USA > Illinois > Mason County > The History and Mason Counties, Illinois > Part 40
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HISTORY OF MENARD COUNTY.
Tarleton Lloyd was the first blacksmith. and opened a shop as early as 1822-23, and did the work in this line for the surrounding country. A mill was built by Rev. Mr. Simms. in 1823. the first in this region. It was a prim- itive affair, and propelled by horse-power, but served to crack corn for hominy. and even wheat was " mashed " on it sometimes. as an old settler informed us. But it has long since passel away. and milling is now done at other points.
The first Justice of the Peace is supposed to have been a man of the name of Syniard, who was among the early settlers. One of the Bones was also an early .Justice of the Peace in .. Wolf County." as this precinct is familiarly called. In illustration of these early courts. the following is told at the expense of Squire Syniard: Two of his neighbors got into a wrangle over a debt which one owed the other. and which he had promised to pay in hogs. In the fall. when the debt was to have been paid. hogs happened to be a good price. so the lebtwr suld his fat hogs. and delivered to his creditor a sow and pigs. which he contended fulfilled his obligation. as they were hogs. The creditor demurred. and a suit was the result. It came up before Squire Syniard for trial. and. after patiently hearing both sides of the question. he rendered judgment in favor of the creditor. deciding that. legally, a sow and pigs were not hogs. A post office was established in the precinct in 1877. called Lloyd Post Office. after the oldest living settler. It is on the creek. east of Isaac Cogdall's. and is kept by L. B. Conover.
Politically. Rock Creek is Democratic to the backbone. Farmer's Point is the voting-place. During the late war. it was loyal. and turned out as large a number of soldiers to its population, as any neighborhood in the county. The inen of Rock Creek volunteered into the regiments raised in this section. which drew their chief strength from Menard, and among which were the Fourteenth and One Hundred and Fourteenth Regiments. Illinois Infantry. This precinct receives its name from Rock Creek. which meanders through it from east to west. Whether the creek was named for the rock in and about it. or because all things must have a name, we do not know. but leave it to our readers to find ont. This comprises the history of this little precinct. The territory being small. and without villages and towns, there is little history beyond the settle- ments made within its borders.
2. M. Ruggles. HAVANA
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
BY GEN. JAMES M. RUGGLES.
INTRODUCTORY.
History is but the footprints upon the sands of time, by which we trace the growth, development and advancement of the people constituting a nation. It takes note of the humblest tiller of the soil as well as of the scholar, the states- man, the soldier, and the great and good men and women who build the imperishable monuments of a country's greatness.
Tradition tells us of the glories of the garden of Eden, and the purity and happiness of the first pair, and also of their transgression and fall from their high and happy estate. Of the men and things that existed in the world during the many dark centuries that precede the historic period, we know nothing, except through rude hieroglyphics and vague traditions, handed down through the beclouded minds of unlettered and superstitious people.
Beginning with the age of letters and improvements in the languages of the world, followed by the modern inventions of printing types and presses, and the immense institution of the daily newspaper and telegraph, minute and reliable records of the world's daily doings are chronicled, and out of these veritable history is formulated.
The multiplicity of inventions and discoveries, resulting from a rapid growth of intelligence, during the last half-century, has produced the necessary con- ditions for the production of a more perfected type of the genus homo, by whom the world is peopled, and through whom history of a still higher order will be furnished for those who may live in the hereafter.
The events that make up the annals of a new and growing country will always be of interest to the seeker after knowledge, who may in them learn who has lived and what has been done in the past ages of the world. The time is approaching when ignorance of the world's historic past will be a reproach, however it may be as to a lack of knowledge of the future !
America constitutes a great nation of people, made up from the populations of many other nations, and Illinois is one of the greatest and most highly favored by nature of all the thirty-eight States : extending as it does over a range of five and a half degrees of latitude, causing a more varied climate than
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
any other State, and for its fertility of soil is unsurpassed in the world ; thus making Illinois the jeweled crown in our glorious Union.
MASON COUNTY.
Mason is one of the hundred and two counties of Illinois, and is entitled to her place in the local history that makes up that of the State, in its intelli- gence, enterprise and industrial wealth and prosperity. The patient toil and hardships of its pioneers, living in their rude huts and log cabins, as well as the noble and patriotic deeds of its public men in later years, and the gallantry of its soldiers on the battle-field are a part of the pride and glory of the State and the nation.
The territory that constitutes the county of Mason has been subjected to many changes since the discovery and settlement of America. Originally, or, rather, as far back as we know, it belonged to Mr.
" Lo, the poor Indian, whose untutored mind, Sees God in clouds and hears Him in the wind !"
Who Mr. Lo got it from we may never know ; that once the red men lived here in their homes we do know. On the bluff banks of the Illinois River, at Havana and Bath, they occupied their villages, and builded their mounds (pro- viding always that they were not built by some other people who lived here before them) in which they buried their dead and deposited their wares and implements of war, where these trophies of the ages of the past may still be found. Undisturbed in those days by the pale-faced race, beneath the shadows of the rude wigwam.
" The Indian wooed his dusky maid, And the red fox dug his hole unscared."
These mounds, and the relies they contain, are the only historic chapters handed down to us to tell of the people whose moccasined feet once pressed upon the sands that border upon our beautiful river. With those people there were no learned men to chronicle the history they were making, though among them unlettered sages and warriors there may have been.
With us, how different. We know the uses of letters, printing presses, books and telegraphs, and there is no reason why we should die and leave no sign. The history we are making ean be handed down to posterity, in the ages that are to come, for thousands of years, when other and higher races of men shall have taken our places in populating and controlling the destinies of the great American continent.
For a long period, the territory constituting the county of Mason and the State of Illinois, was dominated by the French nation, whose brave pioneers were the first of the white race to tread upon its soil and voyage upon its rivers.
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
EARLY HISTORY.
In the year 1678, Louis Joliet, a French trader, and James Marquette, a Jesuit missionary, who had possibly received a call, started out from Green Bay on a voyage of successful discovery of the great Father of Waters, which the Indians informed them flowed southward through the great west country. Going up the Fox River and crossing over the narrow portage into the Wiscon- sin, they in due time came to the Mississippi, on the ample bosom of which they floated down to the mouth of the Arkansas. At this point, they became satisfied that the great river emptied itself into the Gulf of Mexico, and, as they were satisfied with the situation and did not propose to make any changes in the course of the river, or put any jetties in its mouth. they retraced their voyage up to the mouth of the Illinois River, and up that stream to Chicago, via the Des Plaines, passing by Havana, and perhaps Bath, on their way.
Tradition says that these men of God and Mammon stopped upon the bluff where Havana now stands, and had a grand fish-fry, but it does not inform us that they had the incomparable culinary services of Judge Mallory on that occasion ! In their piscatorial exploits, it is said they lost a "spoon hook," and from this little incident, the river coming in on the opposite side was called Spoon River !
As the writer has not had the pleasure of interviewing these distinguished strangers, or of examining their notes of travel, he cannot vouch for the truth of the incident ; but it is highly probable that these were the first white men that trod upon the soil of Mason County, while passing up the river on an excursion, some two hundred and six years ago !
A few years after this, two other French explorers-La Salle, a trader and explorer, and Father Hennepin, another Jesuit missionary-passed from the St. Joseph River into the Kankakee, and down that river into the Illinois.
After the visits of these four French gentlemen, there is no record of this portion of the country being visited by a white man for nearly one hundred and fifty years ! It was, no doubt, a favorite hunting and fishing ground for the Indians, as there is evidence of its abounding in buffalo, elk. deer, and other choice game, as well as fish in abundance, making it the land of " the happy hunting-grounds."
In the year 1763, the French nation. after a long and exhaustive war, sur- rendered the Northwest Territory (including Mason County and the State of Illinois) to England, the transfer having been arranged at the treaty of Paris.
One of the most celebrated Indians of history was Pontiac, the chief of the Ottawas, of Michigan. After the surrender of the Northwest, by the French, Pontiac for awhile contested the claims of the English, and was known as their most bitter and formidable foe.
When he could no longer maintain the contest, he left the vicinity of Detroit, where he was born and had always lived, and with the remnant of his
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
once powerful tribe (about two hundred warriors and their families), found refuge on the banks of the Kankakee, near Wilmington, Will County, where he merged the remnant of his tribe with the Pottawatomies.
This region of country was claimed by the Illinois tribe of Indians, and a conflict arose between the tribes as to the right to hunt the buffalo on the west of the Illinois River. After fighting for a time over the question, a council was agreed upon to settle the question.
This Council met at Mount Joliet (near the city of Joliet), in 1769. Whilst Pontiac was making a speech on his side of the question, he was treacherously assassinated by " Kineboo," the head chief of the Illinois tribe.
This treacherous act led to the bloody war which resulted in the destruction of the great Indian city " La Vantam," which stood upon the site where the little town of Utica, in La Salle County, is now built, and also to the tragedy of Starved Rock, not far distant, and to the final extinction of the onee great nation of Indians from whom the State took its name.
The treaty of Paris, in 1763, terminated the rule of France over the North- west, and it passed into the British possession, which circumstance somewhat changed the type of religion and civilization of this country. Many of the early explorers, missionaries and traders, remained, and of these and their descendants it is estimated that two thousand were still within the boundaries of the State at the time of its admission in the Union, in 1818. Now there are but a few local names to remind us that the French nation once exercised the right of eminent domain in the State of Illinois.
The termination of the Revolutionary war-begun in 1776, and ending in the treaty with England, in 1783-brought the Territory of the Northwest under the dominion of the United States, and by the treaty of 1833, at Chicago, with the Pottawatomies. the red man surrendered his right of domain also. In 1835, these Indians, numbering five thousand, assembled at Chicago, received their annuity, danced their last war dance in Illinois, and took up their line of march toward the setting sun, on the far-off Missouri River.
During the progress of the Revolutionary war, Lieut. Col. George Rogers Clark, of Virginia, organized a military expedition to subdue and capture the Northwest Territory, then inhabited by a vast horde of savage Indians, belong- ing to many tribes, and some French settlements along the river borders. On the 4th day of July, 1778, with his little army of grim-visaged warriors, con- sisting of 300 men. all jaded and worn down with the fatigues and hardships of forced marches across the country from the Ohio River, wading through marshes, swamps and streams, without roads or supplies in the country, he arrived at the French town of Kaskaskia, surprised and captured the town and military fort, without firing a gun. The capture of Cahokia and Fort Vincent (now the city of Vincennes), soon followed. and thus, without the shedding of blood. but with immense suffering and hardships, was secured the whole Northwest Territory as the property of the State of Virginia, by right of conquest, and so remaining
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
until, by the Ordinance of 1787, passed on the 13th of July, it was transferred to the United States, under certain conditions as to the formation of States and other matters.
In October, 1778, the Virginia Assembly erected the conquered territory of the Northwest into the county of Illinois: a pretty extensive county, which has since been carved into five States-Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin-with a population of over eight millions of people !
On the 5th of October, 1787, Maj. Gen. Arthur St. Clair was by Congress elected Governor of the Northwest Territory. In February, 1788, Gov. St. Clair, with his Secretary, arrived at Kaskaskia and proceeded to organize all of the State lying north of the mouth of the Little Mackinaw, in Tazewell County, into the county of St. Clair, thus making her the mother of all the 102 counties of the State! 'The county was divided into three Judicial Dis- tricts, a Court of Common Pleas established, with three Judges appointed, viz : John Edgar, an Englishman, of Kaskaskia, John Babtiste Barbeau, a French- man, of Prairie du Rocher, and John D. Moulin, a native of Switzerland, of Cahokia, each to hold court in the district of his residence every three months, making what was called the "Court of Quarterly Sessions." the first court established in Illinois.
By act of Congress, May 7, 1800, the territory constituting the States of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, then containing a white population of 4,875; negro slaves, 135, and an estimated population of 100,000 Indians, was organized into the Territory of Indiana, with the seat of government established at Vincennes, and, on the 13th of May, William Henry Harrison, afterward President of the United States, was appointed Governor of the Ter- ritory, thus dispensing with Gov. St. Clair, who had become very unpopular.
ORGANIZATION OF THE TERRITORY OF ILLINOIS.
On the 11th of January, 1805, Congress passed an act cutting off the peninsula of Michigan from the Territory of Indiana and forming the Territory of Michigan ; and, on the 3d of February, 1809, all that part of Indiana Ter- ritory lying west of the Wabash River and a line drawn due north from the river at Vincennes to the line between the United States and Canada, was, by act of Congress, set apart into the Territory of Illinois, the act to take effect on the 1st of March, 1809. This included what is now the State of Wisconsin. The population at that time was estimated at 9,000, leaving about double that number in Indiana. The entire Territory at that time composed but two coun- ties, St. Clair and Randolph.
The formation of the Territory of Illinois, at that time, was due to the election and subsequent efforts of Jesse B. Thomas, (then a resident of Indi- ana), as a delegate to Congress. By pledging himself in a bond to procure the formation of the Territory, he secured the united vote of Illinois, and after a
-
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
bitter contest he was elected by one majority, and if there is truth in history that one vote which made the majority was cast by himself !
The population of the Territory of Illinois, by the census of 1810, con- sisted of 11,501 whites, 168 slaves and 613 of all others, except Indians.
Ninian Edwards, then Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals in Kentucky, was appointed first Governor of the Territory of Illinois by President Madison, his commission bearing date April 24, 1809 ; and Jesse B. Thomas, Alexander Stuart and William Sprigg were appointed the three first Judges of the Ter- ritory.
Gov. Edwards continued in office as Governor until the organization of the State in 1818-the act providing for which passed on the 18th of April, and the admission of which was on the 3d of December.
During the war with England, in 1812, Gov. Edwards headed a military expedition, composed of 350 men, against Peoria Lake, then the abode of several Indian tribes-an Indian village at the head of the lake and a French town and fort at the lower end, where Peoria City now stands. In this expedi- tion the Indian village was destroyed, the inhabitants dispersed, killed and captured, and the town was also burned and the inhabitants taken prisoners down the river. The expedition returned to Camp Russell, near the present town of Edwardsville, from which it had marched out on the 18th of October, after an absence of thirteen days, without the loss of a man.
A second expedition to Peoria left Camp Russell in 1813, passing up the Mississippi to where the city of Quincy now stands, and from thence across to the Illinois River, at the mouth of Spoon River, and from thence to Peoria, where the soldiers built Fort Clark, which was burned down in 1818, and the town was again rebuilt in 1819-this first time by American pioneers. The French fort, Crevecoeur, was built in 1680, and the first European settlement at that place was in 1778.
At the time of the organization of the State in 1818, Illinois was composed of fifteen counties, viz. : St. Clair, Randolph, Madison, Gallatin. Johnson, Edwards, White, Monroe. Pope, Jackson, Crawford, Bond, Union. Washington and Franklin, and contained a supposed population of 40.000 people.
POPULATION AND REPRESENTATION.
The population of Illinois in 1810 was 12,282, and the Territory was represented by one delegate in Congress.
The population of 1820 was 55,211, with one member of Congress-Daniel I'. Cook, who was the first member of Congress elected from the State of Illinois.
In the year 1830, the population of the State was 157,445, and three mem- bers of Congress were accorded to the State.
In 1840, the population of the State was 476.183, and seven members were given to the State.
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HISTORY OF MASON' COUNTY.
In 1850, the population was 851,470, and nine members of Congress were apportioned to the State.
In 1860, the population was 1,711,951, and fourteen members of Congress were given to the State.
In 1870, the population had swelled to 2,539,831, and the State is repre- sented by nineteen members of Congress, and now there are but two States in the Union that have a greater population or more wealth than the State of Illinois.
GOVERNORS OF ILLINOIS.
As a matter of interest to those who are interested in the political history of the State, a list of the Governors who have filled the executive department of Illinois from its organization as a Territory down to the present date, is here given, with the date and time which they served.
Ninian Edwards was the first Governor of the Territory of Illinois, serv- ing from 1809 to 1818.
Shadrach Bond was the first Governor of the State, serving from 1818 to 1822.
Edward Coles was the second Governor, serving from 1822 to 1826.
Ninian Edwards was the third Governor of the State, serving from 1826 to 1830.
John Reynolds, the Old Ranger, served as the fourth Governor, from 1830 to 1834.
Joseph Duncan served as the fifth Governor, from 1834 to 1838.
Thomas Carlin served as the sixth Governor, from 1838 to 1842.
Thomas Ford was the seventh Governor, serving from 1842 to 1846.
Augustus Cæsar French was the eighth Governor, serving from 1846 to 1849, when the new Constitution was adopted, and after which he was again elected, and served from 1849 to 1853.
Joel A. Matteson served as the ninth Governor, from 1853 to 1857-the last of the line of Democratie Governors.
William H. Bissell, the tenth Governor, was the first of the list which fol- lows of Republican Governors. He served from 1857 to the 11th of March, 1860, when death removed him from the executive chair, which he had filled with great ability and to the entire satisfaction of the people who elected him. This is the first and only instance of a Governor dying during his term of office in Illinois.
John Wood, Lieutenant Governor, served out the balance of the term of Gov. Bissell, ending with 1861.
Richard Yates, the great war Governor of Illinois, served as the eleventh Governor, from 1861 to 1865.
Richard J. Oglesby, the popular soldier, served as the twelfth Governor, from 1865 to 1869.
John M. Palmer was the thirteenth Governor, serving from 1869 to 1873.
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
Richard J. Oglesby was elected again, as the fourteenth Governor, in 1872, but declined to serve, having been elected to the United States Senate.
John L. Beveridge, elected Lieutenant Governor, served as the fourteenth Governor, from 1873 to 1877.
Shelby M. Cullom was elected the fifteenth Governor of Illinois, his termn beginning in 1877 and ending in 1881.
With all these fifteen Governors of Illinois (except the first three), it has been the privilege of the writer to have had a personal acquaintance and more or less intimate relations, and out of that knowledge has grown a profound respect for the high qualities generally possessed by them.
UNITED STATES SENATORS.
The following is the roll of United States Senators who have represented the State of Illinois in that august body since the foundation of the State in 1818. It is complete, and contains many illustrious names that stand high upon the scroll of fame:
Ninian Edwards was elected and served as one of the first Senators from Illinois from October 18, 1818, to the 4th of March, 1819.
Jesse B. Thomas was also elected at the same time as one of the first Sen- ators, serving from October 18, 1818, to March 4, 1823.
Ninian Edwards was elected his own successor from March 4, 1819, to March 4, 1825, but, having resigned in 1824, to accept the post of Minister to Mexico. John McLean was elected in November, 1824, to fill out the unex- pired term of Gov. Edwards.
Jesse B. Thomas was re-elected as his own successor, and served from March 4. 1823, to March 4, 1829.
Elias Kent Kane was elected the successor of John McLean, serving from March 4, 1825, to March 4, 1831.
John McLean was elected the successor of Jesse B. Thomas, and served from March 4, 1829, to the time of his death, in 1830.
John M. Robinson was elected December 11. 1830, to fill the unexpired term of Mr. MeLean, and served until March 4, 1835.
Elias K. Kane was again elected as his own successsor, and served from March 4. 1831, to the time of his death, which occurred on the 11th of December, 1835.
William Lee D. Ewing was elected to fill the unexpired term of Mr. Kane, from the 20th of December. 1835, to the 4th of March, 1837.
John M. Robinson was again elected as his own successor, and served from March 4, 1835, to March 4, 1841.
Richard M. Young was elected as the successor of Gen. Ewing, and served from March 4, 1837, to March 4, 1843.
Samuel McRoberts, the first native Illinoisan elected to the Senate, was elected as the successor of Gen. Robinson, and served from March 4, 1841, to the time of his death, which occurred on the 22d of March, 1843.
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
James Semple was elected and filled the unexpired term of Mr. McRoberts, ending March 4, 1847.
Sidney Breese was elected the successor of Mr. Young, and served from March 4. 1843, to March 4, 1849.
Stephen Arnold Douglas was elected the successor of James Semple, and served from March 4, 1847, to March 4, 1853.
James Shields was elected the successor of Sidney Brecsc, and served from March 4, 1849, to March 4, 1855. Gen. Shields was refused a seat in the Senate on account of not having been naturalized the necessary length of time. He was re-elected and admitted, having then been a citizen the required time.
Stephen A. Douglas was elected his own successor, serving from March 4, 1853, to March 4, 1859.
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