USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources > Part 61
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In speaking of Mr. J. S. Frantz and his business as a druggist, we cannot give a better idea of the good taste and judgment he has used in fitting up his new store, 135 East Main street, than to repeat the remark made by nearly every passer-by, especially after gas-light, viz: " What an elegant new drug store!" He has had twelve years' experi-
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
ence in the drug trade. Though he has been engaged in the business in Danville but one year, yet in this short time he has become well known, having already established a good trade, which bids fair to in- erease, now that he has fitted up a store that in point of neatness is equal to anything in the west. Mr. Frantz is a native of Armstrong county, Pennsylvania. Ile came west in 1858 and located at Sidney, where he remained a short time. In 1861, at the breaking out of the rebellion, he entered the Union army, enlisting in the 2d III. Cav., Co. I, three-years service. He participated in many of the heavy battles, among which may be mentioned the battles of Bolivar, Holly Springs, Baker's Creek, Jackson, Mississippi, the Black Hills fight and the Red River campaign of forty days. He was in the service three years and three months, being mustered out at Springfield, Illinois. After the war he located at Homer, Illinois, and came to Danville, as above stated.
Prof. A. B. Chilcoat was born in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania. He came to Ohio when he was but a year old, and here received a common-school education. In 1861 he came to Illinois, and located in Paris, Edgar county. In 1872 he graduated at Duff's Mercantile Business College, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. IIe has taught school some eleven years. Prof. E. Chilcoat was born in Ohio, and is a graduate of one of the leading colleges of that state. He has tanght school for a number of years. In 1878 these gentlemen came to Dan- ville and commenced their present school, which is in a very flourishing condition, and has fair prospects of becoming one of the leading insti- tutions of learning in this vicinity.
William Holburn, foreman of Stewart's foundry and machine shops, Danville, is a native of Ayrshire, Scotland. He has had about eighteen years' experience in his business, serving first a five years' apprentice- ship in Scotland. Coming to the United States in 1868, he spent three years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and then went to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he spent abont the same length of time; thence to Lafayette, where he was also about three years. He then returned to Fort Wayne for about a year and a half, and in March of 1879 accepted his present position in Danville. He now has about eighteen men under his charge, and has thus far conducted the business to the satis- faction of his employer.
Charley Kaufmann, Danville, clothing, or better known as Cheap Charley, has probably established himself in business and made his name familiar to the people of Vermilion county in a shorter time than any business man who ever attempted to do business in the city. The establishment, of which he is manager, is a branch of an extensive manufacturing house of Chicago, known as Kaufmann & Bachroch,
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DANVILLE TOWNSHIP.
they having in all about fifteen different stores, located in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, Kansas and Missouri. They employ about seventy clerks and managers. The advantage of these branch honses may readily be seen when it is known that goods are bought by the firm direct from the manufacturers and made into clothing and sup- plied to the different stores, as needed, at much less cost than other firms are able to buy the same quality of goods. Their establishment in Dan- ville was opened by CHEAP CHARLEY on the 15th of March, 1879. He is a native of Germany. There he received a liberal education, on account of which he was exempt from all but one year of military service, instead of three years, as was the law. His brother, who is now in Chicago, has resided there for fifteen years, and was superin- tendent of the German Aid Society during the fire of 1871. Thongh Cheap Charley has been a resident of the United States only since 1878, he has already become so well acquainted with the customs of the people as to be a successful business man, as has already been proven by his snecess in the city of Danville, there being already no name more familiar to the people than that of Cheap Charley.
The first institution of importance to point out to the traveling pub- lic is a good hotel, at which to stop and refresh, satisfactorily, the wants of the inner man, and this can conscientiously be said in naming the Etna House. Before reopening the Etna there was expended a large amount of money in furnishing, all of which has been recently newly furnished and the whole interior renovated, giving to the hotel a very home-like and cheerful appearance. Mr. W. G. Sherman, the present "mine host," was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1840. He com- menced life by clerking in a grocery house. From there he became partner in one of the leading wholesale grocery houses of Evansville, Indiana, where he remained until 1866, when he went to Chicago and entered the hotel business by taking charge of the Metropolitan Hotel. From there he removed to the St. James Hotel, of the same city, where he formed a great many acquaintances and made a host of friends. In 1871 he went to Grand Haven, Michigan, where he was engaged in conducting two first-class hotels, the Cutler and Kirby houses. These hotels have a wide reputation of being among the first hotels of Michigan. Mr. Sherman remained at Grand Haven until 1877, when he went to Indianapolis and took charge of the Grand Hotel, the leading first class house of that city, where he remained about nine months, when he came to Danville, and in July, 1879, he took charge of the AEtna House. This is the most centrally located hotel in Danville, and is surrounded by beautiful shade trees, and con- tains the greatest number of outside cool and pleasant rooms of any
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
hotel in the city. It is just the place to spend your Sundays. Mr. W. G. Elliott, recently of the Grand Hotel, Indianapolis, and the Arlington, of Danville, and Mr. Charley Parker, are the accommodating clerks. Mr. Sherman was for a short time connected with the St. James, of this city. These gentlemen have made many friends by their uniform kindness and pleasant manners.
William P. Black, lawyer, Chicago, was born in Smithland, Ken- tucky, on the 11th of November, 1842. and is the son of Rev. John and Josephine L. (Culbertson) Black. His father was a Presbyterian minister; he died at thirty-seven years of age in 1847, in Alleghany City, Pennsylvania, at which time he was pastor of the Second Presby- terian Church at that place. In 1847 the mother of Mr. Black, with a family of four children, came to Danville, Illinois. In 1860 the sub- ject of this sketch entered the Wabash College at Crawfordsville, Indi- ana, but the breaking out of the war interrupted the collegiate course, never to be resumed. On April 15, 1861, Mr. Black enlisted with about forty others of the students of the college, including his only brother, as a private soldier in Co. I, 11th Ind. Zonaves, commanded by Colonel (afterward Major-General) Lew Wallace. He was mus- tered out a corporal, and at once engaged in assisting in the work of recruiting a company in Vermilion county, Illinois, for the three- years service, of which company he was elected captain, and with which, as its captain, he was mustered into the service as Co. K, 37th Ill. Vol. Inf., a history of which appears in this work ; his commis- sion as captain, dated September 1, 1861, being received before he had reached his nineteenth birthday. This position he filled faithfully for over three years,- sharing with his regiment in its marches, skir- mishes and battles, chief among which may be mentioned Pea Ridge, Prairie Grove and siege of Vicksburg, in the latter part of which Cap- tain Black held the responsible and most dangerous position of brigade picket officer,- having charge of the rifle-pits of his brigade, the occu- pation of Texas, and the observation of the empire of Maximilian. Captain Black returned to Danville, Illinois. In the fall of 1865 he commenced the study of law in the office of Arrington & White. in Chicago; he was, in about sixteen months thereafter, admitted to prac- tice. He returned to Danville, where he remained for only a year en- gaged at his chosen profession. In March, 1868, he returned to Chicago and formed a partnership with Mr. Thomas Dent, which has since con- tinned. These gentlemen have secured one of the largest and most respectable clientages in their city. Captain Black, in his political views, is an Independent; he is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago. Mr. Black was married May 28, 1869, to Miss
DANVILLE
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GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP.
Hortensia M. MacGreal, of Galveston, Texas. She is the eldest daugh- ter of the late Peter MacGreal, who was one of the leading lawyers of the Empire State of the southwest.
GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP.
Georgetown township lies in that portion of the county which is south and east of the center. It is in the second tier of townships from the south boundary line of the county, and has the Indiana state line on its eastern border. It embraces all of congressional township 18 north, range 11 west, and the fraction of 18-10 which lies between the former and the state line, and six sections in the southeast corner of 18-12. The Vermilion River runs across its northeastern corner for abont five miles, and so deep down is its bed that the surrounding country is easily and perfectly drained into it. The Little Vermilion makes a short turn into its southern border, running through sections 33 and 34. The "State Road," from Vincennes to Chicago, runs across the township, and the " Salt-works Road," on which the products of the salt springs were carried into eastern Indiana (long before com- mercial intercourse had become so perfected that salt, boiled at Syra- ense, could be transported to Danville and sold cheaper than it could be made here), ran diagonally across it. The Danville & Southwestern railroad runs through the town almost parallel with the "State Road," and has on it the two stations of Georgetown and Westville.
The township was originally nearly all timber, there being only about one-third of it along its western border and in its center, which was prairie. Some of the earliest settlements in the county were made within its borders, and considerable farms were cleared before people learned that they could live on the prairie. Coal is known to be un- der pretty much all of the territory comprising this town; and along the streams which flow into the Vermilion, its outcroppings have been freely worked. It was one of the first to be generally settled; the abundance of its timber, the water supply, the general make of the land, and its proximity to the salt-works,- which was the center of settle- ment at that day,-drew to it those who first came to the county to make their pioneer homes.
The first one to make a home here was Henry Johnson, who settled on section 36 (18-12), just two miles west of the village of George- town, in 1820. It was the same year in which Butler made his home at Butler's Point, and Seymour Treat at the salt-works. These three 32
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
worthies were the pioneers of this county, and were here at nearly the same date. Mr. Johnson has been long gone from here, but he is remembered as a man of generous impulses, and as a neighbor was little, if any, less than a " Good Samaritan." It is told of him (and in the light of the present day it seems hard to believe) that he would not take interest of his neighbors to whom he loaned money for a time, simply because he did not believe it was right to do it. Very soon after him came his brother-in-law, Absalom Starr, who took up his claim the following year, 1821, on the same section, south of Johnson's, where the then Mrs. Starr (now Mrs. Jones) yet resides. For fifty- eight years this good woman has lived here, performing all the arduous duties which mothers in the pioneer days were called on to do, and has seen the wild home of the red inan converted into the busy abode of progressive civilization. Without seeming to realize it, she is now a wonder and a surprise, and is to-day the oldest living resident of Ver- milion county, the story of whose life, trials, labors, triumphs and good deeds would make of itself a volume of fair proportions and enduring interest.
Henry Johnson, Mr. Starr, Jotham Lyons and John Jordan, all settled near each other, and their several histories are, when put to- gether, so near a history of those times, that they will be grouped together here. Mr. Johnson, after living here about twelve or four- teen years, sold to Levy Long and went farther west. He purchased a fine farm on what was known back in the thirties as the "Military Tract,"-though that name has largely passed out of memory now,- that productive and beautiful region of country between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. Here he was making a good farm, when it was discovered that his title was worthless, and like so many others of his neighbors there, this kind, generous man, was rendered penniless by the fraud of those land-sharks who gave the people of that beautiful tract so much trouble in the early days, by forged land titles. His place here was for a long time known as "Johnson's Point." John Jordan had his farm where John Jones now lives, east of the others. He was a good farmer, but his weakness was his generous desire to help others. "Security " ruined him. Jotham Lyons took land just west of Johnson's where Cooper now lives. "Uncle Jackey McDow- ell " says that "fifty-six years ago this summer he tended corn on that farm," and he thinks it has never failed to produce a crop in its season from that time to this. Lyons died here and his children were scat- tered from Wisconsin to Texas. Absalom Starr came here from Pal- estine, where the land-office was located, before it was moved to Dan- ville, in the spring of 1821, and selected the piece of land which he
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GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP.
thought he wanted. He remained on the farm at Palestine during the season of '21, and raised corn and wheat enough to keep him in meal and flour for a year. This was, coming into a new country, " pretty well fixed," for few of the pioneers were so well off. He sold his lease and came here in December, built a little cabin, and with his wife and four children commenced life in his own house. Things looked bright for the young family, and why should they not ?- a little place of their own ; four bright growing children which would soon be their help; flour and meal enough for a year; a good yoke of steers; good health and clear consciences were theirs ; surely, " goodness and mercy had followed them," and they felt it. During that first winter, while Mr. Starr was ont on a coon hunt, his shoe hurt his heel, and after trying ineffectu- ally for some time to cure the troubled spot, to their great sorrow they learned that a cancer was working rapidly on him. Doctors were not as " thick as blackberries " around here then, and the frightened couple whose prospects a few weeks before looked so bright, went back to Palestine for medical aid. The doctor there agreed to warrant a radi- eal, permanent cure for $50, casually remarking in an undertone, some- thing about cutting off the limb if other powerful remedies failed. This kind of " heroic" treatment was not exactly in keeping with Mrs. Starr's wishes in behalf of her husband, and being short of the $50 they decided not to employ this doctor. With sinking hearts they went back to their little home, where deep sorrow and fearful forebodings took possession, where shortly before all was joy and hope. Oh! who can now imagine the keen anguish that filled the soul of that brave, faithful wife and mother! with a helpless husband and four children too small to help her : the only growing crop upon which to depend for another year was her little garden and two acres of corn which she planted, after plowing the new land with one horse, in moments stolen from her hours of rest,-alone out there in the woods, far away from family and friends who might have consoled or comforted her. It was then that the goodness of Henry Johnson showed itself. He gave them two acres of his cornfield, and they felt assured against starva- tion.
Mrs. Starr heard of an old Indian doctor whose reputation was above cutting off a man's best leg to cure his heel, and hunted him up. He could not talk English, but indicated plainly that he understood what the trouble was, and went off to the Vermilion River, about seven miles away, and collected some herbs, which soon had the effect to cure the troublesome disease. The Indian called himself "Old Bona- parte's Indian," and that was the name he went by. It was generally understood that he had assumed the name from a kind of admiration
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
of the military renown of the man who was so famous about those times.
Mrs. Starr was the mother of eleven children. most of whom grew up. After Mr. Starr's death, Mrs. S. became Mrs. Jones, and resides in the large brick house on the land which she first helped get into cultivation.
Achilles Morgan became a resident of this township as early as 1825. He lived where Joseph Stewart resides, on section 15, and was from the first recognized as one of the leading men in the county. He was one of the first county commissioners, and with Mr. Butler, organized the first county commissioners' court at Butler's Point, by the appoint- ment of Amos Williams as clerk, and Charles Martin, constable, in March, 1826. His family had been a famous one in Virginia, and were known as great Indian fighters. The traits which had made the family prominent there were not wanting in him, and it is more than likely that the name given him was the selection of some one who intended to perpetuate the direful recollections of "Achilles wrath :"
"Achilles wrath, to Greece the direful spring Of woes unnumbered, heavenly goddess sing! That wrath which hurled to Pluto's gloomy reign The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain; Whose limbs, unburied on the naked shore, Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore: Since great Achilles and Atrides strove, Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove."
-ILIAD, BOOK I.
Some of the earlier settlers here and in the township south were the Friends. who were driven from their homes in East Tennessee and the Carolinas by the firm position which the society had taken against the institution of slavery. For more than a century this religious society has, by its discipline, its firm protests and its silent but effectual prayers, been a standing menace to human slavery, and the spirit of that church did much to crystallize the moral sentiment of christendom against the abominations that were clustered around that relic of barbarism. These worthy people came here to be away from the blighting influ- ences and associations of the institution. They brought their religion with them, and their daily lives and history here have been a living exemplification of gospel truth. The Haworths, the Hendersons, the Canadays, the Mendenhalls, the Newlins, the Folgers, the Fletchers. and many others of those who have passed away, as well as those who still remain, have given character to the community and worth to the township. The strong traits of character which have made them a peculiar people remain a rich legacy to this portion of the county.
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GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP.
The settlements in and about Brooks' Point were made among the earliest in the town. Benjamin Brooks came from Indiana and looked out the place on what is called the Spencer farm, now owned by Mr. English, and made claim to it. He went back to Indiana, and before he returned here Spencer had taken the land, and Benjamin Canaday gave him the claim at the point of timber, which from that time was known by his name. Bob Cotton and Mr. O'Neal had moved in in the meantime, and made quite a little neighborhood. It was here that James O'Neal was born,-probably the first white boy born in the county,-in 1822. Mr. Brooks died here and left five children. His son Benjamin, who was two or three years old when he came here, resides now in Danville township, and John lives in Catlin.
James Stevens came from Indiana in 1826, and bought a claim which Mr. Crane had taken on section 9. He died in 1876. His son James H. lives yet on the same section. H. P. Stevens lives on the old homestead, and William I. on section 7. Mr. Crane had been here about two years.
James Waters, who came here in 1832, lives here yet, on a farm in section S. Though now eighty years old, he is still able to attend to his work. He looks as though he would outlast his hat yet. His wife died three years ago. His father came here to live at about the same date.
Isaac Gones came here about 1825. John L. Sconce came here from Kentucky and settled in the same neighborhood. He also died in 1876. His son Philemon lives near here, and John L. at Engene, Indiana. John and James Black came at the same time from Kentucky, and settled on sections + and 5. They are both dead. James left no chil- dren. John's son Robert lives just east of where his father settled, and Samuel in Catlin. Mrs. Lockett lives in Catlin and Mrs. Eli Hen- derson in Georgetown.
John Cage and O. S. and L. II. Graves, from Kentucky, with their father, James Graves, made homes on sections 17 and 18 about 1828. They have been prosperous farmers and useful, enterprising citizens.
James Sandusky resides on section 9, where his father, Isaac, first took a claim when he came to this state from Kentucky. Isaac had been in the war of 1812, and had been taken prisoner at Hull's sur- render, and escaping from captivity, he made his way back to Kentneky through this region of the country. He decided then, standing on the mound at Catlin village and viewing the landscape o'er, to some day own an eighty, or at least a forty, on that beautiful prairie. In 1828, in pursuance of this decision, he came here and made his home first at Brooks' Point. He was a man of energy and thrift, and soon had land
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
enongh to satisfy his youthful aspirations, but not enough to give homes to his seven children. Hle left James here and went himself to the mound at Catlin, where he and his sons Harvey and Josiah bought pretty much all the land lying around Butler's Point. At one time it became something of a question whether he or Henry Jones should own the township. James Sandusky has ten children, eight of whom live here with him on the farm.
South of this Brooks' Point neighborhood, Subel Ellis was among the first to make a farm. He was on section 29, and died there, leaving a son and four daughters, who remained here some time, and Mrs. Dukes lives here yet. Achilles Morgan lived three miles east of this for a while before going to Danville. James Ogden lived sonth of Morgan's and had a considerable farm there. John and Lewis Ritter were in this neighborhood, then called Morgan's, but since known as MeKendry. Lewis died here, and Mr. Calhoun bought his land. John went to Texas.
Jacob Brazelton was in just north of them very early, and was the first justice of the peace in this part of the county. He is spoken of as a man of excellent character, and was everywhere respected.
Joseph and Abraham Smith came as early as 1828, and lived on the edge of the timber west of Brazelton's. Abraham went to Indiana, Joseph died here, and his children, W. D. and J. L. Smith, Mrs. Ganse, Mrs. Reynolds and Mrs. Spicer, live here yet.
The Pribbles, Mr. Foley and Mr. Dickason entered land near here as early as 1828 or '9. Over east of the river, and near the Indiana line, James Niceum and Donavan lived.
The old salt-works road ran nearly diagonally across the township, striking the township line near the present residence of Mr. Alexander Campbell. Mr. Stark first settled this place about 1828. He died there in 1850. His daughter, Mrs. Smith, lives near by in Elwood township. Mr. Campbell's first residence was farther down, in Elwood township. The farm upon which he lives, in section 36, is one of the finest in the township. Farther west Mrs. Davis settled early with several children, where Wm. Davis's widow still lives. Mr. Lacey lived next west. He sold to Henthorn. Wmn. Moore lives on the place next northwest, where A. J. Richardson now lives. Mr. Denio took up land, and Cyrus Douglas, who now lives in Fairmount, entered land near here. Mr. Denio sold to Mr. Williams, and he to Malon Haworth.
James Pribble entered land next along this road. He is dead, and Thomas Pribble lives on the place. Daniel Darby lived near here, and had a wagon shop. He went to Missouri, and Mr. Jeffries has the land. Win. Haworth lived half a mile farther north. Mr. Stowers
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