USA > Illinois > Lee County > Recollections of the pioneers of Lee County [Illinois] > Part 9
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Although living on his farm a short distance from this city, Mr. Adams finds time to "follow the bent of his genius," and engage, more or less, in work for the press of Lee County, with which he has been con- nected in different ways for many years. He was correspondent for the Dixon Telegraph six years, and was three years local editor with Wm. H Haskell. He, with Wm. M. Geddes, established The Amboy News, and they continued together in its publication five years. He was associated one year with Capt. Wm. Parker, of the Rock Falls News. Mr. Adams sold out his interest to W. M. Geddes; was afterwards local editor for Dr. Loomis. Perhaps no man in town has a more extensive acquaintance, both from his long residence here and from his public duties, which have brought him in contact with many. His kind and genial disposition, making him ever ready to confer a favor, has won him many friends. In the collection of reminiscences for these days, he has been of the greatest service, and has placed the descendants of the pioneers, and all who may
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L.HANZ
MR. J. HENRY ADAMS.
MRS. J. HENRY ADAMS.
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treasure these records of the past in after years, under perpetual obliga- tion, much being preserved which, but for his untiring assistance, must have been lost beyond recall.
A fellow laborer and friend, Mr. William Keho, of the Journal office, pays him this tribute:
"As a general man upon a country weekly and as a newsgatherer, Mr. Adams had but few equals and no superiors. With an experience of eighteen years, a wide acquaintance, and possessing that peculiar faculty of separating the wheat from the chaff, he is able, at all times, to pre- sent the news to his readers in a bright, crisp manner. He has been associated with different papers as correspondent, served for years as local editor upon the Amboy Journal and Amboy News, at one time own- ing a half interest in the latter; at no time posing as a bright star in the literary field, still, his quiet, unassuming ways have won for him hosts of friends who are grateful for the words of consolation and solace to the bereaved, encouragement to the disheartened, and the well wishes to those starting afresh with brightened prospects. He is gifted with a wonderful memory, and having lived during a period when matters of local historical importance transpired, he possesses a wealth of infornra- tion which should be recorded and placed to his credit, that generations to come may know the true worth of the man whose presence we now enjoy."
It was a matter of general regret when Mr. Adams closed his regular work with the News and Journal, and readers and subscribers for those papers felt that they had met with a personal loss. His gentle compan- ion seems always imbued with the same unassuming desire for being use- ful to every one, and is ever interested in Mr. Adam's pursuits. The re- fining influence of her presence is evident in her home and family. She has set her life to his "Like perfect music unto noble words." Theirchil- dren are Lulu, Leo M., Jessie, Kate and Harry.
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The Lewis Family.
H AS BEEN a marked family in this county since Nathaniel Lewis, wife and children, emigrated to this place, and took up their abode on Temperance Hill in 1843. They were the same who, in company with Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Hale, emigrated from Vermont to Pennsylvania in 1790. There, for more than fifty years they lived, and when again they took up pioneer life, they were the parents of twelve children, all living-six sons and six daughters. Mrs. Lewis was a sister of Isaac Hale, and sister-in-law of Charles Pickering, M. D., a grandson of Hon. Timothy Pickering, of revolutionary fame, whose names are re- corded with honor in Johnson's cyclopædia. Of their children, the younger ones came with them, the older following with their families a year or two later. Their names were Levi, Nathaniel, Timothy P., Joseph, Hiel, Miles, Esther, Elizabeth, Sarah, Ann, Lurena and Olive. The four young- est brothers settled in this vicinity and assisted in the organization of this township.
Levi, the oldest son, left four children; Joseph, a minister of the U. B church, and Reuben, and two daughters, Phila A. (Mrs. Peter Maine) and Mrs. M. L. Virgil. All settled in Amboy and are still living.
Nathaniel's children were Mary, Julia Ann, Addison, Zebulon, Louisa, Ira, Anthony, Milinda and Sarah. This family left Amboy.
Timothy P. had one son, Charles, and two daughters, Lurena and Eliza.
Joseph married Miss Rachel Cargill, of Cheshire county, New Hamp- shire, and came here from Pennsylvania in 1845 with five children, all of whom are now dead. Their names were Gaylord J., James C., John, Andrew J. and Electa Jane. Joseph Ellis was born in Amboy.
Hiel had Ira W. (now Circuit Clerk), Orin, Percy. Irwin and Dayton. and one daughter who married Wm. Dresser.
Miles had two sons and three daughters: Everett and Robert, Alice. Alpha and Elizabeth.
Sarah married Sabin Trowbridge and lived in Lee Center. She had two daughters and one son. He starved in Andersonville prison.
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Ann married Austin B. Trowbridge and had five children.
Lurena married Augustus Trowbridge.
Olive married A. G. Skinner and had children.
It would require far more space than we have here to record the brav- ery and patriotism of the descendants of Nathaniel Lewis. There were twelve of them in the Union army at one time. Three died in Ander- sonville prison, none of them knowing the presence of the others. Three sons of Joseph, brothers of our post master, J. E. Lewis, gave up their young lives to their country. Their mother, Mrs. Rachel Lewis, now liv- ing here with her son, J. E., still mentally gifted though eighty-seven years of age, has related some of the events of her pioneer life which are treasured in this article. Could the reader have heard the stately, noble looking old lady relate her pioneer history with the beautiful, kindly smile, as if it was but a dream which she was telling for the pleasure of her hearers, the contrast between that and these written pages would make them dim indeed; for the wondrous smile told of the dissolving toils of earth and the sweet peace beyond.
They with their five children, Timothy P. and family, Miles and family and their sister Elizabeth -Mrs. Hezekiah McKune-and family, and two young men, came together from Pennsylvania to Illinois. They had con- structed a flat-boat and on this they all took passage up the Delaware River to Binghampton, New York. where they sold the boat and came by canal to Buffalo, and from there by steamboat to Chicago. They reached Chicago Saturday night, and Sunday morning employes from the differ- ent public houses flocked to the boat to secure the passengers. "The Great Western" hotel had just been completed and to this our company came. Here from the window of her room Mrs. Lewis looked out upon a vast and seemingly unlimited prairie, with scarcely an object in view. With her little daughter, Electa, brought all the long way in her arms, she remained at the hotel, taking care of her own and the other children, while other members of the party were preparing for the toilsome journey in the ox-carts and wagons across the country to Palestine Grove. After the usual fashion of camping out by night and alternately riding and walking by day, they at last reached the Inlet where they met John Dex- ter, who, having recently lost his wife, offered them the use of his cabin until they could be otherwise provided for; himself and children still re- maining there. They were soon stricken with fever and ague, which no ·one seemed to think at all alarming, though they suffered greatly from it. Everyone had it, and seemed to take it as a matter of course.
In the fall they moved to a house which stood vacant, on the Chicago
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road, just beyond the house built some years ago by Captain Pratt, and on the opposite side of the road. Some of the family were carried on beds, some could hardly sit up through the long, hard ride, so it was a cheerless and difficult "moving." But they found very kind neighbors, and Mrs. Lewis says she doesn't know how they could have lived through the winter, had it not been for them-Mrs. Davis, a daughter of the man who owned the place, the family of Solomon Parker, who lived on the Peru road, and Mr. Campbell, then sheriff, who lived on what is still called the "Camp- bell Place," just beyond the North - Western railroad crossing on the Chicago road. His wife and daughter came almost every day to see them, prepare food and try to make them comfortable. Sometimes only one of the family would be able to be out of bed, and not infrequent- ly, they could only creep out of bed, fix the fire, or make a kettle of hasty- pudding, and get back again, weak and shivering.
Dr. Gardner lived near, and his visits gave them hope, and he was wel- comed with joy. Sometimes Mrs. Gardner visited them, carrying broth or gruel, or helping to make the beds and sweep. One time Gaylord cried because he " couldn't eat any more" of her gruel "it was so good." Any one who ever had the ague, would know the fierce hunger that fol- lows the chill and the burning fever, and appreciate the child's tears.
There was no water within a half a mile, and the little boys had to go between chills to get it. This was no light task in that long, cold winter, and they finally rigged up a sled, or broad, boat-like arrangement on · which they could draw a barrel. To this they hitched a young steer, borrowed of a neighbor. The frisky team made then a good deal of trouble, and cost them some tears and trials, with runaways and upsets, but they persevered, and succeeded at last in getting a good supply of water with comparatively small labor.
While the family were all sick, and in the coldest of that long-to-be- remembered "hard winter," the baby died; the only little daughter, Electa (for whom her little niece, the daughter of James Lewis and his wife, Lucy Burnham Lewis, was named, many years after). The father was very dangerously sick, the mother hardly able to sit up. The daughter of a neighbor, Miss Hankerson, came in, just as the dear little girl lay dying, took her in her arms and held her till all was over. Then she gently robed the little body for its last rest and laid it in the upper drawer of the old fashioned bureau. A Mr. Ferguson made the little coffin of plain wood, without paint or stain or covering of cloth, and Mrs. Lewis says: "I shall never forget how I felt to see my baby laid in that cold, hard box." Only one boy, Gaylord, was able to sit up during the simple
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funeral services. The father lay unconscious, and it was six months before any one of them could visit the spot where the baby was buried.
Then, the spring had come. They had spent nine months at South Dixon, had passed through experiences which forever after leave a differ- ent light on all the world, and with sadness and in gladness they returned to Amboy and located on the farm which had been vacated by James Doan. Here they still found many of the "hardships of pioneer life" yet they were prospered and beloved. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis. were members of the Methodist Episcopal church, he being steward, trustee and class leader, sometimes holding all the offices at one time.
The oldest son, Gaylord, whose youthful ambition was aroused with the cry of "Ho for California!" followed the example of Josiah Davis, James Doan, Benjamin Wasson and son, and others from this vicinity, and went from here in company with two others with ox teams. He passed through "hair-breadth 'scapes," but reached there in safety and did well. He was not a miner, but captain of a supply train, riding his white mule at the head of a line of pack-mules, the six days' rough journey from San Francisco to the mines. Those were hard, rough times, but he wrote cheerfully, and hoped to help his parents a great deal. In August he had seven hundred dollars ready to send them, when he went to San Francisco the next time, but he spoke of Indian trouble with some ap- prehension. That was the last they ever heard from him; though after a long time they learned that a large company were killed by the Indians in a canyon, and they feared that he might have been one of the number. Hope was abandoned by all but his mother, who says: "He was nineteen . years old then, he would have been fifty-nine now, and all these years I have lived in suspense, hoping against hope, that I might, at least, learn his fate."
Then came the cruel war, and when President Lincoln's call for 75,000 men reached Amboy. and the Lewis boys heard the summons, and en- listed, their parents gave them up like the Spartans of old; and there is something now in the stately mien of that widowed and aged mother, that makes one doubt not that she would not hesitate, yet, to sacrifice those dearer then her own life, in a sacred cause. James C. volunteered in Company I, 89th Illinois Volunteers, was wounded May 9, 1864, and died at Chattanooga, July 23d. John enlisted in Company G, 39th Illinois Volunteers, (Yates Phalanx) August 20, 1861, served under Mcclellan, and Shields, and in January, 1863, came home to die within the year, November 29, 1864, from disease contracted by exposure in the army. Andrew J. enlisted in Company G, (Yates' Phalanx), August 2, 1861, and
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died at Foley Island, Charleston harbor, July 4, 1863. The only son, or child, left was too young to go.
On January 15, 1882, the aged couple celebrated their golden wedding, and that day was the last that Mr. Lewis was able to walk out. He died a few months later, in the early spring.
Only for lack of time and space many interesting reminiscenses for this work might be gathered from this pioneer mother whose memory is remarkable. Her little granddaughter, who resembles her, said to-day: "The bureau that grandma's little girl was laid out in, is up in her room now."
With tender reverence we leave her, surrounded by her loved ones, and the mementoes of those gone before.
May a rich " Harvest Gathering of the Heart " await her in the Beau- tiful Land.
A. D. Smith was born in Ithica, New York, September 11, 1821. In 1843 he came to Lee Center intending to practice medicine, but as the people of those early days were more ready to invest their all in land in lieu of pills and powders, he joined the mass and purchased a great amount of land. In 1854, despairing of a railroad, he sold out for a pittance and returned east. The next year the railroad was laid out, and land rose beyond all precedent. In March, 1855, he was married at the residence of his brother, Dr. N. W. Smith, of Wilmington, Vermont, to Harriet W. White, of Erving, Massachusetts. After traveling through Vermont, Massachusetts and New York, he came to New Boston, Illinois, the fol- lowing October, where he remained for three and a half years. He then came to Lee county, where he resided until his decease, which occurred in Amboy, January 9, 1886, having been crippled, and in poor health for . twenty-five years. In his last, lingering illness, his mind often reverted to the old pioneer friends and the trials they had shared together. When hauling grain to Chicago they would camp out, sleeping under their wagons, as hotel fare would have cost the price of their loads. He and Deacon Jonathan Peterson and Joseph Eddy were the only Republicans in Lee Center and vicinity, to call a caucus, when a gang of roughs at- tempted to break up the meeting; but he and Mr. Eddy went out and soon restored order among the belligerants. So from small beginnings mighty revolutions are wrought.
Mr. Smith left a wife, five sons and one daughter, his oldest married daughter having preceded him eleven months to the spirit land. His oldest son, Oren E .. settled in Wendell, Kansas, Newman W. on the
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home farm, Fannie Jane married in Chicago, Abram L. in Lee county, George A. resides with his mother in Amboy, John E. E. is a resident of Amboy.
It is not undue commendation to say of Mrs. Smith, who was an edu- cated teacher in New England, that she is one who would justly remind one of the words-
"Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."
And yet her excellences are not wasted or lost but garnered up in the hearts of loving friends, a most devoted son, and in the archives of eternity.
John H. Gardner came west in 1844, with his wife and three ehildren, from Steuben county, New York, and bought of Ransom Barnes the farm in this township now owned by Sylvester Chamberlin. Mr. Gardner sold it to Isaac Gage and bought where his son John M. now lives in Lee Center. While still a young man he buried his wife, and was left with five children, one an infant, five days old. Mrs. Gardner died November 19, 1849, aged 32 years. He struggled on and in due time secured a reward for his labors and privations in a fine competency, after giving his chil- dren many advantages.
The oldest child, Robert M. Gardner, was born August 7, 1839, and died June 26, 1860. John M., the second son, lives on the old homestead in Lee Center. He is a useful and reliable man, well read on all subjects, trusted and depended upon by all who know him; has been supervisor in his town for years-married Miss Alice L. Clapp. Lucy E. Gardner is a valued resident of Amboy. Nancy E. married Thomas Houghton. They have one daughter, Lucy Emma, educated at Rockford Seminary. Mr. Houghton is freight agent at the Illinois Central railway station, and never fails to look after the interests of the company as if they were his own; is faithful in all his duties, in small as well as in large things. He was a soldier in the late war, and was wounded for life. Emma L. married Henry C. Bond and lives in South Bend, Indiana. Malvina married Henry Maynard and lives in Harvey, Illinois.
Mr. Gardner died September 11, 1871, aged 62 years. He was a singu- larly straightforward man, owed no man anything and "his word was as good as his bond." His children are proud of his memory. He would be proud of his children were he living.
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It is impossible to make as extended mention as the subject deserves of Martin Wright, one of the early settlers of what is now Amboy town- ship but so near Lee Center that his interests have always been more closely connected with the latter place. Mr. Wright was a typical New Englander, firm in principle, upright in life, and unflinching in adherence to duty. We have not been able to learn at what time he came west, but know that he was one of those who aided in establishing the Congrega- tional church, and the Academy in Lee Center, being one of the first, if not the very first of its Trustees. His first wife was a daughter of Dea- con Ransom Barnes, and died in the summer of 1860, leaving a daughter, Helen, now the wife of Curtis C. Hale and residing in Iowa. His second wife was Miss Eliza Clapp and she survives him. His pleasant home was swept away by the terrible tornado of 1860, but he rebuilt on the same spot, and lived there until his death about ten years since. It is now the home of Mr. Sylvester Clapp.
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The Hafe Family.
N or near the year 1845 David and Jesse Hale, brothers of Mrs. Wasson, came to Temperance Hill; a younger brother, Alva, following in the fall of 1845. Jesse and Alva had adjoining farms, now owned by Rus- sell Leak. David married Rhoda Skinner. Their children were Au- rilla, Ira, Chester, Priscilla, Betsy and Rhoda Jane. Mr. Hale was noted for his integrity. He and his brother Jesse were soldiers in the war of 1812. He died April 16, 1878; Mrs. Hale Oct. 15, 1874.
Jesse Hale married Mary McKune. Their children were Silas, Julius, Charles, Franklin, Tyler, Robert, Tamar, Anna, Elizabeth and Hester. Mrs. Hale was the beloved "Aunt Polly Hale" of all the neighbors far and near; the friend in sickness and sorrow as well as in joy, and a de- voted wife and mother. She brought the seeds of flowers and herbs from her old home and shared them with her friends, and made the herbs use- ful to the suffering pioneers. Three of her sons gave their lives to their country. Frank, lieutenant in the 12th Illinois, was killed at Corinth. Tyler, a captain in the same regiment, was killed at Fort Donelson. Capt. Robert, of the 75th Illinois, was killed in July, 1865, while on duty for a sick officer whose place he volunteered to fill. Elizabeth, the only surviving daughter, who lives in Missouri, is remembered still by her old neighbors with gratitude and affection.
Alva married Clara Rouse and lived in Sublette. Children: Oliver, Jesse, William, Stalira, Lydia, Betsy and Eunice. Two sons were in the army-viz., William, sergeant in Co. C., 13th Illinois Volunteers, and Jesse in 89th Illinois. William served several years and was wounded. He is well known in Amboy, is a prominent member of the Episcopal Church, a kind neighbor, and has been, for many years, a faithful and
efficient conductor on the I. C. R. R. ʻ
Mr. Alva Hale died April 18th, 1882-his wife the 11th of January, 1880. He was a genial man and never sick until the sickness preceding his death. He possessed remarkable energy in his old age. Sept. 30th, 1871, he, with his brother David, started for Missouri to visit a brother.
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On returning, David proceeded to Nauvoo to visit his sister Emma, while Alva came directly home. Arriving at Mendota and the train for Sublette not being due, he started home with satchel and gun, walking all the distance without apparent fatigue.
There were three brothers and three sisters of the Hale family living in this vicinity, all greatly respected. Alva, Jesse and David Hale, and Mrs. Benjamin Wasson, Mrs. Morse and Mrs. Joseph Smith; the latter not a resident of Lee county. The following extract from an article written by Mr. David Hale, and published in one of the Amboy papers, May, 1876, is worthy of presivation.
I, David Hale, was born March 6, 1794, in what is now Oakland, on the Great Bend of the Susquehanna River, near where the Susquehanna depot is now built, on the New York railroad, Susquehanna county, Pa. First settler, my father, Isaac Hale, with my Uncle Nathaniel Lewis and their wives emigrated from Vermont to Pennsylvania in 1790.
I joined the Methodist Episcopal church at the age of seventeen years. I was enrolled in the Pennsylvania malitia at the age of eighteen. In 1812 I was a drafted malitia man; in 1814 joined Col. Daniel Montgomery's regiment that was ordered to march and defend Baltimore; but we met an express with orders for Col. Montgomery to discharge his men, which he did; peace soon followed.
In 1823, I married Rhoda Skinner; my age twenty-nine years and hers nineteen. We had two sons and three daughters. We moved to Lee county, Illinois, in 1847. During the summer of 1847 we lived with brother Jesse Hale, in the Temperance Hill settlement, where we found Uncle Nathaniel Lewis and wife (who emigrated with my father and mother from Vermont to Pennsylvania in 1790), with all his family except Nathaniel C., who came after awhile, viz: Six sons and six daughters; while my father's family numbered six sons and four daughters. Brother Alva Hale was here with his family of three sons and four daughters, My wife's brother, Alpheus G. Skinner, was there with his family of three sons and three daughters. Between Temperance Hill and Rocky Ford lived Francis Northway and family and Elder Joseph Gardner and family; next Reuben Bridgman and family; next Curtis Bridgman and family; next John C. Church and family; next Cyrus Davis and family; next Jo- seph Farwell and family; next Joel Davis and family; next Joseph Apple- ton and family; next Shelburn; Frederick R. Dutcher and family, with Widow Hook and her sons, John and Aaron and their families. On the Crombie Lane lived Lyman Bixby, Wilder Crombie, Samuel Bixby, David
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Searles, Moses Crombie; west of the lane lived Orres Adams; Lorenzo Wasson's farm, a quarter of a section; west of this Benjamin Wasson, father of Lorenzo, owned a quarter section with good house and barn and the land well improved. At Binghampton I found two old acquaint- ances, Col. Badger and Asa B. Searles, for over fifty years ago we were pilots on the Susquehanna River. At Inlet lived Esquire Haskell, who kept a store and the postoffice. East of Palestine Grove lived Dr. R. F. Adams and C. F. Ingals, well known in the time of the Grove Association for the protection of claims. But after awhile this passed away and the township organizations came up, of which some abler pen than mine may or can write.
Had Mr. Hale passed on one road further west he would have men- tioned Mr. Seth Holmes, Mr. Elijah Hill and Mr. Warren Hill, all excel- lent citizens who, with their families, were a benefit to the town.
Mr. Holmes had seven children, Mary Jane, wife of Cyrus Bridgman, Demmis H., wife of Henry Cushing, Isaac A., James W., Warren H., Al- mira and Jacob C.
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