History of Wayne and Clay counties, Illinois, Part 42

Author:
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : Globe Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 704


USA > Illinois > Clay County > History of Wayne and Clay counties, Illinois > Part 42
USA > Illinois > Wayne County > History of Wayne and Clay counties, Illinois > Part 42


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1874-Looker Nixon, Sheriff; Robert H. Jones, Coroner; G. A. Hoff, State's Attorney; George W. Smith, County Superintendent.


1876-James A. Finch, State's Attorney; Silas Hallowell, Sheriff; Robert E. Duff, ex officio Recorder.


1877-Gershom A. Hoff, County Judge; Richard J. Burns, County Clerk; Samuel Envart, Circuit Clerk; David M. Laswell, County Treasurer; George W. Smith, County Superintendent; James H. Jenkins, Coroner. 1878-Elias D. Vickrey, Sheriff.


1879-Edward Hawkins, County Treasurer; A. H. Moore, County Surveyor; James R. Cravens, Coroner.


1880-D. C. Hagle, State's Attorney; Sam- uel Enyart, Clerk of the Circuit Court; Elias D. Vickrey. Sheriff; Henry G. Louchner, Coroner: S. Enyart, Circuit Clerk.


1882-G. A. Hoff. County Judge; William J. Clifton, County Clerk; John R. Block, County Treasurer; Robert McCullom, Sheriff; Cleveland W. Mills, County Superintendent; James W. Suggett, Coroner.


Of the Circuit Clerks from 1852, where we traced them to, on the records above, we find at that time J. P. Hungate was Clerk. 1860, R. Taliaferro; 1864, Henry Hortenstein; 1868, Hortenstein re-elected; 1872, John R. Tan- ner; 1876, R. E. Duff, and as stated above; 1877, Sam Enyart was elected, and still is in office (1884).


In 1856, John T. Whitman was appointed Treasurer to fill a vacancy, and then (1857) was elected for a full term. He resigned in 1858, and was succeeded by Wyatt Cook, who was re-elected in 1859. William Bishop in 1861, and re-elected; then J. A. Walker, two terms; 1867, James B. Smith; 1869, John A. Apperson, 1872, two terms; H. S. Watson, 1875; P. P. Brown, 1877; D. Melton Laswell, who died in the winter of 1877, and E. H. Hawkins was then until the fall of 1882, when the present incumbent J. L. Block was elected.


Of the County Clerks, in addition to the incumbents named in a former chapter we learn that in 1861 J. P. Hungate was Connty Clerk: 1855, C. D. Kendal; 1869, John J. S. Moore, who died in office and S. S. Ray, was appointed to fill the vacancy. In 1871, S. R. Apperson, and in 1873, R. J. Burns, who served until 1882.


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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.


CHAPTER VI.


AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE-STOCK-RAISING-DAIRYING-MATTERS OF INTEREST AND VALUE TO EVERY ONE-APPLES AND SORGHUM-HOW TO MAKE YOUR LAND WORTH $500 PER ACRE, ETC., ETC .. ETC.


C YLAY and Wayne Counties are, so far in their respective histories, almost ex- clusively composed of tillers of the soil. When we add to this the industry of stock- raising. we have included about all there is, or probably will be here, in the way of lead- ing industries for many years to come. In previous chapters we have given extended no- tices of the general geological formations of the two counties. With the exception of there being more prairie land in Clay than in Wayne County, there is but little differ- ence in the soils and general topography of the two counties. The bottom lands are al- ways rich in alluvium and the humus that go to furnish abundant plant food. The uplands, especially the prairies, are of grayish soil, not very deeply laid upon a tough, stiff clay, that is often called hard-pan. The fact is, there is not much hard-pan to be found in either county, yet there are localities where the genuine article can be found in abundance. The facts are, that the most of this so-called hard-pan is a clay that is full of plant food, but that must be exposed to the air in order to prepare it to give off this plant food. The soil of the two counties is in many places underlaid with limestone, and this we believe is never found in connection with hard-pan. This clay often, however. is so compact that neither the roots of young trees nor of the cereals will penetrate it and draw out its rich substance. The main difficulty, we appre-


hend, is the waut of air in reaching these roots. So compact is it often that we incline to the belief that no more air penetrates it than will go into standing water. This is the main reason why they have remained prai- ries and treeless. Gov. Reynolds tells us that the prairies are made by fires, and many will tell you that now, for years since the fires have been stopped, the timber land is rapidly spreading over the prairies, where it has not been kept cleared away. The learned geolo- gists differ on this subject in their discus- sions of the question of the formation of prairies, but we believe that the opinion that the timber will not of itself grow upon prai- rie soil is the true one --- that the timber never encroaches upon the prairies. There is this quality in all the soil of the two counties. It retains most completely all the fertilizers that may be placed upon it; and another thing, that almost any kind of fertilizer has the effect to loosen and lighten up the entire soil, and it is really capable of being made the most productive land in the world, and once it is enriched it will scarcely ever wear out again. This is true of both its agricult- ural and horticultural advantages. Even this prairie land, which in its natural state is so repellent to all tree growth, and that there- fore would for perhaps all time, while un- touched, have remained prairies, may thus be readily made into the finest orchards suitable to this climate; but all species of trees may


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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.


be induced to grow here most rapidly and in the thriftiest manner. The writer has in this latitude, by properly loosening the earth and fertilizing, made peach trees to bear a small erop the third year by trees that had within that time come from the seed. The ground properly prepared, and the free use of rough mulching, will make apple and cherry trees, and nearly all shade and yard trees grow quite as well as the peach tree.


Domestic grasses grow here in great abund- ance. Their cultivation gives most abundant and never-failing crops. This fact should long ago have pointed out to the people that the open doorway to wealth here was in stock- raising. The direct profits here, and the quick returns are large and certain, and yet a quarter of a century at least has been lost by the people in their persistent folly of pur- suing the old, beaten tracks of the early fathers in planting perpetually corn and wheat, and to-day there are people living on farms where they have been nearly fifty years, and the farm is still as treeless as was the pristine prairio on which it was made; nor has there ever been a graded or blooded hoof of stock of any kind. But the land has been skinned from year to year, and all such farm- ers ean readily tell you that " farming does not pay." Of course, enough such farming would. in the end, bankrupt the country. At the same time, and with less labor and really great profits the farm could have been made as rich as any land in the world.


The time will come-the rapidity of its coming depends upon the sound sense of our farmers-when all this land will be worth from $100 to $500 per acre. To commence with, there are no great landed estates here, and a few years will greatly subdivide these present tracts, and here lies the wealth and glory of all agricultural countries. Small farmers and intelligent ones -an average of


twenty acres to the farm-would in time make this the richest seetion in the world. it is said that English agriculture has suffered the past few years from the importation of Amer- ican products, but we incline to the belief that the sole reason why the agriculture of France has been so especially prosperous, has been the great fact that all over France it is the small farmers that prevail.


In France the landed property of the country is reported at 132,000,000 acres, about one-fouth available for culture. In 1850, the rent value of French lands was $161,000,000; at present it is $529,000,000, having more than trebled in a generation. The selling value of an average acre of French land has increased in the same time from $100 to $107; meadow land has risen from $165 to $237 per acre; vineyards from $165 to' $237; gardens and orchards, $350 to $440 per acre. These figures, which are the result of very close estimates, show the val- ues of lands in France which have a no greater productive capacity than lands in Illinois, which are rated only one-tenth as high. There is in France little of the landlordism that acts like a millstone round the neck of the Irish people, and has an injurious effect in England, and Scotland, too; there are no immense estates held by a few wealthy proprietors. The lands in France are mainly occupied by their owners, and owned by those who till them; and it is this fact, in connection with patient and cheerful labor and close economy, that ex- plains the conservative nature of the French rural population and their ability to main- tain themselves in competition with America.


There is no place where there can be more inducements to dairy farming than here. At the international cattle show in Paris in 1878, every Swiss cow exhibited bore off a prize, although there were competitors from


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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.


England, Holland. Denmark and many other famons cattle and milk producing districts of Enrope, and " yet that those fine butter and milk producing animals of Switzerland are fed only on grass and hay the year through." High feeding on grain, bran, meal, oil-cake, ensilage and boiled fodder, so greatly relied on in England and the eastern parts of the United States for large products, are either unknown in that country or never practiced. Swiss cows are kept in low. dark and warm stone stables, with walls two feet thick, not only all the winter, but frequently all the summer, their owners arguing that the discomfort of confinement in warm weather is more than compensated for in the exemp- tion from flies which harass animals running in pastures. All the feed is taken to the an- imals. In the summer, they are given as much fresh cut grass as they can eat, and in the winter about thirty pounds of hay a day each. A Swiss acre of grass land on the lake of Zurich is worth $300 to $400, and it is estimated that one and a half to two acres produce sufficient grass, green and dried, for one cow. The milk is sold by farmers at 2} to 3 cents a quart by wholesale, and the us- ual yield is two gallons to the cow the year round. At these rates a well-managed dairy, stocked with cows, worth $90 to $125 each, on land worth $300 to $400 an acre, is ex- pected to yield about ten per cent on the in- vestment. Dairy hands are paid $10 a month and board, and one hand is expected to take care of twelve cows.


It would appear that the conditions of dairying in this country are much more favorable than in Switzerland, for here the price of milk is at least one-half higher, and the value of farms is but little over one-tenth what it is here. It will be hard to convince American dairymen that high-feeding is not the true policy in dairy farming. The Swiss


admit that it increases the quantity of milk, but at the expense of the quality. The finest flavored milk, butter and cheese, they assert, comes from grass. " If," said a Swiss dairy- man, " Americans would turn their attention less to fancy feeding and more to draining, fertilizing and improvement of meadows, they would have more and better milk."


Here is the experience of centuries of the best dairy farmers in the world, and could it be put in practice on say at least one forty- acre tract of every quarter section in the county, a very few years would produce a transformation here that would now seem incredible, and make of our people the richest farmers in the world, and as enor- mous as the direct milk and butter profits would be the enrichment of the land, and the increased value of it would be equal to the direct profits. It is astounding how slowly mankind are to learn from experience. So persistent is man to follow in the beaten track of his forefathers that he will often pursue that track. though it may be strewn with the starved wrecks of his fellows, and he will not turn aside, although possibly on every hand just off his way may be extrav- agant abundance. Folly and short-sighted- ness are persistent and all enduring.


Fruit Culture .- In the last few years, more and more of the citizens of these counties have been giving their attention to fruit cult- ure. And many of the most practical farm- ers are beginning to believe that there is no crop that pays any better than orchards. In fact all kinds of fruits, both small and large, seem to grow in great profusion. This last season the apple crop, however, has been of such proportions as to become one of the principal resources of Wayne and Clay Coun- ties' farmers. While the other crops were all either partial or total failures, this one has been the means of balancing np many an


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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.


account. A larger number than ever invested in the nursery stock this year, and fruit-rais- ing in Wayne and Clay Counties has become a settled fact. As yet, however, there are but few very large orchards, but as each farmer is angmenting his number of trees more and more each year, it will not be long before this section will stand among the first in the list of fruit-raising counties. As yet he largest orchard in Wayne County is that of Mr. Jones, of Johnsonville. It extends over eighty acres, and this season the crop was about 5,000 bushels from that one or- chard.


As we have said before, the apple crop this past year was larger than ever before. So large in fact that it has attracted gen- eral attention in the different parts of the State. Through the kindness of the station agents in the different towns, we are enabled to give the amount of fruit shipped from certain stations:


From Fairfield via the O. & M. Railroad. 4,560 bbls. From Fairfield via the L. & N. Railroad. 1,575 bbls. From Cisne via the O. & M. Railroad .... 5,200 bbls. From Rinard via the O. & M. Railroad. . 5,415 bbls. From Jeffersonville via the O. &. M. Rail-


road .1,775 bbls. From Boyleston via the L. & N. Railroad, 500 bbls. From Wayne City via the L. & N. Rail-


road 1,500 bbls. From Keen Station via the L. & N. Rail- road . 591 bbls. From Merriam via the L. & N. Railroad. 500 bbls. From Flora via the L. & N. Railroad .. . 7,500 bbls. From Clay C'ity via the L. & N. Railroad, 3,120 bbls. From Louisville via the L. & N. Rail-


road . .3,622 bbls. From Xenia via the L. & N. Railroad. . . 2,800 bbls.


From other stations where we could not get the figures, we estimate the total crop in Wayne and Clay Counties shipped over 50,000 barrels. Now on an average of two and threo-fourths bushels to a barrel, that will make 137,500 bushels. The price paid per bushel varied quite a good deal. Some


shippers paid as high as $1 per bushel for the apples as they hung on the trees, they to pick what they wanted. At first the prices for fruit in bulk at the warehouse ranged from 60 to 80 cents. Toward the latter part of the season, the price dropped down to 50 cents. Figuring on that as a minimum price for 137,500 bushels it would be $68,750, which is probably far below the actual amount of money brought into these coun- ties this season by apples alone. Taking that amount for a basis, however, it shows that this branch of horticulture is soon to become one of the leading industries of the counties. As to the best varieties to be handled, nurserymen and fruit-growers generally differ considerably. From observation, however, we are led to say that the Ben Davis and Roman Beauty aro considered the hardiest and best varieties for this latitude, especially where the fruit is to be shipped any great dis- tance. This past season the peach crop did not amount to very much. In the forepart of the summer and spring, the prospects for a large crop seemed to be very flattering, but after the fruit had almost matured, some in- sect seemed to blast it to a great extent. Experienced peach-growers claim, however, that this section generally is considered as good for that kind of fruit as any other locality, either North or South.


As yet the culture of small fruit has not reached to such extensive proportions as in the more southern counties of the State. However, those who have devoted any at- tention to it at all find that it pays very well indeed. And wo cannot see why the county does not stand equally as good a chance to become noted for its fruit-raising as has either Union, Johnson, Alexander or other counties of the south part of the State. This past season, the gathering of the wild blackberry was a source of much pleasure and


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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.


profit to the people. The crop was indeed very large, and many an honest penny was turned in the marketing of this fruit. Take it all in all, we cannot see why the people of this section cannot become as noted in their horticulture as their more southern neigh- bors. Fruit culture of any kind of course seems to be and is to a great extent in its infancy. But as the soil and climate in this portion of the State is almost entirely similar to that of Southern Illinois, with a little ex- pense we have no doubt all kinds of fruit could be raised in such abundance and with so much profit that in a few years horticult- ure in all its branches will become the lead- ing vocation of the people.


Sorghum .- There is another industry that is fast gaining ground in this locality. We refer to the raising and manufacture of sorghum. This species of agriculture has only attracted any considerable attention in this part of the State in the last few years. Of late, however, there has been quite a good deal written and said about it. Farmers now claim that the raising of sorghum pays as good if not better than the corn crop, and considerable attention is being paid to it. Quite an acreage of it was sown this past season, and in nearly every township there is one or more machines for the manufacture of the crude juice into molasses. It was our privilege to visit Mr. Roberts' mill in Fair- field, and from him we gleaned many useful and interesting facts regarding the maufact - ure of this article. According to statistics gathered by this gentleman, one acre of the stalk will produce from 500 to 1,500 gal- lons of the crude juice. This juice, like the sap of the maple, is capable of being boiled down to almost any consistency, from the thinnest molasses to sugar. The molasses sells from 50 to 75 cents per gallon, according to its quality. The sugar brings as much as


cane sugar. The sorghum stalk differs from the original sugar cane of the South in having a seeded top, while the latter species is en- tirely without. The seed of the sorghum is almost similar to that of buckwheat, and is pronounced unexcelled for horse feed, and when ground the flour is used for batter cakes. Of comparatively recent date, yet the cultiva- tion of sorghum is nevertheless growing in popularity among the farmers of this section of Illinois. None of the many farmers who have raised the article are prone to give it up, and nearly all are expecting to embark in it to a greater extent than ever before next season. As probabilities for success in this branch of agriculture are so promising and the prospects of remuneration are so flattering, we do not see why next year the farmers should not devote a fair share of their means to the production of this article, and why many more should not interest them- selves in the manufacture of the article.


Total indebtedness of Clay County is $233,719. This includes all the indebted- ness of the county, towns, cities, villages and school districts.


The total manufactured products of the county are $252,834; manufacturing estab- lishments, total, thirty-seven; capital. $84, - 000; employes, ninety-seven. The popula- tion of the county, according to the United States census, was, in 1860, 9,336; in 1870, 15,877; and in 1880, 16,192. This is di- vided as follows: Bible Grove, 1.044; Blair, 983; Clay City Township, including Clay City, 1,450; Harter Township, including Flora, 2,878; Hoosier, 1,136; Larkinsburg Township, 1,179; Louisville Township, in- cluding Louisville, 1,235 (town of Louis- ville, 514); Oskaloosa Township, 1,035; Pixley, 1,566; Songer, 1,000; Stanford, 1,268; Xenia Township, including Xenia Village, 1,418 (Xenia Village, 898).


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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.


Of the population of Clay there are nativos 15,737; born in Illinois, 9,934; Ohio, 1,142; New York, 95; Indiana, 2,589; Pennsylva- nia, 278; Kentucky, 553. There are foreign born in the county 455; British America, 21; England and Wales, 92; Ireland, 66; Scot- land, 10; German Empire, 229; Franco, 17. In the county are 2,093 farms, and these include 194,637 acres of improved land. These farms, including land. fences and buildings, aro valued at $3,495,421. Farm- ing implements are worth $154,506. Total value of live stock, $607,990. Estimated value of all farm productions sold, consumed,


or on hand for 1879, was $2, 128,529. Prin- cipal vegetablo productions in 1880 were buckwheat, 1,400 bushels; corn, 1,058,186 bushels; oats, 157,063 bushels; ryo, 2,742 bushels; wheat, 223,520 bushels; orchard products, $31,000; hay, 18,000 tons; potatoes, 64,063 bushels; sweet potatoes, 993 bushels; tobacco, 19,321 pounds. Live stock, there fere, in 1880, 5,516 horses, 1,236 mules and asses; milch cows, 4,290; other cattle, 6,897: sheep, 10,718; swine, 25,693; wool, 55,000 pounds; butter, 238,102 pounds ; cheese, 2,683 pounds.


CHAPTER VII.


SCHOOLS-A REFERENCE TO THE ORIGINALS-SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SUBJECT GENERALLY- THE FIRST SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS-THE EARLY SCHOOLS AND THOSE OF TO- DAY COMPARED AND ESTIMATED-THOUGHTS ON THE SUB- JECT OF GENERAL INTEREST, ETC., ETC.


A MONG the oldest, if not the very oldest organized institution in the world, that passes along unquestioned and without dispute, are the public schools, or rather the school system that prevails in somo form or other throughout the civilized world. Prac- tically they are contemporaneous with our Christianity, because within the church, and side by side with its institutions, it has spread and flourished, and against it there has been no revolt nor bloody revolutions, nor wars. nor reformations, nor schisms, either bloody or peaceful. It has moved along the nineteon centuries unchallenged-the progeny and helpmeet of all branches and faiths of the church-and was fostered and jealously pro- tected by every schism, even when they warred upon one another to extermination over


their foolish and puerile dogmas. The ebb and flux of civilization, the rise and fall of empires, the youth, lusty manhood and the slow decay of great nations and the growth and passing away of splendid cities, have had nothing more than temporary and inci- dental effects upon the schools. The idea and system of the Pietistic schools of the Lower Nile have emerged unscathed and un- harmed from these great shocks and prolonged tragodies of the human race.


The magnificent superstructure that we now see raised rests upon the foundations laid by the churchmon eighteen centuries ago, and this is true in the face of the con- stant iteration of the schoolmon that the whole system has been made new and that now the scheme is as noar perfect as it is pos-


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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.


sible to make a human institution. True there have been many changes and great improve- ments, particularly in the last half century, but these all apply to the immaterial and the external, and the fundamental principles of to-day are identical with the first schools that were taught at the birth of our Christianity. Those first schools came into existence to pre- pare priests for their office, and they taught Latin, Greek, Hebrew and the catechism, and this teaching and learning was commit- ting to memory. That is all there is to-day in our public schools, and so far as history tells us, it was all there ever was in any of the schools past or present. And the church and the schools are ever proclaiming: "Be- hold in all this splendid civilization our ex- clusive handiwork. See our magnificent churches and schoolhouses that dot the land, where no man is ever out of hearing of the bells proclaiming 'come and let us worship God," and the clanging school bells are say- ing " Come and be educated philosophers."


What is the measure of the progress of our civilization ? It is by the work and thoughts of our great geniuses who discover new truths in the mental and physical laws-new and useful inventions in the arts-and the promise and expectancy of others still greater to im- mediately follow these; by the growth and spread of freedom among the people-free- dom from oppression and government med- dling -- freedom from errors-freedom from prejudices and freedom from superstitions.


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These are the master spirits of all the blessings of civilization that we possess. Iu the world's history, they have been the very few, and have mostly been persecuted unto death by the many. To discover and give the world a new fact in the truths of the natural laws has invited, not the world's gratitude and applause, but the rack. the fagot and the sword. But in the long ages,




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