USA > Illinois > Greene County > Past and present of Greene County, Illinois > Part 2
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PAST AND PRESENT OF GREENE COUNTY.
of the present corporation of the city. Thomas Allen, in 1818, located in what is now White Hall township, his settlement being among the first in that part of the county, where he died in April, 1874. Mathew Dayton also came into the county in 1818 and the next year made a settlement in what is now Woodville township, where he continued to live until October, 1872, when death claimed him. In the early win- ter of this year (1818) James Stone and wife became settlers. They settled first on lands west of Carrollton which now belong to the Wards. From there they removed to Woodville township and located on the northeast quarter of section 6, township 9, range 12, which land he afterward entered. Mr. Stone died in 1854. About this time Luthur and Calvin Tunnell came into Greene county and made a permanent settlement. Luthur located in Linder township and Cal- vin in Carrollton township on the farm at present owned by Jackson Tunnell. Both of these early residents became prominent in the affairs of the county.
Dr. H. Clay Thaxton, a Virginian, came west in 1818 and settled in the Apple creek bottom. When the land was open for entry he entered eighty acres in section 20 of what is now Wrights township. William Speaks came to Greene in 1818 and with him came the Allens and Morrows, his relatives. They hailed from Tennessee and located in White fall township, where they arrived too late in the winter to build a house, so they camped out by the side of a log, and while enduring the inclemency of the winter thus unprotected, a son was born to Mrs. Speaks. Such privations were the pioneer settlers fre- quently called to endure. Mr. Speaks died of cancer of the face at Greenfield. So far as the writer has been able to learn the fore-
going comprise all the pioneers who made settlement in the county in 1818.
In 1819 William and Zacharia Allen be- came citizens of the county, William locat- ing at what is now known as Belltown on Apple creek, where he died in 1875, and Zacharia making a settlement at the same time on section 3, township II, range 12, Thomas Rattan, accompanied by Levi Reader, made a settlement north of Apple creek in 1819, but after living there a short time he removed to Carrollton, where he kept the first tavern. This settlement north of Apple creek attracted others and John Allen and Isaac Hill located there during this year. Thomas Hall, a native of North Carolina, came to the state in 1818, and after a year spent at the Wood river settle- ment, in 1819 came to Greene and located on the northwest quarter of section 32, town- ship 10, range 12, where he died March 18, 1854. Benjamin Ogle also made a settle- ment about the same time south of the pres- ent county seat, in Carrollton township. Abraham Clark had entered the land and sold it to Ogle. William Costley, his son William Costley, Jr., afterwards known as Major, and Robert Means came to the neighborhood south of Macoupin creek in Kane township in 1819, where they made a settlement. The elder Costley died the fol- lowing year. His son, who was for many years a well known and influential citizen of the county, died in 1869. John Greene also settled south of Macoupin creek in this year, locating on section 20, township 9. range II, where he remained, prominent in the affairs of the county till his death. Fran- cis Bell, Joel Johnson, Robert Whittaker, Thomas Allen, Elam Bowman, Jesse Mor- row, Martin and Young Wood and Captain James Whitlock all settled in Greene county
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PAST AND PRESENT OF GREENE COUNTY
in 1819. Mr. Bell located with his family on Apple creek prairie, north of the creek. Ile was a native of Tennessee and died in Tallula, Illinois, in 1866. Joel Johnson set- tled upon a farm in section 21 of Linder township. Robert Whittaker settled and made an improvement in what is now Wrights township, and Whittaker creek is named for him. Thomas Allen, one of the prominent figures of the early settlement, located in what is now New Providence, or Belltown, where he built a mill and resided until his death in 1833. Elam Bowman came to the county a young man from Ohio, married here and removed to California where he became wealthy. Two of his sons became quite popular on the Pacific slope. Young Wood was at one time sheriff of Greene county. Captain James Whitlock settled in what is now Kane township where he entered nine hundred acres of land. In 1850 he started for California and died of cholera on the passage. Cyrus Tolman came to Greene county in 1820 and located upon one hundred and twenty acres of land near White Hall, where he resided several years, when he removed to Jersey county, where he died in 1876. He was a member of the first grand jury empaneled in Greene county. Ransom, Jesse and Edward Flatt came to Greene the same year, 1820, and permanent- ly settled on land in Bluffdale township. John Drum located in Carrollton in 1820. where he lived several years, then removed to Rubicon township, where he died many years ago. Benjamin Smith emigrated from Connecticut to Alton, Illinois, in 1818, and in 1820 removed to Greene county and made a settlement on section 12, White Hall township. Charles Kitchen, who afterward became a Baptist preacher, in company with Lewis Roberts and John Thompson, came
into the county in this year and selfled m what is now White Hall. Wilhath Had An- drew Kinkead were among the carhest set- tlers in Rockbridge township in 1820. Wil- liam died in 1876. The place of their settle- ment for many years was known as Kin- kead's point, an angle of timber projecting into the prairie at that place. Daniel Hen- derson also came this year and made him- self a home on section 7 in what is now Wrights township, where he resided until his death. During this year, 1820, Carroll- ton township received a number of promi- nent settlers, among them James and An- drew Pinkerton, Peter Dodgson, Martin Bowman and William Pinkerton, who made permanent improvements and long resided in the county, being largely identifiel with its growth and development. All have passe 1 to the "beyond." Thomas Lorton, who died in 1863, was another pioneer who came to this county in 1820 from Cumberland county, Kentucky, purchased land and built a cabin on section 8. Wrights township. which he continued to occupy until his death. David Carter was a native of Tennessee and came to Greene county with his family from Edwardsville, and located in what is now Bluffdale township, whence he removed to Walkerville, where he died in 1847. Elijah Little and a man by the name of Swanson came to Greene this year and settled within the territory now embraced in Patterson township.
In 1820 George W. Clendennen. a Vir- ginian, settled in Woodville township. fak- ing up a farm on the section where he lived until 1841. when death called him hence. 1le was prominently identified with county af- fairs and was the first justice of the peace in his township.
William Potts, John Dodgson, Robert,
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PAST AND PRESENT OF GREENE COUNTY.
Charles and Solomon Baines, James Cald- well and Thomas Crane all came to Greene in 1820 and located homes. Caldwell and Crane built their cabins east of Carrollton in Linder township, while the Baines made settlement north of Apple creek in White Hall township, where they continued their residence until death. William Potts located on section 33, White Hall township, where he died in 1862. Dodgson came to Greene county direct from England and made his first settlement in Carrollton township. He died in this county in 1848.
The year 1821 brought quite a number of accessions to Greene's "first settlers." David Hodges settled on Apple creek prairie where he kept a store and built a mill. He after- ward went to Galena, where he died. Mr. Hodges (as noted elsewhere in this history) was the groom in the first marriage that oc- curred in the county after, its organization. Louisa Wentworth was the bride, and John Allen, a justice of the peace, performed the ceremony on May 21, 1821. David Heaton and Martin Burt made a settlement this year, Heaton in Wrights township, where he lived for many years, and Burt in Rubicon town- ship, where he made improvements. Charles Gregory, who became prominently identified in county and state, made a settlement in White Hall township this year (1821), where he resided until 1845, when he was called hence by death. James H. Whiteside came into the county from what is now Jer- sey county. where he had lived since 1817, and settled on Apple creek prairie in White Hall township, where he continued to reside until his death in 1862. David Pierson, a prominent and well known citizen in county and state, cast his lot among the pioneers of Greene county in 1821, coming here from
the state of New York. He selected a farm north of Carrollton, where he resided several years and then removed to Carrollton, where he engaged in the mercantile, milling and banking business. He established the first bank in the county, which is now the Greene County National Bank and is successfully conducted by his sons and grandsons. He died May 8, 1891, full of years and honor.
Rev. C. J. Gardiner, Richard Robley, Asahel North, John Morfoot, Richard Ward and John Johnson arrived in the county about the same time in 1821. Morfoot and Ward located in Carrollton township. Rev. Gardiner settled in Kane township, where he lived to a ripe old age. Robley made a set- tlement under the bluffs in what is now Bluffdale township. North made a home on a farm in section 8 in what is now White Hall township. Johnson settled in Linder township on a part of section 3, which he had entered. He was a veteran of the war of 1812 and a native of North Carolina. He died in this county.
In 1818 Ward Eldred and a cousin came to this county from their home in New York state, having made the journey on foot, in search of a home. They remained one win- ter and returned to the east. In 1821 Wil- liam, Elon and Ward Eldred came to this county, making settlements west of Carroll- ton and becoming permanent residents. Alexander King, Thomas Meek, Absalom Frame, William Hudson, Redmond Strick- land and David Williams also journeyed to Greene county in 1821 and joined the other settlers. Williams located on section II in eastern part of Kane township, and died in November, 1828. King settled in what is now Linder township and died at a ripe old age in 1872. Meck, Frame and Hudson
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PAST AND PRESENT OF GREENE COUNTY
made their homes in Carrollton township. Strickland settled in township 12, range II, and died in 1849.
During 1822 the following persons joined the early pioneers of Greene county : William J. Brown, Edward Prather, Archi- bald Lee, Lindsey Il. English, Benjamin Smith, David Wooley and William Hart. Quite a colony of English people came in this year and all settled in Carrollton town- ship. west of Carrollton, many of whom became prominent in the affairs of the county ; they were Elizabeth, Peter, John, Thomas, Mary, Robert, James and C. F. Hobson; David, William, Thomas, Mar- garet, John and Elizabeth Black; Isaac. Ruth, Jeremiah and Elizabeth Richardson and George Baty.
Lindsey Il. English, mentioned above. after coming to Greene lived the greater part of his life in Carrollton and became a prominent factor in the development of this part of the state. Ile was serving as deputy sheriff when the Black Hawk war broke out, but left the office and at once went to the front. He died in Springfield in 1880. Benjamin Smith settled on a farm where White Hall now stands, where he died Au- gust 7, 1879. Wooley was a native of New York. He came here from Hamilton county and settled first on section 21, township 10, range 13, where he lived till March, 1826. when he removed to Bluffdale where he died in 1860. Hart settled on Lorton's prairie. where he lived thirty years and then removed to Piatt county, Illinois, but later came back to this county, where he died. Lee came in search of a home here and returned to llam- ilton county, this state, in the fall, but the next spring he came back and settled on Cook's prairie. Later he removed to Green- field and engaged in mercantile pursuits,
where he died. Brown made a settlement about two miles south of Carrollton, where he lived until 1846, when he removed from the county, but November 3. 1853. he re- turned and made a home in Linder township.
In 1823 the following persons entered Greene county in search of homes: Wil- liam Crane, Anthony S. Seeley, Reuben Martin, John W. and Hiram Huitt, David Norton. Jesse Stout. Samuel Gates and James Kinkead. Seeley located in Patter- son township and was prosperous and he- came prominently identified with the official and business life of the county. Ile died in 1885. Martin settled in the same township at the same time. Crane settled in Linder township. Norton settled near Carrollton, where he made some fine improvements. Stout was a native of New Jersey and a vet- eran of the last war with Great Britain, he came and settled in Wrights township, where he died in 1854. Gates was a native of Maine and came to Greene county from Ohio and made a home on section 21. Bluff- dlale township, where he died in 1836. Kin- kead located in Rubicon township and be- came quite prominent there.
In 1824 Jesse White, Chuza Bushnell, William Mc. Adams, A. J. Johnson, John, James, William and Edward Hardcastle. Dudley Brannan and Samuel Martin cist their fortunes among the citizens of Greene. Bushnell and Me. Adams settle 1 in Bluffdale township and took an active part in the de- velopment of that part of the county. Bush- nell was a local preacher and reared a large family. Johnson took up his abode in Linder township, where he resided until Angus". 1884. when he went to Eureka Springs. Ar- kansas, to be treated for cancer, where he (lied the same month and year. The Har l- castles located in the then village of Car-
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PAST AND PRESENT OF GREENE COUNTY.
rollton and opened a cabinet and carpenter shop; also located farms and became prom- inently identified with the development of the county. Brannan settled in Wrights township, where he resided until his death. Martin came from Kentucky and took up a residence in Woodville township and died there.
The pioneers who sought homes in Greene county in 1825 were Ephraim Nix, Henry Cook and Jolin Barnett, who made a settlement in the eastern part of Linder township and are now all numbered with the dead. George Meldrum located in Lin- der township this year with his family, where he continued to reside until death claimed him in 1841. Joseph Buck sought the northwestern part of the county, Patterson township, for a home, and Charles Gooding settled in Carrollton, where he died in 1834.
In 1826 the influx of home seekers was larger, embracing the following: William Lee, Isaac and Alfred Wood, David Miller, Absalom Clark and Joshua Clark, his son, William and Thomas Finley, James Miller, Thomas Piper, Benjamin B. Thompkins, John N. Whitlock, Jordan Howard, Frank- lin Witt, Elisha Brown and Thomas Sharp. Jordon Howard settled with his father in Carrollton this year and died here in a few years since, honored and revered. Sharp located in Athensville township, Brown in Patterson township. Witt took up his abode in Kane township and took active interest in the affairs of county and state, serving as representative and senator in the general as- sembly. He died in 1851. Whitlock was from Tennessee and settled in Rockbridge township, where he died. Tompkins made a settlement on section 28 in Kane town- ship and died there in 1878. Piper was the first settler in Rubicon township, taking up
his residence on section 10, where he died. The Finleys also settled in Rockbridge town- ship. The Clarks founded homes in Carroll- ton township, on the lands now owned by Jackson Tunnell, where Absalom paid the debt of nature. Joshua also died in the county. The Woods opened up farms in Rockbridge township, where Alfred died at an early day. Miller settled at the same time. in the same township. Stout was a Pennsyl- vanian by birth and came here from Ohio and made a home in Linder township. Lee settled in Carrollton township.
Among the early settlers who made Greene county their residence in 1827 we note Lemuel Stubblefield, who came here from Randolph county, Illinois, and settled in White Hall township. He was a native of North Carolina and died in Greenfield in 1859. Thomas Grace located in Patterson township this year. Andrew Hamilton, a native of England, came with his wife (nee Kinkead) and settled near the present site of Greenfield. They died at the home of their daughter, Mrs. John Hardcastle, in Linder. Jeremiah Hand settled in Rock- bridge township. Isaac Landiss was also a settler at this time, locating a home in Linder township, where he resided many years, thence removing to Carrollton, where he died. His widow is still living in Car- rollton. William Gough came this year and made a home on section 15 in Linder town- ship, where he died many years ago.
In 1828 Leonard Brace, a New Yorker, came west and settled on land now included in the town of Carrollton, but died soon after making the location. This year also came John Russell, who was one of the most tal- ented men in this section of the county at that time. lle settled under the bluff west of Carrollton at Bluffdale. His son, Spencer
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PAST AND PRESENT OF GREENE COUNTY
G. Russell, still resides on the old homestead where his father died. Mr. Spencer was accomplished in belles-lettres and his writ- ings attracted attention in the literary world. He edited and published the first newspaper in the county, the Backwoodsman, in 1838- 1839. Probably the production that gained more universal recognition than any other of his writing's was his. "Venemons Worm." written in 1820 for a little paper called the Columbian. This article was extensively copied and published in several languages, and found a place in the standard school readers of those and later days. Inasmuch as this famous production has suffered some- what since its first publication, in copying, errors in typography, etc., the writer of the Past and Present feels justified in giving it here, just as it was printed at that time, verbatim et punctuation, from a copy fur- nished by his son, Spencer G., from the original publication. Some of the publica- tions have for the caption of this article : "The Worm of the Still." some have the "deadly cova" instead of the "deadly coya." etc.
"The Venemous Worm" "Out venoms all the worms of Nile." ( Shakespeare.)
"Who has not heard of the rattlesnake or copperhead? An unexpected sight of either of these reptiles will make even the lords of creation recoil. But there is a spe- cies of worm found in various parts of this state, which conveys a poison of a nature so deadly, that when compared with it, the venom of the rattlesnake is harmless.
"To guard our readers against this foe to humankind, is the object of the present communication.
"The worm varies much in sis It .- frequently an inch :hmmmugle; Ion as it . rarely seen, except when ouba as length can hardly be conjectured, It & co sok1 1 lead color, and generally love nese & Spons. or small stream of water, und bites che thi !- fortunate people who are m the babit of going there to drink. The brute creati m it never molests. They avoid it with the same instinct that teaches the animals ci Peru to shun the deadly coya.
"Several of these reptiles have long in- fested our settlement, to the misery and d'- truction of many of our citizens. 1 have. heretofore, had frequent opportunities of being the melancholy spectator of the effects produced by the subtle poison which this worm infuses. The eyes of the patient be- come red and fiery, his tongue is swollen to an immoderate size, and obstructs his utter- ance, and delirium of the most horrid char- acter quickly follows :. Sometimes in his madness he attempts the destruction of his clearest friends. If the sufferer has a im ily. his weeping wife and helpless infants are not infrequently the objects of his frantic fury. In a word, he exhibits to the life. all the detestable passions that rankle in the bosom of a savage: and such is the spell in which his senses are bound that no sooner is the unhappy patient recovered from the paroxysms of insanity occasioned by one bite, than he seeks out his destroyer for the sole purpose of being bitten again.
"I have seen a good old father, bis licks as white as snow, his steps slow and treni- bling, beg in vain of his only son to quit the lurking place of the worm. My heart bled when he turned away, for I knew the Ir pe fondly cherished, that his son would be to him the staff of his declining years, hel supported him through many a sortewy
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PAST AND PRESENT OF GREENE COUNTY.
"Youths of America! would you know the name of this reptile? It is the worm of the still. John Russell."
Others who came into the county at this time (1828) were William Halbirt and his brother John. They made a home in Bluff- dale township. On Thursday night, May 30, 1874. John Halbirt was murdered in his bed. A young man named Clark Evans, who it was known had called at the old gen- tleman's cabin for a drink of water the even- ing before, was suspicioned of having com- mitted the dastardly deed and a posse at once started in pursuit, stimulated by a re- ward of five hundred dollars offered by Amos Halbirt, a son of the deceased. On Tuesday, May 6. he was captured by John Jones, deputy sheriff, about two miles south- cast of Manchester and brought to Carroll- ton where, after preliminary examination, he was lodged in jail, the keeper at that time being Esquire Halbirt, a brother of the mur- dered man. Evans endeavored to implicate others in the crime but failed and finally confessed that he alone was the assassin. On Sunday night, the 23d of June, a masked mob broke down the doors of the jail where Evans was confined, took him out, conveyed him to the Apple creek bottom north of Car- rollton and hanged him to a limb of a tree near the roadside, where he was found and cut down the next morning.
John Stevens, a Virginian, made a set- tlement on section 9, township 9. range II, where he lived until his demise in 1853. IIe was a Baptist minister. Henry Brook settled about three-quarters of a mile west of Car- rollton, where he lived many years. Robert Scroggins, with his family, first settled in Woodville township, where he lived for some time; thence he went to Carrollton
township, and subsequently to Kane town- ship, where he resided for four years, then removed to the American bottom. William Thomason came into the county from Ten- nessee and made a home first in township 9, range 12, but later removed. to Bluffdale township. In 1847, after spending a winter in Texas, he removed to Woodville town- ship, where he died. James Ashlock located on section 22 in Linder township, where he died April 12, 1862. David, Joel and Eri Edwards, three brothers from Vermont, came in this year, and after a short stay in the neighborhood of Carrollton settled on section 28 in Rubicon township, where they lived and died-David in 1856: Joel in 1859; and Eri in 1866. William Mason came this year and located upon a farm near Rockbridge, but finally settled in Kane town- ship, where he died in 1870.
In 1829 James Curnutt entered the county and made a home in Rockbridge township, but later he removed to Rubicon, where he died in 1857. R. Stoddard settled in Athensville township and David Hahn made a home in Patterson where he contin- tied to live for many years. Ichabod Valen- tine, Howard Finley, Joe Grizzle and Her- rod Grizzle all settled in the town of Rock- bridge. Louis J. Ballard came from Ten- nessee and made a home in Wrights town- ship, where he died in 1878. William H. Goode opened a farm in Wrights township and lived there until 1856, when he removed to Davis county, Iowa, where he died in 1874. William Winn located in this year about four miles west of Carrollton, where he died March 7, 1866. J. Harvey Weisner came from Tennessee and located in Rock- bridge township. He was a North Caroli- nian and died in Greenfield in 1884. Mar- vel Morris made a home on section 26, town-
PAST AND PRESENT OF GREENE COUNTY
ship 9. range 12, near Kane, where he died. John Reynolds, a native of Virginia, made a temporary settlement in Carrollton town- ship this year, but afterwards moved to Rockbridge township and from there to Woodville township in 1838, where he died March 15, 1858. Elder Stephen Coonrod, with his family, settled on section 33 in Rubicon township, where he resided until his death in 1872, of smallpox. Willis Hard- wick, with his family, settled in Woodville township, about two miles south of the pres- ent village of that name, where he and his wife died at an advanced age.
In 1830 the following became residents : John Wood, Solomon Dixon, Isham Adcock. David Griswold, William Askins, John Ma- son. G. H. Hopkins, Leonard Carriger. Moses Wilder, Peter M. Brown and David I. Brown. Wood removed here from Ken- tucky and settled in what is now Woodville township. Dixon found a home in Rock- bridge, where he lived until 1870, when he emigrated to Kansas, where he died : Adcock took up his residence in Bluffdale township : Griswold settled on section 9 in White Hall township: Askins in Rubicon township : Ma- son and Hopkins found homes in Athens- ville township, where Mr. Hopkins died in 1866; Carriger located in Patterson town- ship: Wilder, an old revolutionary veteran. settled in Rockbridge township. He re- turned to Tennessee in 1832 and died there in 1839.
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