USA > Illinois > Edwards County > History of the English settlement in Edwards County, Illinois : founded in 1817 and 1818, by Morris Birkbeck and George Flower > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27
William Tewks, ditto, ditto. Mr. Tewks added to his farm, two teams, four stout horses each; was a carrier, going between Albion and Evansville, Ind. He acted as itinerant commission-man between both places, making the purchases, which his wagon brought home. He drove one of the wagons himself, and met with an accident, about three years ago, that proved fatal.
John Scavington from Nottinghamshire, came in the same year, took to a piece of open prairie beside Mr. Bris- senden. Mr. Scavington now lives, a well-preserved man. He has done, as his neighbors before mentioned, as to house, farm, family, and lands. He has kept to his farm almost exclusively, and is a hale and prosperous man.
William Harris made most of his money wagoning with an ox-team. He has, for a few years, retired from that laborious occupation, and lived on a farm near to Albion. William Harris' team was a sort of institution in the coun- try for many years. I would charter Billy Harris' wagon for a long journey across the prairies. It was strong, large, well covered, and, when well fitted up with bedding
IO
146 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
and provender, was comfortable enough. Mrs. Flower, children, and myself, have taken many long and pleasant journeys in it. The best conveyance for our rough coun- try at that day-no hill too steep, no bog too deep for sturdy William Harris and his strong ox-team. Not rail- road-like exactly, but something more independent and, in many respects, more comfortable.
Mr. George Woodham, who came in Trimmer's party, is. now a man well-to-do in the world. William Harris, John Scavington, and George Woodham went to England last year, after an absence of about forty years, to see their old places and old friends, if any were living. When they came to this country they were poor men; now in circum- stances sufficiently easy to take this journey of pleasure, to visit again the scenes of their boyhood and youth.
England had seen many changes since they were there. railroads, penny-postage, an extended franchise, free-trade -all since they left England. But when they reached their respective villages, which were in widely-different parts of England, they found nothing changed. The church of centuries was yet standing, and likely to stand for centuries more. The manor-house, the farm-houses, the cottages on the green were all standing as they left them, in number and condition.
To record the history of all the men in our Settlement, possessed of the power of labor, with ordinary intelligence and industry, would be but to record a monotony of suc- cess. As a sample, without any exaggeration of their past or present condition, of all such men which form the majority of the farmers of our Settlement, I give the fol- lowing :
147
NEW EMIGRANTS COMING IN.
Early in the spring, 1819, the ship Columbia sailed from Bristol to New Orleans. In her came Mr. Samuel Prichard of Bamsted, near Epsom, England, with a wife, four sons and four daughters. Mr. Prichard was of the Society of Friends, possessed of property, an agreeable, liberal, and well-educated man; an acquaintance of Mr. Birkbeck's. He selected a spot on a gentle eminence, about half-a-mile from Wanborough, on the road between Wanborough and Albion. Mr. Prichard unfortunately fell sick with fever, and soon died. His son, Mr. Thomas Pritchard, and his brother Edward, reside in the house their father built. Mr. Prichard's house and place strikes the eye of every stranger, for the good taste of its arrangement, its neat and simple appointments. It is a neat two-story frame- house, porch on the upper and lower stories in front. The principal feature is the ridge or knoll on which it stands, so smooth and verdant. I recollect the preparation of the ground. It was grubbed well, ploughed evenly, harrowed thoroughly, and then carefully raked by hand. This even surface was sown with blue-grass, bush-harrowed, and rolled smooth. It was done thoroughly, and has a beau- tiful lawn-like appearance to this day. The gate in front swings as easily, after forty years' hanging, as it did on the day it was put down. So much for doing things well.
Mr. Jackson, wife, and son came in the same ship. He was an inappropriate settler-a city man, with confirmed city habits and tastes; a copyist, a scribe, a small lawyer; but even he, I believe, got his living here as long as he stayed, by writing for the clerk of the court.
Mr. John Tribe from Ewell, Surrey, came also in this
148 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
ship. He was without capital, and has supported himself by the labor of his hands, and is now living, a worthy citi- zen of Albion, and whose excellent memory has supplied me with many of the particulars I am now recording. Mr. Tribe will excuse me for dwelling a little on the general tenor of his life, as I think his example rather good. He has not made that accumulation of property that many a man has, that came with as little as he did; and this, probably, because he has not given himself up to the one idea of acquisition and accumulation. As he has labored along moderately through life, he has always reserved a little time for observation, reflection, and reading. He car- ries on the business of carding wool for the country, far and wide, one of the most useful trades. But the most necessary and useful trades are not always those that are best rewarded. His house is small, his living plain and simple. He reserves a small room for himself, where he receives any friend who may call. On the table are writ- ing materials, books, periodicals, newspapers; an excellent orchard hard by; cows for his family use; milk, butter, and cream; his vegetable garden, so well cultivated as to sup- ply him with every vegetable in season; and a few flowers, of the choicest kind, that would grace the garden of Queen Victoria. Is not a New-York millionaire poor, compared to Mr. Tribe?
Mr. William Clark, wife, and six children, from Mow- bary, Surrey, also of the Society of Friends, with two laborers, one married and one single, arrived about this time. Mr. Clark's family came down the Ohio River in an ark, and met with a sad accident. One of his daugh-
1
149
THE HALL FAMILY.
ters, a girl of twelve years, fell overboard, and was never seen more. He settled on one of the pretty little prairies between Albion and the Little Wabash. We were indebted to his capital and enterprise for the first wind-mill. The architect was Mr. David Kearsum. He and his brother, George Kearsum, and a Mr. Simpson came from Norfolk. Simpson went back to New York, when, in a warehouse, five stories high, thoughtlessly stepping backward, fell on the pavement, and was instantly killed.
It was early in 1821, that Mr. William Hall from Ewell, Surrey, with Mrs. Hall, five sons, and four daughters, also settled on one of the prairies west of Albion and Wan- borough. Mr. Hall owned a large water-mill in England. His family had possessed this mill ever since doomsday; when the lands in England were all divided by William the Conquerer, amongst his followers, and recorded in doomsday-book. Think of this, ye ever-moving Ameri- cans, who scarcely stay long enough to gather the ripened ear from the corn you drop in the ground! Mr. Hall was an Episcopalian; a very well-informed and educated man, of close observation, and noted facts as he went along. From his journal and collection of papers, which have been kindly shown to me by his eldest daughter, Mrs. Mayo of Albion, I am indebted for many points of information, which I have been permitted to copy. Mr. Hall had a decided taste for the natural sciences, particularly ornithol- ogy and botany. He noted the arrival and departure of the birds of passage, and their peculiarities in note and plumage; the seasons, the weather, and some of the inci- dents of the Settlement as they occurred, forming quite an
150 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
interesting collection of memoranda, running over several years. One short note in his journal is significant of the occasional privations to which first-settlers are liable. "This day, a loaf of corn-bread without butter, but a little lard as substitute, and red-root tea, without sugar or milk, was our only fare." His reasons for leaving England, set forth at the beginning of his journal, show that the pressure then existing in England, and felt in different proportions by all classes of society, was seen and felt sensibly by him. His first and chief reason, to use his own words, was "the diffi- culty of providing for a numerous family, with which God has blessed me, and the prospect of removing that load of care and anxiety which fills the breasts of parents on that account." The other reasons of Mr. Hall (objective), relat- ing to governmental abuses, though interesting, not being quite pertinent to this narrative, I omit, with the remark that the administration of the British Government, since the reign of Victoria, has adopted a more liberal policy than existed when he and I left England; and a larger experience would have shown Mr. Hall that the evils of which he and many others complained, are incident to Government in all its forms, and are made conspicuous and fearful when it is administered by bad men. Mr. Hall embarked in the ship Electra, from the port of London, with his wife, nine children, and a young man, Thomas Ayres, February 25th, 1821; arrived, by way of Philadel- phia, at Pittsburgh, May 21st, 1821. His flat-boat, besides his own family, contained twelve others: Mr. and Mrs. Paul, Mr. and Mrs. Hibert, Mr. and Mrs. Kidd, Captain Hawkins, and Mr. Gilbert. "We formed ourselves into
151
A SAD ACCIDENT.
two watches, and took our respective turns of six hours each, from 8 to 2, and the remainder was into two watches."
The party arrived at their destination without accident. His settlement was hopeful, and he seemed satisfied with his present mode of life and its future prospects. In less than one year, he gives the following account of a sudden and severe affliction that befel him. In the succeeding spring, April 21 to 28, we find in his journal this record: "This week has been marked to us by one of the severest afflictions that can befall a parent-the death of a beloved child." After describing his house, garden of five acres, orchard, and opening farm, his present satisfaction and bright prospects of the future, in a long letter to his friend, Mr. John Marter, on the other side of the sheet we find: "Preserve this letter, dear John, as a memento of the insta- bility of all human felicity. The very day after I wrote it, on the fatal morning of the 24th of April, 1822, I heard the sound of my two sons passing through the porch, into which my bed-room opens. One of them I knew, by his light step and cheerful voice, to be my beloved Ned, the other was unfortunate Robert. About half-an-hour after, I heard the report of a rifle in the woods. I lay about a quarter-of-an-hour longer, until it was light enough to dress. When I went out of the door it was just five o'clock. Upon going to the back of the house, where I heard a most unearthly bellowing, I saw poor Robert roll- ing on the ground and writhing in the utmost agony. I immediately concluded he was dreadfully wounded, and it was some time before he could speak. He exclaimed, 'Oh, father, I have killed Ned, and I wish I was dead myself.'
152
ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
I uttered an involuntary exclamation, and sank down my- self upon him. The noise brought out his mother, and the scene which followed can not be described. Two of the neighbors, aroused by Robert's cries, assisted me in con- veying him and his mother and laying them on the bed. I went with them in search of the body, which was not found for some time. At length it was brought in, and buried in a spot which my poor boy had selected for his own garden. It seems they had found a turkey. Robert dispatched his brother one way, and lay down himself behind a log, to endeavor to call up the bird to him with his turkey-call. After a little while, he heard a rustling within shot, and soon after saw what he concluded to be the turkey, took aim, fired, and leaped up, shouting for Ned, and ran in triumph to pick up his game. Think of his feelings when he found it to be the corpse of his brother." So close does sorrow stand to joy in all situa- tions in life.
Lingering in the Eastern cities, were English families who had not permanently taken root there. When our publications about the prairies came out, attracted by the picture, and pleased with the thought of being a part of the first among a colony of their own countrymen, several of these came on; and many of them without sufficiently estimating their own powers as first-settlers.
Of this class was Mr. John Brenchly and wife, and Mr. John Lewis and wife, one son and two daughters. They left Philadelphia in 1818, and were the first English settlers in the south part of the Village Prairie, a little before the Lawrence-and-Trimmer party arrived. Mr. John Brenchly
153
LEWIS AND BRENCHLY-THE RESCUE.
had been a distiller; not a man of country habits, or pos- sessed of much capital. Mr. Lewis was a man of excellent education, and possessed a good deal of philosophical knowledge, but with small pecuniary means; a most charming companion and desirable acquaintance. These were both difficult cases for a new settlement. In a few months they both left their quarter-sections in the Village Prairie. Mr. Brenchly, for a year or two, lived chiefly by his labors as accountant, etc., but finally went back to Philadelphia. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis stayed longer, and, for a time, rented the first brick-tavern that my father built in Albion. They went ultimately to Cincinnati, and found more congenial occupations. It was a great loss to our musical parties when they left. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis understood music, and had fine voices. Speaking of the Lewis', reminds me of an accident that had nearly proved fatal to one of the family. I had dismounted from my horse, and hitched him by the bridle to the handle of the well, that stood near the kitchen-door, at Park House, and had run over to my cabins, about seventy yards distant. Soon after, a maid-servant came running in haste, and said that Mary Lewis had fallen into the well. The child, about twelve years old, was standing on the well-top; the horse, being suddenly frightened, pulled the windlass and well-top all off together, and the child dropped in. The well, about forty feet in depth, was ten feet in water. Calling to Mr. Matthew Coombs, a Cornish man, then liv- ing with me, and, fortunately, soon finding a coil of rope, we both ran over. By the aid of Mrs. Flower and the maid-servant, I lowered the man into the well. With the
154 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
same aid, and with great difficulty, we hauled up the man with the apparently lifeless body of the child in his arms. For nearly half-an-hour, every means of restoration was tried before signs of life appeared. She was saved; and is now a respectable married woman, and mother of a large family. This well, at its digging, gave us all a very pecu- liar fright. The well, fortunately as it turned out, was of somewhat larger diameter than common. It was sunk through a solid rock for forty-five feet. The sides and floor of the well were of smooth sandstone. The digger, William Truscott, had nearly finished his work, and was sweeping at the bottom of the well, just preparatory to coming up. The family were all in the house. Suddenly a dreadful hubbub-the mingled voices of a man and a beast in agony and distress-called every one within hear- ing to the spot. The cause was at once apparent. One of my large, fat English hogs had slipped his hindfeet over the well, and could not recover himself. The hog struggling to hold on by his forefeet, but slipping lower and lower, squealed in agony. The man below, looking up in terror, roared aloud for help, whilst he flattened him- self against the wall of the well, from which there was no escape. Down went the hog to his own instant death; for a moment all was silent. "Are you alive, William?" A faint voice said, "Oh, yes, pray bring me up." The man was brought up, almost dead with fright. The hog was eventually brought up, but split down the back from head to tail, as if it had been cut with a sharp knife; just as horses are found on a battle-field, split open by a cannon- ball.
THE SPRING FAMILY-QUARRELS OF DOCTORS. 155
In 1820, Mr. Thomas Spring, his wife, and four sons left Derbyshire, England, for the prairies. The second son, Archibald, was left at a medical college, at Baltimore, to finish his studies. The family were proceeding to Wheel- ing by land, when the father, Mr. Thomas Spring, was taken with a fever, and died at Washington, Pennsylvania. Henry, Sydney, and John (the youngest) Spring came on with their widowed mother, in a wagon, to the prairies. They settled on Birk's Prairie. There Mr. Sydney Spring farmed for many years with good success; married Miss Prichard, and brought up a large family. He is now living on a commanding and beautiful spot, in the outskirts of Grayville, enjoying good health and all the comforts of life. Mr. Henry Spring is a merchant at Olney. Young Archibald Spring joined the family, and became a practis- ing-physician in Albion. The first Dr. Pugsley was, for a time, his bitter opponent. The enmity between doctors has always struck me as singular, and their enmity is more general, and bitterer than is found between members of other professions. He was, for a long time, the only doc- tor, and enjoyed almost exclusively an extensive practice for nearly thirty years. He was carried off by the erysip- elas; and, a few days after his death, of the same disease, died Dr. Welshman, a skilful and experienced man, who had not been two years in the place.
The hands engaged in digging a well for Mr. Lawrence, in the Village Prairie, met with a fatal accident. The well had proceeded to a considerable depth. As usual, in the morning, a man was let down; he was seen to stagger and fall. Another was let down to assist him; he fell also.
156
ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
With difficulty, others were saved, who went down to bring these up. Richard Kniffer and Thomas Clem, two active and able-bodied laborers, full of life and health, a quarter- of-an-hour before, were now brought up corpses. They were carried to their graves, and interred with the solemn rites of burial by their sorrowing companions. They had incautiously descended, and fell victims to the noxious vapor at the bottom of the well.
Mr. Lawrence, I think, within one year, Mr. Trimmer, in two or three, returned to England; and their improvements fell into other hands before any advantage accrued to themselves. They had spent as much money as they thought prudent, and more than they expected. Besides, Mr. Lawrence was a city-bred man, and both were bache- lors. To spend their time without wife, housekeeper, or female assistant of any kind in the house, soon gave them a distaste for prairie life; so they departed. But all the farm-laborers that came with them were in immediate possession of all the advantages of their change of coun- try. Those of them that are living, and the families of those that are dead, possess all the independence yielded by an industrious farmer's life.
About this time, Mr. James Carter, wife, and family from London; Mr. Kenton, market-gardener, from the neigh- borhood of London; Mr. Coles, wife, and mother, with four or five children, all from Liverpool; Mr. Peters, a butcher, all came in one party from Pittsburgh. Mr. Car- ter was, for many years, a well-known resident of Albion, holding several county-offices, and colonel of the county- militia. What is rather remarkable, twice Mr. Carter
I57
COLES, SIMPKINS, BOWMAN, AND OTHERS.
returned to England, and twice returned to Albion, and, whilst I am writing, here he is again, not quite fourscore, hale and hearty, drilling the companies in Albion for the Secession War of 1861. Mr. Coles' family settled on land between Albion and Grayville. The family, all grown up and settled on farms. The old folks have been dead some years.
Mr. Thomas 'Simkins and family, a highly-respectable farmer from Baldock, in Hertfordshire, arrived in Albion in 1819. He kept, for a short time, the log-tavern after Mr. Pitcher, and was, I think, the host when Mr. Welby from England, visited the Settlement, went home, and wrote a book about us. Mr. and Mrs. Simpkins have long departed this life; their sons and daughters all grown up and married, some in Albion and some in other places, respected members of society, now grandfathers and grand- mothers.
Mr. Henry Bowman, then a young man, who came out. with Mr. Pitcher from London, for many years kept a brick-tavern of his own building. Mr. Bowman married · one of the Misses Simkins, is still living.
Mr. Oswald Warrington, with a wife and large family, for some time, kept a grocery, and was school-master for some time. He wrote a most beautiful hand, and was fond of music and sociality, and played on one or two instruments. After some years, he went to Cincinnati, and is now carrying on business, although an old man.
In the first year of our settlement, Mr. and Mrs. Orange from London, by way of New Orleans, came in and bought land on the south side of the Boltenhouse Prairie, built
158
ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
temporary cabins, planted a capital orchard, and laid out a handsome garden. He went afterward to Cincinnati, where he entered into business for a few years; returned, built an excellent house, in which he and Mrs. Orange now live. Three sons and two daughters married, with families, all settled within sight.
Mr. Francis Hanks from Ireland, with several sons grown and growing up, bought a five-acre lot at Wanborough, and built him a house; after a time he returned; his eldest son Francis remained, and, on September Ist, 1821, married Miss Prudence Birkbeck, as before mentioned. Mr. Hanks is engaged in raising stock, and is now living on his farm at Wanborough, a prosperous man.
Mr. William Hallum from Derbyshire, England, and several other English families, all farmers, live in the extreme south of Edwards County, and several over the line, in the north of White County.
Mr. Isaac Smith, James and Robert Thread, Mr. Stan- hope, and a number of others live in the north of Edwards, and over the line. Isaac Smith and the two Threads were excellent farm-laborers; and lived with me and my father for many years. They are now wealthy men. James Thread is recently dead. Isaac Smith is the largest land- owner in the County.
Mr. Henry Birkett, a planter from Jamaica, came in about 1820. He built a good house, in which he lived and died; and he was buried in his garden. He also owned a share of the town. .
Judge Wattles* and Mr. J. B. Johnson settled in Albion.
* James O. Wattles was elected judge of the 5th Judicial District of Illi-
JUDGE WATTLES-RICHARD FLOWERS' FAMILY. 159 The former as a lawyer, the latter as a blacksmith, and afterward as a justice-of-the-peace. Mr. Johnson is now now living at Harmony, in the latter capacity. Judge Wattles was an albino, white hair and white skin, with the peculiar red eyes of that race, dreadfully near-sighted, had to turn the paper upside down, and put it close to his- spectacles, to enable him to read it. Notwithstanding, he was a rapid reader and writer, an excellent lawyer, and a good presiding-judge. He went to Harmony, when Mr. Owen began there.
My father's family came from Lexington, and took pos- session of the Park House. The family consisted of my father, mother, two sisters, and my brother Edward, twenty years my junior, and then a stripling youth, now an exten- sive brewer, and a man of large property, living in Strat- ford-upon-Avon; Warwickshire, England.
In 1821, Mr. Wm. Pickering,“ gentleman, from Apple- ton Roebuck, in the parish of Bolton Percy, Yorkshire, six miles from the City of York, accompanied by his friend and cousin, Mr. Thomas Swale, made their first settlement in the Village Prairie. On the 9th of March, 1824, he
nois, by the General Assembly, and commissioned January 19, 1825. He was legislated out of office, January 12, 1827.
* Gen. William Pickering was a well-known man among the old Whig politicians of Illinois of his day. He was a representative man in the Whig party in the eastern or south-eastern part of the State .. I often met him in conventions, and knew him well when in the Legislature. He had a continuous service in the House of Representatives, as the member from Edwards County, from 1842 to 1852, a service of exceptional length. He was a man of great intelligence and public spirit. He had a fine presence, and was thoroughly English in look and manner. He was an intimate friend of Mr. Lincoln, who, on his accession to the presidency, appointed him governor of Washing- ton Territory.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.