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 94
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
The Blue Grass tract, which lay around and through the Blue Grass Grove, covered several thousand acres, and has been the subject of much speculation. It was originally supposed by some to have been . the growth of seeds brought here in some way by the Indians. This view, however, has been pretty generally abandoned, as the history and phenomena of grasses have become better known. One of the most singular things about these great prairies is, that the native grass which was found growing everywhere when man came here, and which for ages has maintained itself against all the natural elements of extinction, has neither seed nor any other organs of propagation. When once killed or circumscribed in any way, it could not by any process again spread. It was not merely comparatively, but positively impossible to spread it. So far as the writer's knowledge goes, it was in this respect anomalous. Nature does not seem to have furnished another case of actual absence of the quality of propagation. Wherever this was de- stroyed nature supplied its place with another grass, and in this part of the state that natural growth was blue-grass, which was, and is, just as much a natural growth as was the prairie grass. The Pottawatomie and Kickapoo Indians had long had a home in this grove. They had cultivated in their own rude way a small patch of corn, which had de- stroyed the prairie grass not only where they had actually planted, but all around where they lived and where their horses stayed. Blue-grass "run in," as the saying is, or more correctly, was furnished by nature according to a not well understood natural law. And this is all the mystery there is in regard to the great blue-grass pasture that was found here.
The first settlers found corn growing here. Their method of plant- ing and cultivating differed somewhat from that in vogue since Brown invented his corn-planter, and can be easily described. No plow was known to Indian farming. The corn was planted in hills, little less distant than now, and was hoed by the women, and hilled up about as we do potatoes. The next year the hills were planted between the rows of last year's stalks, and the earth which had been hilled up around the former was removed, as needed, to the growing hills, to " hill them up." The only variety of corn they were known to use here was the peculiarly spotted ears, red and white. When the corn was harvested it was not cribbed in pine lumber brought from Green Bay, but caves were dug in the dry knolls, in which it was buried until it was wanted.
The earliest settlements were made in what is now Middle Fork, in 1828. Mr. Partlow and wife came from Kentucky in 1829 with their four sons, Samuel, James, Reuben and John, and their son-in-law, Asa
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MIDDLE FORK TOWNSHIP.
Brown. They were all married and had families, and were all earnest members of the Methodist church. They made a cabin at Merrill's Point, and the sons took claims in sections 5, 6, 7 and 8 (21-13), south of where Armstrong now is. Jolin and James were licensed preachers, and were probably the first ones to make a residence here. The par- ents died the first year, and the family had to bury them themselves. They brought a number of cattle with them from Kentucky, and the migration bid fair to prove a prosperous one; but the first year. was followed by the memorable winter of the deep snow, the like of which has never been seen here since. It was to the new-comers a most nn- expected and disastrous winter. The depth of the snow prevented getting around to do anything. They had to live on what they could pound up in their mortars. Deer, the principal meat-producing game, were easily captured, but they soon became so poor that their meat was not fit to eat. There was no such thing as going to market, and their cattle died from lack of food and care. The winter filled up the measure of their disappointment, and the next year they took the back track and went to Kentucky, all but Asa Brown, who said he had nothing to go to there, and he "could but perish if he staid." They afterward returned and settled on the land they had taken up, which has been known from that day to this-now fifty years-as the Partlow neighborhood. They all lived to bring up families, some members of whom still reside there. Samuel and Reuben died in Danville, where their children live, and are among the most respected and worthy citizens. John and James died here in Middle Fork. When they came here they brought the institutions of religion with them, and never allowed the altar to grow cold. About 1840 they built the first meeting-house in this part of the county-a rude cabin on the bank of the stream on Reuben's land. There is no family which has exercised a greater or better influence on the town-an influence for good which will be felt till the last.
Michael Cook was one of the first to settle here. He died soon, and was buried in a little graveyard a half mile from Meneely's mill on the hill. William Bridges came here in 1830, and settled one and a half miles south of Marysville. He resided there seven years. He was a man of strong good sense. He sold and went to Wisconsin, when the rush was in that direction. Mr. Gray bought the place. He was not much of a farmer, and gave his time largely to the chase. His family had much sickness, and his place deteriorated, and part of the clearing again grew up to trees. Passing by it to-day it is not difficult to see in the timber the place where, forty-five years ago, wheat was waving in the June breezes. This man Gray was a character. He
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
used to come in out of the timber every election day as regular as a tea-party, following the blazed trees out to civilization - he seldom came ont at any other time- voted the democratic ticket as regularly and unanimously as if he had been brought up to it; defended the good name and statesmanship of Jackson; shouted for fifty-four-forty- or-fight; for "extending the area of freedom," by the Mexican war, whooped for the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and peddled tickets until the boxes were closed, as energetically as any man in the business; then stayed to see the ballots counted out by candle-light. For ten years, Gray and John Smith (plain) were the only democratic voters in town. After ten years of energetic electioneering, this pa- triarch of democracy saw with joy the advent into town of George Copeland, and felt better. He lived to see as many as half-a-dozen democratic votes cast in Middle Fork. The town is still republican, though it is through no dereliction on the part of Gray.
There was a very considerable emigration at one time from here to Wisconsin. After Gurdon Hubbard had left Danville, where he had in vain endeavored to get his former partners to invest with him in " water lots" in Chicago, he became rich by his speculations there, and, . following the same direction, some of the leading men of the county fancied they could see as rich speculations in Milwaukee and Galena, and other places in those vicinities. The prevailing sickness here gave a strong impetus to the movement, and quite a number went out from this town. Few bettered themselves, however. Asa Brown, A. Kel- ley and William Bridges went to the northern home.
Charles Bennett settled at Collison's Point in 1828, and was one of the first settlers in here. He came from Ohio. He entered land on Sullivan's Branch (called so till 1851), eighty acres at first, and after- ward forty more, and was really the first settler on the now famous Bean Creek. Mr. Bennett died in 1840 on the farm half a mile east of the iron bridge in Marysville. He left six children, who have all moved away except Caleb and a daughter, now dead. His son Caleb, now residing in Marysville, is believed to be the "oldest inhabitant" now residing in the town, having lived here continuously for fifty-one years ;- at least, if any person disputes his right to the belt with the cabalistic letters, "O. I." marked on it, he wants such an one to come and take it, if he can. Caleb says, in speaking of those "good old times," (?) " We did not fail, under any circumstances or provocation, to have the ague every summer as regularly as that solar season came around. People had not got to living out on the prairies then, and those who lived on the creek bottoms nearly all died. We thought it a 'severe dispensation of Divine Providence,' but now the general
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opinion, after a half century of additional light on the subject, is, that it was the 'milk-sick,' whatever that may be." They raised their own flax, corn, wheat and hogs, the real "hazel splitters," called so from a very general belief that they were so thin, and had such sharp noses, that they could go through a hazel bush or any like substance which stood in their way. A great many ludicrous stories have been told about this much-abused breed of "prairie-rooters," which were in many respects a very valuable, probably the most profit- able, "farming implement" the early settlers had. The impression is common now that they were a worthless thing. This is very far from being true. The writer, who has the greatest respect for the "im- proved breeds of hogs," now so famous here, wishes to record a plea in favor of the old stock. In the then condition of the fields and farms, they were the only kind that could be kept; they did not require any grain or grass pasture; they lived in the woods till corn was ripe, and when fatted to the extent that they were good bacon hogs, would travel as fast as a man could walk. In any ordinary weather they could make twenty miles a day, and could stand the long drives of one or two hundred miles to market without giving out; were not subject to any disease. Nothing could kill them short of the knife of the butcher or the ball of the rifle, and they were about the only crop the farmer raised which would always bring cash. Caleb Bennett went out on the prairie and took up the fine farm now owned by Zack Put- nam, and improved it. He sunk three artesian wells, one of which is the finest in the county. By boring thirty feet he got a permanent three-inch stream, which is carried np high enough to furnish a good water-power to drive a churn. Several other farms in that vicinity have artesian water. He carried on stock-raising and feeding exten- sively, with fair success, for several years. Disaster overtook his opera- tions, however, and he lost his property. He has been a hard-working man, and is respected by all that knew him. The farm which he brought into cultivation is owned by Mr. Putnam, who carries on a butter dairy of twenty-five cows, the only one of the kind in the town. He uses the water-power to run a small turbine wheel, which drives the churn and runs the water through the milk-house, to keep it cool. With this care in keeping cool, and with absolute cleanliness in the management of the dairy, he has no trouble in getting the highest market price for his product, and has solved the problem of profitable butter-making on these prairies.
Richard Courtney was born and grew up to early manhood in Franklin county, Ohio. The family came on here in 1835, and it was so rainy, and the streams so swollen, that they could not get farther,
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
so they concluded to enter land here on the famous blue-grass tract, which the Indians had just abandoned. There were then standing, where his pasture now is, the stalks of a former year's crop of corn. The untouched grass of thousands of acres grew rank around and through the grove. The underbrush of young trees had been kept down by prairie fires, and where now forest trees stand, as fine winter pasture as ever was known furnished feed enough for thousands of cat- tle. The few cows that the settlers kept came in at night loaded down with milk, and almost every hollow tree in the grove was the home of bees. There never was a land which, to the immigrant seeking new homes, flowed more literally with milk and honey than this. The Courtney family at once went to breaking prairie, and hired a hundred acres turned and planted to sod corn. They got a good crop, but did not know what to do with it. It was only worth six cents a bushel, and no market for it at that price. They did not raise much wheat. They went to Perrysville for their grinding. Deer, geese, turkeys and prairie chickens were numerous. They kept a few sheep, but the wolves were so troublesome that it was almost impossible to protect them. They have sold pigs for one dollar per dozen, and once sold Mr. Gilbert twenty good fat hogs for fifty dollars. Mr. Courtney was once on a trip to Chicago, and having in his wagon some corn of the large white variety, such as he was in the habit of raising, to feed on the road, a couple of Yankees, who were looking for the first time at the prairie wonders of Illinois, after intently examining the ears of corn, and comparing them mentally with their own little hard-shell nubbins down east, commenced asking questions, Yankee-like. They asked Courtney what it cost to raise such corn. He told them that he did not calculate that it cost him anything to raise it, and explained that the land had to be broken before it was fit for any crop. Then, while the prairie sod was rotting for the next year's crop, one of the boys who had nothing else to do dropped the corn in the crevices between the sods, and they went on about their business, allowing the corn to have its own way until it was ripe; then they picked what corn they wanted, say twenty to forty bushels to the acre, and left the rest for the cattle to live on during the winter. "But don't you hoe it and manure it in the hill, and hill it up, and stick up scare-crows made out of your wife's last year's petticoat or your cast-off drawers, and put hats on 'em ?" inquired the suspicious Yankees. He assured them that nothing of the kind was done in raising the particular corn they then held in their hands. They questioned his veracity. "Well," said Courtney, "if you don't take my word, if you will just come back to the next wagon, I have got a minister and a class-leader there who will
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swear to it. This satisfied the incredulous gentlemen, for they knew what religion was, and down in Massachusetts a class-leader's word is taken everywhere. Mr. C. says that he has gone a whole year without handling thirty dollars in money. Their wants were few. They made their own cloth, sugar and shoes ; rarely bought store-tea ; did not take music lessons, or buy spring bonnets. Taxes were nominal, and no school bills to pay, and no mortgages to eat up the substance of the people. He used to keep a plat of the township, so that people who came to look for land could find it, and would stop his plow any time to go to show them the corners. There were no settlements on the prairies until 1849, when the rush of immigration came in in anticipa- tion of the passage through congress of Douglas' Illinois Central Rail- road bill, by the discussion of which attention was directed to the great fertility of the prairies, which only needed the aid of railroads to bring their products into market. The people here had supposed that the prairies back of them were their heritage for "range " as long as they should want them, but waked up suddenly to the fact that all this land was being taken up, and had to buy at increased rates to secure them- selves against being hemmed in. Richard Courtney sold his farm to John Bodley, who recently died at Paxton, and purchased another. Mr. Bodley remained here some time, carrying on a farm of four hun- dred acres, trading, feeding cattle, and driving to market. He kept a store at Blue Grass for awhile, which he lost by lightning. He after- ward went west, and then settled at Paxton, where he became one of the leading business men of that place. He took a lively interest in public affairs, and was long on the board of supervisors. He closed a long and busy life a few weeks since, leaving a name for integrity and business activity which will long be kept green in the memory of his many acquaintances. Mr. Courtney still resides on the farm which he bought at that time. He has brought up a family of five children, who live with or near him, and who enjoy the aid and assistance of his wise counsel and the pleasure of his society. He has saved a comfortable property, though by no means rich, and quietly receives the benefit of his early thrift and energy. There is no more pleasant sight connected with the history of these townships than the one of these good old parents, who, having passed through the trials, the hardships, the fears, the dangers of pioneering, the fatigue and labors of a well-rounded life, throw care and work on willing children, whose early feet they have led in paths of peace, truth and veneration for God and man. Mr. Court- ney's mother died here, at the age of eighty-three.
James, an elder brother of Richard, had very early joined the church, and was licensed to preach at the age of eighteen. Ten
51
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
years later he came into this county to live, having received a good education and studied medicine. He used to preach while here, but finding his health failing, he resumed the study of medicine to learn his own case. He removed to Danville, where he remained several years, spending his winters in Cincinnati, attending lectures and ac- quainting himself with the science of medicine and surgery in all its details. He was elected to the legislature in 1854, and in the single winter he served saw many things to convince him that everything was not pure and honest in the politics of that "good old time." He re- moved to Indianapolis, and was appointed to a professorship in the medical college at Cincinnati. He was a man of great energy and in- dustry, with small physical strength to back it. The successive steps of advancement from the cabin of the backwoodsman to the important position of lecturer in an important medical college, shows the stuff of which he was made.
None of the other members of the Courtney family reside in Middle Fork. Robert Courtney, who was not a relative of the family heretofore spoken of, came here before they did some four years. He was an arbitrary man, and cared little for the rights of others or the peace of his family. He claimed all the land that joined him, and when Mr. ' Cross came up from Danville and staked ont a piece of blue-grass pas- ture to put his cattle on to feed, Robert undertook to drive him off. He was even crosser than Cross, and went for this intruder in a very unamiable manner. He never gave much attention to farming, but hunted and watched a few cattle. He lived here about twenty-five years, until 1856, and then went to Champaign. John, Dixon and Hamilton Bailey, three brothers, settled in 1832 on land where Marys- ville now stands. They were industrious men and good citizens; re- mained here until 1839, and sold to Robert Marshall, and went, in company with Miller, Stillwell, Brown, Layton, and others, to Wis- consin. Mr. Marshall was not in sufficient health to work on a farm, and undertook to keep store in one part of his dwelling, two or three years. He died, and thus ended what is supposed to have been the first mercantile venture in town, about 1850. Robert Young bought the farm Stillwell had entered, and lives on it still.
James Colwell bought the claim of a Mr. Long, just west of where Marysville now is. He remained on the place until he died.
Douglas Moore came from Ohio in 1834, and took up land still farther west, south of where Armstrong now is. He was a man of very positive views and strong character. He has a reputation among the neighbors for truthfulness, honorable christian character, and was
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a good farmer. He is dead, and his family is scattered. His wife re- mains in the vicinity.
Mr. Meneley, who was himself a millwright, built a saw-mill a little way down stream from Marysville in 1837. He afterward sold to Smith, and it burned : Smith rebuilt it and sold it. In 1872 a run of stone was put in. This is the only water-mill ever built in town.
Bean Creek, the eastern branch of the Middle Fork, was first known as "Sullivan's branch," but it afterward came to be known by its present name, from certain yarns that Albright spun in regard to the peculiarities of the people who lived along its banks and the qualities of the stream itself. The land along its border was well adapted to cattle farming, and the men engaged in that line got possession of the land. Albright, as one of them, used to tell his friends back east of the excellent country that we had here. He said that the stream run bean-soup, and the banks were supplied with a natural growth of this nutritious vegetable, ready baked to a beautiful brown for the table; that the settlers just naturally collected it daily (except Sundays), as the wandering tribes of Israel gathered manna in the wilderness; that. he was at first surprised at finding such delicious baked beans on every table, when he traveled through there buying up the fat steers that he found in endless numbers in that vicinity, and that he was more sur- prised when he found the generous supply with which nature had pro- vided them. The yarn was enough to give the name to this stream. In regard to some other locality he used to tell that when he was stay- ing one night with his hands, he lodged in the house and they in the barn. During the night the bedbugs rolled him over and over until he thought to escape them by going to the barn, but before he got there he heard a terrible racket, which sounded more like a thrashing- machine than anything he could think of, but it proved to be the boys fighting fleas. The first settlers along this creek were Mr. Bennett, Mr. Allen, W. H. Copeland and Mr. Albright. Farther up the creek were George Copeland, John Mills, who now lives in Fairmount, David Copeland and John Smith (English), who settled there about 1845. All the John Smiths in America, so we are assured, did not live in Middle Fork ; but there were three, which, by way of designa- tion, were called John Smith (English), John Smith (Ticky) and plain John Smith. The former of these, who is one of the most successful farmers and capable managers of large business affairs in town, was by birth an Englishman. With no advantages of early education he came to this country, and for a time was in the employ of Abram Mann. When he married, in 1844, it is said that he had nothing but a strong constitution, good natural abilities, and a willing disposition. He soon
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.
commenced operations on his own account on Bean Creek, and his his- tory from that time has been a continued business success. He owns three thousand acres of land, which lies for three miles up and down the stream west of Marysville, and has been, and still is, largely engaged in cattle feeding, turning off two hundred head a year.
John Smith (plain) came here from Pennsylvania about 1845, with a four-horse team, which he traded for a piece of land, and soon got hold of a prairie team - a lot of steers and a plow - and went to work. He accumulated a considerable property around and in Marysville ; was the first to build a store there ; was postmaster for awhile, and had a large influence on its early prosperity.
The first school taught in the town was by Rev. Mr. Ryman, in a house built near Douglas Moore's, four miles west of Marysville, about the year 1842. Here the men and women, who afterward made their impression on the affairs of the pioneer neighborhood, received from a careful instructor the rudiments of school education, which have never been effaced from their minds. He is spoken of with great respect by those who knew him, and although the conveniences were not such as the children of the present day enjoy, they made the most of such ad- vantages as they had.
In 1832, a county road was established through Rossville and Blue Grass, from the state line west. A few years after this was known as the Attica road. Thomas Owens, now of Streator, bought a farm and moved a house on section 16, and commenced "keeping tavern." From this fact it became a center for the people around, and a store and post-office soon followed, and that universal convenience,-a black- smith shop,- was "started." Out of this grew, in course of time, the famous "city " which did all the mercantile and commercial business for ten miles around. It was a busy little burg until that leveler of great anticipations, the railroads, came. With railroad to right of it, railroad to left of it, railroad to front and rear of it, what could Blue Grass do but surrender ?
CHURCHES.
A complete record of the religious doings of the self-denying labors of the early evangelists, the interest in religious matters, and the church enterprises of Middle Fork, would be a chapter of great interest, and show a unanimity of christian purpose, almost without a parallel. A gentleman, whose long acquaintance with the town, running back almost to the first settlement, says, that fully three-fourths of the adult popula- tion were, during most of the fifty years of its history, professors of religion and ardent supporters of its institutions. Indeed, there have been times when the proportion was even greater. During the early
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