Past and present of Pike County, Illinois, Part 6

Author: Massie, Melville D; Clarke, (S.J.) Publishing Company, Chicago
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 760

USA > Illinois > Pike County > Past and present of Pike County, Illinois > Part 6

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In some localities immense shell-heaps exist, while it is not uncommon to find in the mounds shells from the sea, notably the conch-shell and sea-periwinkles, the latter very common. Imple- ments of both hardened copper and copper in a soft state are often found, and a metal resembling iron in texture and color, but hard enough to cut glass and which resists the action of almost all the acids.

That these mounds were not erected by the same race as our present Indians is at once apparent from the bones of the latter being of a reddish hue, while those of the Mound Builders are of a different shade and much larger.

It is our opinion that the Mound Builders were a pastoral people, who had made considerable progress in civilization. In the winter, doubtless, they drove their flocks and herds to the bluffs and rich, sheltered bottoms where they could obtain shelter, and in the summer they drove them to the prairies for pasturage. Doubtless, like the Chi- nese of to-day, they esteemed their native hills sacred and sought to be buried there, no matter where the iron hand of death overtook them; and their friends, respecting this desire, were in the habit of bringing the bones of each family or tribe to these sacred burial places, after they had been stripped of their flesh, for permanent burial.

Perhaps some future archæologist will delve among these ruins and find a key to the mystery of the Builders, of whom we to-day know next to nothing ; and unless some means are taken by the government or societies organized for the pur- pose, and these measures at no distant day, they will have become so far obliterated by the plow and by unskilled diggers that the slight clues they contain will be buried in oblivion greater than now enshrouds the history of their builders.

A few years ago some of the prominent gentle-

PAST AND PRESENT OF PIKE COUNTY.

men of Pike county interested themselves in or- ganizing an "Archæological Society," but of late the interest seems to have abated very perceptibly, and the Society so enthusiastically organized can now scarcely be said to be in existence.

The gentlemen proposing to organize an "Anti- quarian Society" met at the court-house in Pitts- field, May 24, 1873, when Dr. T. Worthington was called to the chair and R. H. Criswell ap- pointed secretary. They organized the "Pike County Antiquarian Society," and the permanent officers elected at this meeting were, president, Wm. A. Grimshaw ; vice presidents, Wm. McAd- ams, Esq., Dr. E. S. Hull, of Madison county, Capt. W. H. Reed, of Calhoun, Dr. T. Worthing- ton, of Pike, Dr. A. Mittower, of Pike, Richard Perry, of Pike, H. J. Harris, of Pike, C. L. Obst, of Pittsfield, archaeological artist; Dr. Thomas Aiton, secretary ; William R. Archer, treasurer.

W. B. Grimes, Dr. Mittower and C. L. Obst were appointed a committee to solicit contribu- tions to the cabinet of the Society, and invite the exhibition of such relics as owners are unwilling to part from, the object being to obtain possession of evidences and traces of the people of antiquity, their implements and usages as far as practicable.

A letter was read before the Society from Mr. McAdams, of Waterville, Jersey county, May 18, 1873, as follows:

"I see in the papers a call for a meeting in Pittsfield on the 24th inst., to organize a society with a view of further investigation and more per- fect knowledge of relics and ancient remains near the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. I have for the last fifteen years, during my leisure hours, been making some investigations of the mounds and tumuli of Jersey and Calhoun counties. There is not perhaps in all the west a section richer or more interesting in its great number of relics of an al- most unknown race of people who once inhabited this country. No thorough investigation has been made. Already many of them have been de- stroved by the cultivation of new fields. Before many years the majority of them will be obliter- ated, or so defaced that the original plan of con- struction will be lost. There should be a society like the one you propose to organize, not only for the purpose of investigation but also for the

purpose of making some record of their work. Comparatively little is known of the mounds of Jersey and Calhoun, although I have visited many of them and collected quite a number of inter- esting relics. Yours truly,

"WM. MCADAMS.".

The second week in June, 1873, the society made an excursion to the southern part of the county and spent several days among the numerous mounds in that locality, where they found many relics of the aborigines, among which were arrow heads, fish spears, stone knives and hatchets, earthen vessels of various kinds, copper kettles, stone pipes, shell and copper beads, silver ear- rings, silver buckles, etc. Nearly all these arti- cles were found imbedded in the mounds with human bones, pieces of pottery, etc., generally at a depth of about three feet below the surface. In some cases stone vaults containing bones and other relics were discovered a few feet beneath the sur- face. The members of the Society who went on that excursion say they had a most enjoyable trip and consider themselves well repaid for their trouble.

In the summer of 1873, Col. D. B. Bush pre- sented to the Society for its museum Indian trap- · pings of great value. Thomas James, of Martins- burg, presented a large lot of beautiful beads and amulets from the Big Mound of Sacramento Val- ley, California ; also, moss, peat, cinnabar and Chi- nese corn, etc.,-all from California. Col. S. S. Thomas presented a rare and beautiful specimen of coquine and concrete shells from St. Augus- tine, Fla. In September of the same year, Col. A. C. Matthews contributed to the museum one beaked saw-fish (Pristis) from Matagorda Isl- and, Texas; autograph letter of Henry Clay, dated October 5, 1829, Ashland, Ky .; pass of Gen. S. B. Buckner, C. S. A .; one copy of army correspondence ; also coin and fossils. George H. French presented a stone mortar from Pilot Bluff, Illinois river ; E. N. French, spécimens of columnar limestone; Hon. J. M. Bush presented one copy of the Massachusetts Centennial, pub- lished at Boston, September 5, 1789, about four months after the inauguration of President Wash- ington ; Hon. W. A. Grimshaw presented books as follows: American volume, Ancient Armeca ;

PAST AND PRESENT OF PIKE COUNTY.

Lines of Humboldt; two volumes of Smithsonian Institute Reports, 1865-'6; two volumes of His- tory of Wisconsin; stone and flint implements, bone needle and specimens of pottery. Patrick Halpin presented specimens of American and Italian marble.

In December Mr. R. Perry contributed speci- mens of silicious and ferruginous conglomerate ; Dr. A. McFarland, a very nice human skeleton, five bottles containing in alcohol specimens of ophidian, all indigenous to Pike county, and also ·one containing tænia; Thomas Williams, seven beautiful flint implements ; and N. W. Kibler, a very large tooth of a pachyderm.

February 21, 1874, George Bell, Thomas Bloomer, Hiram Horton and G. S. Pennington found remains of five human skeletons in the Mississippi bluffs on the farm of Mrs. L. B. Lyon at the mouth of Dutch creek hollow. One skull measured twenty-six inches from the top of the cranium around under the lower jaw. In- deed, many more skeletons are in these bluffs. Several wagon-loads of rock had been thrown over these remains. The heads appeared to be laid toward a common center of about three feet space. One skull contained a rock which had doubtless been thrown there when the remains were buried. The bones were very brittle and difficult to secure in their intirety from among the roots. There are seven of the mounds in Mr. Horton's field, in a semi-circle, all containing human remains. Also a species of pottery has been found there.

In the southeast part of Pearl township about a mile from the Illinois river two copper vessels were once found, one smaller than the other, un- der some flat stones which had been plowed up, and a little lower down stone coffins were found in a field where they had been plowing; but these "remains" were probably left there by early French explorers.

Mr. C. L. Obst, photographer in Pittsfield, who is a fine archæologist and the virtual founder of the "Pike County Antiquarian Society," has a splendid collection ; namely, 100 varieties of flint implements, four varieties of stone hatchets, four of wedges, varieties of stone disks of various ma- terials, as iron ore, sandstone, granite and green-

stone, four varieties of pluinmets, mostly iron ore, .two of hammers, pestles, round stone for clubs, eight kinds of pipes, iron ore and greenstone chis- els, plowshares and hoes, a large variety of pot- tery and mortars, bone of the pre-historic bison, sinkers, weights, etc. Mr. Obst has also a good collection of geological specimens.

The museum of the society is in the Public Li- brary room over the postoffice in Pittsfield, but the association is not active at present and their collection of relics seems neglected.

ORGANIC HISTORY.

V THE MILITARY TRACT.

At the close of the war between the United States and England in 1812 our government laid off a tract of land in Illinois for the soldiers who participated in that war. The land thus appro- priated was embraced in the region between the Mississippi and the Illinois rivers, and south of · the north line of Mercer county. Its northern boundary, therefore, ran east to Peru on the Illi- nois river, and a little south of the middle of Bu- reau and Henry counties. To it the name "Mili- tary Tract" was given, and by that name this sec- tion is still known. Within this boundary is em- braced one of the most fertile regions of the globe. Scarcely had Congress made the proper provisions to enable the soldiers to secure their land ere a few of the most daring and resolute started to possess it. There were only a few, how- ever, who at first regarded their "quarter-section" of sufficient value to induce them to endure the hardships of the pioneer in its settlement and im- provement. Many of them sold their patent to a fine "prairie quarter" in this county for one hun- dred dollars, others for less, while some traded theirs for a horse, a cow, or a watch, regarding themselves as just so much ahead. It is said that an old shoemaker of New York city bought sev- eral as fine quarters of land as are in Pike county with a pair of shoes. He would make a pair of shoes for which the soldier would deed him his "patent quarter" of land. This was a source of no little trouble to the actual settlers, for they could not always tell which quarter of land be-

PAST AND PRESENT OF PIKE COUNTY.

longed to a soldier, or which was "Congress land" and could be pre-empted. Even when a settler found a suitable location known to be "patent land," with a desire to purchase, he ex- perienced great difficulty in finding the owner, and often did not find him until he had put hun- dred of dollars' worth of improvements on it, when the patentee was sure to turn up. Many of the early settlers presumed that the owner never would be known; but in many instances, after a patent quarter-section was made valuable by im- provement, the original patent would be brought on by some one, who would oust the occupant and take possession, sometimes paying him something for his improvments and sometimes not. Many holders of patents had no pity. This condition of affairs presented a temptation to merciless "land- sharks," who would come into this section and work up cases, ostensibly for the original paten- tees, but really for their own pockets. The 'most notorious of these was one Toliver Craig, who actually made it a business to forge patents and deeds. This he carried on extensively from 1847 to 1854, especially in Knox and Fulton counties, and to some extent in Pike. He had forty bogus deeds put on record in one day at Knoxville. He was arrested in New York state, in 1854, by O. M. Boggess, of Monmouth, and taken to the jail at Cincinnati, Ohio, where he attempted suicide by arsenic ; but at the end of the year he was re- leased on bail.

PIKE COUNTY.

As a part of the Territory of Illinois in 1790 all that portion of Illinois south of what is now Peoria was made a county and named St. Clair, in honor of General St. Clair. Governor of the Northwestern Territory. Cahokia was the county seat of this county. In 1812 that part of Illi- nois Territory above St. Louis, was created into a county called Madison, with Edwardsville as the county seat. Illinois was admitted as a State in 1818, and in 1821 all that part of Madison county between the Mississippi and Illinois rivers was organized into a county and named Pike. Its name was chosen in honor of General Pike of the war of 1812. The tract of country now known as

Pike county was surveyed by the government in the years 1817-9, and soon afterward attracted at- tention on account of its natural advantages for commerce, fertility of soil and abundance of wa- ter. It is the oldest county in the Military Tract, and one of the largest, containing 510,764 acres, or 800 square miles, in 23 townships. The fol- lowing is a copy of the act organizing the county : An act to form a new county of the bounty lands.

Approved January 31, 1821.

Section 1. Be it enacted, etc., that all that tract of country within the following boundaries, to- wit: Beginning at the mouth of the Illinois river and running thence up the middle of said river to the fork of the same, thence up to the south fork of said river until it strikes the State line of Indiana, thence north with said line to the north boundary line of this State, thence west with said line to the west boundary line of this State, and thence with said line to the place of beginning, shall constitute a separate county to be called Pike.

Sec. 3. Be it further enacted that there shall be appointed the following persons, to-wit : Levi Roberts, John Shaw and Nicholas Hanson, to meet at the house of Levi Roberts, in said county, on or before the first day of March next, to fix the temporary seat of justice of said county, the said justice to be south of the base line of said county.

Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, etc., that the citizens of Pike county be hereby declared en- titled in all respects to the same rights and privi- leges that are allowed in general to other counties in the State.

Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, etc., that said county of Pike be and form a part of the first ju- dicial circuit.

This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

COUNTY SEAT LOCATED.

The following act was passed at the next ses- sion of the Legislature :

An act defining the boundaries of Pike county. and for other purposes. Approved December 30, 1822.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General As-

PAST AND PRESENT OF PIKE COUNTY.

sembly, that the county of Pike shall be bounded as follows, to-wit: On the north.by the base line ; on the east by the Illinois river; on the west by the Mississippi ; and all the rest and residue of the territory, composing the county of Pike before the passage of this act, shall be attached to, and be a part of, said county until otherwise disposed of by the General Assembly of this State.

Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, etc., for the purpose of fixing the permanent seat of justice of said county, the following persons be and the same are hereby appointed commissioners, to-wit : Garrett Van Dusen, Ossian M. Ross, John M. · extensive lead mines of Galena had not yet been Smith, Daniel Ford and Daniel Shinn, who, after being duly sworn by some judge or justice of the peace of this State, faithfully and impartially to discharge the duties imposed upon them by this act, shall meet at the house of John Shaw, in said county, on or before the first day of March next, and proceed to determine on the permanent seat Settlers soon began to locate here and there in the Military Tract. Two years had scarcely passed ere the few settlers east of the fourth principal meridian and north of the base line desired a county, and appealed to the Legislature for power to organize one. Ossian M. Ross, the founder of Lewistown, Fulton county, and one of the prime movers in the organization of that county, was at that time a member of the County Commis- sioners' Court of Pike county. The following is an abstract of the act referred to : of justice of said county, and designate the same taking into consideration the condition and con- venience of the people, the future population of the county, and the health and eligibility of the place; and they are hereby authorized to receive as a donation for the use of said county any quan- tity of land that may be determined on by them, from any proprietor that may choose to offer such donation of land; which place, so fixed and de- termined upon, the said commissioners shall cer- tify, under their hands and seals, and return the same to the next Commissioners of the Court in said county, which shall cause an entry thereof to be made upon their books of record.

Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, etc., that the said commissioners shall receive as a compensa- tion for their service, the sum of two dollars per day for each day by them necessarily spent in dis- charging the duties imposed upon them by this act to be allowed by the Commissioners of the Court, and paid out of the county treasury.

Pursuant to that portion of the above act as re- lating to locating the county seat, the commis- sioners made their report to the County Commis- sioners at their March term of court, 1823, and presented the court with a deed from William Ross and Rufus Brown for an acre of land upon section 27, Atlas township.

COUNTIES CUT FROM PIKE.

When Pike county was organized it embraced all of that country between the Illinois and Mis- sissippi rivers, and extended east along the line of the main fork of the Illinois, the Kankakee river, to the Indiana State line, and on to the northern boundary of the State, including the country where Rock Island, Galena, Peoria and Chicago now are. It was indeed a large county, and embraced what is now the wealthiest and most populous portion of the Great West. The discovered, and Chicago was only a trading and military post. The commissioners of Pike county, as will be noticed in the following chapter, ex- ercised full authority, so far as the duties of their respective offices were concerned, over all this vast region.

An act approved Janunary 28, 1823, forming the county of Fulton out of all the attached part of Pike, beginning where the fourth principal meridian intersects the Illinois river, thence up the middle of said river to where the line between ranges five and six east strikes the said river, thence north with the said line between ranges five and six east, to the township line between townships nine and ten north, then west with said lint to the fourth principal meridian, then south to the place of beginning ; and all the rest and resi- due of the attached part of the county of Pike east of the fourth principal meridian shall be attached to Fulton county.

January 13, 1825, Schuyler county was cut off from Pike and Fulton, and included all that coun- try within the following boundaries: "Com- mencing at a place where the township line be-

PAST AND PRESENT OF PIKE COUNTY.

tween townships two and three south touches the Illinois river, thence west on said line to the range line between ranges four and five west, thence north from said line to the northwest corner of township three north, range one west, thence east on said township line to the Illinois river, thence down the said river to the place of beginning."

The same year an act was passed forming new counties. Those formed were Adams, Hancock, McDonough, Warren, Mercer, Henry, Putnam and Knox. Their boundaries were fixed by the act of January 30, 1825. Calhoun county was cut off from Pike county and organized in 1825.

GENERAL REVIEW.

No whites settled north of Alton for agricul- tural purposes prior to 1819. During that year and the next three there was a sufficient number of settlers to organize a county. Accordingly the Legislature of 1820-I, as above seen, organized the county of Pike, which then included all of the State of Illinois between the Illinois and Missis- sippi rivers. The county seat was first fixed at Coles' Grove, adjoining the locality of Gilead, afterward the county seat of Calhoun county. This place was named after Edward Coles, Gov- ernor of Illinois.

We copy the following topographical sketch of Pike county from "Peck's Illinois Gazeteer," pub- lished in 1834, as giving an idea of the county at that early date :

"Pike county is the oldest county in the Mili- tary Tract, and was erected from Madison and other counties in 1821. It then embraced the whole country northwest of the Illinois river, but by subsequent formation of new counties it is now reduced to ordinary size, containing twenty- two townships, or about 800 square miles. It is bounded north by Adams, east by Schuyler and the Illinois river, south by that river and Cal- houn, and west by the Mississippi. Besides the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, which wash two sides, it has the Sny Carte slough, running the whole length of its western border, which floats steamboats to Atlas at a full stage of water. Pike county is watered by the Pigeon, Hadley, Keyes, Black, Dutch Church, Six-Mile and Bay creeks,

which flow into the Mississippi ; and Big and Lit- tle Blue, and the North and West Forks of Mc- Gee's creek, which enter into the Illinois. Good mill sites are furnished by these streams.

"The land is various. The section of country, or rather island, between the Sny Carte slough and the Mississippi, is a sandy soil, but mostly inundated land at the spring flood. It furnishes a great summer and winter range for stock, afford- ing considerable open prairie, with skirts of heavy bottom timber near the streams. Along the bluffs and for two or three miles back the land is chiefly timbered, but cut up with ravines and quite roll- ing. Far in the interior and toward Schuyler county excellent prairie and timber lands are found, especially about the Blue rivers and McGee's creek. This must eventually be a rich and populous county.

"In Pleasant Vale, on Keyes creek, is a salt spring twenty feet in diameter, which boils from the earth and throws off a stream of some size, and forms a salt pond in its vicinity. Salt has been made here, though not in great quantities.

"In the county are seven water saw mills, four grist mills, one carding machine, five stores, and a horse ferryboat across the Mississippi to Louisiana."

HANSON AND SHAW.

The State constitution, adopted on the admis- sion of Illinois into the Union in 1818, prohibited slavery in this State. Owing to this fact many of the early immigrants coming west, who were from the slave States of Virginia and Kentucky, passed right through this garden of Eden into Missouri. An effort was made, therefore, to so amend the constitution as to permit slavery in this State that it might be more attractive to settlers, and the sequel showed that Illinois had a narrow escape from the dreadful evils of slavery. When the necessary preliminary resolution. was offered in the Senate it was ascertained that the requisite two-thirds vote to pass the resolution for the call of a convention to amend the constitution could be obtained and to spare; but in the House they needed one vote. At first it was strenuously argued that the two-thirds vote meant two-thirds of the two Houses in joint convention; but the

PAST AND PRESENT OF PIKE COUNTY.

opponents were too powerful in their argument upon this point. The majority, however, was not to be foiled in their purpose. Another mode pre- sented itself; all that was required was courage to perpetrate a gross outrage on a recalcitrant member. There had been a contested election case from Pike county. The sitting member decided by the House to be entitled to the seat was Nicho- las Hanson, and the contestant, John Shaw, the "Black Prince." Hanson's vote had been obtained for the re-election of Jesse B. Thomas, strongly pro-slavery, to the United States Senate; but further than this he would not go. Shaw, who favored the convention project, was now dis- covered to be entitled to the seat. A motion was thereupon made to reconsider the admission of Hanson, which pervailed. It was next further moved to strike out the name of Hanson and insert that of Shaw. During the pendency of the resolution a tumultuous crowd assembled in the evening at the State house, and after the delivery of a number of incendiary speeches, inflaming the minds of the people against Hanson, they pro- ceeded through the town (Vandalia) with his ef- figy in a blaze, accompanied with the beating of drums, the sound of bugles, and shouts of "Con- vention or death." A motion to expel Hanson and admit Shaw was adopted, and the later awarded the majority by voting for the conven- tion resolution, which thus barely passed. The night following, a number of members of both Houses entered the solemn protest against this glaring outrage of unseating Hanson, both with the object intended and the manner of perpetrat- ing it. Many reflecting men, earnest in their sup- port of the convention question, 'condemned it, and it proved a powerful lever before the people in the defeat of the slavery scheme. The passage of the convention resolution was regarded as tan- tamount to its carriage at the polls.

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Past and present of Pike County, Illinois, Part 6

Author: Massie, Melville D; Clarke, (S.J.) Publishing Company, Chicago Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Chicago, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 760

Author: Massie, Melville D; Clarke, (S.J.) Publishing Company, Chicago
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 760