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 91
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John Stark came from Bourbon county in 1831, and lived at Brooks' Point a while, and then came to Mr. Barnett's place and worked his farm several years. He had fourteen children. The old folks died where William lives now. They were industrious people, and did their fair share, for the opportunities they had, toward settling this part of the country. Five of their children are in this county, two in Indiana, three in Colorado.
Robert E. Barnett taught the first school here, in 1829, in a little log house on his father's place. He had received a good education in Kentucky, and was competent for the work. He used Webster's Spell- ing Book, the English Reader, Murray's Grammar, Pike's Arithmetic
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He got along so well the first term that he commenced a second. Just after he got started he went with his father to Engene to butcher their hogs. In those days they drove their hogs to Eugene and butchered them there, and sold them to Mr. Collett in that shape. While weigh- ing and figuring he attracted Mr. C.'s attention, and he engaged him to clerk for him. He remained there thirty years, giving strict atten- tion to business, and investing his means, as he could spare them, in land here. The first $100 he ever earned he used to enter eighty acres of land. He has here, running along south of the stream, fifteen hun- dred acres of as good land as one need wish. For forty years those portions which are intended for pasture have been in blue-grass. The theory in regard to pastures is, that they grow better with age. More particularly is this true of blue-grass. Its roots penetrate farther into the ground, thicken up the growth, and make two blades of grass grow where only one grew before. When white folks came to live in those points of timber where the Indians had made their little vil- lages, and had, by killing ont the prairie grass, caused nature to supply its place with the more nutritious and valuable blue-grass, they found a rich and luxuriant growth, which spread all through the edge of the scattering timber. In their ignorance, they did not know that these patches of pasture were the richest legacy left us by the aborigines, but went to work and plowed it np, thereby destroying at least half its valne.
EARLY SETTLERS NORTH OF THE RIVER.
Some of the earliest settlements in the county were made on the northwestern edge of the timber which skirts the Little Vermilion in this and the adjoining township. John Hoag and Samuel Munnel are the first who are now remembered. They came the same year that Henry Johnson did (1820), who made his home just across the line in what is now Georgetown. If there were any others along that line they were in all probability only temporary, and have now even disap- peared from the memory of those who are now residing here. Harvey Luddington, as quoted by Coffeen in his "Hand-Book of Vermilion County," p. 27, says that only eight families resided in the county in the spring of 1822, and does not name any of these in Carroll. He was probably in error, for while it is not so certain as to the date of the arrival of Hoag and Munnel, there cannot be any doubt as to the date at which Win. Swank, the " father of Dallas," came. His recent death deprived the writer of an opportunity to collect many interesting facts, but his neighbors all know that he was here as early as 1820. Mr. Hoag owned the place now owned and occupied by Dr. Ralston, just southwest of the village of Indianola. He died there. Mr. Munnel
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took up land near him and remained here until 1831. Wm. Swank made his home where Michael Fisher lives, and his farm covered a part of the town of Indianola. He afterward owned a farm in section 5, two miles north of the village. He died in 1876, being at the time of his death the oldest resident of the county.
Alexander McDonald came to this town in 1822. He, in company with his father-in-law, J. B. Alexander, entered considerable land in and around what for a long time was known as the McDonald neigh- borhood. Mr. Alexander did not come here to live until about four years later. His son, Col. Alexander, was in the mercantile business at Paris, in Edgar county, and the old gentleman remained there until this county was organized, in 1826, and then came here. He was elected one of the first county commissioners. He was a man of con- siderable acquaintance with public affairs, and made his influence felt in putting the machinery of the new county into running order. When he came here to live, his sons-in-law, McDonald and I. R. Moore, had preceded him. Two daughters came with him, who afterward married Cunningham and Murphy, who were long among the leading business inen of Danville. Alexander and Moore sold to Abraham Sodowsky when he came here in 1831, and Moore went to Oregon, where he died. Mr. McDonald made the farm where Abraham Sandusky now lives. He was a man of strong mind and good judgment. It was at his house that the first Cumberland Presbyterian church was organized, he being elected the first elder, an office in the church he continued to hold till his death. He was also very early a justice of the peace, and at his house was the first post-office (Carroll), next to Georgetown, in this part of the county. His daughter Elizabeth - Mrs. Harmon - was one of the first-born in the county. It is possible that some of those good families who were in here in 1820 and 1821 may have produced an heir to the title and inheritance of first-born in the county, but if such is the case an absence of any record of it must be Mrs. Harmon's justification for appropriating the " lapsed title." Mr. McDonald, later in life, removed to Georgetown, where he died. His sons became merchants at Dan- ville, where they have long maintained the honor and good name of the ancient name of the McDonald clan. His widow lives with her children, and is, next to her old neighbor out on the road leading from the McDonald neighborhood to Georgetown, Mr. Jones, probably the oldest resident in the county.
Dr. Thomas Madden was the first physician in this township. He was born and educated in South Carolina, and while pursuing his stud- ies there, was teaching school. Zimri Lewis, who afterward was one of the leading citizens of Elwood, was among his pupils. He owned
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about two hundred acres of land near Josiah Sandusky's, and died there. He was for some years the only physician in this vicinity.
Dr. Thomas Heywood, though long known as the leading physician here, did not live in this township until some years later. He came from Ohio in 1828, and after a few years spent at Georgetown, he bought a farm south of Indianola, and made his home there, continu- ing the practice of his profession. To a thorough knowledge of his profession he added, by reading and study, a fund of information, not only in the line of his profession, but in general intelligence, which made him one of the best educated men in the township. He married a sister of Mr. R. E. Barnett. He always took a lively interest in pol- itics. In early days a whig, a follower of the political fortunes of the "Mill boy of the Slashes," his firm anti-slavery convictions made him one of the earlier members of the republican party, and his large ac- quaintanee with public affairs, his earnest devotion to the doctrines of that party, as well as his strong adherence to the personal political for- tunes of the "rail-splitter," made him one of the first members of the legislature after the great anti-slavery, or " anti-Nebraska," as it was then called, revival in the state. Dr. Heywood and his wife both died in 1878, at nearly the same time. His family still reside in Vermilion and Edgar counties, where his long medical career had made him so well known and greatly respected.
LATER EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
Among the men who have made Carroll noted as one of the finest farming towns in the county are the Sandusky family, or, as more prop- erly spelled, Sodowsky. The name has become anglicized, though one branch of the family retain the former spelling. The family is of Polish origin, and the head of the family was banished from Poland in 1756, and was sent to Richmond, Virginia, where he married the sister of Governor Inslip. He was killed by Indians while on his return from a trip to the vicinity of Lake Erie, where he had been sent in an official capacity. The stream and the city there received its name from that occurrence. His three boys grew up, and two of them followed the lead of Simon Kenton into the wilds of Kentucky. They were driven out, but returned to the " dark ground " with Daniel Boone and about one hundred others. They made Fort Jefferson, where Louisville now stands, and went back into the interior, where they helped to make the dark ground bloody by continual contests with the Indians all during the revolutionary war. Here James Sodowsky was the companion of Daniel Boone in all his adventures. He settled in what is now Bour- bon county, married Miss Brown, and raised a family of six children :
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Thomas, Andrew, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob and Abraham. With two of the last three we have to do in this sketch. Isaac was engaged in the war of 1812, and, being taken prisoner in Hull's treasonable surrender, he escaped and made his way back to Kentucky, passing across this county in his return. As soon as he could, after the admission of Illinois into the union, he came here to live. His younger brother, Abraham, had in the meantime acquired a fair property, and become interested in thoroughbred cattle, or English cattle, as they were then called. Al- most the first importations from England came into the famous blue- grass region of Kentucky. In 1831 he sold out there and moved to Indiana. He brought with him ten head of the Patton stock, which were, as far as known, the first importation of shorthorns into that state. It is not easy to calculate the value to the stock-raisers of this region from this timely movement. It not only brought here the only strain of blood which could improve the existing herds, but it put into the minds of everyone who had aught to do with the cattle business the idea of improving what they had. In 1834 he came to live where his youngest son, Josiah, now lives. By this time his herd had increased to twenty-seven. He purchased the farms of Alexander McDonald, Col. I. R. Moore, and their father-in-law, Mr. Alexander, besides en- tering a large amount of land. He is spoken of by the old residents as a man of strong convictions, of untiring energy, good judgment, and an excellent manager, strictly honest in all his dealings. One of the best things that can be said of him is that he brought up his boys to work. He was a Presbyterian in his religions views. He gave his children as good education as the opportunities of the times permitted, and as soon as they were old enough to know a short-horned calf from a sheep, he put them to the work of taking care of the young stock. In that way they grew into a knowledge, as by intuition, of the line of business which they were to make their life's work. He became well off financially, - rich, perhaps, for the times ; was kind, hospitable and careful of what he had. He left four sons, who all still live on the lands their father divided among them. Harvey, the oldest, lives on " Wood Lawn Farm," near by Indianola. He married Miss Susan Banm, by whom two children were born to him, one of whom is liv- ing, - the wife of James S. Sconce, Esq. A son died after having grown to manhood, in 1873, and is buried in the cemetery at " Wood Lawn." With his death went out the fondest hopes of parents, whose hearts were bound up in a worthy only son.
Mr. Sodowsky is largely engaged in the raising of thorough-bred cattle, and in his herd are some of the most perfect specimens of well- developed short-horns that can be found in the country,- perfect
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beanties, which one never tires of looking at or living among. "Wood Lawn Farm," with its hospitable roof, is one of the beanties of rural life in Vermilion. Splendidly located, its adaptability to the line of farm- ing which he follows is perfect. During the long course of breeding he has aimed to reach perfection in cattle.
Mrs. Sodowsky is a daughter of Mr. Charles Baum, who came here in 1839, and who left a large family at his death, who have been more than usually prospered, both in worldly affairs and in the esteem and love of those among whom they dwell. He lived to the advanced age of ninety-seven, and died in 1871. He was for many years a firm and consistent member of the Methodist church, and his faith and good works were known and read of all men. Of his children, Samuel, who lived here, is dead, but his children are still here, his daughters being married to William Sandusky, Mr. Pugh and Mr. Rice. Dr. John Baum, another son, was the physician here for a long time, and died here. Charles, another son, lives south of Indianola, in this township, and has five sons. Gideon, another son, lives in Missouri with all his family except one son, Charles, who is a partner with Mr. Green in the extensive mercantile business here. Of Mr. Baum's six daughters, three are living: Mrs. Sodowsky, Mrs. Carter, who has two sons who are at work at "Wood Lawn," and Mrs. Weaver, who lives in Kansas, having twelve children, all grown up, for her heritage.
Abraham Sandusky lives about three miles northeast of Indianola, on the farm which formerly was McDonald's. The old McDonald house still stands on the place, and is in use. He has a fine farm of seven hundred and seventy acres, and an elegant house, which stands just outside of a fine grove of second-growth native timber. The house is one of the finest country residences in the county, and, like all the farmers hereabouts, he has made cattle-raising and feeding the principal business, but also engages largely in grain-raising. Josiah, the youngest son of the family, lives on the old homestead, where his father first settled when he came to the county. He has about one thousand acres, and has gone extensively into cattle-raising and feeding.
"Old Michael Weaver," as everyone seemed to call him, who died here in 1875 at the age of one hundred, came here from Brown county, Ohio, in 1828. Past the meridian of life when he came here, he had in mind only the welfare of a large family at heart, and desired to provide for them farms such as he had heard, but did not more than half believe, lay along the Little Vermilion in this new country. He entered all the timber land that was left subject to entry, along this stream, and bought out McClure, who went west, and Sam. Mundel, who went over on the Embarras, and Hoag and Enoch Pugh, who
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went to Yankee Point. Here were four of the early settlers that seem to have left the very finest farming country in the world, and have gone to some other places, apparently in the expectation of bet- tering their condition. And thus it has ever been in the history of this and other counties. Where you find one family like the Sandus- kys, who are willing, and to all outward appearance satisfied, to re- main here, grow rich, raise children to add to the census as well as to the wealth and enterprise of the community, you will find a hundred like those just above named who will stay just long enough to get what is needed to pay the expense of moving. This is not the view Mr. Weaver took of the matter. He put his children on the land which he had bought, and made both the land and the children useful. Of his nine children, seven were daughters; three became Baums by marriage, two Fishers, and one was the wife of James Gains, and one the wife of John Cole. John Weaver went to Kansas, where he has had the good luck to place twelve grown-up children on farms or in business. With the exception of deafness, Mr. Weaver's faculties were retained till near his end. He is everywhere spoken of as a man of great force and management, but singularly unassuming; and though he became, both in his lands and in his children, one of the wealthy men of the town, it did not seem to put any pride in him; and it is told to his credit by his neighbors that he never would take more than six per centum for money loaned. A rare old man ! the reader says. His death occurred after he had completed his one hundredth year. What is that which an old author says about "that thy days may be long in the land "?
David Fisher came here from Indiana in 1834. He had been at work a season or two at what is now Chicago, a city of some note near the head of Lake Michigan. The river there, or creek, as they usually called it, appeared to be a very good place for a harbor, but no boat drawing more than three or four feet of water could get into it, on account of the sandbar running across the mouth. The government had made an appropriation to open a channel through this bar, and build a breakwater of stone to keep the passage open. He had a job on this work, his business being to load seven cords of stone six miles up the south branch, and bring it to the harbor each day. This was done seven days in the week. It is well to call the attention of those who mourn over the degeneracy of the age to the fact that no Sunday was recognized on public works in those days. Contractors seemed to believe that they had the right to use the Lord's day, and did use it. When Mr. Fisher came here he bought one hundred and sixty acres of school land, at $3.31 per acre. He built there, and married Jane
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Weaver. With the habits of industry which he possessed he soon became one of the leading farmers of the town. He acquired one thousand acres of land, and engaged in feeding cattle and hogs. He usually sold his cattle at home to drovers, and, following the custom of the day, he drove his hogs to Eugene, where they were slaughtered and packed. Eugene was a busy town in those days. For a few years people generally went there to trade. The business prostration of 1837 came at a time in his affairs when Mr. Fisher could ill afford it. Prices depreciated fearfully; good three-year-old steers being only worth about eight dollars per head, wheat, twenty-five cents per bushel. A silver dollar looked as big as a cart-wheel, and ten or fifteen of them paid for a pretty large store bill. There was any amount of hard work to do, and the conveniences were of a decidedly primitive nature. The plowing was done with the "bare-shear" plow, or the Carey plow, which was considered a great improvement, having an iron point and wooden mouldboard. Afterward the shovel plow came into use for 'tending corn. It did good work, but we had to go three times in a row. Wheat was all cut with a sickle, and the man who could ent and bind an acre a day had to be up with the sun. The women folks did not can fruit, but they did dry a great deal. Withal, they seemed to enjoy life better than they do now. Anyone who had health, and per- severance enough, could get rich in time in this country. Four of his five children are now living. Michael lives near him in a neat brick house, and has long been recognized as one of the most enter- prising business men. He was educated at Georgetown Seminary in its palmy days, married a daughter of Dr. Banm, and has been fairly snecessful in his business enterprises. John Fisher lives here, and George, the other son, in Edgar county. ITis only daughter is the wife of L. C. Green.
Gabriel Neal is one of the old settlers, and was probably the first colored child born in the county. His mother, "Annt Polly," had been the property of Abraham Sodowsky, in Kentucky, and preferred to take her chances with the family here than to remain on the " dark and bloody ground," which, incredible as it may seem, appears to have grown darker and bloodier during the entire century of its history. We had in this state certain laws which later came to be known as " black laws," which, in the mild form then, required that any one bringing a colored person into the state should give a bond against the said colored person becoming a public charge. We had besides this a law taxing "slaves and servants of color." It is generally sup- posed that the right of property in human beings was never recognized in this state. This is a mistake, for the revenue law of fifty years ago
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provided that county commissioners should levy and raise a tax on a schedule of personal property, and among the items of this schedule were "slaves and servants of color." Mr. Neal, with very poor oppor- tunities for schooling, for it was against the law of this state to send a colored child to school, became a careful, shrewd business man. He is a dealer in stock, and a man of good judgment and business habits.
Samuel Porter came from Woodford county, Kentucky, in 1834, and staid the first night where his son William lives, on section 19, one mile southwest of Indianola. Joseph Purkins was then living on the place. He had eight children, four of whom are still living. Mr. and Mrs. Porter were members of the Baptist church, and were earnest, devoted christian people. The good mother, whose greatest care was the welfare of her children, died in 1838, and did not live to see what would have been the fulfillment of her heart's desire, the estab- lishment of a church of her choice, which occurred only a year after her death. All her children followed her footsteps, and became members of christian churches. Mr. Porter died in 1847, aged eighty-five, strong in the faith in which he had so long lived, and in the love of his chil- dren and of the community in which he had lived. He was buried by his wife at the Weaver grave-yard, and was the first adult person buried there. William, who yet lives on the old homestead, raised a family of seven children.
There is no railroad in Carroll, but the Danville, Charleston & Tuscola railroad has been graded through the township. No township aid was voted, but local subscriptions of right of way and notes were given, on condition that the road should be completed and the cars running by a given time. The grading was done by Mr. Brown, who, with his brother, had the contract for building it; but his death put a stop to the work. Plans are now being matured for its completion.
CHURCHES.
Some of the earliest preaching services of the Methodists in this county were held in Carroll township. By reference to the history of Blount township the reader will see that credit is there partially given to the published statement that Rev. Mr. McKain was the first regular preacher of that denomination laboring in the county in 1829. Since that was written facts have come to light which render the doubt there expressed well founded. Certainly three years before that date, pos- sibly as early as 1824,-the date cannot be certainly fixed,-Rev. Geo. Fox preached at the house of Mr. Cassady, who was a local preacher of that church, and the house of Abel Williams was an "appointment " at about the same date. "Brinks' Historical Atlas of Vermilion County "
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gives the date of the first organization as 1826, and the building of the first meeting-house as 1827. Notwithstanding the glaring inaccuracies of that work, there is other evidence which fixes these dates as very nearly correct. Mr. David Dickson says that the meetings were held at Cassady's in 1826, and that is undoubtedly the time the class was formed, which is the earliest organization of that church, and was only antedated in the matter of organization by the Friends at Vermilion Grove and the Newlights in Henry Johnson's neighborhood. Mr. Diekson, whose recollection of early matters has been freely drawn upon, and whose acenracy is admitted, says that Mr. Fox was the first preacher that he knew here. Two preachers from Kentucky held meetings at the house of Mr. Williams. Meetings were held at the camp-meeting grounds near Mr. Cassady's, and the old log meeting- house, which was the first building erected for a house of worship (except the one built by the Friends at Vermilion) in the county, was erected through the exertions of Mr. Williams and Mr. Cassady, as early as 1830, and possibly a year or two sooner. Every effort has been made to learn the real facts, so as to state them with historical accuracy, and the above is as near the truth as it is possible at this time to reach. This old log meeting-house stood on the north side of the creek, sonthwest of Dallas, near the present residence of Andrew Martin. Rev. John E. French, the father of Mrs. Reed, of George- town, had an appointment here in 1829, and Collin James in 1830, at which time these appointments in this county belonged to the Eugene cirenit; but all endeavors fail to get any information as to what circuit it belonged previous to that date. The meetings continued to be held at the old log meeting-house until about 1850, when the two churches were built in this appointment, one at Dallas, which is still occupied, and one on Mr. Williams' land, which has disappeared. This was from the first known as Lebanon. Among the early preachers here were Mr. Harshey, Mr. Fairbanks and Mr. Bradshaw. During the latter period Mr. Charles Baum was one of the most earnest friends of the church. His house was the home of the itinerants, and himself and the members of his family were free in support of the institutions of religion. Since the above was written a letter has been received from Mr. Elvin Haworth, to whom, more than to any other one man, the writer is under obligations for many interesting facts. Not only is his memory accurate, but his judgment so unbiased and his mind so methodical, that the writer is certain that full dependence can be placed on his statements. The portion of his letter which refers to this par- ticular appointment is given : "In the year 1824-5 John Cassady set- tled five miles west and Abel Williams six miles west, near Indianola.
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