USA > Illinois > Marshall County > Past and present of Marshall and Putnam Counties, Illinois > Part 12
USA > Illinois > Putnam County > Past and present of Marshall and Putnam Counties, Illinois > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
Men are ever interested to know who they are and how they came to be where they are and why they are what they are.
In a brief account of a very small portion of a great people a casual reference to the great whole is sufficient to introduce the particular portion whose history is to be recorded in this volume.
In the early part of the nineteenth century men along the eastern coast of our great country began looking westward for room in which to ex- pand. Explorers had traversed the great prairies toward the setting sun; up and down the water courses that ramified like an arterial system the great valley between the Blue Ridge mountains to the east and the Rockies to the west, men had steercd their frail barques seeking a country where they might pitch their tents and rear their families unrestrained by the requirements of established social customs. "Out West" in the origin of the term meant over the Alleghany mountains, and as civilization pushed westward people still spoke of "going west." Ohio was "out on the frontier" in the closing years of the eight- teenth century. Michigan and Indiana were set- tled in advance of Ohio. Then Illinois was the Mecca of the pilgrim westward bound. The lat- ter half of the nineteenth century to refer to the "wild and woolly west" meant beyond the father of waters, as the Mississippi river has been called.
In the morning days of the twentieth century, there is no "out west" since man has fixed his habitation from ocean to ocean subduing the boundless prairies and causing them to blossom like the rose.
In the dawn of the past century the territory between Lake Michigan on the east, the Missis- sippi river on the west and the Ohio river on the south to 421/2° north latitude on the north was rapidly settling with a rugged yeomanry ambi- tious to become an integral part of the great coun- try known as the United States. In 1818 she stood at the door and knocked; was heard and admitted and her part in the nation's life has been such that every citizen in the great common- wealth of "Illinois" is proud to declare his allegi- ance to the great prairie state.
It would seem as we look back upon the be- ginnings that our forefathers hardly knew the immensity of the undertaking that they had on their hands when they began the work of con- structing the political sub-divisions of a state that contained thirty-three thousand six hundred and fifty-eight square miles.
The principal settlements were through the central portion of this territory and in the first. division into counties, the acreage allotted to some of them equaled oriental principalities or kingdoms. We have some now to our theme proper. We shall presume that our readers are informed on the general history of our country at large and on that portion of the state history that is of general interest. To record some of
70
PAST AND PRESENT OF MARSHALL AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
the events and to name the persons who figured in those events is the prerogative of the historian.
Each life, each family, every community has its history peculiar to itself. No two are exactly alike; but there are similarities and analogies enough in each to make it interesting to the other while differences make the more fascinat- ing reading.
In the original formation of Putnam county: which honors General Isaac Putnam of Revolu- tionary fame in its name, about one-fourth of the state was embraced in its borders. The orig- inal Putnam county became such by legislative enactment on January 13, 1825, and embraced some sixteen to eighteen of the western counties including Bureau, La Salle, Will and Cook. In 1831 Putnam was again divided and reduced to the territory of the present Marshall, Stark, Put- nam and Bureau counties. In 1837 Bureau county was established leaving Putnam, Marshall and Stark as Putnam county. Two years later Stark and Marshall each set up for themselves à county organization and "Little Put," shorn of all her former greatness, remained but the core of the original apple. Many of her children have grown so great that they chide their mother that she has shriveled to such proportion, not realiz- ing that she was simply sluffed off the rough ex- terior, retaining the real source of growth and development-the heart. For nearly seventy years the boundaries of Putnam county have re- mained unchanged though there have been occa- sional agitations of the advisability of consolida- tion with an adjoining county, probably Marshall. The maintenance of a county government in a dis- trict containing one hundred and seventy square miles and part of that river, bottoms and bluffs, is appreciably greater than in the larger counties and yet so cconomically and honestly have the af- fairs of Putnam county been administered that the people have never complained. Practically speaking "boodle" and "graft" are unknown terms in official life in Putnam county, an evi- dence of the moral status of her people.
The men who first came to this sequestered spot were in the main, men of Christian charac- ter, men who believed that God is everywhere and can be honored on the frontier as well as in the city's kirk. So these men came from settlements of Ohio, Michigan and the states beyond the Blue Ridge range. Few of their descendants appreci-
ate the courage required to face the hardships and dangers of pioneer life in the early days in Illinois.
Where now the steam engine rushes along at forty to ninety miles an hour or the automobile makes twenty to thirty miles an hour our fath- ers were content to make a few miles per day The evolution of the years since first the virgin soil yielded to their crude share is wonderful to contemplate. We are wont to be puffed up with our advanced civilization, considering the early settlers but little above the red man in intellect and culture, but it is they who gave us the en- durance and perseverance, who made it possible for us to attain the degree of enlightenment now prevailing in the great prairie state.
CHAPTER II. TOPOGRAPHY.
Putnam county is beautiful for situation, with rolling prairies and wooded bluff lands. Aware of the richness of the fertility of the Eden of. the Universe, the majestic Illinois in its me- anderings sought and passed through this seques- tered spot. Up and down its waters, men whose names have become famous in all-world history: have steered their barks. Upon its banks events of historic importance have transpired. Events so familiar to every student of school history that the very children can recount by the hour thrill- ing narratives associated with the Illinois.
When Putnam county was first occupied by the white man he found its prairies dotted with sloughs and swamps, and to traverse its borders the traveler kept to the high ground. But the hand of man has changed the face of nature. The swampy land has been tiled out and is now the most productive land available for agricultur- al purposes. There is now no land within the county except along the rivers and bluffs that is not absolutely redeemed. Not an acre is until- lable.
Each of the four townships has its creek or creeks. Fringing these little streams are found the timber lands of hard woods. All kinds of oaks, ash, walnut, hickory, hard maple, elm, cot- ton-wood, lynn and cedars, poplars and willows. In the early days the farmer spent his winters in the timber cutting rails and hauling them to his farm lands for fences. Can you imagine the
71
PAST AND PRESENT OF MARSHALL AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
necessary work to produce rails enough to build a mile of fence "10 rails high and staked and ridered"? This language is Greek to modern readers. One must see a rail fence to appreciate it. The rail fence was supplanted by the post and board fence, still necessitating much labor in the timber; this was supplanted by the barbed wire and that by the woven wire. Up to within the past decade or two the universal fuel of the entire community has been wood. Much splen- did material has thus been used up for fuel pur- poses. Much time has been spent in accumulat- ing a pile of wood during the winter that was · sawed by horse power in the spring time, split and ranked up for the family's use. A wood pile is as rare a sight now as a rail fence. Much of the timber land in the county, has been cleared off and worked up into coal props, or sawed up into railroad or mine ties, and yet there is suffi- cient timber remaining to beautify the landscape and to furnish post timber for farm lands. Many magnificent maple groves have been preserved for the purpose of making maple sugar and syrup.
There is no grander sight in all the realm of nature than the wooded bluffs along the Illinois when the frost has tinged the oak and maple lcaves. The ride down the river from Hennepin to Putnam presents a sight of gorgeous beauty and autumnal glory beggaring description and rivaling the seenic grandeur of the Hudson.
Beginning at the northeast corner of the county and touching the physical features, natural and revised, adown the Illinois we find first on the . highway leading to the river from the village of Granville what is known as the Spring Valley hill. A tortuous road winding around the bluffs down into a beautiful canyon and out onto the river bottoms. Across the river lies Spring Val- lcy-the place whose name is synonymous with coal-strikes and labor eruptions; a town with a very unenviable reputation in the past but much improved in latter days. At the north end of Hennepin township is a little body of water called Mud lake, a favorite resort for anglers and picnicers. Near this lake, on a beautiful level plat studded with stalwart trees trimmed high under which the luxuriant grass produces a vel- vety carpeting, on the very edge of the river bank, is a picnic ground known as Benediet's ·Grove, where school and Sunday-school children
frequently congregate to enjoy the beauties of nature's handiwork.
A few miles down the river we come to Pur- viance's natural park. A preserve kept in its wild and original condition by Amos T. Purvi- ance, a lover and student of nature, whose name is mentioned elsewhere as a county official for many years.
Mr. Purviance's place has become for miles around a favorite haunt for seekers of beautiful and natural scenery.
A large island divides the river just at Henne- pin and about its point plies back and forth, car- rying its human freight, the famous Hennepin ferry boat. Across the bottom lands from Hen- nepin to Bureau, about four miles away, a turn- pike has been thrown up but is overflown every spring during high water season, shutting off the west side people except by boat.
The rich bottom lands of the Illinois river comprise hundreds of acres in Putnam county and are very productive, and are extensively cul- tivated, especially for corn. In the spring of the year the overflow covers the entire bottoms but subsides in time for cultivation. Occasionally; however, the fields are inundated after the crops are partially matured and then the "bottom farmer" finds himself out of his season's work. Thousands of tons of "ram-rod" hay are harvest- ed in the sloughs that are too moist for cultiva- tion. Much of the timber is cut for props and cord wood. Thus there is scarcely any territory in the county that is not productive.
A few miles below Hennepin, in Senachwinc township, is a beautiful lake called Senachwinc lakc. It is about two and a half miles long and a third of a mile wide, and has become a favorite pleasure resort. A beautiful and natural canyon leads from the high land down to the lake. At the opening of the canyon a large hotel has been built. This resort is known as the "Undercliff." In former years it was patronized by young peo- ple during the summer time for fishing and boat- ing but at the present time it is a favorite resort the year round where people from Chicago, St. Louis and nearby cities secure a secluded spot for rest and reeuperation.
So entranced have become the people with the beautiful and magnifieent scenery along the Illi- nois that as familiar as "America" to the school children, has become the State song, "Illinois."
PAST AND PRESENT OF MARSHALL AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
ILLINOIS.
By thy rivers gently flowing, Illinois, Illinois, O'er thy prairies verdant growing, Illinois, Illinois, Comes an echo on the breeze, Rustling through the leafy trees, And its mellow tones are these, Illinois, Illinois, And its mellow tones are these, Illinois.
When you heard your country calling, Illinois, Illinois,
Where the shot and shell were falling, Illinois, Illinois, When the southern hosts withdrew, Pitting Gray against the Blue, There were none more brave than you, Illinois, Illinois,
There were none more brave than you, Illinois.
Not without thy wondrous story, Illinois, Illinois,
Can be writ the Nation's glory, Ilinois, Illinois, On the record of thy years, Abr'am Lincoln's name appears, Grant and Logan, and our tears, Illinois, Illinois, Grant and Logan, and our tears, Illinois.
The territory embraced in the limits of Put- nam county would seem to have been designed by nature as a magnificent park. From the ancient bluffs along the river rising to the eastward to Mt. Palatine, reputed to be one of the highest points in the state, to the western limits of the county rolling away to the Mississippi, is one Edenic realm.
Granville township is mostly billowed prairie lands. In the northern portion of Hennepin township following the bend of the river is a broad and level tract known as Hennepin Prairie. The soil is rich and sandy and extremely product- ive. Below Hennepin to the south is another tract called Sand Prairie where the soil is very
sandy and yet sufficiently mixed with black soil to make it productive.
Magnolia township is decidedly the garden spot of Central Illinois and here it was that the first settlements were made. Ox Bow Prairie derived its name from the outline of the timber that en- closed three sides of the territory bearing that name. "The Ox Bow, in olden times, was one of the best known localities in Illinois and in priority of its settlement by white people, takes rank with the first made between Peoria and the Wisconsin line. In early days the Ox Bow Prai- rie was as well known as Galena, Chicago, Peoria or any other point in the state. This section, by reason of its geographical position, the wonderful fertility of the soil, its fine drainage, its superior water supply, and especially because it was sur- rounded by timber, seemed a very Garden of Eden to the immigrant from the wooded coun- tries of the east. In consequence of its peculiar location its settlement was rapid, and long ago it was so completely improved that not a foot of its soil was left unoccupied."
In Senachwine township, back from the bluffs stretching away toward the setting sun is another magnificent prairie possessing all the beauty and the excellence that are ascribed to the other prai- ries of the county, and yet having sufficient dif- ferences to give it a distinctive character.
But why elaborate, when it is known that this little garden spot, important enough to be called a county, is an integral part of the great prairie state, and without her portion can not be written in the history of the commonwealth?
CHAPTER III. SETTLEMENT.
In this simple narrative it is not possible to name each individual settler as he came into the county, suffice it to generalize and localize.
The very first white man who holds unchal- lenged the distinction of being first in any par- ticular thing is Adam, the progenitor of the hu- man race, and even the man from the Garden of Eden has been called by some fellows from the zoological gardens. It matters little who is first on the ground in an enterprise; the im- portant question is, "Who did the work?" In the pioneer days of Putnam county everybody
OLD INDIAN POST AT HENNEPIN, 1817.
75
PAST AND PRESENT OF MARSHALL AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
worked. In the days we sing "Everybody works but father," which is only true when father has earned his surcease from labor by. years of brav- ing the storms of life until the going down of the sun comes the calm that he is entitled to enjoy.
It is as true today as of yore that "Woman's work is never done." Our mothers back to Mrs. Eve Adam were inveterate workers and not until the discrepitude of years or the inroads of dis- ease has sapped her vital energy does mother cease her family ministrations. "Mother" immortal- ized herself by her consecrated devotion to her maternal relationships.
It matters little to what rank or station man may climb in this life, he instinctively ascribes the source of inspiration to mother. That same element that lavishes itself on her offspring de- velops first in her devotion and fidelity to him whom she honors as her lord and protector, the father of her child. Since first the flight of years began the historian has made man the whole thing in life's doings. Looking down the vista through six thousand years of human existence in which men have played the star acts in life's drama, we are able to discover that back of it all the incentives to the noblest, grandest accom- plishments have come through the woman in the casc. Men are inclined to think in these days that there is a new being in existence, part angel, part woman, some devil and some man, and they have named this creature "The New Woman." In the process of evolution the spiritual side of woman's life has developed so much faster than she could work it out through her sons that it has be- come a matter of necessity that she work out a portion of her spirit through her daughters, at the same time supplying all the moral vitality that her sons will appropriate. Because she has thrown herself into the breach that bids fair to wreck her home and life, by some shallow-pated weakling she had been chided for her presump- tion and assumption.
All hail to the mother who stands shoulder to shoulder with the father in the efforts to make their union count for the betterment of our civ- ilization. Should misfortune, Maud Muller like, cast her lot with a man who dozes in the chimney corner or the grogshops hard by, the more the ne- cessity that she assert her personality and be- stow upon her children the spirit of doing some- thing for self and humanity.
True to the spirit of ascribing everything to the fathers, the historians of this county have given us a few names of the pioneer ladies, but the. evidence remains that there were ladies among the pioneers and to them belongs much of the glory for an advanced state of social, civic and religious life. Most of the very first settlers came up from the older settlement down the state; in fact, the state had been admitted to the union before anyone had really settled in the county, although a few traders, as the early merchants were called, had located along the river as early as 1817. There remains about a mile above Hen- nepin today, the ruins of an old trading post where Thomas Hartzell did business in the twen- ties.
To Captain William Haws is ascribed the credit of being the first permanent settler in the county.
He came up from Springfield in the spring of 1821 en route to Galena, became enamored of the country about Magnolia and decided to locate there. He blazed his name upon a tree and went on to Galena, where he remained till the fall of 1826, when he returned and took formal pos- session of his claim.
He built an exceedingly primitive house of round poles. He split puncheons for the floor and doors and carried rock from the creek for the chimney and a former historian has said that not a nail was used in the construction of this house, but like the building of Solomon's temple no sound of a hammer was heard, for he had none.
He kept batch the first winter, existing on the result of his skill as a hunter and some corn hc had brought with him from the south. This first cabin stood near the northern limits of the vil- lage of Magnolia. The following spring he put up a more pretentious cabin near the first one, in which he and his family lived for ycars. His first crop of winter wheat yielded twenty to thirty bushels to the acre which he threshed by tramp- ing it out and cleaned by hand. His corn crop he . disposed of to newcomers at twenty and twenty- five cents a bushel. This early pioneer had few domestic animals-his oxen, a cow and calf and a few pigs. His hogs ran wild in the timber and multiplied until they became everybody's prop- erty and were worth nothing until dressed.
Naturally enough the newcomers, as they ap- proached from the south, were favorably im-
76
PAST AND PRESENT OF MARSHALL AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
pressed with the beautiful country about Mr. Haws' claim. Consequently the south end of the county received the first attention. After lo- cating there many of them branched out on pros- pecting tours to other parts of the county, and eventually spread out along the timber line from Magnolia to the river on the north. These early people took to the woods. Many of them thought that the prairies never would be settled. The probable reason for this was the fact that the ma- terial for building, fences and fuel, and protec- tion from the storms, afforded by the timber, caused them to seek its friendly shelter. Thus we find the little openings in the timber lands were the first settled.
From 1826 to 1835-6 we find the county rapidly filling up in all parts. The first settlers becoming courageous, disposed of their claims to the new arrivals and moved farther toward the frontier. In the volumes that have been written heretofore great lists of the names of these pioneers have appeared that cannot even be mentioned in a sim- ple narrative, and whose descendants, many of them, are still the leading citizens of the com- munity, and the matter has resolved itself into such proportions that family histories have been written and printed.
We shall not attempt to name the people who have made history in Putnam County except in as much as their names appear in connection with the events which we shall select to show the char- acter of such people.
In 1831 by act of legislature a committee was appointed to examine various localities in the county for the purpose of locating the county seat. The most promising outlook was the village of Hennepin, which was selected as the capital of the county. The first county commissioners un- der the organization were Thomas Gallagher, George Ish and John M. Gay. Seventy-five years have elapsed since that time, which has demon- strated the wisdom of the choice of that commit- tee. Hennepin is situated on the east bank of the Illinois river on a high and level bluff, a most beautiful natural situation for a city. In the early days Hennepin was a very active and busy city, the river affording a means of transporta- tion to the market at St. Louis and the return of the necessarics of life from that point.
.
Very little money was in circulation. The till- er of the soil brought the product of his labor to
Hennepin and bartered it for his family wants. It is really interesting to know how few articles, that are not home-made, are absolutely necessary to our comfort and existence.
Mr. John Swaney, who came to the county in 1840, and who still lives, told us that wages were very low in those days. He worked for Jim Jones a quarter of a day and got six and a fourth cents. Fifty cents a week for hard work was good pay. The day began at sun-up and lasted till after sun- down. A school teacher got $12 or $13 a month. His sister taught at Granville and rode back and forth across the prairies every night and morn- ing. She is still living and is eighty-five years old.
Mrs. Mary Massie, who came to the county sixty-seven years ago, tells us that during the war her husband and brothers were in the army and she supported herself and child by working at twenty-five cents a day; that she paid thirty cents for calico that may be bought now for three cents, and seventy-five cents a yard for eight or ten-cent muslin. Parenthetically, let us suggest that reading between the lines we may note a lit- tle something of what it cost the wives and moth- ers of the country to preserve the Union.
There were many necessities in the development of the homes in this new country that could not be gotten at Hennepin, nor did Hennepin become a general market until boats began to ply the river. The farmer would load his grain and start on the long trip to Chicago, requiring from nine to fifteen days, taking with him feed for his horses and a scythe; he would mow the grass by the wayside and sleep under his wagon at night, or stop in the winter time at the inns along the stage route. Many incidents are re- lated in which, by unavoidable delays, the pro- ceeds of the whole of his produce would not de- fray the expenses of the trip. For example, twelve and one-half and thirteen cents for corn and thirty-one and thirty-eight cents for wheat. All the lumber, shingles, doors and windows had to be hauled from Chicago. Boys went to Chicago oftener then than boys do now.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.