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 90
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GRANT TOWNSHIP.
third-sergeant, and in the spring of 1863 mustered second-lieutenant of his company. In the winter of 1862-3 he came home to Millersburg, Ohio, on recruiting service ; mustered out on the 8th of July, 1865. In the fall of 1865 he entered upon the classical course at Bethany Col- lege, and gradnated in June, 1869. Since that time he has been an instructor ; was principal of the Newark (Ohio) High-school four years : in 1875 went to California ; visited, that summer, the Yosemite Valley, in company of a horse-back party of ladies and gentlemen, who crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains, consuming six weeks in the journey. After visiting Salt Lake City, and teaching school one year, he returned home via the Panama route, and was present at the opening ceremonies of the Centennial. In the fall of 1876 he became superintendent of the Millersburg High-school, and the next year principal of the Hoopeston High-school. His reputation as a skillful and efficient teacher is wide and well deserved. A more successful and popular graded school cannot be found in the state. He was married on the 22d of May, 1879, to Miss Mary Strauss. , He belongs to the Christian church, and is a republican in politics.
Samuel Rodman, Hoopeston, farmer, was born in Muskingum coun- ty, Ohio, on the 4th of November, 1842. His parents were Scammon and Eliza (Wolf) Rodman. His father was for many years an active and exemplary member of the Methodist church. His great-grand- father was a veteran of the revolutionary war. In 1854 the family emigrated to MeLean county, Illinois, and located in Bloomington township. He was bred to farming, but received a fair education. He was in attendance at the Wesleyan University at the outbreak of the rebellion. He volunteered on the 7th of August, 1862, in Co. D, 94th Ill. Inf .; was mustered into the United States service on the 22d, and started for the seat of war on the 25th. The regiment was uniformed. armed and equipped at St. Louis. He fought at Prairie Grove, Arkan- sas, on the 7th of December, 1862, and a few days later at Van Buren. He served throughout the siege of Vicksburg, taking part in a number of sharp engagements with the enemy. He was at Port Hudson, Fort Morgan, Spanish Fort, Morganzia and Mobile, and participated in sev- enteen battles, all told. He was mustered out of service on the 9th of August, 1865, at Galveston, Texas, and disbanded at Springfield, Illi- nois. The first colonel of his regiment was W. W. Orm, and the sec- ond, John McNulta. In 1872 he became station agent on the Wabash railway at Padua ; also agent for the United States Express Company, and postmaster at that place. In addition, he sold goods the first year. In the spring of 1877 he resigned his position at Padua, and moved to Hoopeston. The next year he bought a farm of eighty acres, valned
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
at $2,500, four miles southeast of that city, the same being the N. } N.E. { section 30, town 23, range 11, on which he is living. He was married on the 13th of August, 1867, to Miss Josephine Nelson, of Hardin county, Ohio. They have five living children. He is a Uni- versalist in religion, and a stalwart republican in politics.
Jesse McQuade, deceased, was born in Green township, Wayne county, Ohio, on the 2d of July, 1845. He was the oldest son of Alexander and Nancy McQuade. In 1857 he immigrated, with his parents, to Oneida, Knox county, Illinois. His early life was passed on a farm. He volunteered in Co. I, 102d Ill. Inf., on the 9th of August, 1862, and was mustered into the United States service on the 2d of September, at Knoxville, county seat of Knox county. He served throughout the Atlanta campaign, and fought in the general engage- ments at Resaca and Peach Tree Creek ; marched to the sea ; was one of Sherman's " bummers," in which capacity he acquired a high repu- tation among his comrades. He resumed the same exciting and peril- ous duty at the beginning of the campaign of the Carolinas. On the 28th of February, 1865, while foraging, he and a single companion dis- covered and surprised a party who were guarding the Bank of Camden, South Carolina, which had been removed and secreted in the woods. They were fired upon and both wounded. McQuade's left shoulder, arm and side were filled with small shot. Their command coming up speedily, the prize was secured. He was discharged at Grant United States General Hospital on the 24th of May, 1865. His left arm became almost useless, and he carried to his grave the charge of shot which had been lodged in his body. After the war he was postmaster at Oneida five years. From 1870 to 1877 he was in the employment of the C. B. & Q. Railroad Company as station agent and operator. In the latter year he settled in Hoopeston, and was employed in selling lumber and keeping books. In April, 1879, he went to Dakota for his health, which had been declining for several years, and while home- ward bound, died on the cars at St. Cloud, Minnesota, on the 19th of the following month. His body preceded the intelligence of his death. He was married on the 24th of December, 1866, to Miss Harriet Bai- ley, whom he left with two children : Minnie, nine years old, and a babe, born after his departure for the west.
Andrew J. Bowman, Hoopeston, farmer, was born in Coshocton county. Ohio, on the 18th of July, 1840, and is a son of John and Susanna (Nowel) Bowman. His father came from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1813, and settled in Coshocton county. At the age of nineteen he was apprenticed to the blacksmith's trade. He was enrolled on the 18th of November. 1861. in Co. C. 67th Ohio Vols.,
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CARROLL TOWNSHIP.
Col. A. C. Voris. He served in the Shenandoah in the summer of 1862, under Gen. Shields, taking part in numerous minor actions, and in the battle of Winchester, April 23. His command having been transferred, he fought at the terrific battle of Malvern Hill. He was subsequently in front of Charleston, South Carolina, during the siege operations against Forts Wagner and Sumter under Gen. Q. A. Gill- more; next on the James River in front of Richmond; fought at Chafin's Farm ; was present throughout the siege of Petersburg, and participated in the grand assault on that place on the 2d of April, 1865, which hastened Lee's retreat from Richmond. He was in the pursuit after Lee, and present at the surrender of his army. He was in thirty-two engagements. In February, 1863, he veteraned. He was mustered out on the 18th of December, 1865. On the organiza- tion of his company he was appointed fifth sergeant, and was regularly promoted to second sergeant. In March, 1863, he was advanced to quartermaster sergeant of his regiment, and on the 9th of January, 1864, was commissioned first lieutenant of Co. E, in which capacity he served the remainder of his terin. On his return from the war he engaged in mercantile pursuits at New Bedford, Coshocton county, Ohio, and continued thus employed twelve years. In 1877 he emi- grated to Vermilion county, Illinois, and bought a farm of one hundred and twenty acres in Grant township, worth $4,500. He was married on the 25th of October, 1866, to Elizabeth Dellenbaugh, who was born on the 23d of February, 1841. They have four living children : Emma, born October 8, 1868; Oliva, born December 22, 1871; Susanna E., born July 25, 1874; John H., born January 30, 1877. He is a repub- lican in politics.
CARROLL TOWNSHIP.
At the second meeting of the county commissioners' court ever held in the county, on the 18th of March, 1826, the county was divided into two townships, all that was south of the center of town 18 was called Carroll, all north of that line, Ripley. This was twenty-five years be- fore township organization was adopted, and just what this division was adopted for, and what end was accomplished by such division, is not apparent, or why those names were changed is not definitely known, but some allusion is presumed to have existed in the minds of the com- missioners to former places of residence. It is believed by some that the name was selected from a feeling of respect and reverence for Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, then ninety years old, and the last to
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
sign the Declaration of Independence, as he was also the last of that patriot band to die.
Carroll, as now constituted, has for its northern boundary the same line which was designated in 1826. Georgetown and Elwood have been taken off from the eastern side, and Sidell from the western, and it now embraces the western two-thirds of town 17, range 12; the east- ern half of town 17, range 13; the western two-thirds of the south half of town 18, range 12, and the southeastern quarter of town 18, range 13, is nine miles long by seven miles wide, and contains sixty-three sections, or nine less than two congressional townships. The Little Vermilion runs across its southern end, which, with its numerous branches, gives free watering to nearly all its territory, making it one of the most desirable for stock farms in the county. Originally the water in this stream was sufficient for mills during a considerable por- tion of the year, now, however, it has materially lessened. The timber along this stream was magnificent, and covered about sixteen sections, or about one-quarter of its territory. There is quite a high ridge along its southern boundary which marks the southern line of the valley of the Little Vermilion. Water and timber, the two prime necessities for early settlements, were here found in such quantities and of such good quality, that it early afforded a home for those coming into the new country.
EARLY SETTLERS SOUTH OF THE RIVER.
As in all new places, a majority of those who first came were of that roving, uncertain class of people, who sell out and move on the slight- est provocation ; who never know when they are well off; or who, on the other hand, never know how to make a home anywhere,-squat- ters, who stay in one "neck of timber " one winter, and then go on to the next.
One account makes John Myers -" Injin John "- the first settler in Carroll. This is probably incorrect, but there is no doubt that he came among the first. He was a character. Free with what he had, brave, self-willed, and on the water would have become a buccaneer. He had little love for property which was his own, and less for the rights of others.
About the year 1820 Mr. Starr, an uncle of Barnett and Absalom, bought, at the land sales at Palestine, eight hundred and eighty acres of land near where Mr. R. E. Barnett now resides, and proposed to make his home there. He was then living at or near Palestine, where Henry Johnson and his nephews were living. If he ever came here to live it was only temporarily, for, either that year or the following, he traded the entire tract to John Myers for his eighty-acre farm in Ohio.
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CARROLL TOWNSHIP.
"Injin John " came on here to live, and on the way here came across his brother-in-law, Joseph Frazier, in Indiana, and offered to give him a quarter-section if he would accompany him. Frazier agreed to this, and the two came on here in 1821. This particular tract which he gave Frazier is now a portion of the Sconce farm. Frazier sold to Sul- livant in 1853. It had on it the most beautiful growth of black walnut timber in this section. The Sullivants cut it off and made it into rails to fence "broad lands." The timber, if standing there now, would be worth a fortune at the rates now given. About ten years before Myers came here he had an Indian hunt in Ohio, which shows the character of the man. . A man and his two sons were out in a sugar bush, in the spring of the year, at work, and were killed by three Indians. Myers at once raised a company of avengers, and started in pursuit. They struck the trail in the new snow, and followed until all but three gave out from sheer exhaustion. The great physical endurance, pluck and determination of Myers, whetted by a keen desire for revenge, now as- serted itself. His two remaining comrades threatened to leave him, and he told them that he would shoot them if they turned back. This "nerved their courage," and soon they came in sight of the smoke of the Indians' camp. All three men shot at once and killed two of the Indians. The third escaped and hid in a hollow tree. Myers soon " treed him " and shot him, and recovered the three scalps of his white neighbors. Myers was one of the first to go to the Black Hawk war, and there made a great deal of trouble by his insubordination. By this time habits of intemperance had grown on him, and about the first thing he did after arriving in the Indian country was to get drunk and go to abusing the officers and everybody else for not going into the fight at once. He knew no such thing as discipline; abhorred tactics ; did not believe in waiting for orders or for supplies. He came there to " fight Injins," and fight he was going to. He was ordered under arrest for conduct unbecoming a soldier and a gentleman. He had told some of these new-fledged officers that they did not know any- thing about "fighting Injins " more'n a bear did abont a camp meetin'. His brother-in-law, Davis, was killed there at the block-house. Myers was a powerful man. He could crack a black walnut with his teeth, and in his fights had disfigured more than one face. He once offered Jack M'Dowell, then a spruce and lively young chap who was striving to get along in the world, a half-section of land if he would marry his daughter. Jack wanted the land, but was afraid of the incumbrance. He gave away or fooled away all his land, and went ont to the Illinois River and died. While here he had a hand in all that was going on. He used up a portion of his means in helping Simon Cox to build that
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
mill that never would run for any of them. Frazier went to Iowa. Barnett Starr settled here in 1821, or about the same time his brother Absalom did.
Moses Bradshaw came here from Virginia in 1821 and cleared a place in the timber, near by Mr. Barnett's present residence. He had several sons, two of whom, Daniel and William, were able to help him in making a farm in the timber-land; but it was sickly here, and he took the first opportunity to sell out, and went back to Virginia. The Richmond family lived in the timber here one winter and summer. The boys were William, David, James, John, and Lewis, " the squealer," and there were four girls. They went to Douglas county before there was a house in Charleston. Simon Cox came in 1822 and took up land. He and Myers commenced to build a mill. First they tried a water- mill, and then put in steam; but neither were practical millwrights, and did not succeed in their enterprise. Peter Summe assisted in building the mill. It was both a grist and saw mill, and, like all these old ones, the stones were cut out of boulders found here. It stood where the first county road running from where Abraham Sandusky's house stands, south across the stream, and about one mile southeast of Indianola.
Though not next in chronological order, William McDowell settled next in this neighborhood, south of the creek. He came from Ken- tucky in 1823, with four sons, John, Archie, James and William, and two daughters, Mrs. Starr and Mrs. Ayers. He lived seven years in Palestine, in Crawford county, before coming here, wrestling with poverty before his children had become able to help him. When he had saved enough to enter eighty acres ($100), he entered land here in sections 35 and 36, range 13, and came here to live, with little else than his own hands and his brave, though not very strong, boys. When he arrived here he built his cabin on a piece adjoining what he had bought, intending, as soon as he was able, to enter that also. He learned one day that Peter Summe had gone to Palestine to enter him out. Without a dollar in his pocket, he started on to try to save his land. Riding all night, he got there before business hours in the morning, and went directly to the house of the register, with whom he was acquainted, and told him his trouble. To save him, the register agreed to do what would have lost him his position if it had then been known, which was to let McDowell have the land, trusting him to pay for it in sixty days, although Summe was there with the gold in his hand. McDowell came back in triumph, but it cost him dearly. He was in such constant anxiety over it, working night and day, scheming and contriving how to get that hundred dollars, finally having to sell
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part of the land to get it, that it threw him into a fever, from which he died. Several members of the family died at the same time. The death of his father left John MeDowell to care for the family, and work ont his fortune as best he could. He had not a dollar, but he was plncky. He worked as he could find employment, which in those days was not very steady or lucrative. He split rails for Mr. Barnett a few years later, to pay for the land he is on, and worked away -did not propose to sell out and move away - until he had bought and paid for eleven hundred and fifty acres of land, most of which he has given to his children, and still lives on the land which his father made that night ride to Palestine to buy on trust.
"Old Abel Williams," as he is familiarly called, came to this neigh- borhood from Tennessee in 1824, and made his home two miles south of Indianola. He was a man who could not well have had an enemy ; singularly pure in his life, and free from even the appearance of evil. His house was early the home of the itinerant preachers, and at his house their first services were held, or at least some of the early ser- vices were held there. He was early interested in securing the build- ing of the first Methodist church in the county, the " Lebanon," which stood across the stream from his house. Mr. Williams still lives with his son about twelve miles west of his former home, in Champaign county, at the advanced age of ninety-seven years, full of years and full of the good esteem and love of all who know him. He was so anxious to go to the Blackhawk war that he went without a gun, trusting that one would be supplied him.
The first person buried in the Frazier grave-yard was Mr. Hel- venston, who was a son-in-law of Bradshaw. He went over to Hickory Grove on a hunting excursion; he treed the game and cut down the tree, and while the tree was falling, his dog, who had a habit of running for the falling game, made for the tree. In trying to get the dog away the tree fell on him and killed him. His widow married Mr. Clayton.
Robert Dickson came from Kentucky when his son David was only eighteen years old, in 1824. Their journey here was made by keel- boat to Coleman's Prairie, thence across the country with teams. They made their first home near where David now lives. Mr. Diekson had four sons: David, who still resides here and is well known over the county ; John, Amos and James. He died here, much respected, where his children and grandchildren grew up around him. The young man David worked around as he could find employment; went to the salt works and worked a while; walked to Galena at a time when nearly all the money that came to these parts came from there in
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payment for produce and cattle, and when it was popularly supposed to be a place where money grew on every bush. On the 3d of August, 1829, he was married to a daughter of Mr. Silas Waters, who had re- cently followed on from Kentucky, with some just as fine girls as the " blue grass " region ever presented to the world. A few days since, this pleasantly married and well preserved couple celebrated their golden wedding in a becoming and pleasant way. The little matter of a houseful or two of their friends got together under the grateful shade of their grounds, and there told over old facts and pleasantries, incidents of early life here, which might fill a book. Neither were the substan- tials of life forgotten ; if the tables did not groan it was because they are better material than are used in most of our dining-rooms. The historian will only find room here for one among the many remi- niscences which came out on that occasion, and selects as the best one :
JOHN STARK'S DREAM.
It was late in the forties (so runs Jacky McDowell's version) that Johny Stark, Moses Scott and some others of our good neighbors who have since got away, were the active makers of history on this side of the Vermilion. They were neighborly people, and would turn out to a logging-bee or a horse-race, kindly, without a second invite, as readily as they would go to a meal's victuals or any other ordinary duty. Of course there were the usual little banters among them, as to who could rake and bind the most wheat or shuck the most corn. Their women folks would lend a drawing of tea, or the best brass kettle, without snarling about it; and the young misses never thought of turning up their noses at each other because they happened to wear a better frock. Politics was about the only disturbing influence, when some good dem- ocrat would shout "fifty-four-forty-or-fight," and his whig neighbor over the way entered a protest a little too vigorous in reference to the last syllable, we soon managed to smooth it over. One day a matter occurred that came near dragging the whole posse of us off to Danville to court, but for the timely and wise counsel of good old Father Will- iams and Parson Ashmore, who had more sense than any of us. We were all out to a "Fourth of July " on a liberal scale, before that pesky word "picnic" was invented, when Johny Stark, who had never been accused of knowing more than the law allowed, said he had the curi- ousest dream the other night he ever heard tell of. He said he dreamed he was wandering around one dark night, and came upon a great lot of men who were molding men and all kinds of animals, out of material that was especially prepared for each. The work was progressing finely when, through a mistake of the molding-boss, he got some of the hog
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metal and run it into a man mold, when out jumped Mose Scott, as large as life and twice as natural. He was making for the timber as fast as his new-made legs would let him. "Catch it, catch it," shouted half a dozen of the molders at a breath. "No," said the molding-boss, "let the d-d thing go, and let's see what it will amount to." After telling this "curiousest dream," Scott threatened to sue him for slander, but old Abel Williams told him he never heard that you could sue a man for what he dreamed ; and Mr. Ashmore told him that if he was called on as a witness he would be obliged to swear that Johny Stark never had wit enough to make up such a yarn, and the probability was that the fellow actually dreamed it, -probably had more sense asleep than awake. Scott took the advice of the two sensible men, and saved us all a trip or two to Danville.
LATER SETTLERS.
Silas Waters came from Kentucky in 1828, and took up a farm just east of where Mr. Dickson lives. Mr. and Mrs. Waters died here, but the nine children they brought with them are still living. The mother of this family of old folks was for many years a member of the Meth- odist church, and inspired their young steps in the paths she delighted in. The eldest of this remarkable family is eighty-one, and the youngest is sixty-five. The united ages of the nine is six hundred and fifty-seven years. The remarkable instance is so much more re- markable in view of the liability to sickness which those who came here fifty years ago were under. There were few families who re- mained here during the pioneer times without having their circle shat- tered by the hand of death. The children of old Silas Waters, Silas, Mrs. Niel, Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Crumbaugh, live at LeRoy, in McLean county, where the former has, for almost fifty years, been the stay and strength of the Methodist church at that place. John is in Shelby county, James in Georgetown, Mrs. Wright in Middlefork, Mrs. Dick- son and Mrs. Seonce here.
John Reed, familiarly called "Dasher," came from Kentucky in 1829, and after living a few years at Hickory Grove came here and lived on the McDowell farm. He afterward wandered off to Nauvoo, and joined the Mormons, among whom he found more congenial so- ciety than here. Aaron Mendenhall came here in 1827, and took up land in section 34, near the eastern line of the township. He had eight children. He died in 1840. Two sons live in the vicinity yet, and three daughters, Mrs. Baird, Mrs. Mills and Mrs. Lawrence, live near by.
George Barnett came here from Bourbon county, Kentucky, in
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
1828. He was a man of considerable experience in the affairs of the world, and had some means-enough to get a fair start in a new country. He had got tired of the influences of the institution of slavery, and, while not an abolitionist in sentiment, like many of the Quakers who came here at that time, was not so in love with the insti- tntion as to remain with it any longer. He had purchased a part of the farm of Mr. Bradshaw before removing here, and entered more after coming. He had a family of eight children. He came in those old-fashioned four-horse wagons of that day, bringing such goods and other things with him as he needed. He commenced farming opera- tions, and soon engaged in raising stock, having bought the farm with especial reference to that business. He bought some " prairie rooters " of Mr. Bradshaw, who was to deliver the sow and pigs to him in the pen, and, as they were as wild as young deer, Robert felt a little anxious to know how Bradshaw was going to deliver the "goods." He went along with him into the timber to see him capture them. It was a new business to the lad just from the blue-grass pastures. Brad- shaw provided himself with the "implements" of chase -a pony and a bob-tailed dog-and took for the timber. As fast as "bob " would catch the pigs, Bill would tie them on to the pony, and then the "nurs- ing mother" of the litter was made fast to the same patient horse, two of the pigs were tied together and slung over his own shoulder, and, thus loaded with the trophy of the chase, he made his way back to the pen. As fast as he could he got his land into blue-grass pasture. He was early elected a member of the legislature. Of his children, Albert and George are in Oregon ; Robert E. lives on the place his father first purchased ; James lived near Indianola, and died there ; William died in Douglas county ; the girls are dead, except Mrs. Mor- ris, who lives in Edgar county. Indian wigwams were plenty in the timber when he came here; they were made of poles slanting up to a peak, and covered with bark and bushes.
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