USA > Illinois > Lee County > Recollections of the pioneers of Lee County [Illinois] > Part 3
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Their chief pastime was wandering through the grove in search of berries and wild honey, there being plenty of both. They would often walk to Inlet Grove and to C. F. Ingals', one of their nearest neigh- bors, who lived about three miles east.
The old Central railroad was surveyed and partly built through this town, passing nearly through Rocky Ford. In 1838 Mr. Doan worked on it for a time, but sickness overtook him and his family and at one time he and the youngest were so near to death's door that the watchers knew not which would be the first to go; but, happily, both recovered.
People living here now can hardly realize the many, many hardships the earliest settlers had to contend with. In 1836 Mrs. Doan, in company with Mr. and Mrs. John Dexter, made a visit to Dixon. The way was
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JAMES DOAN.
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SUSAN DOAN .
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desolate, not one house in those long twelve miles, and they neither niet nor saw anyone on the way. On their arrival they found one double log cabin, one side being used for a store, and the other for a living room for the merchant and his family. The store contained groceries and dry goods. Of the latter one could have carried nearly all away in his arnis. This store was kept by a Mr. White, and John Dixon, jr., was postmaster at this time. The mail department was in its infancy, as well as the country.
Their post office was at Inlet Grove, and every letter cost the one who received it twenty-five cents. A newspaper was a luxury seldom indulged in. Mills were few and far between, the nearest being Leeper's mill, forty miles distant, several miles below Princeton. It was a small, inferior affair. James was a jovial fellow and fond of a joke. He praised the little mill and told the miller he thought he had a very good mill, for just as soon as it got one kernel ground it commenced immediately to grind another. This is a sample of all the mills in those days. They sometimes would have to wait a number of days for their turn, and then wait for the grist. When they had eaten the lunch they carried with them they would work for their board and for what the oxen would eat, by cutting and hauling logs. One time Susan used up all the flour and meal and ground corn in the coffee mill to make a meal or two before their return. This was to her a small matter compared with the anxiety for the absent ones so long gone.
The first death was a little girl of John Dexter's in 1843. John Fos- dick preached the funeral sermon. The second was Frederick and Delilah Bainter's little boy, Franklin, in August, 1844. Rev. Luke Hitch- ยท cock attended the funeral; and in October of the same year James' father, John Doan, died. Rev. L. Hitchcock led the services of this funeral also.
After enduring the hardships of a new country for eight years, Susan with her husband and three children, William, Sarah and Francis, re- turned to South Bend, Ind., near the home of her girlhood. In the spring of 1849 James left his family to try to make a fortune in California. He made his trip overland and was quite successful. When about to return he was cruelly murdered on the 13th day of August, 1853. No clue to the assassin was ever discovered.
The following year she returned to Illinois, having laid her little Francis in the grave, and her husband in an unknown grave, unknown at least to her. Here she has since resided. In September, 1866, she was married to O. J. Fish, of Franklin Grove, when she removed to his home where she lived until his death, which took place October 20, 1888, since
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which time she has lived, part of the time, with her daughter, Mrs. William Gray, of Dixon, and the remainder at her home in Franklin Grove.
Since the above was written other incidents in the lives of this family have been given by one familiar with them. They are of too much inter- est to be omitted.
Mr. Doan was a kind hearted man, never passing a little child without a gentle word or laying his hand upon it; and he was a most useful pioneer. He invented the plow which he manufactured; in company with his brother-in-law, Mr. Bainter, and which was the beginning of the plow manufactory at Binghamton, conducted by others afterwards.
Many instances of his kindness are recalled by some now living. Once, when two sons of Chief Shabbona were riding on horseback in the vicinity, one of them was thrown and quite severely hurt. Mr. Doan took him home, and seconded by the assistance of his wife and the young Indian's brother, tenderly cared for him until he could be taken home to Shabbona Grove. This was indeed the act of a true neighbor, when their cabin had but one room. This son of Sahbbona was so badly injured that he never recovered, although he lived for some time.
Mrs. Doan was of the same kind spirit of her husband. She was an intimate friend of Mrs. Dexter, and spent much time with her, when Mrs. D. by reason of sickness, or the care of her little ones, could not leave home She was a gentle, refined woman, skilled with her needle, and better adapted to assist in the lighter than in the heavier work of pioneer life, although sharing in both. She helped Mrs. Dexter in making her children's clothes, and fashioned and made at home the first wardrobe of Col. Simon B. Dexter.
Once, when Mr. Dexter had gone to Chicago with produce, Mr. Doan happened to be passing the creek on his way to Inlet Grove. He saw Mrs. Dexter cutting ice to water the cattle. He immediately went to her relief, and finished the work for her. His quick perception discovered to him that Mrs. Dexter was a sick woman. He took her into his "jumper," a vehicle which he had fashioned from the boughs of trees, and went to her home, got the baby and carried both to his house. Leav- ing her and the infant in care of his wife, he went for his mother to "help nurse her up;" and got a sister to go and stay with the Dexter children. This was in the morning. At evening, Mrs. D. felt so much better that they took her home, Mr. Doan's mother going with her and remainig sev- eral days, until she could leave her well, her daughters gladly fulfilling her duties at home, so that their mother might comfort those who needed her.
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MRS. JOHN DOAN.
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It is pleasant to dwell on this side of pioneer life when the infant settlement abounded in the infantile graces of Christian life, and thought more of doing good, hoping for nothing in return, than of sectarian tenets and the external things of religion. Truly, in these waste places there was a ladder where the angels of God ascended and descended, although the eyes of mortals were holden, and saw not the heavenly vision.
On the 19th day of September, 1836, John and Charlotte (Odell) Doan, with their children, Joseph, William, Jemima, Sarah, Gibson, Charlotte, Elizabeth, Anna, Jonathan and Ruth, arrived in this settlement to re- ceive the glad welcome of their oldest son, James, and his wife Susan who came in May and who had been watching anxiously for the arrival of father, mother, brothers and sisters.
They commenced immediately to build a house and ere long had com- pleted one, the largest log house in this section for some time.
John Doan was a man of excellent character, kind and true. He had been raised with the Quakers and partook of their quiet demeanor, sound principles and undemonstrative disposition. His wife belonged to the Methodist church, and in all her good works and usefulness in the com- munity, she was sanctioned and encouraged by her husband. She was one of a number of women doing the most good in those early days, con- stantly seeking the sick and needy and rendering every possible assist- ance to the sufferers within her reach. She had a large family and could leave the care of the household with the older ones. She was strong and healthy and ambitious in all her undertakings. The itinerant ministers often held their services at her home; these generally occurred on week days. The first minister was by the name of Lumery, who alternated later, once in two weeks, with another by the name of Smith. Smith died at Corrydon Dewey's while on the circuit, and Lumery went on the rest of the year. Smith died in the winter of 1838. Then came Father Gorbitt, a good old man from Indian Creek; then a Mr. White; after that Rev. Luke Hitchcock, stationed at what is now Lee Centre, often held meetings and officiated at weddings and funerals.
Mrs. Doan was a devoted and reverent student of her "blessed Bible," and regretted that, having always lived on the frontier, her advantages for educatiou had been so limited. Those who knew her spoke of her as a "Mother in Israel." Mr. Thomas J. Dexter, in writing of her and his mother and Mrs. Col. Badger, Mrs. Wasson and Mrs. Patience Searles and Mrs. Varner, says there was a "Holy of Holies in every one of their lives.',
Her husband died in 1844, at the age of sixty-two years, having been born in North Carolina September 10, 1782. They had lived together
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thirty-five years, their marriage occurring December 28, 1809. Rev. Luke Hitchcock preached the funeral sermon, and in one short year a beloved daughter followed her father. Mrs. Doan outlived several of her chil- dren and died at the ripe age of eighty-one years, while with a daughter in Missouri.
She was in usual health; her grandaughter entered her room in the morning to see if she was ready for breakfast and found her just reaching for her cap, almost ready to join the family. After a few minutes, as she did not appear, they went to see what detained her and saw her lying across the bed, dead. She was born September 25, 1788, and died December 28, 1869.
"No stream from its source
Flows onward, how lonely soever its course,
But that some land is gladdened. No star ever rose And set without influence somewhere, No life Can be pure in its purpose and strong in its strife, And all life not be purer and stronger thereby."
Jemima Doan Bainter was born in Wayne county, Indiana, March 8, 1816. She was the oldest daughter of John and Charlotte Doan who were natives of North and South Carolina. When about eighteen years of age she moved with her parents to Berrian county, Michigan. In the spring of 1836, she came with her father and two brothers, James and Gibson, and James' bride, to Lee county, Illinois, then known as Jo Davis county. They came in a large wagon drawn by three yoke of oxen, as there were no railroads in those days; and twenty-one days were spent in this journey of two hundred miles. They passed through Chicago, a dirty, muddy, little trading post, with no attraction for the home seekers, who were bound for Palestine Grove, where their ideal of a perfect farm was to be with timber and prairie adjoining it.
The greatest hardship of the journey was in crossing the first seven miles of country directly west of Chicago. The ground was mostly cov- ered with water from six to eighteen inches deep, and the weary travelers were obliged to wade through to lighten the load for the poor tired oxen. When the sun went down they were only part way across. After turning the oxen loose to care for themselves as best they could, they ate a cold supper and slept in the wagon. There were no roads and many times all the things had to be taken out to get the empty wagon through the sloughs and across the bridgeless creeks. When the roads were good she sometimes would ride, but she walked most of the way. No wonder she
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was delighted with the beautiful sight of what was to be her new honie. She and Susan, her brother James' wife, had secretly planned that, no matter how the place looked, they would say they were pleased; so glad would they be to end that long tedious jonrney. James had visited the place in October, 1835 and selected his own, as well as a claim for his father, and anoter for his brothes Joseph. The day of their arrival was May 13, 1886. After making a shanty and getting the early seeding done, she with her father and Gibson, returned to Michigan to bring the remaining part of the family to the newly prepared home, leaving James and his young wife here to wecome them back in the following autumnn.
The 3rd of May 1838, she was maaried to Andrew Bainter, from Mich- igan, a brother of James' wife. This was the first wedding in this part of the country and was attended. by a great many, and was a merry time. Mr. Frank Ingals and his sister, Deborah, who afterwards married Dr. R. F. Adams. Mr. Wasson's family Mr. Sawyer's and a number from Inlet Grove were present. The young people enjoyed it so well they kept the games going until the break of day. In the following fall they com- inenced housekeeping in a small hewed log house which Mr. Bainter had built with no tools except axe and hammer. This was the third house built in this section. The floors, as in all the others, were hewed out of logs. They called them puncheons. It was situated near a little creek called Willow Branch, on a claim, there being no land in market at that time. Here she spun and wove for themselves and others, making beau- tiful flannels, bed-spreads and blankets, table linen and towels; and as her family grew, making all their winter clothing, sewing and knitting by the light of a single candle, thinking it extravagant to burn more than one at a time She delighted in fanciful paterns in weaving, and the one piece of fancy work indulged in was netting, which adorned the cur- tains around/the bed and across the one little window. As their living was plain one might think that good health would have been assured; but this was not the case. They had fever and ague and many dsieases common to a new country; and the young physician, Dr. R. F. Adams, was kept busy, riding on horse-back many miles each day.
Chicago was the nearest market and a week or more was spent in taking a load of produce to this place. A load of dressed hogs would be sold for $1.25 a hundred, and oats for ten or fifteen cents a bushel. Every one who took a load must carry a lunch basket and live entirely on its con- tents, or his expenses would exceed the price of his produce sold. One man who indulged in a few luxuries had nothing to bring home but a
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calico gown for his wife; but he was an exception, as inost of the early settlers were economical. These trips were mostly made in the winter, the women attending to the chores, and doing the best they could. When the nine days had passed there was great uneasiness about the absent ones and great would be the joy when the creaking wheels in the cold frost would be heard in the distance Sometimes the cause of delay would be the death of a horse, and again a broken wheel, sometimes an unusual storm. When the market at Peru and La Salle was opened, they thought it only a small trip to go there with their produce. When the I. C. R. R. was built, and Amboy was located, it seemed like a new era, as indeed it was, to the pioneers of so many years. Mr. and Mrs. Bainter were members of the Methodist church for many years. Then came the war-the cruel war. They gave their oldest son to the country's cause, and many parents can tell the anguish these few words contain.
After this they removed to Indiana, their one request being to have their remains brought to Illinois for burial. Andrew was the first to go. He died March, 1884, and Jemima followed him in December of the same year. Their graves are side by side in the little cemetery at Bingham- ton, near the place where, when life was full of hope, they met, with loving cheerfuness the hardships of those early days.
LATER GLEANINGS.
Jemima was full of fun. Once when returnig from some gathering at the "Inlet" with her brother James, his wife and a sister, they found the creek risen so that they could not cross in the wagon; there was one way to cross; James could swim the horse and one girl at a time could tuck up her garments and by riding on her knees behind James and hold- ing on to him, cross high and dry in safety. Jemima watched the droll spectacle and laughed until she cried. The ring of her jolly ha! ha! used to make the woods echo with her glee, and reach ears too far off to know the cause of it.
Another time, she with her brother James, wife and sister, strolled out in the grove on one of the long Sunday afternoons, and forgetting the distance from home, found themselves obliged to cross a branch of the creek where the water was several feet deep. So the girls had to do just as any body would - wade in, carrying their shoes and stockings. So they had a little drama all to themselves on that quiet Sunday; but Jemima's laugh reached the ears of her mother who was enjoying a solemn medita- tive walk, somewhere on the other side of the stream; and good mother Doan knew the laugh. One can imagine a gentle chiding with some of Solomon's words as an accompaniment.
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Mrs. Cynthia Varner lived in the Doan neighborhood, near the log school-house, She was a widow with three small girls, at times depending on the neighbors to keep the wolf from the door: yet ever ready to do all she could for the sick and afflicted; her neighbors taking care of her children when she could be of service to any one in trouble. Many of them appreciating her usefulness and aware of her necessities, always left a sack of flour for her when returning from mill, and contributed many other things. She was a "hardy pioneer," and a devout member of the Methodist church often leading in prayer-meeting and other serv- ices. Her greatest horror was heresy. One old settler writes: "I recol- lect her rising in her seat at a meeting in the old log school-house when Joe. Smith and Sidney Rigdon were present, and calling on God to smite the " blasphemers." No mention is made whether any one else was dis- turbed by them. Mrs. Varner died June, 1892, aged 82 years.
There is a little anecdote related by Dr. H-of Minneapolis, with regard to the capture of Black Hawk, which may not be out of place here Dr. H- said he had never seen it published, although he could vouch for its truthfulness, his home having been in the vicinity of the place referred to in the story.
Lying between Appleton and Oshkosh, along the southern and western side of Lake Winnebago, was a valuable tract of land included in what was known as the Black Hawk purchase of 1832. This land was given to an Indian by the name of Juno, as part of the compensation for informa- tion leading to the capture of Black Hawk. Juno was a confidential friend of Black Hawk and had married into his family-Dr H- thought was a brother-in-law of the warrior. He with his family continued to occupy the land long after his betrayed and defeated comrades had gone in search of new homes beyond the Mississippi River.
On the first day of January, 1864, the most terrible blizzard that had ever been known swept over the northwest, and, unlike others, was so cold that mercury congealed. Juno had gone to Oshkosh; the storm abated, but he did not return. His family (he had a large one). watched in vain. The weeks lengthened into months and no tidings of Juno reached them. At last when spring came, and the warm sun and winds melted the great banks of snow which had drifted around their dwelling, his body was discovered lying prone in the path a few feet from the door
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of his home, where he had fallen, and over which his own children had been walking for many weeks.
In Ford's History of Illinois, mention is made of "Three Winneba- goes," who "gave intelligence that Black Hawk was encamped at Cran- berry Lake." Doubtless further knowledge of the whole transaction would reconcile the not altogether conflicting narratives.
Aga B. Searles.
M R. ASA B. SEARLES was a native of Chenango county, New York, and was born January 27, 1810. Later in life he was for several years in South Bainbridge, New York. He there attended a school which his brother taught, and had for a schoolinate Joseph Smith, the future Mormon Prophet, whom he described as being kind-hearted and possessed of much brain, which was supported by a large, strong body.
At the age of nineteen years he was engaged in piloting on the Susque- hanna River. He then be anie acquainted with those who were afterward some of our most noted pioneers. He continued in business on the river for six years. On the 19th of September, 1832, he was married to Miss Patience Stockwell, of Bainbridge. On the 19th of August, 1837, he left there for Palestine Grove with a two-horse team, in company with thir- teen others. He arrived here October 11th, and for a while lived in the cabin which James Hawley began; but soon entered land and moved to the farm still owned by his children in Binghamton, near where the Tile Factory now is. It was he who laid out Binghampton and named it for the town by that name in New York. He erected a hotel and was the first postmaster here. His son Lemuel has favored us with the docu- . ment which has the seal of the postoffice department stamped upon it. and the signature of the Postmaster General, John M. Niles. The name of Winooski was given to the Palestine Grove postoffice. It is the Indian name for Onion River. The document reads thus:
"JOHN M. NILES, POSTMASTER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
'TO ALL WHO SHALL SEE THESE PRESENTS, GREETING:
"WHEREAS, On the 28th day of May, 1840, Asa B. Searles was appointed postmaster at Winooski, in the county of Lee, State of Illinois; and whereas he did, on the 22nd day of June, 1840, execute a bond, and has taken the Oath of Office, as required by Law; Now KNOW YE, That confiding in the integrity, ability, and punctuality of the said Asa B. Searles, I do commission him a Postmaster, authorized to execute the duties of that office at Winooski aforesaid, according to the Laws of the United States, and the Regulations of the Postoffice Department; To HOLD the said
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office of postmaster, with all the powers, privileges and emoluments, to the same belonging, during the pleasure of the Postmaster General of the United States.
"IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the SEAL OF THE POSTOFFICE DEPARTMENT to be affixed, at Washington City, the 30th day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty, and of the Independence of the United States the Sixty-fifth."
JOHN M. NILES."
The mail was carried through once a week by a man on horse-back, who had been a soldier in the Black Hawk war.
The remains of the old log building in which the mail was distributed was standing a few years ago. After Mr. Searles resigned, Mr. Warren Badger succeeded him. Mr. Searles was the first assessor of Amboy. His wife died December 19, 1846, and was the first one buried in the cem- etery at Binghampton. She was a sister of Mrs. Alvan Thompson and of Mrs. Leapha M. Palmer, who afterwards married John Dexter. She was an excellent woman, who enjoyed the sincere respect of all.
Six years afterwards Mr. Searles married Miss Amanda Headlee, who had five sons. The oldest, Lemuel, served his country under Gen. Custer, in the 7th U. S. Calvary. Mr. Searles was possessed of excellent qualities, and was untiring in his efforts for the prosperity and increase of the set- tlement in its early days. The city park was once a part of his estate.
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ELIZABETH WASSON.
Benjamin and Elizabeth Wasson.
M RS. ELIZABETH HALE, wife of Benjamin Wasson, wasa daugh- ter of Isaac and Elizabeth (Lewis) Hale, who emigrated from Ver mont to Pennsylvania in 1790. A letter from her daughter Clara- Mrs. Backensto-which gives an account of the emigration of the Wasson family to Illinois, together with a few incidents of their subsequent his- tory, seems a fitting introduction to our sketch of Mrs. Benjamin Wasson. FROM MRS. BACKENSTO TO HER NIECE, MRS. PERKINS.
"I regret the history you speak of was not written during my mother's lifetime, as her memory was so much better than mine. Those trying times made a more vivid impression on her mind. I was too young.
"My father, Benjamin Wasson, and his family, consisting of his wife Elizabeth, three sons, Lorenzo, Harmon and Warren, two daughters, Clara and Roxy, started from Harpersville, Boone county, New York, some time in the latter part of August, 1836; his destination Knoxville, Illi- nois; his outfit, two teams and wagons, one a large covered wagon for goods: He expected to go through Ohio, but the second day out he heard that the Black Swamp, in Ohio, was impassable, so he crossed into Can- ada, at Lewistown, passing through Detroit and Chicago, down the Illi- nois River to Peoria, and from thence to Farmington, where he found an old neighbor from New York, Mr. Samuel Johnson, jr., who was just ready to move his family to Dixon, Illinois, having his goods packed and waiting for the teams which did not come; so father unpacked our goods from the wagons into the log-cabin vacated by Mr. Johnson, packed Mr. Johnson's goods and family into our wagons and leaving us in the log- cabin took Lorenzo and accompanied Mr. Johnson to Dixon's Ferry, as it was then called. So you see we found a home, such as it was, at the end of our long journey of six weeks. Father drove one of the teams for Mr. Johnson and the journey proved to be a longer and more tedious one than they expected, both for teams and drivers. Mr. Johnson, who was a shoemaker, had some sides of sole-leather with him, and these they were obliged to spread down as bridges for the teams to pass over the quick- sand swamps. They could never have completed the journey had it not been for them.
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