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 34
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 34
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THE ORIGINAL TRAMP.
Hopewell furnishes the starting point of the original tramp, or the first
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
great feat of long winded pedestrianism on record in this country. It was in 1833, when a Mrs. White and her son, who had come from North Caro- lina the previous year, determined to return to their old home. They were very poor, with not sufficient means to buy food on their way, letting alone transportation, and withal she was past the age allotted to man or woman, yet such was her love for her old home and so strong her desire to see it again, that braving all obstacles she started, and actually made the long distance on foot. Her simple story made friends everywhere and food and shelter were had for the asking, without money or price. Thus they journeyed slowly on and reached their destination after a nearly eleven hundred mile tramp.
GAME.
The early settlers of Hopewell found an abundance of game of all kinds in its season, and the river and tributary streams swarmed with fish. The ground was covered with the bones of buffalo and elk, and it was no unusual sight to see deer in droves of twenty and thirty crossing the prairie in single file. Among the feathered tribes, sand-hill cranes were the most numerous. They went in large flocks, and seen at a dis- tance upon the bare prairie, were easily mistaken for sheep.
Gray foxes were numerous, and the highly perfumed Mephitis Ameri- canus, not long after introduced himself pretty numerously. Gray squir- rels too, were plenty, but the latter as well as foxes of the same color afterward gave place to red foxes and red squirrels, the only kinds now found in this section. Wild turkeys were not abundant until 1840. Bee trees were found everywhere in the timber, and the people needed no syrup for corn cakes.
Wolves, both the prairie and timber species, black and gray, were nu- merous, and the farmers' greatest dread and constant annoyance. On more than one occasion has Mr. Sawyer been called upon not only to exer- cise his skill as a marksman, but under critical circumstances, where a sure aim and steady nerve were needed. He was an expert and enthusiastic hunter, and brought with him from his Southern home a pair of superb hounds from which sprung a numerous progeny, with whose aid he has waged war against these "varmints" for many years. In the winter of 1833-34 he had occasion to go to mill. His conveyance was a sled upon which was a Pennsylvania wagon box, drawn by three yokes of oxen.
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AN INVOLUNTARY DOUBLE SHUFFLE.
The mill was at Seybold's on the Vermillion river, and as Mr. Sawyer was returning with his grist through Sandy Creek timber on a bright moon- light night, he heard a low growl which he recognized as that of a wolf, and perceived a large gray timber wolf not ten feet away. It was crouched as if ready to spring, and its eyes glared with a flashing yellow green pe- culiar to the feline tribe. Young Sawyer was justifiably alarmed, and giving the brute a sharp cut with his long whip jumped into the sled. At a wayside cabin he borrowed a gun, and when the animal reappeared a lucky shot laid him out.
INCIDENTS.
As illustrating the rapid growth of timber in this country it is related that north and east of Hancock's house, forty years ago, there was a growth of low hazle brush, small oak and other trees. From the door of the house during fall and winter could be seen the white spots or tails of the deer as they browsed or frolicked through the thickets. On that same patch of what was once hazle-brush and saplings, large trees have grown, and within the last four or five years from eighteen to twenty cords of wood per acre were cut therefrom.
The old settlers in this like those of other localities had no flour or meal save such as they made themselves on a grater, in a stump mortar or pestle, with a spring-pole beater,-the pound-cake mill of the olden time. When they desired to put on style, they went to mill forty to one hundred miles away. Mr. Hancock remembers going to Dayton to mill, four miles above Ottawa, on Fox River.
They hauled their wheat to Chicago, where they found a market at fifty-six cents per bushel, and brought back lumber and salt, which they sold at good prices, the latter bringing as high as $5.00 per barrel.
The farmers' wives knew nothing about saleratus or fancy baking pow- der. When they wanted fine rising, they made pearl ash by burning corn-cobs.
Wm. Strawn, whose parents were Methodists, and looked upon dan- cing with abhorence, took his first lesson in tripping the "light fantastic toe " in this way : His mother had been baking bread in an old fashioned oven. William, in his bare feet, came near the fire to warm, and unwit-
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
tingly stepped upon the large flat stone which, heated to a cherry red, forms a covering for the primitive oven. He lifted liis foot with an ago- nizing yell of mingled surprise and pain, but in doing so placed the other on the same scorching surface. And then ensued a series of gyrations, contortions and fantastic steps, accompanied by lowls and groans, which proved highly amusing to the other children, but which William to this day cannot recall without an involuntary shifting of his pedal extremeties.
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GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ROBERTS TOWNSHIP.
ROBERTS TOWNSHIP.
CHAPTER XL.
TOPOGRAPHICAL.
HIS Township derived its name from the first settler in Mar- shall County, Jesse Roberts, who made his claim in a point of timber south of Sandy Creek, and for many years lived there noted as an eccentric but hospitable and generous man.
The Township contains thirty-six sections or 23,040 acres of land. The principal water course traversing its territory is Sandy Creek, a large stream coming from Ev- ans Township on the east and flowing through Sections one, two, three, four, five and six nearly due west to the town of Hope- well, and thence to the Illinois River. From the south this stream is fed by Shaws', Myers', Gaylord's and a number of smaller branches, and from the nortlf by Little Sandy and its tributaries. The entire town is well watered and abundantly supplied with timber. Between the branches named and those referred to there are stretches of prairie and openings that come down near the verge of the bluffs along the southern line of Sandy Creek. To the north and south these prairies widen, and beyond the sev- eral points of timber unite in a vast expanse of deep and remarkably rich soil, now covered with fine farms.
The Western Division of the Chicago, Alton and St. Louis Rail- road runs through this Township from section twenty-five on the east to Section thirty on the west, connecting with the other great lines of railroad and affording. an outlet for the products of the Township. A branch of this road also diverges south from the main branch at Varna, a village in this Township. While the soil is very deep and productive, the lands in some parts are less rolling than west of the Illinois River. When their roads have been improved to the general standard of excel- lence prevailing in other townships this will be. a model farming region.
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
The objection of very level lands does not prevail along the timber, nor for two or three miles back therefrom, the surface in. this part of the Township being a succession of gently rolling or undulating swells.
Fine large orchards are a special feature of Roberts. Apple trees of enormous growth are found on all of the older farms, and some of the orchards are of surprisingly extensive acreage. Many of the farmers along Sandy Creek are superior horticulturalists, especially "read up" in the culture of the apple, and by careful study and experiment have re- duced fruit culture to a science. Profiting by experience they cultivate choice varieties almost exclusively, and only fail when the season is un- favorable.
EARLY SETTLERS.
The first settlers here were: 1828-Livingston Roberts; 1829-Dr. J. Gaylord, Abel Estabrook, Horace Gaylord ; 1830-Enoch Dent, Geo. Morton, G. H. Shaw, Wm. Cowan; 1831-Samuel Redmond, Eli Red- mond; 1832-David Myers, Chas. S. Edward, David Stateler, Samuel Beckwith, Wm. McMillan, Jerry Hardenbower, John Myers; 1833- David Myer's family, Hiram Myers; 1834-B. Reynolds, Abram De Long; 1835; Wm. Swartz, Zeb Swarz; 1837-Mr. Davidson, Mr. Ellen- borg; 1838-Mr. Usher, James Hoyt; Aaron Gaylord came to Marshall County about 1833, and settled in Roberts Township on the Keys farm. Mr. Gaylord himself and two daughters died in 1834. His wife Maria was left with a large family and raised them successfully. Among them were: Dr. Ed. Gaylord, of Magnolia; Dr. Hiram Gaylord, of Pontiac; James S. Gaylord, of Western Kansas; Orange Gaylord, who went to Oregon many years ago; Mrs. T. Beckwith, now in the south part of Evans Township.
VARNA.
This well-known village, born of railroad enterprise, was laid out Sep- tember 10, 1870, on the south half of the north-east quarter of Section 28, Town 30, Range 1 west., by George Straut and wife, on the prairie along the Western Division of the Chicago, Alton & St. Louis Railroad. Additions have since been made from time to time until the town, on the maps, has assumed creditable proportions.
The original town is all north of and adjoining the railroad. It stands
405
VARNA-ITS BUSINESS, SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES.
on the level prairie to the east of Shaw's Point, and is the first station on the above mentioned road east of the County seat.
The first house in the village was built in 1870, a store, by Mr. John B. Brotherhood, who added a dwelling to it the same fall, and soon after Bobbitt and others followed his example, until a number of neat dwel- lings, stores, warehouses, churches and a good public school building, constituted the general make-up of the village. Its leading features are : Four churches, -German Lutheran, Swedish Lutheran, German Episco- pal and Methodist-two grocery and general stores, two drug dealers, one hardware store, two boot and shoe shops and stores, one harness shop, two carpenters, two meat markets, a livery stable, four blacksmith shops, one lumber yard, two grain merchants and stock buyers, two hotels, two wagon shops, two dealers in agricultural implements, a tile manufactory, two milliners and a doctor. At the last election the poll books showed sixty-eight voters in the village.
Varna has the credit of maintaining an excellent public school. No. 8, which embraces the village, was organized in 1869, and Thomas Quain- tance was the first teacher for two years. The school building erected in the summer of the year named, is a large frame structure, capable of accommodating one hundred pupils, and contains all the modern iniprove- ments for the graded system, on which plan the school is conducted.
THE SWEDISH CHURCH.
The natives of Sweden living in the vicinity of Varna first began to hold public worship about 1866. The only church then in this region of their faith was at Caledonia, west of Magnolia. About 1874 they held a largely attended and successful revival meeting at Varna, upon the con- clusion of which they organized a Society, Rev. Mr. Lindall lending his aid to the success of the movement.
They selected as their first deacons and trustees, Andrew Lindall, O. P. Nelson, Charles Esterdahl, John Humstrom, Andrew Angstrom and C. A. Peterson.
The leading members were: C. Esterdahl, O. P. Nelson, Andrew Lindall and C. A. Humstrom, who constituted the building committee.
The church building was erected in 1874. It is a frame structure 25 x72 feet, 18 foot ceiling, neatly finished, and furnished with an organ, comfortable seats, etc. It cost entire $4,500, and was built by subscrip-
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
tion. The original membership was 125, but it has now nearly doubled, and the Society is in a prosperous condition. It conducts an excellent Sunday School, which is managed, in turn, by four, of the deacons.
The ministers have been: Rev. Mr. Londerblau, who occasionally vis- ited Varna in 1870; Rev. Mr. Malberg, who came from time to time in 1874; succeeded by Rev. P. G. Brodine, who, in 1879, gave way to Rev. G. O. Gustafson. -
GERMAN M. F. CHURCHI.
This Society, at Varna, was formed in June, 1872. The trustees were Christian Koch, William Koch and Christian Benkendorf. About eleven persons organized the church, and built a small place of worship the same year, costing $1,800.
The preacher who was mainly instrumental in the foundation of the Society was Rev. Barnard Ruch, and in January, 1880, the pastor was Rev. Mr. Danner. .
THE GERMAN LUTHERAN CHURCH.
This Society was organized at Varna in 1871. The first preacher was Rev. J. Johannes, to whose personal efforts its success was largely due. The trustees of the congregation were: Michael Kemnitz, Reinhardt Kitzman and George Sanwald.
Their meeting house was built in 1873. It is a frame structure, 43x60 feet, with a steeple and bell, comfortably seated, and was built by sub- scription, costing $2,300. The congregation is small, but earnest in the work, and a good Sabbath School is kept in a flourishing condition.
The first services were by Rev. Mr. Kercher, and' afterward Rev. Walter Krebs, who also had the spiritual wants of the Society in charge for years. The minister in 1879 was Rev. A. Sipple, of La Rose, who alternates his work between the church here and at the latter place.
LYONS.
Among the numerous towns that sprang up like mushrooms in a single night, in this region-on paper-during the speculative fever of 1835 and '36, the above is an example, and in its rise and fall is presented the
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THE HISTORY OF A PAPER TOWN.
history of thousands equally ambitious and ill fated. Lyons was started by an Eastern company, its projectors residing in New York. It was laid out in 1836, but the plat, which contained one hundred and sixty acres of land adjoining the present village of Varna on the West and south-west, was never recorded.
The Association entered forty-six sections of land, mainly in this part of the state, and assessed twenty-five dollars per quarter section to build an agent's house here and provide for the expenses of surveying and selling the lots. This was the first building of any kind on this prairie for many miles, and was put up for the company by Henry Long, of Lacon. Its materials were hard wood and a frame of hewn logs, after the manner af all buildings beyond the limits of the timber in those days.
A committee of the Company made deeds of such few lots as were sold, which were so worded as to contain no streets and alleys, and as none of these had been dedicated to the public and no rights accrued by prescription or use, legal questions as to the right of buyers to fence them up and block up highways were avoided. As no clause was inserted in these conveyances compelling the owners to build upon the property thus bought-a provision inserted in similar conveyances of lots in some other new towns,-no house was ever erected within the limits of Lyons, save the dwelling of the agent.
When the sole resident of this city moved here, and became monarch . of all he surveyed, his nearest neighbors were the few settlers along the line of Sandy Creek and C. S. Edwards and G. H. Shaw at Shaw's Point.
The land bought by the New York company was scattered about this region within a scope of six or seven miles and Lyons was laid out as the central point. The lots brought at the rate of from one to five dollars per acre, and were sold between 1847 and 1856, by which time the original company had parted with its interest in the property. Some of the lands sold as low as fifty cents an acre, but this brought no new settlers. Some " commanded," as the advertisements had it, $20 per acre; the latter lying near the " city limits."
The town was surveyed for the Association by Jordon Sawyer, a brother of Enoch Sawyer, of Hopewell.
JESSE S. ROBERTS.
The man from whom the Township derives its name and the first set-
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
tler in the County deserves a more extended notice than is given to most of the pioneers. This was Jesse S. Roberts, who was born on the Little Pedee, South Carolina, May 11, 1876. His father took sides with the mother country in her efforts to subdue the colonists, and at the close of the war was expatriated, taking up his residence at St. Johns, New Bruns- wick, where we believe he subsequently died. His family remained loyal, and were permitted to occupy the valuable property he held, which, by the law of primogeniture then in force, reverted to the oldest son, leaving the others, among whom was the subject of this sketch, to care for themselves.
Until eleven years old he lived at home with his mother, going to school occasionally and assisting in the labors of the farm as he could. At that age he was indentured to a saddler and harness maker, serving his master the full time of seven years, as was the good old custom. As be- fore intimated, his father's estate was inherited by an elder brother, and the manifest injustice so embittered him that he determined to leave the country and seek out a home for himself in the new and fertile regions beyond the Ohio.
It was six hundred miles to his proposed destination, the road leading over mountains, through sparsely settled districts, and hostile tribes of Indians. Nothing daunted, however, he shouldered his axe, put a spare shirt or two in his bundle and set out, walking the entire distance.
He passed over the now justly celebrated "blue grass region," think- ing it too destitute of timber, and proceeding to the vicinity of Smithland, Kentucky, selected a location among the heavy timber of the region, and putting up a cabin of rough logs open at one end, plied his axe in- dustriously for three months, living by himself and doing his own cook- ing and washing.
Leaving his new home at this time he started back to South Carolina for a helpmeet, receiving along with her a feather bed and an old frying pan. With his wife and dowry mounted on an old mare-his sole worldly wealth-and himself trudging by her side, he again made the journey to the El Dorado of his hopes. His wife proved a most worthy companion, and together they cleared up a large farm, while children were born and their fortunes grew apace.
In course of time he owned slaves -a woman to help his wife and two stout fellows to assist him on the farm. He also built a flat boat and commenced making voyages to New Orleans, loading his craft with
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REMINISCENCES OF PIONEERS.
grain, sheep, hogs and poultry, which he converted into cash and returned on foot, carrying about his person as high as six hundred dollars in silver. His road lay through the Indian nation, where he found cabins erected for the entertainment of travelers, who were expected to furnish their own provisions.
On one occasion he took down a likely young negro named Obed and bargained him away for six hundred dollars. The chattel was unusually sharp, and divining the nature of the transaction, "lit out" before the delivery of the property, reaching home two weeks before his master. There was some difficulty over the sale, but Roberts insisted that he sold him on the run, and it was compromised by the seller accepting four hundred dollars. Obed continued to light the fires and perform any service required until he heard his master was coming, when he started for Can- ada and was not seen again.
Slave property was in very good demand. Roberts paid at one time for a likely young black, seven hundred dollars in cash and one hundred and fifty acres of land. When he left the country he was the owner of a motherly old slave named Judy, who had nursed all his children, and as she did not wish to leave, he sought out a master satisfactory to her, and sold her for three hundred dollars cash, a barrel of whisky and a keg of powder. It is needless to say the whisky was all imbibed by the crowd which came to bid them adieu.
Wishing to educate his family beyond the influences of slavery, Mr. Roberts in that year sold his farm, came to Illinois and settled in the vicinity of Hillsboro, remaining there two years. In the meantime he came north, and renting a piece of land above Ottawa, raised a crop of corn there in 1828. During that summer he came into Putnam County and was advised by Mr. Knox to make the claim upon which he lived until his death, August 7, 1841, aged sixty-five.
JAMES HOYT.
James Hoyt was one of the first settlers of the prairie south of Sandy Creek in this Township. He came to the vicinity of Varna in 1838, making his home at Green's house, put up as the City Hotel of the prospective city of Lyons, and remained in the neighborhood until 1843, when he built a frame house about one and a half miles north of Varna, on the tract known as the Kestor place, where Dr. Gaylord had formerly
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
lived. The only building in this locality other than those of the farmers joining the timber were a log cabin built by David Meyers and one by his son John, in 1843 or '44, one-half mile west of Hoyt's.
In the fall of 1842 Mr. Hoyt went to Chicago with a load of wheat. He made the journey under all sorts of difficulties, but arrived safely, sold his grain for fifty cents per bushel, half "store pay," bought a stove, got sloughed-not "slewed" -- frequently coming home, and lived on raw bacon all the way. As he fared sumptuously on chickens fixin's going up, he realized the abominable contrast in diet with well defined and deep disgust.
The winter of 1843 was an uncommonly hard one. Snow came early, covered the ground to the depth of one and a half feet and remained until the January following, when there was a ten days' period of thaw, followed by a new crop of snow, which did not wholly melt until the 10th of April, 1844.
Mr. Hoyt moved into his new place in the fall of 1843. The first day after his arrival there the deep snow fell, and then his troubles began. He had little or no fuel, and was four miles from where he could fiet fire- . wood. He had to go the next morning, Sunday though it was, after wood, and kept up these long trips regularly and frequently all that winter.
SHAW'S POINT.
Next to Jesse Roberts the first permanent settler in Roberts was James H. Shaw, who made a claim at the point of timber that has since borne his name so early as 1831. It was long a prominent landmark, and the proprietor was widely known and respected. He came to Tazewell County in 1827, taught school in Magnolia in 1830, and finally settled down as a farmer as stated. His nearest neighbors were C. S. Edwards, whose fine farm afterward passed into the possession of Reuben Broaddus. The two men took opposite sides in politics, and each filled stations of public trust and honor. The former has been gathered to his fathers, but the latter still remains. During the Black Hawk troubles their families sought protection in the Roberts stockade, and remained until danger was past. One night an alarm was raised and the men gathering their shoot- ing irons rushed to defend their fortress. A valorous Frenchman made himself conspicuous by flourishing a big horse pistol and exhorting the
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PRIVATION AND HARDSHIPS OF PIONEER LIFE.
crying women and children to "die like men." It was only a scare, how- ever, and no harm came of it.
The route usually traveled from Shaw's Point to Lacon led along the timber past the Harris place, until Mr. Edwards "blazed the way" through the prairie by the direct route.
CHICAGO AS A GRAIN MARKET IN 1829.
The privations and hardships endured by the early settlers can hardly be realized by their descendants, surrounded by every comfort and luxury. We know men who are in despair if the mail fails to arrive on time, and women who will sit down and cry if a visitor comes to dinner and there is no butter in the house; yet these are insignificant trifles compared with what our ancestors underwent. Think of living for months on pounded corn mixed with water and baked on a board before the fire; of keeping house without tea, coffee, sugar potatoes or fruits; of living in cabins des- titute of windows, knowing nothing of the outside world, and seeing neither friend nor neighbor for months. Yet these were the experiences of the older settlers of our state.
There were no markets to speak of. Hennepin was a small trading post where furs and peltries could be bartered for merchandise, but the future thriving towns of Henry, Lacon and La Salle had, in 1829, not a single inhabitant. St. Louis was a place of some importance, but at this date few adventurous keels had plowed the waters of the Illinois. Galena, in the north-west, was a place of considerable mining interest and Chicago was looking up as a future lake port of some possible importance, yet at this time its wants were so little that an enterprising farmer of this County, who sent a load of oats there in 1839, could not find a purchaser, and was about despairing of a sale when he heard of an Englishman living five miles up the North Branch, whither he went and disposed of his load, accepting a greyhound in part payment.
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