USA > Illinois > Peoria County > Peoria > Peoria city and county, Illinois; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 10
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Nevertheless it was a dreadful winter. The intense cold set in on the 15th of November, 1835, a full month sooner than was anticipated, and found no one prepared for it. Provisions were scarce not only with us but in the stores, and the Illinois river, the only highway to the base of supplies, was frozen over. Snow soon fell to a greater depth than had ever been known before and ren- dered the country roads well nigh impassable while it was fresh and entirely so when it turned to mud and slush. At the new house it sifted through every crevice and it was no rarity to shake several inches of snow off our beds in
PEORIA IN 1846
PRIME SAVINGS A THUMET CO
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KEY TO THE PICTURE OF PEORIA IN 1846.
The following named places are represented as follows:
a. The foot of Ferry Street and the ferry, since called Bridge Street and the bridge.
b. Orin Hamlin's flour mill.
c. The first court house.
d. The first home of Charles Ballance.
e. A. S. Cole's warehouse. Between Cole's warehouse and Ballance's first home, in Water Street and in Liberty Street, fully filling both of them, was Fort Clark at a former day.
f. Curtenius & Griswold's general store.
Slough's, or Union Hotel.
h. First two brick buildings erected in Peoria.
i. Clinton House.
j. Asahel Hale's home.
k. Detweiller's Hotel.
1. Voris Bros.' general store.
m. A. S. Cole's store in 1843.
11. Farmers' Hotel.
0. The notorious Whig flagstaff in 1844.
D. The old court house.
q. Old Hamilton Street Baptist Church, now the site of the county jail.
r. The old Peoria House.
S. John Rankin's flour mill.
t. The residence of Isaac Underhill, for whom the picture was painted, now the site of St. Francis Hospital.
u.
V. Orr & Schnebley's saw mill.
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the morning which had settled upon us in the night. The situation was not helped by the knowledge that there was no lack of money to make us com- fortable but that this was a time when money was of little use. There were few mechanics of any kind in the state and if there had been many, there was a dearth of materials with which to work. Every foot of lumber for building purposes was obtained by cutting logs on the farm, hauling them to a saw mill on the Kickapoo where they were sawed on the shares, and then hauling them back. Teaming was a business for which there was good demand, and as we had the best horses in the neighborhood our boys were often importuned to do something of the kind. On one occasion brother John and an assistant was em- ploved to take the boiler of a sunken steamboat to Chicago; for this job he received $100, which does not seem a munificent sum for the time and labor expended, but he was probably glad of the opportunity to see the country and satisfied to pay expenses. On his return he brought a load of lumber, which was considered an exceedingly bright thing to do.
As the winter progressed provisions of all sorts became scarce and ex- pensive. Flour, I remember, was $12 per barrel, New Orleans molasses $1.25 per gallon, and butter unknown. The only thing our family had in plenty was coffee which we had brought with us and which seemed to be providentially multiplied till the spring. Flour gave out altogether and many of us were made sick by the constant use of corn-meal. At length we obtained a little wheat from a neighbor but to be ground it had to be taken across the river to Crocker's Mill at the Narrows, the only flour mill in that section of the country, and so great was the pressure of business that our messenger had to wait three days for his turn. When he returned with the beautiful white flour we wel- comed him with open arms. He also brought some middlings which we made into battercakes, and though we had no proper griddle and had to bake the cakes on the stove lid, after our long course of corn they seemed a great luxury.
The necessity for provisions finally became so great that teams were sent to Beardstown where a steamer from St. Louis had been frozen in the ice, to bring up her supply of groceries by the wagon road. From this time we were not so badly off, though even when the river opened, boats were timid about coming so far. Citizens were much in the habit of betting as to the time when the river would open and this year heavy odds were offered that it would not be before January 3. Fortunately the thaw came on the third to the delight of people generally, though it made those who had lost wagers unhappy.
Among Uncle Kellar's earliest acquaintances in Peoria was Mr. Charles Ballance who had come out from Kentucky in 1831, and, when the Kellars came in 1835, was already well known as a prosperous young lawyer, land agent and surveyor. He had purchased a house on the corner of Water and Liberty streets, i the site of old Fort Clark, and here his sister kept house for him. As any sort of shelter was hard to find, when the Kellar family arrived, he invited them to stop with him till they could get a house of their own. This hospitality they accepted for two or three weeks and then rented a house belonging to Mr. Dakley on the corner of Hamilton and Adams streets, where they remained till they moved into the country as already described. When, therefore, father began to look for a farm, Uncle Kellar took him to see Mr. Ballance as one likely to know where such a one as he wanted could be found. It happened that Mr. Ballance was in Vandalia at the time, but as soon as he returned he
" The picture "Peoria in 1831" shows this house of Mr. Ballance and also shows some of the old stubs of the burnt palisades. John F. King, a contractor of Peoria, in putting a sewer down on Liberty street cut through the foundations of the bastion of this old fort. It stood so as to nearly obstruct Water street and Liberty street if it had been still standing. The main part of the fort connected with the bastion extended down Liberty street and down Water street and included probably nearly all of the ground on which the power plant of the Electric Light Company now stands. The Daughters of the American Revolution have put up a brass tablet on the corner of the power plant of the Electric Light Company to show the former location of Fort Clark. Vol. 1-5
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HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
rode out to the Kellar farm, partly on business, partly to make a social call. Unfortunately in selecting land father was hampered by the idea that ground which did not produce big trees would not produce big corn,* and as the rich alluvial prairies which appear ready-made for the plow had no charms for him and the wooded lands near the streams were generally taken up, this caused some delay. At length, however, a place was found that seemed to fill the requirements, and it happily belonged to a man who wished to sell. To us its surroundings seemed primitive, but the owner, "Sammy" Elson, was one of those restless men who always flee at the approach of civilization and the bargain was soon made. The purchase included a small house, which after- wards became a part of the Schnebly homestead, and into it my brothers moved, taking sister Susan with them as housekeeper.
As early as possible after coming to Peoria, Uncle Kellar had begun to preach in a frame building on Jackson between Adams and Washington streets. Here he would no doubt have done well, but unfortunately the disctission which resulted in new and old school Presbyterians was rife even in this distant place and had resulted in the formation of two Presbyterian churches where there was hardly room for one. On the 21st of December, 1834. Joshua Aiken, Moses Pettengill and Enoch Cross with the assistance of Rev. Flavel Bascom and Rev. Romulus Barnes had organized a church of eleven members with new school proclivities, and on the next day Samuel Lowry, a zealous Presbyterian from the north of Ireland, and Rev. John Birch had organized a second chtirch with old school preferences. This latter organization included Samuel Lowry, Mrs. Andrew Gray, Mrs. Matthew Taggart, John Sutherland, Nelson Buck and others. All this occurred before I came to Peoria and had created not a little feeling, but in my first knowledge of the place both churches were leading a precarious existence, and Uncle Kellar was preaching for the so-called old school body. When my father came with his large family and a little later Mrs. Lindsay with hers and identified themselves with this latter church, it seemed established on a firm basis. And so it might have been but for enemies within the fold, who were far more destructive than those without. The real cause of the trouble which resulted in dismemberment does not appear on the records but in the language of a contemporary arose from "a strong disposition on the part of Mr. Lowry to rule whatever he was concerned with and an equally strong disposition on the part of Mr. Kellar not to be ruled." Be that as it may, it was said at the time that Mr. Lowry had taken the deed to the church lot in his own name, and that he subsequently sold the lot, took the money and went away never to return. To straighten the matter out the synod sent a commission to investigate the matter and this commission dissolved the church which Mr. Lowry claimed to have organized and established another in its ruins, of which Mr. Kellar was elected pastor, and such he continued to be for several years.
Miss Kate Kellar and I, being the young ladies of the family, usually ac- companied him to church. As soon as possible father purchased a carriage for the use of the family, but during the first winter our only mode of traveling was on horseback. I remember that Cousin Kate and I had cloaks alike, made very full, wadded and lined and pleated into a yoke. As we rode along these
* Mr. Schnebly seems to have preferred timber land to the prairie because he thought it was more fertile. Mr. George Poage Rice, the father of the editor, came to Illinois first in 1834 and was in Peoria. He went west and settled in Monmouth. His idea was that the prairie land was the best farm land but that farms could not get along without timber 10 build houses, make fences and for fuel. He took up his farm land in the edge of the prairie adjoining the timber and spent all the money he could spare in buying timber land amongst the breaks thinking that he was getting the key of the situation. Some money he had to in- vest for his sister, he put all in timber land and also when his nephew wished to come and open a farm he sold forty acres of the timber and took up as good farm land as there is in Illinois with the money. One could sell forty acres of that farm land a day without im- provements for enough to buy a section of timber land, even with the timber standing on it as good as it was in those days.
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cloaks would fill with wind like a balloon and must have presented a funny appearance if there had been any spectators on that lonely road. Both Mrs. Gray and Mrs. Lowry were very kind to us and often asked us to spend a day or two at a time with them. On one of these occasions we were invited to a dance given somewhere on Main street, but as neither of us knew how to dance and would have been thought dreadfully wicked if we had, the party was not a success as far as we were concerned.
As we had come from a country where snow was plenty, sleighing was one of our chief amusements. We had only a home-made jumper, it is true, and in going up and down the hills had to cling to each other to prevent falling off, but youth and high spirits atoned for all shortcomings and we enjoyed it. On one occasion we took the "jumper" and went by invitation to spend the evening at John Clifton's. There was but a single room when we arrived, and the only light came from a huge log fire about which the family was gathered. After a while with some difficulty they rigged up a witch's lamp-a piece of rag drawn through a potato and set in a saucer of oil-and that furnished the balance of the illumination. We were made most welcome, however, and before our de- parture the lady of the house passed around a dish of raw turnips-the only refreshments she had. It was most kindly meant, but we were too recently from the land of apples not to be struck with the fun of it, though our own entertainments were little less primitive, being confined to hickory nuts or parched corn, to which the children sometimes added potatoes roasted in the hot ashes. It was years before we had any fruit of our own raising.
For many reasons the family reading took a narrow range that season. Two weekly papers, the Philadelphia Presbyterian for religious items, and the Hag- erstown Torchlight for news of our old neighbors, had been ordered to our new home, and were carefully read. In addition we had our choice of the Bible, a voluminous Concordance, Josephus, a treatise on the Whole Duty of Woman, Grimshaw's History of the United States, Lives of Washington, Calvin, Frank- lin, Marion, Patrick Henry, and for light reading Scottish Chiefs, Charlotte Temple and the Children of the Abbey. How these latter managed to creep into such dignified company I cannot remember, but I, at least, read them with avidity, and was thereby beguiled of many weary hours. A little later. through the kindness of a friend, I had access to all of Cooper's novels, then just coming into vogue, and had a new world opened up to me even though the noble red men, as there portrayed, had no resemblance to the specimens with which we oc- casionally came in contact.
The winter of 1835-6 dragged its slow length along, as has been said. In February my stepmother presented us with a tiny addition to the family, and notwithstanding many discomforts inseparable with our crowded quarters, as well as the newness of the country, mother and baby both throve well. A few weeks later Mr. Ballance and I were married, Uncle Kellar being the officiating clergyman. My gown was of white jaconet, the material for which I had providentially brought from Maryland, and my one bridesmaid was Miss Amelia Boone, one of the family who traveled with us in our journey through Indiana. There were but two carriages in the town, and one of these Mr. Ballance hired for the wedding, but owing to the darkness of the night and the miserable condition of the roads it was thought best to defer the drive into town till morning. Our homecoming was naturally an event of some importance in the little town, and Miss Prudence Ballance had issued invitations for a party in our honor. It proved to be a large gathering and an elegant one for the times, but after all these years I can recall no one who was there but the Grays, Lowrys, Taggarts, Vorises, Picketts and Boones .* The house where I began my married life and where my three older children were born was on
* This Miss Amelia Boone was a cousin of the author's mother and was a relative of the pioneer hunter, Daniel Boone of Kentucky. Their family settled at an early day in Pennsylvania, fifty or sixty miles north of Philadelphia.
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HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
the lower side of Water street at the foot of Liberty street, and was considered a superior one for the times. It was near the site of old Fort Clark, which was built in 1813, and which burned in 1819. The fort had been made of logs, standing on end and the charred remains of these were sometimes found about our garden as long as we remained there. One was in such a state of preserva- tion that we used it years as a hitching post until its age and history made it too valuable for that purpose and when we moved away a man by the name of Drown sawed it into walking sticks which he readily sold for 50 cents apiece. The corner on the south of us had been a powder magazine, but nothing re- mained of it but a few stones and the hole where the powder had been stored. Below this and a little nearer the river-there was not a street laid out south of this till you reach the ferry, now Bridge street-was the old Court House .*
In the rear, the house was generally sixty or seventy feet from the river, but in the spring it often happened that the water came up to our back steps, and it was not unusual at such times to attach a fishing rod to the back door to catch a fish for the next meal. The front yard was quite barren when I came to the house, but the next year we had it fenced in and wandering pigs fenced out, so that I soon had a garden, gay with all colors of old-fashioned flowers.
After we left this house for a larger one on South Adams street it was rented to various tenants, but rapidly went to decay and the site is now so changed by business houses and railroad tracks that even I find it difficult to identify.
Most of those who had been invited to my wedding reception were strangers to me, but Mrs. Andrew Gray seemed like an old friend. She and her husband were warm hearted Irish people, and had been kind to me from my first arrival. Indeed, to the extent of their means, they kept open house to all comers. Among their frequent guests were William, generally called "Billy" Mitchell, and two young ladies, Margaret and Louisa Heaton, who lived near where Jubilee now stands. Mr. Mitchell was a young Englishman and at that time and for years afterwards was clerk of the county court. Whether Mrs. Gray had any hand in making the match I do not know, but these young people met often at her house and the day before we were married Uncle Kellar was called upon to perform the same services for Mr. Mitchell and Louisa Heaton. After his marriage, Mr. Mitchell took his bride to live in the house on the bluff now occupied by Mrs. Thomas Hurd and her daughter, Mrs. Hotchkiss, and soon after he was joined by his mother and a sister who eventually became Mrs. James Crawley.
Of the Lowrys I have spoken before. They were staunch Presbyterians and according to their ideas of things good people, but Mr. Lowry was a man of determined will and strong prejudices, and it was impossible for him to see any good in a scheme which ran counter to his preconceived ideas. Mr. Bal- lance was fond of quoting Hudibras with reference to him where he described the English Presbyterians :
"Who never kneel but to their God to pray, Nor even then, unless in their own way."
He was a prominent citizen for a few years, but became involved in the church quarrel before alluded to and left the place.
Mr. Taggart was another Irishman; his wife was a sister of Mrs. Lowry. and a most excellent kindly woman. They had two daughters, Jane and Mary, the latter of whom was not fully grown at this time, but some years after mar- ried Mr. Dalmain, an artist. In the first Peoria directory issued in 1844 Mr. Taggart would seem to have no business, but the word "gentleman" is opposite his name. On the same page appears the business card of Jane Amanda Tag-
* This old courthouse is shown on the picture "Peoria in 1831."
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HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
gart's Select School, wherein is taught "Philosophy, History, Arithmetic, Geog- raphy, Grammar, Reading and Spelling. Terms, $2.50 per quarter."
Mr. Ballance came from Kentucky to Peoria in 1831 and soon afterward induced his friends, the Vorises to join him here. The family consisted of MIr. and Mrs. Francis Voris, two younger brothers. Abram and Sam, a sister, Hortensia, and Miss Sarah Congleton. The brothers kept a general store, which developed into a forwarding and commission business. They also went into the packing of pork in winter, which they would pack in flat boats and when the river opened in the spring send it down the river where there was always a ready market for provisions. Their store was located on Water street for years and their various interests furnished employment for a number of young men. Miss Hortensia Voris married Dr. Hogan, a practicing physician, but in a year or two they moved to Texas and I lost sight of them. Mr. Abram Voris went down the river as supercargo of a line of flat-boats, and while in the neighborhood of Natchez took the cholera and died. A year or two later Mr. Samuel Voris married Miss Congleton and for more than a quarter of a century the two brothers, Francis and Samuel, with their families, lived together in the homestead in perfect accord. As children grew to maturity and were mar- ried, additions would be made to the original house, but so long as the first couples remained there was no thought of separation. As time went on they prospered and for years were considered among the wealthiest as well as the tnost hospitable people in the county. The house or rather the collection of houses that sheltered so many was near the corner of Adams and Oak street, but has so fallen into decay that it is no longer habitable. The beautiful lawn is entirely destroyed. The garden that was the pet and pride of the neighbor- hood had not left even a trace, and the fine old trees are all dead and gone. It is a melancholy spectacle and one that I would gladly forget.
As I came from a southern state and belonged to a family of slave owners, my sympathies were naturally opposed to everything savoring of abolitionism. In these days when the Christian world is unanimously convinced of the iniquity of slavery, it is difficult to realize the intensity of feeling fifty years ago (A.D. 1846) for and against the institution. As years went by sympathy on either side developed into hatred, families were divided and the solid south was arrayed against the solid north, but in New England was to hold him up to approbrium and he must be singularly brave and conscientious who would avow his belief in the hated doctrines.
Whatever elements might have entered in to divide that most conservative of bodies, the Presbyterian church, it is certain that the crowning trouble was the difference of opinion on the subject of slavery. The north saw but one side, and believing that it was wrong felt that it must be pulled up, root and branch ; that it must be done at once regardless of consequences, and the results be left to God. Many in the south on the contrary believed it to be a divine institution, sanctioned by Scripture and the tisages of antiquity ; others of Africa in touch with the civilizing influences of the whites, and all felt that right or wrong, the blacks were here and to set them free was to involve the country in far greater troubles than could possibly arise from continuing them in slavery.
It would seem that whatever the moral aspect of the question it need not have affected any relations in the center of a free state like Illinois, but beliefs are not bound by geographical lines and the old school Presbyterian church with its supersensitiveness on the slave question and the new school, the offspring of Puritan parents, were the results.
I do not undertake to give a history of this new school of Main street church, as it was called, but I remember many of the people connected with it. The leaders were Joshua Aiken, Moses Pettengill and Dr. Cross, but William A. Nurse, Robert E. Little, Dr. Castle, the Burlingame brothers, a man by the name of Tarleton and Mrs. Jeffries did much to make it a success.
One of the first pastors was Rev. William T. Allen, who was noted for his
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anti-slavery proclivities, and wrote after his signature, "Preacher of righteous- ness," as descriptive of his calling. Joshua Aiken, who is now remembered principally as a relative of the late Mark Aiken, lived at Cottonwood, the farm afterwards bought and improved by the late S. S. Clark. He owned a small flouring mill on the Kickapoo about three miles south of town, which was cap- able of turning out fifty barrels of flour per day. He afterwards added a saw mill to it and ran both together till on one of its periodical floods the creek carried the whole plant away so successfully that not a suggestion of it can now be found. It must have been a serious disappointment to those concerned, as the vicinity had been staked off into lots and a considerable amount of business clone in the way of selling building spots in the town which was called Peoria Mills.
Moses Pettengill was one of the earliest merchants of the place and as he was a careful business man whatever he undertook was a success. Although stern, he was very pious and exceedingly conscientious. He was an avowed abolitionist and it was said that he was connected with the so-called underground railroad and gave protection to slaves who fled across the border. It was even told with honor that Mrs. Pettengill had entertained colored women in her parlor and the tale produced a large sized scandal. I am not sure that the story is true, but feel that if either of these good people had felt it their duty to entertain the lowest of the black race they would not have hesitated a moment to do it.
Another prominent member of the new school church was Amos Stevens. He was an educated man and opened a school when he first came to Peoria, but left it in a year or two and went to Baton Rouge. Here he made the ac- quaintance of a family by the name of Silliman, who, perhaps, through his influence, spent several summers in Peoria and built the houses occupied by Singer & Wheeler on Water street. After being away two or three years Mr. Stevens returned and soon after married a Miss Morrow, who was a teacher and a sister of Mrs. Rufus Burlingame.
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