USA > Illinois > Pike County > Past and present of Pike County, Illinois > Part 19
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about the only citizens that Grand Army posts were named after.
In 1862 when the Pikers of the Ninety-ninth were in Texas county, Missouri, S. S. Burdett, who was afterward commander of the national Grand Army of the Republic, was quartermaster for General Warren's brigade, he was called upon by a native who said, "Are you the quatamasta ? I come to get a voucha for some cohn you alls' men took from me." "How much?" asked Burdett. "Well, sah, there was a heap of it." "Well, how many bushels ?" "There was a great pile of it." "Was. it 100 or. 500 bushels?" "Well, sah, there was a right smart chance of it." "Well, I will give you a voucher for a right smart chance of corn," said the quartermaster, and that was the end of it. Another native asked for some powder and shot to shoot a few squirrels with, as his boy had the ager. I met Burdett in Washington a few years ago, and he was yet having fun at the thought of the yokels of the Ozarks.
"When I was a small lad I stopped one night at the house of Colonel Seeley, who was known as the 'easy sheriff' of Pike county. He earned the title by paying taxes for other men when he was sheriff and collector, they paying him when more convenient, and 'tis said he lost but little by ad- vancing for them. A good old-time story is told of a seeker for office meeting one of the voters, telling his mission and who he was. The voter said, 'I don't know you, never heard of you.' 'Why, you should know me. I am a son-in-law of Colonel Seeley.' The honest rustic said, 'Who the devil is Colonel Seeley?' But the son-in-law was elected all the same.
"After Colonel Barney, well known here as 'Uncle Ben,' left Atlas he made his home between New Canton and Kinderhook. He was a promi- nent and useful citizen, and a great friend of the Pike county soldiers of the Civil war. His son John was killed at Jackson, Mississippi, in 1863, a member of the Twenty-eighth Illinois. Pike county had another 'Uncle Ben,' B. D. Brown, of Barry, that will always be remembered as one of old Pike's grand old men."
"J. W. Reed was ferninst us'ns and was with Gen. John Morgan. He told a good story of a mother's kindness to him and three other Johnnies
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that were cut off from Morgan's men in Tennes- see in 1864. The good old soul fed and housed them, and kept them an extra day to rest up. When they left her cabin home in the Tennessee mountains she filled their haversacks with fried chicken, young squirrels and biscuits and butter. When the boys wanted to pay her out of what little Confederate money they had, she said no, she was only doing for them what she hoped some one would do for her boy.
"One of the listeners asked Reed where the good woman was. He said, 'In heaven.' The in- quirer said, 'How do you know?' 'Say, fellow, don't you think I know? Of course I do. All women of her kind are there, because she fed the hungry and did her duty in a way that in- sured her a crown of glory."
In the days when tramps first invaded old Pike, a weary walker canvassed New Canton and vicinity for all its people would hand out, and then wended his way to Barry. There he struck "Uncle Gumry and Dr. Baker. The first was rich in money; the other was rich in his jolly and generous ways, but did not have pennies where Uncle Gumry had dollars. Each gave the tramp half a dollar and Dr. Baker said,"My good man, you should be very grateful, as this poor man (Uncle G.) has given you as much as I." Both are on the other shore, but Barry and New Canton will long remember them for their good citizenship.
In 1859, an incident in regard to the way passers of counterfeit money did, occurred. A well-dressed and fine-looking man came here on horseback, stopped at the store of Amos Moore, bought a 25 cent saddlegirth, gave a $10 bill, took 'the change and departed. Mr. Morey dis- covered later that the bill was a counterfeit. Two weeks later he was in St. Louis and went down to see the morning boat come in, as he expected to meet a Barry man.
As he was going on the boat he saw the counterfeiter, and called his attention to the fact he had a bad bill he had passed on him up in Illinois. The fellow said, "I will see you in a moment and make it all right." "Now is the moment," said Mr. Morey, "and I insist that it be now attended to." The fellow was profuse 8
in apologies, said it was not intended, and gave him a new State Bank of Missouri $10 bill, the best bank in existence in wildcat money times, taking back his counterfeit.
After the close of the war a grand Charity Ball was given at New Canton, which netted $100 in cash for the deserving poor of Pleasant Vale township. A noted attorney from St. Louis, a Mr. Jones, W. A. Grimshaw and J. M. Bush, Sr., were attendants and added to the exchequer and everybody but Mr. Grimshaw tripped the light fantastic toe. It was the talk of the town. How happy and generous all were for sweet charity's sake.
An amusing incident occurred when Tyre Jen- nings, one of the county's best old-time farmers, was elected to the General Assembly. Old Un- cle John Benson, one of the observant and well- to-do farmers, enquired, "Who got to go to the Legislature?" The answer was "Tyre Jennings," and the old man in great astonishment said, "What ! Send Jennings? Why did they not send Gumry or Grubb? They've got clothes." He thought Jennings as a plain old farmer would not make a presentable appearance in the old- fashioned clothes of that date that the farmers wore.
Back in the old days the seekers for office made calls on the older and most prominent citizens, and one called on William Turner, an eccentric and blunt old citizen, who was justice of the peace and postmaster at the time, and was prominent and well liked for his many good traits. "My name is- and I am a candidate for- and I understand you are one of the well known and highly connected citizens." "Well, yes, I guess I am. There was a wedding yesterday that made me kin to the d-dest set of hog thieves ever in Illinois."
Another incident in the old postmaster's plain · speech. He kept a small stock of goods in con- nection with the postoffice. A man who stam- mered came to him and said, "Squeer, I wa-want to get a s-s-eet of cu-cups and saucers, and I will pay you Saturday." As the old postmaster was wrapping them up the man said, "I-I-I am honest and will pay you." The old postmaster set them back on the shelf and said, "See here, feller, if you
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will go out in town and get any one else to say that, I will give you the cups and saucers."
Mr. Turner was postmaster for many years, and is kindly remembered for his obliging and af- fable, though blunt ways. In those days the sal- ary was only about $40 a year, and the mails were few and far between. Mr. Turner had a brother here who boasted of the honor of seeing and shaking hands with Marquis de Lafayette, who visited America in 1825.
John Webb was an early settler, a successful business man for many years. He had a store in New Canton from about 1840 to 1852, and left here very rich.
Among the old ones just after the war we had a very positive and circumspect citizen that was noted for his big "I." Once in a discussion re- garding spelling and pronouncing, the boys re- ferred him to Noah Webster as authority. The old fellow said, "That's all right, but that's where me and Mr. Webster differ."
We had an old minister once that was very plain, and would make himself very agreeable to the common sinner as well as the plated one. Some of the "better than thou" crowd said, "He is los- `ing his dignity and we fear impairing his influ- ence by being too sociable with the common crowd." But he did not. Many a man has en- deared himself to the populace by plain ways, and mingling with the ordinary mortals.
When Lincoln's monument was . dedicated shortly after the close of the war, many Pike county people were in attendance, and were pro- fuse in praise of General Shermar, "Old Tecum- seh" and "Uncle Billy," as he was called because he marched in the procession with the boys from the public square to Oak Ridge. It was noted, and will be forever remembered that Grant, Sher- man, Canby and other noted generals that Pike county boys were with, were loved for their plain and affable ways.
It pays in all the walks of life to be manly, kind, affable and considerate with others, and that is the secret, an open one, why so many Pike county people and people elsewhere are so highly esteemed, past and present. They knew others had rights and were willing to so admit. I re- member vividly and gratefully many good men
and women here and elsewhere who, though plain citizens, have left their impress on the times, and did their duty well.
Pike county is now eighty-four years old, and in the years that have flown it has had a good record. Its people have sized up with other counties and it has had its share of joys and sorrows. It has kept up with the march of civili- zation and progress, and in the years to come its people will be found on the right and onward march for all time.
In the old wildcat banking days, "befo' the wah, sah," when all the village had banks of issue, on paper only but was registered at the state capi- tal, there was a Farmer's Bank of New Canton.
About a year after its establishment, on paper only, a man came riding into town with an old- fashioned saddlebag full of the bills, well printed and on fair paper, looking for the bank with its capital of $50,000, to have the bills redeemed in gold or silver But as he had no microscope or search warrant he failed to locate it.
It should be stated in justice to our citizens that no one here knew anything of it, nor had any part in the transaction. But that is the way many of the old-time banks of issue were con- ducted. The sharper that could get a lot of al- leged securities could deposit them in the state auditor's office, and then the bank was a go, and the man who took the bills was a goner.
The only paper money of those days that was not at a discount was the State Bank of Missouri at St. Louis. Those were the times when coon skins were taken for taxes. When the first issue of greenbacks or demand notes were in circu- lation they were discounted here five per cent. and soon afterwards were at a fine premium. In the old days every man in business had a bank detector, and would refer to it every time a bill was offered to ascertain its worth, and whether it was genuine or a counterfeit.
We had reformers, too, in the past. One man here went into the only store in town and bought all the light literature, or "yellow back novels" as they were called, and made light of them by burning to stop the sale and use of them. The whole lot cost him $4.00, but others were printed and sold "allee same." Another man wanted the
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apple and peach orchards cut down to stop fruit distilling. They recall the fable of the ox and the fly. The latter said, "I beg your pardon for light- ing on your horn." "Don't mention it," said the ox. "I did not know you were there."
The old style harvest of half a century ago was a curiosity as compared with the present. The wheat fields were small and two or three stout men would start out in the morning with the old-fashioned grapevine cradles. A boy fol- lowed each cradler to straighten out the wheat for the binder, who tied it in bundles for the shocker. The harvest began after an early break- fast. At nine o'clock a lunch was brought to the field, with whiskey for an appetizer and butter- milk, sweet milk, coffee or water, as the taste of the man required. Then at noon a heavy din- ner with another "jigger" of whiskey, at three in the afternoon another lunch and at sundown a big supper and more whiskey. It was rather re- markable with so much whiskey that there was 10 drunkenness.
After the harvest came the stacking and then the threshing with the flail or tramping out with horses. The harvests were long and tedious, but all went well and the people seemed happy in the primitive ways. That sytle of wheat cutting re- quired over a dozen men and boys. Now the work that then took a whole day can be done by a man and boy in a few hours.
The old-time corn crops were slow but sure. The ground was usually plowed by oxen and the old wooden moldboard plows, the seed dropped by hand and covered with a hoe. The weeds were kept down with a hoe and sometimes a small plow. The crops, however, were generally good, and the old-timers were very happy in the pos- session of a small piece of land and an abun- dance of the earth's bounties.
In 1825 when Lewis Turner, a resident of New Canton for many years, saw the Marquis de Lafayette at St. Louis, he told how great was the enthusiasm and respect shown the noted Frenchman, and how primitive things were. Mr. Turner often spoke of the changes from 1825 to about 1865, when he passed away. Could he now
see the remarkable transformation in the forty years that have come and gone, he would be ask ing, "What next? Can there be anything else wondci ful to happen?" The onward march has been startling and surprising and to the observer who is of an optimistic turn great changes will yet occur.
"Tis always morning somewhere, and above The awakening continents from shore to shore,
Somewhere the birds are singing evermore."
And 'tis always morning with progressive people here and elsewhere.
My first trip from Quincy to Chicago was made in eighteen hours over the old Northern Cross Railroad, now the C. B. & Q., and my first trip from New Canton to New York was made in seventy-two hours. Now it can be made in less than thirty hours and the trip to Chicago in about nine hours. When a boy I stemmed tobacco for a German cigarmaker .that was ten months in crossing the ocean. Now it is made in a week and often less. In the old times it took part of a day and a night to get to St. Louis, now the trip can be made in four hours. From ocean to ocean is now traveled in as many days as it took months fifty years ago.
Up.to the year 1860 our people kept up with the march of civilization and progress as best they could, and were apparently contented with old-fashioned ways. But about that time the Hannibal & Naples Railroad was surveyed, and the prospect was fair enough for the iron horse to be soon crossing the country between the Mis- sissippi and Illinois rivers, where for many years the stagecoach had held supreme sway. Then several of the old-time citizens engaged largely in getting out ties. The right of way was piled high with many thousand ties that were never used, as there was a hitch somewhere in the rosy outlook. The ties rotted and caused great loss to many men.
Soon after the war a new start was made, and the road now known as the Wabash was built. In 1871 the Quincy, Alton & St. Louis was built
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by General Singleton and Mr. Woods, of Phila- delphia. It is known now as the Louisville branch of the C. B. & Q. R. B. Lewis was the engineer, and Mr. Lionburger the man who secured the right of way and very generous dona- tions from the citizens and along the route. New Canton people were liberal givers, and for a while it was the connecting link between St. Louis and St. Paul. The Keokuk & Northwestern was built later on the west side of the river, and soon took the through business from this line, but it has been a great convenience to the west side of the county for its mail, passenger and freight service, and we are all glad that we have it.
The first general freight and passenger agent was N. D. Munson, of Quincy, who was after- ward secretary of the Illinois railroad and ware- house commission. The following gentlemen were Mr. Munson's successors: General Dana, Mr. Miles, Mr. Crampton, Col. W. P. Moore, and the, present able and courteous agent, E. F. Bradford.
In the roseate days of steamboating Cincinnati Landing had a noted character for mischief and goodness. A rare combination, but such was "old" John Blain. He would care for the sick, render any favor possible for him, and then lie awake to think up some harmless mischief to play upon someone, friend or stranger. In peach time (and in the old times there were many fine or- chards) a boat crowded with passengers stopped at the landing to take on about 1,500 sacks of wheat. Old John came around eating a peach, with two in his hand. A passenger asked him where he could buy some. The old mischief said, "Out by the slough bridge there is a big peach orchard, and the owner will give you all you can eat."
The passenger said, "Captain, how long will the boat be here?" "About an hour. I will ring the bell and you will have time enough." At that moment all on board were suddenly peach- hungry and over a hundred started on the run. Then old John wandered up the river, as his joke had caught with a vengeance. The passengers went to the bridge, and up and down the slough for a quarter of a mile. Presently the bell rang
and then there was a free-for-all race back to the boat. There was not a peach orchard within five miles of the Landing. Old John was conveni- ently out of sight, and did not go to the boat land- ing for weeks, as he was afraid someone would catch him.
This township had a worthy old citizen, Moses Morey, who was present at a meeting of com- missioners in 1828 or 1829, on the bluffs along the Mississippi river when a county and town were to be named. After considerable deliber- ation one man said: "John Quincy Adams is our President, and I propose that the new county (then a part of old Pike) be named Adams and the town (that was then partly platted) be called Quincy." It was so ordered and Pike has always been proud of the Gem City and Adams county.
Shortly after, it was said by an old citizen, Col. William Ross, that Quincy would not make much of a town as it was too close to Atlas. But, alas, "the plans of mice and men gang aft aglee." Atlas is still here and has about held its own, while Quincy has got to be "a right peart town," with 40,000 people.
In 1865 Amos Morey and Eli Lyons visited Quincy to purchase a boiler for the mill then being built here, and they asked the boiler maker to put it on the levee and close up the flues. The man said, "What boat will take it?" "We will float it down." Nearly all said it would sink and be lost, and the word was passed around that a couple of suckers from Pike county were going to roll a twenty-foot boiler in the river and float it down to Cincinnati Landing. So a crowd of five or six hundred gathered to see the boiler go to the bottom. It cost $850 and a number were sorry to see the owner lose so much money. But at the word "Let her go," it was soon in the water and floated like a duck. It was brought into the cut-off and down the Sny, and hauled from there to the mill, where it did service for over twenty years.
Before the Sny levee was built the bottom lands were a free grazing place for great herds of cattle and many acquired riches in that way. The levee project soon had that class up in arms against it, but the onward march of civilization
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and progress soon changed the wild into bounti- ful harvest fields. About that time the vicinity had a number of rich and enterprising men who assisted in nearly all worthy enterprises for the general good, and their impress on the country and the welfare will last through succeeding gen- erations.
Forty years ago the federal troops under Gen- eral Canby were investing Spanish Fort and Blakely in Alabama. Mat Mckinney, an Iowa boy, who was orderly for the Pike county brigade, told one evening while sitting around the bivouac fire a story that was fully illustrative of the mod- esty of the greatest soldier of modern times. "General Carr gave me an order to take to Gen- eral Grant's headquarters near Vicksburg. When I was about half way there I saw a man sitting on his horse and I knew from his clothes he was one of our boys. So I saluted and said, 'Can you tell me the way to General Grant's camp?' 'I am going there, you can ride with me.' He was going on a quick-stepping horse and I had to thump my old plug to keep up. But I kept alongside of him and presently he asked, 'Do you want to see Grant or his adjutant?' I said, 'I have papers for Gen- eral Rawlins.' 'That is his tent,' and just then a darky took the man's horse and I found I had been riding with General Grant. I almost fell off my horse in surprise, as he was the first gen- eral I ever rode beside. With all the others I had to keep in the rear."
Following the list of steamboats and their captains, the names of a few of their patrons of "ald lang syne" may be interesting. At Barry was Shields & Lillis, Angle, Brown & Crandall, Montgomery Blair, Hammond & Green, Thomas Gray, Gorton & Dutton, White Brothers. C. & S. Davis, Elisha Hurt, Sweet & Mallory and E. W. Blades.
Kinderhook: Hull & Orr, Alex. Anderson, J. W. Mellon, David Devoe, S. B. Gaines and Hull & Colvin. Eldara : Alex. Dubois, Smith & Had- sell, Dr. Landrum, Burke & Davis, Freeman & Lippincott and Jones & Easley.
New Canton : John Webb, S. Gay, Shipman & Freeman, William P. Freeman, P. H. Davis, Amos Morey, Warriner & Blain, Dobbins & Min-
ton and Massie & Gray. In those times all named were large shippers of produce and re- ceivers of goods.
The pork packing industry was well repre- sented in the three towns, and in 1865 when Amos Morey and Bradford Uppinghouse started the flour mill here they often had orders for flour to go west, as at that time there were no flour mills in what is now the Central West. At a time when wheat was scarce they had orders for flour at $20 a barrel at the mill. Frequently corn was shippped from here at seventy-five cents to a dol- lar a bushel. That was usually in the spring, when the southern planters most needed corn, and also before they knew that corn could be raised in the South. The highest price for corn ever known here was $1.29 per bushel. Wheat was $2.50 to $3.00 per bushel, pork $25 per bar- rel, lard $50 per tierce, hogs 12 1-2 cents per pound net.
A recent number of Everybody's Magazine has an article in which the wrecking by cannon and musket balls of the steamer Empress on the lower river in war time recalls the trip before that of the Empress. Col. Dan Bush of the Sec- ond Illinois Cavalry, and now of Portland, Ore- gon, and the writer, made a trip from St. Louis to New Orleans when Capt. Sam Rider, of Pike county, and his brother Jason, who was afterward circuit clerk of Pike county, were in command of the Empress, and we with the other passengers enjoyed the trip, and felt gratified that we es- caped the bushwhackers. On her next trip she was shot nearly to pieces and partially wrecked. Capt. Sam Rider and Captain Abrams were Illi- nois river captains, and were highly esteemed by all who knew them.
Near New Canton is a wonderful spring that is known as Salt Spring, and its healing bene- ficial waters will rank with any others in curing many of the ills mankind is afflicted with. An analysis of the water made several years ago showed salt, sulphur, magnesia and carbonate of iron. The water never freezes, and when a heavy snow is on the ground there is an open space of
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fifty feet in diameter that the snow stands as though an artist had smoothed its walls.
It is a great laxative, and a most excellent anti-scorbutic. Some day it will be better known and its healing qualities sought. About twenty years ago the owner, the late James D. Rupert, put some pipes in the spring and had a tin cir- cus put on top, and the heavy flow of the water upward kept the objects constantly in motion, greatly to the delight of old and young.
One beautiful balmy day in October, the sunny golden month of the year, there was said by care- ful estimate to have been fully 2,000 visitors, coming from Pittsfield and many of the nearby towns. A man once ran a fifteen-foot pole down in the center of the spring, and as soon as he let go of it it was shot out in the air its full length.
It may be given as a reason for its not being fitted up and utilized as a health resort, that it is on very low land, and as the bottom is slowly fill- ing up from the floods of Kizer creek it may in the near future come into greater prominence. It is known to be a sure cure for eczema and el- cosis. Louisiana's spring is of the same charac- ter. Ralls county, Mo., also has a like one.
In the old whig days of 1840, Harrison and Tyler were the candidates, and the cry was, "Tip- pecanoe and Tyler, too," log cabins and hard cider. Charles T. Brewster, Hiram Smith and others went from here to Springfield with ox teams, a miniature log cabin and several barrels of hard cider to attend a great whig gathering of that time. The trip took about two weeks. Now it could be made by rail in a few hours.
C. T. Brewster, Hiram Smith and Jesse Titts- worth were the men who laid out New Canton in 1835 and at the sale af town lots the prices were from $7 to $75. David Dutton, who died in 1854, had the first apple orchard in this town- ship about 1825, and the fruit was very good. people came long distances to buy. Old-time citizens, like Hazen Pressy, Mr. Nesmith and D. A. Shaw, who resided on the old mail route from Quincy to Pittsfield, came every season to buy, till they raised orchards of their own.
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