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 63
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512
HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
Date. Vote. Supervisor. Clerk.
Assessor. Collector.
1866. .. 157. .. Jacob Gants .George Dillon. John Dukes. . . . . John Dukes.
1867. .. 157. .. Elam Henderson . . George Dillon. . George Dillon. . . George Dillon.
1868. .. 120. .. Elam Henderson . . George Dillon. . George Dillon. . . George Dillon.
1869 Elam Henderson . . George Dillon . George Dillon. . . George Dillon.
1870. .. 343. Elam Henderson .. George Hester John Dukes. . George Hester.
1871. .. 229. .. Elam Henderson . . W. H. Newlin. John Dukes. ... W. H. Newlin.
1872. . . 240 ... Elam Henderson .. W. H. Newlin. . W. H. Newlin .. W. H. Newlin.
1873. . . 193. . . William Sheets .. . W. H. Newlin. . W. H. Newlin .. W. H. Newlin.
1874. . . 303. . . William Sheets .. . W. H. Newlin. W. H. Newlin . . W. H. Newlin.
1875 ... 317 ... J. H. Gadd W. H. Newlin . W. H. Huffman . W. H. Huffman.
1876 ... 364. .. J. H. Gadd . W. H. Newlin. J. Lewis. . . W. H. Huffman.
1877 ... 400. J. H. Gadd W. H. Huffman ". Huffman . W. H. Huffman.
1878. .. 377. .J. H. Gadd .C. A. Fertig W MI. Sheets .. . W. M. Sheets.
1879 ... 374 ... J. H. Gadd C. A. Fertig. W. M. Sheets ... W. M. Sheets.
Justices of the peace have been, Patrick Cov an, Jacob Gants, John Newlin, Jacob Yapp, V. J. Buchanan, Richard Cotton. J. G. Thomp- son, Titus Bennett.
Commissioners of highways have been, Levi Long, John Mitchell, R. Lockett, Ellis Dukes. Jacob Gants, Wm. Sheets, John Gerrard, S. Ellsworth, Thos. Galyen, Wm. Richards, James O'Neal, J. L. Sconce, J. C. Jones, Isaac O Neal, Wm. J. Terrell, E. Henthorn, Solomon Haworth, T. E. Madden, D. B. Ried, Daniel Bennett, Hiram Yoho.
On the 11th of May, 1867, a special town meeting was held to vote for or against levying a tax of $18,000 for aid to the Chicago, Danville & Vincennes railroad, which resulted, for, 230; against, 134. This road was never built, however, through this township. On the 25th of Sep- tember, 1869, at an election held for the purpose of voting for or against subscribing $30,000 to the capital stock of the Paris & Danville railroad, the vote was, for, 221 ; against, 195 ; which was a very close vote. consid- ering the conditions with which the proposition was hemmed about : " No part of such bonds shall issue, nor bear interest, until the road is completed. The road to run within a half a mile of the public square of Georgetown, and be completed within three years from September 1, 1869." The bonds were signed and put into hands of Elam Henderson as trustee, under a bond from him in the penal sum of $40.000. condi- . tioned that he should not date or deliver them until these conditions were complied with. A resolution was also adopted directing the supervisor to sell the stock as soon as it should come into his hands, to the railroad company, for $10.
GEORGETOWN VILLAGE.
Georgetown village, or rather, as it was then called. the town of Georgetown, was laid out in the spring of 1827, two months after Dan- ville was. The plat was acknowledged before Esquire Asa Elliott,
William Sheets
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GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP.
June 5, and contained only four blocks of eight lots cach. The only two streets were State street, running north and south, and West street crossing it at right angles. These streets were sixty feet wide. The public square, which remains to the present time as it was then, was laid out after the fashion of the day, as seen in Danville and other towns of that age, by cutting corners out of the four central blocks. The naming seems to be problematical,- some asserting that Mr. Ha- worth named it for his son George, who was a cripple, and who is said to have entered into the frolic which was made on the opening day, with a spirit that indicated something more than " lemonade straight ;" others, that Danville having been named for D. W. Beckwith, that Haworth believed it was a good stroke of policy to try to divide the sympathies of the Beckwith family by naming his place in honor of George Beckwith. The probability is that both statements are true, and that the two considerations combined to fix the naming as it is.
When Mr. Haworth laid out his town, Mr. Nelson R. Moore, who for a time had lived on the adjoining section, was talking of laying ont one. Haworth was more of a man of action than of talk, and one day Moore started out with his son W. M. to hunt for a deer in the bushes which grew where the village now stands, and found Haworth and his son measuring off town lots with a mammoth grapevine which he had eut a rod long. It seems that he was afraid to call in the aid of a surveyor, as Moore might discover what he was up to. Subsequently, additions have been platted and recorded by James Haworth, A. Frazier, Samuel Brazelton, Malon Haworth, J. B. Haworth, A. F. Smith, Mr. Hender- son and others. In laying off the lots his " vine " needed some stretch- ing, and a little variation in the force employed to do this stretching, will account for the variation which still exists in the size of the lots, some of which are six feet longer than others. This son George, after whom the town was named, died of cholera in 1854.
The first building here was a doctor's office. Dr. Smith, a man of good education and an excellent man, put up a building to hold his little stock of " calomel and jalap," salts and senna, lancet and wisdom. Dr. Smith, after a short practice here, went to Mackinaw and died. " The next house was a blacksmith shop," and then came a store, or, rather, an inclosure made of poles was called a store. It stood out on the square, in front of where the red store now stands. It was built by Samuel Brazelton. Here a little stock of goods was kept for sale. The log tavern stood near where the post-office is now kept, just north of it, and a log house farther south. This was made of huge sassafras logs as large as a small barrel. He had to go to Butler's Point to get men to come to the raising.
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
The first school-house was also built on the square in front of Frazier's store. H. Givens taught the first term of school there. "Coffeen's Hand-Book," page 24, says: "The first seliool was tanght on the Little Vermilion, near the present location of Georgetown." Upon the authority of Wm. M. Moore, now the oldest resident at present in Georgetown village, the writer is satisfied that this school at Georgetown was the one spoken of by Mr. Coffeen, though it is possi- ble that the Friends at Vermilion Grove may have had one there before this building was erected in Georgetown. This school-house was
hardly a model for architectural display at the present day. Indeed, it was abont as cheap a concern as could be constructed out of logs. Among those who learned wisdom from Givens, and after him from Owen West, were Perry, Martha and Luzena Brazelton, Bracken Lewis, George Lewis, Millikan Moore, Eli and Malon Haworth, and James Staunton. Mr. Moore thinks this was in 1827, though it may have been a year later. The books used, as far as he can remember, were the old English Reader, Talbott's Arithmetic, American Spelling- Book and Lindley Murray's Grammar. At that time it was the uni- versal practice to study aloud in school, and the lad who made the most noise was popularly credited with making the greatest progress. Preaching service was first held in this building by traveling and local preachers of the Methodist church. James Haworth had a farm just north of the village, where Mr. Frazier now lives.
Nelson R. Moore came from North Carolina, but had lived a while in Kentucky and Indiana, and arrived here in 1825. He made his first cabin just southwest of Georgetown, and bought some land of Andrew Wagerman, who lived farther west, near Johnson's Point. Wagerman was a son-in-law of Jotham Lyons. Moore bought two hundred acres of Wagerman and Lyons, and went to work to make a farm of it. He moved here with an ox-team, coming in one of those old-fashioned " schooner" wagons, such as have passed entirely out of use, and indeed fast fading from memory. They were made very heavy, the box being framed and fitted with panel-work, being elevated at least a foot at each end higher than it was in the middle. Why they were given this shape it is difficult to tell, except that it may have been that in the hilly country where they were made the danger of having the load spill out over the ends when going down the steep hills, or ascending, must be provided against. As late as thirty years ago they were frequently seen passing across these prairies, carrying the movers toward the setting sun, and were even at that day a curios- ity, and were called "prairie schooners." Indeed, all they lacked to give them the appearance of a schooner were the masts, ropes and sails.
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GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP.
The first log cabin put up where John Madden's house now is was built in 1827, and was raised by the help of all the men that could be found. "Indian John " was a character here then ; he was six feet and a half in height, and had been a famous medicine-man of the Potta- watomie Indians, but remained here with the white man when they went away.
Mr. Moore did about as much as any of his neighbors toward set- tling this part of the country. He was the father of thirteen children, all but one of whom grew to adult age. Carroll, a soldier in the grand army of the Union, was killed in battle at Peach Tree Creek. His widow and children still live here; George, a lientenant in the 25th Regiment, served through the war, and was killed, while crossing the plains, by Indians ; Jacob served two years in the Mexican war, and died after returning ; Elijah early took Greeley's advice to "grow up with the country," and if the country does not stop growing pretty soon he will have to give up the job; W. M. lives in Georgetown ; Mrs. Rogers is dead ; Mrs. Friezell lives in Missouri ; Mrs. Dr. Porter in Lebanon, Indiana; Mrs. Judge Glessner in Shelbyville, Indiana ; Mrs. Harding in California, Mrs. Dr. Blanchard and Mrs. Peck here.
Benjamin Canaday was one of the first to engage in mercantile business here, and continued for about forty years to sell goods in Georgetown. He came with his father to the little settlement west of Vermilion Grove Station, abont 1822, but went back to Tennessee. He was a tinner by trade, and after they came back here again from Tennessee he built a small log house, which he used for a dwelling and tinshop, and there made up a stock of tinware, which he took to Lonis- ville and traded for goods. He brought these goods back and put up a store and turned merchant. He continued this kind of trade till 1830, when he was induced to come to Georgetown, and, with the Haworths, commenced the mercantile trade here. He afterward formed a partnership with Abraham Frazier, and soon sold the business and store to Dr. Gillaspie, who came here from Tennessee, and continned the business with Frazier awhile. Canaday and the Haworths be- longed to the Society of Friends, and early instituted religious meet- ings here. Canaday lived in the house on the corner of the public square, where William Alexander now has a store. It was a small one-story house, and has been enlarged since. He continued the lead- ing merchant of Georgetown, and built the large brick store now oceu_ pied by his successors in business, Richie & Thompson. He amassed a comfortable fortune, and died a few years since, honored and re- spected. His latter years were largely given to making proper dispo- sition of the accumulations of a busy life of frugal care, and was one
516
HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
of the principal donors to the beautiful church at Georgetown. He was the father of eight children. His two sons are dead, though the two daughters of one of them (John) are living: Mrs. Holloway, of Danville, and Mrs. Thompson, of Georgetown. Of his daughters, Mrs. J. P. Johnson lives in Kansas, Mrs. Dr. Morgan in Iowa, and Mrs. Richie lives at Georgetown : Mrs. Morris and Mrs. McCowan are dead. Few men have left as a legacy to their children a more honored name or the example of a more useful and successful life.
Dr. Gillaspie, before spoken of, continned in business a short time and then went to Arkansas. He was a man of splendid parts and good education, whose usefulness was destroyed by the habit which in those days ruined so many of our ablest men.
Wm. Taylor left his home in Wayne county, Ohio, when only twenty-two years old. intending to be gone six weeks, and has not yet returned. He had been apprenticed to learn the cabinet trade, and believed he had got it well enough learned to make his way in the world without further instruction. He went to Brown county, Ohio, and made that his home. He became well acquainted with the Grant family there, and had an opportunity to see the budding genius of young Ulysses. There was little that was remarkable about the lad, as Mr. Taylor now recollects him, but the dogged pertinacity with which he would conquer every unruly horse which he could get hold of. His father used to say that he would make a great man of him, but the lad's greatness failed to take any very useful turn, unless riding horses may be considered such. He never liked hard work, and the boys sometimes doubted whether "Lys " would ever, in any alarming degree, fulfill the high anticipations of his doting father. Mr. Taylor came to Georgetown in 1831. He purchased the log house and two lots back of the tavern for $120, and put up an addition to it, which made a very comfortable residence. He also bought the old log store which stood in front of the red store, and went to work at his trade. For thirty years he carried on cabinet work here, and, until by the changed order of things, he could buy work cheaper in Cincinnati than he could make it. Long after this he continued mak- ing coffins, and has probably inade more of those articles than any man in the county.
The post-office was established here about 1828. The mail route ran from here via Carroll. an office in the McDonald neighborhood to Paris.
Mr. Brazelton was first to " keep tavern." He occupied a building which was on the site of the present post-office. Benjamin Canaday was for a long time the postmaster.
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517
GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP.
Abraham Frazier was one of the first to engage in trade. Ile was a tanner by trade, and made that his business for awhile before he com- menced mercantile trade. He was a man of excellent judgment, very careful business habits, honest and true. He had no children, and hence his propensity to save was deemed penurionsness, but those who knew him best unite in saying that he had none of the sordid love of money which marks the miser's traits. That he was plain in all his tastes, and exceedingly careful in his expenses, is undoubtedly true. He died leaving an honored name for probity and industry through an unblemished life. His brother, Abner Frazier, came here with other Friends from East Tennessee, in 1830, and farmed awhile, then clerked for his brother. He married, and commenced farming southwest of the village, and afterward bought the Haworth farm, north of town, where he resides at this writing, gradually sinking from advanced age and the labors of an active life, largely given to exacting toil and busi- ness. He holds the highest place in the esteem of those among whom his active years have passed. With a large family of children around him, whose characters he has molded in habits of industry, thrift and christian life, he reaps the honors which are higher than merely worldly ones. Two sons carry on a large trade in Georgetown, enjoying in a large degree the goodly reputation of their father, and one lives on the beantiful farm just north of the village. Two daughters, Mrs. Snapp and Mrs. Newlin, reside here, and Mrs. Mendenhall and Mrs. Rogers in Kansas.
John Sloan was probably the first blacksmith here. Dr. Thomas Heywood was one of the earliest to practice medicine. He was a man of good education and excellent judgment. He was educated in Ohio, and came here to begin his practice. After a time he removed to a farm southwest of Georgetown, in Carroll township, and continued his practice until his death. Dr. Richard Holmes practiced here a while, and then went to Ohio.
James Shannon was engaged in selling goods here at an early date, and his brother John was engaged in the practice of medicine. They went from here to Mackinawtown, in Tazewell county, and one cold winter's day the latter wandered off into the stream, and after going a mile in the water went out into a cornfield, where he froze to death, and his remains were not discovered until long after, when they had been partially devonred.
Elections for this voting precinct were held here from the first. They were held in the old store which stood north of Frazier's large brick store, and which was afterward, though of good Quaker origin, converted into a Methodist church. Voters were required to give in
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
their votes viva voce. The honest, untrammeled political voice of Georgetown precinct in the olden times sounded the name of Jackson with great unanimity.
For many years legalized dramshops sold ardent spirits freely in Georgetown. In fact, at an early day, before the temperance societies were an established institution, drinking and drunkenness were very common. Horse-racing was a common sport before the civilizing effects of circuses and agricultural fairs were felt. The Sons of Tem- perance had a wide field to exercise their graces and good works here ; but triumphed at last, and the results are everywhere evident. Sobri- ety rules, and every one rejoices in the change.
In 1831 came another young man whose life has been a part of the history and business success of Georgetown. Elam Henderson came with his father, Eli, to Elwood, in 1824, and in the year above men- tioned came to Georgetown, where he commenced to make a farm in section 28. Here he showed the qualities of energy, thrift and perse- verance which have clung to him through life. While attending to his large farming interests he was drawn much into official life, and served as county commissioner and associate justice. After acquiring a suffi- ciency he engaged in trade at Georgetown, helped to build a better class of buildings than had been known here before, and helped to build the mill. Later he established the Citizen's Bank, and with the opening of railroad facilities engaged in buying grain. He served for many years as supervisor of this township, and in other official capaci- ties. Now, at near seventy, he is actively engaged in business, giving the same careful attention to all its minntiæ that he did when such care was a necessity. Indeed, with him it has become a settled habit. To- gether with Mr. Canaday, he bore the larger part of the expense of building the new place of worship which was recently erected at Georgetown. He has shown himself a thorough business man, whose good example is better than all the golden precepts which could be showered upon the young of the growing generation.
Patrick Cowan was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, in 1794. As he grew up he became interested in religious matters, and joined the Methodist Church in 1818. He was licensed to exhort Feb- rnary 14, 1833, and to preach, at the quarterly conference at Paris, September 5, 1834, by Presiding Elder Michael Taylor. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Morris, September 15, 1836. He was a hatter by trade, and lived near Bloomfield for some time, coming to Georgetown to live in 1846. He engaged in wool-carding as a business, for which there was much local demand here, at a time when every- body kept a few sheep, and people very generally made their own
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GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP.
eloth. This business he carried on for several years, all the while preaching here and there through the country, at McKendry, at Donglass' school-house and at other preaching points. He never accepted the traveling relation, preferring the local work. Coming into a community which from the beginning had been strongly of another denomination, he had a good opportunity to exercise the liberal Chris- tian traits of which he was possessed. Citizens of all denominations respected and esteemed the character of Father Cowan, and hold his good name in kind remembrance. He was always punctual to every duty ; particularly was this so in regard to political and official duties. He was often called on to administer the affairs of the town or town- ship, and always gave the same conscientious attention to them that he did to his own affairs. He died September 4, 1873, in his eightieth year, leaving to his children the inheritance of a good name and the remembrance of a life devoted to his family, his people and his God. He left a family of seven children. His sons, trained under his kind and careful eye, are among the leading business men of Georgetown. His widow still lives, at the advanced age of eighty-three, the care and associate of these loving children, which she so long watched over, gnided and instructed.
J. H. Gadd came to this township with his mother and brother in 1834. After helping to hew out a farm in the Wabash timber east of here, he concluded to study law, and for several years has been engaged in the practice of that profession in this county. For five years past he has represented this town on the board of supervisors, to the evident satisfaction of the people.
G. W. Holloway, who came here in 1835, has been long in business, taking an active part in the religious and educational interests of the town.
Dr. Payne was an early practitioner of medicine, and remained here two years; then went to Iowa. Dr. Isaac Smith commenced the prae- tice as early as 1830. He lived just south of town, on the Little Ver- milion. He was from Tennessee. He died on the farm where the Martha Smith school-house is.
The first burials were made at the small burying-grounds in the neighborhoods around, at Vermilion Grove, Elwood Meeting-house, and at others. Wm. Taylor laid off a cemetery in 1838, which was after- ward conveyed to the town for a public place of burial. Felix Noel was the first one buried there.
The particular school of doctors known as Thomsonian, or, in pop- ular parlance, " steam doctors," had a considerable practice here at an early day, and the Indian practice of doctoring with herbs and roots,
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
found in profusion at an early day, was quite common. New material was added to the Materia Medica, and roots and steam did duty on every conceivable occasion. The pioneer doctor of this country will not soon forget the occasion of the introduction to his notice of the celebrated Wacun root, until then to him a new remedy. Dr. A. M. C. Hawes, who came here in 1836, is now next to Dr. Fithian, the oldest practicing physician in the county. He was educated at La Fayette, Indiana, where he studied with Dr. O. L. Clark. Previous to this, however, he had traveled through this state, looking over the central and northern portions of it. Early in life he had entered a printing-office, and, after graduation in that school, which gives to its pupils a breadth of education not found in any other, became an editor of the La Fayette "Journal " at its starting. nearly fifty years ago. After preparing himself to practice medicine, he came to Georgetown, and at once grew into a wide and successful practice, all over the southern part of this county, and in Indiana, Edgar and Champaign counties in this state. Being a great student, and having an investi- gating turn of mind, he has kept abreast with the times, never retaining an old theory or practice because it is old, or adopting a new one because it is new. After more than forty years' practice, he is still found fully up with the times, and wears well. He was one of the early promoters of better educational facilities, and a friend of liberal education. He was one of the originators of the County Medical So- ciety, and was its first president, and was selected as its annalist to pre- pare for the Society the history of the profession in this county, -a work from which much is expected. It is rare, indeed, that a man of Dr. Hawes' analytical turn of mind, - one who sees so much in what is daily going on around him, and has so good a faculty of retaining for use that which he sees, and can put it to so good use, has such excel- lent opportunities for studying, during a daily practice of almost half a century, the great questions which are his chief delight, and which pertain to the highest physical interests of man. The wealth of infor- mation - knowledge is a better term - is not easily contemplated.
Jacob Yapp has been for a number of years one of the leading busi- ness men of Georgetown. He has always exhibited a broad public spirit, and gives that close attention to business which commands suc- cess under any circumstances. Frequently called to attend to the public affairs of his town, he has shown himself a wise and faithful officer and a good citizen, while in his own business affairs he has maintained a reputation for business integrity of the highest order.
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