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 22
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 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79
Mr. David Stateler relates an event which to some will seem humor- ous, but to him had no fun to speak of. His family occupied a double cabin. In twenty-four hours a vacant room would be full of drifted snow up to the roof. All hands would "tackle " and shovel it out, but the next morning it would be full again. This had to be repeated day after day while the storm lasted.
Another memorable event was the great freeze or sudden change of December 20, 1836, when the weather is said to have changed eighty de- grees in a few hours. Captain Hawes distinctly recollects the singular appearance of the sky, and says before the change his cattle, which were kept about the house, stampeded without any known cause to the timber, and could not be stopped. The following incident is related by him :
On that day three men rode up to a house at Walnut Grove and stopped. They did not dismount, nor seem to have any business, or show any reason for thus halting. The inmates came to the door, and discov- ering that they were nearly covered with ice, rightly divined the cause of
256
RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
their silence, and managed to get the unfortunate men removed from their horses. Their legs were covered with ice, and so frozen to the girths and stirrups, and their clothing to the saddles that it was necessary to cut the girths and bring men, saddles and all into the house! The horses, too, were about to freeze, but were taken to a hay-covered stable and cared for. After several hours' work the men were "thawed out " and their lives saved, but with badly frozen feet, ears and noses.
· Mr. Studyvin vouches for the fact that rats were seen that day actually frozen fast in the mud while crossing the streets. Dead rats and pigs were found in the streets and alleys, and especially the former, which seem to have perished in large numbers everywhere.
Jeremiah Strawn is authority for saying that in five minutes mud froze sufficiently hard to bear a horse.
Enoch Dent and his son John had a like memorable experience. With a young and mettlesome span of horses they were going some distance on an errand, when the young man was thrown from the wagon and got thoroughly wet in the mud and slush. The temperature began soon after to rapidly change. A piercing wind came from the north and west, laden with fine stinging hail-stones, which blinded the horses and men. John soon realized he was in a fair way of being frozen, and becoming alarmed, his father covered him with blankets, and "let the mares out." For the next half mile the team bounded like deer over the prairies. What had a few moments before threatened young Dent's death-the water in his cloth- ing-now froze into solid ice and proved his safety, forming a shield through which the Arctic blasts could not reach; but the father began to feel the premonitory symptoms of freezing. Fortunately they soon reached their destination, but were hardly able to enter the shop with- out help, they were so stiff and cold. They had not been inside three minutes when a man went out to put the horses under shelter, and found the wheels frozen in the tracks, and on attempting to unhitch the horses, the buckles were found to be frozen fast. Toward evening, find- ing they dare not drive home, they went three-fourths of a mile to Mrs. Swan's house, and in that short distance came near perishing.
A ROW OF EBONY CROWS, ETC.
Captain Hawes' place was near the Lewis house, long known as the underground railroad station of the Quaker settlement. To see wagon
·
AN UNDER- GROUND RAILWAY STATION. 257
loads of runaway negroes going past his dwelling toward Lewis' and the happy land of freedom beyond, was a common occurrence, one of weekly and sometimes of daily happening. The Captain in his quaint way says: "It got to be a regular thing. I used to look over toward Lewis' place mornings and see niggers roosting on the fence like a row of crows!"
Sometimes pursuit was made after the escaping chattles, but there is no record of any ever having been caught in this locality. Their friends around Magnolia, Clear Creek and Ox Bow were numerous and deter- mined, and it would have gone hard with the slave catcher or officer who dared to venture here to reclaim one of these fugitives. The friends of the slave entered heart and hand and with their very souls into the work of helping the fugitive onward.
Stephen and James Willis brought through Magnolia the first escaping slaves, in 1827 or 1828.
SOME HUNTING STORIES.
Mr. John W. Laughlin was once followed by a large timber wolf a distance of two miles, the wolf coming at times within 200 yards of the somewhat nervous pedestrian, who did not run, but admitted that he " wanted to !" The hungry lupine came up to the house, when the family , dog was started after him, and both being afraid of each other, the dog would chase the wolf out upon the prairie, when the latter would turn the tables upon the dog and run him back to the house,- a race that was two or three times repeated. The gun being out of order, the boys armed themselves with axes and pitchforks and came to the rescue of their faith- ful "Towser," when the wolf disappeared.
Some Mt. Palatine hunters remember with feelings of disgust the fol- lowing incident: They once drove a deer across the prairie toward Mag- nolia, where a man who lived near the timber helped them to capture and kill the animal. They carried the deer to the fellow's house by his invita- tion, and while dressing it dinner was announced, and they were pressed to come in and partake of the meal. A four hours' chase over the prairies had given the boys good appetites, and they eagerly accepted the welcome offer. When through and about to leave, the host inquired of them "if they had not forgotten something ?" They asked, " What ?" He replied, "To settle for your dinner." "Wall," drawled he, "I guess the deer will make it all right." He took the coveted venison upon his shoulder and packed it into the house, coolly adding, "Good day !" They left in
.
258
RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
as completely a disgusted state of mind as could possibly be imagined.
In 1842 a noted circular hunt came off in the vicinity of Mt. Palatine, the "winding up " point being a clump of willows two miles south-east of town. Fifteen wolves and several deer were the result. While the party were dividing the game at its conclusion, a deer dashed past the hunters, and a Mr. Headly killed it with a cooper's adze.
HOME - MADE CLOTH.
Illustrative of the inventive genius of the early settlers of this State, Mrs. John Laughlin, then Miss Jane Reed, living in Schuyler County, Ill., remembers an experiment made by her mother, which suggests altogether a novel idea in the manufacture of cloth. She took the tall stalks of wild nettles, which grew in abundance among the timber everywhere, and were three or four feet high, and putting them through the same process as was employed in the treatment of flax or hemp, made cloth of the lint or fibre ! It was coarse, strong and durable, and made a sort of towel, which com- bined the rubbing qualities of the washboard with the drying but not soothing effect of a modern fine crash napkin!
The men and boys in those days (1830 to 1840) wore buckskin pants. After a day's wear in the snow or rain, and dried at night, they would stand them up by the beds ready for next morning's wear. As a little girl, Mrs. Laughlin remembers these pants standing stiff and ghost-like about the room!
MOUNT PALATINE.
To the eastward of the line of timber bordering the Illinois River, and running outward along its tributaries between Magnolia and Gran- ville, there lies a stretch of prairie extending to the Vermilion River, in La Salle County. This, for beauty, richness of soil and perfection of farm improvements has no superior in the State. At the dividing line between La Salle and Putnam Counties, about six miles from Tonica, is situated the little village of Mt. Palatine. It was laid out June 23, 1849, by Christopher Winters, and is at the north-east corner of Magnolia Township.
Winters had bought a large body of land here in 1830, and re-sold it mostly to settlers from Massachusetts, designing to start on his land "a live Yankee town." He also designed the establishment of an educa-
259
THE VILLAGE OF MOUNT PALATINE.
tional institution, which when first built was called a seminary, but afterward its ambitious projector and patron succeeded in having it elevated, in name at least, to the dignity of "Judson College."
In 1842 the first house in the town was built by "Deacon " Wood- bury, and afterward occupied by Elder Thomas Powell. Otis Fisher, of Granville, became the first preacher in the settlement, in 1841. He had a small frame dwelling erected just outside the limits of the town, and lived in it for a year.
Dr. Larned Davis first visited Mt. Palatine in July, 1841, and be- gan making improvements, and therefore may be considered the first settler, though he did not make that place his permanent abode until 1843. Mr. Winters' residence was built in 1839, and stands a few rods north of the village. He preferred not to reside within the limits of his projected town, but in a suburb thereof. There were two or three other houses built on the prairie near and around the town in 1842. One was put up near the meridian line, close to the town, by Mr. Winters, for Orrin Whitcomb, of Magnolia, who, however, failed to occupy it. Another, which was built in the spring and had been blown down, was re-raised in July, 1841, in which labor the few settlers of the country for several miles around took part, mustering not over a dozen men and boys. The only house within twenty-five miles in a south-easterly direction from Mt. Palatine was that of William Johnson, which was a mile away. Since then the country has completely filled up with thriving and indus- trious farmers.
The town being an "inland" place, made some growth, but 'its nearest connection with the world being Tonica, on the Illinois Central Railroad, six miles away, its prospects for future growth are not very flattering.
The probability of Mt. Palatine becoming a place of any considerable importance consisted of a scheme to make it a seat of learning. An acad- emy was therefore erected, which was paid for by subscriptions from the settlers in the neighborhood. The building, which was begun in the fall of 1841, was plain and substantial, built of, brick. Rev. Otis Fisher, who had done much toward the building up of the academy at Granville, was ill- duced to come to this new field of labor as superintendent, which he en- tered in the winter of 1842. For fifteen years the Academy flourished and the village grew in proportion, but the completion of the Illinois Central Railroad caused the building up of the rival town of Tonica, six miles distant, when the local trade and business, which had been the life
260
RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
of Mt. Palatine, ceased, and its further growth was not only stopped, but its rapid decline began. The Academy, too, ceased to be attractive, and it gradually subsided from its previous flourishing condition, and becoming unprofitable, was sold in 1860 to the Catholic people of the vicinity. A condition of the sale made between the two parties was to the effect that the buyers should maintain a permanent school in the building, which they have thus far done. A provision made in the trans- fer papers was to the effect that in the event of a failure to maintain such school, the title of the property should revert to the original owners. The building is used by the Catholics not only for school purposes, but as a church.
Among the pupils who attended this Academy at different times were the Hon. Thomas Shaw and his sisters, now of Lacon, and Mr. Whittaker, who has since been a distinguished missionary to Burmah.
This educational institution began at first under a charter as an Academy, but during the days of Mt. Palatine's brightest prosperity, look- ing forward to a higher position as an establishment of learning, the trus- tees obtained from the Legislature a charter as a College. Their building originally cost about $3,000.
During the career of this institution there were several distinguished persons connected with it, among whom at one time was the poet Coates Kenney, author of "Rain on the Roof,"' who officiated there as a teacher.
In 1879 there were in Mt. Palatine three churches, a good district school, two general stores, two blacksmith shops, one wagon shop, post- office, one physician, about twenty-five dwellings scattered over sixty acres of ground, and a population of about one hundred people. Among its public institutions are a good village Literary Club and a Red Ribbon Society. The first hotel (built in 1852) was owned and run by Samuel Puffer, a good brick house, which is now occupied as a residence by John W. Laughlin.
The first store opened in Mt. Palatine was that of Boardman Fulsom, where was sold drugs, groceries and dry goods. He began business here soon after the town was laid out, and retired from business in 1850.
MT. PALATINE BAPTIST CHURCH.
The people of this religious faith living at Mt. Palatine and vicinity
261
MT. PALATINE RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS.
were formally organized into a Socicty in 1845, and Elder Thomas Powell was the first pastor.
The original members were: Thomas Powell, Elizabeth Powell, Bar- bara Powell, Otis Fisher, Harriet N. D. Fisher, Nathan Kingsbury, Syrena Kingsbury, James Curtis, Mary J. Curtis, Isaac Woodbury, Eunice O. Woodbury, Jerusha Woodbury, Mary W. Boutwell, Eunice Graves, Na- thaniel Graves, Daniel Reniff, Rhoda Reniff, Nancy Reniff, August Reniff, Ruth Stephens, Mary Reese, Wm. Johnson, Hepsibeth Johnson,' Peter Howe, Arvilla Howe, Larned Davis, Mary Davis, Hiram Larned, Abbey Larned, Orrin Whitcomb, Artemas O. Woodbury and Lydia S. Woodbury.
The meetings of this sect were held at first at the school house, until the Academy building was erected, when they occupied that edifice until the dissolution of the Society, which was in 1865, about the time the building named was sold to the Catholics.
THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
January 3, 1869, a business meeting of those favoring the forma- tion of a Congregational Society was called, which met, and a committee consisting of John W. Laughlin, Robert Gallaher, A. L. Harrington, John Larned and John Morrison was appointed to obtain the names of such as were willing to enter into the proposed movement. The committee re- ported at an adjourned meeting held January 10, and again at a meeting held January 17. It was then decided to invite the Baptist and Method- ist Societies of Tonica and the Cumberland Church Society to join with them for general conference, with a view to the organization of a "broad gauge" church. The invitation was accepted, and the Council as- sembled February 6, George Gurnea being chosen as Moderator. After transacting the general business before the Council, the Congregationalists proceeded to effect their church organization, which they did by the elec- tion of A. L. Harrington, John Morrison and George Gurnea as Ruling Elders, John W. Laughlin, John Morrison and Andrew Powell as Trus- tees, James G. Laughlin Secretary, and John W. Laughlin, Treasurer.
The next day, February 7, the Council again met at the school house at Mt. Palatine, the following delegates being present from other church organizations: Thomas Ware and Rev. H. V. Warren, from Granville Congregational Church; J. C. Hayward and Rev. J. W. West, from the Congregational Church at Tonica; Rev. N. W. Curtis, of the Methodist
262
RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
Episcopal Church at Tonica ; Rev. J. H. Burris, A. P. Dysart, N. B. Ful- som and R. W. Moore, of the Presbyterian Church at Granville; and Rev. J. E. Roy, D. D., agent of the Home Missionary Society.
This organization was composed of the following named members: John W. Laughlin and wife, James G. Laughlin, K. J. Davis, Margaret McNab, Caroline Lawrence, John Morrison and wife, A. L. Harrington and wife, George Gurnea and wife and Stephen W. Gallaher.
During the six years preceding 1879, Dr. E. R. Robinson officiated as pastor for this Congregational Society, but resigned his holy calling, re- sumed the practice of medicine, and is now a leading physician in Mt. Pal- atine.
The Congregational Church edifice, a substantial building capable of seating 300 persons, and costing with its organ $3,500, is an ornament to that section of the country.
PROSPECT HOUSE.
For years an exceedingly pretentious building stood upon the prairie, near the county line, which was known as the Prospect House. It was erected in 1836 by Thomas Patterson, as a hotel or half way house on the Ottawa road, and was properly named, being located upon a high knoll or rise in the prairie. From the balconies of this house a most magnificent view of the country for many miles in every direction could be obtained. The central point of the grand wolf hunt of November 11, 1842, elsewhere described, was at a small willow grove near Prospect House.
THE PREDESTINARIAN BAPTIST CHURCH.
This Society, one of the earliest religious denominations in the County of. Putnam, was organized at Caledonia, September 3, 1836. The first pastor was Elder James B. Chenowith, who began his ministrations Octo- ber 1, 1836. The charter members were Wm. E. Larkins, Rachel Lar- kins, John Brumsey, Joseph Ash, Elizabeth Ash, Joel Corbell, Miriam Graves, I. D. Glenn and Sarah Glenn. Their present house of worship was built in 1855.
ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS.
In 1850, John McWilliams, a respectable citizen of Caledonia, hung himself. He arose from his bed at the usual hour on the fatal morning,
·
263
ANECDOTES, ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS.
built a fire and went out. His wife prepared breakfast, but her husband not returning in proper time, she supposed he might be busy in the stable. She went there to summon hin to breakfast, when she was horrified to discover him hanging by the neck. His life had taken its everlasting flight. No cause was ever assigned for the rash act.
In 1853, David Trone, a blacksmith, was killed by a remarkable acei- dent. He had constructed a contrivance propelled by horse power, by which to grind and polish plows. He had started it up on the day in question, and was making satisfactory progress, when the grindstone burst and a piece of it struck him in the breast, killing him almost instantly.
In 1855 a man named Parsons, who had not been long married, living . near the head of the prairie, went to the timber for a load of wood. He told his wife he would return about noon. That hour came and passed, as did several others, and at about four o'clock she became very uneasy, and tried to induce some of the neighbors to go in search of him ; but en- tertaining none of the anxious young wife's fears for his safety, no one went. When night came and her husband failed to make his appearance, the poor woman persuaded a few of her neighbors to accompany her. In this search, which was continued several hours into the night, they were unsuccessful, and the unhappy and disconsolate woman went weeping to her couch.
The next morning the almost crazed woman set out alone in search of her husband, and as soon as she reached the timber she was struck dumb with the sight that greeted her eyes. She found the object of her long and painful search lying by the side of his sled, stiff and cold in death. He had been crushed by a large log which, in attempting to load upon his sled, had slipped and fallen upon him. There he had lain alive for sev- eral hours, as the snow within reach of his feet and hands showed the unmistakable evidence of his vain struggles to free himself. The horses had remained all night by the side of their dead master. After Mrs. Par- sons found the corpse, being unable to extricate it, she returned and told the dreadful story, and soon willing hands and sympathizing friends hur- ried to the scene, returning with their mangled and ghastly burden. . It was a sad case, and excited deep sympathy for the poor young wife.
MRS. GILLA COWAN.
This estimable lady was a daughter of Mr. Jolin E. Dent, and an aunt
264
RECORDS OF THIE OLDEN TIME.
of Hon. John O. Dent, now a resident of Wenona. Her husband, Mr. William Cowan, visited Illinois in 1829, with a view to selecting a loca- tion for a settlement. He returned to his home in the East, but early in 1831 came back, bringing his wife and family, an'l for many years resided about a mile from Magnolia, at which place he died in 1864.
Mrs. Cowan once had an amusing experience with a party of Indians, which she took pleasure in relating. On one occasion a half dozen war- riors came to her house and asked for food, explaining that they were hungry. She immediately prepared a meal for them, placing it upon a table with the usual accompaniment of dishes, knives and forks, and placed her copper-colored guests in position to enjoy the bountiful repast which she had prepared. They imagined the plates were placed before then to catch the juices that dripped from their mouths as they tore their food; but they examined the knives and forks curiously, and after debat- ing the matter, the bright idea struck one of them to dip his hand in the dish, sieze pieces of meat, stick them on the points of the knife and fork before him and hold them there, taking the meat from them with his fin- gers for conveyance to his mouth. The idea seemed a feasible one, and was immediately followed by each of the others.
PIGEON ROOST.
In 1857-8 this country literally swarmed with wild pigeons. Never before in the memory of the oldest inhabitant were these birds so plenti- ful, and never since has there been any such visitation. They filled the woods everywhere between Union Grove and Crow Creek, but, as is the habit with this peculiar variety of the feathered tribe, they flocked together and formed an immense "roost" in the woods near Jeremiah Strawn's house. Here they gathered in large numbers, coming in such clouds as at times to darken the sky. They would make a noise when disturbed in daytime like the rushing of a mighty wind storm. Their roost covered a space of about three-fourths of a mile in one direction and nearly double that in the other. They lodged upon trees until they broke off large limbs, and bent the tops of the saplings and undergrowth to the ground. At nights they were at the mercy of hunters, who, provided with flaming torches which blinded the birds, could shoot and slaughter at leisure. Persons came from considerable distances to obtain them as
.
265
A WONDERFUL PIGEON ROOST.
an article of food, and they generally returned loaded down with game. One evening Joshua Bush and his son Isaac killed 750 birds, and on another occasion Isaac brought down eighty-eight of them by discharging both barrels of his shot gun, firing promiscuously at a tree full of them.
-
266
RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
SENACHWINE TOWNSHIP.
CHAPTER XXXI.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION.
HE Township and village of Senachwine derive their names from a noted Indian chieftain formerly living in the vicinity, and whose remains were interred half a mile north-east of the village. The Township consists of one whole and one fractional township, and contains in all about forty-four sec- tions of land. It lies upon the west side of the Illinois River, and is made up of alluvial bottom and table land of unparalleled fertility. Portions are subject to overflow, but year by year the river is receding or the annual deposits raise the land so that a larger surface is brought under cultivation.
The principal stream is Senachwine Creek, known in former times as the Little Elbow in contradistinction to a larger stream of the same name in the vicinity.
Senachwine Lake is a pleasant body of water east of the village, about two and a half miles long and from eighty to one hundred rods wide, noted for its fine fish and for being a pleasant resort for hunting and bath- ing parties in summer.
In 1835 a town was laid out here by B. M. Hayes, but appears to have died in the shell, as nothing of its history can be learned.
Subsequently the village of Senachwine was laid out by Peter Barn- hart and Cortland Condit, owners of the land.
In the year 1855 the Bureau Valley Railroad was built, and the same year James McCurdy opened a store, the first in the place. He was also the first postmaster. In that year, too, George H. Ward began the gro- cer's trade, and Aaron Haines built a hotel. At present the town con- tains about one hundred buildings of all kinds, and 400 inhabitants. It has two churches, a fine public school house, elevator, passenger building, flouring mill, several good stores, etc.
267
SETTLEMENT OF SENACHWINE TOWNSHIP.
The bluffs abound with coal, which, though easily mined, has never been developed.
Early attention was given to schools, and a building for school pur- poses was erected in 1838, on an island in the lake, at which most of the young men of that day obtained the rudiments of their education. The first teacher was Mary Emerson, and her patrons were Messrs. Reed, Ba- con, Morgan, Talliaferro, Barnhart and Condit. For many years this building served its purpose, but long since gave way to a better structure and went to decay.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.