USA > Illinois > Marshall County > Past and present of Marshall and Putnam Counties, Illinois > Part 7
USA > Illinois > Putnam County > Past and present of Marshall and Putnam Counties, Illinois > Part 7
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MARSHALL AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
R. 9 E. of the 4 P. M., and was named in honor of its first supervisor, John B. White. It is most- ly composed of extremely fine farming lands, on what is known as the High Prairie, and forms a part of the celebrated military tract.
The country in the extreme eastern part of the township consists of a system of rather bold bluffs that are underlaid with coal, which crops out in . many places, and large quantities of it are taken out by drifting into the sides of the hills. But the much greater part consists of fine rolling prairie lands, very fertile.
The town is bounded along its northern and eastern boundaries by Crow creek, which with slight deviations, follows the entire north and east boundary, turning abruptly at the northeast corner. The bluffs which are really the bank of the river, the Henry prairie being a kind of second bottom, were heavily timbered and the ravines with which they are intersected, in the early days gave protection to a gang of freebooters as well as being the home of many deer and wild turkeys.
The first settlers are supposed to be two broth- ers by the name of Reeves, who were living in Putnam county but came down and located a claim on Crow creek which lay partly in the prai- rie and partly in the timbered bluff. They re- mained but a short time and turned the claim over to their brother George, who did not come to live here till several years later and who be- came quite notorious as will be mentioned further on.
The first real settler in the township was War- ford Bonham. Mr. Bonham, generally known as Father Bonham, had a large family, some of whom were married. Mr. Bonham had come from Ohio in 1833 and stopped in Tazewell coun- ty. In the winter of 1834 and 1835 he and his sons-in-law, James Tanquary and John Haskins, coming across the river looking for locations, camc upon the. spot selected by Mr. Bonham. It was a beautiful little plain lying at the foot of the bluff with a gradual slope to the creek, contain- ing about one hundred acres in the extreme south- east corner of the township. The two sons-in-law found claims, on land not yet in market, a mile or so south of their father-in-law's, but ly- ing in what is now Steuben townsbip. They built cabins on their several claims and in the spring went down and brought up their families. All three of them remained on their claims till a good old age and died there.
A year or two later George Bonham made a claim a little further up the creek from his father, and Jerial, another son, a claim west, extending up on the bluffs.
In 1838 George Reeves came on the claim his brothers had taken some years before, and Wm. Rowe, the same year or a year later, settled still further up under the bluffs, with a fine piece of bottom land between him and the creek.
Between the years 1838 and 1845 a number of settlements were made in Whitefield. Richard Hunt, Abijah Lyon, Major Elias Thompson, Joseph Burr Bradley, Sampson Rowe, Chauncey Barnes, Samuel Coleman and David Fanning had located just at the edge of the bluff, while Hiram Kellogg had located on thic creek. The beautiful prairie land that formed about three-fourths of the township had as yet no settlers on it. It was thought to be too far from wood and water.
About 1840 a man named Hale built a sod house well out in the prairie, but lived in it but a short time. This afterward fell into the hands of Lucas and Charles Martin, brothers-in-law of Chauncey Barnes. They put up a good log house and it was occupied for a year or two by Charles, who was married, Lucas living with him, when they sold out and went to Iowa.
From 1846 the township began to fill more rapidly. In the more eastern part of the township came George Burt, and Horace Spencer came in 1846. Joseph Robertson built a little farther out on the prairie and William Underwood came there a year or two later. At an early date, prob- ably not far from 1840, a family by the name of Mallory settled in the extreme northeastern part of the township.
Along on the northern line about 1840 a num- ber settled, Timothy Atwood, George Bidwell, the Heustes family, Swifts and others. About 1850 a number of families came from West Vir- ginia and bought farms in' the western part of Whitefield and eastern Saratoga. Joseph Ray, Adam and James Faris, Joseph Buchanan, Eddy Stewart and Mr. Gaston, Zephaniah Bell, a family by the name of Henderson, Joseph Morri- son, William Beeks and others. These people were all Presbyterians and as soon as they became fair- ly settled in their new home they set about organ- izing a society, and in 1857 built a house to wor- ship in. It was of brick, and while not large it accommodated them very well. About this time came the Bursons, Nighswangers, John Taylor,
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MARSHALL AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
the Platters, Harvey Allen and others, who were Christians or Campbellites. They also organized a society and built a frame church a mile south and a mile east, in which they held services for several years. Just a mile east of the Christian church, on the farm of Edward Burson, the Bap- tists built a neat little church. But many of the members of these congregations moving west and others dying the societies dwindled till there was no more support for a pastor and at last the meetings were entirely abandoned, the build- ings sold and either pulled down or moved off and now not a vestige marks the spot where either of the three churches stood. Neither is there a person living there who used to attend them nor hardly a descendant of the families.
About 1862 members of the Methodist Episco- pal church formed a society and built what is known as the Whitefield Center church. Services are maintained regularly and it is in a flourishing condition. There is a cemetery attached which is looked after and is kept in good order. The cemeteries attached to the other churches have been abandoned and most of the bodies taken up and reburied, most of them in the M. E. ceme- tery or Center, as it is called.
We are not certain when the first school house was built in Whitefield, but it is true that schools were begun there at a very early date. About 1847 or 1848 a school was taught in an abandoned cabin just east of George Burt's farm by Miss Clarissa Thompson, a daughter of Major Elias Thompson. About 1850 the inhabitants around Sugar Grove petitioned to be set off as a school district, which was done. It was called District No. 1 and the next year a school house was built on a hill just west of the grove. Another school house was built not long after near Major Thompson's place. It was, however, a typical log cabin and quite small, but with an enormous fireplace and chimney. It was afterward replaced with a neat frame building. Quite a number of influential families moved into the Sugar Grove neighbor- hood about 1855. James and Smith P. Hill, John T. Smith, Harrison Gregory and others, and in 1867, when the Grove school was rebuilt, the site was moved one half mile west of the old location. Later, as the prairie filled with settlers, school houses were built in other places, one at Burson's, one at Dunlap's, one near Merrett's, one at the northwest corner of the township, one near Henry Ham's, called the Redtown, and one
on Section 16, called Center. This for many years served as a town hall till about ten years ago, the township built a very nice and convenient town hall.
Whitefield had a sensation in 1845. It became a certainty that for some time a gang of thieves had been operating through this section of country, and it began to be suspected that George Reeves was making a harboring place for the. gang. Mr. Reeves' family consisted of himself and wife, four sons and a daughter, a very pretty and accomplished girl, the sons just coming into manhood.
Mr. Reeves himself was liked by every one. He was a good neighbor, always willing to assist, just in all his dealings and in every way quiet and gentlemanly in his behavior. But his sons were more than suspected of being engaged in petty pilfering about the neighborhood. Another thing that gave rise to suspicion was that Mr. Reeves had several cabins and outhouses, that could be used for sleeping rooms about the place, most of them back in the bushes out of sight from the road or house. Another thing was that he often had well dressed visitors come and stay there some times only for a day or so and some- times for weeks together. These gentlemen did not appear to have any business, a very suspicious circumstance at that time.
Mr. Reeves' place was admirably adapted for the purpose it was supposed to be used for-hid- ing stolen horses. His cabin was in the mouth of a large ravine through which ran a small creek ; high bluffs ran from it to the north and south which were seamed with smaller ravines and the whole covered with thick brush, plum thickets, etc. It was an ideal place for the purpose and a better one could not have been selected, while north and south the Crow creek bottoms near by were cov- ered with a rank growth of grass, from eight to ten feet long, and a man on horseback could not be seen ten feet away.
While there was not much horse stealing or heavy robbery done in this immediate neighbor- hood, word came from other places of numerous cases and where the parties were captured they were either bailed out and not heard of again or made out to get clear by the aid of confederates.
Cameron Reeves, the oldest son, had been caught in one or two robberies, and was even then in hiding, having escaped from the officers after the robbery of a store in Hennepin. The whole
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MARSHALL AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
country was roused by the numerous robberies and it was determined to squelch the Reeves gang. A committee was appointed to notify Mr. Reeves to meet them the next day at Council Grove, a small grove about three miles southwest of Henry and a mile or so east of the Reeves place. It is said to have been a place where the Indians at times held councils.
It will give some idea of the excitement at the time when it is known that, notwithstanding the scattered inhabitants, three hundred men were gathered at the grove, coming from Princeton, Tiskilwa, Peoria and all around for thirty or forty miles. They came on horseback and almost every man carried his rifle, as was the custom. The old man was very quiet about the matter, saying he was innocent of wrong doing and expressed his willingness to meet with the committee; but his wife stormed like a tiger robbed of her young. The next day, prompt to the time specified, Reeves came riding up to where the people were as- sembled. The meeting was organized by appoint- ing Hall S. Gregory chairman. Dr. Swanzy, a fiery Irish doctor from Tiskilwa, who bore an ex- cellent reputation as a physician, made a speech and after recounting the many crimes that had been committed urged the extermination of Reeves and the entire gang. His speech was received with approval by many in the crowd and Mr. Reeves would have been shot to pieces had not the chairman shielded him with his own body. Dr. Boal, of Lacon, replied in a more temperate speech, advising moderation in dealing with Mr. Reeves, giving him time to settle up his business and leave the country, but when several wished to know if the doctor would go security for their good behavior he declined, and was told to "sit down."
Mr. Reeves plead his own case and appealed to those who knew him if they had ever found any- thing wrong or dishonest in him. After the talk of Mr. Reeves, which had mollified the crowd somewhat, Dr. Temple, of Chillicothe, spoke, ad- vising a middle course and the appointment of a committee of twelve to take Mr. Reeves and his family in charge and see that they were sent out of the country. A majority of those present were in favor of this and the crowd, led by the com- mittee, and accompanied by Reeves went to his house. Purchasers were found for the stock, and the household goods loaded upon wagons, and then fire was applied to the cabin and soon noth-
ing remained of it but a pile of ashes. The fam- ily was then escorted to the river bank and kept under guard till the arrival of a steamboat from, above, when they were put aboard and warned never to return. It was thought by some that the old lady did return several months after to secure some hidden treasure, but it may be only a story.
The lesson then received appears to have been a salutary one. The family went into the country that is now Omaha. Sophronia, the daughter, married A. D. Jones, the founder of Omaha, and its first postmaster. They were wealthy and re- spected and Mrs. Jones moved in the first society. Cameron, the oldest son, was elected the first sher- iff of the county and it is said made a faithful and efficient officer. The other sons became well to do and raised respectable families, except the youngest, who ruined himself by drink and died of dissipation.
Whitefield is the only township in Marshall county west of the river that bears the distinc- tion, though it is not an enviable one, of having a wilful murder committed within its borders.
March 18, 1854, George Bonham, having de- termined to move to Chicago, was holding a sale. A number of men sent a boy to Henry for a jug of whiskey, then costing twenty-five cents a gal- lon. The whiskey was brought and drank and the usual effects followed. John Organ and an- other man got into a quarrel. William Organ, his brother, who was perfectly sober, tried to persuade him to go home, when James Shinn came up behind him and plunged a large clasp knife into his side. Organ died in a few minutes. The murder, so far as Shinn was concerned, was en- tirely unprovoked. He was captured and after a long and costly trial was sentenced to the peni- tentiary for three and a half years, the sentence giving universal dissatisfaction.
Whitefield is a township of farms. Almost every acre is tillable and the land after being farmed for a half century is still producing large crops of corn and oats. Unlike any other town- ship in the county it is not traversed by a rail- road nor has it a town in it. There is a place they call Whitefield corners where there is a store or two, a blacksmith shop, a church, a resi- dent doctor and several residences, but it is not in Whitefield or even in Marshall county. It is all over the line in Bureau county, except the school house.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MARSHALL AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
CHAPTER XIII.
SARATOGA TOWNSHIP.
Saratoga township is located in the northwest corner of Marshall county and on the government maps is Town 13 N., R 8, E. of the 4th P. M. It is almost entirely a level prairie except a strip along its northern border, which is rolling and somewhat broken. Saratoga, although it contains some of the finest land in the county, consequently the finest anywhere, was one of the last to be settled in the county. In 1850, the year of town- ship organization, a man by the name of J. A. J. Smith came up from Peoria county and put up a house on the land now occupied by Joseph Harrington. There were no settlers in Whitefield at the time between his place and the strip of bluffs along which the inhabitants of Whitefield were located, and they thought he was a very foolish man, as they did not think he could live there, which shows how little was really known of the prairies in those days.
However Mr. Smith did manage to exist there and was so well pleased with his location that when, in the fall, he went down to his old home in Peoria county he was so enthusiastic over it that the next spring there was quite an influx of settlers came up from there.
Among them were Jonas and Samuel Divilbiss, Archibald and Hugh McVicker, Mason and Henry Seclye, and a little later came many others, John C. Townsend, Ira Torrey, Peter Smith, the Lytles and others.
Some time before Smith settled a man by the ' name of Stout had a cattle ranch on section 16. It was far removed from anybody and it was thought Mr. Stout had settled there for a pur- pose. He was a buyer of cattle and it was al- leged that when driving cattle through the settle- ments he was not careful in separating the cattle along the road from his own herd but would drive all along together. When cattle were found with him he was very profuse in his apologies and asserted his ignorance. Many cattle were missed from time to time and so much feeling was cre- ated that he abandoned it and moved up near Bureau. The writer, then a boy about fourteen, accompanied a Mr. Richardson, an elderly Eng- lish gentleman, out there to look for a fine year- ling he had lost. It was about seven miles right across the prairie. We went on horseback and we thought it an awful long ride.
When we arrived there Mr. Stout was very
polite, did not think an animal answering the description was there; in fact was sure of it, etc. It appears the calf had been raised by hand and the two old people had made a pet of it. When Mr. Richardson pointed out the animal, which was a fine year-old calf, Mr. Stout was sure that was not Mr. Richardson's animal, could not possibly be; but when Mr. Richardson called "Rosie," "Rosie," the calf raised its head, stood for a moment or two and then came trotting up to him, there was no longer any question as to the owner- ship of the animal, and Mr. Stout was one of the most crestfallen men it has been my lot to see.
It had been supposed in the early days that the most of the land in Saratoga was too low and wet for successful cultivation and in fact there was, a little west of the center, a lake or pond covering nearly a section, the land bordering on it producing a large slough grass and blue stem as high as a man's head or higher.
It was a great place for game, the lake taking the name of Goose lake from the number of wild geese that alighted in it. It was also a great place for deer to hide, and parties of men would go with horses through the tall grass and drive out the deer which they would shoot as they ran out.
After Saratoga began to be settled others came pouring in and in 1857 the township was organ- ized under the township organization law and was given the name Saratoga, said to have been sug- gested by George Scholes and others from the famous watering place of that name. John C. Townsend was elected the first supervisor. By 1860 nearly every available farm was taken up and cultivated, to a greater or less extent, the land proving to be extremely fertile, though ter- ribly muddy in the spring, the roads being almost, if not quite, impassable; but the immense crops of corn and oats in the fall amply repaid them for the temporary inconvenience. About 1879 the owners of the land on which the lake was situated employed an engineer to sce if it was feasible to drain it. He found there was sufficient fall so that it could be drained at a reasonable expense, and the next year a ditch was dug and the water turned into Hickory creek, which is a part of Crow creek, the one that flows between Henry and Whitefield townships and empties into the Illinois river a few miles below Henry.
As a rather curious circumstance the lake is on the highest land in Saratoga township. It is fed by springs and near it is the source of several
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MARSHALL AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
small streams, which uniting form in one direc- tion the Crow creek which flows west of Henry, and in the other the larger Senachwine creek which empties into the Illinois just above Chilli- cothe.
Now where the water onee stood the year round are found some of the most prolific corn- fields in the county.
One of the earliest settlers in Saratoga was an Irishman by the name of Grady who settled near a small grove in the southwest corner of the township called Camping Grove, from the fact of its being the only grove near there and it was a sort of landmark as well as a camping place. It may have been this fact that prompted the wily Irishman to this location, for he built a large house for the times, and kept travelers whenever called upon. He was a jolly, good natured fellow and quite popular. It may have been this fact that prompted quite a number of his countrymen to settle in the southwestern part of the township as they did. Quite a little town sprang up-at least there was a store, a blacksmith shop, a post- office, and it became a general resort for the farmers around of an evening.
About 1870 the Irish Catholics built a very nice church large enough for their purposes. It had quite a congregation and was supplied part of the time by a priest from Henry and part of the time one from Lacon. The church was located about one half mile east of Camping Grove.
There is also a Methodist Episcopal church near the center of the township, but we have no data as to when it was built. It has been there for sev- eral years and is in a flourishing condition. There is also a very neat town hall which has been built for several years ; in fact, we think it was the first country town hall built on the west side of the river in the county.
In 1902 the North-Western Railroad built a branch from their main line to Peoria, running a little east of the west line of the township and upon it located two stations in Saratoga. One was established in the northwest corner of the township and named Broadmoor. It is only a station as yet, although considerable grain and live stock are shipped from there. There are two stores, an elevator and a blacksmith shop. The other in the southwest corner takes the old name of Camp Grove. The Catholics of the neighbor- hood have built a new church of considerable pre- tentions to size and elegance and have abandoned
the old one. There are several stores, a finc school house, two banks and two or three hundred in- habitants. A newspaper was established about two years ago called the Camp Grove News, edited by George Moulton, but the patronage was not sufficient for its support and though quite a newsy little paper the publisher, after running it a year, felt obliged to discontinue it.
Saratoga is well supplied with school houses, having. ten, in which school is kept from eight to ten months in the year. They pay very good wages and have good schools, but some of them are small. The government set aside the sixteenth section in every township for school purposes, but most of the townships sold at an early day, realizing but very little from them, most of them going at government price-$1.25 per acre. Sara- toga, however, held her school lands for awhile and they brought them $8.00 and $10.00 per acre, which gives them a fund that helps out with their schools to some extent.
Saratoga has thirty-six full sections, every foot of which is highly fertile and can be cultivated. It has no waste land and in that respect is prob- ably the best township in the county, possibly ex- cepting Bennington. The farmers, as might be expected, are highly prosperous, have fine resi- dences and large barns. They give their attention largely to raising corn and feeding hogs. Their lives are quiet and they are a happy, contented people.
CHAPTER XIV.
LA PRAIRIE TOWNSHIP.
La Prairie township occupies the southwest corner of Marshall county. It is Town 12 N., R. 8 E. of the 4th P. M., and is one of the very best townships in the county, being all a fine roll- ing prairie, well watered by numerous small runs or sloughs. All of it is in a high state of cul- tivation, more of the men who own the farms living on them than in any other township in the county, and as a consequence the land and build- ings are in better condition and better kept up.
At the time of the township organization the name Fairfield was given, but as this name was already in use the present name of La Prairie, which had been suggested as a second choice, was given it. It is very pretty and appropriate.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MARSHALL AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
The township forms part of the Military Tract, a large tract of land laid off by the government and given to the soldiers of 1812, each a quarter section. Very few of the soldiers settled upon them, many of the claims were bought for a few dollars, many sold for taxes, and many were settled upon by persons who had no title. Much confusion and litigation resulted and permanent settlement and improvements were much delayed.
The first settler in La Prairie was William Coulson, who came up from Peoria in 1832 and settled in the southeast part of the township on the road leading from Peoria to Galena in Sep- tember, 1832. He built a rather large double log cabin and kept a hotel for the entertainment of such as passed that way. In 1838 he built a much larger house about a half mile further up the road, keeping a hotel as before. This place was bought by the brothers, Archibald and Robert Riddle, the pioneers of the several Scotch fami- lies that later settled in the township and have done so much to make La Prairie "flourish like the greenbay tree and blossom like the rose."
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