Illinois, Crawford County historical and biographical, Part 135

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. cn
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1058

USA > Illinois > Crawford County > Illinois, Crawford County historical and biographical > Part 135

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A large vein of salt water is found between 1,100 and 1,200 feet in drilling. The top, or gas sand, is usually about 8 to 12 feet in thick- ness. The second or oil sand is about 22 to 39 feet in thickness, and is usually very free. A few wells have been drilled in a third sand, with very good results. This field is yet in its in- fancy, and a deeper sand will be found at from 1,700 to 1,900 feet, which will produce oil equal to the grade of the Terre Haute well, which cer- tainly must have some connection with this field. The county is also underlaid with good

coal veins of a superior quality of coal, from seven to nine feet in thickness, which are found in drilling.

John Markham, of Bradford, Pa., was one of the early producers in this field. He has made four successful ventures. His first lease was in connection with his nephew, Mr. Hollern, on a farm of 360 acres, belonging to G. L. Walter. which they partially developed and sold to the Ohio Oil Company for $70,000. His next ven- ture was in connection with Samuel Bell on the Sam Barrick farm, which proved to be very rich in production, Mr. Markham selling his in- terest to Mr. Bell, his partner. He then leased the Wm. Quick farm, upon which he has drilled more than a dozen good oil wells and one very fine gas well. He has also leased the Ferd Raines farm and has drilled in one good pro- ducer on same. Mr. Markham is one of the most experienced and active oil men in the field, and his operations have thus far been con- fined to Robinson Township.

It is impossible to give the details of all the Producers in this field. Success has attended the efforts of most of them. Oil has been success- fully found in nine of the ten townships of the county, and 2,869 producing wells were being operated January 1, 1908, by the different com- panies, among whom are Armor & Stewart, Brown & Hogue, Rex G. Davis, R. D. Crawford, D. D. Nolan, Odell & Whitmer, D. P. Fleeger, C. B. Shafer, Leeper Bros., Sammel & Booth. Beers Bros., Black & Fitzgerald, Brenneman & McDonald, Bruner, Abbott & Co., Clinton New- lin, S. C. Clover, Moran & Adsit, Daugherty & Keenan, Duff, Mcclintock & Davis, Dye & Grace, E. N. Gillespie, C. W. Kirkbride, Lamberton Bros., P. P. Milliken, W. G. Reel, Anchor & Sey- bert, Skelly & Slattery, W. W. Splane, F. S. Wilbur, Trees Bros., Culbertson & Son, Parker, Edwards & Co., Fulton, Bright & Co., Peoples Oil and Gas, Devonian Oil, Eagle Oil, Fisher Oil, Mefford Oil, Atlantic Oil, Whitaker Oil, Parker Oil, American Oil Development, Columbia Oil. McKean Oil, Newlin Oil, Northern Oil, Sun Oil and Pure Oil companies. These are the pioneer workers in the oil field of Illinois, and they de- serve to be remembered. It is safe to place an estimate of 20.000 as a number of men engaged in this field as producers, contractors, derrick and tank builders, pumpers, teamsters, common laborers and others who have charge of the field as superintendents, farm bosses. district

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foremen, engineers, clerks, warehousemen and leasers. The Ohio Oil Company alone have 4,700 men in this field in their employ, 2,200 of whom are working in this county. They make an army of men, and take them as a class they will compare favorably with that number of citizens engaged in any other occupation. The prices paid are good, no class of men receiving better wages. The field has been orderly and few accidents have occurred. Work has progressed rapidly and satisfactorily from its inception to the present time.

EFFECT OF OIL DEVELOPMENT.

What has been the effect of development of the oil fields from a business standpoint, is worthy of consideration. Before oil was discovered in this county, land was worth from $25 to $100 per acre, $40 per acre being a fair average. Since the development of oil it has increased three times in value. Town property has increased still more in value than lands. The price of everything raised and for sale iu the community has more than doubled, aud any one who de- sires and is willing to work can do so at ex- cellent wages. Merchauts of all classes have been the recipients of a large trade siuce the opening of the field. Activity has been general in all lines of trade and occupation. The banks of our county have increased to ten in number, and the deposits of the three banks iu Robinson were about two millions of dollars on the first day of Jauuary, 1908, while those of other towns in the county are correspondingly large. The official business of our county has increased in the same ratio.

EQUIPMENT OF THE OHIO OIL COMPANY.

The Ohio Oil Company has its pump station at Stoy, at which all the oils from this field are gathered for transportation to the various refineries. It now has two pumps which are ca; able of pumpiug 50,000 barrels each per day, and one pump capable of pumping 18,000 barrels per day. It has nine 80-horsepower boilers and hundreds of miles of pipes are laid out in the fields to receive oil and carry it to the pumping station. There are 36 miles of gravity lines and one large suction pump by which producers are enabled to transport their oil to this pumping station without cost. There are three 8-inch pipe lines laid through Crawford County for the purpose of transportating oil to the next statiou

north. These stations are about forty miles apart. The tank farm on the McLain land, im- mediately north of Stoy, is rapidly building up this summer and, when complete, will be a vast collection of irou tanks, holding about 35.000 bar- reis of oil eaclı. A railroad was built from Stoy to this tank farm and abont fifteen of these tanks are already completed. This has all been accomplished in a short space of time and demonstrates the ability and sagacity of those who have its management.

CRAWFORD COUNTY IN CENTER OF OIL FIELD.

Crawford County is in the central portion of the oil field, with 2,865 wells, the counties of Clark and Cumberland being on the north with 2,948 wells, and Lawrence County on the south with 608 wells, making a total of 6,421 wells. All are good producing counties. A pioneer of the eastern oil fields remarked not long since, that he never expected to see as good an oil county as that of Butler County, Pa., but that this county "eqnaled, if it did not excel that connty." The field has so far exceeded the expectations of the most sanguine, and it is hard to make perdictions for the future. The year 1908 will doubtless be better than the two preceding vears, and drilling will probably be continued for many years to come. But gushers will not always last, and it remains for our sober and industrious people to take advantage of tlic blessings a kind Providence has bestowed upon us to build up onr towns, improve our country, and leave a better heritage for future genera- tions. Our people so far have acted in concert with our new-comers, and our towns and country have shown the wisdom of this action. Let us move together in harmony and pursue the even tenor of our ways, and Crawford County, by the time of the next consus, will have doubled in population and will be one of the richest and best counties in the State.

DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCT OF 190S.

The season of 190S ushered in propitiously, the Townships of Oblong. Martin, Honey Creek. Lick- ing and Robinson were the scenes of greatest activity, though some wells were drilled in Prairie, Hutsonville, Palestine and Montgomery that promised well. Drilling progressed steadily from the west and reached about the center of Robinson Township in July and August of the year. The season was exceedingly dry. the

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roads in good condition and material was trans- ported to all parts of the field without difficulty.

The towns of the county kept pace with the oil field. Oblong made a fine growth. her popu- lation reaching about 3.000 ; Robinson had grown to a city of 7,000 people and many new and sub- stantial brick business houses had been erected, and a great number of dwelling houses had been built. The Water Light and Heat plant had been re-constructed and a good supply of water se- cnred. The Telephone lines were consolidated, and placed in a new and substantial home. Ice, and other plants. have been constructed and Street paving progressed rapidly during the sea- son. The Catholics and Christians have each erected new and commodions churches, and changes of every kind had taken place in Robin- son, due solely to the oil industries.

Many changes and sales in the oil properties were made during this year. The Red Bank Oil Company sold many of its leases to the Ohio Oil Company, and the Company's large holdings finally passed into the hands of J. C. Donnell, Agent, and are now operated nnder that name. The North Fork Oil Company se- enred the holdings of Smith, Kerr and Neeley and other property in this connty to the value of $500,000. The large holdings of Treat, Craw- ford & Treat were sold for a consideration of over a million dollars to the Associated Pro- ducers. This company also purchased the Robin- son Club Honse and remodeled it until it is now one of the most elegant office buildings in the Middle West, and is the General Western Head- quarters of the Company. This company operates The Tide Water Pipe Line and it has purchased lands and erected a fine power honse near the village of Stoy. They have secured the right of way for a 6-inch pipe line from Stoy, Ill., to Bradford, Pa., and have already a large por- tion of their line constructed, which will be complete and ready to transport oil in the spring of 1909.

During the season the Licking Oil and Gas Company, The Ohio Oil Company. The Riddle Oil Company and Culbertson & Son made rich finds in deep sand, a little north and north- west of the City of Robinson. At a depth of 1,140 feet a third pay was struck abont one mile from the corporation line in Sections 21, 28, 29 and 30 in Town 7, Range 12 West.

The Crawford Connty field, during the season 1908, was connected on the north with the

Clark Connty field, and on the south with the Lawrence County field, making it one of the largest and most productive oil fields now known.

PRODUCT OF 1907-NO. OF WELLS, 1909.

The oil sold from this field in 1907 was second only in value to that from the Oklahoma field, and the sales from the products realized over $17,000,000. The total number of wells now in this field, Jannary 1, 1909, are : in Coles, Cum- berland and Clark Counties, 4,340; in Crawford Connty, 5,601; in Lawrence, 1,112-Total 10,953. From this it will be seen that Crawford County leads in the field and is one of the greatest oil producing counties in the entire country. The total number of barrels produced in the Illinois fields, np to Jannary 1, 1909, has been 60,248,393, realizing over 40 Million Dollars. The field is one of inestimable value to the citizens of the county ; and its development has been made by the oil producers rapidly without friction and in a manner entirely satisfactory to the people of the connty.

During the year 1908, a large number of pro- ducers and contractors have built elegant homes in onr midst and are now permanent residents of onr connty and State.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE HUTSON FAMILY TRAGEDY.

A STORY OF INDIAN WAR DAYS IN CRAWFORD COUNTY-THE MASSACRE OF THE HUTSON FAM- ILY IN 1812-A REVOLTING EXAMPLE OF INDIAN BARBARITY AND TREACHERY-THE "TRUE STORY" AS TOLD BY A RELATIVE OF THE HISTORIC FAMILY FORTY YEARS AGO. 1

(By Hon. Anstin Hntson.)

In the Year of Our Lord, 1810, Isaac Hutson, Sen., with a family consisting of a lovely and beautiful wife, and five interesting children, "bundled up" their movable effects, bade farewell to an aged father and mother, living near the village of Solon, Madison Connty, Ohio, and upon pack horses, in company with ten or twelve other

Alfredo Jensen

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fearless adventurers, plunged into the dense and trackless forests, traveled half way through the State of Ohio, across the Indiana Territory, and halted at Fort Lamot (La Motte), in Lamotte Prairie, Crawford County, Ill., just opposite Merom, on the west side of the Wabash River. The fort was then in process of erection, the in- dians very troublesome, and as there were com- paratively few persons engaged in building the fort, the unlooked for advent of the little emi- grant party was hailed with irrepressible dem- onstrations of joy. But a looker-on would most certainly have been puzzled to decide which of the two parties were the happiest.

No letters of introduction, or observance of rigid forms of showy etiquette were required.

After a lonely, uncertain and fatiguing journey of many weeks ; through cheerless wilds, without a sight of the "human face divine," exposed every hour to the scalping knife of the savage, and to the prowling beasts of the forest, their happiness on seeing the curling smoke, listen- ing to the sound of the ax, and hearing the sweet songs of patriotism and civilization, was, to the appreciative, no matter of amazement.

Upon the other hand, the brave party of the fort, laboring and guarding, day and night, menaced by hostile Indians, whose fiendish yells and village tents could be heard and seen iu the distance, and concerning whose bloody deeds they each day heard a fearful story-thus en- gaged and thus environed, no wonder that the immigrant arrival caused joy and gladness to the heroic defenders of the unfinished "City of Refuge." The newcomers, after a few days of rest and arrangements, willingly assisted in the urgent work of the fort, and it was to them a novel scene to witness the daily military man- euverings; to see the scouts return, some of them Indians,-treacherous wretches,-profes- sing friendship for the whites at all hours of the day, reporting a greater or less number of warlike Indians seen in this or that direction, and very often reciting tales of murder, burning and bloodshed. One Indian, called "The Pet," soon attracted their respectful attention by his many and earnest pretentions of devotion to the white man; and this same dubious pet became, in a short time, the confidant of Mr. Isaac Hut- son, who, unfortunate man, knew but little of the heartlessness of (pretended) Indian fidelity. Those but slightly acquainted with the history of the Indian War in the Wabash Valley in 1811-

12, need not be informed that the situation of the citizens and soldiers of Fort Lamotte was anything but pleasant. But, notwithstanding the paucity of their numbers,-about two hundred soldiers and citizens,-being well armed, un- flinchingly brave, and well skilled in the mode of Indian warfare, they became a terror to the savage foe for many leagues around; and this dread of the Spartan defenders of the fort was accompanied, of course, with burning hatred and fiendish plot against the whites of the surround- ing country, without regard to age or sex. This hatred frequently culminated in the most crnel butcheries and horrid torturings of the unfor- tunate victims falling into their merciless grasp.

But finally the Indians moved their portable villages, seeking a more suitable field for their bloody tragedies, leaving only a few roving bands behind, which caused the farmers of the fort to immediately reoccupy their little improvements, consisting of log cabins and a few acres of cul- tivated lands adjoining their humble dwellings. The newcomers laid their claims, erected shan- ties or cabins upon them, cultivated small patches of ground, and began to feel, after having en- dured many hardships, a certain degree of safety in their limited agricultural pursuits, when the burning of the Hutson family aroused the whole country to arms, and reproduced those sickening scenes which they fondly, but vainly, hoped had forever passed. When I was quite young, my father, by repetitions of this heart-rending story to friends and strangers, so impressed my mind with the horrors of the hellish deed, as to cause in my heart an unconquerable hatred toward all the treacherous aborigines of America. There is upon the tablet of my memory an ineffaceable image of the revolting scene, and I hear a voice of duty, emanating from the mysterious depths of the conscience, saying, "Write !" and, althonglı fifty-five years have elapsed, and Lamotte Prairie is one solid block of farms, adorned with beauti- ful frame houses, the lands once worth one dol- lar and twenty-five cents per acre, now worth from forty to seventy dollars per acre, in the north, south, and east, seen at one glance, this historic prairie is skirted by three thriving vll- lages, and where once was heard the reveille of Fort Lamotte, now is heard, from the neighbor- ing Merom Bluff, the musical tones of the bell of Union Christian College, and I am encour- aged to comply with the silent monitions of the voice. notwithstanding time and change. Ah!

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do I not remember the alternate impulses of anger and pity, as the story progressed, touch- ing Indian barbarity, and the untold pleadings and sufferings of the heroic wife and faithful children ?- when the latter by the former were confined in the house, the house set on fire, and The infant from the mother's breast was torn, And then, by ruthless, bloody hands was borne To the foaming caldron ; Into the kettle full of boiling soap, They cast the mother's hope.

Thank God, the past shall ne'er return, Instead the Indian, now the white man lives,

To whom a Providence so freely gives This land.

Mr. Hutson's cabin was built in the northern edge of the prairie, where now stands a large brick house, two miles south of the village of Hutsonville, named for him in memoriam of his deep affliction.

The victory gained over the Indians by Gen- eral Harrison and his brave army, at Tippeca- noe, on the morning of the 7th of November. 1811, struck terror into the savage hordes all along the frontier of Indiana, and for a few months the Indians put on the deceptive sem- blance of peace. The men ventured away from home on business of urgent necessity, but not without feelings of uneasiness and dread, at times almost fearing to return lest they should find their families butchered or burned up by the implacable enemy, whose wrath was liable to return in rages of untold fury.

"We should suspect some danger nigh, Where we possess delight."

Mr. Hutson not unfrequently experienced a delusive degree of safety, at least to his family in his absence, from the repeated assurances of the Pet Indian of the friendly disposition of the neighboring tribes. On a lovely day in the sum- mer of 1812, Mr. Hutson crossed over to the In- diana side, to procure some provisions, the informant, a personal friend of Mr. Hutson, says a sack of meal, but did not return until late in the evening, and then, not to meet, as he often had, a smiling wife and bounding children, but to be a witness of the sad and overwhelming fact that his dear ones were no more. In a low place in the prairie, he was met by his trusty dog, and knew at once from Rover's unmistak- able signs of grief, that all was not right. He

came with surprising speed, and when opposite his master, who had been, on account of a tired horse and a heavy boat, traveling slowly, stopped suddenly, placed his fore feet upon the end of the sack, whined piteously, darted off in the direction of the cabin, howling most sorrow- fully. For a moment the horse and rider were still ; the impatient dog repeated the ominous signs, which caused the father and husband to feel strange sensations of heart and blood. Mr. Hutson threw the sack upon the ground,

And spurred to dangerous speed, His panting, tired steed.

Ascending a rolling eminence, about one mile from his humble dwelling, he saw the smolder- ing flames, the faint glare, the curling smoke, but no groans of pain or shrieks of despair came from the hissing coals and sighing embers of the pioneer's cabin. The dog encircled the fire with piercing howis; the master sat motionless upon his foaming horse for several awful minutes, then gave vent to a flood of tears, which he quickly brushed away with the rough hand of toil, and raising his manly form, nerving his legs, placing his feet against the sides of his noble steed, he took an oath of revenge upon all Indians, friendly and unfriendly, after which, he repeated, in angry tones, "The Pet Indian ! The Pet Indian !" A few moments of silence ensued ; the features grew pale; the hand which had been raised to heaven in the fearful oath, fell list- lessly upon the mane; the system relaxed; the face became haggard; the countenance beseech- ing ; the eyes now incapable of tears-for sorrow may dry their fountain-were turned toward heaven, but now, with the most pitiable expres- sion, the sorrow-smitten pioneer cried out, "My wife ! O, my children !" But this agonizing expression of grief received no answer, save the hideous echo of the adjacent forest.

Mr. Hutson, within one hour after his arrival at the scene of the destruction of his earthly hopes, became partially capable of reasoning, and was inspired with the hope, first, that his family had escaped to some of the neighbors for pro- tection and were safe, or perhaps to the fort. Under this pleasing impression, he started off through the settlement, hailing the houses, but receiving no answer, and arriving at the fort found most of the settlers there collected for mutual defense and protection against the hated foe, but no wife or children, which caused him

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to exclaim, with a heart-rending tone, "Burned to death, or miserable captives !"

Others had tales of burning houses, murdered friends, and captured children to relate, but the thoughtful and the self-possessed advised prepa- ration for a defense, for the "crouching foe," said one, "may now be near us." "Let them come," said Mr. Hutson, "I have been robbed of all that is worth living for, and I long to meet the enemy that I may drown my sorrow in the sweets of revenge."

The dreary night passed away and the morn- ing's sun, if it fell in apparent mockery upon the ashes and charred bones of wife and chil- dren, also cast its golden rays upon the herolc citizen soldier prepared for the pursuit and pun- ishment of the retreating savages, but the pur- suit was in vain; the main body of the enemy escaped.

This pursuing party, in passing the cinders of the emigrant's cabin, stopped just long enough to cast looks of mingled wrath and commisera- tion upon the glaring relics, and then, with dire resolve, dashed forth into forest and glade, through the rank grass of the prairies, into the willows and ambush of their borders. Forward ! with the speed and fearlessness of those accus- tomed to facing danger and enduring perils of every revolting description, moved the brave avengers. We remarked that their pursuit was in vain, but those eager pursuers, perhaps thought differently, for many a straggler did their unerring rifles bring to the dust. And the red men, finding that the whites were in pur- suit and in desperate earnestness, stopped not until they had put many miles between them and the dreaded pale-faced foe.

Mr. Hutson, with a few intimate friends, re- mained for a while at the place which had been to him more like home than all other localities of temporary stays, since his restless residence upon the border. There was here and there a flickering blaze, a few glaring coals and charred, smoking forms. Water was applied; the inten- sity of the heat reduced, and an examination

made which revealed the frightful fact,-adding another bloody page to the history of Indian barbarity,-that Mrs. Hutson and her six chil- dren had been consumed in the fire.

The bones of Mrs. Hutson and those of her nearest son were found near the fireplace. As the doors were barred, they had either attempted to climb out of the chimney, or rescue the little babe from the soap kettle into which it had been thrown, no doubt before the house was fired. The kettle was suspended from an old fashioned crane, which was fastened in the jam, and swung around like a gate. Think of the feelings of that mother when she saw her tender infant, about six months old, torn from her bosom by bloody hands and cast into the kettle. The sweet little hands are seen strug- gling with the bubbling surface; the strangling gurgle is heard; the foaming lava leaps the sides of the kettle; a noise of quenching fire is heard, mingled with the pleadings of the agon- ized mother, the deafening screams of the chil- dren and the threats of the brutal savages. Then followed the blows of the tomahawk; deep wounds were inflicted, from which the blood in streams did flow; the rough unpolished punch- eon floor was colored red with human gore. The doors were fastened and the rude cabin set on fire. Around the burning house the remorseless red men danced with fiendish glee and yelled with demoniac merriment.

What must have been the feelings of those helpless, wounded ones, when the consuming heat and hissing flames enveloped them-and one of their murderers a professed friend-the Pet Indian !

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Illinois, Crawford County historical and biographical, Part 135

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. cn Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1058

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. cn
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1058