USA > Illinois > Illinois, historical and statistical, comprising the essential facts of its planting and growth as a province, county, territory, and state, Vol. I > Part 35
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A majority of the new settlers came from Kentucky, Vir- ginia, and Tennessee; but Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and even New England contributed their quota, many of the eastern immigrants settling in the towns, to whose growth they imparted a decided impetus.
But the fame of the agricultural advantages offered by Illi- nois had spread beyond the seas, and attracted the attention of dwellers in foreign lands. Among the most eminent of these were Morris Birkbeck and George Flower, both of England. The latter had made a tour of the West in 1816; the former was introduced to and visited by Edward Coles on the occasion of that gentleman's visit to London in 1815. The impression made upon Mr. Birkbeck by the prospective governor was such that he decided to emigrate to the United States. In May, 1817, with his family he landed at Richmond, Va., where he was joined by Mr. Flower. Together the party of ten traveled by stage to Pittsburg, from which point they proceeded on horseback, reaching Big Prairie in Edwards County, Aug. 2, 1817. Each of the gentlemen entered 1500 acres of land, and began life anew in a strange country. As a result of the glow- ing accounts sent home by Mr. Birkbeck, in the form of letters published in England, a colony of artisans, laborers, and farm- ers soon set sail with a view to settling in the new Arcadia.
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SOCIAL CHANGES.
Farms were purchased, the town of Albion laid out, and the foundation started for one of the most prosperous settlements ever made in the State. They brought with them a better knowledge of agriculture and introduced as well some stock of improved breeds, both of which proved of no little benefit to the community. And in the stormy times which were ushered in by the slavery conflict of 1824, these English colonists were prompt to array themselves on the side of freedom .*
Another English colony, from Lancashire, settled in Monroe County in 1818; and soon after numerous families from each division of the United Kingdom found homes in Greene and Morgan counties and in other sections of the State. About this same period was begun the first German settlement at a point in St. Clair County, soon known as "Dutch Hollow," which formed a rallying point or centre, for the large number of thrifty emigrants from "the Fatherland," who soon began to pour into that and adjoining counties.
Thus it came about that before the close of 1834, the centre of population, which for nearly a century had remained in the vicinity of Kaskaskia, had been removed to a point considerably north of Vandalia.
With the advent of these permanent settlers, the careless squatter, always shiftless and sometimes dissolute, began to disappear. His aim seems to have been to keep always a trifle in advance of the tide of civilization, which carried him forward as does the sea the driftwood that floats upon its waves. He chafed under the restraints of organized society, and preferred the wildwoods, with the companionship of his dog and gun, to the more staid ways of a settlement. Accordingly, when "neighbors" came so near that he could hear the crack of their rifles, he hastily accepted the first offer made him for his little patch of corn and beans, and followed the receding red man toward the setting sun.
But the fascinations of the chase were felt by his successors
* Most interesting is George Flower's local "History of the English Settlement in Edwards County," with notes by Hon. E. B. Washburne (No. I of the Chicago Historical Society Collections). It is filled with valuable information and abounds in romantic incidents described in a graphic and fascinating style. The story of the rivalry of Morris Birkbeck and the author for the hand of one of the ladies of their pioneer party, and their subsequent estrangement, is of enthralling nterest.
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ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
as well. Grouse, wild turkeys, deer, and even bears were abun- dant, not only in the woods but even on the farms; and for many years it was no rare luck for a pioneer to bring down an elk or buffalo. Salted bear meat formed no insignificant item of the winter's supplies, and sometimes a hunting party would return with the carcasses of as many as thirty or forty of these carnivorous pests. Of venison, there was no lack-a single sportsman sometimes shooting half a dozen deer in a day, besides bringing in a bag well filled with smaller game. Such a redundancy of sport at first resulted in a rivalry between the chase and the farm. But as years went by, and game became less plentiful, and the fields and orchards larger and better improved, settlers began to see that their best interests lay in the cultivation of their farms, and hunting became a pastime rather than a vocation.
Immigrants from beyond the Alleghanies, until better facili- ties were offered by canals and railroads, traveled on horseback, by wagons and stage to Pittsburg, thence usually in flat-boats down the Ohio River to Shawneetown, at which point land- carriage was resumed, although the procuring of transportation thence was attended with great difficulties. The stage fare was six cents a mile. Occasionally the entire journey was made by land, the better class of settlers traveling in their own carriages or covered wagons, drawn by two or four horses.
A great drawback to emigration and commerce in these early times was the want of good roads. A great deal of costly work, under the patronage of congress, had been done up to 1835 upon the National Road, extending in Illinois from opposite Terre Haute to Vandalia; but aside from this, while a number of state roads were established connecting the prin- cipal towns-which were used for mail and stage-routes-that from Springfield to Chicago in 1826, and from the latter place to Decatur and Shelbyville in 1832-but little labor or money was expended upon them, none of the smaller and only a few of the larger streams being bridged.
Houses on the roads being ten to twenty miles apart, way- farers would sometimes lose their way, or being caught in a storm, would have to camp out until they could ford swollen streams .*
* On one occasion, Judges Wilson and Lockwood, and Henry Eddy, in going on
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FIRST STEAMBOATS.
The first steamboat to ascend the Mississippi above Cairo, was the General Pike, which reached St. Louis Aug. 2, 1817; and the second, the Constitution, two months thereafter. But at first the service was irregular, and the accommodations found but little favor with the traveling public. The time made was from six to eight miles an hour up stream, and ten to twelve down. But improvements in machinery and in the construction of boats soon began to work a great revolution in this mode of transportation, which by 1825 and 1830, had come to be generally adopted when available. The first steamboat began to ply upon the Illinois River in 1826. The opening of the Ohio Canal from Cleveland to Portsmouth, and the railroad and canal from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, in connection with the improved navigation of western rivers by steamboats, offered such increased facilities to travel as greatly to stimulate immi- gration and trade.
The arrival of a family at their new home was often provo- cative of great disappointment. To the masculine head, with heart of oak and muscles of steel, already rejoicing in the pros- pect of drawing from the unbroken soil its treasures of golden grain, the situation was not so discouraging. But upon the wife, who had been, perhaps, educated and brought up in luxury, the entering upon a new life, without any of its com- forts, deprived of all its higher enjoyments, and the society of neighbors and friends, entailed a sacrifice which taxed her courage and fortitude to the utmost .*
horseback from Carmi to Vandalia-a distance of sixty miles-were overtaken by a storm of wind, sleet, and snow, and after traveling all day, became so fatigued that they were unable to proceed farther. Tying their horses, they spread a blan- ket on the ground near a fallen tree, and squatted down close together, Lockwood in the middle, and thus spent the dismal night. Proceeding in the morning, half-frozen, they reached the Kaskaskia River opposite Vandalia about noon, and found its banks full to overflowing. There was no alternative, and in they plunged and swam over, riding into town about "used up". Lockwood, who had long been in delicate health, as a consequence of the exposures of the trip resigned himself to a certain and speedy demise, but, strange to relate, from that very time he enjoyed better health than he had for many years previously .- Flower's "English Settlement," p. 28.
* An interesting anecdote is told of the advent from New York of Henry, father of United-States Senator Charles Benjamin Farwell, with his family, at his farm in Ogle County. The party arrived at the dilapidated log-house surrounded by a crazy- worm fence and presenting a general air of desolation in the evening. The outlook was so forbidding and the prospect of ever making his family comfortable was so slim,
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ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
From what has been said regarding the variety of sources from which came these early settlers, it is easy to comprehend the inharmonious character which for a time was a distinguish- ing mark of the people of the State. They were of all pro- fessions, trades, and callings; and came from localities where they had acquired habits of life and business methods varying almost as widely as did their respective idiosyncrasies of men- tal and moral constitution. At first, the result of thus bringing together elements so divergent was to induce a clash. The old settlers looked with distrust upon the new-comers, at many of whose methods they were disposed to sneer as "new-fangled inventions," which they were slow to recognize as improvements upon their own more primitive ways. In consequence, verbal collisions were not infrequent, the thoughts and ideas of one side being vehemently contested by the other. Especially were such wordy battles common between settlers from the South and immigrants from New England and New York, to both of whom was applied the then opprobrious epithet of "Yankees."
Looking back at the situation from the more clearly illu- mined `standpoint of the present, the student of history is able to discern not only the operative causes then at work, but also the definite results which have become manifest in later years. It was the soil of the northwest, of which Illinois formed an integral part, that witnessed, virtually for the first time, the union of the descendants of those first colonists, so diverse in aims and religious faith, who landed respectively at Jamestown and Plymouth Rock, two hundred years before. In other words, the progeny of the Roundhead and the Cavalier here met upon common ground. In habits of thought, as in religion, they were still apart. The Eastern immigrants-most of whom were merchants or mechanics-gravitated toward the towns, a few only at first entering claims for farm-lands. In most
that the father decided in his own mind to go back and not subject his wife and children to the apparently hopeless task of ever attaining a fair proportion of the en- joyments of life in such a place. After supper he advised his family of the conclu- sion he had reached, but said he would leave it to them to decide. Some of the boys discouraged at the outlook, voted with the father, others on the other side, so that the wife had the casting-vote. She remarked, "Well, it's left to me, is it?" They all replied, "Yes, you must decide." "Well," she said, "we shall stay right here and work it out; I have no fears of the result."
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FIRST NEWSPAPERS.
essential points, the "Yankee" was the reverse of his neighbor from the South-the former was temperate, industrious, shrewd, close-fisted, ingenious, and self-contained; the latter was inclined to be "easy-going," was hospitable, dignified, frank, sociable, sensitive, and jealous of his rights. These differences in char- acteristics tended to strengthen prejudice and induce friction- a tendency which the sharp trading of the "Yankee clock- peddler" in no wise diminished. Ebullitions of temper on either side were common and hard words were freely inter- changed. The following story, illustrative of this feeling is told by Judge Gillespie. An old "hardshell" Baptist preacher, Father Biggs by name, holding forth on one occasion on the richness and universality of God's grace said, "It tuk in the isles of the sea, and the uttermost parts of the yeth. It embraces the Esquimaux, and the Hotentots, and some, my dear brethering, go so far as to suppose that it takes in the poor benighted Yankees, but I don't go that fur." The same divine accounted for the word "sprinkle" being in the Bible by con- tending "that it was an infernal Yankee trick." One of the objections seriously urged in the southern part of the State against the construction of the canal was, that it would be the means of flooding the State with Yankees.
Together with merchants, lawyers, physicians, came also the editor, the school-teacher, the singing-master, and the mission- ary, not ignoring the Methodist circuit rider, each of whom wielded a distinctive but no less potent influence in shaping the progress of society.
The first newspaper printed in the State was published at Kaskaskia, and called the Illinois Herald, Matthew Duncan being its proprietor. Its name was changed to the Illinois Intelligencer in 1817, at which time it was owned by Black- well and Berry, state printers, who, in 1820, removed their establishment to Vandalia.
Other early newspapers printed in the State, in their order, were the Illinois Emigrant, published by Henry Eddy and Singleton H. Kimmel, at Shawneetown in 1818, the name of which was changed to that of the Illinois Gazette in 1824; the Edwardsville Spectator, by Hooper Warren in 1819; the Star of the West, at the same place in 1822, changed to the Illinois
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ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
Republican in 1823; the Republican Advocate at Kaskaskia in 1823, by R. K. Fleming; the Illinois Journal at Galena, by James Jones, in 1826; the Sangamo Spectator at Springfield, the same year by Hooper Warren; the Illinois Corrector at Edwardsville, in 1828; the Galena Advertiser, by Newell, Philleo & Co., in 1829; the Alton Spectator, in 1830, by Edward Breath; the Telegraph, at the same place, by Parks & Treadway, after- ward controlled by John Bailhache-and a still leading paper in Madison County; the Sangamo Fournal, now the State Fournal, in 1831, by Simeon Francis, which he conducted until 1855, the publication of which has been uninterruptedly con- tinued until the present time; and the Chicago Democrat, by John Calhoun, at Chicago in 1833.
Other papers, at the new county-seats, soon followed. While these newspapers, all of them published weekly, were in many instances ably conducted-notably the Illinoisan at Jackson- ville, whose editorials on leading subjects would attract atten- tion in the most influential journals of the present day-it must be admitted that great improvements have taken place in their "make-up" and management. The most of them con- taining principally extracts from Eastern papers, very little local news, and single, heavy editorial "leaders," were exceedingly dry reading.
Of the early writers and authors of Illinois Judge James Hall has already been mentioned. In addition to his labors as a missionary, Rev. J. M. Peck also wielded the pen with great ability and effect. He was the author of "A Guide for Emigrants," "A Gazetteer of Illinois," and, in connection with Rev. James H. Perkins, the "Annals of the West," in all of which were clearly set forth important facts, whose publica- tion tended to promote the settlement and improvement of the State .*
Perhaps the most graceful and scholarly writer of this period in the Prairie State was Prof. John Russell, of Bluffdale in Greene County, a native of Vermont. His contributions to the newspapers and periodicals of the day were frequent and called forth encomiums from the Eastern press and even at- tracted attention in Europe.
* Mr. Peck was also the author of "Life of Rev. John Turner, " the " Indian Captive, " and the "Life of Rev. John Clark."
393
FIRST COLLEGES.
Another element which at this time entered largely into the moulding and formative processes of society, and the elevation of the people was the establishment of higher schools, or seminaries and colleges. The first of these was the theological seminary and high-school at Rock Springs, in 1827, in the founding of which the indefatigable Peck was the moving spirit. In 1831, the institution was transferred to Upper Alton and reorganized into what has since been known as Shurtleff College.
The Lebanon Seminary, under care of the conference of the Methodist-Episcopal Church, was established in 1828, and in 1830, it was given the name of McKendree College, which it still bears.
A seminary of learning under the auspices of Rev. John Ellis, a Presbyterian missionary, was established at Jacksonville in 1829, and subsequently, through the efforts of an association of theological students of Yale College, was reorganized into Illinois College in 1832.
The legislature for many years refused to pass acts of incor- poration for colleges with anything like liberal provisions, insisting upon the insertion of restrictive clauses in regard to the teaching of theology; but in 1835 a combination of the friends of the institutions above named succeeded in securing the passage of a satisfactory "omnibus bill," providing for their incorporation.
No estimate of the forces which guide and shape the prog- ress of society in a State, would be complete which failed to include the influence of religion.
In territorial days there were but few meeting-houses, and preaching services were at long intervals. Sunday was not observed with much strictness. The sermon, at some neigh- bor's house or adjacent grove, being over, the afternoon was often devoted to games and races, the preacher frequently act- ing as judge of the respective events. One of these pioneer clergy is said to have given notice on one occasion, that he would preach at the same place the following Sunday, unless it should happen to be a good day for hunting bees.
The style of preaching was of the long, loud, declamatory sort, in which the speaker gradually worked himself up into a
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ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
kind of frenzy, when he would fairly foam at the mouth, and cease only when exhausted nature could hold out no longer. The singing was after the same pattern, both ear and throat splitting. He that could wake the echoes from the greatest distance was the best singer.
When Rev. J. M. Peck, the first protestant "missionary," came west in 1817, the prevailing denominations were Baptists and Methodists. The Baptists, while entertaining Calvinistic views on many cardinal points, listened to the teachings of the East- ern propagandist on the subject of temperance, foreign and domestic missions, Sunday-schools, an educated ministry, and Bible societies, with great disfavor, and which they regarded as innovations upon their ancient faith and customs. The result was a schism, and the division of that Church into "regular" and Missionary Baptists. The former continued to confine their ministrations to the country, as they do at the present time, while the latter generally erected their houses of worship in the towns.
The Methodists as a body, were the pioneers in all effective religious movements. And if the great John Wesley had lived a hundred years later, the added experience thus acquired would not have enabled him to devise a system of religion better adapted to the wants of the people in the Western States at this period. Wherever a new log-cabin was erected, with the first smoke rising from its mud-plastered chimney of sticks, and floating away among the tree tops, was to be seen the never-failing circuit-rider, dressed in a single-breasted cloth coat, and white hat, mounted on his stout horse, his wardrobe and library carried in his saddle-bags. Courageous, industri- ous, and enthusiastic in his calling, he was earnest, thorough going, and untiring in his efforts to give a free gospel to the poor. He was a cross between the old "regular" Baptists, and the missionary from New England; while conforming to the popular style of preaching and hearty western manners, he was at the same time progressive, and quick to recognize the advan- tages of a higher education.
These men believed in all sincerity what they preached, and preached what they believed with inspiring fervor. Their mode of life, affording as it did continual opportunities for reflection
395
CAMP MEETINGS.
and self-communion, enabled them the better to cultivate the gift of oratory, which not a few of them possessed in a high degree. The class-meeting unloosened the tongues of both men and women to speak of their progress in the divine life, and of their encouragements and hindrances by the way. It was to this agency, in connection with its system of itineracy that this denomination owed its extraordinary growth and leading position .*
This was the hey-day of camp-meetings. They originated with the Presbyterians in Kentucky in 1800, but their advan- tages were quickly perceived by the Methodists who made them an "institution" peculiarly their own. The scenes at these meet- ings, where thousands of people frequently congregated, were as exciting as they were grotesque. At times, under the preaching
* One of the most conspicuous of these early itinerants was Rev. Peter Cartwright who came to the State from Kentucky in 1823, and settled in Sangamon County, where he resided until his death. For forty years he was in the front of the work of church extension. His district at first extended from Kaskaskia to Galena, and was so large that he was never able to go over it in any one year. He was of power- ful frame, and possessed a strong intellect, not very highly cultivated, however, in the learning of the schools. He was a ready speaker, logical, witty, fearless-even bel- ligerent. He was afraid, indeed, of neither man nor the devil, and was as ready with his strong right arm to subdue a refractory member of his flock, or disturber of his congregation, as he was with his tongue to contend with and silence a dissenter from his branch of the church.
He was . consistent defender of the faith on all occasions; whether in requesting Gov Edwards to ask a blessing at a dinner-party upon seeing that he was going to dispense with that ceremony; or in forcibly evicting the termagant wife of a brother preacher from her own door, outside of which she was kept until she begged to be let in, because he persisted in objecting to family worship.
Upon one occasion in Nashville, as he was about commencing his sermon, a tall, graceful gentleman came in, who, it was whispered to him by a brother in the pulpit, was the celebrated Andrew Jackson. Feeling indignant at the toadyism which prompted the interruption he at once spoke up " Who is Gen. Jackson? If he don't get his soul converted, God will damn him as quick as he would a Guinea nigger!"
He was an object of great interest at the general conferences in New York, where on one occasion he created no little astonishment at the hotel at which he was stop- ping, by asking the clerk for an ax, with which he said, he proposed to "blaze his way" up six pair of stairs, so that he could find his way out.
He also ventured into the field of politics, having been twice elected to the legis- lature (1828-1832). Here, however, he was out of his element, and cut but a poor figure. He was also induced to become the democratic candidate for congress against Abraham Lincoln in 1846, and failed of election by a large majority.
In 1856, he published his autobiography, containing a very graphic account of his adventures and experiences.
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ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
of some "powerful" revivalist, hundreds would be "struck down under a conviction of sin," and the entire camp become a scene of mingled groaning, praying, and shouting. Some would be seized with a paroxysm of spasmodic jerkings, others would spring up and dance until they were exhausted-all of which bodily exercises were claimed to be the supernatural workings of the Holy Spirit. Then again the commotion would take the direction of song, when the volume of sound swelling upon the unconfined breeze, might be heard for miles around. The camp-meeting still exists, but its weird and extragavant scenes have become but a memory of the past.
Before 1825, several new Catholic parishes, in addition to those at Kaskaskia and Cahokia, had been established, while the Cumberland Presbyterians and Episcopalians had also found a foothold in several counties. By 1830, influential Presbyterian churches had been organized in the counties of St. Clair, Madi- son, Bond, and Fayette.
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