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 46
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 46
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The Indians had no fences around their corn field. Along one side of the field was the pasture for their ponies, being the ground now known as O'Leary's corn field. A stream of water running from the bluffs to the river divided the pasture from the corn and kept the ponies out of mischief.
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
Mr. Samuel Thompson, an old settler near Sparland, narrates anecdotes of his early experience.
The Indians were very friendly in early days; in fact, entirely too familiar. They would enter his house and make themselves thoroughly comfortable. They would look into every nook and corner of the prem- ises, open and smell of the bottles of medicine, and were peculiarly fond of whisky, an article which they seemed to take to as readily as ducks to water. In those days wild game was plentiful, and the Indians could easily kill all (deer especially) that they could consume. They would eat the meat of any sort of wild animal, even that of the obnoxious pole cat, and often preferred it raw.
Mr. Thompson once visited Shaubena's camp and showed the Indians a Bible. After looking at it, with strange gestures and noises, they pointed toward the sky, indicating that they comprehended its object.
The Indians preserved meat for food by drying, suspending it in slices around a hole in the ground, in the bottom of which was a fire, and allowing it to remain until sufficiently dried. They had well fashioned copper kettles in which they prepared their soup. Corn was reduced to a coarse meal by pounding in a rude stone mortar.
Religious meetings were frequently held at Drake's Grove, usually conducted by missionaries, which the Indians invariably attended in great numbers.
SCALPED BY INDIANS.
About 1864 a young man named Magee, whose home was below Spar- land, went West and engaged to cross the plains as a Government teamster. There were a dozen or so of wagons in the train, and while camped at what was known as Big Spring, in Western Kansas, they were attacked by a roving band of Indians, and all of the party murdered but young Magee. There was a Government stockade within a mile of them and the attack was seen, but before aid could come the red devils had accomplished their work and were safe from pursuit. As is usual, the attack was made at daylight, when all but the drowsy sentinel were sound asleep. The enemy came unseen until within a few rods, and then sud- denly swooping down upon their ponies, slaughtered their victims before any defense could be attempted.
Young Magee was sleeping beneath a wagon when alarmed by the Indians, and started to run, but was shot in half a dozen places with
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AN ECCENTRIC CHARACTER.
arrows, and fell to the ground, feigning death. An Indian came up, and catching him by the hair ran his sharp knife from the forehead round to the base, making a clean cut to the bone; then stooping down he placed one knee upon the boy's breast, and giving a sharp jerk, tore the scalp clean off, leaving the top of the head bare and bloody. It was suf- ficiently cruel, but the fiend, to make sure of his work, then reversed the knife and holding the blade in his hands, struck the bare skull with the handle as heavy a blow as he was able. This to the still conscious boy was worse than the scalping, and he relapsed into insensibility.
As soon as possible the alarm was sounded at the fort and a party of soldiers turned out, who found yonng Magee rolling about on the grass. From his numerous wounds and condition it was believed he could live but a few moments, and no attention was paid him, the sun, which by this time had risen, beating directly upon his bare skull. The dead men were gathered up and buried, and finding the boy still alive, though delir- ious, they covered the wound with molasses to shield it from the air, and conveyed him to the fort.
There was no surgeon here, but the next day a train was made up, he was placed in a Government wagon and taken to where medical aid could be had, some two days' travel distant. Here he laid for many weeks, his strong constitution carrying him through. When able to travel, transport- ation was furnished and he came home. The wound upon his head never healed but continued a running sore. He wore a cap or turban, which was never removed on entering a house. After remaining about here for . a year or so he returned West again, and at last accounts was still living.
DOC. ALLEN.
This was a most eccentric gentleman, who lived on the west side of the Illinois River, in Steuben Township, many years ago. Being a back- woodsman of varied attainments and considerable originality, he was known far and near. Among other acquirements he had read works on the Thompsonian system of medicine and treatment of diseases, and with- out a diploma or any other authority than a copy of one of these books under his arm and a pint bottle of "No. 6" in one coat pocket, balanced by a bottle of whisky in the other, he frequently rode forth, or walked, conquering and to conquer. The equilibrium between these two bottles, es well as his own, was not always carefully preserved, and the contents
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
of the whisky bottle transferred to his mouth, resulted in causing him to proceed in a lopsided, irregular gait, and frequently upset him.
One night the "Squire " had been on a visit to Chillicothe, and started for home in the evening in a very "salubrious" condition. `Going down a steep bank, his feet caught in the roots of a trec, the earth from which had been washed away by recent rains, and he fell headlong down hill, his foot held firmly in the tangled roots. There, helpless, upon his back, head down, unable to extricate himself, he cussed and shouted for help in vain. To add to his misery, his bottle of whisky was in his coat tail pocket, and that was out of reach down hill. After vainly struggling to free himself, he took out his knife to "unjoint his leg," as he expressed it, when Asa Thompson came along and set him free. A mu- tual drink was indulged in, the Squire remarking, as he lingeringly with- drew the flask from his mouth after a long pull, and gave vent to a sigh of satisfaction, "Good thing you came up, stranger, just in time-I'd cut off that are fool of a leg, sure!"
Mr. Allen managed to secure his election to the office of Justice of the Peace, hence his title of "Squire." His court was a model of judicial im- portance, but somewhat hampered as to room and what would be consid- ered appropriate surroundings. His cabin, situated near the present county poor-house, consisted of a single room with the usual large chim- ney, low door, and in lieu of a window, a log chopped out on one side, the aperture being stuffed with old clothes or hay in cold weather. Three or four poles overhead answered for joists. The chickens occupied the loft, while the pigs roamed about below, running between the Squire's
He held court seni- legs when too closely pursued by the dogs, occasionally, as legal business in these days was not brisk. When a suit was to be tried, he mounted a slab stool and presided with pompous dig- nity. When the chickens came in to roost in the evening, and the pigs began to seek their accustomed quarters, the Squire would adjourn court for the day, lay aside the stupendous importance which had enveloped him during the sittings of the court and come down to the humble foot- ing of common mortals.
THE CAT AT THE BUTTER.
Mrs. Thompson had a jar of butter in a small hall adjoining her bed room. One morning she observed that the cloth covering had been dis-
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AMUSING ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS.
turbed, and for several succeeding days was annoyed by repetitions of the offense, at which she was considerably "riled," as she expressed it, and vainly endeavored to detect the culprit. One night on retiring she heard a noise in the hall, and stealing out softly, with one dexterous jump she sprang upon a white object which she mistook for the family cat. She seized the offender and gave it one vigorous shake, and then retreated in disgust. It was n't a cat, but the pretty little white-faced, bushy-tailed animal that lives in retirement and supplies perfumery on an extensive scale.
AN ACTIVE DIME.
Mrs. Thompson relates the following as illustrative of the scarcity of money in pioneer times :
One day she had occasion to go to Lacon, but had no change. All she wanted was a dime, an insignificant amount, but in those days a sum of great consequence. At length she obtained the required wealth, a peculiarly marked but good and lawful dime. This she needed to pay her ferriage, taking with her butter and eggs to trade for such, goods as she wanted. She went over, paid the ferryman her dime, did her shop- ping, and when ready to return home asked the merchant for a dime to give the man at the boat. The storekeeper looked perplexed; she had been a good customer, and he felt in duty bound to "scare up" the money; but, where? He searched every drawer, his pockets, accosted men passing by; but all in vain. Finally he went out, and in ten minutes returned with the money, remarking as he handed it to her, "Got one at last, bet there 's not another in town!" Sure enough, for it was the identical dime she had given to the ferryman when she came over that morning!
INCIDENTS.
Old Sol. Brewer was once "taken desperate," and sent to invoke the medical skill of Doctor Allen. He promptly responded, made a diagnosis of the case, and prescribed a drink of whisky every hour, an external ap- plication of No. 6, and an injection of rhubarb and water, leaving it to be administered by the patient's hired man. The nurse somehow got the bottles mixed, and applied the remedies differently from directions. He met the Doctor a few days afterward, and thus reported: "I gave that
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
'ere whisky all right, rubbed his leg with the yaller stuff, and give him a dejection of number six, and you could have hearn old Sol beller more'n two miles. He says he 'd not have you again to doctor a sick dog!"
In 1835 John Cornell and Wm. Armstrong dug into and examined an Indian mound a short distance below Sparland, on the river bank, and found therein the remains of an Indian of very large stature. The skeleton was over six feet in height, and broad and deep of chest in pro- portion. Around the body was wrapped twenty yards or more of the finest broadcloth. A large knife was clutched in the bones of the right hand, and the fingers of the left seemed once to have grasped a tin cup. The cloth and cup a few moments after exposure to the air on the slight- est touch crumbled into dust. Around the neck of the dead man were several ornaments, such as beads and similar trinkets peculiar to his race.
During the winter of 1835 Shaubena and his tribe camped at Drake's Grove, in the Township, and were visited by the white people occasion- ally. Mr. Ellis Thompson once dropped in among them. They had killed three deer, a polecat and a wolf. They had dressed the meat of all but the wolf, which for some superstitious reason they discarded as food, and offered Mr. Thompson some of the odoriferous cat, which he declined with his fingers upon his nose, but as politely as his sensations of disgust would permit! They were cooking this food with unwashed, filthy hands, just as the handling of the carcasses had left them. They eagerly enquired for whisky, and were much disappointed when assured by Mr. Thompson that he had none of that article.
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AGITATION OF THE SLAVERY QUESTION.
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.
CHAPTER XLIX.
SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES.
T is not within the scope of this work to enter upon a dis- cussion of the question which for many years threatened to overturn and demolish the American Union. It is, there- fore, not the purpose of the author to present here any ex- tended history of the events which gave birth to slavery; nourished and maintained it until it became of such mon- strous proportions as to control and shape our national legis -. lation; nor the efforts put forth for its final overthrow. A brief review of the birth and growth of a party which persistently, courageously and successfully combatted this gigantic wrong in our country is deemed a fitting introduction to the incidents in the counties whose history is recorded in these pages.
It is enough for us to know, and to the credit of the Ameri- can people be it said, that slavery was introduced here not by them- selves, but by a foreign people, who knew nothing of human liberty in theory or in fact, and whose sole end was their own personal aggrandize- ment.
The first slaves in this country were twenty Africans, landed upon our shores in chains by a Dutch ship, in A. D. 1700. They were sold to a few adventurers, who had come hither to amass fortunes-not to remain, but to return at some future time with their ill-gotten wealth. This was the beginning of the slave trade and the birth of slavery in the colonies.
The first anti-slavery publication ever issued in this country was a tract written by Ralph Sandiford in 1729. The next was by Benjamin Lay, and published by Dr. Franklin, who helped to organize the Pennsylvania Abolition Tract Society, of which he was president, the first organization of the enemies of African bondage in America. It was incorporated sub-
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
sequently by the State Legislature, and continued to exist and labor in its work until the final extirpation of the evil which gave it birth.
In 1774 a declaration was issued, signed by all the members of the North American Congress, pledging its members not to engage in the slave trade themselves nor lease their vessels to others for that purpose. This was the first step toward preventing foreign or domestic traffic by ships in " human chattels.
Slavery was extinguished by the provisions of the State Constitution, adopted in Massachusetts in 1776; in New Hampshire in 1792, and in Vermont in 1793. Laws for the gradual abolition of slavery were passed by the Legislature of Pennsylvania in 1780, of Rhode Island and Con- necticut in 1784, of New York in 1799, and of New Jersey in 1804. Enactments favoring voluntary emancipation by the owners of slaves were adopted in Delaware in 1787, in Maryland in 1796, in Kentucky in 1798, and in Tennessee in 1801. The National Congress in 1787, con- formably to the request of Virginia in relinquishing her claims to the magnificent North-west Territory, of which our own State was a part, passed an ordinance prohibiting the introduction of slaves into that re- gion ; thus the subsequently great states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michi- gan and Wisconsin became permanently free.
When the convention of 1788 assembled to revise the articles of con- federation existing between the States, it was found that every State, ex- cept North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, was opposed to the toleration of the African slave trade.
The so-called navigation laws were then the bone of contention be- tween some of the extreme Northern and some of the Southern States. The Northern ship owners wanted protection for their vessels and ship- building fostered by Congress. To this the Carolinas objected, as favor- ing one class or locality to the detriment of others. It was class legisla- tion, which they declared should not be permitted. .
As a compromise, certain Northern men united with the pro-slavery delegates, the Yankees getting their shipping laws to suit them, and in return the South obtained a clause in the constitution by which the slave trade was continued, in such States as should permit it, for twenty years longer -until 1808. This scheme was adopted in direct opposition to the vote of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia.
In this manner slavery was fastened upon the country as one of its institutions, recognized by the constitution, the fundamental law of the
1
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THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.
land, sustained by the Supreme Court in repeated instances, and protected by Congress and the legislatures of the States where the institution was upheld. On its side were the might and power of the constitution, the law makers and the interpre ers thereof; the strong arm of the Gov- ernment itself was employed to protect slavery. Thus shielded, it grew and increased in power in one section of the Union, and in time became haughty and aggressive and threatened to break down the barriers which the founders of the Government had placed between it and the free North.
The memorable agitation in Congress from 1850 to 1852 of the slavery question, produced the Fugitive Slave Law, a time serving measure w ich exasperated the radical abolitionists in the North and worked nothing to allay the bitter sectionalism of the South, and was only a means of hasten- ing the impending conflict, which was doomed to come sooner or later.
In the meantime the Free Soil party was rapidly increasing in num- bers, and public sentiment at the north rapidly undergoing a change. The Kansas-Nebraska discussion intensified the feeling and welded public opinion at the North into determined hostility to the sum of all villainies, as it was called.
The dispised abolitionists " went into politics," and demonstrated they were a power no longer to be ignored. Next came the formation of the Republican party, a partial disintegration of the heretofore invincible Democratic party, the election of President Lincoln, and finally the war of the Rebellion. The following up of the local causes that led to these events would be interesting, but space will not permit.
Public sentiment here was influenced by such men as Lovejoy, Cod- dington, Dickey and other workers, who labored in season and out of season for the cause of human freedom. They were earnest, unselfish God- fearing men, who felt it their duty to do all in their power to promote the cause. They held public meetings whenever audiences could be gathered, submitted to indignities and persecutions without number, but never swerved fro.n the line they had morked out, and most of them lived to see the fullest fruition of their hopes.
The Underground Railroad grew out of the efforts of the Anti-Slavery party to cripple the slave power. Its members held that statutory enact- ments conflicting with the "higher law" were not binding and of no effect, and that they committed no sin in helping a human chattel to achieve free- dom.
It is due the friends of slavery to say that their action in upholding
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
the "institution," etc., was strictly within the letter of the law. They were commanded to detain every slave found abroad, to prevent his escape, and return him to bondage under penalty of fine and imprisonment. They were mainly natives of the south, educated to regard the slave as a menial and inferior human being. Slavery was sanctioned by divine institution and the laws of the land; they foresaw the inevitable result of agitation and deprecated the catastrophe sure to follow.
It is not probable there was any formal organization for effecting the escape of slaves in this vicinity. The friends of the movement had often met in convention and knew on whom each could rely, so that when the first fugitive appeared the "friend" to whom he applied knew of some one living northward on whom he could depend, and to whom the es cap- ing stranger was taken.
In this way the traffic began and was kept up. Two routes led through the County. On the east the Work brothers, living on Crow Creek, were the active agents; their consignees below being the Morse brothers, living in Woodford County, and all "packages" coming into their hands were safely delivered to William Lewis and other friends in the vicinity of Magnolia, from whence the fugitive was forwarded past Lowell to Chicago. West of the river Nathaniel Smith, at Lawn Ridge, was the active agent, who rece ved his "goods" from Moses Pettengill, of Peoria, and others at Farmington, and delivered them with the utmost care and entire safety at Providence and Princeton.
The experience of James Work, a leader in the crusade of freedom and an active agent of the Underground Railroad, will be read with interest. He well remembers the early efforts of such successful agitators as Ichabo Codding, Owen Lovejoy, Rev. James H. Dickey and that class of earnest, able men and finished orators, who came among the people and organized the route to freedom. The next station south of Mr. Work's dwelling was that of the well known Parker Morse, and the next north Mr. Wm. Lewis, of Magnolia.
The first appearance of slaves here who seemed to come upon the regular line or railway, was not much prior to 1840. Up to the time of the death of the father of James and Samuel Work, in 1842, but very few colored people had been seen on this route, which may not be said to have got into regular operation until about this date. "We knew little or nothing of those who were agents along the entire line," says Mr. W.,
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THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.
" and were only posted as to the stations immediately next us on either side."
Usually the negroes were transported in the night and would reach their stopping place at Work's from some place south, about bed time, and after a comfortable lunch he would drive them to Lewis's, fourteen milss away. Mr. W. states that it was nothing unusual for him to get up in the night and drive his dusky friends to the next place.
Those that reached a stopping place at or near morning, the careful "agents" had to secrete all day from the watchful eyes of some inquisi- tive neighbor, or a chance traveler or detective slave hunter. Mr. W. frequently hid his colored guests in the corn-field or the deep recesses of the ravines, and was compelled to exercise much caution to keep the ex- uberance of the darkies' spirits down, and especially was he vexed with the effervescence of juvenile joyousness, and continually feared that some "picaninny " would get them into serious trouble, and many a kinky- headed youngster came along in those days, brim full of music and mirth- fulness, and not appreciating the risk its friends were taking in its behalf, was liable at any moment to give utterance to a frantic yell of African delight at its novel surroundings, and invite pursuit and capture and the visitation of the law upon its self-sacrificing white friends. Some of Mr. Work's neighbors and near relatives were strongly opposed to his course, and threatened to inform upon him, and one of them was so highly shocked at the immorality of Mr. W.'s conduct -the stealing of slaves -that he threatened to shoot the philanthropist.
The negroes told Mr. W. the most pitiful stories of their sufferings at the hands of their late masters, and exhibited to him visible and un- healed marks of the "black-snake " or " raw-hide" whip.
During his residence here and active duties in the cause of emancipa- tion, no slave was recaptured, and he knows of but few instances where the escaping fugitive had been followed by his master or representative.
The slaves who were indebted to this particular line for aid and com- fort came chiefly from Missouri and Kentucky; occasionally one from further south and one from South Carolina, who, bewildered and without the aid of guides, had wandered through to opposite Cairo before being made aware that he had lost much time and traveled a long distance out of his way.
The cause of their self emancipation was generally cruelty by their owner or overseer, though they all seemed to have a holy horror of being
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
sold to the planters of the far south. Rumors had reached them from that then remote region, and to them a region out of the world, where negroes were starved, flogged, beaten, flayed alive, and of disease and death in the most horrid form. Field hands, too, were in demand, and the necessities or avarice of their masters knew no bonds of blood or ties of kindred among their poor human chattels; to be sold there was to forever sever husband from wife, father from children, lover from his affianced -in short, to break up every relation that mortal holds dear! To avoid this sad' fate many of them took every chance of being hunted down like flying deer from the hounds and the hunters.
Occasionally large numbers would arrive at once seeking Mr. Work's attentions. Once he had ten men and women in charge, and in driving across the prairie toward Magnolia in the night, lost his way, and was so belated thereby that he had to take his dark cargo through that village in broad day-light! But no one molested him or gave him any annoyance, though there were several prominent citizens there who were strongly opposed to this plan of freeing the negroes, and could have delivered him up to the cruel punishment of the law had they been so disposed.
During the ten years he was engaged as a "driver" on this road, he thinks he has taken on their way to Canada and freedom, on an average thirty or more a year. For some of the slaves he so helped away from their owners liberal rewards were offered, and the people themselves were worth from $250 to $600 or $700 each, or even more. The many hund- reds of thousand of dollars worth of these human goods which he handled he never has taken the trouble to figure upon.
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