USA > Illinois > Marshall County > Past and present of Marshall and Putnam Counties, Illinois > Part 19
USA > Illinois > Putnam County > Past and present of Marshall and Putnam Counties, Illinois > Part 19
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drive them away. Mrs. Beckwith, who narrated this, says it was the most dreadful night she ever experienced.
Another instance related is of a young mother who was left alone with a sick babe. The cabin had no windows, and the only door was a blanket hung before the opening. During the night her babe died and then began the awfulest uproar out- side imaginable. A gang of twenty or more wolves appeared and seemed determined to force a en- trance. The mother's fears were for her dead babe which she wrapped in blankets and placed upon a beam overhead and then barricaded the door with a table. Throughout the long and dreadul night the poor woman stood against, the frail protection through which the infuriated beasts outside tried to force an entrance. Morning came at last and during the day her husband re- turned and friends came to assist in the burial.
JAIL BURNED.
The Hennepin jail was set on fire and burned down September 27, 1842. A fellow named Fred- erick was confined in it for burglary, having broken open the store of Pulsifer Company and stolen valuable goods, or which he was under in- dictment. It was built of brick at a cost of $3,000 and was lined with heavy timbers, and supposed to be burglar proof. While the jail was burning the prisoner was placed in the Court House for safety, but gave his guard the slip and escaped. The enraged tax-payers, however, hunted him down and kept him safe until his trial.
IT PAYS TO PRAY.
Among many reminiscences that Amos T. Pur- viance recited to the writer was one narrating how Oakes Turner secured a teacher for his rural school.
One of the grade teachers in the Hennepin school was a very devout young woman who dc- voted a great deal of time to opening exercises of a religious character. The good people of the dis- trict were not opposed to the nature of her ex- ercises, but objected to taking so much time from the real object of the school. Finally the matter became so distressing that the Board requested her to limit her devotions to a reasonable length of tinie. The teacher asserted that it was a matter
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of conscience with her and that pray she must, though the children never got out of her grade. Fnally she was requested to resign, which she did at once.
Oakes Turner, was a director in an adjoining district and on hearing that this superior teacher had quit at Hennepin, jumped astride his horse and was at the teacher's door before breakfast the next morning. He briefly stated his mission, to which the lady replied, "Do you know, Mr. Tur- ner, why I have quit here? I can not do good work without first invoking God's guidance and blessing on the work in hand." To which Mr. Turner replied, "Oh, that's all right, you just come and teach our school and you can pray all you damned please; it won't make a bit of differ- ence to us."
She went, she prayed, she succeeded.
LOU DODSON'S AUTOMOBILE.
The great proverb writer states that there is no new thing under the sun. In these modern days of telegraphy, telephone, wired and wireless, electric and aerial transportation, photophoney and a" the wonderful discoveries and inventions of science, we are apt to believe that we are liv- ing in the golden age, and all these things are new under the sun. Men are now living in Put- nam county who could tell us that in 1848 Mag- nolia township, near the present site of the Qua- ker meeting house, an inventive genius by the name of Lou Dodson made an automobile whose motive power was air, and whose machine ran nicely in the open, making modern time speed until his steering apparatus gave way, depositing him in the middle of a big pond, where his in- vention remained all summer.
Four years previous to Dodson's experience John Ham ran a traction engine through the streets of Magnolia, and yet, thirty years afterward, when engines came into use for threshing purposes, they hauled them from farm to farm by horse power, demonstrating that mechanical invention has not been confined to any one age.
TRAGEDY NEAR HENNEPIN.
No bridge has ever spanned the river at Hen- nepin. Until the establishment of Spring Valley, a quarter of a century ago, there was no crossing
between Henry and Peru. In the winter time when the river is frozen over teams cross on the ice, but in the high water time no crossing is af- fected except by skiff. Hennepin gets her mail from the Rock Island railroad at Bureau Junc- tion by hack. During the high water season the mail carrier uses a skiff. In the spring of 1906 two men, Percy McWhorter, a grain buyer, and Blaine Jenkins, a drug clerk, volunteered to go after the mail since Hennepin had been for sev- eral days without any. William Bentley, son of Richard Bentley of Hennepin, who was living in Chicago, desired transportation across the river from Bureau to Hennepin. These three men, with several sacks of mail and some packages of ex- press, braved the waters of the Illinois; but not one of them reached Hennepin to tell the story of their sad fate. For forty-eight hours excite- ment reigned in the quiet village. The floating skiff and the mail pouches and hats indicated where the tragedy had occurred and in due time the bodies were all recovered and a triple funeral took place.
In the fall of the same year a team in trans- portation upon the ferry took fright and dashed off the boat, taking the faithful old ferry horse with them. Two horses were drowned and the driver barely escaped with his life, and yet Hen- nepin continues to get her mail from Bureau with a railroad station equally as close in Hennepin township-Moronts.
PRESENT GENERAL CONDITION.
The general condition of Putnam county at the present writing, socially, morally and financially is that of an intelligent and prosperous people. Cosmopolitan in the extreme, we have Swedish settlements, German communities, Polish neigh- borhoods, Irish vicinities in the country; and in the villages, particularly in Granville township, all tongues and nations mningle and co-mingle in po- litical, social, fraternal and religious relationship. As a farming community Putnam county is strictly in the advance rank. Very few farms in the county but what are connected by mutual tele- phone systems with the centers of population, and the establishing of the rural free mail delivery brings them in close touch with the world at large. Especial attention is being paid to the
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improvement of highways. In Hennepin and Senachwine townships all the main roads are thoroughly graveled. In the other townships which have more prairie roads much attention is being given to graveling, and eventually the whole county will be one network of graveled highways. The coming. of the consolidation of schools and the introduction of automobiles by the farmers themselves demand a better condition of the public thoroughfares. Since the enlargement
of the home market the farmers no longer haul their produce out of the community and the ten- dency is to make permanent public improvements.
There is no state institution in this county, but the developments of the last decade are causing public attention from without and Putnam coun- ty is destined to take her proper rank among the counties of the state justified by her advanced condition in all things that make for an intelli- gent and progressive citizenship.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
ROBERT BOAL, M. D.
Dr. Robert Boal was born in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, November 15, 1806, and died in Lacon, Illinois, June 12, 1902, in the ninety- seventh year of his age. The long life allotted him was characterized by a noble use of the talents with which nature had endowed him and in all life's relations he was found faultless in honor, fearless in conduct and stainless in reputation. He was descended from Scotch-Irish ancestry. The comparatively early death of his parents, Thomas and Elizabeth (Creain) Boal, led him to become a member of the family of his uncle, Robert Boal who was a resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, to which city Dr. Boal had accompanied his parents on their removal in 1811. His early education, acquired in the public schools, was supplemented by study in the Cincinnati Literary College and a natural predilection for the science and practice of medi- cine led him to become a student in the Ohio Med- ical College, from which he was graduated in 1828 being at the time of his death its oldest alumnus Throughout his life he remained a student not, only of his profession but of general literature, the drama and history as well, and at the same time keeping abreast with the trend of modern thought
In 1834 Dr. Boal made a tour of central Illi- nois and in 1836 removed from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Columnbia, now Lacon, Illinois, where he en- gaged in the practice of medicine for almost three decades. In 1865 he removed to Peoria, Illinois. where he continued in active practice for twenty- seven years. He retired from active connection with the profession after a service of sixty-five
years and in 1893 returned to Lacon. In his pro- fession he attained much more than local repu- tation. He was a member of the American Medi- cal Association, the Illinois State Medical Society. the Peoria City Medical Society and an honorary member of the North Central Medical Association. Not only did he use these connections to keep him in touch with the onward march of progress in the practice of medicine and surgery, but inde- pendently he carried on his researches and investi- gations and his native intellectual force proved perhaps the most potent element in his success as a physician and surgeon-a success which in the course of years won him the recognition of his brethren of the medical fraternity and gained him that measure of prosperity which is the legiti- inate reward of earnest, persistent, conscientious effort. He was one of the incorporators and di- rectors of the Cottage Hospital of Peoria, and he found occasion to utilize his professional knowl- edge in connection with other public service.
Coming into full possession of his developed powers and talents at the most momentous period in the history of the country since the establish- ment of the republic, Dr. Boal naturally wielded a wide influence over public thought and action. He did not seck fame in political circles, but was a student of the burning questions of the hour and possessed a statesman's grasp of the issues which arose. In 1844 he was elected to the state senate and was active in securing the passage of the bill for the completion of the Illinois and Michigan canal, also the law for the creation of the Illinois Hospital for the Insane
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at Jacksonville. In 1854 he was elected to the house of representatives and at the session of 1855 voted for Abraham Lincoln for United States sen- ator, continuing thus to cast his ballot until per- sonally requested by Mr. Lincoln to vote for Ly- man Trumbull, who was then elected. In 1856 Dr. Boal was again chosen to represent his district in the house and was chairman of the joint com- mittee of the senate and the house to investigate the condition of the public institutions for the insane, the blind and the deaf and dumb at Jacksonville. The committee found that an al- most chaotic condition existed, so reporting in the session of 1857 and recommending the reduction of the number of the trustees of each institution and suggesting that not more than one should be appointed from any county in the state. The report was practically embodied in a bill which passed and became a law. In 1857, upon the ad- journment of the legislature, Dr. Boal was ap- pointed a trustee of the deaf and dumb institu- tion by Governor Bissell and thus served for sev- enteen years through appointment of Governors Yates, Oglesby, Palmer and Beveridge, acting as president of the board during the last five years In this connection his professional knowledge ren- dered his service of the utmost benefit. In 1862 Dr. Boal was appointed surgeon of the board of enrollment for the fifth congressional district comprising seven counties, and so continued until the close of the war in 1865, during which period he examined nearly five thousand volunteers and drafted men, a large majority of whom "went to the front."
Reared in the faith of the Presbyterian church Dr. Boal afterward became a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church, his connection there- with continuing until his demise. About 1893 he returned from Peoria to his old home in Lacon and his closing years were spent with his daugh- ter. His married life covered a period of more than a half century. In Reading, Ohio, May 12 1831, he wedded Christiana Walker Sinclair, who was of Scotch descent. Their family numbered two sons and a daughter. The elder son, Charles T. Boal, has for more than forty years been £ resident of Chicago. The younger son, James Sinclair Boal, died in that city while the in- cumbent in the office of the United States assistant district attorney, in which position he had served for ten years. The only daughter is Mrs. Clara B
Fort, the widow of the late Colonel G. L. Fort, and the years of his retirement, spent with his daughter and a grandson bearing his name, were surpassingly serene and happy. Caring naught for fame nor honors for their own sake, his life was a life of service given to his fellowmen. It was exceptional not only in the count of its years but in its breadth and fullness and the beneficent activities with which it was crowned. In his state he was connected with events which have left an indelible impress upon the history of the common- wealth. In his profession his ability advanced him far beyond mediocrity and gained him the recog- nition of the ablest members of the medical fra- ternity in Illinois, and yet in his long professional career the motive spring of his service was his broad humanitarianism and his desire to do the utmost possible for his fellowmen. Perhaps the best characterization and summary of the life of Dr. Boal has been given by Dr. J. H. Morron, who said of him, "A learned and skillful physician, Dr. Boal was also a distinguished citizen-one of the founders of the party which for the last forty years has dominated and shaped our national af- fairs, and to which belongs the glory of our eman- cipation, reconstruction and expansion politics. His patriotism was kindled while yet a child, amid the fires of the war of 1812, and continued intense and burning to the last. He was a man of remark- able balance and poise, free from eccentricity and warp-firin without obstinacy, gentle without weakness, sane and vigorous in every faculty. He was familiar not merely with the science of his profession, but with general literature, and his capacious and keen mind was stored with varied and enriching knowledge. He wrote with rare clearness, force and elegance, and has left beliind papers of permanent value. But above everything else was the man himself-his refinement of na- ture, his sterling character, his cultivated gracious manners, his sincerity and loyalty, his geniality, kindness and universal good will."
COLONEL GREENBURY L. FORT.
Colonel Greenbury L. Fort, of Lacon, who de- parted this life January 13, 1883, was for a long period a member of the Marshall county bar and left the impress of his individuality, clear under- standing and masterful grasp of problems upon the law-making bodies of state and nation. Time
4. L York
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tests the merit of all things, and while Colonel Fort in his modesty to a large degree shunned fame and prominence, subsequent events have proven the clearness of his conception and the breadth of his wisdom in regard to legislative ineasures which have had direct and beneficial ef- fect upon the history of the country. A native of Ohio, he was born in French Grant, Scioto county. near Portsmouth, October 17, 1825, and was de- scended from a family which in its lineal and col- lateral branches has been distinctively American through many generations. His first ancestor in this country was Roger Fort, born about 1675 at Pemberton, Burlington county, New Jersey There are now three distinct branches of the fam- ily in the United States- in New Jersey, Illinois and Georgia. Family records show that a large percentage of the Forts have been professional men and that they have been represented in every American war.
In his early boyhood days Greenbury Fort ac- companied his parents to Marshall county, Illinois. where the family home was established amid pion- eer surroundings in April, 1834. He assisted in the arduous task of developing new land and improved the educational opportunities afforded him, supplementing a public school course by study in the Rock River Seminary. The years of his early manhood were devoted to teaching school and reading law, and following his admission to the bar in 1860 he presented his first brief in Wood- ford county court, where Senator David Davis was judge and Abraham Lincoln the opposing counsel. His clientage soon became large and of a distinctively representative character. Thor- oughness was ever one of his salient characteristics and was manifest in his preparation of a case and its presentation before the court.
Allied with the whig party from the time when age gave to him the right of franchise, he became a recognized leader in the ranks of the party and was first called to office in 1850 by election to the position of sheriff. He served successively as county clerk, county attorney and county judge being elected to the last named position in 1857 The following year he was married, on the 25th of May, to Miss Clara E. Boal, a daughter of Dr. Robert Boal, and entered upon a home life which was largely ideal.
He continued in practice until April, 1861, when he responded to the first call for volunteers
enlisting for three months' service. He had been a close student of the momentous questions which led up to the outbreak of hostilities and his course was based upon well formulated opinions, result- ing from a comprehensive understanding of the existing conditions. He was chosen lieutenant of Company B, Eleventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry and on the expiration of his term returned home and recruited another company, of which he was chosen captain. He took the men to the front at his own expense and entered active field service. Following the battle of Fort Donelson, in which he participated, he was appointed quartermaster by President Lincoln, a position of great trust in- volving the success of movements in the field of the utmost importance. He served in the Army of the Tennessee on field and staff duty and was chief quartermaster of the Fifteenth Army Corps on the march to the sea. After the grand review in Washington he was ordered to Texas and re- mained in the service until mustered out at Gal- veston with the rank of colonel, in the spring of 1866.
Following his return home Colonel Fort resumed the practice of law, but was soon called again to public life, being elected to the Illinois state sen- ate in 1866. In 1872 he was elected to congress, re-elected in 1874, in 1876 and 1878. Refusing longer to serve, he retired to private life. His most important public service was in connection with the solution of the resumption problem and to him was due the remonetization of silver. With a mind trained in the severest school of investi- gation and to which close reasoning had become habitual and easy, he took up the study of the money question and time has vindicated his posi- tion and proven his keen foresight.
Refusing to serve longer in the legislative halls of the nation he returned to his home in Lacon concentrating his energies upon his private busi- ness interests. He wisely placed his capital in the safest of all investments-real estate-and became the owner of farming interests in Mar- shall county and in Nebraska.
Perhaps one of the strongest traits of his char- acter was his innate modesty and his freedom from all ostentation and display. Through his own efforts he won success but was ever approachable and kindly, willing to accord to any one the cour- tesy of an interview. His acquaintance with men of national fame was great, yet he never sought
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their influence in his own behalf. His strength lay in his integrity and his known ability and willingness to help others. He was at once gentle and strong-the gentleness of courtesy and cult- ure, the strength of high purpose, honorable prin- ciples and fidelity. For more than thirty years he was prominent in the public life of his county. state and nation and in the discharge of every duty entrusted to him displayed rare zeal, consummate ability, unwavering fidelity and sterling integrity which inspired universal confidence and respect A fitting and deserved encomium is found in the words of Shakespeare:
"His life was gentle and the elements
So mixed in him that Nature might stand up And say to all the world: "This was a man.'"
COLONEL ROBERT BOAL FORT.
Colonel Robert Boal Fort, who through the period of his comparatively brief but intense active and useful life was termed "the foremost citizen of Mar- shall county," was born April 26, 1867, in Lacon, Illinois, the only son of Colonel Greenbury Lafay- ette and Clara (Boal) Fort. During his father's official service in Washington, D. C., he began his education, which was later continued in Wyman Institute and Exeter Academy. He completed his studies abroad and in various visits to the old world gained that wide knowledge and general culture which only travel can bring. He prepared for the bar but never engaged in active practice. He was the owner of landed possessions in Illinois and Nebraska and in the control of farming oper- ations in both states he displayed discrimination and executive ability. Through careful manage- ment his wealth was augmented and he derived his greatest pleasure from its use in administering to the happiness and welfare of others. His be- neficence became almost proverbial and yet no man was more reticent concerning his kindly acts or free from ostentation in his charities. He never personally made mention of his benefactions but the story is told by the recipients of his kind- ness and in their hearts his memory is enshrined.
Robert Boal Fort stood as a splendid repre- sentative of the highest type of American manhood of the present age. He looked at life from the broad standpoint of citizenship and of individual responsibility and brought to bear upon all the questions with which the public mind is con-
cerned the thorough understanding which comes from close study, combined with a sense of per- sonal responsibility. This was one of the strong elements in his political service. His maternal grandfather was one of the founders of the repub- lican party in Illinois. His father was representa- tive from his district in the legislative councils of the nation and in the state senate, and from his boyhood Robert Fort was imbued with the deepest interest in the important issues which divide the two great parties. At the age of twenty-one he was a county central committeeman, filling that position until his election, in 1895, to the office of mayor of Lacon. Before the expiration of his two years' term he was elected to represent the twentieth senatorial district in the state senate thus becoming the successor of his grandfather and father in the legislative halls of the common- wealth. During the period of his service in the scnate, covering altogether seven years, he was con- nected with much important constructive legisla- tion, showing his thorough understanding of the needs and possibilities of the state in its various lines of material development and political progress.
In 1898, a few days after the destruction of the Maine, Colonel Fort visited Cuba and after a brief stay in Havana made a tour through the provinces of Matansas and Santa Clara, spending some time with the Cuban insurgents. Learning that war was imminent between his country and Spain he returned to the United States and raised a troop of cavalry. He made every effort to secure an order for his men to go to the front, but only succeeded in advancing as far as Chickamauga. Following the election of Governor Yates he was made colonel of the First Illinois Cavalry and a colonel on the personal staff of the governor. At the time of his death he was prominently men- tioned as candidate for lieutenant governor and had he lived would undoubtedly have received the nomination. In his political service he manifested none of that ultra-conservatism which has ham- pered the efforts of many political leaders, but stood as an exponent of the spirit of the times which recognizes changing conditions and seeks legislation which will eradicate existing evils, bring about needed reforms and anticipate future de- mands. These qualities, together with his recog- nized devotion to the highest standards of political
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