USA > Illinois > Lee County > Recollections of the pioneers of Lee County [Illinois] > Part 30
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The hard labor and isolated lives of our pioneers did not detract from their patriotic zeal.
A lady informant, who attended the Fourth of July celebration in 1842 writes: "I can only remember that it rained during the exercises, which were held in the little school house at Inlet. The rain ceased about the close, but the grass was so wet it was almost decided to eat the dinner we had prepared indoors, instead of marching to the booths where the tables had been improvised. The ladies disliked .the plan of adjourning to the school house, so we took a vote as to where the dinner should be eaten. We unanimously voted to go to the tables. This decision so pleased the gentlemen that they gave us three rousing cheers, and gal- lantly offered to go out and turn over the grass and shake the water out, so we need not wet our slippers or draggle our skirts. The orator of the day was Dr. R. F. Adams, now of Denver. Mr. Joseph Farwell furnished music with his his violin, and Mr. Joseph Sawyer beat the big bass drum."
In 1840 Luke Hitchcock married a couple, who, though they did not come here to live till years after, have always been interested in Lee Center, and Lee Center in them, Mr. and Mrs. Cephas Clapp. Mr. Clapp had come west a year or more before, and when his sister and husband (Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Clapp) weni east in 1840 they brought back with them his promised wife, Mildred Snow. They had the pioneer's ex-
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perience in getting here, being "sloughed" and fording Bureau creek when their trunks had to be put on the seats of the wagon, and they themselves to sit like tailors on the other seats to keep dry; but the bride was just as brave and cheerful as she always has been and as ready to bear anything for her loved ones. They were married at Lewis Clapp's and the next Sunday Mrs. Clapp remembers going to meeting in the old, log school house at Inlet in the forenoon, and at Mr. Tripp's barn in the afternoon. Here she met many of the old settlers and formed ties of interest still strong and abiding. She remembers "Uncle Dan Frost" led the singing, and how well he sang; and that Mrs Dr. Gardner said with tears she "hoped they wouldn't be as homesick as she had been."
Rev. James Brewer, now living at Wheaton, Illinois, expresses liis commendation of the work in hand in the following words: "It is surely a very grateful thing that as the history of earth's glacial period has beer rescued from oblivion by investigations of the boulders left from its movements, so there are those enough interested in the Genesis of Lee Center's history to take the pains to investigate the old boulders which still lie with striated surfaces along its course, and write out their story of an earlier age."
Mr. Brewer rode on horseback from Montgomery, Ala., to Inlet in the fall of 1843. "I found my way by inquiring for large towns. At Spring field, Ill., I inquired for Peoria, thence I came to Princeton, thence to Greenfield (now Lamoille), thence to Dixon's Ferry. At Green river (Inlet creek) I received the first knowledge of Inlet, the chief town of the Lee Center which was to be." Mr. B. speaks of several private schools in and about Inlet. "In one such Mrs. Sallie P. Starks taught a class of ten pupils, five boys and five girls, from about one year old to near twenty-one years old, and the excellence of her work is manifest in the noble after lives of such as Betsy S. Shaw, Emeline Williamson and Esther M. Chadwick. This woman taught 12 hours a day and all the year round. Several years after his first coming to Inlet Mr. Brewer occupied the position of principal of the Lee Center academy, and the · first bell, "an exceeding sweet and far sounding one," was purchased while he was teaching there.
And now a word about this structure bearing the name of academy. In or near 1846 the question was agitated in regard to the erection of a brick building which would serve as a school building; also as a place for conducting religious services. When Mr. Moses Crombie and wife cast in their lot with the people of Lee Center Mr. Crombie was a carpenter by trade, and took the contract for building the brick part of the old acad
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emy. When completed it was an imposing structure for those times and indicated the character of those who aided in its erection as true interpreters of the wisdom of knowledge.
It was a grand step forward when in 1853 the stone part of the present edifice was added to accommodate the throng of students knocking at its doors for admission.
In '53 Mr. S. Wright, of Battle Creek, Mich., assumed the reins of' government. For the next three years the school was the principal edu- cational center of this and adjoining counties. Many pupils came from other states and almost every home in town sheltered one or more board- ers. Mr. Wright would proudly remark, "Yes, this is one of the best, if not the very best school in the northwest." We clip from an old cata- logue published during Mr. Wright's reign. "Lee Center Union Academy is pleasantly situated upon one of the most delightful and healthy prair- ies of the west Lee Center is a small village, free from the contaminat- ing influences that are always associated with depots and larger places; it is also free from saloons and resorts of dissipation that have a tenden- cy to draw the youth from the path of rectitude. The school is now per- manently established, and one which will afford equal advantages with any academy or seminary in the west. A valuable library is connected with the institution, to which the student can have access by the pay- ment of 25 cents per quarter." The names of seven trustees and five special directors are given, together with a list of six as "Visiting Con- mittee." The board of instructors are assigned to departments in ancient languages, ornamental branches and modern languages, instrumental music, mathematics, and two lectures on physiology and philosophy.
Those were indeed the palmy days of dear old Lee Center-pleasant white cottages embowered in trees, shady streets and grassy lawns made it a "faire greene countrie towne." It was the pride and pleasure of the dwellers therein to watch the surprise of relatives from the eastern states when introduced to the social circle there; they found homes of refine- ment and culture equal to those they knew in New England, daughters as lovely and accomplished and sons as noble and manly as any they had left behind, and they never failed to give it their highest meed of praise by saying, "It was so much like a New England village." Who of the younger "old settlers" will ever forget the time when they gathered about that old academy-Lyceums, lectures, donations, traveling entertain- ments in the academy "chapel." Or the time-before the three pretty churches were built, when there was Congregational service and Sunday school Sunday morning, Episcopal service and Sunday school in the after
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noon, and Methodist in the evening. with almost the same congregation and children in all three; the greatest difference being that Deacon Crombie and Deacon Barnes gathered the offerings of the congregation in the morning, Dr. Gardner and Mr. Garrett La Forge in the afternoon and two good Methodist brethren in the evening, and that there was a differ- ent parson in the desk at each.
Nor did Lee Center and her young people fall behind the rest of the county in the next page of history; for in that old academy chapel were held some of the most stirring "war meetings," and there were enlisted as large and brave a proportion as any town sent. Here, too, the girls gave many an entertainment for the benefit of the old "Sanitary Com- mission"-which would not have shamed those of a city even, and sent generous returns to the "boys in blue."
During this time schools were being established in adjoining towns, which of course detracted steadily from the attendance, until at present it ranks as a graded district school. Many of the pupils who have been sheltered beneath its roof are now breasting the current of life in places of honor and distinction. Many, in homes scattered throughout our Union, are fulfilling the promise of their early days-
"What the child admired
The youth endeavored, and the man acquired."
And many rest from their labors, for God called them.
The feet of the younger generations tread in and out the old rooms now, the curriculum of study has been simplified, another bell swings in the weatherbeaten belfry, the corps of instructors has been narrowed down to two, still the influences of the olden time dwells in the hearts and lives of those who were wont to gather in the old academy, exhort- ing to truest man and womanhood.
The Congregational church was organized at the home of Mr. Moses Crombie and called the "Congregational Church of Palestine Grove." Then we understand worship was conducted until 1849 in what was called the Wasson school house, after which it was moved to Lee Center. Of the organization of the Methodist church we have spoken before and we know that for many years Luke Hitchcock, among the best and best beloved of that communion, was here; that Philo Judson-afterward a foreign missionary-preached here, and that good old "Father Penfield" often filled the sacred desk, as well as the early circuit riders mentioned in other papers. The Episcopal church was not a pioneer organization here and gradually retrograded after its founders and chief supporters, Dr. Gardner and Garrett La Forge left the town, until it is opened for service only upon rare occasions.
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We were happy to find snugly pasted in an old scrap-book a letter descriptive of the audience that were wont to worship in the "brick part" of the old academy. previous to the building of the churches. The style of the letter suggests that the writer must have been Mrs. James Crom- bie, who was long a resident of Lee Center, and our literary "star." She evidently arrived by stage in the early hours of a November morning, for she says, "How the winds whistled and penetrated when the stage un- loaded its passengers, and the moon looked coldly down upon the Acad- emy, as it stood there alone on the prairie, unenclosed or beautified by tree or shrub. It was well filled that Sabbath morning as we entered, for the Palestine people were over and added largely to the congregation. Mr. and Mrs. Farwell and Brainard, Mr. and Mrs. John C. Church, Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus Davis and some others were present from there. It was before the days of fashion and dress, although Miss Mary Barnes had spent a few weeks in the millinery rooms at LaSalle, and she had added a bright ribbon here and there in trimming some of the bonnets. Mrs. Bodine was spending the winter at Mr. Charles Hitchcock's, from Staten Island, and she had a little of the city airs. Dr. R. F. Adams and wife, Dr. and Mrs. Ingals and Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Clapp were chatting to- gether before service. Deacon Barnes and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Moses Crombie, Mr. Lyman Wheat, Josephine and George, Mr. and Mrs. Swart- out, Abram and Nelson, Mr. and Mrs. Bradford Church, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Frisbee, Mr. Martin Wright and Helen, Rev. James Brewer, principal of the academy, Miss Harriet Rewey, the primary teacher, Mr. David Smith and his two bright-eyed daughters, Mrs. Bourne and Mrs. Sancer, Mrs. Lee Clapp and Alice, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Bodine and Albert Z. Bodine, Mr. Ira Brewer came with his wagon filled. Uncle Elisha Pratt, Elisha and Sarah were down from Bradford, John Warwick, Sarah (Mrs. John Crombie) and Sabra. Esquire Haskell came in later. There was a weary look on the faces of those who came in the earlier days, telling of trial and care. The path had been hard to travel in opening up the farms and building new homes. The pastor, Rev. S. W. Phelps, was at the desk, and he had a quiet, unobtrusive expression as if shrink- ing from the duties before him. This is his first pastorate. Mr. Brewer pitches the tunes. Mr. John Wetherbee, the Misses Barnes, Mrs. Henry Frisbee and Mrs. Martin Wright composed the choir." Those of us who read these names realize that the greater number composing this audi- ence have "passed over."
We next give a brief page from the pen of Mr. Phelps, the congre- gational pastor spoken of above, whose pastorate in Lee Center was longer than that of any other minister of whatever name.
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"I have not been wont to consider myself an old settler of Lee county. I was not so old at my dropping down at Lee Center in 1852, that I escaped the suggestion of being a 'green yankee.'
"As for the 'settle idea,' I was so far from that relation to the prairie that I was never 'settled' at all: but was a sojourner, liable to be hoisted any year.
"Old settlers were there already in their snug, hospitable homes, which timidly hugged the edge of the grove. or venturously dotted the treeless expanse of prairie.
"My memory of Lee Center goes back to a time six years antecedent to '52, even less suggestive of settlement, as the creaking, lumbering mail coach, attempting to wrestle with an athletic stump, discourteously hurling its load of assorted passengers into a squirming heap of humanity, at Inlet. It was a rather unsettling parentliesis in my return from a courtship trip of 1,000 miles, from New York to Galena. Hardly less vivid is the memory of a second excursion, in a 'Frink and Walker' stage from Galena to Dixon supplemented by a hard ride through soft mud, with a deacon (now counted among the faithful departed) to the village and to his tidy home.
"Recollection includes one old settier that warned us (the girl I did not leave behind and myself) by a significant rattle to vacate a wild strawberry patch, and another that darted venom at the intrusive wagon wheel which jolted me and disturbed him at early dawn near Birdsall bridge. Along with these recollections go that of a cramped schoolroom, adorned with meandering stovepipe, and furnished with pedagogic desk for the 'green yankee's' wearying attempts at sermonizing; that of Sun- day school, saved from midwinter wreck by three brave Baptist boys (Swartwouts); of Sunday afternoon rides or walks to out stations, through measureless mud or snow, or in the face of a blizzard escaped from the land of the Dakotas.
"But I need not accumulate these reminiscences, but remind you that a farewell sermon finished a sixteen and a half year ministery with ex- pressions of an interest that has never been repealed in the people of my only pastorate."
A sketch from Dr. Ephriam Ingals gave us a very complete description of their cabin home, and of the times when he pioneered in our county Both Dr. Ingals and his brother are now living in Chicago, enjoying the richly deserved fruit of their labors.
In the fall of 1841 a family arrived from the Knickerbocker state, con- sisting of Mr. Bradford Church, his wife and three daughters. We have
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a lively remembrance of this couple, so long interested in all that per- tained to Lee Center and her people. The lively wit and humor of the one and the quiet geniality of the other endeared them to the people with whom they dwelt nearly fifty years. Mrs. Williamn Rainsey, a daughter, writes: "The next day after our arrival, being Sunday, we all went to church in Palestine. A generous pioneer had kindly thrown open his res- idence for an assembly room. It was of dimensions most fashionable in those days-no trouble to have crowded congregations then. The speaker was a Rev. Baptist; I cannot remember his text or subject, just one word of it all remains, i. e .: "Simplify." I think Lee Center had not received its name at this time. Inlet at the bridge was the town, with two saw mills, a store and a few mechanics. Looking back I can see but little of Lee Center except a house with its roof sprouting out of the ground and the school house near the grove. I wish the school house had been left standing until now in its unpretentiousness, rough benches and all. It would be worth a pilgrimage to look at it. But its ministers were neither rough or common. Those I heard there in the winter of '41 were Luke Hitchcock, Philo Judson and John Hogan, local preacher and registrar of land office in Dixon.
"Now I come to your 'We want all we can get about the women and their work.' My dear, do you realize that this refers to the woman of fifty years ago? What can you expect? She had not yet thought of de liverence from the bondage of looking well to the ways of her household. Frances Willard was yet in her infancy and Samantha Allen had not been dreamed of. Some poet has written 'Noble deeds are held in honor, but the wide world sadly needs hearts of patience to unravel this, the worth of common deeds.' Pure religion and neighborly kindness were as dear to woman's heart then as they are now, and I think the dear words, 'she hath done what she could,' will as often be applied to women of that age as this. Just consider for a moment the pioneer woman in the midst of her family, her toil and her care, with six pairs of feet and hands to be protected from the rigors of this climate-one slender pair of hands with her knitting needles to accomplish it; not as a busi- ness, oh, no! but just by filling up every spare minute 'between jobs. Then they had their neighborly social visits, when the women indulged in pleasant chat and mild gossip, keeping time with their knitting nee- dles, while their 'gude men' without engaged in discussions of political economy, reform, etc .- and, poor dears, they seemed just as happy as the women of these days. 1 wonder why some ingenious writer has not taken for his theme 'The rise and fall of knitting work and its effect on
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the republic." A bright little girl friend of mine says she 'can always tell the ladies who know how to knit, because they wear their hair parted in the middle. ' "
It is a source of regret that the purpose of our book was not more fully understood, so that we might have had incidents and particulars from the experience of many of them to make our story more complete and more interesting. We have beside those named or referred to in other parts of this sketch the names of "Uncle Russel" Lynn and "Uncle Dan" Frost and to their excellent wives not one word of honor has been given. Dear "Aunt Abbie!" and "Aunt Eulalia!" we pause to linger over their names, yet realize that their quiet unobtrusive lives furnished little for the pen of a historian. But in not a few homes in Lee County, and in distant lands as well, are there those who rise up and call them blessed, whose lives have been consecrated to higher and nobler purposes by their influence and prayers, and eternity only can measure the widening circle of that influence and those prayers. Would . there were more such mothers! more such women! and with these dear faces comes a throng of others-the noble pioneer women of Lee Center who bore bravely and un- complainingly the "burden and heat of the day"-Mrs. Luke Hitchcock, Mrs. Birdsall (her mother), Mrs. Warnick, Mrs. John H. Gardner, and her successor, "Aunt Lydia," and many more whose names, omitted here, are written on high in letters of living light.
We cannot refrain from quoting a closing paragraph from an author who appreciates the heroes of the past: "The pioneer! Who shall fitly tell the story of his life and work! The soldier leads an assault. It lasts but a few minutes. He knows that whether he lives or dies immortality will be his reward. But when the soldier of peace assaults the wilderness no bugle sounds the charge. The frost, the wild beast, malaria, fatigue are the foes that lurk to ambush him, and if against the unequal odds he alls, no volleys are fired above him. The pitiless world merely sponges his name from its slate. Thus he blazes the trail; thus he fells the trees; thus he plants his stakes; thus he faces the hardships and whatever fate awaits him, and his self-contained soul keeps his finger on his lips and no lamentations are heard. Not one in a thousand realizes the texture of the manhood that has been exhausting itself within him. Few compre- hend his nature or have any conception of his work."
ANNA E. WOODBRIDGE.
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MR. VOLNEY BLISS.
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MRS. VOLNEY BLISS.
Volney Bliss.
V OLNEY BLISS was born in Huron County, Ohio, in 1828. About 1830 his parents moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan, from which place they came in the spring of 1834 to Inlet and settled by the grove which long bore the name of Bliss' Grove before it became generally known as Palestine Grove. At that time there were several hundred In, dians within a few rods of Mr. Biiss' cabin. Government was slow in settling with them and they were waiting for their money, blankets, guns, etc., before going to Council Bluffs. It was nearly two years before "Uncle Sam" had them paid, but there were no railroads or telegraph lines then and everything moved slowly. The young braves were Mr. Bliss' only playfellows. Like Mr. Dixon at the ferry, his father, Mr. Adolphus Bliss, was the first white man in this vicinity.
He opened a stage house, for he lived on the direct route from Chicago to Dixon, and Chicago was for a time his postoffice.
Just one year after Mr. Bliss canie, John Dexter arrived and settled six miles farther west. Then they had a neighbor. Mrs. Dexter once walked all the way to Mr. Bliss' after fire. One would think it must have gone out before she could reach home with it. The next year the Ingals family canie to the grove. It was really getting quite thickly settled.
One can hardly hear of an old settler now who did not come through "Inlet." Bliss' Stage House has many associations. All the memories that cluster around the old stage coach arrivals with their human bur- dens and the mails, and the "underground railroad" are gathered around this place. Mr. John Cross had his advertisement fastened up beside that of Frink and Walker. Here was opened the first school in Lee County, with Miss Ann Chamberlain as teacher.
Mr. Bliss is gifted with unusual powers of observation and memory, and he can give authentic information upon almost every event of inter- est which transpired within his range of knowledge. It is a pleasure to learn from him, and amusing to note how exactly his memory serves him in little particulars which most people forget. He remembers Peter
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Cartright and the size of his saddle-bags, and just how some preachers talked; and many lively incidents which would make a volume worth possessing. He could give an abstract from memory of every homestead that he knew. At a glance he takes in comparative distances and local- ities and every little object in view. He has a faculty of describing any- thing and presenting it to another's mind so clearly in few words that it is easier to remember it than to forget it. What a teacher he would have made-or artist, or guide over the pathless wilderness or ocean. In 1842, at the age of fourteen years, he went to Chicago to work in the office of the Chicago Democrat, published by "Long John Wentworth." The office was at 107 Lake street, over Sherman & Pitkin's dry goods store. Lake, . Water and Randolph streets were then about the only ones which had buildings on them. That was the time when farmers carried grain, pork etc. to Chicago through the sloughs, and when it took a week to go and return.
After Mr. Bliss returned home-his father having died-he attended school two winters at Dixon, making his home in the family of Judge Heaton, who was his guardian.
When the war came he enlisted in Co. D, 15th Ills. Regt., and became first lieutenant in Sherman's army; was transferred from 17th corps to the Western Division, and finished service on the plains, remaining to the close of the war, his headquarters being at Fort Kearney and Fort Leavenworth.
Mr. Bliss was married in 1853 to Miss Pauline Treadwell of Susque- hanna Co., Pa., Rev. Joseph Gardner performing the marriage service. Mr. Bliss says they "celebrated President Pierce's inauguration in that way." Mrs. Bliss, like her husband, has an excellent memory. She was personally acquainted with some of those people whose career in this state will ever be remembered by many with interest. Her kindness of heart has endeared her to many, who in sickness or trouble immediately send for her; and her unselfishness is as proverbial as that of her hus- band. On the death of a beloved niece they adopted the little mother- less one, but it was not long spared to them."
Mr. Bliss has been justice of the peace for fourteen years and assessor of Lee Center township for twenty years.
MRS. D. C. CHASE.
The Township of Marion.
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The Wefly Family.
M Y father, David Welty, was born in Willianisville, New York. He inherited a considerable fortune and was considered wealthy as riches were rated at that early day. He was an invalid and it was believed that should he remain in the east his days would not be long in the land. His family physician, Dr. White of Buffalo, advised him to go west, to make the entire journey on horseback and settle on a farm so as to have the benefit of open air exercise. He accordingly in the year of 1838 started from Buffalo, mounted upon a thoroughbred mare presented by a friend, whose name I have now forgotten. He was accompanied by several young nien upon his first day's journey, among whom was A. L. Porter, who shortly afterwards removed to Dixon. The next morning after the first day when father resumed his journey west- ward these young gentlemen, citizens of Buffalo, each bid him a final goodbye with the firm belief that they would soon hear of his death. It is a remarkable fact that father outlived them all. The entire journey from Buffalo to Dixon's Ferry, as it was then called, was successfully made by him on horseback.
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