USA > Illinois > Woodford County > History of Woodford County : Giving a brief account of its settlement, organization, physical characteristics and progress > Part 3
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
days of coal mines and Chicago pine lumber. Many of the settlers grubbed farms out of the thick trees and brush, at great expense of time and muscle, when thou- sands of acres of blooming, fertile prairie were in sight of their cabins, unclaimed and unoccupied. The favor- ite location, however, was at the edge of the timber, where materials for buildings and fences and fuel were at hand, and the farm extended from a half of a mile to a mile into the prairie.
The out-buildings were usually a stable, a corn-crib, a smoke-house and an ash-hopper. The stable, corn- crib and smoke-house were usually of logs, and the ash-hopper of clap-boards. The first frame farm houses were very substantial affairs. The sills, plates and corner posts being heavy, hewed timbers, mortised and pinned together as substantially as the timbers of a modern railroad bridge. Even to this day the old settlers look upon the light, pine frames, now so much in vogue, with a good deal of suspicion. Some of the early barns were buildings of no small pretensions. They were of the solidest materials, and sometimes of considerable size. I remember one which was standing till about the year 1850, on the farm now occupied by Thos. Ray, near Eureka. This building was constructed of logs hewed on two sides, so as to present a smooth wall inside and out. They were about ten inches thick, and some of them. near the base, were not far from three feet broad. The barn was about thirty feet square, and the walls, as I remember them, must have been sixteen feet high, containing in the neighborhood of fifteen thousand feet of hard lumber. The entire space within
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
was occupied by a threshing floor, and triangular grain bins, made by planking off the corners. This threshing floor was made use of by the neighbors generally, be- fore the days of threshing machines. 'They would haul their wheat to the barn in the sheaf, distribute a quan- tity of it about the center post and then put the horses upon it. After a long time of walking round and round the horses were taken out, the straw raked off and re- moved, the wheat winnowed by means of shovels, and taken home. The plates of this barn were nicely hewed on four sides, were about ten by eighteen inches and thirty feet long. The raising of such a building must have required the united energies of the whole commu- nity.
The oldest plank fences date back only about twenty- five years, and before that time rails were the fencing material. A few fences were made of sod, but these were not common. The splitting and hauling of rails was a work of great labor, but a good rail fence was a substantial and durable affair. In late years the farmers have turned their attention to the growing of hedges, and many experiments have been made with plants of various sorts. The only thing which so far has been generally adopted is the osage orange, a native plant, which grows, under favorable circumstances, to a height of sixty feet. The wood is elastic and fine-grained, and was much used by the Indians for bows. The fruit is about the size and somewhat the appearance of an orange. It has a juicy and wholesome pulp, but is not much relished as an article of food, having an uninviting taste and odor. The
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
scarcity of stone forbids its use as a fencing material.
The early implements of husbandry were of the rudest sort, and the methods slow and laborious. The first plows used in Woodford County were little better than those in use in Asia twenty-five hundred years ago ; for they had then wooden plows with iron shares, and these were the only sort known to our fathers fifty years ago. The best plow at that time was the Carey, with wooden mold board, and the cultivator was the old time shovel. Scouring plows were introduced about thirty years ago, and were a great improvement, since they lightened the draft, and, what is equally important, enabled the farmer to turn the crust of the soil upside down, thor- oughly pulverizing it, and covering up the weeds. Grain was sowed by hand, and covered by means of harrows or brush drags. Corn was planted by hand and cov- ered with a hoe. Sod corn was planted in every third furrow, and covered by the sod cut by the plow from the next. Corn ground was " laid off" by running fur- rows with a shovel plow, four feet apart, both ways across the field. This was a tedious process, but for many years it did not occur to any one that a marker might be used, which should make three or four rows at a time. After a time hand planters came to be used, and now we are all familiar with the splendid machines for planting this most important of our products.
Many a young farmer will smile to be told that the crows and blackbirds used to be regarded as formidable enemies of the pioneer's cornfield. These birds were in immense numbers, and cornfields were not numerous nor large, and when the corn was young these thievish
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
imps exhibited great intelligence and commendable in- dustry in pulling it up to get the grain which would ad- here to the little stem. It would require several hills of corn to make a breakfast for a hungry blackbird, and they did much mischief in this way. As an offset corn was generally planted too thick, and what the birds failed to thin, had to be thinned by hand, Even at a distance of twenty-five years our back aches at the recollection of that most hated of all pastimes, thinning corn. It was, in our estimation, entirely " too thin." Before the days of double shovels the proper cultiva- tion of corn required three furrows to the row. The older ones would do the plowing next to the rows and leave the boys to " split the middles." Of all the mo- notonous things in the tedious round and routine of hu- man labor, there is nothing approaching in monotonous- ly monotonous monotony the "splitting of middles." But it has had its day, and has been laid aside with many another tedious thing, which required neither skill nor intelligence but stolid perseverance. At first the harvesting was done largely with the sickle, or reaping hook, but cradles were early introduced. Wheat used to be a much surer crop than at present, and the old-fashioned harvest was a time of plenty in all re- spects. Plenty of grain, hard work, fun and hot weather. A stout man with a cradle could cut three acres of grain per day, and it is still an open question whether a reaper really saves much time or labor. However, it cannot be doubted that the present inventions of har- vesters and self-binders will leave no room for a discus- sion of this sort. It being impracticable to market
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
grain at all times as now, the wheat and oats were usu- ally stacked and thrashed in the fall and winter. The farms in August presented a cheerful sight, with their green cornfields, golden stubble and huge stackyards. Hay was not so much cultivated as now. Many depended upon wild grasses, and meadows of tame grass occu- pied only a small portion of the farm. Timothy was the chief tame grass ; and sometimes in flat places was a patch of red-top, or English grass, sometimes called herds-grass. After a time clover was introduced and has been found to be useful not only as an article of food for stock, but also for re-fertilizing land which has been exhausted by grain crops. The common red clover is the variety which has been most used. Later claim- ants for favor, however, have failed to supplant timothy and clover.
For many years hay was cut with the scythe and taken up by hand-rakes and pitchforks; the methods now in use, and the implements for cutting and hand- ling being vastly superior to the old. These render the raising of stock much easier than it could be done with- out them.
Stock raising was not much of a business in Wood- ford County before 1850, and has made great progress in the last few years. The first settlers kept a few pigs and cattle in a promiscuous way, with the pastoral idea that they might furnish the family with milk and butter, and meat and lard. The custom of raising and fatting stock for market was unknown. After a time markets were established on the Illinois river for pork, and the farmers began to fatten a few hogs annually. There
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was no market except in cold weather, and the hogs were all fattened in the fall and winter. Still later a few men began to buy up the odd calves and steers a settler might have, and these were prepared for market, which was either St. Louis or Chicago. Stock raising soon became profitable. It is true pork did not bring much, but it did not cost much to raise hogs. The range was large, and what with wild strawberries, blackber- ries, and acorns and hazel nuts the pigs would take care of themselves during the summer and fall and come up at the end of the season having outgrown the knowl- edge of most intimate friends, and ready for easy fat- tening. Cattle would fatten and grow on the prairies from middle of spring till Christmas, and there was lit- tle thought of the time when all this range would be fenced and owned by somebody, and pasturage would be scarce and expensive. We see how that from these rude and careless beginnings the raising of stock has become an important and systematic part of farming. Great improvement has been made in the breeds of cat- tle and hogs, and our sleek and aristocratic Berkshires, Chesters, Poland-Chinas, Durhams, &c., would hardly claim kin with their ungainly and bony predecessors. Attempts to improve our stock of horses by importa- tions and careful breeding have been frequent in the last few years, and the experiment has not so far ad- vanced as to permit the extent of benefit to be fully de- termined.
In the matter of poultry, turkeys, chickens, ducks and geese were soon introduced, but there has been great improvement made in chickens. The kinds upon
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
which the pioneer preacher subsisted were tough and poor in comparison with the tender and luscious ones which tempt the modern ministerial palate.
The vegetable garden contributed its share to the set- ler's table. Potatoes, beets, cabbages, onions, beans peas, and the like, grew in the virgin soil with such cultivation as the women could give them. The chief improvements in these matters being the early varieties of such vegetables as have been cultivated from the beginning. Cultivation and experiment have made a gain of from one to two months in the producing of our more important garden vegetables. An advantage not enjoyed by the newcomers is the possibility of getting good and reliable seed. In the old time seeds must be saved from year to year, and new varieties and fresh seeds were hard to get. The garden usually afforded a space for a display of flowers. The kinds were not numerous, but, though old fashioned and of unpretend- ing titles, were beautiful and sweet. It seems that the chief improvement that has been made has been in the. matter of names. The beauties which used to gladden our eyes did not rejoice in the high-sounding titles of the modern flower aristocracy. We had no Dicentra Spectabilis, no Gladiollus, Gilia Coronopifolia, Passi- flora Caerulea, Fuchsia Microphylla, Albizzia Julibris- sin. No one can deny that there must be an incalculable amount of beauty, delicacy, rarity and agony which demand such extraordinary verbal exponents, but, as in many other things, it sometimes happens that the magnificence of the name is more easily seen than of the thing named. We are sometimes pervaded with a
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sense of the ridiculous when we notice some poor, little, misshapen body addressed as your Majesty, or some short, dumpy, Esquimau-legged specimen dubbed your Highness. But however incongruous the thing must be done, and he is but an uncharitable boor who refuses to see the qualities suggested by these grandiloquent and appropriate titles. It is not unusual to see sensible people, neglecting the learned, the beautiful and the truly great, gathering about some scion of effete aris- tocracy, bowing and scraping, and pretending to admire ; nor is it unusual in these days to see sensible young men and women, oblivious to roses and pinks, bestow- ing care and praise upon some pompously named little weed which has neither grace, elegance nor perfume ; and is only recommended by its name and rarity. In the good old days there were pinks, and roses, and hol- lyhocks, and touch-me-nots, and violets, and lilies, and the broad prairies were a vast flower garden themselves. The chief house-plants were such as are sometimes seen in old fashioned families nowadays, and are likely to become of some consideration because of their rarity, although not usually exotic; namely, children. It is worthy of remark that some of the most troublesome pests with which the farmer has to contend, were orig- inally introduced as rare plants and choice flowers by romantic and sentimental cultivators.
The weeds during the first few years of the country did not offer much hinderance to cultivation. The soil was free from noxious seeds, and the farmer could tend , with his single plow, forty or fifty acres of corn ; and it seems that the improvement in cultivators has not been
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
more than sufficient to counterbalance the increasing crops of weeds. New sorts are constantly met with, and many a farmer is coming to the conclusion that he has been trying to cultivate too much ground, until his land is foul with all manner of villainous growth. Fewer acres to the hand and more thorough and repeated at- tacks seems to be the only remedy.
We have seen that fifty years have made a marvelous change in nearly everything pertaining to agriculture in Woodford County. Some of these changes have been for the better, some for the worse, but that the direction has been such that we may call the whole movement a progress cannot be denied. We may safely say there has been a great and gratifying improvement. In com- fort and independence, in security of person and prop- erty, in social and political importance, in moral worth and respectability and downright enjoyment of the best gifts of Nature, there is probably no people in the world which surpasses the farmers of Woodford County.
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CHAPTER V.
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MANUFACTURES, TRADE, ETC.
'Woodford County has not made the same progress in manufactures as in other branches of industry. About fifty years ago mills for the preparation of flour and meal began to be thought of, but most of the necessary articles were made at home. Indian corn was pounded in a mortar dug out of a stump or trunk of a tree. This was a slow and laborious process. In a few years horse mills were established, by means of which wheat was ground. The flour was sifted and bolted by hand. Gradually improved machinery and methods have been introduced, until grades of flour are produced equal to those anywhere in the world. This bracnh of business has suffered much in the last ten years because of the almost constant failure of the wheat crop in Central Illinois.
Iron manufacture has never flourished to any extent among us. Blacksmiths' shops were early needed for the repairing of vehicles, shoeing of horses, making of lìails and supplying other needed articles, but beyond something of this sort little has been done to the pres- ent time.' We have had our boot and shoe makers from the beginning, and good mechanics of this class are to be found in all of our towns, but there is nothing in the shape of a manufactory of this sort in our county. In
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the making of wagons and carriages we have a little better showing, and in several places considerable cap- ital and skill are at present employed. As we have seen, the manufacture of fabrics was at one time an ex- tensive domestic industry, but it seems never to have got beyond the limits of home. We have no establish- ment for the manufacture of cloths, and perhaps the nearest approach to it are the semi-domestic factories of traditional rag carpet.
Without being more specific in details, we may state briefly some of the causes which have hindered the growth of the county in the above respect. In the first place la- bor and capital have found ready employment in agricul- ture and trade, which have seemed to offer surer and speedier returns. In time past factories have seemed to flourish best where agriculture flourished least, and the energy of the people turned into the channel of manu- facturing only when denied any other. This fact often separated the factory and the product upon which it op- erated by wide distances. It put the cotton mills in Massachusetts and England, hundreds or thousands of miles away from the staple upon which they feed. We are beginning to find that this is putting asunder what God has joined together. If Woodford County can produce wool it is but reasonable to suppose that she can manufacture that wool into cloths, and make it profitable. If we can produce excellent and abundant broom corn, we can produce excellent brooms in im- mense quantities, and it will be wise for us to look about to see if there be not some of these complementary in- dustries to which we can turn our hands. Instead of
LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
making endless failures in spring wheat it would be better to raise flax, and then operate factories that would utilize both the fiber and the seed. That our county is well adapted to agriculture will probably be seen to be the very reason why it is well adapted to certain sorts of manufacture; but curiously enough these are the very sorts that have received least attention.
Another reason assigned for our slow progress in manufactures is the scarcity of fuel, but immense coal deposits have recently been developed upon two sides of us, and the very best bituminous coal can be had by deep mining, at any point in our territory. Besides there is much difference in the amount of fuel required to carry on the different sorts of factories, and those manufactures of which we produce the raw material in greatest abundance require comparatively little fuel.
The first settlers had but little money of any sort. and but little chance of getting more. It used to be that letters were paid for at the place of delivery, and sometimes, if the letters came far, the sum would amount to twenty-five cents in silver. I have been told by those who know, that a settler would often be compelled to wait from a week to a month before he could scrape up enough money to get his mail. This sounds like ex- travagant talk, but there is the best of reason for be- lieving that many among us, who are now wealthy farmers, were often put to such straits as these. At first whatever was raised in the way of grain, over and above the needs of the family and the new immigrants, was permitted to waste, there being no market. Pretty soon, however, a market for grain and stock was established
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
at Fort Clark (Peoria), and then at Spring Bay. Pork would sell from a dollar and a quarter to a dollar and a half per hundred weight, dressed, wheat about three bits a bushel, and corn for almost nothing. They were usually paid for in high priced goods and paper money.
This money was of the most doubtful character, and the settler never knew whether it would be worth any- thing when he wanted to use it. The hardy pioneers of our civilization did not sit down and whine over these hardships, but were wide awake and took every advan- tage of circumstances. If they could do a little better at Pekin, some one would be sure to find it out and tell his neighbors, and if the market should drop there they would go to Peoria, or even away off to Chicago Many a load of grain has been hauled the latter distance from our county, and hogs have been driven to the same market, in the rigors of winter. The distance which produce had to be hauled, and the lack of information with respect to the markets, left little room for the ex- ercise of discretion and foresight in the disposal of a crop. The farmer would hear that a good price was being paid for wheat in Peoria, or Spring Bay, and would quickly clean up a load and put for market. But he was often too late, and the market had broken down. I was told by an old settler that once, in a very dull time, he took a load of wheat to Pekin. To his surprise and delight he received fifty cents a bushel, and that too, in bright silver. With great joy he re- turned home and hastily prepared another load to be taken next day, meanwhile sending the good news to his neighbors. The news spread rapidly, and the next
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morning our settler put out with his load for Pekin. But imagine his chagrin when he discovered that the market had fallen nearly one half, and the only money being paid out was the doubtfullest sort of "shinplasters." He was compelled to dispose of his wheat thus, and in different mood from the day before, wended his way home as the evening shadows gathered about him. But all this time the news had been traveling, and he met teams from away east of Panther Creek, hurrying wheat to Pekin to get the silver half dollar per bushel. It seems that some of the early grain buyers in certain " ways " and "tricks " resembled the " heathen Chinee," very closely.
By and by things began to improve. By 1830 steam- boats began to ascend the Illinois river, and take pro- duce from Pekin, Peoria and Spring Bay, to St. Louis and New Orleans, In 1840 Munn & Scott established themselves in Spring Bay as grain buyers and general merchants, and trade was divided between Chicago and the points below. The opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal was a great step for the commerce of Wooford County, and when the Central Railroad was completed in 1852 we began to feel assured of our fu- ture. Since that time new roads have been built, and markets and places of trade have been established within easy reach in all parts of the county. Unforeseen circumstances have brought our pioneers, who used to wonder what disposition they could ever make of the products of their rich soil, to the very door of the great- est grain and stock market upon the globe.
These changes have not only brought markets to ou
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door, but with them have brought accurate daily infor- mation of markets all over the country. A settler on the prairie in Roanoke township to-day, can know more of the markets in New York and Liverpool yesterday, than he could have known forty years ago of the mar- kets of Peoria and Spring Bay the day before. Postal privileges, which were formerly scarce and costly, are now enjoyed to the full and at but little cost. Our first settlers had to get their mail from Peoria and Mackin- awtown, and these places were far away from many of them. After a time post offices were established at Washington, Metamora, &c., and the settlers felt that with a post office within ten miles and mail every week things were getting handy. If we could drop our daily mails and daily newspapers and go back thirty years we should have a better realization of the disadvan- tages with which our fathers and mothers had to con- tend, if we should be compelled to give up no other con- veniences than these.
Goods began to be sold at Spring Bay, Metamora, Versailles and Bowling Green, and for many years these were places of considerable trade. Not many fine goods were brought, and such as were for common use were sold at high prices. It sometimes happens that a bushel of wheat will buy a calico dress, but in the olden time a bushel of wheat would often fail to pay for a single yard. Ten bushels of corn would often be thought a good price for a pair of boots, but our early settlers often saw the time when a team couldn't carry enough corn to market to secure one pair of sto- gas. There has been great improvement, not only in
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prices, but in the quality and variety of commodities sold, and in the matter of general merchandise it seems that an unrestrained competition has had its full and legitimate effect. It is probable, as hinted above, that this business has been overdone in this county. There are too many merchants and clerks and not enough manufacturers and working men, and it seems that there is a substantial reward awaiting the prudent investment of capital in suitable industries. With all her resources developed, and all her energies wisely directed, Wood- ford County will be the home of an intelligent, healthy and happy people.
CHAPTER VI.
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POLITICS, LAW AND MEDICINE.
The citizens of Woodford County have always taken much interest in politics, and political gatherings and speech-making have been customary for many years. Up to the formation of the Republican party in 1856 the two prominent parties were Whig and Democrat, but the Democrats were in considerable majority. There were a few citizens, living chiefly above Metamora, who possessed an intense hatred to southern slavery, and did not respect the Fugitive Slave Law. Investigation before the grand jury showed, that in all probability, there existed in this vicinity one of what were called "the stations of the underground railroad " These were nothing more nor less than hiding places for fugi- tive slaves who were trying to make their way to Can- ada. The stations would be at convenient distances, such as could be driven or walked in a night, and the fugitives would travel in the darkness, and find con- cealment, shelter and provisions during the day at the hands of people who thought they were doing right in thus defeating a cruel and unjust law. It seems that there was a station in Tazewell county, one in Woodford and one in Bureau county, connecting with others north and south, forming a continuous line from the slave states to Canada. There existed many such lines
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