few minutes, to see who was looking at them, and then like lightning dodge in. Father Mitchell, across the way, was of course taking in the full import of the scene, and feeling just a little bit of human chagrin at the boys leaving him for that glittering faith, he would walk up and down his church aisles, with his arms crossed behind his back, and as another and another would dodge in to hear Carey, he would say, very audibly, " there's another one gone to hell."
The following persons composed the first choir : Samuel Rhoads, John W. Howard, James White, Daniel Creed, John M. Tinney, John Rhoads, and Henry Sweet, who acted as leader. This band of "ye singers " met in Creed's room for practice, and sometimes "took a hand," to pass the time until service. One morning one of the members (still surviving in Pekin) felt the conviction that the boys had pinned a card upon his back. So deep was the conviction, and so annoying was the sensation, that he reached his hand over his shoulder in hopes of grasping it, and then rubbed his back against the wall, but there was no card there; it was only another instance of " the guilty conscience needeth, no accuser." This choir did valiant service in waiting on the sick during the fearful scourge and epidemie, called putrid sore throat, or black tongue, which swept over this part of the country during the winter of 1843 and 44.
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They paired off, night about, in watching the sick. But one even- ing Creed did not put in his apperance, and some of the boys sug- gested that he might be siek, and went to his room where they were wont to sing, but poor Daniel Creed had sung his last song on earth, and passed to the anthem choirs in the courts of Heaven, for they found him dead in his bed. The poor fellow had passed away in the loneliness of his own chamber, all alone, " to that bourne from whence no traveler returns." This fearful disease swept off, seemingly, half the village. The dead and the dying were in almost every house ; men and women were aroused to a sudden sense of their obligations to their God, and with death apparently staring them in the face, they were crying out, "What shall we do to be saved ?" During this panie was started what was always afterwards termed the " sore- throat revival." Shops were shut, stores were closed, and all voca- tions for the time suspended, while the sick were nursed, the dead laid away, and the souls of the living presented to God for mercy. A pall hung over the infant town. A doom, at once dark, and deep, and solemn, seemed to settle over the citizens. Everybody joined the Church.
Lueus Vanzant, the editor of the Pekin Gazette, and one of "the b'hoys," took sick early one night, and during the progress of the meeting, that same evening he sent his name down to the minister to be enrolled on the Church books. Vanzant got well.
Old Father Wolston was a local preacher who did much good in his time. In his own language he always "whittled his sermons down to a pint." In 1846, the first regular Methodist Sunday- school was organized with Father Wolston as Superintendent. In 1847, the old brick church was sold to Messrs. Jewett & Baker for a foundry, and Rev. James Olliver came on the field and commenced the work and plans of the old frame church, which stood north of the residence known as the Holmes property, and where now stands the Farmers National Bank. This Church was burned in 1870. The sleepers and sills of the church were taken from a little Method- ist Church, which stood for a while near the farm of Wm. Davis, and close beside what is known as the Myers grave yard. This church they pulled down, and with oxen hauled the timbers into Pekin, to help form the frame of the new church. He was followed in turn by one Rev. Bristol, one of the finest built and most splendid looking men who ever graced a Pekin pulpit. His manner and style was courtly and engaging. His dress was of the old martial day,
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with knee breeches, and big steel buckles on his shoes. Men and women in turn raved over him, and in passing turned and looked again.
Timothy Crosby was the next pastor. Old Father Ledterman rendered valuable assistance in the completion of the Church. build- ing, and in 1847 it was dedicated.
The bell, which for years was mounted in the tower of the old frame church, and which rung and toled alike in joy or sadness, for marriage or funeral, was presented to the Trustees of the Church by the following gentlemen : Samuel Rhoads, Colonel Frank L. Rhoads, William Tinney, and John M. Gill, and was captured by them when in Mexico, in the Mexican War. They took it from the tower of a Roman Catholic Monastery, at Vera Cruz, packed it in a flour barrel with straw, and brought it home with them to Pekin, and presented it the Methodist Church of this city, where it, with its old cracked chimes, made singular music for the masses in its ringing for service or fire. But the old bell wearied of protestant- ism, and in the year 1867 was sold, with its full consent, to the English Roman Catholic Church, of Pekin, where its peculiar tones may be heard at five in the morning, calling its devotees to the carly mass. And thus the old bell has returned to its early faith and original creed.
Timothy Crosby was followed by Father Chandler, a man of great force of character and native ability. Isaac Hawley here began to work valiantly for the Lord. He served as Sunday-school Superin- tendent for several years. Father Chandler was followed by Rev. Worthington, an excellent man and minister. Rev. John Bour- land now put in an appearance, in his own language, he felt as though " the devil had the hawk of his jaw on most of the town." At the end of two years he departed to make room for one Rev. Vance. He remained but one year. Rev. George Erwin came to Pekin as a boy bridegroom in 1855. His sermons were concise and emphatic. His personal appearance was good. Next came Rev. Gregg, a min- ister with more brains and mind than physic to support it. The Church raised a purse, Mr. Sam Rhoads collecting in two hours time $130, to help Mr. Gregg go South for the benefit of his health. He returned ere long to Pekin, where he died. Rev. J. C. Rybolt now steps into the pulpit, a man of remarkable ability and gift of oratory. He did not grace the pulpit in Pekin long, as he turned his attention to law. Next comes long John Windsor, who served
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HISTORY OF TAZEWELL COUNTY.
acceptably for two years. He was a good man, no higher can be said of any.
The church sustained a heavy loss about that time in the decease of the persons of Mrs. Whitefoot and Mrs. John Hammer, who was a Shelton.
Rev. James Vernon followed John Windsor. He had a large family wholly dependent upon his salary for sustenance. His cares and anxieties were so many, and the struggle for bread and butter so hard, that it is a wonder how he could forget his embarrassments sufficient, to prepare his sermons, which were always polished and methodical.
Zadock Hall, known better of late years as "old Father Hall," now turns up again. He served full three years. He was here when the times were stirring, and the war was upon us with all its terri- bleness ; when women and children were weeping for their husbands and fathers ; when maidens were sad in the absence of their lovers, and when brother was arrayed against brother, and when the South had said " extend to us the Mason and Dixon line," and when the North was saying back, in smoke and thunder, "unshackle those bent forms from bondage and toil, and consent to our flag waving over you,- the Star Spangled Banner which was bought amid peril and blood in the Revolution."
What changes Father Hall must have beheld in his coming back to the Church he left in its infancy. His life was so humble and exemplary that the whole town loved him for his gentle ways, and when there was low whisperings that perhaps a younger man might prove more efficient, the populace arose in a mass and petitioned Conference to send the gentle old man back the last and third year, which its session cheerfully granted.
During Father Hall's time the Church invested (amid many mis- givings as to the righteousness of the act) in a melodeon, at a cost of forty dollars. There had been a feeble attempt once before to introduce some instrumental music, in the form of a flute in the hands and mouth of Richard Shaw, which was to be accompanied by a bass viol, but somehow the thing wouldn't work as pure orthodox, and the instruments were banished.
Rev. Robert Pearce, a nephew of Rev. Robert McChain, the emi- nent Scotch divine, of Edinburgh, came next. Robert G. Pearce is an Edinburgh Scotchman, born and educated in that city, the mod- ern Athens of the world. Rev. Pearce in stature is below the
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medium, with coal black hair, as straight as a shoe string, and a pair of eyes dark and piercing and a large and well defined mouth and nose. But wait, he has stepped into the pulpit or rostrum. He has opened his mouth, and now all eyes are upon him, and every car strained to catch each syllable as it falls from his lips, and he holds his audience in breathless silence. The coming of Robert Pearce was the dawning of a new era in Methodism in this city. He opened a series of meetings with the new year of 1866. The old church would not begin to hold the people who thronged to hear the little Scotch preacher. His work was full and complete and men and women bowed before the old altar rail, who had been called proud and haughty. Two names we have handed down on the wings of the memory of that winter, who came out gloriously on the Lord's side, are Mrs. Henry P. Westerman and Emma Wagoner. The works of these ladies speak for themselves.
Rev. Pearce raised the subscription and built the present edifice. The little frame church was sold to David Lowery, who prostituted its old sanctified walls into those of a billiard hall and drinking saloon. Afterwards it was leased to Hight & Miller as a livery stable, and in 1870 it was burned down. What early associations cluster around its old-time memories ; what scenes of joy have been witnessed within its four old walls, when, in solemn vow and prom- ise, men and women, with right hands clasped, vowed to love one another till death did them part; and then what shouts of gladness were borne out on the midnight air when some darkened soul was born again of God; and then what hush would fall as some mother with pale hands clasped in the cold embrace of death, was carried up the aisles in her last carthly tenement, or some infant sweet with white roses scattered on its silent breast. Ah, what tales of joy and sadness the ashes of the past could tell, if tongues to ashes were given.
Teis Smith subscribed $500 towards the new church, it being the first subscription given. Reuben Bergstresser followed with $100, and Isaac Hawley, Mary L. Westerman, Stephen Roney and Geo. Greigg giving the same, and thus the first $1,000 was raised. The new church edifice was erected at a cost of $12,000. It was finished and dedicated in April, 1867, the dedicatory sermon being preached by the Rev. Dr. Eddy, of Chicago, and the sermon in the evening by Rev. J. G. Evans, late President of Hedding College.
Joseph C. Hartezell was appointed in 1868. He was a young man
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HISTORY OF TAZEWELL COUNTY.
of fine mind and capabilities, and a graduate of the Northwestern University. He served until removed South by Bishop Janes, to fill the unexpired year of Dr. Newman, of Ames Chapel, New Or- leans, who had been elected as Chaplain of the U. S. Senate.
After the removal of Hartezell, the pulpit was filled from Sunday to Sunday, by Professors from the Wesleyan University, or until Rev. Joseph Millsap, Presiding Elder, could secure a minister to fill the vacaney, which he did in May, in the person of Rev. James B. Blakeney who acted as a supply until Conference, which con- vened in Pekin in the fall of the same year (1870). The session was presided over by Bishop Janes, who, with a number of his cab- inet, were entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Reuben Bergstresser. Mr. B., although not a member of the Church until the year 1869, still he saught to labor in the Lords vineyard somewhere and for years cast his influence in behalf of the Methodist Church and for nine years he served as Sunday-school Superintendent. The Church sustained a severe loss in the death of Martha Burnett, wife of Sam Rhoads. This good woman was a power and might in her day and many missed her cheering voice by the weary wayside. While it is not a written law of the Church politic, yet it is coneeded as a mat- ter of courtesy to permit the Church entertaining the Conference to pick their man at the time of the session, therefore a committee waited upon Bishop Janes and requested him to send Rev. James W. Hancy to preside over them as a Church, and in accordance with their request, he was appointed. He is the eldest son of Rev. Richard Haney, one of the old pioneers of Western Methodism. His address and manners are pleasing and engaging. His dignity and pose in the pulpit could not be surpassed. As a preacher he was immensly popular; his sermons always abounding in fine logic and dietion, and with all a splendid delivery and powerful voice, which, at will, could be hushed to the most tragie whisper. During the three years which he served he was for two thirds of the time the only English speaking minister in the town. This was during the ravages of the spinal menengitis in Pekin, and Mr. Haney's la- bors and visits among the sick, were early and late. He made more visits on the sick, buried more dead and married more than any other minister ever did in the same time in Pekin. During his ad- ministration much was done to improve the church property. The pews were cushioned, the church building was given two coats of paint, the Smith's American organ placed in the infant room, and
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the handsome pipe organ placed in the audience room and many mi- nor improvements were added to the church and Sunday-school in a general way.
Rev. Haney was followed by Rev. Dr. Hugh M. Laney, a Chris- tian gentleman, full of analysis and philosophy as well as the Gospel. His sermons were concise and well put. His reign in Pekin was two years. His last was marked by great improvement to the church building. The two stairs were changed, the auditorium re- freshed, the windows put into frames and hung with weights so as to come down from the top, gas chandeliers put in, new carpets put down, pews all repainted, and new chairs placed in the Sunday- school room. This was done under the Doctor's direction and supervision, at a cost of thirteen hundred dollars. Mrs. Westerman presented the mountings to the pulpit which she had put on fresh for the funeral of W. W. Sellers, which took place from this church.
In the fall of. 1875, Rev. Edward Wasmuth was sent to Pekin, where he remained two years. During the fall of his first year, the Central Illinois Conference met in session in this city in the M. E. Church, Bishop Wiley presiding. The Bishop and Cabinet, with the agents, book and newspaper men, numbering twenty-five, were entertained at Rose Villa, by Mr. and Mrs. Westerman. At this session E. Wasmuth was returned to Pekin. Through letters of solicitation to Aberdeen, Scotland, and to India, Mrs. Westerman received from Lord Wm. Leslie, of Aberdeen, and from Major Francis Gillie, of her Majesty's service in India, the money which placed the fence and pavement around the church, as also the walks to the doors and the out-houses. Thus Auld Caledonia and India have contributed to Pekin Methodism.
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Rev. Marion F. Havermale now puts in an appearance on the scene, and his bright and sparkling sermons still live in the com- munity, as they always abounded in happy hits and well-made points, which he hurled at his hearers like sledge hammers.
Rev. R. D. Russell, the present minister, was appointed to fill his place. Rev. Russell is a gentleman of fine intellectual ability, pleasing address, and scholarly attainments. He graduated with the first honors of his class from the Northwestern University at Evanston. He is serving his people and the city in a very accept- able manner. During his brief stay, he has already lifted some six hundred dollars indebtedness from the Church.
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