USA > Illinois > Lee County > Recollections of the pioneers of Lee County [Illinois] > Part 12
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house for themselves.
Their nearest market was Chicago, eighty miles distant, taking from five to seven days to make the journey. Often when the father was away the Indians would look through the windows at the family, but they never harmed any of the settlers at the Grove.
They had no fruit except the wild fruit in the Grove. Father carried the first currant bushes to the Grove on horseback from Nauvoo.
The nearest flour mill was Green's mill near Ottawa, Ills. Also woolen mill, where the wool was made into rolls, ready for spinning.
Father and mother used to go to meeting on the same horse, father in the saddle, mother sitting behind him.
Zachariah Melugin and Abraham Lincoln were warm friends during the Black Hawk war. After the war Lincoln visited him, spending a day and night with him at grandfather's home in Sangamon county.
Father was the first justice of the peace, and also the first school teacher; teaching in his own house until the first school house was built in 1837.
Religious services were held in private houses until the first school house was built. The first church organized was the Methodist Episcopal (do not know the date). The first Sunday school was organized by Rev. Ilaney, of the Methodist Episcopal church, in 1847 or 1848 Cornelius Christiance was the first white child born at the Grove, John Melugin the second, W. W. Gilmore the third, all born 1835.
A. V. Christiance was the first post master. Charles Morgan and son were the first merchants, and kept millinery. Dr. Bissel was the first doctor to locate there. Henry Vroman was the first tailor.
AMELIA G. MCFARLAND.
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H. V. Cristiance.
A. V. Christiance was born in Schenectady county, New York, in 1808. He lived in the east until he was twenty-seven years old. His health was poor, and his physician advised him to go west; he took his advice and, accordingly, himself and his young wife, started for the west, to find a home and regain failing health. They had been married but a short time and their earthly possessions were not very extensive - an ox team and a covered wagon containing their few housekeeping utensils, con- sisting of a bed, and bedclothes, a few dishes and kettles and such like. They journeyed for many a day and finally reached the south side of Melugin's Grove one summer evening just as the sun had set behind the trees, and the landscape was one of beauty and seemed to inspire the heart of Mrs. Christiance with admiration and to promise rest and a home for the future. So she said to her husband, who was preparing to camp for the night, "let's stay her and take up a claim, this is the best place we have found yet. I don't want to travel another day."
So they rested till the morning and then began their preparations for a home. They had to sleep in the wagon till the house was ready and the cooking was done by a fire made of wood piled up on the ground. In speaking of it she said:
"How happy I felt when our little log house was done. It was not very big, as there was only one other man in the Grove-or near there. That was Zachariah Melugin. We had our pick of the land and built on the south side of the Grove, by the side of the old Chicago and Galena road. We kept a sort of tavern for the accommodation of travelers- there in the little log house with a mud chimney and a fire place to cook over and keep warm by."
They lived until they could afford to put an addition made of logs on one side, then on the other till they finally got money and means to build a comfortable, commodious frame farm house. There the first white child was born in the township, and they named him Cornelius. The old Indian, Shabbona, used to stop there quite frequently and talk, and tell
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stories of the Black Hawk war and how he helped warn the settlers and they escaped the cruel scalping knife. Roving bands of Indians used to pass by the house and Mrs. Dr. Carnahan, who lives at Compton, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Christiance, said: " I have seen the Indians lying on the barroom of our house so thick you could not walk across without stepping on them. One day my mother went to the door and called to one of the Indian's dogs, as she supposed, to feed it, but my father happened to come to the door just then and told her it was a wolf. She was about to let it in and feed it. She shut the door pretty quick you may be sure."
Mr. and Mrs. Christiance continued to live on the same farm and in the same place till her death twenty-two years ago, and there sixteen children were born to them. Mr. Christiance is still living there but his mind is a wreck. Cornelius, the oldest child is there looking after his welfare, having been appointed conservator.
Five of the children of Mr. Christiance are living, two daughters, and three sons.
While keeping tavern in those early days Mrs. Christiance used to have many curious guests. She was a lively little woman and I have heard her tell about getting meals for Joseph Smith, and for many that she felt afraid of, and whom she afterwards learned were notorious horse-thieves, and members of the banditti of the prairie. And she used to stay alone for days at a time while her husband went to Chicago for groceries or to sell a load of grain to get a supply of things they must have in order to live.
Life was hard in those early days-but gay in a certain sort of way. The woods had plenty of wild game, and wild fruit, such as plums, rasp- berries, blackberries and strawberries.
Neighbors were far apart, but after going ten or fifteen miles, borrow some flour and visit awhile, or to exchange newspapers, how glad the folks were to see each other. And then if you happened to call after dark when maybe you could not very well get there any earlier, the neighbor did not excuse herself, instead of asking her neighbor to stay over night. Yes, there was more genuine hospitality in those old pioneer days than there is now.
MRS. EZRA BERRY.
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Samvet Argrave.
Samuel Argrave came to Lee county in 1845, and hired out to work on a farm by the month. He worked in this way one year; at the expiration of that time he entered a claim in the south-west quarter, section 25, in Viola township. He erected a dwelling on it, and he and his wife had to live as best they could while trying to get a start in life, and own a home of their own. Their first furniture was mostly what he made with his own hands; but then it was the fashion to be poor, and but for the fact of being without many of the necessaries of life, they were happy in their new made home with its scant furniture and many inconveniences, it was their home and for four years they lived there and together tried to beautify it and cultivate the land.
In 1850 Mr. Argrave started for California with a wagon, and traveled in the usual way, and reached the golden state in safety. He worked there at the mining business, and was very successful. After remaining two years he returned to Melugin to his family. He had many thrilling experiences to relate on his return home, but the wife who remained at home in the new country-what of her life during those early days? She said, in speaking of it, "I have known what it is to want for the many little things that go to make up the comforts of home, and had it not been for the kindness and generosity of John Gilmore and William Guthrie I don't know what I should have done; but thanks to their kind- hearted generous help, I was kept from becoming destitute. After Mr. Argrave returned they were paid for their kind deeds. But California is a long way off, and in those days it was a long, tedious and often-times a perilous journey. So this help was given me without any guarantee of reward, because who could say what might happen to him. Even if he made money and started for home he might never get home with it.
His safety was her great concern, and all through the long months that made the years her anxious heart, pondered the question over and over again; will he ever return? And one glad day he came home to his loved ones with means enough to supply all their wants, and prosper-
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ity continued to smile upon his effort from that time till now. In 1865 he enlisted in Company I, 15th Illinois Infantry, and was in the service eight months. They have four children. They reside at Compton, and are well supplied with the comforts and luxuries of life. The winter (1892-3) they spent in Florida. He is now nearly blind, but his faithful wife cares for him so tenderly. His comfort is her first thought, and her eyes are gladly used to promote his happiness and wellfare.
They have one son living at Compton, Samuel Argrave, and a daughter living there also, she is the wife of Minor M. Avery, and a son and daughter living in Viola township, Winfield Argrave and Mrs. Mary Hutchinson. MRS. E. S. BRAFFET.
Reminiscences of Lee County.
In the month of April, 1848, S. W. Carnahan and wife, with eight children, started by team from Columbia County, Pennsylvania, to make the then long and to be dreaded journey by team to our new home at Me- lugin's Grove, Lee County, Illinois. This place we reached after an une- ventful journey lasting six weeks. Upon reaching our destination we found a temporary abiding place in the shape of an old log house stand- ing on the east side of the Grove, belonging to John Gilmore, which had but recently been vacated. In this we lived until fall, where father pur- chased forty acres of land and on this decided to build a home of our own.
With no lumber yard within forty miles, and the nearest saw mill at a distance of ten miles, it was of course necessary to construct the house of logs. This we did, building a fire place of sticks and mortar in one end. In the spring he placed a land warrant on an adjoining 160 acres of land, to which in due course of time he received a patent from the government. The following fall we sent, by a neighbor who was hauling a load of grain to Chicago, for a cook-stove, for which we paid less than $20, including all the necessary furniture-a price that compares favorably with a like article at the present time. This, with our new house, com- bined to make the following severe winter more easily endured than the first we spent in that country.
Father being a carpenter was called upon several times during this winter to make coffins for neighbors who had died. I remember one in particular that he made for a woman who died at Twin Grove, eight miles from where we lived. I accompanied father when we went to de- liver it, driving two horses hitched to a sled; by the time we reached the house a violent snow storm had set in, and against theadvice of our host, we started on our eight mile drive across the prairie, facing the blinding storm and without a single track to guide us. When about half-way home one of the horses floundered into an open well, but was prevented by the harness from going to the bottom. By the united efforts of father and myself we finally succeeded in getting it out, and starting again on
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our journey, reached home after dark, greatly to the relief of the anxious ones awaiting us there.
During the summer season the grass covered the prairies from three to four feet in height, and during my first term of school taught at Knox's Grove, it was no. uncommon thing to have from ten to twelve rat- tlesnakes cross my path while going from my boarding place to the school house. As this was during the days when teachers "boarded around" the distance of course cannot be definitely stated.
Our family not being among the very first to move into the country, did not experience so many of the hardships incident to the life of the first pioneer. A store only one-half mile distant furnished us with all necessary groceries, while pork could be had, brought to the door for one and one-half cents per pound. Good milch cows could be purchased reasonably, the first one father bought costing but thirteen dollars. When I taught school and "boarded around," the wages could hardly be called "first class" at the present day, as two dollars was the remuneration granted for each week's service, and that to be collected from the patrons of the school, each family paying according to the number of pupils sent.
HARRIET CARNAHAN MCELYSA.
The following verses were written in 1836 or '37 by Mr. Melugin, after whom Melugin's Grove was named. They were printed in the Rock River Register, which was the first paper printed on Rock River.
Come Icave the fields of childhood Worn out by long employ.
And travel west and settle In the state of Illinois;
Your family is growing up, Your boy's you must employ,
Come till the rich prairies In the state of Illinois.
It's on Chicago river, Near to the border line,
A fine commercial city CHICAGO you may find,
It's like old Adams' castle, Sprung up the other day,
And stripped the rag from off the bush Of Michigan, I aye !
A little further westward.
Near to the Land of Mincs,
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Upon the Mississippi, GALENA you may find; A ride upon the railroad Full soon you may enjoy, And cross at Dixon's Ferry. In the state of Illinois.
Down on Rock River, Such land was never known-
If Adam should cross over it, The soil he'd surely own; He'd say it was the garden He lived in when a boy, And straight pronounce it Eden, In the state of Illinois,
Then move your family westward, Good health you'll there enjoy, And rise to wealth and honor In the state of Illinois.
Chorus:
Then come along, come along I say;
Come from every nation, come from every way.
Then come along, don't you be alarmed Then come along, don't you be alarmed, For Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm.
Preserved and contributed by Dr. U. Roe, Franklin Grove.
The Township of China.
"Mother" Whitney.
T is customary to speak in glowing terms of the men who brave the dangers and endure the hardships of a new country, passing over the ones who silently endure the hardships and privations making rough places smooth for them whenever it is in their power to do so. What would our great country be now, if the wife had not toiled silently by the side of the sturdy pioneer and cheered him by her loving presence. guarded and directed him by her wise counsels, or helped with her ever ready hand at tasks that were too hard for frail woman? If their history could only be written, what a story of self-sacrifice, silent endurance and dis- · play of courage it would present: for way down in their hearts they suf- fered daily tortures that not even their husbands dreamed of- home- sickness, loss of friends, privations found only in new countries-and went down to their graves unmentioned. The unwritten history of this country is full of these silent martyrs.
The subject of my sketch, Sarah Gray Whitney, was one of these women. Born in 1791 near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in her early child- hood she moved with her father's family to the western part of New York, then a wilderness. Here she lived and grew up to womanhood, when she married Nathan Whitney, The first two years of her married life she spent with her husband at the father's, for he was not of age and the stern old gentleman required him to work his time out. Then she moved with him upon a new place that had to be cleared, for it was for- est land. They had not been there long before the War of 1812 broke out, and when her husband was drafted into the army she was left alone with her infant as were most of the neighbor women; for only the old men who were too infirm to handle a musket, or boys who were too young, were left at home.
Before her husband left for the war he had succeeded in getting a woman with her child, whose husband had also been drafted, to stay with her; but one day an Indian was seen in the cornfield near the house gathering roasting ears, which so frightened the women, that each
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seized her little child and ran to a neighbor's for protection, where there were two boys about twelve and fourteen years of age. Each boy seized a musket and went in search of the Indian, who had disappeared, which was fortunate for him for had he been found he would certainly have been fired upon by the boys. After that her companion could not be persuaded to enter the house again, even when she knew the Indian had no evil intent. .
The rest of the time until the close of the war she spent alone, endur- ing the hardships of securing the crops; constantly on the lookout for an Indian attack and suffering great anxiety for her husbands safety.
After the war, when her husband had returned, by her industry and frugality, she helped amass a comfortable fortune; for while her husband labored hard in the fields she was always busy with her household cares, spinning or weaving, making cloth for dresses for her ever increasing family; for she was the mother of ten children, seven of whom (six daugh- ters and one son) grew up to manhood and womanhood. Then, too, the linen had to all be provided by the wife's hands after preparing the flax and spinning it. She would weave it into sheets, and table linen of "bird's eye" and "diamond" paterns, with heavy fringes, some of them a quarter of a yard deep, knotted and tied by her own hands. This had to be combed out, which was usually done after the children and men of the house were sleeping soundly in their beds. When her daughters were old enough to go to school there were white aprons and white sunbonnets, all ruffled, that had to be starched and ironed, for six little girls, the ruffles crimped and fluted, after the children were in their beds or while she was "resting." Think of the yards of hemming and making that was done in those days, one stitch at a time, and compare it to our own swift-running sewing machines that can do more work in an hour's time than could then be accomplished in a day. Then, too, the amount of butter and cheese made by her without ever a thought of the amount of work she was doing would fairly appall a woman of later days, for even with our creameries and cheese factories we are apt to groan over the amount of work to be done with the help of all our modern improve- ments.
Of course the little girls had to be taught to work, for she was a strict disciplinarian, believing firmly that "Satan finds mischief for idle hands to do," and she could always find employment for her children,, keeping even the youngest busy if necessary and at the same time never stopping her own busy hands. Then after all these years of hard work she had the mortification of seeing her home sold to pay the debts of another
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that her husband had signed for. Leaving a large brick house (which was a constant regret to her all her life) moving from Albion to Elba, where another new house was erected and a comfortable home established when after a few years her husband sold out, this time settling in Union- ville, Ohio, then the boundary of civilization.
Here after a residence of a few years she had to again endure nearly the same experience of the first home, for her husband met with nearly the same misfortunes in mercantile business, in which he had at this time engaged. By trusting others too far he lost nearly all of his pro- perty again. But before they again started westward it was decided that in the new home they would engage in the nursery business. With that prudent forethought that was her characteristic, she with the aid of her little son (A. R. Whitney of Franklin Grove nursery) washed out apple seeds, saving a half bushel for the first start, not forgetting cherries, plums and peaches. The apple seeds, only, grew well.
Then the journey from Unionville, Ohio, began in January, 1838, end- ing in Illinois February 8, 1838. It was one of many hardships, as the swamps were almost impassable, mud prevailing most of the way until near the end, when it froze up, and the distance from Inlet to Franklin Grove was made in sleighs, where the Colonel met the family, he having started west several months before to look up a claim and prepare a habitation for them.
The first house the family moved into was a log cabin situated down in the grove, where a family of ten occupied a house about sixteen feet square, which had two beds in it. These were occupied by the Colonel and his wife and their daughter and her husband, Dr. and Mrs. Gregory. There was a low room up stairs that was used as a sleeping room by the other members of the family, and it was no unusual occurrence for the occupants to have to shake the snow from the bed clothes in the morning before they could arise, or to amuse themselves by counting the stars through the cracks in the roof as they lay awake listening to the roar of the winds.
It was here her great executive ability was again displayed, making partitions of blankets and such articles as came handy, cooking for a large family over a fire place, making bread and biscuit that were the envy and admiration of more than one good housewife, using the old fashioned tin oven or reflector for baking or an oven built outside of the house, made of clay (as no brick could be procured at that time), provid- ing lights by making the old fashioned "witches," until she could get tallow to make candles, which she did by dipping them or running the
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tallow into earthen molds, of which two out of a dozen are still in exist- ence. For lamps those in which lard could be used for oil were substi- tuted for candles, when farmers were well enough off to raise their pork. On one occasion some member of the family killed some large owls, and when Mrs. Whitney tried out the fat, which yielded a small quantity of oil which she used in the lamp it also occasioned considerable sport for some of the mischievous members of the family; for one of the daughters had an ardent admirer who would prolong his evening call to such an extent that the "owls grease" was recommended to her to "rub on his eyes so he could see his way home earlier."
The new house on the prairie was raised, and by May it was completed . eno igh so the family could move into it. All the timbers in it were cut from trees in the grove at Franklin, and hewn into proper shape by Col- onel Nathan Whitney; even the shingles and siding and the first floor of loose boards were split out by him, but the permanent floor of matched boards was sawed by a mill down in the grove. It was when completed, (which took a year's hard labor) one of the most comfortable farm houses in this section, although it was not plastered for several years after they moved into it, for of course lime and other material for plastering could nôt easily be obtained. The family were better fixed than many who first came here, for Mrs. Whitney had six chairs taken apart and packed in the wagons when they moved from Ohio, and the colonel put them together again after they arrived here. So they enjoyed the comfort of three rocking chairs and three other chairs which of course was prefer- able to the three legged stools and benches which were also used.
Comparative comfort began again after moving into the new house. It was here she used her first cook stove.
When spring came, and it was very early that year, for many spring flowers appeared in March, the young ladies of the family found special enjoyment in the great flower garden that nature provided with such a lavish hand upon these vast prairies. It seemed as if no spot was too poor or mean to produce some tiny blossom. One young lady excelled in snake hunting, sometimes appearing before her frightened sisters with fourteen snakes hung over a long stick. These snakes she had killed during a short walk along the creek-remarking that she "did not kill the half she saw for the ground was literally alive with them," as they had crawled out to sun themselves on the warm bank of the stream.
"Yes, these were the happiest days of my life," remarked one who is old and gray haired now, when she recalls the old pioneer days. .
One great curiosity to the new settlers was the "drumming" of the
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prairie chickens. It was a long time before they could determine where the peculiar noise came from. Occasionally a herd of deer would appear near the house and a little fawn was once a household pet. Wolves, too, at that time were very common, their howling making the chills run over one, although they were not a very formidable foe. A little east of the old house is a large hank of the purest sand, varying in color from pure white to pink, green, yellow, etc .; and here it was that material for scouring the floor was found. Nature, too, provided fruits very bounti- fully then, although the variety was not very great, but blackberries, wild plums and even the wild crabapple were used for sauce, when sugar could be obtained; excursions for gathering these fruits were always enjoyable affairs, especially if some new acquaintance was made, for the people then were more open-hearted and social than now. Each one was about as rich as his neighbor.
One of the first things that was done in the spring was to break up a place to plant the apple seeds which had been frozen and sprouted by Col. Whitney.
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