USA > Illinois > Marshall County > Past and present of Marshall and Putnam Counties, Illinois > Part 9
USA > Illinois > Putnam County > Past and present of Marshall and Putnam Counties, Illinois > Part 9
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been married about a year before to a widow of the neighborhood who was of a rather shrewish nature, but Wyley was a large, strong man, weigh- ing probably 180 pounds while she was quite a small woman, possibly weighing 110 pounds or so. After Wyley was missed search was made but nothing could be found. It was suspected his wife might have killed him while in a drunk- en sleep, but what she had done with the body was a poser. Her story was that Mike had come home, said he had a telegram to come to St. Louis, where he had a brother, had changed his clothes and went out saying that he was going to meet the early train. While she was strongly suspected of the killing there was no proof of his being dead and nothing was donc about it. Sev- eral years afterward it is said some bones were found in the bluffs about four miles below Spar- land, which it is said "were identified as the re- mains of Mike Wyley," though a thorough search of the entire country had been made at the time of his disappearance without revealing a single suspicious circumstance.
The disappearance of Washington Orr a year or two later raised a great excitement. Mr. Orr was a farmer owning a large farm one mile and a half south of the county farm. He was a member of one of the most prominent families of the county and a brother-in-law of Amasa Garrett, the foremost man of Steuben township. One afternoon he went to Sparland and about five o'clock was seen to start for home carrying a gallon can of kerosene oil. That was the last seen of him by anyone who would tell, and what be- came of him remains a mystery to this day. He was married and had a wife and two daughters, girls of about twelve and fourteen years of age at that time. The widow and daughters lived on the place for six or seven years and then moved to Iowa we believe, and the place was sold to a man by the name of John Hunt. If they knew what became of the husband and father they made no sign and not the slightest hint of what became of Washington Orr has ever transpired.
CHAPTER XVI.
RICHLAND TOWNSHIP.
Richland is a full township of thirty-six sec- tions, laying between Lacon on the west and Belle Plain township on the east, its government desig-
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nation being township 29 N., 2 W., 3d P. M. The township is traversed through its southern part by Crow creek and a number of branches which empty into it and the entire southern half of the township is much cut up with hills and hollows, at one time covered with timber, which in later years has been to a great extent cut out, the land cleared of brush and stumps and placed under cultivation. The northern part of the town- ship consists of a beautiful fertile prairie which in early days was called "Round Prairie." The com- bination of timber, water and prairie furnished by the peculiar lay of the land along the edge of Round Prairie held out great inducements to set- tlers and we find them seeking homes here in an early day.
The first visitor to this section was John Strawn, who later became a colonel in the Black Hawk war. He came prospecting in 1828 and brought his family and made a permanent settlement about three miles east of Lacon in 1829. The next to make their homes in what was then a wilderness, so far as white men were concerned, were Robert Barnes and his brother-in-law, James Dever, who came in the fall of 1829. They got out the logs for a cabin and on November 18, 1830, they raised it, put on the roof and slept in it that night. Next day they put up a stick chimney and laid the puncheon floor. The chimney, however, had only been finished to the roof when a snow storm coming on prevented their finishing it. They had been in the country a year and during the year several families had settled farther into the woods and from this time on the country settled up rap- idly. H. B. Barnes came in 1834, as did Samuel M. Kilgore. John Dever came in 1833 and lo- cated near his brother James. Robert Iliff and Joseph Burt located about the same time and John Williams and Allen Gray came in 1834, as did Archibald Johnson. Benjamin Fort also come in 1834 and located near the Devers, who were brothers of his wife. He was the father of Greenbury L. Fort, for many years congressman from this district, and grandfather of Robert L. Fort of later memory. Abraham Keedy came in 1834 and Hoel Doddy about the same time. The Remleys, father and son, Woodford Fisher, and William Spangler came in 1835, as did James Work and Andrew Jackson, so that by 1840 the township was pretty thickly settled, more so, in fact, than any other part of Marshall county, and, what was more, most of the settlers raised
large families, eight, nine and ten children being about the usual size of the family.
Although schools had been kept in Richland since 1837 the first school census was taken in 1840 and it gave 135 children of school agc. In 1843 the number had increased to 227 and in 1851 to 342.
The first preaching in the township was by Rev. William Royal, a Methodist preacher, in the cabin of Mrs. Bland, in 1831. The next year Rev. Jesse Hall, the pastor on the Pekin circuit, preached occasionally at the cabin of Mr. James Dever, on the prairie, and also in that of Timothy Owens, on the creek, and the next year the Rev. Zadoc Hall, who followed him kept the appoint- ments and organized a class of which Robert Barnes was chosen leader-a position he held for many years.
About this time Mr. James Dever organized the first Sunday school in Marshall county. The meetings were held in the double cabin of James Dever until, in 1844, a school house was built near Timothy Owens' place and they were held in that till the building of Phelps chapel, in 1853. Phelps chapel was dedicated by Rev. J. W. Flowers and named, at the suggestion of Rev. Zadoc Hall, the pastor, "Phelps chapel," after Ashael E. Phelps.
One of the principal forts, as it was the larg- est built at the time of the Black Hawk war, was in this neighborhood. Rumors of massacres by the Indians were coming in every day, though when traced up were found to be false, yet they kept the few inhabitants, especially the women and children, in a constant state of alarm and the husbands and fathers shared their fears. One day, after a hearty scare, all the men in the neigh- horhood started in to build a stockade that would at least afford some protection. The stockade was built around the cabin of Mr. Dever and was de- signed by Robert Bird, Sr., the only man who had ever seen a stockade or blockhouse. To this place all came at night-men, women and children. About one acre was enclosed by the stockade. There was, however, but few men around the fort, except at night, the greater part of them had gone on duty as rangers to meet the Indians, and during the day the greater part of those left were at work upon their farms, so that the women had to depend largely upon themselves; but they were brave and though they received two or three scares kept up their courage nobly to the end. Fortunately the Indians committed no depreda-
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tions east of the river and as there was no one living west of the river Marshall county was not molested by them.
About 1850 an atrocious murder roused the peo- ple of Richland. A man by the name of William McNeil had come into the township about 1830, married and settled there upon a farm about five miles northeast of Lacon, and was foully murdered while sleeping by being shot through the window.
His first wife had died and he had married again a widow of high temper and strong will, who had several children. The bringing of the two families of children together caused many bitter quarrels and the wife proposed to divide the property and separate, but to this he was bit- terly opposed. One morning he was found dead in his bed. He had been shot through a window about three feet from where he lay and two balls had entered his head, killing him instantly. It was later discovered that the weapon used was a musket he had himself carried when a soldier. It was of the old flintlock pattern and, part of the lock being gone, had been touched off with a coal of fire. A curious circumstance connected with the incident was that the weapon that it was certain the crime was committed with could not be found till John Jason, a near neighbor, dreamed it was hid in a certain place between the outer wall and plastering in the house, and, going to the place of the dream, found it.
Mrs. McNeil was suspected of the crime and several circumstances pointed strongly to her as the criminal. She was arrested, but when brought to trial she was defended by Burns & Bangs, two brilliant lawyers of Lacon, and the jury brought in a verdict of "not guilty."
A rather good story is told of John Strawn, the pioneer settler of Marshall county, and his brother, Jacob Strawn, who lived near Jacksonville and a few years ago was considered the largest cattle raiser and dealer in Illinois. Both the brothers were "sharp dealers" and would take advantage if they could in a trade, but otherwise were strict- ly honest. When the lands came into market John Strawn wanted to "enter" his lands, but had little money, though he had several fine horses to dis- pose of, so he concluded to see Jacob on his way to Springfield and sell the horses to him, as he knew he would want them. During the evening "Jake" found out just how much John was short and when the sale came up in the morning that
was all he would offer for them, though they were worth considerable more. John demurred at the price, but it was all his brother would give and as he wanted the land he took it, though with rather bad grace.
. One season was an extremely cold and backward one and but little good corn was raised. John had about forty acres of good corn and about a hundred more that was not. Jacob, as crops in his vicinity were very poor, wrote to John ask- ing how they were with him. John wrote back that he had one hundred and fifty acres of good corn and for him to come up and see it for him- self, and when he came took him out and showed him the good corn and led him around in such a way that they kept coming into the good corn without seeing the poor and Jacob supposed it was all the same quality through the field, so he bought the field at a good round price for good corn and later sent up a herd of cattle under a trusty man. The forty acres were soon consumed and then the cattle began to grow poor and the man wrote to Mr. Strawn about it. He at once saw that he had been tricked and began to up- braid his brother. John admitted the sharp prac- tice, but said : "It's all right, brother ; it's all right. We are even now and after this we'll trade fair."
Although John Strawn was the first settler in this county, his son Enoch, a boy seven years old when his father came, died this summer (1906). What a wonderful transformation has taken place in the county during the lifetime of a single per- son.
Although Richland is more diversified with hills and hollows, even the prairie being quite rolling, it must not be supposed it is the poorest township in the county, far from it. It is doubtful if an- other township contains so many finely cultivated farms, so many spacious and beautiful farmers' homes, and so many capacious barns and other signs of prosperity as Richland.
Through the southern part of the township runs the Santa Fe railroad and at a station a little town called Wilburn has been built. It consists of one or two stores, a postoffice, a blacksmith shop and repair shop and a few houses, but is much used by the farmers as a shipping point for grain and stock.
Not far from the track of the railroad the Standard Oil Company has laid a pipe line the past year, to carry oil from the Kansas oil fields to their refineries in Whiting, Indiana. They have
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MARSHALL AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
also established a pumping station in the town- ship and are erecting buildings and installing machinery to the amount of forty or fifty thou- sand dollars, so that the taxes assessed against it will materially lessen the taxation of the farmers. The village of Washburn lays partly in the town- ship, giving the residents of the southeastern por- tion of Richland the privilege of their excellent school, and also the church privileges. For the rest of the township two churches and six school houses give ample educational and religious privi- leges. A fine town hall stands near the center of the township.
CHAPTER XVII.
BELLE PLAIN TOWNSHIP.
Belle Plain township lies directly east of Rich- land township, its government designation being township 29, 1 W. of the 3d P. M. It contains thirty-six, full sections. It is mostly prairie but the source of Crow creek being near its north- eastern border and consequently traversing its en- tire width and the numerous small branches which act as feeders for it make the land somewhat broken and rolling, but it is very fertile and some of the finest farms in the county are in Belle Plain township. The Santa Fe railroad follows the valley of Crow creek and so passes nearly diagonally through the township, entering from the west on the northwest quarter of section 19 and passing out on the east in northeast quarter of section 12. The Washington branch of the Chicago & Alton also traverses nearly the entire length of the township north and south, entering on the northwest quarter of section 31 and pass- ing out on the northwest quarter of section 4. On the northwest quarter of the northwest quar- ter of section 16 is the village of La Rose, located on the Chicago & Alton railroad, and is about three-quarters of a mile north of the Santa Fe railroad, which maintains a station just south of La Rose. La Rose, or, as it was then called, Montrose, was laid out in September, 1870. It has never had a boom, but has had a healthy and steady growth. It contains quite a number of fine residences and several stores, shops, etc. as well as a bank, mill, elevator, a fine graded school, a postoffice and churches, all the usual buildings in a thriving and flourishing village.
It is quite a shipping point for the farmers and large quantities of grain and stock are bought and shipped from there. The farms and country sur- rounding it are fully equal to any in the county.
The first church in the village was built in 1872, at a cost of $1,500, and the next year a parsonage costing $1,100 was built. The church was dedicated June 14, 1872, by Rev. Johnson.
The village is also graced by a very neat town hall, built by the township and used for township purposes. Of the other churches there is a Lu- theran church, which has a large congregation drawn from the Swedish residents, of which there are many in the vicinity. They support a resi- dent minister, have a fine parsonage, and cemetery attached to the church.
Situated on section 35 in the southeast corner of the township is a little village laid out in 1856 named Pattonsburg, named after the proprietor. It contains a store, postoffice, blacksmith shop and a good school house. Near it are also two churches, a Baptist church, built in 1858, about a half-mile west of the town. It is a house of good size, with not much in the way of ornament, but is neat and comfortable.
As early as 1839 preachers of the Methodist persuasion began to hold meetings in and around Pattonsburg. At first the services were held in the school house in winter and in barns in the summer until 1859, when a small building was put up about a quarter of a mile north of the vil- lage. This was burned down in the winter of 1867. When the church was rebuilt it was erected in the village. It is a very neat building, capable of seating comfortably about three hundred per- sons, has comfortable pews, a good organ and the entire furnishing is neat and tasty. There is also a well kept cemetery near the village.
About two miles east of Pattonsburg, is or was, for it has now mostly disappeared, a small grove in which the first settler in Belle Plain, James Martin, built a cabin in 1829. He was soon followed by others, for Samuel Hawkins came in 1830, Thomas Bennington in 1831, Jerry Black, Pierce Perry and Joseph and Robert Bennington in 1832, Daniel Hollenback in 1833, Nathan Pat- ton in 1834 and John Willson, Forsythe Hatton, James Clemens, David Hester and William Hen- dricks a year or two later, and then came others, so that in the neighborhood of Crow crcek, so early as 1840, there was quite a strong settlement.
In 1836 the settlers around the grave built a
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school house where their children were taught the rudiments of education. It was about the first thought of the early pioncers of Illinois after getting fairly settled in their homes, to provide means for the education of their children. There was no public fund in those days to draw from -money was very scarce and they had but little to get it with even at that, but they put up build- ings, crude and rude, to be sure, but as good as most of them were living in themselves. The fam- ilies were widely scattered and often the children were obliged to go two or three miles and some- times more to attend them.
Next to their anxiety for school houses they felt the necessity of churches and though the school house was made to do for a house of worship for awhile a few years later they would build in their midst a neat, commodious church.
While it might not be just right to pronounce Belle Plain township the best in the county, one thing is certain, no other township surpasses it in the fertility of its soil or in the quality and quantity of its productions.
It is probably, taken as a whole, the most beau- tiful and pleasing to the eye, having neither the flat, plane-like surface of the pure prairie nor the bold hills of the river bluffs, but a surface com- posed of gentle undulations, full of small brooks and groves, though the latter are fast being eradi- cated to improve the pasturage.
CHAPTER XVIII. ROBERTS TOWNSHIP.
Roberts township is named after its first set- tler, Jesse Roberts, who divides the honor of be- ing the pioneer settler of Marshall county with Colonel John Strawn, both coming in the same year-1828.
It lays directly north of Belle Plain and its government designation is township 30 N., 1 west of the 3d P. M. The township contains thirty-six full sections, or 23,040 acres of land. The southern portion of it is prairie, but through the northern portion which is traversed by Sandy creek, the country is more rolling, in some places quite rougli and covered with timber.
The entire township is well watered, numerous branches or small streams traversing every part of it and over a great part of it was a fine growth of timber while patches of prairie lay between
the numerous runs. It was an ideal home for the early settlers, for there they found that which they desired most, all in close connection-wood, water, and easily cultivated land.
The first settlers, Jesse and Livingston Rob- erts, came here, as we have said, in 1828. They were followed in 1829 by Dr. J. Gaylord, Abel Eastabrook and Horace Gaylord. The year 1830 saw their numbers increased by Enoch Dent, George Morton, G. H. Shaw and William Cowan. In 1831 came Samuel Redmond and Eli Red- mond. In 1832, David Myers, Charles S. Ed- wards, David Stoteler, Samuel Beckwith, William McMillan, Jerry Hartenbower and John Myers. After 1835 the township settled more rapidly and by 1840 was quite thickly settled, more so than any other township in the county, and some of the names have been among the most illustrious the county has produced.
Passing through the township from east to west is the western division of the Chicago & Alton railroad. It enters at the center of section 25 and thence due east through the centers of sections 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30.
In the center of section 28 a branch, or what is really a part of the main line, runs nearly due south and goes to Peoria, while the part of the line running west from the junction is used as a branch road to Lacon.
At the junction on section 28 is located the flourishing village of Varna, which was laid out in September, 1870. The first building to be used as a store, was put up that fall by J. R. Brotherhood and as soon as the store was built he put up a residence for himself that same fall. Quite a number followed his example and by the next fall a goodly little village had sprung up, with the usual stores, shops, etc., that go to make up a thriving village. Since then the village has been slowly but surely growing. It now con- tains several stores, smith and wagon shops, lum- ber yard, two grain elevators two drug stores, hardware, carriage stores, two hotels, dealer in agricultural implements, doctors, etc., everything usually found in a well organized and flourish- ing village.
Besides these, there is a fine building where a graded school is maintained, equal in its effi- ciency to any in the county.
The school house is a frame structure, erected in 1870 by the school district, which accomodates about one hundred pupils, who are cared for by a
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MARSHALL AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
principal and three assistants, the school house being well adapted for using the graded system of teaching. Besides the fine school building there are four very creditable churches, German Luth- eran, Swedish Lutheran, German Methodist Epis- copal and Methodist churches.
About 1864 or 1865 colonies of Swedes began settling in the neighborhood of Varna and by 1866 began to hold public worship in their own faith. About 1873 or 1874 a very eloquent Swedish preacher held a revival which was attended with a good deal of success and a society was organized and in 1874 a church building twenty-five by seventy-two feet with an eighteen-foot ceiling was built and later neatly furnished with an organ, comfortable seats, etc., the cost being about $4,500, all raised by subscription. The member- ship is about 250. The society conducts an excel- lent Sunday-school.
The German Lutheran society is much smaller. They have, though, a neat church somewhat small- er than the other, costing about $2,300. It has a steeple and bell and a small organ and is com- fortably seated and kept in good condition.
The other churches with their societies are not as large but all are kept in good repair and are comfortable meeting houses.
Besides the school in Varna, Roberts township has five school houses in which are kept good schools about nine months in the year.
During the flush times of 1835 and 1836 there was a mania for laying out towns in this then new country. Money was plentiful and land more plentiful still and many eastern companies laid out towns-on paper-and expected to make for- tunes. Nearly, if not quite every township in Marshall county had one and some several of these paper towns laid out, but few of them ever amounted to anything and since all have been turned into cornfields.
A little history of Lyons, which met a fate typical of all of them, may be interesting.
In 1836 an eastern company residing in New York laid out a town near where Varna now stands, they called Lyons. They also entered within a radius of six or seven miles forty-six sections of land and assessed upon each quarter section twenty-five dollars to form a fund to build a house upon the land for a resident agent and for surveying, etc. The house was built with a hewn frame covered with hardwood lumber, the land laid off according to the plat by a surveyor.
and the agent moved into the house. The agent must have been pretty lonesome, for his nearest neighbors lived up on Sandy creek at the north, on Shaw's point on the south and in the neigh- borhood of Columbia or Lacon on the west, and no other house was ever built there. The hard times of 1837 coming on nothing more was done, the plat was never recorded nor were the streets and alleys ever dedicated to the public. The land was sold as acre property about 1847 and later, but no settler except William Green who went into the agent's house, ever settled upon the town lots, and by the time it was sold the original com- pany had passed out of existence. These paper towns were started as a mere matter of specula- tion. There was nothing to maintain them as towns and the only existence most of them had was in the flaming prospectuses and lurid descrip- tions that were written up by the promoters to induce people to buy the lots. Maps and litho- graphic prints showing location of factories, churches, parks, etc., were made and shown and hundreds of lots were sold in the east on the say-so of the smooth tongued agents, but not a house, unless built by the promoters, were ever built on the paper towns. But a very few of the plats were surveyed and still fewer of them ever recorded. It was the greatest season of specula- tion in the unknown the country ever experienced.
Other towns in this county which never ex- isted except on paper are Dorchester, about a mile below Henry on the river; Bristol, about a mile above Lacon ; Auburn, about half a mile north of Washburn; Centreville, twelve miles west of Hen- ry in the center of Saratoga township; Troy City, about eight miles west of Lacon in La Prairie township; Chambersburg, seven miles west of Lacon and two miles north of Troy City. All these towns were brought into being in 1836. Not one of them ever had any inhabitants. Not only this section but the whole state was covered with these town sites.
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