USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, Illinois : a tale of its evolution, settlement and progress for nearly a century, Volume I > Part 13
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Mr. Johnson was a man of generous impulses and his neighbors long sang his praises. If a man was hard pushed for ready money and went to Henry Johnson he was sure to get it, if it was to be had, and the loan given so cordially was never to pay interest. Mr. Johnson would never take interest on any money he loaned. Mr. Johnson sold his farm in about 1832 or 34, to Levy Long and he moved further west, to the fertile strip between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, called the "Military Tract." Here he was making a good farm until it was discovered that his title was worthless as so many were, and he lost all
icre
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his land. Thus was the man of whom his old neighbors could say nothing but praise, who was known by the name of the "Good Samaritan," kind and generous, was rendered penniless by these "land sharks" and forced to go yet further west. He was after this lost to the knowledge of his old friends but his kind- ness was told by one generation to the next and his name kept as synonymous for generosity and helpfulness.
ABSOLOM STARR.
Absolom Starr came to Johnson's Point in 1821. This was the settlement begun by Henry Johnson, a brother-in-law of Starr's the fall previous. Abso- lom Starr came to this part of Edgar County, as it was at that time, directly from Palestine, Illinois. The land office was located at Palestine before it was removed to Danville.
When Mr. Starr came he brought corn and wheat enough to keep his family for a year. He also brought a good yoke of oxen and was well fixed to go into a new country to make his home. He brought his wife and four children with him. He built his cabin on section 36, near to his brother-in-law. So provi- dent a man had every reason to expect fortune to smile on him, but this was not the case, however. During the first winter in their new home he had a trivial injury to his heel, which resisted all treatment and he was assured that cancer had developed. A trip back to their old home in Palestine, where there was a physician living was of no avail, because the idea of cancer was con- firmed and there was great danger of having to loose his foot. However, he could not raise the money demanded for the operation and he came back to his new home discouraged and almost despondent. There was an old Indian doctor, called Bonaparte's Indian, who lived about there, and for the want of any more skilled practitioner, Mrs. Starr consulted him. By the use of some herbs he collected along the Vermilion river, he cured the diseased heel which the physi- cian at Palestine thought could be reached only by the use of the knife. Mrs. Starr nursed her husband back to strength, at the same time tending her garden and two acres of corn. Henry Johnson's kind heart helped this family to take care of themselves during these hard days. Mr. Starr lived until October 14, 1829. He was buried in the old burying ground, now known as Mt. Pisgah cemetery, near Georgetown.
Mrs. Starr survived her husband and afterward became the wife of Mr. Jones, spending her last years on the farm she first helped get into cultiva- tion. She was the mother of eleven children and left many descendants in the county, among them being Mrs. J. W. Giddings.
JOTHAM LYONS.
Jotham Lyons took up land west of Henry Johnson about the same time. He lived here until his death, August 2, 1843. He was buried in the present Mt. Pisgah cemetery, near Georgetown. His first wife, Elizabeth, died on Christmas day, 1827, and was buried in the same burying ground.
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The children of Jotham Lyons are scattered across the country. One son has lived in the neighborhood of the old home and identified himself with af- fairs of the county.
JOHN JORDON.
Another man to settle in this neighborhood was John Jordon. John Jor- don came to Johnson's Point a short time after Absolom Starr arrived, but in the same year.
WILLIAM SWANK.
William Swank came to the southern part of the county in this year which saw the advent of Henry Johnson and Jotham Lyons. He entered land at where Indianola is located and became an active factor in the development of that sec- tion of the country. The all prevailing demand of the time for whiskey was not lacking in this section, and to meet this Mr. Swank set up a still-house down in the bottom, where he would make an occasional barrel of good pure liquor for his neighbor's use. The condition of this malarial country was one occasion of this demand for whiskey, and this primitive way of meeting it insured a pure article for consumption. Mr. Swank provided for the needs of his neighbors in another, and perhaps better way by the little corncracker which he had attached, which was run by tread-millpower, and did all the neighborhood grinding. So promi- nent in the affairs of this section did Mr. Swank become, he was given the credit of naming a village at the place now known as Indianola. When the village was first established it was named Chillacothe. Since William Swank was known through- out this section as the "Father of Dallas," there is no doubt of his politics, during the decided Forties and Fifties when men held strong views on all questions of the day whether of politics or of religion. Mr. Swank came from the South and naturally clung to the habit of thought of his youth, and was an uncomprom- ising Democrat. He lived in the same neighborhood into which he first came all his life. His death occurred in the late seventies and he left children who remained in that section and perpetuated his name.
JOHN MYERS.
John Myers came to the Little Vermilion as early as 1820 and settled on the land afterward the farm of the well known R. E. Barnett. While living in this place this man was much better known as "Injun John." He was a man whose nickname fit him more in its implication, and suggestion than in any other way although he earned it by his open hatred of the Redman.
He was a character noticeable in even those days when all individualities were prominent. In the free life of the pioneer, there was little polish and every man was himself, to be liked or despised as the case might be, but even then, some were more prominent than others because of unusual traits of character. "Injun John" was one of these. He was free with what he had, and expected every one to be equally so. He had little love for property which was his own, and
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no consideration for the rights of others. He was brave, self-willed and on the water would have been a gay buccaneer.
John Myers had an eighty acre farm in Ohio, but the freedom of the new country in Illinois, which was as yet unorganized into counties, but was attached to Edgar County, appealed to him. So it was Mr. Starr, the uncle of Absolom and Barnett Starr, who had bought eight hundred and eighty acres on the Little Vermilion river at a land sale, found an eager trader in this man from Ohio. He traded his farm of 8 acres for this unseen 88 acres, and started to take pos- session thereof.
On his way he passed his brother-in-law, Joseph Frazier, in Indiana, and told him he would give him a quarter section of this land if he (Frazier) would go on with him. This gift was not to be refused and they came on and settled in this section in 1821. The particular tract which Myers gave away that he might have company in his new home, afterward became a portion of the Sconce farm. The land was first bought by the Sullivants from Frazier in 1853, when they were the great land kings of Champaign County and were carrying out plans to develop a large estate in Vermilion County. The Sullivants cut the fine growth of wal- nut timber from the Frazier farm to fence in "broad lands." Myers was a fearless and untiring hunter. At one time just before he came to this section of country, while yet he lived in Ohio, a neighbor of his with his two sons were out in a sugar bush at work in the spring of the year, when some Indians surprised them and killed them.
Myers gathered together a company and went in pursuit of the Indians. They struck the trail in the new snow and followed it until all but three of the pursuers gave out from exhaustion, one of whom was Myers himself. With his force so depleted, Myers told the other two that he would shoot the next one who refused to go on. This increased the courage of his companions and Myers' physical endurance, pluck and determination to avenge his friends was catching "and carried the day," and the three overtook the Indians and had their revenge. This was the material of which Myers was made. A man of powerful strength, he would crack a black walnut with his teath and many a man found to his sorrow that it was not wise to provoke him to a fight.
He hated an Indian and was the first to be ready to go to the Black Hawk war and was one of those who made that war a disgrace to the white man. He knew no such thing as discipline; abhorred tactics and did not believe in waiting for orders or supplies. He made a great deal of trouble by his insubordination. Habits of intemperance had grown on him, and he would get very drunk and become abusive to the officers and everybody else. He wanted to go into the fight at once ; he had gone into that affair to kill Indians and he was impatient to begin. He came to "fight Injuns" and fight he was going to do, if no one else, then he would try his strength on the officers. He told these new fledged officers that they "knew no more about fightin' Injuns than a bear did about a camp meetin'" and he was put under arrest, to his surprise.
While brave and generous, he had no judgment about affairs and used up all his property before he died. He took an interest in every enterprise that was proposed. He lost much money in helping Simon Cox try to build a mill which never did get to be a success.
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Jack McDowell was a handsome and lively young man who was struggling to get on in the world, and "Injun John" took a notion to him and made him an offer of a half-section of land, but, much as the young man wanted the land there was a provision that he should marry Myers' daughter, and that decided the acceptance of the gift. "Injun John" kept his land. He gave away or lost all his land and went out to the Illinois River where he afterward died in poverty. Thus passed one of the most picturesque characters of eastern Illinois.
HENRY CANADAY.
Henry Canaday was a native of North Carolina who moved north, with his family, in the fall of 1820, and stopped over winter in Wayne County, Indi- ana. Two of his sons came on over the state line and put up a cabin in what is now the southern part of Vermilion County. His four sons were Benjamin, Frederich, William and John. The entire family took possession of the round log cabin which the two sons had built, and began their new life without neigh- bors other than the Indians who camped on the banks of the Little Vermilion in the spring of the year to hunt and fish. They would visit the cabin to beg and steal and trade but never seriously annoyed them.
There were many sugar-maple trees on the land the Canadays had chosen for their home and they made sugar that first spring, but they were not con- tented and Benjamin returned to Tennessee, where their old home had been, and bought a farm. Soon the entire family returned to their old home but it was to stay only during the summer. They sold their property in Tennessee and returned to their cabin on the Little Vermilion river before winter. This was the fall of 1821 and their cabin was on what was yet unorganized territory at- tached to Edgar County. They had much sickness during this winter, having come from a different climate, and the nearest physician was at Clinton, Indiana. They had to go to mill on Raccoon Creek in Park County, Indiana, and Terre Haute was the nearest trading point. They had no horses when spring came and they broke ground with oxen. Wild deer was plentiful and they filled the smokehouse soon after they came with deer hams, and also had plenty of pork. When they first came the year before, they brought thirty hogs with them from Indiana and when they went back to Tennessee they left them in the woods. These animals lived in the woods and became so wild as to be a menace to stock for years afterward. Wild game was plentiful and deer, turkey and other fowl gave them a variety of food. The entire family occupied the one roomed cabin for some time, and the mother did the cooking by the fireplace; the floor was of puncheon, the roof of clapboards, held down with weight poles and the stick and clay chimney was built on the outside.
About the second year of their living at this place, Henry Canaday, together with George Haworth, "set up a meeting," as it is called by the Society of Friends, when a new church was established. These two men and others who came afterwards to the neighborhood, built a log cabin in which they had meet- ings and later built a church of hewed logs. Sometimes the attendance was so small that Henry Canaday and his son, Benjamin, would go to "meeting" and
FREDERIC CANADAY
MRS. ANN CANADAY
SARAH M. ELLIOTT
JOHN ELLIOTT
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sit through the hour alone, in order to keep up the church organization as was the demand of that society.
Henry Canaday was very prominent in the life of the growing Vermilion County. He entered about two sections of land as soon as it came into market, and sold it off to new comers. Henry Canaday was a tanner and a blacksmith, and as soon as possible after the family came to their new home they managed to establish both trades. He could the better do this because of his four grown sons. He started a tanyard in which his son William worked, and also a tin- shop for his son Benjamin. William later carried on harness making and sad- lery but his father, Henry Canaday, never had that trade.
Benjamin Canaday, the oldest son of Henry Canaday, was a tinner by trade and during the winter of the big snow (1830), he made up a stock of tin ware and traded it off at Louisville for goods. These he brought back with him and put into a building he had put up for a store on his farm just west of Vermilion (later Vermilion Grove), on the Hickory Grove road. This was the beginning of his career as a merchant. He sold goods here for several years before going to Georgetown where he became the largest, and at one time, the most successful merchant.
Frederick Canaday, the second son of Henry Canaday, made a valuable farm just north of Vermilion station where he spent his life. He was the father of four sons and three daughters. His sons, William, Henry, Isaac and John, grew to manhood and settled around him. His daughters who became Mrs. Law- rence, Mrs. Patterson and Mrs. Ankrum, went the one to Kansas, the other to Bethel and the third lived near her father.
William Canaday, the third son of Henry Canaday, married Miss Mary Haworth, in 1831, who was the daughter of William Haworth. They were the parents of ten children. These children settled in different parts of the country, a number of them near their parents' home. Mrs. Mary (Haworth) Canaday died in 1855 and Mr. Canaday married Miss Elizabeth Diament, in 1873, for his second wife.
John Canaday, the youngest son of Henry Canaday, lived all his life on the farm on the state road between Vermilion and Georgetown. He had a good farm and was a prosperous farmer. He was the father of five sons and two daughters. The Canaday family have been strong factors in the development of the county. His family of sons with their families of sons and daughters have made the name one of honor and pride in this section which Henry Canaday found a wilderness.
BENJAMIN BROOKS.
Benjamin Brooks, the founder of the important settlement called Brooks' Point, came to this part of the county in the fall of 1821. His wife was the daughter of a Mr. Manville, of Madison, Indiana, and they were married in Indiana and came here directly from Jefferson County, of that state. The na- tivity of Benjamin Brooks is in doubt although there is no question that his wife was born in Indiana.
Had it not been for the generosity of Mr. Canaday, Mr. Brooks would have been in a sad plight. Mr. Brooks had selected his land when he first came to live
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on the Little Vermilion, and then went back after his family and another man put a claim while he was gone and secured the land. Mr. Canaday had some further up and let Mr. Brooks have it and it was settled so rapidly as to have the point of timber known by the name of Brooks' Point.
GEORGE WILLIAMS.
George Williams came early in the twenties in company with the Bargers, the Paytons and Thos. Collison, from Pike County, Ohio. His native state was Delaware. George Williams had two sons, Harrison and Abner. Mrs. Williams, the mother of these boys died of milk sickness in 1825 and the boy, Harrison, who was then twelve years old, went to live with Reason Zawley, in the Current neighborhood. An idea of the hardships of life at that time is had in the tale of this boy's going to school in the winter time. The school term was limited to a short time in the winter months, and the boy, without shoes or stockings on his feet found the snow-covered road between his cabin home a dread one to travel. Without shoes he took a hickory board and stood it in front of the fire place until it became as hot as possible without catching fire. With his hot board in his arms he would dash out of the house and run as far as possible through the snow. When he reached the limit of endurance, he would put the board down on the ground, and stand on it for a little while, then snatching it up would run on a little further. In this way he went to school and when he was ready to go home the same thing was done over. In 1834 Harrison Williams married Anna Gish, a native of Virginia who had come west when she was fourteen years old. She came with her parents and settled in LaFayette, Ind. Mr. and Mrs. Williams made Danville their home, owning property at that place. Two years after he was married he bought the lot on the S. E. corner of North and Walnut streets. At this time the lot faced Walnut street and extended east as far as the alley. A deed yet in possession of the family shows that this lot was bought by Harrison Williams in 1836 for $30. The least the inside lots could now be bought for is $150, per foot. This deed of Mr. Williams was never recorded and a number of years later Judge Terry was ordered by the Courts to make out a new deed, Mr. Williams' address at that time being un- known. Harrison Williams was a carpenter by trade and helped build Gurdon Hubbard's store which was the first frame building in Vermilion County. He also helped erect the first Methodist church building. Mr. Hubbard's store was on the Public Square on the corner where the Palmer National Bank now stands. The church building was on the southeast corner of North and Vermilion streets, Harrison Williams moved to LaFayette, Ind., in 1840, and died there in 1851. Abner Williams was a blacksmith and lived in Danville until he went to Scott county on the other side of the state. He was married twice, the first time to a Miss Delay, a cousin of his, and the second wife was a Miss Judd. He owned the lot on the northwest corner of North and Vermilion streets.
THOMAS O'NEAL.
Thomas O'Neal, with his wife, Sarah (Howard) O'Neal, came from Nelson County, Kentucky, and settled at Brooks' Point in the fall of 1821. He was a
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native of Nelson County, while his wife was a native of Indiana. Mr. O'Neal first took up a claim near Brooks' Point, but three years later he entered near the Big Vermilion river. After he moved to the Vermilion river, he established a tanyard and made his own leather from which he made the shoes of the family. He made a leather from which he could make Indian moccasins and which the Indians would get from him. The winter months were spent in making rails with which to fence his land and clearing up the ground, thus adding about ten acres of tillable land to his farm every year. When the Black Hawk war broke out, he saddled his horse and with his gun on his shoulder, went into the service. His oldest son was also in that war. Thomas O'Neal remained in the service as long as the war lasted. When he returned home he again took up the work of improving his farm with renewed determination to make a valuable property, and met great success. He died September, 1861, and his wife died two years later. They were the parents of nine children who have kept the name a well known one through almost a century in Vermilion County.
JOHN HAWORTH.
John Haworth came to the little Vermilion at very nearly the same time as Henry Canaday and they were close friends as long as they lived. The two fam- ilies have inter-married and had common interests during all the years since their coming. A Mr. Malsby built a cabin near where Vermilion Grove is lo- cated, in 1820; however he did not stay but left his cabin and went to some other place, so his claim to citizenship is not valid. John Haworth, as early as 1818, was living in Tennessee, but had become so distressed with the institutions of the south that he could no longer endure life there. He lived in Union County, so he came to the little Vermilion river in the fall of 1820. Here he found the cabin deserted by Malsby and took possession of it and wintered in it. George Bocka, a son-in-law to Achilles Morgan, had a claim on the cabin, but Mr. Haworth bought it. John Haworth's cousin James later came to George- town. John Haworth's neighbors were Henry Johnson and Absolom Starr, off a few miles northwest; Mr. Squires and Thomas Curtis at Yankee Point, three miles east ; John Mills, Simon Cox and Dickson to the west, with Henry Canaday near by.
Mr. Haworth entered several hundred acres of land but he did not do this as a speculation. Indeed he was ready to sell it whenever he could find any one who would make a desirable citizen, and he would sell it cheap and on time if so desired. John Haworth's name has gone into history as a man well being called a Christian gentleman. He was the father of eight children. His uncle, a man of much worth, soon joined this settlement, and, together with Henry Canaday, established the strong Society of Friends in Vermilion County who were so great a factor in its development.
ACHILLES MORGAN.
One of the men who made an impress on the affairs of the county was Achilles, Morgan, who came to this section in about 1825 or 6. He was accompanied with one at least of his daughters and her husband. They came from Virginia
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where they as a family were great Indian fighters. Mr. Morgan located on sec- tion 15 and was from the first recognized as a leading man in affairs of the county. He was one of the first County Commissioners, who, together with John B. Alex- ander and James Butler, organized and set to going the machinery of Vermilion County. The neighborhood in which he lived was called Morgans and is perhaps the place platted and on record as Morgantown.
HENRY MARTIN.
Henry Martin came to this section with his father-in-law, Achilles Morgan. After going to Brooks' Point settled near Georgetown at a place afterward called Morgans. Some claim this family went first to Butler's Point and some even say they stopped at the salt works. Henry Martin was born in Maryland in 1786 and moved with his parents to Virginia, where he afterward married Mary Mor --- gan, a daughter of Achilles Morgan. He served one year in the war of 1812 and later moved to Illinois, making permanent settlement in the unorganized territory attached to Edgar County. He enlisted under his father-in-law in 1826 at the time of the Winnebago war and followed the lead of Gurdon Hubbard to protect Fort Dearborn from the Indians of the northwest. Henry Martin lived on the farm near Georgetown until his death, September 5, 1851.
Henry Martin was the father of a large family, one of his sons being a well known preacher. Rawley Martin came with his father from Virginia, a boy of four or five years, who had a life of usefulness in the country of his adoption. He showed wonderful energy and perseverance, for, although there were no schools for him to attend, he acquired a very liberal education. He had a very ambitious mother who was well educated, and through her influence he early became familiar with the contents of all the books possible to obtain, principal among which was the Bible. Indeed, he became so familiar with this book that he could repeat it almost verbatim. He early united with the Christian church, and in time was ordained preacher of this denomination. He continued in this work for more than twenty-five years. During this time he organized many churches in the county, baptized more than three thousand people, doing much to strengthen the cause of his chosen faith. He was a superior teacher of the scrip- tures, was unyielding and uncompromising in his religious convictions. He was an able and earnest defender of the faith. During the war of the rebellion he publicly denounced the right of secession and upheld the cause of the preserva- tion of the Union. He filled two terms as County Treasurer, the expression of a patriotic people of confidence in the man. Rawley Martin was the father of two children, one of them being Achilles Martin and the other, Mrs, George Dillon.
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