USA > Illinois > Macon County > Decatur > Past and present of the City of Decatur and Macon County, Illinois > Part 2
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Macon county is part of the territory ex- plored and taken possession of by Mar-
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MACON COUNTY.
quette, Joliet and LaSalle about 1678. Pre- vious to that it was included in a grant by King James 1, known as the Virginia Com- pany, which evolved the settlement of the Virginia colony, of which Macon county was, for the time, a part. The treaty of 1763 at the close of the French and Indian war decided that it really was English ter- ritory and part of the Virginia colony.
By the ordinance of 1787 it became de- tached from Virginia, and formed part of the Northwest Territory. In 1800 it became part of Indiana territory ; in 1809 it became part of Illinois territory and in 1818 it be- came part of the state of Illinois.
Previous to the meeting of the state legis lature. in 1829, Benjamin R. Austin, Andrew W. Smith and John Ward were appointed a committee to go to Vandalia, the state capital, and secure the passage of a bill providing for the formation of a new county from the north part of Shelby county. The bill passed and the result was a new county, which took the name of the Honorable Na- thaniel Macon.
Originally Macon county included all of DeWitt county, except its north tier of townships ; all of Piatt county, except Blue Ridge township, and all of that part of Moultrie county lying north of the exten- sion of the southern line of Macon county.
On the first day of March, 1839. DeWitt county was formed; next day a bill passed adding Niantic township to Macon on the west. At this time what is now known as Maroa, Austin and Friends Creek townships was offered to De Witt county, but she re- fused the land, on the score that the terri- tory was worthless except for grazing, and but a small portion of that was accessible at a late season after the drying up of the spring and summer rains.
After the detachment of De Witt county. Niantic township was added on the west in order to place Decatur as near the center of the territory as possible. This was done
to defeat Murphreysboro, platted in Friends Creek township on section seven, township seventeen, range four east, and championed as the county seat by James A. Piatt, from the territory now Piatt county, who served as commissioner from 1834 to 1839. Mur- phreysboro was platted on land now known as the Volgamot farm a few miles south of Newburg.
After the defeat of Murphreysboro, the people of the locality represented by Mr. Piatt went before the legislature with a petition praying for its detachment from Macon county, which was granted in Janu- ary, 1841 ; the county assumed the name of its champion.
In February, 1843. Moultrie county was formed, leaving Macon as it now appears.
According to the provisions of the bill providing for the organization of Macon county, a committee, consisting of John Fleming, Jesse Rhodes and Eaton Whitton was appointed April 10, 1829, to locate De- catur as the county scat. This committee reported January 19, 1829, the location of said county seat on the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section fifteen, township sixteen, range two east.
The town of Decatur was laid off in lots, after the form of Shelbyville as ordered by the court, by Benjamin R. Austin, county surveyor of Macon county. The old town of Decatur consisted of twenty acres, bound- ed by Prairie street on the north, Water street on the east, Wood street on the south and Church street on the west. It was di- vided by a main street extending cast and west, known as East and West Main, and a main street extending north and south, known as North and South Main. The land upon which the commissioners located the scat of justice was, by the act creating the county, donated to the county.
The same act ordered, "That a sale of lots take place in the town of Decatur, in this county, on the roth day of July, 1829.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MACON COUNTY.
on the following terms: A credit of twelve months will be given, and note with ap- proved security will be required, and that the clerk of this court will be required to advertise the sale in the paper printed in Vandalia, until the day of the sale."
At this sale the first lot sold was lot No. 2, in block No. 3, where the new Decatur Hotel now stands, being a corner lot, was bought by John Manley for $53.50. The second lot sold was lot No. 6 in block No. I, where Quinn & Seeforth are, the price was $12.
The first house in town was built by Reu- ben Miller on lot No. 3, block No. 3, the next lot north of the Arcade building. This was sold to James Renshaw and was the first store room in Decatur .. The second house was built by Philip D. Williams on lot No. 4, block No. I, the present site of the old Griswold hardware store.
The purchasers of these lots were given a bond for a deed, since the land had, at this time, not been entered from the gov- ernment. Later, Parmenius Smallwood, Eaton Whitton and Charles Prentice en- tered it and made a deed to the county com- missioners on the 8th day of October, 1831.
The following orders will be interesting relics of taxation : "Ordered, that for the purpose of raising a revenue to defray ex- penses of the county for the year 1829, that a tax of one-half per cent be levied upon the following personal property, to-wit: On slaves and indentured or registered negro or mulatto servants ; on pleasure carriages ; on distilleries ; on stock in trade ; on all horses, mules, and meat cattle over three years old ; and on watches, with their appendages ; and on all other personal property except the lawful fire-arms of cach individual." This tax when collected amounted to $109.32}.
At the same term of court, the tavern rates were fixed as follows: "Ordered that the tavern rates of this county shall here-
after be as follows, to-wit: For breakfast and horse fed, 373 cents; keeping man and horse each, night, the man to have supper and lodging, 623 cents; dinner and horse fed 373 cents; brandy, rum, gin, wine or cordial, 25 cents per half pint; whisky or cider brandy, 123 cents per half pint."
Under the act passed February 17, 1851, authorizing counties to adopt the system of township organization, upon the petition and vote of the citizens of the county, the court appointed in December, 1859, David Garver, James' Dingman and William Can- trell as commissioners to divide the county into townships.
The county was divided, as the report made to the court January 14, 1860, shows, into the following fourteen townships : Friends Creek, Maroa, Montgomery, now Austin, Bull Point, since then changed to Hickory and later to Hickory Point, De- catur, Long Creek, Whitmore, Oakley, Har- ris, since changed to Harristown, Wilson, changed to Mt. Zion, South Wheatland, South Macon, Madison, changed to Blue Mound, Niantic; Illini, Milam and Pleas- ant View were formed later from parts of other townships.
Early Settlement.
When in 1492 Columbus discovered this continent, the country was populated with roaming tribes of Indians, who lived off the game of their immediate localities ; they were not cultivators of the soil in the strict sense of agriculturists, yet, the women did raise some corn, potatoes and tobacco, which were all new products to the white people. All of these are now considered staples in this country, and there is not a civilized country in the world that does not consume large quantities of them.
The Algonquins were the earliest inhabi- tants of Macon county, of which we have any knowledge; next in succession, the Illi- ncis Confederacy, descendants of the for- iner; they were known as the Illini, from
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MACON COUNTY.
which our state takes it name. The term signifies "Superior Men," which seems to have been verified by their rugged phys- ique.
About the close of the seventeenth cen- tury, the Illinois, composed of the Tama- roas, Michagamies, Kaskaskies, Cahokies and Peorias, were driven out by the Potto- watamies, who in turn, were succeeded by the Kickapoos. These Indians were fierce warriors, but they were more civilized than any of the preceding tribes, and they were the immediate predecessors of the white set- tlers.
The White Settler.
"The youthful eye of the pioneer saw bluer skies and greener trees than the aged eye now sees ; the luxuriant grasses waved to gentler breezes; cooler, clearer water from rippling brook or refreshing spring laved his heated brow, or quenched his ar- dent thirst ; his quickened car caught sweet- er strains in the nesting-songs of the feath- ered tribe, and when twilight closed the busy day he was Pulled into pleasant dreams by happy toil. Such is some of the glamour which youth sheds over the good old times."
But when we look into the early history of the county we see that those by-gone times were not all poetry. The pioneer was compelled to face the stern and practical side, rather than the poetic side of life; hardships and trials fell to the lot of each home.
"But interwoven with this life of simple pleasures, primitive joys, of alternate smiles and tears, of undiminished labor, there are many life lessons which we, of later days shoukl enshrine in our hearts. Lured on by whispered tales of abundant resources and future greatness of the new states, the first settlers of this country left their forest homes in the east and drifted with the tide of immigration into the great Prairie Sca."
Reared under the whispering forest boughs of their native states, they were, as
by instinct, guided to the timbered land for their new homes. It was thought for a long time, after the first settlers came, that the prairie soil was unfit for successful cul- tivation. We find United States surveyors making such notes as these: "Level or un- culating prairie : may be useful at some time in the future for grazing purposes."
In 1833 Peter Cartwright, then a member of the House of Representatives of the state of Illinois, was appointed chairman of a committee, whose duty it was to investigate and bring about some plan or method by which the prairie lands of the state might be used for agricultural purposes.
When we consider the sacrifice of home comforts that obtained in the eastern states, we need not wonder at the persistent energy and the indomitable will of the pioneer, because none but those imbued with unlimited energy dared to make the sacrifice of the parental home for the cabin in the wiklerness.
When the prospective settler reached the desired spot, a tent was pitched, and the necessary logs were cut for the construction of a cabin. Everybody within reasonable clistance was present at the raising of this cabin : this occasion marked an epoch in the staid mein of pioncer times. In fact this was the only event that afforded an oppor- tunity for the assembling of the neighbors, whereby they might become more closely bound together for the general good and protection of the settlements.
The size of these cabins was from four- teen to twenty feet. They were usually built in the following manner: First large logs were laid in position as sills; on these were placed strong sleepers, and on the sleepers were laid the rough-hewed punch- cons which were to serve as floors. The logs were then built up until the proper height for the caves was reached: then on the ends of the building were placed poles, longer than the end logs, which projected
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MACON COUNTY.
some eighteen inches over the sides, and were called the butting-pole sleepers; on the projecting ends of these were placed the butting-poles, which served to give the lines to the first row of clapboards. These were, as a matter of course, split, and as the gables of the cabin were built up, were so laid as to lap a third of their length. They were often kept in place by the weight of a heavy pole which was laid across the roof parallel to the ridge pole. The house was then chinked and daubed with coarse mor- tar. In the first cabins of the county huge fire-places, occupying nearly the entire room, were built.
"At these fire-places our mothers cooked, and our fathers say that the bread from the Dutch-oven, the corn bread from the Pone- board, the venison from above the coals, and the potatoes from out the ashes, were sweeter by far and formed more delicious food than any of the dishes of modern de- vice."
But one door and one window served the inmates of these primitive homes; the win- dow pane was, usually, a sheet of greased paper. The furniture was home-made; a single puncheon board, with four legs on the under side, served as a table; blocks of wood on three legs were the chairs. The bedstead consisted of two poles joined at right angles, and projecting into the side and end of the room, boards placed upon this frame completed the bed.
In these times of simple wants, true, genuine hospitality was developed to a re- markable degree. This was due largely to the fact that, the requirements of want and deprivation are cach calculated to make one feel kind to all. While the wants of pio- neer life are simple, yet their gratification is. nevertheless exacting. The pioneer of this country was governed by the same law and cherished the same generosity that prompts the human heart under similar con- ditions, everywhere.
In passing from the pioneer times to the present regime, many of the customs, then prevalent were lost ; much of the hospital- ity, them so generously bestowed, is lost sight of. Less of the neighborly feeling now exists.
There was such simplicity of demeanor and moral integrity in the character of the pioneer, that but few disputes arose which could not be settled by his good-natured judgment. No distance, be it ever so far, would shut out help in time of sickness, neither rain nor cold dampened their neigh- borly ardor. Each man's implements were every man's implements. The refusal, either to lend or to borrow, was considered a breach of neighborly etiquette.
Oxen served, as the reindeer of Russia, for beasts of burden, doing all the field and road work, besides supplying the settler with meat. to supplement the wild game. The plows used by the eastern farmer. and brought here by the early settler were not adapted to breaking the prairie soil. Even after it was satisfactorily demonstrated that the prairie soil was as well adapted to the production of corn as the timber soil the matter of an efficient plow retarded the rapid development of the prairie land for quite a number of years.
The settlers secured their lumber from the saw mills along the Wabash river. On the banks of this river and in Sangamon county were the nearest stores and grist mills for a number of years. What grain was not fed was hauled to Chicago and Beardstown and exchanged for goods. The people, coming to make a new settlement. brought supplies of groceries and breadstuffs to last until a crop was grown.
Johnny-cake and pone, made of corn meal, which was the staple article of food, were relished for breakfast and dinner, while mush-and-milk or hasty pudding was the supper dish. All kinds of wild fruits grew in great abundance. Wild honey was very
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MACUN COUNTY
plemini and maple sugar was extensively made by the settler. Wild turkey, rabbit. squirrel and deer supplied them very gen ermuisly with meat
The days of ready made clothing and medium priced cloth had not yet been aslı cred m. thus necessitating the bone manu facture of " Lindsey woolsey " and " Jean- in order to supply wearing apparel for the imil Bud clothing was also a production of home manufacture. Gradually. the set tlers pushel om from the timber, opemitg litches and draming the land which was originally so swampy that it was absolutely dangerous to attempt to ride over it on horse back. Thousands of acres of this Swamp land have recently been dredge ditched and uled, which has to enhanced their value that nothing less than Sim per acre will be considered as a fair selling price.
The law compelling the people to fence Stock out instead of in, proved detrimental to many would be settlers, since the cost of ineng frequently exceeded the cost of the land. Another detriment was the hold ings of non residents, who retarded the gen eral development by refusing to improve the lands. One large body, in the hands of a person so daspor d could, in a wet district. Leap hundreds of acres from becoming val walk in an agricultural sense, by simply re fusing to perat duches to be run on his holdings.
The government price of land, in the carlier days was fixed at $1.25 per acre. 1. soon as the moneyed men of the east began to suspect that these lands had any real Value, the country was frequented by speen- later, who bought the land for speculative purposes only, never intending to become settlers. It was not uncommon for men who had exhausted their means m reaching the country, and who had worked hard, and undergone untold privations in preparing a comfortable home and other essential ine
proveniente, and Had, possui a few deles under cultivation, when they had eventually. secured, by rigid economy, or perhaps, by borrowing enough to buy from the gover ment, their small farm, found that some speculator had proculed them and entered the land. It seems that in many istances of this kind the hard earned improvements were, in some mysterious was capable of transferring themselves to another farm ner
The first land ever entered My Macon county was the west half of the northeast quarter of section thirty one in township Sixteen north, range two cast of the 3rd 1. 1. This was entered by Lewis E Ward. November 9th, 1527 owned by han until the fall of 1870, at which time I Was sold to Hartley O. Henry During the year 1827 about eight hundred acres of land was en tired in the county. The first house built in the Iunits of the county was at a trading post about eight mile - northeast of Decatur. on land owned by W. C. Johns: 11 was a Ing house, built by the buttons i 1810.
The second house was built by William Downing, in 1820, near the present site of the tape D. 1. Allery's ressource in the hill. just south of the county bridge This was really the first permanent residence, since the house at the trading post remanted, only while the Indian trathe lasted. In the fall of 1824 Mr. Downing sold las improvements
The third house was built is Bnel Stephens, 11 1822, near Stephen's creek. about three miles Fortheart of Decatur. Has locality was soon known as the Stephens creek settlement, and that south of the Sangantigas the Ward settlement. these hong the only settlements in the coun tvinntil 1828, after which they began to lo- cate both up and down the river.
The first mail was built on Stephens' erick, by William King im in it With
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MACON COUNTY.
sold to James Renshaw and known as the Renshaw mill.
As long as our cattle were driven to the eastern markets and our hogs to Chicago and St. Louis, there was but little encour- agement to engage very extensively in farm- ing and general stock-raising.
The real progress of Macon county dates from the completion in 1854, of the Illinois Central and Wabash railroads. This marks the beginning of immigration; of manufac- turing; and of the city of Decatur.
There are but four men now living who came to the county previous to 1842, they are: Silas Packard, M. L. Krone, Henry B. Cassell and William Evans. These men well remember when business was practical- ly all done by barter, there being no money ; the man who came in possession of the large aggregate of $20 was almost a local money king. No local markets existed for anything but corn, which was sold in the shock to cattle feeders or fed by the grower; cattle were marketed by some leading man in the neighborhood who drove them to market and brought back the money for his neigh- bors. No matches were in use at this time, the above named gentlemen well remember when borrowing fire from your neighbors was the common mode of procedure.
In order to give you a faint idea of the rapid strides made by the county we append the following data : In 1830 the population was 1,112; in 1850 it was 3,998; in 1870 it was 26,481. In 1876 there was yet over III,000 acres of unimproved land in the county ; to-day every acre of prairie land is under cultivation and, is excelled in pro- duction by no other location in the United States.
Every one abhorred debts and as a result as few as possible were made. When it became necessary to make a debt a man's word was as good as his note, and it is true that men would sacrifice every animal on the farm in order to meet these promises.
Merchants, on account of the scarcity of money were compelled to do a large credit business; they bought on long time and sold on a margin that justified them in do- ing a credit business.
These early settlers had, not only the financial and social problems to solve, but the miasmic and climatic conditions as well. In the spring and fall of each year the great majority of them shook with chills or burned with fever, alternating at regular intervals, during at least six months in the year. Very often there were not a sufficient number free from the ague to care for those who were afflicted with it. The country, at that time was subject to more radical climatic changes, as evidenced by the deep snow of 1830 and '31. Early in the season, the snow began to fall and continued at intervals through the entire winter. Occasional sleet alternating in layers with the snow formed a bed of snow and ice from three to four feet deep. The weather continuing ex- tremely cold the snow remained until spring. It was drifted and packed so that heavily loaded wagons were driven over the top of stake and rider fences. Wild game was so tame from want of food that all'kinds was very easily caught. The deer, wild turkey, prairie chicken and squirrel were very scarce for some years after the snow. This was the deepest snow within the last hundred and fifty years. According to Indian traditions from fifty to seventy- five years before the white man came, a snow swept away the vast herds of deer, elk and buffalo, which then roamed the prairie of Illinois. This tradition seems to be veri- fied by the large quantities of bones found on our prairies by the early explorers.
Abraham Lincoln lived, at this time about a mile east of the Bend school house, or about three miles south and one and a half mile west of Harristown. The farm on which he lived is now owned by Hostetler and Pegram. Late in the winter Mr. Lin-
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MACON COUNTY.
colu and John Hanks, his cousin, went across the river to a horse mill owned by Robert Sunth, five miles southwest of De- catur. When they arrived Mr. Smith was gathering corn in this manner : After open ing a road to the field, the oxen, attached 10 a sled were driven along the side of the field and the corn that was exposed above the snow was gathered in baskets and car- ried to the sled. When Mr. Lincoln was asked whether he labored under the same disadvantage on Ius side of the river, he rephed: " Yes, we have to do worse than that, for we have used up all of our corn, and now have to go to our neighbors for assistance."
When spring came and melted this glacier of snow and ice, the country was almost in- undated, and for weeks the streams were swollen and the prairies a vast sea of water, retarding travel as much or more than the snow had done.
The Sudden Freeze, which was accom- panied by great loss of life to both man and beast, occurred in January, 1830. Just be- fore the storm a fall of snow had been con- verted into slush by terminating in rain. The storm came from the northwest, its general aspect approaching that of the pres- ent blizzard. The air seemed filled with par- ticles of frozen mist and the moment it struck the unsheltered person he was in- stantly chilled through and through; the particles of ice froze to the eye-lashes so that in a remarkably short time he was blinded and unable to keep his bearing. In a very short time the shush was frozen so as to bear up a horse. Cattle that were not under shelter, were frozen fast in the slush and had to be cut out. Ducks and geese were caught in the same manner.
The life of a pioneer was interspersed with but few diversions from the constant struggle for subsistence, so that whenever anything out of the ordinary routine took place every one, within reasonable distance,
attended. The annual court, the arrival of the mails, and the approach of the stage- coach, each in succession, marked an cpoch. Court answered the purpose of the circus where old friends could meet, at least once a year, to be entertained and for renewal of acquaintanceship.
After court had adjourned for the day, the judge, lawyers and citizens betook them- selves to the bar rooms of the taverns, where the evenings were spent in general conversation and story telling. That some good resulted from these gatherings can not be doubted when we consider the social status given by such men as Lincoln, Logan, Douglas, Emerson, Davis and others who have since become leaders in our national affairs.
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