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 78
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S. W. Jones, physician and surgeon, Catlin, son of H. and Luzena Jones, was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, on the 15th of November, 1851, where he remained until twenty-one years of age. Being an energetic young man, and wishing to make his mark in life, he started for himself, and, in 1859, eame to Hamilton county, Indiana, where he engaged in teaching school and reading medicine. In 1874 he attended the Ohio Medical College, and in 1875 came to Catlin, Illinois, where he practiced medicine until the fall of 1877. He then returned to Cincinnati, and took a course of lectures and received his diploma, on the 17th of February, 1878. He returned to Catlin, and purchased a stock of drugs from T. H. Runion, and, by attending to his profession, now ranks with the older physicians of the county. On the 28th of February, 1876, he was united in marriage to Miss F. D.
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Timmons, a native of this county, born on the 15th of December, 1858. By this nnion they have one child : Ethelberth T.
A. M. F. McCollough, Catlin, physician, was born in Monroe county, Ohio, on the 26th of November, 1852. His father, Dr. Mc- Collough, was born in Eastern Ohio in 1826, and is of Scotch-Irish descent. He received his education at Franklin College, Ohio, and read medicine under Dr. John Findley for some years. In 1848 he located in Monroe county, Ohio, and there was actively engaged in the practice of medicine until the year 1874, when he removed to Bellaire, Belmont county, Ohio, where he has since resided. He was married in the fall of 1849 to Miss Margrey A. Brokaw, of Harrison county, Ohio. They are the parents of three children : Isaac N., A. M. F. and W. S. At the age of seven years Isaac N. died. W. S., now twenty-four years of age, is a promising druggist in Wheeling, West Virginia. A. M. F., the subject of our sketch, received his education at Vermilion College, Ashland county, Ohio (now merged into Wooster University). In the year 1868 he began the study of medicine under the instruction of his father and Dr. Armstrong. In the year 1872 he attended medical lectures at Miami Medical College, Cincinnati, Ohio. The following year was spent in pharmaceutical rooms in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. About 1876 he attended a course of lectures at Jeffer- son Medical College, Philadelphia, receiving from that time-honored institution his desired diploma. Refreshed anew with vigor, he wended his way westward, accidentally dropping in the village of Catlin, where he located in the fall of 1877. After a residence here of about eighteen months he chose for his wife Miss Emma A. McClenathan, daughter of G. S. McClenathan, a resident of the county for about twenty-five years, and formerly from Washington county, Pennsylvania. The Doctor, since his residence at Catlin, has, by an honest and candid treatment of patients, as well as a polite and courteous treatment of associates, surrounded himself with a large circle of friends. Though he has been a resident of the county but a few years, he is already associated with the old physicians of the county. This alone is the best of guarantees of his ability as a physician and surgeon.
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ROSS TOWNSHIP.
ROSS TOWNSHIP.
Ross township, one of the largest and wealthiest in the county, embraced, in the original division of the county into political towns, nearly all of the northeastern quarter of the county, and contained all of congressional townships 23 N. 11 W., 23 N. 12 W., 22 N. 11 W., 22 N. 12 W., half of 21 N. 11 W., half of 21 N. 12 W., and the frac- tions of 21, 22 and 23 N. 10 W., which lie between these former and the Indiana line-more than five congressional towns in all. In 1862 it was divided by a line through the center of it, and now embraces the north half of townships 21-11 and 21-12, and all of 22-11 and 22-12, except the northern tier of sections and north half of the second tier. The north fork of the Vermilion river runs nearly through its center, from north to south, cutting the northern line a little west of its center, running in a southeasterly direction, and leaving it a little east of the middle of its southern border, with an eastern branch, which is joined by another branch called the Jordan (from some supposed relation, by the eye of faith, to the good old river of "stormy banks"), running from its eastern borders. Bean creek, a tributary to the middle fork, runs through the northwestern portion of the town in a westerly direc- tion. Numerous small streams and rivulets, fed by living springs, feed these streams, making Ross one of the best watered regions in the county. Along all these streams a splendid growth of native forests grew, a portion of which has, of course, been cut off, the land being made into farms; while in many places where there was only a scant growth, kept down by frequent fires, now a strong, heavy growth shows the rapid increase of western forests.
" Hubbard's Trace," the original highway of travel between this southern country and Chicago, ran through the town, and in time gave place to the old "Chicago road," which was known farther north as "State road," and in Chicago itself became known as State street, a name it yet bears. Along this timber and near this road the first set- tlements were made, very soon after the county was organized; and its prairies early became the homes, first of the great herds which pioneered these natural fields, and later of the thrifty men and women who brought its broad acres into use.
Ross is preeminently a farming township. With the exception of the pleasant little village of Rossville, on its northern border, where a few families collected along the timber long known as Liggett's grove, where the Attica road crosses the Chicago road, and which in time grew into one of the prettiest little western villages in all this country, and one or two mills, her entire enterprise was agricultural. The siek-
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
ness which is consequent upon every early settlement, made havoc with the early calculations of many a family ; but the great natural resources of the rich country they had come into, needing only the rasping of the plow and the raking in of the golden grain to put its energetic laborers into the possession of competence and wealth, those who first learned that the prairies would support human life reaped the richest rewards of their superior judgment or experiments. The Gundys, Gilberts, Greens, Davisons, Chenoweths, Manns and others found in Ross the full fruition of youthful hope in the landed prosperity of maturer years. For a long time, and up to within the last decade, the people were not vexed with railroads or "those bonds" which even in apostolic tines were a chief source of regret. In 1872 the Chicago, Danville & Vincennes, now known as the Chicago & Eastern Illinois railroad, was built through the center of the town, giving rail con- nection with the county seat on the south and Chicago, and in 1877 the Havana, Rantoul & Eastern road was built through nearly the center of the township east and west, so that they are supplied with all the railroads they will ever need, to the remotest point of time. The latter is a narrow-gauge road, and as far as this portion of the state is concerned, is a pioneer effort. While it is claimed to be a financial success, it is still, probably, a problem to be solved by time, whether it will follow the wake of all the more recently built roads into the wreckers' hands.
As early as 1836 Elihu, Isaac and Nathaniel Chauncey entered a large part of the land in township 21 north, range 11 east, in this and the adjoining town. The same parties entered a large amount of land in other townships. They were Philadelphians, and never came west to live. Their affairs in this county were managed by Henry L. Ells- worth, who also entered considerable land about the same time. These parties are all dead, and the lands have been divided among their de- scendants. This land has mostly been sold, but some still remains unsold and uncultivated.
The town took its name from Jacob T. Ross, who owned a tract of land in section 9 (21-11), from which the timbers for the old mill which was built by Clausson on section 5, abont 1835, were ent and hewn. He seems to have had an interest in the mill, for he furnished the tim- bers, and afterward became the owner. For a long time it was known as Ross' Mill, and there the early elections and town meetings were held, and very naturally gave name to the town, although there was an attempt to call it North Fork.
The Davison family and their relatives, the Gundys, were probably the first white people to find a permanent home in Ross. If any were
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ROSS TOWNSHIP.
living here before them there is no means of now verifying it, although Mr. Horr and Mr. Liggett may have been here a few months earlier. The writer has been placed under many obligations to Mr. Thomas Gundy for many of the facts in regard to early settlements, which he believes will be found substantially correct. With a mind elear and accurate, Mr. Gundy seems not to be distracted by eares of family, mer- chandise or polities, so that he has been a very valuable assistant.
Andrew Davison and wife came here from Franklin county, Ohio, after they had brought up a considerable family, in 1828, and took up land in section 13 (21-12), near Myersville. He had a little means, and his children a good deal of pioneer strength and energy. He had long hoped to find a new home, where land was cheaper, so that his children could secure farms for themselves. They had seven children : James, Robert, Sally, Jane, Susana, Betty and Polly. Two of these, James and Mrs. Joseph Gundy, were married when they came, and soon after, young Joseph Kerr took the trail which the retreating Da- visons had followed, and came through the timber of Indiana and mar- ried the Davison of his choice. Andrew Davison saw his children all nicely fixed, having taken up land all around him, before death ealled him away in 1841. The land office at this time was in Palestine, in Crawford county, a now almost forgotten country village, but there the pioneers of Vermilion had to go to enter their land, until the land department was convinced that it ought to be removed to Danville. The seven children of Mr. Davison grew up and became one of the most important families in settling this wild country. James lived on the farm which he had entered until 1873, when he moved to Danville, where he died. He left two children : a son at Myersville, and a daughter, Mrs. Tuttle, at Danville. Robert carried on a farm in sec- tion 8 (21-11), one mile south of the present village of Alvin, till 1843, when he died, leaving a family of five children. His son, John, continued to work the farm until the first call for troops rung along the banks of North Fork, when he enlisted in the 4th Cavalry, and did as valiant service, stamping out rebellion as he had done in killing out the rattlesnakes on his ancestral acres. Since his return he has been engaged in mereantile pursuits at Rossville. James, another son, lives on the old homestead. He also served in the army. Robert, the third son, a young man of much promise, went with his brothers, but did not return with them. He gave his young life to his country, - a sac- rifice to national unity. He died at Salem, Arkansas, a member of the 25th Ill. Mrs. Ingruham lives near the old homestead, and Mrs. Magee in Indiana. Of the daughters of Mr. Andrew Davison, Mrs. Joseph Gundy died before her husband ; Mrs. Joseph Kerr died some
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
years since, leaving five children, who live in the vicinity of Myers- ville; Mrs. Josiah Henkle died early, leaving three daughters; Mrs. Mathers lived with her parents, and at her death left one daughter.
Jacob Gundy, the father of the family of that name, who have been prominent for half a century in the history of Ross and of Vermilion county, had been a soldier in the revolutionary war, and had moved early from Pennsylvania to Chillicothe, Ohio, where he lived on a farm until he followed his son Joseph here in 1830. Joseph had immigrat- ed here with the Davisons. William and Thomas, and Mrs. Abram . Woods came with their father. Jacob, Jr., came here a few years afterward, and soon after went to Missouri. Mr. Gundy, Sen., was a widower, and made his home around with his children ; he died at a good old age, in 1842, and was buried at the Gundy burial ground near Myersville. They made their first settlement near the south line of Ross township, near where Joseph lived. Joseph came here to find a new country, where land would be cheap, and as soon as he got across the state line he expected to find things as he wanted. He took up the first land he could find, subject to " squatter sovereignty," or entry. He carried on farming very successfully, and acquired nine hundred acres of land ; raised stock largely, bought and fed, but did not adopt the more hazardous and speculative undertakings; he sold his stock to drovers. He often sold to the Funks, to Williamson on Sugar Creek, to Ohio men, and to others from Pennsylvania. He had two children when he came here, and ten were born to them here, four of whom are now dead. Of the eight living children all but one live in the county : Mrs. Isaac Chrisman, in Ross ; Mrs. Dr. Henton, in Danville ; Mrs. John Davison and Mrs. Milton Lee, at Rossville; Andrew was a large and successful farmer and engaged in mercantile pursuits, was largely interested in public affairs, was a member of the legislature in 1875, and proved by his long acquaintance with the wants of the people and the breadth of his general intelligence a useful and safe legislator. After the failure of Hon. John C. Short, Mr. Gundy and some others undertook to stand in the breach and save the important coal interest which Mr. Short held, but the continued depression of trade and the large shrinkage of values was more than they could stand, and financial failure followed. There was little reason to doubt that the immense coal fields controlled and owned by the Exchange bank, would event- ually pay all the debts of that concern, but the depression of the coal trade so reduced the profit that they ceased to be a source of revenue. Mr. Gundy is now engaged in farming near Bismark. Francis and Joseph have been engaged in farming and in trade. Thomas Gundy was killed by lightning in 1855 ; he was fixing a fence when the storm
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approached, and started to go across the field to the house when the sad accident occurred. Joseph Gundy, Sen., died at Myersville in 1865, closing a useful and successful life. William Gundy, the other brother, who came with his father in 1830, married and raised a family of seven children, who are now scattered, the sons living in Missouri. He and his wife died in 1851. Mrs. Abram Woods, after her hus- band's death, went with her five children to Missouri. Thomas Gun- dy, who now lives at Rossville, has been a prosperous farmer, and now has practically retired from hard work. He owns the Abram Woods farm, a farm near Alvin, one at Gilbert Station, and three small farms east of Bismark. He has been remarkably prosperous in all respects. He has, however, never aspired to official position, though he has been occasionally pressed into township office. He has seen this county grow from a wilderness to a fruitful field.
John Demorest came here from Shawnee Prairie, Indiana, where he had buried his wife with his three daughters. about 1828, and entered land in section 6 (21-11), and in section 1 (21-12). He owned about four hundred acres of land. He was a local preacher, and for years gave his time very largely to the work of building up christianity in this county. He was a strict man in all that pertained to religion, morality and family government, and as strict and honest in his deal- ings with his fellow-men. He and Daniel Fairchild were much together in the ministry, and went here and there holding meetings. No one ean over-estimate the results for good of these earnest, plain men, who preached as they went, and worked for the kingdom continually. Father Demorest sold his farm to Reuben Ray in 1866, and soon after went to Ohio, returned here, and removed to Kansas in 1870, where he died. His daughter, Mrs. Eli Fairchild, resides in Blount town- ship.
Probably no person has ever been identified more largely in every- thing which pertains to the welfare of Ross than Alvan Gilbert. His father, Samuel Gilbert, with two brothers, came from Ontario county, New York, to Danville, in 1826. They had but little idea where they were going when they made their way down the Alleghany River, and were probably attracted here more by the fact that the salt works were here in the county than any other one thing. The Gilberts established a ferry at Danville, and built a mill. It was rather a cheap affair, but was not cheaper than the custom of the country. With corn only six cents to ten cents per bushel, and wheat about fifty cents per bushel, it could hardly be expected that grinding for the tenth bushel would pay a return on a very large investment. Alvan worked around Dan- ville about six years, tending mill and such other work as he could
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
find to do, until 1832. when he married a daughter of Robert Horr, and bought his interest in the land he (Horr) had lived on, in section 25, where the Chicago road crosses the north fork. His house was a little log cabin directly in the road leading to the old bridge before the road was changed to the new bridge. He afterward, in 1839, sold this place to his father, Samuel Gilbert, and bought the Liggett farm at what is now Rossville. Mr. Samuel Gilbert was soon after appointed postmaster of the new post-office, North Fork. Dr. Brickwell, who was a neighbor of Gilbert's at this time, says that at one time the mail was delayed six weeks by high water, and when it did finally arrive, and the great rush of mail matter, dammed up for six long weeks, fell into the goodly people around where Mann's chapel now stands, and postmaster Gilbert had called in a bee of the citizens to help him open, sort, distribute, arrange, count, and deliver-for there were no railroad post-offices in those times- it was found that there was just one letter in the mail, all told; and the Doctor thinks that had the flood lasted another six weeks it would have "dried up" the post-office itself, so that no further mail matter would ever have come there. Samuel Gilbert's house was one of the early preaching-places of the Methodists, and was the real forerunner of Mann's chapel, which stands very near the spot where his house was. It was customary for the worshipers to take their rifles along with them when they went to church, and, when returning, should a stray deer come waltzing around in an ungodly crusade against the quiet of the Sabbath, he was very apt to get shot for his temerity. Few such Sabbath-breaking deer were ever actually known to return to the cool retreats. Samuel Gil- bert died in 1855, leaving four children. His two daughters had mar- ried, and gone west, his two sons living here. Both are now dead.
Mr. Alvan Gilbert, mentioned at length in a subsequent part of this township, almost immediately, on his settlement in Ross, became recognized as one of the most useful, well informed and public spirited men of the county.
John Liggett, who lived at, and gave the name to Liggett's Grove, came to the place where the late Hon. Alvan Gilbert long lived, about 1829, and took up land in section 11 (22-12). This place was on the Chicago road, and was a place for travelers to stop ; although he did not claim to keep hotel. He died in 1838, and was buried near the present residence of Dr. Brickwell. His widow and children remained here some years and then went to Oregon.
Thomas Mckibben first settled with his father in section 32 (22-11), in 1830; he afterward lived in different parts of the county, but this was his first place of residence. He was in the Blackhawk war, was
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the first deputy sheriff, and served two terms as sheriff. He took greater delight in hunting a horse-thief than in eating a meal of victuals. He was a very popular man in the early days, and a very competent officer. People always slept soundly when they knew he was sheriff. He at one time owned a farm a little south of where Hoopeston now is.
Oliver Prickett came from Brown county, Ohio, with his father, in 1832. They farmed a while on the Spencer farm and on the Crockett farm south of Danville, and then came to where Rossville now stands. Asel Gilbert had entered a quarter-section joining Liggett's north. There were no families in that part but Liggett's, Gilbert's and Bicknell's, the latter two in what is now Grant township. At this time, in fact imme- diately after the close of the Blackhawk war, Chicago became a place of trade for all this country. Instead of sending their produce down the river on flatboats, they began to team, or "hanl," everything to Chi- cago, and look to Chicago for everything they had to buy. Very soon people began to bring salt from there that was boiled in Syracuse, New York, in place of that made at Danville. The "Board of Trade " is not more disastrous in its fluctuations and prices, no more uncertain in Chicago to-day, than they were in those old times. Farmers took oats to Chicago and sold for $1.50 per bushel; at another time they would hardly bring "a bit a bushel." Corn had no market price, but hides and pelts were always cash. 'Pork was very regular in price, and usually brought enough to pay the farmer ten cents for his corn, that is, after abont 1838. Before that, for a few years, the high-pressure speenla- tive times of 1835-6, and the consequent crash of 1837, changed the prices of every commodity from a normal to an abnormal condition.
Albert Comstock, now of Rossville, entered land in 25 (22-12), in 1837 ; a few years later he sold to his brother-in-law, Clark Green, and established himself at " Bicknell's Point," which was the point of tin- ber north of Rossville, and the most [northern of any timber on the Chicago road until you reached the waters of the Iroquois. The bean- tiful farms which spread over this delightful " divide " hardly suggest the scenes, the trials, the suffering consequent upon the droughts of summer and the severe cold of winter, crossing this wide stretch be- tween the Vermilion and the Iroquois. "Extremes meet," the philos- ophers tell us. Those who have crossed this arm of the " Grand Prai- rie" can testify to the rugged truth of this in their experience. No roads were ever nicer than these prairie roads when the weather was favorable. The smooth even surfaces where the wheels run, divided evenly by the strip of turf a few inches wide in the middle, were per- fection itself. Not a jolt or jar marred the even tenor of the teamster's
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
wagon ; no load was too heavy for the ordinary team ; and when during the long pleasant falls which were common in this state, the fresh prairie breezes fanned the fatigue from faint teams and drivers, no labor was pleasanter than this. When long-continued rains had swelled the sloughs to swimming rivers, and ruts had been worked into the " black stick " of the prairies deep enough to sink a horse, and black night had overtaken worn out nature, and the terrible storms which swept these great prairies held sway where so recently all was lovely, the change may be partially imagined by the reader of to-day, but never realized. The extremes of pleasurable travel and disastrous suffering met where now the finest farms, the most pleasant villages, and comfortable rail- roads rule.
The old mill, still in good running order, standing a little northwest of Alvin, is historic. Mr. Clawson put up a saw-mill in 1838, and a vear or two later added a grist-mill. Soon after this, the two Chris- mans and Sommerville were at work building a mill at Myersville. One of the Chrismans was killed by the falling of earth from a race- way which they were attempting to tunnel. This circumstance induced them to abandon the work at Myersville, which they sold to Myers, and bought the Clawson mill. They run it with very good success until 1848, when they sold to John Hoobler, from Perrysville, Indiana, a preacher of the United Brethren denomination, and the pioneer of that church. In 1851 he sold to Jacob T. Ross, who had taken an interest in its building as before noticed, and it came to be called from that time Ross' Mill. Ross put in a small stock of goods for the accommo- dation of the neighbors. which was the first store in the township. Here the first town meetings and elections were held. Mr. Ross sold the mill in 1858 to John L. Persons, who after running it a few years was murdered. about 1862, by four men who, the evidence showed, had formed a conspiracy to kill him on account of a dispute about a pocket book. Miller and Persons had disputed about the settlement of an account of less than five dollars, at the store. Getting angry while he had his pocket-book in his hand, he laid it down, and forgetting it he went home. He afterward hired the three men - Sanders, Smith and Moore -to get his pocket-book, or in case they did not succeed, to kill Persons, giving them a gallon of whisky, and agreeing to give half the money that was in the pocket-book (about ten dollars). The men agreed to go together at a given hour and make a demand on him, ex- pecting, of course, to get the pocket-book without further trouble ; but Moore, who it seems had the custody of the whisky, took down more of it than just enough to keep his pluck up to killing point, and sallied out and killed Persons on sight, without even demanding satisfaction.
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