USA > Illinois > Will County > History of Will County, Illinois, Volume One > Part 22
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The Peotone Vedette for July 14, 1928, contributes this in- teresting history of Civil war days. It has not been published before and adds much to our own history as well as to the history of the nation:
"Late in 1864 the number of men volunteering to serve in the Union armies was rapidly declining and the Government at Washington decided to resort to the draft. It was generally believed throughout the North that the Union cause would eventually win, but the Confederate forces were fighting tena- ciously and in many ways they had the advantage because they were fighting on their home soil and were nearer their bases of supplies.
"In many parts of the North there was a great deal of dis- loyalty and out-and-out opposition to the drafting of men for the Union armies. In New York and other cities there were serious riots. The Northern morale was at a low ebb and the future appeared dark indeed to thousands of citizens who had sacrificed much to aid the Union cause.
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"Such was the situation when the citizens of the pioneer township of Peotone were informed that the draft would be put in operation unless the township furnished six volunteers. At that time, Peotone had 34 registered voters. Practically every available man had volunteered for military service and no one knew where the six men could be found.
"At a meeting of the citizens it was decided to bond the town for $4,000, the money to be used for 'bounties' to be paid to men who would volunteer. No one seemed to favor the drafting of men.
"There was not time enough to go through with the red tape of calling an election to vote on the bonding proposition. The sum of $4,000 was raised by subscription with the under- standing that all were to vote for the bonds and that the sub- scribers were to be reimbursed when the money was raised in the legal way. By the way, just think what $4,000 meant to thirty-four pioneer settlers!
"That scheme was carried through as planned and there was no draft in Peotone.
"Ralph Crawford was appointed a commissioner to attend to the details and when he found a man who could be induced to volunteer for the lump sum of cash bounty offered him, Mr. Crawford would accompany him to Joliet where the recruiting officer gave Crawford a certificate for the man in the following form:
" 'Office Provost Marshal, Sixth District, Illinois, Joliet, Feb. 9, 1865.
" 'I hereby certify that John Fish has this day enlisted and been mustered into the service of the United States, and cred- ited to the Town of Peotone, Will County, Illinois.
" 'Abel Longworth.
" 'Captain and Provost Marshal, 6th Dist., Ill.'
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"In this way Mr. Crawford came into possession of twelve of these certificates and Peotone had furnished just twice as many men as had been asked for.
"The twelve certificates all signed by Abel Longworth and bearing various dates between February 9 and March 17, 1865, are now in the possession of the editor of the Vedette, through the courtesy of Elmer J. Crawford, who found them while going through his late father's papers.
"The names of the twelve men are John Fish, Thomas Cooper, J. H. Peterson, C. C. Cross, John Wainwright, Samuel S. Beal, Albert Andre, Henry Goodspeed, John H. Shufelt, Jo- seph Brown, Lyman A. Bradlay and John Simonds.
"The only one of these names that means anything to the writer is that of Henry Goodspeed, who was the son of Samuel Goodspeed, one of Peotone's earliest settlers.
"Can any of the older readers of the Vedette give us any information regarding any of the other men?
"It was not necessary for Mr. Crawford to secure citizens of Peotone to fill the quota for the town. He could pick up men wherever he could find them and have them credited to his town.
"This system of offering a cash bounty to a man who would agree to 'volunteer' gave rise to the evil of 'bounty jumping.' A 'bounty jumper' was a man who collected the bounty offered by a town and after reaching the military camp would desert and going to another town would collect another bounty, and again enlist under an assumed name, repeating this perform- ance as often as he could with safety.
"Occasionally the 'bounty jumper' was detected and pun- ished for deserting. The modern methods of identification had not been thought of in the '60s and the 'bounty jumper' nearly always escaped merited punishment."
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Plainfield Township has had considerable space in this his- tory because the earliest settlement was made there, and be- cause the renowned evangelist and mission worker, Jesse Walker, worked outward from Plainfield for some years. The first settlement in Walker's Grove dates back a century. The Indian town dates back perhaps two centuries so Plainfield has been on the map a long time. The Red Man selected the townsite because it was a veritable paradise. This name is justified today by the beautiful town with well kept streets, attractive homes and sociably inclined people. The farming region round about is equally attractive and productive.
Much of the early history of Plainfield centers about Father Walker. Much also, centers about Rev. S. R. Beggs.
"Rev. S. R. Beggs, another veteran Methodist preacher, is an early settler at Plainfield, and the oldest settler of the place now living. He settled here in the summer of 1831, near where he still lives. Father Beggs was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, in 1801, and when four years old his father removed to Kentucky, where he remained two years, and then settled in Clarke County, Indiana, on the Ohio River, seventeen miles above the falls. Here the family were subjected to all the pri- vations incident to a new home in a great wilderness, that of chills and fever being included. As an illustration of the times, Mr. Beggs says he was seven years old before he ever possessed the luxury of a pair of shoes. At an early age he entered the ministry, and became an itinerant Methodist preacher, labor- ing in Indiana, Missouri and Illinois, settling, as above stated, at Plainfield in 1831. To show the hardships those early preach- ers underwent to plant the Gospel in the wilderness, we again quote from Father Beggs' book. Referring to his year's labor, he says: "My quarterage this year was $23; my clothing, that I had brought from home, was by this time so nearly worn out that it was necessary to replace it with new. Some of the
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sisters spun wool and made me a coat of blue and white cotton, a pair of white cotton pants and one of mixed. One of the brothers gave me his old hat, which I got pressed, and then I was fitted out for Conference." Think of this, ye high-sal- aried, stall-fed pastors, who proclaim the Word from marble desks, in gilded temples, resplendent in your broadcloth and white cravats! Think ye, will not these self-denying men of God, who braved danger, hunger and cold to spread the Gospel, receive the brighter crown when they arrive in the Kingdom? We are not writing a religious history of the county, but the long associations and administrations of Father Beggs and Walker in this particular portion of Will County, are so inter- woven and connected with its history that to omit it would be to leave out the most important part of it. In 1836, Mr. Beggs was appointed to the Joliet Circuit, and commenced the work of building the first Methodist Church, also the first church edifice in Joliet, as noticed in the first part of our work. Dur- ing the Sac war, his house, then considered the strongest build- ing in the Plainfield settlement, was constructed into a fort. Two log pens which he had built for a barn and shed, were torn down and made into fortifications around his house, into which the settlers all crowded. But Indian outrages growing more alarming every day, it was finally decided to risk trying to get to Chicago. The settlers were formed into a company, and James Walker elected captain. Being only teams enough to carry the people, their effects were left behind, many of which were taken or destroyed by the Indians before the whites were permitted to return. But the cloud of war rolled away before Scott's legions, and the people could finally return in safety to their homes.
In 1829, a Frenchman of the name of Vetel Vermette settled at Plainfield. He did not remain very long in the settlement, however, but sold his claim to Jedediah Woolley, Sr., and left for some other land. Of him very little is known, as few are
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living who remember him. In the summer of 1830, Reuben Flagg, from Vermont, came to Plainfield with his family. He was two months on the road, and arrived in the settlement on the 9th of July. Chicago at the time consisted of about a dozen houses, mostly the huts of Indian traders and half- breeds. From Detroit, Flagg was accompanied by Woolley, noticed as buying out the Frenchman Vermette. In a letter written by Mr. Flagg to H. N. Marsh, in 1851, he stated that when he settled at Plainfield, there were, besides Walker and Vermette, Timothy B. Clarke and Thomas Covel, and that he knew of no others then in the county, except three families on Hickory Creek, viz., a Mr. Rice, Mr. Brown and Mr. Kerche- val, and the nearest white settler on the west was at Dixon's Ferry. He is said to have hauled the lumber to Chicago to build the first frame house erected in that city, and which was sawed in James Walker's sawmill, on the DuPage, near Plain- field.
Timothy B. Clarke, from Trumbull County, Ohio, came to Plainfield in 1830. He emigrated to Illinois in 1820, and settled in Tazewell County when that part of the state was an almost unbroken wilderness. He remained there about eight years, when he removed to Fort Clarke (now Peoria), remaining there a year or two, and moved up and made a claim within seven miles of Ottawa. This claim he afterward sold to Green, who built a mill on it, so extensively patronized by the early settlers of Northern Illinois, many coming to it from a distance of from fifty to one hundred miles. From this place, Mr. Clarke removed to Plainfield settlements, as already noted, in 1830. This was before the Sac war, and the Indians, who were quite plenty in the neighborhood, were friendly but exceedingly troublesome. They would go into the fields and help themselves gratuitously to corn, potatoes and anything else they wanted, without so much as "By your leave, sir." He could not stay there in peace, and so, in 1834, moved up into DuPage Town-
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ship, near Barber's Corners. The elder Clarke was a carpen- ter and builder, and erected the first frame house in Chicago, then a little suburban village in this section of the country. In that house the Indians were paid off before leaving for their new hunting-grounds toward the setting sun. He removed to Missouri in 1835, and from there to Iowa in 1847, but returned to DuPage, and died at his son's in 1848. B. B. Clarke was six- teen years old when his father removed to Plainfield in 1830, and remembers distinctly the Indian troubles of that rather stormy period. He served in the Black Hawk war, first in Walker's company, which soon disbanded, however, and after- ward enlisted in Captain Sisson's company. During the most perilous times, he went from Plainfield to Ottawa with a team after provisions, with a guard of only four men. They made the trip in safety, though several hats were found along the trail pierced by bullets, whose wearers had been murdered by the Indians. Mr. Clarke says that when his father first re- moved to Plainfield, the nearest mill was in the vicinity of Peoria, distant 130 miles. His father went there once to mill -bought grain there to save hauling it both ways-and the "rainy season" setting in, the waters arose (there were no bridges) and as a consequence, he was gone six weeks. His family, in the meantime, had to live on potatoes, and by pound- ing corn in a kind of mortar, which was sifted and the finest of it was made in bread, and the coarse into hominy. The elder Clarke was a soldier in the War of 1812, and had a soldier's claim to land in the Military District lying between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, and had bought the claims of other sol- diers to lands there. He sold a quarter section of land in this military territory for $75, and took pay in augers, which, next to the ax, was the principal implement used by the pioneer. He also had a claim to canal lands in DuPage Township, a part of which was owned by his son, B. B. Clarke, as late as 1878. The latter went to California in 1850, overland with teams,
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and was five months on the way. He remained about two years in the Golden State, and then returned to the old home. A brother, Hiram Clarke, went out in 1849, when the gold fever first broke out, and William, another brother, went with his brother, B. B., in 1850. At this latter period, so many had crossed the plains with teams that the grass had been devoured by their stock for a space of two miles on both sides of the trail, and they would take their teams in the evening to the grazing and remain by them during the night to prevent their being stolen. Mr. Clarke tells the following incident of the early times: He and one of his brothers took a lot of ponies to Chicago, for the purpose of selling them to the Indians when they received their stipendiary remuneration, as Wilkins Mi- cawber would put it, and stable accommodations being more meager than now in the Garden City, could find no barn in which to put their stock, were forced to turn them loose in a lot. Hearing a racket among them during the night, his brother went out to learn the cause, when he found an Indian trying to get them out. Without a word, he fell upon the savage with his big horsewhip, and the faster he ran the faster he rained the blows upon him, the Indian indulging in the guttural "Ugh! Ugh!" every jump. Arriving at the fence, he made no effort to climb it in the ordinary way, but scrambled to the top and fell over on the opposite side. This caused them some alarm, lest he should return with assistance, but the night passed with- out further molestation.
Another of the very first in this settlement was Thomas Covel. He came from Ohio in 1830, made a claim near Plain- field village where he remained for a time, then sold out and moved up on Salt Creek, where, some years later, he died. Though one among the very first settlers, beyond this no in- formation of him could be obtained. John Cooper, a brother- in-law of Clarke's, came from Ohio in 1830. After remaining in this place a few years he removed to Iowa, and from Iowa
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to California in 1852, and resided there until his death, in 1872. James Gilson was another of the early ones who settled here in 1830. He came from Tennessee, and lived near the village and kept a shop on his farm and did quite a business in repairing guns. He was a pioneer by nature, and when the country began to settle up around him, he "moved on" to Iowa in search of a location more congenial to his tastes, and there died. From New York, the settlement of Plainfield received John and Ben- jamin Shutliff and Jedediah Woolley, Sr. John Shutliff and Woolley came in 1832, and the former, after a few years, sold out and moved away, but where we could not learn, Woolley bought out Vermette the Frenchman, then sold the claim to Rev. Beggs and improved another farm on the east side of the grove, on which he lived several years, sold it and removed into Troy Township, about eight miles from Plainfield. Ben- jamin Richardson was from the East, but what state we could not learn. He settled here in 1834, and in a year or two moved to Joliet, where he is noticed further. Benjamin Shutliff set- tled in this town in 1834, and was a brother of John Shutliff. In a few years, he moved "West to grow up with the country." Jonathan Hagar was born in the City of Quebec, C. E., and, when ten years of age, removed with his parents to Vermont, where he resided until 1829, when he came West and settled in Michigan, and five years later removed to Ohio. In 1835, he came to Plainfield, making the journey from Cleveland to De- troit by steamer, and from thence to Chicago by stage. The village had been laid out the year before (1834) by Chester Ingersoll, as elsewhere stated, and contained, on Mr. Hagar's arrival, a blacksmith shop, tailor shop, a wagon shop, two tav- erns and perhaps one or two other houses, of which a man named Royce owned a shop, in which he manufactured fanning mills. James Gilson had a shop on his farm, and being quite a genius, did an extensive business in repairing guns. Mr. Hagar was one of the first merchants of Plainfield, and was always
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one of its active and enterprising business men. He could stand in his store door of mornings and see the wolves scamper- ing across the open common of the village. Jason Flanders came from New Hampshire in 1834, and settled in Plainfield Township. He came overland in wagons to Troy, New York, thence by water to Detroit, and the remainder of the way by land, arriving at his destination in June. He had six children, one of whom was state's attorney of Will County, Hon. James R. Flanders, of Joliet.
The Green Mountain State furnished the settlement Lorin Burdick, S. S. Pratt, Oliver Goss, Thomas Rickey, Deacon Good- hue and Hardy Metcalf. Burdick was one of the early settlers of Plainfield-a man of exalted charity and benevolence and an enterprising citizen. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and one of the heroes of the battle of Plattsburg; had one son in the Mexican war, and three in the Civil war; and a brother Timothy Burdick, also a soldier of 1812, died of sickness in the army in Mexico during that war. We extract the following from the Plainfield correspondence of the Commercial Adver- tiser. Speaking of Mr. Burdick, it says: "He hauled the first lumber from Chicago used in building the courthouse in Joliet; hewed the timber used in building the first bridge across the Du- Page at Plainfield, and assisted in building the first sawmill in this section of the country, located on the DuPage; also in erect- ing the first church, the first schoolhouse in Plainfield, and the first hotel in Lockport. He donated liberally in money toward purchasing the land for the first burying-ground, and assisted in laying it out, and is one of the early settlers to whom Plain- field owes her existence. His sudden illness, resulting in death August 3, 1878, was caused by taking Paris green through mis- take for sulphur, which he was in the habit of using. Deacon Goodhue settled here in 1832. He entered land about a mile northeast of Plainfield village, on the Chicago road, and when he died in 1856, still lived on his original claim where he settled.
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Goss came to the settlement in 1834, and made a claim just south of the village, where he died in 1842. Metcalf came in 1834 or 1835, made a claim, sold out and moved away many years ago-where, no one now remembers. Pratt settled in the township in 1835, where he still lives. Rickey settled here in 1834, and died more than thirty years ago.
The first white child born in Plainfield Township, of whom there is any definite information to be had, was Samantha E. Flagg, a daughter of Reuben Flagg, and was born September 9, 1830. This is also supposed to have been the first birth among the whites in Will County. The first death was that of Albert Clarke, in 1831, a son of Timothy B. Clarke, mentioned among the first settlers of Walker's Grove. The first marriage re- membered was James Turner to a Miss Watkins, in 1831 or 1832, and were married by Rev. Mr. Beggs. The first physi- cian who ever practiced medicine in this neighborhood was Dr. E. G. Wight. He came from Massachusetts and settled in Naperville in 1831, and the circle of his practice was bounded by Chicago, Mineral Point, Ottawa and Bourbonnais Grove, and was more than a hundred miles across either way. He built the first frame house in Naperville, and removed to Plain- field in 1847, but had been practicing here since 1831. He died in 1865. He became blind when scarcely past middle life, and for eight years his son, R. B. Wight, went with him to his pro- fessional visits and led his horse. He finally went to an occulist at Rochester, New York, who partially restored his sight, and for fifteen years before his death he could see to get about with comparative ease and safety. The experiences of this pioneer physician would fill a volume. Perhaps the first resident physi- cian was Dr. Charles V. Dyer, who came to the settlement in the fall of 1835, and practiced medicine during the winter. But the settlement being small, the next spring he concluded to risk his fortune in the then unpromising marshes of Chicago. The subsequent greatness of that city and the prominence of the
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Doctor there up to the time of his death, prove the wisdom of his decision, and illustrate the mutability of human conditions in the careers of both individuals and cities. The first black- smith in the town was one of the Shutliffs, who opened a shop in 1833-34, and did the light work the settlement needed. The first bridge in the township was built across the DuPage at Plainfield, and was a rough wooden structure. The timbers were hewed by Lorin Burdick, as noticed in the sketch given of him elsewhere. The rude affair presented a striking con- trast to the excellent stone and iron bridges at present span- ning the DuPage and Lilly-Cache.
The first mill built in Plainfield Township or Walker's Grove, was by James Walker. It was a horsepower mill, which he brought with him from Ottawa, and at once set to work. But he built without delay both a saw and grist mill on the Du- Page, which was swept away by a flood in 1838. At this mill was sawed the lumber of which a man named Peck built the first frame house erected in Chicago, and which stood on the corner of LaSalle and South Water streets. Reuben Flagg, as elsewhere noted, hauled the lumber to Chicago, and with an ox-team at that. Matthews, as mentioned in another page, built a mill north of the village of Plainfield which, with some additions and improvements, was in operation as late as 1880. It was owned by Noah Sunderland, but was run by M. H. Avery, who had a prosperous business with it. It had three runs of stones, with all the modern attachments. Quite an item in the history of Plainfield Township was Clarke & Co.'s cheese factory, erected in 1877, just outside of the limits of the village of Plainfield. It was a frame building with stone basement, and had a sufficient capacity to consume twenty thousand pounds of milk per day. Cheese was the principal product of the factory, and they turned out sixty cheeses a week, of fifty- two pounds weight each, besides making a small quantity of butter.
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The first school in Plainfield Township was taught by a man whose name is now forgotten, in the winter of 1833-34, and the first regular schoolhouse was built in 1833 of rough logs with a stick chimney, the exact type and counterpart of many others described in these pages. But the schools have kept pace with the other improvements, and, in 1872, we find there were eleven school districts, five hundred pupils enrolled, twenty- two teachers employed, two graded schools and a comfortable schoolhouse in each district. The amount paid teachers was $3,026.38; total expenditure for the year, $4,597.90, leaving a balance in the treasury of $1,381.05.
William Bradford, Daniel, Chester and Enoch Smith, Ches- ter Ingersoll, John Bill and J. E. Matthews came from the old Bay State-the home of Charles Francis Adams and Ben But- ler. The Smiths settled in the town in 1832. David sold out and died soon after; Chester went to Wisconsin in 1833, and what became of Enoch no one now remembers. Chester Inger- soll was here during the Sac War, and had a son who lived in Homer Township. He laid out the south part of the village of Plainfield, sold out his lots and entered other lands three miles northeast of the village; improved a large farm, sold it ulti- mately, and, in 1849, went to California, where he died some years later. Bradford settled here in 1834. He entered land below the village of Plainfield, on which he died the year fol- lowing. John Bill was a wagon-maker by trade, the first mech- anic of the "stripe" in the settlement, and located here in 1834. He entered land and made a claim about a quarter of a mile from the village, where he lived until 1876, when he removed to Maryland, and died soon after. Matthews came to the settle- ment in 1831, and made a claim on the river just above the present village of Plainfield. In 1835, he built a mill here which with some additions and improvements, served that community for more than forty years. It was built of timbers hewed by hand. It was no easy task to place green timbers by hand.
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