USA > Illinois > Mason County > The History and Mason Counties, Illinois > Part 20
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HISTORY OF MENARD COUNTY.
the stitches were cut, and the swine restored to sight. Having completed the cargo, they reached their destination without accident, and Mr. Offutt, having purchased a stock of goods, he determined to ship them to Beardstown, and thence remove them by wagon to Salem, where he intended to open a store. He also engaged the young boatman, Lincoln, to serve him in the capacity of clerk in the store. It was on the return from this trip that Abraham Lincoln made his first appearance on the streets of the village of " New Salem." The writer is aware that it is claimed by some that Lincoln had resided in Salem prior to this visit to New Orleans ; but after a careful examination of all the testimony, he is fully convinced that this visit, in autumn, 1831, was Lincoln's first residence in Salem, and, in fact, his first knowledge of it, except that he passed down the river early in the preceding spring.
The goods having come, Lincoln was soon duly established in the Salem store as clerk. It may not be amiss, in this connection, to state that the charge has often been made that Lincoln "kept a saloon " while in Salem. Now, while the writer was never a political admirer of Mr. Lincoln, yet truth and justice demand that this matter be stated correctly ; and, after diligent search and inquiry, he is obliged to state it is as his deliberate conviction that this was, indeed, a store in which dry goods and groceries were kept. It is a truth, however, that in that early day, perhaps nearly all the stores kept liquor to sell by the pint, quart and gallon. In the joint discussion between Lincoln and Douglas, in 1858, Mr. Douglas sneeringly spoke of Lincoln having engaged in " keeping a grocery." In reply, Lincoln said Mr. D. was " wofully at fault," for he had "never kept a grocery, anywhere in the world."
Offutt's mercantile business soon increased to that extent, that he found it necessary to engage another clerk; William G. Greene, now one of the wealthiest farmers of Menard County, was engaged for this position. Here Lincoln and Greene formed a friendship that lasted long as life.
In the fall of 1831, Mr. Lincoln was appointed Postmaster at Salem, which position he held several years.
In the summer of 1832, the Black Hawk war began, and, Gov. Reynolds issuing a call for volunteers, a company of 100 men was soon raised in the section of country around Salem. Mr. Lincoln went in as a private soldier, but, soon after the company was organized, it became necessary to elect a cap- tain. Mr. Lincoln and one Kirkpatrick were the aspirants, the former being chosen by a large majority. The company reported at once at Beardstown, whence they marched to Oquawka. The soldiers soon became dissatisfied, as they had no opportunity to engage the Indians ; and, in some regiments, the dissatisfaction ran so high, that two or three times it threatened to break out in open mutiny. At the end of the time for which Lincoln's company had enlisted, they were honorably discharged and returned to their homes. Mr. Lincoln re-enlisted in another command and remained till the total defeat of Black Hawk and the ratification of peace. Mr. L. then returned to Salem, B
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where he continued the study of the law in the idle moments snatched between waiting upon customers in the store. This study had been begun soon after his first settlement in Salem, and. though his opportunities were of the very poorest. yet, during his stay in Salem. he laid the deep and wide foundation of his future brilliant career in the legal profession. Mr. Lincoln was doubtless born to be a leader. He was possessed of all those peculiar gifts and traits which caused him to be looked up to for counsel and direction, even when a mere youth. During his stay at Salem, especially the first few years of it, there was a kind of fend or rivalry between the "Clary's Grove boys " and the " River timber boys." Perhaps, in the entire State there was not a harder set to be found than those Clary's Grove lads, for there was no rowdyism or revelry in a circuit of twenty miles that they were not in some way connected with. Occa- sjonally they would repair in force to Salem to drink their grog and settle old -cores. On such occasions. in the early stage of their revels-that which may be termed the social and friendly stage-they talked, laughed, told yarns. cracked jokes, wrestled and ran foot-races : during this stage, Lincoln was always umpire, arbiter and judge, all having the most implicit confidence in his honor and ability. During the second, or combative stage, when the fiery juice of the grain or fruit, had worked its way into their noddles, and made each one con- sider himself a hero, the war began in earnest. And then such scenes of fisti- cuff and ground tussle were scarcely ever seen. Lincoln was still arbiter. and his decision was the end of all dispute. When the third or stupid stage came on, the boys from the Grove-often with battered pates and depleted pockets. wended their sullen way back to the timber, to bind up their bruise- and condole with one another over the cruel fate that ever awaited them at Salem. Lincoln soon became Surveyor, and in the discharge of the duties of his office. he visited every part of the county. for by him the land of the entire county was surveyed. AAlmost his last work as Surveyor was laying out the present town of Petersburg.
Some time near the time of the Black Hawk war. Mr. Lincoln. for the first time, was pierced with the cruel darts of the little blind god Cupid. The " beautiful Anna Rutledge." as she was called, was then just ripening into lovely and perfect womanhood, and he felt the force, as Lytton says, of " the revolution that turns us all topsy-turvy-the revolution of love," for
" Love, like death.
Levels all ranks, and lays the shepherd's crook
Beside the scepter."
From the few old settlers who could remember these scenes distinctly, we have gleaned some facts concerning this event in the life of Mr. Lincoln-an event which affected his whole after-life. Anna Rutledge was not a beauty in the modern sense of the word : for, brought up in this rural district, and in total ignorance of the conventional follies of fashionable life ; accustomed from early childhood to out-door exercise, and the rough. wild pastimes of the day
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HISTORY OF MENARD COUNTY.
in which she lived-she was stamped with a beauty entirely free from art or human skill-a beauty all the result of Nature's handiwork. That the young clerk was captivated is not surprising. It is not our purpose to invade these hallowed precincts by detailing their many strolls along the margin of the river, or over the rugged bluffs in the vicinity of Salem. Suffice it to say that his affection was fully reciprocated, and the two were doubtless pledged in the indissoluble bonds of love. But in 1835, disease laid its cruel hand upon the young girl, and, in spite of the love of friends, and the skill of the ablest physicians, on the 25th of August, 1835, death came to her relief, and, as Mr. Herndon expresses it, " The heart of Lincoln was buried in the coffin of Anna Rutlege." Be this literally true or not, one thing is sure, from that time a dark shadow seemed to be cast over him, from which he never fully emerged. It is said by those having the means of knowing, that ever after this, whenever an opportunity offered, Lincoln would wander alone to the little hillock raised above her ashes, and sit and ponder in sadness, doubtless living over in memory the happy hours spent at Salem. Notwithstanding his tall, ungainly form, and the readiness of his humor, there was hid in his breast a heart as tender and full of sympathy as a woman's-a heart touched by every tale of sorrow, and full to overflowing with the milk of human kindness.
Before the close of the first decade after Salem was laid out, the citizens of the village were all scattered and gone. John McNamar settled four miles north of Petersburg, in Sand Ridge Precinct, where he reared a respectable family. He was respected in the community where he lived. He died on the old homestead. on the 22d of February, 1879, at the ripe age of seventy-eight years. Mr. Hill, partner of Mr. McNamar, was the last to leave Salem ; he afterward became a prominent merchant and manufacturer in Petersburg. Had we space, we would be glad to detail the entire history of this little town, giving an account of each citizen. We can, however, mention in passing a few more characters, as Jonathan Dunn, the millwright ; Henry Onstott, cooper ; Edmund Grier, Justice of the Peace and school-teacher; Minter Graham, who still lin- gers on these "mortal shores," living at present in Petersburg, the man who, perhaps, has taught school a greater number of months than any other man in Illinois. He has taught constantly over fifty years, having taught over one hundred terms of from three to nine months in length. When Lincoln first came to Salem, Mr. Graham gave him instructions in English grammar, when Mr. L. had leisure from his duties in the store. "Uncle Minter," as he is familiarly known, taught the first school in Salem.
We would mention John Herndon, who was for awhile a merchant there, and who accidentally killed his wife while taking a loaded gun from the loft of his dwelling : John H. Kelso, tavern-keeper; Martin Waddel, hatter ; William Berry, Reuben Radford, Allen Richardson, and several others whose names have escaped the memory of the few remaining citizens who knew the village in the days of its prosperity.
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HISTORY OF MENARD COUNTY.
Of the company of Capt. Lincoln in the Black Hawk war, but few still survive. We can only learn of a few individuals who are still living here or elsewhere. Of these are Hon. W. G. Greene, David Pantier, Samuel Tibbs. Travis Elnore, Sr., and Royal Clary, the latter recently deceased.
Speaking of the Black Hawk troubles, brings to mind an anecdote so characteristic of Lincoln. that we beg the reader's indulgence while we relate it. In 1848, while Mr. Lincoln was in Congress, the Democrats were striving hard to make a military hero of Hon. Lewis Cass, of Michigan. in order to increase his chances for the Presidency of the United States, and Mr. Lincoln, in a speech in Congress, thus playfully referred to the fact :
By the way. Mr. Speaker, did you know I am a military hero : Yes, sir, in the days of the Black Hawk war I fought, bled and-came away. Speaking of Gen, Cass's career reminds ne of my own. 1 was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was about as near it as Cass was to Hull's surrender, and. like him, I saw the place very soon afterward. It is quite certain I did not break my sword. for ł had none to break, but I bent a musket pretty badly on one occasion. If Cass broke his sword, the idea is, he did it in desperation ; but I bent the musket by accident If Gen. Cass went in advance of me in picking whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges upon the wild onions. If he saw any live, fighting Indians, it was more than I did, but 1 had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes ; and, although I never fainted from loss of blood, 1 can truly say I was often very hungry.
Mr. Speaker, if I should ever conclude to doff whatever our Democratic friends mny sup- pose there is of black-coekade Federalism about me, and thereupon they should take me up as their candidate for the Presidency, I protest they shall not make fun of me as they have of Gen. Cass, by attempting to write mne into a military hero.
The reader will pardon this rather lengthy account of the settlement and subsequent history of Salem, but, as Lincoln's early history is so interwoven with this community, it seems that loyalty to truth demands this account. And. while we are not giving a history of " Honest Old Abe." and while the writer was never a political admirer of him, yet, history demands the statement of a few other facts regarding him.
In 1834, when he was elected to the Legislature. he walked to the seat of government, and one suit of home-spun jeans was his outfit for the entire session. At present. it takes three or four " Saratogas " to carry the wardrobe of the average legislator. An appropriation is now made of $50 per member, to pay for stationery : but, at the session of the Legislature of Illinois, in 1817-18, a committee was appointed to contraet for stationery for the members during the session. The committee reported that they had purchased the necessary amount at a total cost of $13.50 :
Lincoln was popular with all classes. At one time, his compass and chain were sold for debts, and were bought by Mr. James Short, who at once handed them over to Mr. Lincoln, who gladly accepted them. remarking, " I'll do as much for you some day." Firm and true to his word, after he became President of the United States, he did repay it, by tendering Mr. Short an appointment to a lucrative office.
As an illustration of the popularity of Lincoln, it may be stated that when Clay and Jackson ran for the Presidency, Mr. Lincoln was of course a Clay man,
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HISTORY OF MENARD COUNTY.
being a life-long Whig. That year his friends brought him out for the Legis- lature. The whole Whig ticket was of course defeated, but in his own precinct. out of 284 votes polled, he received 277.
Such is a brief account of the settlement of Salem, rendered historic by being the home of Abraham Lincoln.
The next center of the early settlements in the limits of the county, aside from those we have named, is Concord, four miles north of Petersburg. An account of the early settlers in that community will be found given in the his- tory of Sand Ridge Precinct. The early settlements were all made in the tim- ber, and it was many years before the prairies were cultivated to any extent, and settlements were not made on the larger prairies till a comparatively recent date. It is an amusing fact that the early settlers, instead of opening their farms in the prairies, ready cleared by the hand of nature, and ready for the plow, would " squat " in the heart of the most dense forest, and by the most tedious and laborious process would "grub out " a farm. The first settlers in Clary's Grove opened fields of from twelve to thirty acres in this way, cutting down and burning up the most valuable timber in large amounts. The result of this was to settle up the timber along the streams, and the groves, long before the country was generally covered with improvements. The reader will thus understand us, when we speak of the nuclei of early settlements. Clary's Grove, Rock Creek and the river timber on the west side of the river, and Sugar Grove, Indian Point, Athens and the river timber on the east, were thus the localities where the first settlements were made. Gradually, the settlements extended farther and farther into the prairies, till at present all the land of the county is under fence, and nearly all in cultivation.
ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.
Of the history of Menard County, as associated with that of the Indian tribes, but little can be said.
On the highest bluff along the Sangamon River, there are to be seen, to the present time, remains of the works of that strange people called the " Mound Builders." Many of these mounds have been opened, but no relics of any value have been found. Stone axes, arrow-heads and spear-points of flint have been picked up on the surface, and exhumed from below the surface of the ground, some having been found as deep as twelve feet below the top of the ground. The present writer opened a number of mounds along the crest of the bluffs of the Sangamon. In one of these was found, at a depth of thirty inches below the surface, a full set of human teeth embedded in the clay. Noth- of them remained save the portion above the gums, covered with enamel. The entire thirty-two were present, with no mark of decay in any of them. They were as white as those in any living subject, and the upper and lower sets were closed together as in the closed mouth of a living being. These were setting in the pure unmixed clay, and in all the surrounding earth not a sign was
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HISTORY OF MENARD COUNTY.
visible of the remains of decayed bones or anything save pure clay. The teeth slacked like lime, turning to a fine white powder in a few minutes after being brought to the air. The mound in which these were found. was nearly exactly round, about twelve feet in diameter. and about three and a half feet above the natural level. Some three hundred feet from this, another of almost exactly the same size and form of this was opened. This contained two human skele- tons, lying about three feet below the surface. The heads were very near the center of the mound, lying within about ten inches of each other, the body of one lying nearly east and west, the other extending from northeast to south- west. These were thought to be the bones of a male and a female. Some three hundred yards from these, was another mound, somewhat smaller in diameter than the others, but a foot or more higher. Carefully removing the top of the mound, it was found that about two and a half feet below the top was a basin about the proportion of a breakfast plate, burned to the hardness of an ordinary brick. It appeared that a small mound. perhaps two feet high and six feet across the top, had first been raised, and a basin. six feet across and ten inches lower in the middle than at the outer edge. had been formed. and a fire built in this till the clay was burned hard to the depth of two inches. In this basin, mingled with charcoal and ashes, were the bones of a man. The smaller bones were all burned to a snowy whiteness, while the larger ones were charred on top and the under surface was entirely unaffected by the fire, indi- cating that the fire had been built on the top of the body, thus leaving the under surface of the bones unmarked by fire.
Further down the river a great number of Indian graves are found, in almost all of which specimens of pottery are found in connection with the bones.
When the first settlements were made in the limits of the county. the Indians had nearly all been removed ; a few were still in the timber on Indian Creek, in the neighborhood of Indian Point : and two old men. with ten or a dozen of their relatives, remained for some time. These were Shick-shack and Shambolee. They lived a year or two on the hill just south of the late resi- dence of Judge Robert Clary : they then removed to a high hill within a mile of the present town of Chandlersville. Here Shick-shack died and was buried. and the hill is still called Shiek-shack's Hill. After his death, the rest of the little band left the haunts of the pale-face and were heard of no more.
There being no trouble with the Indians at the time of the settlements here, and there being various forts near the frontiers, as Fort Clark, at Peoria. and others, there was never any need of forts or block houses in this section of the State. At one time, while the Indian town was in Elkhart Grove, a band of warriors made an incursion on the settlements farther south, and carried off a young lady prisoner. The first day, she was tied fast on the pony that car- ried her, but she had presence of mind enough to tear off bits of her clothing which she dropped at intervals when not watched by her captors, as marks by
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HISTORY OF MENARD COUNTY.
which her friends might know she was still alive, and also to serve as guides for her pursuers. The band, with their captive, crossed the Sangamon River almost east of where Springfield now stands. The father of the captive. with a few friends, was in rapid pursuit, and came up with them somewhere near where Williamsville is located. At the first fire. the girl having clandestinely loosed the thongs that bound her to the pony, leaped off and ran toward her rescuers. An Indian gave chase, and, seeing his prisoner about to escape, hurled his tomahawk at her, striking her in the small of the back, and fasten- ing the blade firmly in the spinal column. She fell helpless in the prairie, but, after a brief skirmish, the Indians fled, and the young lady was restored to her friends ; but it was long before she recovered from the wound of the Indian's missile. Some aver that this took place after the first settlements had been made in this county : but others. equally entitled to credit, with equal confidence affirm that it was not. The reader interested in the Indian history of Illinois is referred, for further information, to the " History of the North- west " in the former part of this volume.
EARLY MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
The young men and women of the present time have no conception of the mode of life among the early settlers of this country from forty to sixty years ago. In fact, one can hardly conceive how such changes could have taken place in so short a period of time. In nothing are the habits and manners of the people in any respect similar to those a half-century ago. We are at a loss where to begin so as to give the youth of to-day anything like a just idea of this matter. The clothing, the dwellings, the diet, social customs-in fact, everything has undergone a total revolution.
In a former part of this article, we spoke of the "three-faced camps " in which some of the early settlers lived, and it may be truthfully said that the dwellings of the early pioneers. for a number of years, were but slightly in advance of these camps. The house was, in almost every case, built of logs, the cracks filled with pieces of wood called " chinks." and then daubed over with mortar made of clay. If the floor was anything more than the earth tramped hard and smooth. it was made of "puncheons." that is, logs split open and the split side turned upward, and the spaces between the uneven edges of these were often of such dimensions that the younger inmates were compelled to use care to keep from stepping their feet through these crevices. The roof was made by drawing in the top after the manner of a boy's quail-trap. and laying on these " clapboards." as they were called by the Western people. but known among Yankees as "shakes." These being three or four feet in length, were held in place by logs laid on them. instead of nails. These were called weight-poles. For a fire-place. the logs were cut out of one wall of the room, for a space of five or six feet. and three sides were built up of logs, making an offset in the wall. This was lined with dirt, or stone if it could be
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had. The flue or upper part of the chimney was built of small sticks plastered over with inud, mixed with grass or straw to hold it together. This was called a " cat-and-clay " chimney. The door was also an aperture made by cutting out the logs in one side of the room : and the shutter was composed of a rude frame. with clapboards nailed or pinned across. The hinges were also of wood. while the fastening consisted of a wooden latch catching on a hook of the same mate- rial. To enable the occupants to open the door from the outside, a buckskin string was tied to the latch-bar. and passed through a small hole two or three inches above, so that when the string was pulled from the outside it lifted the lateh out of the hook. and the door opened without further trouble. At night. or in time of danger. when they wished to lock the door. all that was necessary was to draw the string in through the hole, and all was safe. This is thus minutely described in order that the young people may understand the saying so common among the old people, when speaking of their hospitality. that " the latch-string hangs out." The furniture in the house was on a par with the house. Illustrative of this matter of buildings, I will state a fact that may be surprising to others beside the young. The house in which George Spears. Sr .. lives, in Clary's Grove, was, perhaps, the first brick house in the county. The bricks were made in the fall of 1829, the mud being tramped by oxen. In the spring of 1830, the house was begun. All the lumber was sawed by hand with a whip-saw, that is, a pit was dug, over which the log was placed, and one man standing in the pit worked one end of the saw. while the other was handled by another on a frame above. In this way all the flooring, of blue ash, and all the finishing lumber, of black walnut, and the sheeting for the roof, was sawed. This must have been an immense job, as the house is one of the largest farm- houses in the county. Any one examining this building at the present time would not suppose it to have been built more than ten or twelve years. for it seems as perfect as when first built. During the erection of this house, Mr. John Clary, the first settler in the grove, being then between forty-five and fifty years of age, came to Mr. Spears and, after watching the workmen for awhile very earnestly, remarked that that was the first brick house he had ever seen. Mr. Spears was obliged to send to St. Louis for window-glass, for even at that comparatively late day it could not be procured nearer. This was occasioned by the fact that glass windows were almost entirely unknown, the ordinary window being an unclosed crack between two logs, over which a greasy paper was fastened in the winter.
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