USA > Illinois > Marshall County > Records of the olden time; or, Fifty years on the prairies. Embracing sketches of the discovery, exploration and settlement of the country, the organization of the counties of Putnam and Marshall, biographies of citizens, portraits and illustrations > Part 20
USA > Illinois > Putnam County > Records of the olden time; or, Fifty years on the prairies. Embracing sketches of the discovery, exploration and settlement of the country, the organization of the counties of Putnam and Marshall, biographies of citizens, portraits and illustrations > Part 20
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The first settled physician was Dr. Fetter, who came in 1834.
Among the early marriages remembered by her was Obadiah Graves and Mary Fletcher, in October, 1830; Abner Boyle and Matilda Wilson, by the Rev. McDonald, November, 1831.
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
S
CHAPTER XXVIII.
BENJAMIN LUNDY.
HIS distinguished philanthropist and Abolitionist ended his days near the borders of Putnam County, and was buried within its limits, on Clear Creek, his remains being en- tombed by his family and friends of the Quaker fraternity of Magnolia. He achieved a glorious reputation as the "father of the party of freedom," and it is fit that some account of his life and labors should be given in this work.
In an autobiography, prepared by himself and published shortly after his death, he states that he was born on the fourth day of the first month (January), 1789, at Handwich, Essex County, N. J. His mother died when he was only five years old, and he was her only child. He had but very limited means and opportunities of schooling, but managed to learn to read and write when eight years of age, and began the study of arithmetic at eighteen. His physical frame being delicate, he was sent to travel for his health a year later, and after a time arrived at Wheeling, West Virginia, where he served four years at the trade of a saddler.
It was while here that he was made acquainted with the enormities of the trade in human flesh; it was here he saw the barbarities of slavery. "It was here," he wrote, "that I saw the traffickers in human souls and bodies pass by with their iron-chained chattels. My heart was deeply grieved at the gross abomination; I heard the wail of the captive; I felt the pangs of their distress, and the iron entered my soul." It was here he became a firm, determined and thorough Abolitionist, and resolved to de vote his life to the cause of freeing the negro.
On leaving Wheeling he went to Mount Pleasant, Ohio, where he be- came acquainted with William Lewis and his sisters, one of whom eventually became Benjamin Lundy's wife.
He started business for himself at St. Clairsville, Virginia, and in four years had earned three thousand dollars worth of property. Here, while industriously pursuing his usual business, he was not idle in the great
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THE FATHER OF THE PARTY OF FREEDOM.
cause which lay so close to his heart, and in 1815, through his active ef- forts, Union Humane Societies were formed.
About that time Charles Osborne started a newspaper at Mount Pleasant, called the Philanthropist, and soon after Lundy took a position upon it as assistant editor. He was invited to become joint owner of that paper with Osborn, but having a stock of goods on hand to dispose of, and the best market being in the far West, he packed up his wares, put them in a boat, and floated down the Ohio, the three apprentices he had with him working at their trade, while he steered the boat. Ar- riving in the Mississippi River, they rowed up that stream to St. Louis. While in that city, in 1819, the famous Missouri Compromise question was before the people-that of admitting Missouri as a slave State. On this question he took an active part, in the negative, of course, writing ar- ticles for such of the few newspapers as would publish them. Congress having decided against his views, he left, not discouraged, but determined to watch, labor and wait. In the meantime he had lost several thousand dollars, his speculation proving to be a bad one, and he returned on foot to his old home at St. Clairsville, a distance of seven hundred miles!
During his absence Osborne had sold the newspaper on which he had previously been employed, and the new publishers had decidedly lowered its standard, so Lundy determined to start a paper of his own. A news- paper in which he had been promised an interest, at Mount Pleasant, had been removed to Jonesboro, Tennessee, leaving the field at Mount Pleas- ant open to him. Accordingly he removed there, and in January, 1821, he commenced the publication of The Genius of Universal Emancipation. Not then having a press of his own, he was compelled to hire his press- work done at Steubenville, Ohio, a distance of twenty miles, to which place he went to and fro on foot, carrying his printed papers on his back.
After having issued eight monthly numbers of the Genius, the owner of the former paper which had been removed from Mount Pleasant to Jonesboro, Tennessee, died at the latter place, and his paper ceased to be published. His friends and the friends of the cause urged him to go to that place and, if possible, obtain possession of the press and fixtures of the printing office. To this he assented, and at once started to Tennessee, a distance of eight hundred miles, about one-half of which distance he ac- complished on foot, and the remainder by boat.
He rented the printing office at Jonesboro, and at once went to work
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
to learn the practical or mechanical part of the business of running a newspaper, and in a brief time issued his paper from his new location in a monthly and weekly form, retaining for it the old but expressive name. While thus engaged, in the very heart of the slave-holding region, he was threatened with all sorts of violence. In the first place his coming there was considered an insult to the slaveocracy, and in the next, his merciless denunciation of their peculiar institution of slavery was unbearable. On one occasion two ruffians came a distance of thirty miles to demand the retraction of an article which had been published in the Genius. They invited Lundy into a private room, shut and locked the door, and flourish- ing their knives and pistols, undertook to enforce their insolent demand. But they were mistaken in the grit and firmness of their man. High words resulted, which attracted the attention of the owner of the house, who came to the assistance of the spunky editor.
Finding his business prosperous, he sent for his family, who joined him there, and there he lived for three years, doing yeoman service, constantly provoking the wrath of his enemies, repeatedly subjected to personal abuse of the vilest character, both in his office and upon the streets, and sometimes personal attacks; yet bravely fighting for his principles, his rights of speech and the freedom of the press, continually pouring red hot shot into the foe.
He was the first delegate who ever attended an abolition convention from any portion of the country as far south as Tennessee. He made a trip on horseback, at his own expense, a distance of six hundred miles, to attend a meeting of the enemies of slavery at Philadelphia, in 1832.
The Genius of Universal Emancipation had by this time obtained an extensive circulation and a wide fame all over the country, and as it was the only anti-slavery newspaper in the United States at that time, he con- cluded to transfer the publication of it to one of the Atlantic cities, hoping thereby to greatly increase its circulation and widen its influence.
In pursuance of this plan he shouldered his knapsack and set out on foot for Baltimore, in the summer of 1824, on his way delivering his first public lecture on the subject of Slavery, at Deep Creek, North Carolina. So well were the people pleased with this, the first lecture they had ever heard on this topic (many of the community happening to be Quakers), that they appointed a second meeting, where he again spoke, crowning his efforts there by the formation of an anti-slavery society.
At another place he went to a house raising and lectured to the per-
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REMOVAL OF THE "GENIUS" TO BALTIMORE.
sons there assembled, and at another place managed to get an audience at a militia muster, the captain of the day being very liberal in his views on the subject of slavery, and some of his hearers belonging to the Society of Friends. Here too an anti-slavery society was formed, the militia cap- tain being chosen its first president.
During this trip through North Carolina he organized no fewer than twelve or fourteen anti-slavery societies.
Leaving North Carolina, he passed through Virginia, in which State he formed several anti-slavery societies also.
Mr. Lundy reached Baltimore in due time, and promptly began prepa- rations for issuing his paper there, and in October, 1824, the first number of the Genius was issued in that city. He brought his family on from Tennessee very soon after.
During his journey to Baltimore he converted a slave-holder, who gave up to Lundy eleven slaves, on condition that he would take them to where they could enjoy equal rights, and he had them sent to Hayti.
In 1825 he went to that island to look after his proteges, and while there he received the sad intelligence of the death of his wife. On his return to the United States he resumed his work of pushing forward the circulation of his paper, meeting with considerable success.
In 1828 he journeyed through the Middle and Eastern States to ex- tend the circulation of his newspaper, lecture, and make acquaintances. It was during this expedition he met Arthur Tappan, of New York, and William Lloyd Garrison, of Boston, neither of whom had at that time acquired any of the fame which afterward became so world-wide, nor in fact had they even then become publicly known at their own homes as abolitionists. After many endeavors he succeeded in getting up a meeting in Boston, where the first anti-slavery society was formed.
He also lectured on the anti-slavery question at Hartford, New Haven, Newport, Providence, Nantucket, Portland, and many other towns, with varying success.
In November, 1828, he visited New England a second time, and re- quested William Lloyd Garrison to assist him on the Genius; but that gentleman. was then conducting an anti-slavery paper of his own, in Ver- mont.
Mr. Lundy's mode of conducting the Genius provoked the deadly ire of a man named Austin Woolfolk, a Baltimore slave trader, who in 1829 assaulted and nearly killed him. The judge before whom the case was
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
tried, the assailant having been arrested, said from the bench that "Lundy got no more than he deserved," and sent a copy of his paper before the grand jury, pointing out to them several passages which he said were libelous; but that body failed to find a bill against him.
In 1829 he went to Hayti a second time, with twelve slaves given to him this time by a slave-holder in Maryland, under circumstances similar to those herein before related.
After his return he was joined by Wm. Lloyd Garrison in the editor- ship of the Genius, and Mr. Lundy made another tour, during which Mr. Garrison, less guarded than his chief, or failing to enjoy that warm per- sonal friendship which it was the peculiar good fortune of Lundy to secure everywhere he went, was arrested and thrown into jail because of his out- spoken denunciations of slavery, but was finally released on payment of a fine, when he left the city. The paper then fell to Lundy's exclusive management, and not being able to secure a competent and suitable assist- ant, it was changed from a weekly to a monthly publication. The hatred which had achieved a victory over Garrison was started in pursuit of Lundy, and half a dozen indictments were procured against him in the courts, and he too was imprisoned. On being released, he abandoned Baltimore and removed to Washington City.
In 1830 he traveled extensively in Canada, and awakened the anti- slavery sentiment there with a view to secure an asylum in that country for fugitive slaves from the United States. He also went to Texas to see what could be done toward establishing a grand free labor project there, and afterward to Mexico for the same purpose, and until 1836 he spent nearly his whole time in making many arduous journeys and fruitless efforts to transfer his colony of free negroes in Hayti to Texas or Mexico.
During the absence of Lundy in the South-west and in the land of the Montezumas, the Genius was conducted by different persons. Under the management of Evan Lewis, in January, 1834, its place of pub- lication was removed to Philadelphia, at which place Mr. Lewis died in the same year. It was then taken charge of by Rev. Dr. Atlee, and under his management it was suspended for want of adequate support. At that time Mr. Lundy had been absent about three years, occasionally writing letters and communications for it, but otherwise unable to furnish that fire, vin and spirit which had for so many years characterized that staunth champion of human rights. It died more for the lack of the brains and energy of its founder than anything else.
237
RECOGNITION OF MR. LUNDY'S VALUABLE SERVICES.
In November, 1835, Mr. Lundy returned from Mexico, and issued one number of the Genius, brim full of its old time fire and fury against slavery, and in August of the following year began the issue of another weekly anti-slavery newspaper at Philadelphia, called The Na- tional Enquirer, and in the same month re-commenced the publication of the Genius.
January 31, 1837, a large and enthusiastic convention of the people was held at Harrisburg, Pa., which formed a State society. Among other proceedings it adopted a resolution complimenting the veteran agitator, as follows:
WHEREAS, By the self-denying zeal and untiring efforts of Benjamin Lundy, he sus- tained the " Genius of Universal Emancipation" for eight years of general apathy on the sub- ject of slavery, when no pecuniary embarrassment, no privations of society, no cold neglect or indifference to his warning voice could dissuade him from his fixed principles of duty, he finally drew and fixed the attention of many who were abused by it throughout the land ; therefore,
Resolved, That Benjamin Lundy receive the thanks of this Convention.
On the 9th of May, 1838, Lundy retired from the charge of the En- quirer, and was succeeded by the Quaker poet, John G. Whittier.
The Abolitionists of Philadelphia had built and dedicated to the cause of freedom a splendid public hall, which cost $30,000. On the night of the 17th of May, 1838, a mob broke into and fired the building, which was burnt down. In it were all Lundy's private papers, together with all his personal effects, which had been stored in a room of the hall, awaiting his journey to the West. He wrote concerning the event: "My papers, books, clothes-everything of value, except my journal in Mex- ico, are all-all gone,- a total sacrifice on the altar of Universal Eman- cipation. They have not yet got my conscience,-they have not taken my heart, and until they rob me of these they cannot prevent me from plead- ing the cause of the suffering slave.
" The tyrant (may even) hold the body bound,
But knows not what a range the spirit takes.
"I am not disheartened, though everything of earthly value (in the shape of property) is lost. Let us persevere in the cause. We shall as- suredly triumph yet."
In July, 1838, Lundy left Philadelphia for Putnam County, Ill., to which place his children removed. On his way he formed the acquaint- ance of a young woman of Pennsylvania, a member of the Society of
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
Friends, with whom he contracted a matrimonial engagement. While on this journey, he wrote to his friends that his health was excellent, and that he felt happy in being clear of the crowded city. Reaching his des- tination, which was the Quaker settlement near Magnolia, on September 19, he wrote: "I am here at last among my children. This is emphati- cally one of the best and most beautiful countries that I have ever seen." He afterward on the same day attended an anti-slavery convention at Hennepin, composed of intelligent men and women. It passed a unani- mous resolution to encourage the circulation of the Genius, and a large number of subscriptions were immediately obtained.
Having been disappointed in several attempts to purchase a press and outfit at Hennepin, where he desired to settle, he received a proposition from some of the inhabitants of Lowell, LaSalle County, to establish his paper there, and accepting their proposition, he went there in the winter of 1838-9, accompanied by his son Charles, his other children following in the spring.
In a letter dated February 3, 1839, he says: "I have purchased a printing office, and established it at a new town called Lowell; but we have no post office yet, and the G. U. E. will be published a while at Hen- nepin. I have found great difficulty in getting my printing done, but am now prepared to go on regularly as soon as I receive paper, for which I have sent to St. Louis." Lundy built a house and printing office at Lowell, and in the spring purchased a tract of land about four miles dis- tant. His paper was irregularly printed for want of funds and help, he having, for a portion of the time, no other assistants than his two sons, one of whom attended to the farm. Early in August he was attacked by a fever of a kind then prevalent in that region, but rallied, and tried to work a few days, when he was compelled to seek his bed again, though not thought to be dangerously affected. On the morning of the 21st he was again in his office, and wrote a note to one of his children, stating that he had been quite unwell, but was now better. In the afternoon of the same day he was seized with severe pains, and retired to the house of his friend, Wm. Seeley. The next day he continued to grow worse, and suffered much pain until ten o'clock in the evening, when he grew easier and more comfortable. Being told by a physician that his end was probably ap- proaching, he replied that he "felt much better - he felt as if he were in paradise." At 11 o'clock on the evening of the 21st of February, 1839, Benjamin Lundy passed peacefully away, without a groan or a struggle.
.
239
DEATH OF BENJAMIN LUNDY - "SIIIVAREES."
His remains, attended by a large concourse of relatives and friends, were removed to the house of his son-in-law, Isaac Griffith, near Magnolia, whence, on the following day they were removed, and interred in the Friends burying ground on Clear Creek.
Thus terminated the earthly career of one of the most self-sacrificing and indefatigable reformers this country has ever produced. Having re- solved, twenty-three years before his decease, to devote his life and ener- gies to the relief of the suffering slave and the freedom of the colored people from bondage, he nobly and heroically kept that pledge, and so far as was in his power, redeemed this promise, persevering to the end, un- discouraged by difficulties, not dismayed by obstacles nor appalled at the magnitude of the herculean task before him.
In stature he was rather under the average size, of slender form and slightly built. His complexion was of the nervous-sanguine order, with a cheerful disposition ; always polite and agreeable in conversation ; never gloomy or despondent. He was afflicted with a difficulty of hearing from an early age, a circumstance which was of great inconvenience and disad- vantage to him. He was positive but courteous in defending his opinions, and never neglected any opportunity to assert and maintain his views.
OLD TIME "SHIVAREES."
The boys of the present day who think they discount their ancestors in the charivari business are mistaken. When those old fellows under- took a thing of the kind it was carried through regardless of time or con- sequences. We knew an incident of the kind in early times which was kept up continuously every night for three weeks, because the groom would not come down with the whisky. It finally became such a nui- sance to the occupants of a hotel near by that Wni. S. Hamilton, a Col- onel in the Black Hawk war, and the man who surveyed Peoria, treated the crowd, and then presented his bill for the same to the groom. He refused to pay and was sued, in which the Colonel got beaten.
Two noted charivaris are mentioned as having occurred at Magnolia, which were conducted by the "boys," and as several of those who partici- pated are yet living, sedate and gray-haired old men, the mention of them here is relevant.
There was a wedding in the neighborhood, and after the festivities
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
usual on such occasions, the lights in the house where the newly married couple were, were extinguished and all was quietness and repose. But this was not to be of long continuance. John Dent, Joseph Hall and Thomas Patterson, as leaders, with a number of other young fellows, all ยท bent on having lots of fun, who had concluded to give the young couple a charivari and had laid their plans accordingly, having kept their move- ments from the knowledge of all who were not to be concerned with them, assembled at the quiet hour of midnight and started for a grocery kept by a man known as "old Patterson." The keeper of this establishment was aware of what was going on, and when the crowd came to his place they were supplied with a stimulus which inflamed and incited them to excesses which it is probable they otherwise would not have been guilty of. Being thus prepared the party started for the house where the happy and unsuspecting couple reposed, and as they approached they broke forth with a hullabaloo and racket that was simply infernal. Beating on tin pans, blowing horns, ringing bells, the barking and howling of dogs, lowing and bleating of cattle, and snorting and clattering of horses were all exceeded by the shouting, hurrahing, screeching, screaming and every other possible noise which could be made by half- crazy human beings.
This pandemonium was kept up around the house unceasingly. No persuasion on the part of the groom or the gentleman at whose house he was availed anything. They were impelled by a spirit of malicious mis- chief to commit an outrage upon decency, and they gave full vent to it. From time to time detachments from the party would return to old Pat- terson's, fill up anew with whisky, and return to continue their disagree- able proceedings, and it was not until after daylight the next morning that they became exhausted and retired to their homes.
The noises and uproar they made caused a stampede among such cattle, horses and swine as could get out of their enclosures. About ten horses and the same number of cattle belonging to Captain Hawes ran off toward the timber, and it was three or four days afterward before their owner found them. They had strayed more than fifteen miles from home. An individual known as old Billy R-, who had proposed taking a hand in the fun, became so intoxicated at Patterson's groggery that he was unable to go with the "boys," and brought himself to anchor upon a stump a fourth of a mile from the scene of action, and con- tributed his quota of music by continually howling and ringing a cow
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A "SIIIVAREE" OF THREE NIGHTS' DURATION.
bell. The maliciousness of some of the participants led them to shave the hair from the tail of the groom's horse, and to take a wheel from his buggy and hide it some distance away among the bushes. The wheel was not forthcoming until a week afterward, and then it required the payment of a fee of five dollars to secure it. During the melee Jolin Dent opened the window of the room occupied by the newly married couple, and in true and faultless Indian style gave a prolonged war-whoop.
The ringleaders of this disgraceful affair were arrested on a charge of disturbing the peace, and taken before a magistrate for trial. The offenders employed to defend them a young lawyer who, for the sum of twenty dollars cash to him in hand paid, promised to secure their discharge. This young man was T. L. Dickey, now one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of Illinois.
The ill-feeling caused by the affair slowly subsided, and in a few months' time all the parties were on friendly terms again.
It was not long before John Dent discovered his affinity, and the sub- ject of his approaching marriage was the talk of the whole neighborhood. Captain Hawes, who had felt personally offended at the previous affair, determined that Dent, who was the foremost spirit and instigator of it, and who had given that blood-curdling war-whoop, should himself enjoy the pleasure of a charivari on his wedding night. He organized a party of about fifty boys and men, saw that they were properly equipped with a suitable assortment of musical instruments, and at midnight began an entertainment and concert the variety and vehemence of which threw the previous affair entirely in the shade. When daylight came the serenaders retired, but to return again the next night, and again the next, and John Dent was the unwilling recipient of the three times repeated compliments of Captain Hawes and his band of musicians. During the excitement Dent thought to appease the mob by opening the door and trying to argue with them upon the impropriety and ridiculousness of their conduct, but when he did so in a moment the house was filled with peo- ple, and it was not until he prepared to burn gunpowder that they left his apartments.
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