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 23
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A few years afterward, Sir Thomas Beevoir and Lady Beevoir of Beevoir Castle, England, made us a visit. Their mode of traveling was by a light phæton, drawn by a well-matched pair of black ponies. These Sir Thomas drove from Washington City to Albion, and afterward
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
across the state of Illinois to St. Louis, and from thence descended to New Orleans. He was unattended by any servant. He walked to Park House immediately after his arrival at Albion, and introduced himself. At his depart- ure, on his arriving at a very tall white gate, that stood between the lawn and the park, to the surprise of every body, he lightly laid his hands on the top bar, and with the greatest ease sprang over the gate without opening it. On relating the circumstance to a neighbor, a Norfolk man, who formerly lived in the vicinage of the Beevoir family-"Ah!" said he, "it is just like them. The Beevoir family are all muscular and long-limbed." He then related that at the parish church he attended, the living had been given to one of the Beevoir family, who officiated every Sunday. "He was a remarkable man," said he; "his arms were so long that when he stood upright he could with ease button up his own knee-breeches, which are just at the join of the knee and a little below. He delighted in all country sports, but his particular fancy was the ring. A strong man himself, a well-trained pugilist, his great length of arm gave him such an advantage, that but few adver- saries dare encounter him; but withal, a well-educated man and a good preacher." This discrepancy of avoca- tions, not unfrequently found in the preachers of the English Episcopal church, may be accounted for by the law of primogeniture, giving to the eldest son the estates, and often the presentation of one or more' parochial liv- ings. In these aristocratic families, the younger sons are provided for by appointments in the church, army, and navy.
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ENGLISH ARISTOCRACY.
Those who suppose the aristocracy of England to be a degenerate race are greatly mistaken. They are almost always men of education, and in most of them their phy- sical powers are well developed. The fancy and the cleri- cal characters, united in the same person, is by no means uncommon in England. I was once much struck by the variety of characters assumed and well-performed by a scion of a noble house in a few hours. We had attended in the morning the races in the Park. Lord Frederick rode his own horse in jocky costume. His light weight and rather diminutive stature fitted him for the office. Being his own jockey, secured him from those tricks to which gentlemen of the turf are always exposed. He was a horse-dealer as well as a racer; and by his good judg- ment in both added to his slender fortune. His friend and patron, at whose house we were, had presented him with the living. So, between the profits of his stable and his clerical salary, he had pocket-money enough to appear in genteel society. The party was large at dinner. Lord Frederick carved the game and did the honors of the table, taking his share, but not immoderately, of wine; and bear- ing his part in convivial after-dinner conversation. It was about eleven o'clock, Lord Frederick's chair was vacant. "Where is Lord Fred .? " asked one. Our host, pointing to a distant corner, said, "It's Saturday night; he is writ- ing his sermon for tomorrow." Some of the party had the curiosity to go to church to hear the sermon. The usual country congregation assembled, with a few of literary acquirements and good critics. The sermon was faultless, as was its delivery, suited to the plain people, the bulk of
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the congregation, as well as those of higher culture, from the purity of its diction, with a spirit of fervent piety run- ning through the whole that touched the most devout.
The clock-peddlers of America perhaps have equal abil- ity, and the merit of more mother-wit. They can out-trade the shrewdest, shuffle a pack of cards with any man, and, whenever the occasion requires, can preach a better ser- mon, and offer a more fervent prayer, than many regular preachers. I think there must have been something origi- nal in our Settlement, to attract so many tourists of original and eccentric character, both men and women, as it did. To portray them all faithfully would take a volume of itself.
Many books were published in England by real and pre- tended travelers, some of them very defamatory; others of so low and scurrilous a character, that they had but a limited circulation and did us but little harm. No two men have been more freely criticised than Mr. Birkbeck and myself. Of this we did not complain. Neither our actions nor our words were hid under a bushel. If notori- ety had been our object, we certainly attained it. Some friends in England, with ourselves, were anxious, for the good of the Settlement, that a public library should exist. Mr. Edward King Fordham of Royston, my uncle, gave several volumes; Mr. Samuel Thompson contributed his works. But the most valuable contribution was from Mr. Liddard-many volumes of the arts and sciences, full of valuable plates. To other gentlemen we were indebted for a variety of volumes, which each donor considered of some peculiar value. One of our first cares was to follow
PUBLIC LIBRARY- CHARACTERISTICS OF ALBION. 329
the intentions of the donors and place them in a public library. . But to establish an available library in a new settlement, in a wild country, is no easy matter. The chief difficulty lies in the care of the books, no fund being pro- vided for the salary of a librarian. If placed in a public room, they are maltreated, and often borrowed never to be returned. . If joined to a reading-room, their fate is no better. The scattered settlers around are too distant for them to be available. The first inhabitants of a young town are too much pressed by active and laborious employ- ments for time or wish to read. Sedentary employments are not the order of the day. All that seems to be wanted, for years, is a ready-reckoner, a pocket-companion, or an interest table; or more than all, a few volumes of law, for reference. Our library soon got dispersed. After a time individuals boldly assumed their ownership. This brought on contentions; legal decision restored them.
The town of Albion, in its early days, was rather belligerent. In 1822, we find it quiet, and only between one hundred, and one hundred and seventy or eighty inhabitants,-rather small to be dignified as a town, and a county-town, too; and it is not a large town now, in 1860, being somewhat under a thousand inhabitants. But Albion has had, from the first, some peculiar character- istics. In its early days, it had a larger proportion of brick and stone houses than is usual in young American towns. There have been but few, if any, copartnerships in trade. You never see in Albion "Mr. & Co." It is Joel Churchill, George Harris, Matthew Smith, and so on. Every tub stands on its own bottom. Americans, so self-
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reliant in all other things, seem to want the support of numbers in trade. Mr. Hook would hardly venture his name alone as storekeeper in a new American town. His card would certainly be-Hook, Fish & Co. Mr. Foot would feel diffident of asking an extension of time and amount of the wholesale house; but who would think of refusing any request from that well-known house of "Foot, Fryingpan & Fiddle." One thing may be said in the favor of Albion: No mercantile house ever lost a dollar by an Albion store.
No other county-town, I presume, in the State, has had the singularity to exist for more than thirty years, without a printing-press, a bank, or an attorney's office, if we except about two years residence of Judge Wattles.
The numerous log-cabins, to be found in all western towns, are now cleared away, and comfortable dwellings stand in their stead. Ten well-stocked stores distribute supplies to the neighboring farmers, in place of two or three small stocks of goods, that could only be disposed of by giving extended credit. The mechanical trades, once feebly practised, are much strengthened and ex- tended. The wagon and plow business, carried on by Charles and William Schofield, and by John Johns, Alex- ander Stewart, Elijah Chisholm, supply the country, far and wide, with wagons, carts, and plows. The clothing business is carried on with great spirit by Mr. Dalby and Mr. French. The diminutive needle and slender thread, industriously plied for some years, have built one or two good houses, and supplied their owners with sufficient incomes to enjoy them. Mr. French has, I believe, fol-
33I
MATTERS IN ALBION AND EDWARDS COUNTY.
lowed the universal instinct of man, by abandoning his sedentary trade, and recreates himself by cultivating a small piece of land, by his own hand, in the neighbor- hood of town. Both Mr. Dalby and Mr. French have, during their busiest time of life, cultivated their own good gardens, abounding with fine vegetables, and fruits, and many choice flowers.
The public as well as the private business of the town and county is kept in a satisfactory state. In the first years of the Settlement, the public business of the county was rather loosely conducted, and the county deep in debt. But for the last twenty years, public business has been punctually and promptly performed, and the records of the county kept in order for ready reference. This is due to the good administration of the county affairs by Walter L. Mayo, Esq., who is said to be one of the best, if not the very best, county-clerks to be found in the State. The gatherings of the people from the country are now marked by decorum, quietude, and respectability. There is no display of luxury in town or county, and no desti- tution. Of the Settlement, as it was once called, there is now no definite bounds; it is intermixed with other settlements. The farmers in the country, and the trades- men of the town, have exhibited one steady march of progress, slow, continuous, and sure. Absence of specu- lation, and the solid effect from long-continued industry, is the great feature of the English Settlement. The progress at first was slow, and the swell of improvements kept such even pace with each other, that advance was scarcely perceptible. Comparing the state of things every
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five years, the advance is very marked. But so gradual has been the process, we can scarcely tell how those who were once the poorest are now the richest. Men, once without a dollar, and many of them owing for their passage across the sea, are now the largest land-owners and property-holders in the county.
But a change is working, and the little peculiarities of the town will soon be obliterated. Under the banking- law of the State, Albion has now a bank-a sort of spirit- ual affair, but reversing the order of spiritual manifesta- tions-its invisible spirit residing in Albion, its body must be in some other sphere. Its notes may circulate in the moon, but never show their face in Albion; for every such offence would be punished by transmutation into metal.
Two gentlemen of the legal profession have, at length, had the temerity to settle in Albion. The professors of medicine have increased. Of doctors, where there was once one, there are now four. Mr. Archibald Spring was, for many years, the only medical man, enjoying an exten- sive practice. Dr. Welshman from Warwickshire, England, a man of experience and skill as physician and surgeon, member of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, also settled in Albion. His residence was short; for the same disorder, the erysipelas, carried off Dr. Spring and Dr. Welshman within a few days of each other. Dr. Samuel and Dr. F. B. Thompson then succeeded to the practice of the county, and continue at this time as resi- dents of Albion, and practising physicians. To them is added Dr. Francis Dickson. Dr. Lowe, representing the herbal branch of medicine, is also in full practice, a resi- dent of Albion.
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JOEL CHURCHILL, THE "POOR MAN'S FRIEND."
Mr. Joel Churchill is the only one of the three original merchants of Albion now living. He may be said to be the father of the trade. By his liberal dealing, and indul- gence to many of the poorest settlers in early days, their path to competence and comfort was rendered easy and smooth. His kindness in this way was at the time appre- ciated ; I recollect hearing poor settlers frequently speak of him as the "poor man's friend." Mr. Churchill held the office of postmaster for many years, to the satisfac- tion of the whole country. Many a poor farmer, who could not muster his quarter-dollar to pay his foreign letter, was patiently waited on for years, until he was able to discharge his postage-bill. The whole country was accommodated; the postal-department always settled with, no complaint could be made either of incompetency, neglect, or defalcation. Yet, at the commencement of Mr. Pierce's Democratic career, he was displaced, for political considerations alone.
During the first ten years of the Settlement, there was a great deal of cotton grown. I had a cotton-gin, for the accommodation. of the country, which was kept in full operation for several seasons. The soil and climate seemed to be pretty good for it, and many fair crops were raised. It was chiefly grown by southern settlers for their own use. As southerners grew more scarce, and northerners more plenty, the cultivation declined, and has ceased now altogether.
In the western part of Wabash County, then a part of Edwards County, a large tract of land was bought by Mr. Adam Corey, which has since been settled by fami- lies from England and Scotland.
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
The heart of the Settlement, taking Albion for its cen- tre, may be said to extend ten miles north and seven miles south; between the Little Wabash on the west and the Bonpas Creek on the east, a breadth of about twelve miles; within these limits, the great majority are English settlers, but more than as many Europeans beyond these bounds make up for the number of Americans within. The general peace of the Settlement has never been dis- turbed by quarrels between Englishmen and natives, as such. We were never a close settlement, as the Harmon- ites or Shakers. We never sought or in any way monopo- lized the county-offices or the magistracy. But for the period, when Mr. Pickering was in the Legislature, our senators and representatives have all been natives. Peace- able and cordial intercourse has been maintained between the English and American settlers, excepting at the con- vention times, and for a short time after, when political excitement added virulence to private feud.
In the year 1836, a charter for a railroad, granted by the legislature, from Alton to Mt. Carmel, was accepted by the people, and a company organized. In Indiana, a company was formed to continue the road to New Albany, . at the falls of the Ohio. The road was afterward relin- quished to the State, and known as the Southern Cross Railroad. The State of Illinois, after expending between three and four hundred thousand dollars, sold out all its interest in this, as well as every other State work. That State interest was bought by Gen. William Pickering, through whose exertions a new company was formed, uniting the two companies into one under the title of
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BUILDING OF A RAILROAD.
the Alton, Mt. Carmel and New-Albany Railroad. I was president of the Illinois company for its first three years. When the work was commenced by the State, a heavy expenditure was made near Albion, on a deep-cut.
The number of laborers employed, the money expended, and the hope of a speedy termination of the work, made, for a time, everything very lively, and landed property advanced; but not so much so as in more speculative places. The working of the road brought in many set- tlers. Irish laborers, proverbially turbulent, surrounded as they were by a sober population, were themselves quiet and well behaved. During the year they were at work, I don't recollect a disturbance of any kind. This road, for three years, gave me a considerable expenditure of time and money. An appropriation of land for this road was twice passed in the senate, but lost in the house by six votes; and subsequently in the senate by one vote.
There are few settlements that have enjoyed such solid prosperity; but we had to endure, during the first three years, many serious annoyances from minor causes, then seriously felt, but now unknown. Insects, and particu- larly mosquitoes, were very numerous and dreadfully annoying. The bite in its effect resembled more the sting of a bee. Our system was inflammatory. The strong English constitution, built up in a cool climate, had not then been reduced from the exhausting effects. of the great heat experienced in the American summers. For the first two months after my arrival in the prairies, the mosquito - bites on my legs inflamed and became irritable sores, preventing me from walking, at a time
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
when my utmost activity was needed. Now, the change of constitution is so complete that a mosquito-bite leaves no inflammation. The English constitution seems to last about two years. During that time, the Englishman bears the heat of summer and the cold of winter better than the natives. After that time, a change takes place; we feel heat less, but are much more sensible to cold. The acclimation, or changing of the constitution under change of climate, sometimes culminates in fever, sometimes by the breaking out of many painful boils. This change also assumes another form, in which no decided disease can be traced. It is a long period of listlessness, an indis- position to all action; and this longer probation of weari- ness and weakness, without any decided pain, accom- plishee the change as completely as a violent fever or a painful eruption. The Americans have a most expressive · word for this indescribable feeling -it is the "tires". " How is such a one?" "Oh! he has got the tires." After these inflictions are over, with moderate and regu- lar living, the human constitution and climate act har- moniously together.
CHAPTER XVI. .
Difficulty in Establishing Schools-A certain Density of Population Necessary-In Town or Village of Spontaneous Growth-Oswald Warrington keeps School at Albion in its Earliest Days-Eng- lishmen and New Englanders build a School-House near Albion -A Colored Man Assists, but his Children are not Allowed to go to School-Another School-House-The Scene at a Country School-The Little Urchin at School-The Older Scholars-The Log School-House on the Frontier an Interesting Object-Con- trasts with the Crowded City-School-Permanent Brick School- House at Albion-Influences of the School on the Backwoods- men-The Free-School System in Illinois-Statistics of Educa- tion in Edwards County-Agricultural Fair at Albion in 1858 -- Splendid Display.
IN all new countries there is a difficulty in establish- ing schools. The first inhabitants, the backwoods hunters, whose cabins are five, ten, and twenty miles apart, can have none. Their mode of life requires no education in the scholastic meaning of the term. Their habits are independent of literary acquirements, and their children grow up without knowing how to cast up the most sim- ple sum by the rules of arithmetic, or write a word, or read a sentence. Yet some of these untaught men, by some complex mental process of reason and arithmetic, are capable of arriving at correct results sometimes more speedily than a scholar in figures. Some of the station- ary or farming class, generally poor, and settled individ- ually, live long enough to bring up a family without any
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
education. In such cases, it is when the country has not filled up rapidly, and they have been left standing in their solitary situations for a number of years. In settle- ments of more rapid growth, the school has to bide its time. In a country which, to the eye, is pretty well set- tled, oftentimes no school-house appears.
Standing in the centre of a moderate-sized prairie, the eye may trace a number of fine farms on the edge of the timber, with houses perhaps a mile apart, and this line of farms may extend for many miles, and yet the inhabi- tants not be near enough to reach the benefit of a school. There are many elegible situations in the open prairie, a mile or two from the timber. When these are occupied, then school-houses immediately appear. There must be a certain density of population before schools can exist. No matter what laws may exist on the subject, or what school-fund may lie in the treasury of the State, if there are not children sufficient within a mile of a school-house, there can be no school.
As I have heard, a man of some eminence and ability, from the East, came into the State, to propose to the legislature an efficient system of State education. By the time he had proceeded to the large prairies that lie in the middle of the State, he saw that unless there was some way devised for inducing farmers to live contigu- ous to each other, there could be no schools. So he at once postponed his plan, and either went or sent to Texas, and procured a considerable quantity of osage- orange seed, and opened a large nursery of osage-orange plants, for hedges. By this means, he thought that he
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THE COMMON SCHOOL.
was doing more for the cause of education than by pro- posing the best educational scheme where it could not be applied.
In a town or village, however humble, a school is soon got up, and is often of spontaneous growth. If there are only a half-score families, a school is easily assembled, and a suitable teacher is often found on the spot. It was so in Albion, in its earliest days. An inhabitant from a populous town in England, with a large family and limited means, opened school. He was one of those persons often found in new settlements, a man of town habits, and unsuited to country life. With him, the boys got a common-school education. In writing he excelled, and there are many men who owe their good and legi- ble writing to their early instruction at the school of Mr. Oswald Warrington, who, I am happy to say, is now liv- ing, his head white with age, a respectable tradesman of Cincinnati, Ohio.
The next school was in the country, some three miles from Albion, built after the manner that schools were then, and are still built in country places. Four or five English farmers and two or three New Englanders, liv- ing in what was then close neighborhood, none being more than a mile from the common centre, assembled at an appointed time. Several driving their ox-teams, and more with axes, went to a neighboring wood (con- gress land, of course), prepared the timber, and laid it in its place. The raising was performed in the usual man- ner by the voluntary and united labor of neighboring farmers who had families to send to the school. A mas-
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
ter was speedily found and installed; a young man of slender frame and town habits, a good penman and good at figures. The school went into immediate operation, was long carried on under different masters, and, I believe, is in existence at this day. This school has been carried on under the simple rules of its original builders, one of which was that those who labored in its first erection, should have a preference in sending their children in case of competition. One little circumstance, connected with this affair should not be omitted, as characteristic of the times we live in. Among those invited to assist in build- ing the school-house, was a neighboring farmer, a colored man, powerful and dexterous in the use of the axe. He cheerfully acceeded, and gave his full share of the labor. When the school was built, and the master about to enter on his duties, the colored farmer was politely informed that he must not think of sending any one of his chil- dren to school, for they were not of the right complexion. A century hence, perhaps both our prejudice and sense of justice may be open to criticism.
The third school-house built, I think, was a few miles north of Albion, and deeper in the country. In passing along the road, I observed, to my right hand in the woods, a solitary school-house, but no dwellings in sight. I have seen many such and wondered where the scholars came from. On closer observation, I have found these school- houses situated centrally and in the right place. Of the one I had passed, I found there were three farms within a-quarter of a mile, five within a half-mile, and eight within the radius of a mile. Before the teacher arrives,
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SCHOOL CHILDREN-PLEASING DESCRIPTION.
children of all ages are found assembled about the house in high exchange. Some are chasing each other round the house; others at hide-and-seek among the trees; an- other group watching a dog barking at a squirrel up a tree; some sit on the doorstep, cracking nuts. The girls in little groups, chatting confidentially to each other, and one or two, more careful than the rest, conning their les- sons in the silent and nearly vacant school-house. On the arrival of the teacher, they rush in, make a slight obeisance to the teacher, and take their places in silence. They are evidently emulous of each other. The favorite exercises seem to be short recitations or spelling. And this they do, the boys especially, in a full, strong voice, not always harmonious. The countenances of all are bright with excitement. Their clean-washed faces and hands, their coarse garments tidy and neat, give to each individual a self-confidence sufficiently apparent.
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