USA > Illinois > Mason County > The History and Mason Counties, Illinois > Part 56
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
close of the war, and was with Sherman in his march to the sea. Charles Howell is also a native of Pennsylvania. He came to Mason County and settled four miles east of the city of Havana. This claim he soon after sold and purchased the mill site where McHarry's mill (on Quiver Creek) now stands, in company with Julius Jones and William Pollard. He was a wheel- wright by trade : and in about 1842. they built a saw-mill, which they after- ward sold to McHarry. After McHarry's purchase, he built a grist-mill on the south side of the creek, a notice of which will be given elsewhere. Mr. Hlowell is a kind of wandering Jew, and has " roamed through many lands." From his native State he went to New York, where he remained but a short time, and returned to Pennsylvania. He next went to Louisiana, where he was for a time engaged in work for the Port Hudson & Clinton Railroad, dur- ing which time he built a bridge for it, still known as the " Howell Bridge." His next removal was to Illinois, as given above. In 1849, he crossed the plains to California, returned in 1850, and, in 1859, made another trip to the Golden Gate. His experience has been vast and varied ; and, after a life crowded with stirring episodes. he has settled down once more in the vicinity of his early home in Mason County, to spend the remainder of his days.
Ilon. Robert MeReynolds, also a Pennsylvanian, came to Illinois in 1839, and located in this township. He was a neighbor to the Dieffenbachers in Penn- sylvania, as well as in Mason County. During his long residence here. he was called upon to fill various official positions, in all of which he discharged his duty with faithfulness and fidelity. For several years, he served as County Judge. He died in 1872, at the age of eighty-one years. From his obituary notice we make the following extract : " For more than a year the hand of time bore heavily upon him, but, happily and cheerfully. he could say with Job, ' All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.' The deceased was an old-time Christian and united with the M. E. Church in 1831, consequently was not only a pioneer in this country but a pioneer in Meth- odism in the West, and for long years the intimate friend of the venerable Peter Cartwright, who so recently preceded him to the spirit land." Joseph Mowder came from the Quaker State the same year as did McReynolds, also a Methodist preacher named Coder came with MeReynolds. Coder had a son, who was a doctor, and removed to Logan County. Mowder still lives on the place where he originally settled, and which he bought from one of the Alex- anders. Jacob T. Mowder, a son of Joseph, still lives in this township, and was a child when his father moved to this country. John R. Chaney came from Kentucky to Illinois in 1827, and located in Greene County. In the spring of 1839, he came to Mason County and settled in Crane Creek Township, and, in the fall of that year, came to this township. He still resides on his original claim made in this town, and is one of the prosperous farmers. He was one of the second corps of County Commissioners after the organization of Mason County.
515
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
Asa W. Langford, a native of Tennessee, came to Fulton County, Ill., in 1824, and located where he afterward laid out the old town of Waterford. Later, he became one of the proprietors of Lewistown and of Havana, and, in the latter place, lived for a number of years. George W. Langford, his son, located in Havana when but fifteen years old, and entered the employ of Walker, Han- cock & Co., and, in 1856, became a partner in the firm. He was for many years one of the leading business men of Havana, which place he still makes his home, though of late years he has been a traveling salesman for a large wholesale house in New York.
Col. V. B. Holmes and John W. Wiggenton were early settlers here as well as in Bath Township, where they are more particularly mentioned. They were among the first merchants of Havana, and opened a store in the village when it consisted of but a few log cabins. The Wrights, represented in Hav- ana at present by O. H. and II. A. Wright, are not as early settlers as many already mentioned in this chapter, but came to Illinois in 1845, and located in Fulton County. In 1849, they came to Havana. George Wright, the father of these boys above noticed, was a soldier of the war of 1812, a son of Thad- deus Wright, a Revolutionary soldier and a native of Massachusetts. He died in Havana, in 1865. O. H. Wright served one term as Circuit Clerk of Mason County, was a member of the last Constitutional Convention of Illinois, and is one of the oldest newspaper men of Havana.
Hon. Luther Dearborn is a native of New Hampshire, and came to Havana in 1844. He did not remain here long but removed to St. Charles, Kane Co., Ill., and, the year following, located at Elgin. In 1850, he was elected Sheriff of Kane County, and had for his deputy the well-known detective, Allan Pink- erton. He also served as Circuit Clerk of Kane County, and during the term was admitted to the bar. In 1858, he returned to Havana, where he has ever since resided. He is the senior member of the law firm of Dearborn & Camp- bell, leading lawyers, not only of Mason County, but of Central Illinois.
Among the prominent positions held by Mr. Dearborn was that of State Senator in the last General Assembly.
Marcellus Dearborn, a brother, and Jonathan Dearborn, their father, came at the same time. The elder Dearborn built the hotel now known as the Mason House, and kept a hotel for a time. He has been dead for a number of years.
Dr. E. B. Harpham came to Illinois in 1844, and located in Havana. He is a native of the "City of Brotherly Love," and, at the age of five years, removed with his parents to Indiana. After arriving at manhood, he studied medicine and graduated, when he came to Havana, as above, where he has prac- ticed his profession for a quarter of a century. He is still living, one of the highly respected citizens of Havana.
James, Levi and Silas Harpham are brothers, and came soon after the Doc tor, and, we believe, are all still living in the city and township of Havana.
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
Their father, Jonathan Harpham, came to Mason County in 1850, and died in 1852.
William Higbee is from Lexington, Ky., and came to Illinois in 1836. and located in Greene County, where he resided until 1843. when he removed to Christian County. In 1847, he removed to Quiver, and now lives at his ease in the city of Havana.
James Quick came from New Jersey to Illinois in 1841, and to Havana Township in the spring of 1842, where he still resides.
John Hurley is also from New Jersey, and removed with his father's family to Illinois in the spring of 1834. locating in De Witt County. In 1843. he came to Havana Township and located near MeHarry's mill. Here he remained until 1856, when he went to Kansas, and, with Jim Lane, partici- pated in the " border warfare " of that exciting period. He returned to this township, where he still lives. He says that he built the first house on the prairie between Havana and McHarry's mill: that he helped to "raise" MeHarry's mill, and that men came eighteen and twenty miles to render assist- ance.
William Wallace came from Ohio in 1843, with his mother's family (his father died in Ohio), and settled in this township, where he still resides. Julins Jones also came from Ohio. He located in Menard County in 1837. and removed to Havana Township in the spring of 1842. In company with Charles Howel! and William Pollard, built a saw-mill where Mcllarry's mill now stands, or rather on the opposite side of the creek from it. which is noticed elsewhere. A son, A. II. Jones, lives in Havana Township. Nathan Howell came from Pennsylvania in 1840. and settled in Havana Township. He has a son, B. F. Howell, still living in the town, who is a man of great physical force and endurance. He boasts of having worked through every harvest for thirty-nine years, and plowed through every season, without missing a single week. Ye stripling water-sprouts of this fast age, " make a note on it," as Capt. Cuttle would say.
Alexander Gray came from the "banks and braes o' Bonny Doon," and followed the sea for a number of years. He settled in this township about the year 1842, and has a son. John A. Gray, now living in the town. a prosperous farmer.
Reuben Henninger, Philip Opp and Simon Frankenfield came from the old Quaker State of Pennsylvania. Henninger emigrated to Illinois, and located in Havana Township in 1842. He followed farming until 1866, when he retired from active life and moved into the city of Havana, where he has since resided. He still owns a large traet of land in the county, is a highly respected citizen, and has many descendants and relatives, who are among the active and leading citizens of the community. Opp removed to Ohio, and from the Buck- eye State to Illinois in 18442, locating in Havana Township, where he still resides. Frankenfield settled in this township in 1841, where he followed
517
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
farming for a few years, when he removed to the city of Havana, and engaged in tailoring, a trade he had learned in Pennsylvania. He again turned his atten- tion to farming until 1864, when he returned to the city, and from 1866 to 1876, engaged in the dry-goods business, from which he has retired, and is now living at his ease. Peter A. Thornburg emigrated from Maryland to Illinois in 1840, and settled in Fulton County. He located in Havana Township in 1848, near where he now lives. He is still living, and is the proprietor of Peterville, a small village in the southern part of the town, which he laid out in 1868. S. C. Conwell is a native of Delaware, and came to Mason County in 1840. He located in Havana in 1848, and is one of the leading lawyers of the Mason County bar. He is extensively mentioned in other portions of this work, and therefore but little can be said here without repetition. Charles Pulling is a native of England, but came to America with his parents in early childhood, and resided in Pennsylvania and Ohio until 1848. He then moved to Illinois and located in Havana Township, where he still lives. Isaac N. Mitchell, one of the live business men of Havana, may be termed an old settler of Mason County, but is mentioned in the history of Bath Township, where he lived for a number of years. Israel, Jesse and David Drone were from Penn- sylvania. Jesse still lives in Havana, Israel in Sangamon County, and David died here. Jabez Maranville came from Fulton County here, but his native place is not known. He settled here somewhere in the thirties, and died years ago. George, William and Robert Walker, sons of James Walken an old set- tler of Walker's Grove, mentioned in another chapter of this work, came here about 1839-40. They came from Indiana. George was in business here for a number of years, and now lives in Peoria; William is a lawyer and lives in Missouri ; Robert and the father are dead. The latter died at an advanced age in the city of Havana. Reuben Coon came from New Jersey at an early day, but of him not much is known, further than that he died here.
This comprises a sketch of the settlement of Havana, city and township, so far as we have been able to gather facts and incidents. Although white men were in Menard County ten years or more before there was a settlement made in the present limits of Mason, yet a sufficient period of time has elapsed since the pioneer found his way to this immediate region, to involve these early settlements in some uncertainty. As one looks back over fifty years gone by, the road seems long and tedious, and, if those who have plodded over its weary miles have forgotten events that transpired in those early times, it is not strange. We have exhausted every effort to get the early history of the country correct, and believe we have it as nearly so as it is possible to obtain it at this late day.
OTHER EVENTS AND INCIDENTS.
The greater part of the early history of this township is so closely inter- woven with that of the city of Havana, that it will be given under that head. Indeed, there is very little, aside from the settlements made within its limits,
518
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
to write abont. The notice of early settlers, both in the city and township, is given in the preceding pages, so as to avoid repetition in the chapter devoted to the city of Havana. The first schools, churches, stores, post office, etc., etc., were at Hlavana, and will be more fully noticed in that connection. With a brief sketch of some incidents belonging more particularly to the township his- tory, we will turn our attention to a review of the county's metropolis.
One of the first mills in Havana Township, outside of the city, was built on the opposite side of Quiver Creek, from the present MeHarry Mill. It was put up by Charles Howell. Julius Jones and William Pollard, in 1842. It was a saw-mill only. About 1845. they sold it to MeHarry, who erected a grist- mill on the south side of the creek. The building of this mill was an event of great interest to the people. and Mr. Hurley, who helped " raise " the edifice, informed us that men came eighteen and twenty miles to lend their assistance, in order to have a mill nearer home than those in Fulton or Menard Counties. This mill was afterward burned, when Mr. Mellarry put up his present mill upon the same site. It is one of the best mills in Mason County ; is a three- story frame edifice, with four run of buhrs, and is driven by water-power, which does not fail through the entire year.
The first preachers in this section of the country were the Methodist itinerants, Peter Cartwright and Michael Shunk. The following incident is related by Mr. Dieffenbacher, of the organization of the first church society in the county : " He spent a few weeks in the cabin of Jesse Brown, until he could get his own ready for use, and one day, while at work in the yard, a man rode up and asked him if they ever had any preaching there. He told him he had heard none since he left Pennsylvania. He was then asked if he would allow him to preach there. Dieffenbacher pointed to Mr Brown (who was a very profane man), and told him that was the owner, that he had no house as yet. The man then asked Brown if he might preach there, and Brown told him that the women were getting dinner ; if he would wait till after dinner, he might preach, and in the mean time he would feed his horse. That man was Michael Shunk, and, after dinner, he preached to the four families (Dieffenbacher's. Brown's, Eli Fisk's and Charles Howell's), who then composed the neighbor- hood. Hle left an appointment to preach there again in eight weeks. Soon after this, several families arrived from Pennsylvania, among them Judge MeRey- nolds, who built a residence, in which he set apart a large room for church purposes, and which was so used until the erection of Dieffenbacher's School- house. This schoolhouse was used as both church and school edifice until 1871, when Mr. Dieffenbacher moved into the city of Havana, and other members united elsewhere.
Pleasant Point Methodist Church is situated about two miles from MeHarry's Mill, and was built in 1859-60. It is a frame building, and cost about $2.000. There have been no services held in it for some ten years, owing to the fact that the roads leading to it have been fenced up, and its communication with the
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
neighborhood cut off. A law suit has been instituted for the purpose of re-open- ing them. Much of the early school history belongs also to Havana. Prob- ably, the first school in the township was taught by a daughter of Mr. Dieffen- bacher's, in a board shanty put up by him for the purpose, and was patronized by children living four and five miles distant. This was finally superseded by the schoolhouse already mentioned as being so long used as a church. The town- ship has now some ten or twelve comfortable schoolhouses, besides the elegant brick in the city of Havana, so that there is no lack of school facilities, and a good common-school education is within the reach of all alike, both rich and poor.
The first white child born in the township, and perhaps, in Mason County, was a child of Hoakum, who kept the ferry (Hoakum, not the child) for Ross, and occurred about 1829-30. The first deaths and marriages are not romem- bered. The little mounds in the graveyard show where many pioneers sleep, but do not give the date of their demise. The present population would indi- cate that not only has there been a first birth, but many others have succeeded it. The early justices of the peace, doctors, blacksmiths, etc., are mentioned in the city's history.
The railroads of Havana Township are the Peoria, Pekin & Jacksonville ; the Champaign, Havana & Western, formerly known as the extension of the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western, and the Springfield & North-Western. The last two mentioned terminate at Havana City at present, but all necessary steps have been taken to extend the line of the Champaign. Havana & West- ern to the Mississippi, and the work, we are told, will be commenced this fall. In addition to these roads, there are two or three contemplated narrow-gauge roads working this way, and will, doubtless, in time, reach this point. But as the railroad history is thoroughly written up by Gen. Ruggles, in another depart- ment of this work, we will not repeat it.
Politically, Havana Township and City are Democratic. In the days of Whigs and Democrats, it was very closely divided in politics. During the war, the town was truly loyal and patriotic, and turned out many soldiers, not only "high privates." but officers to lead them to glory and to victory. A full history of their exploits will be found in our war record in another page, to which the reader is referred. The name Havana was given this city and township in honor of the city of Havana, in the Island of Cuba. Our forefathers, other- wise the early settlers of this section, seem to have had a penchant for famous names, as we have in this immediate vicinity Havana, Bath, Matanzas, Mos- cow, Liverpool, Point Isabel, Long Branch and lastly, the Island of Cuba itself. This is the island just above the steamboat landing, which presents now a kind of barren waste, but at the time of the early settlement of the country, was covered with a magnificent forest. Mr. Low and Mr. Krebaum informed us that when they first knew Havana, there were burr-oaks on that island, five and six feet in diameter, and cotton-woods a hundred feet in height, besides many other species.
520
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
THE CITY OF HAVANA.
Havana, the capital of Mason County, a flourishing little city of about 3.000 inhabitants, is situated on the Illinois River, on the Peoria, Pekin & Jackson- ville Railroad, at the terminus of the extension of the Indianapolis. Blooming- ton & Western and of the Springfield & North-Western Railroads, and is forty- seven miles from Springfield, forty miles from Peoria and two hundred miles southwest of Chicago. It was surveyed about 1827-28, and the town staked out by Stephen Dewey, for Maj. Ossian M. Ross, who had entered the land upon which it is located, and the plat recorded, in 1835, in Tazewell County, to which this part of Mason County then belonged. Maj. Ross entered the land in 1827, and established a ferry across the Illinois River at this point. which has already been frequently mentioned in these pages. The first house built in the present city of Havana, if we may except a few rude huts and a couple of block houses which had apparently been built as a protection against the Indians at a time " when the mind of man runneth not to the contrary," was erected by Maj. Ross about the year 1829, and is still remembered in the early history of the county. as " Ross' Hotel." It was the scene of many of the incidents which transpired here forty and fifty years ago. Within its historical halls. the first session of Circuit Court was held after the organization of the county : the first post office in Mason County was established in it, and the first store in Havana occupied one of its rooms. It stood on the bluff, at the northwest corner of Market and Water streets, of Block 22 of the town plat. Adolph Krebaum owns two-thirds of the original lot and Alexander Stuart the remainder. The first private residence was also built by Ross where the Taylor House now stands. It was a frame building, and, as we have said, the first residence, except the cabins already alluded to and the hotel. Bernhard Krebaum also built a frame residence soon after he came to the town. which was the next after that erected by Ross. Maj. Ross also built six cottages or small dwellings to accommodate new-comers to the future city. The first building erected purposely for a storehouse was put up by N. J. Rockwell, on the river, very near to where Mr. Myer's brick residence now stands. The first store was kept by Maj. Ross in his hotel, and was in operation when the Krebaums came in 1834. The next store was kept by Col. Holmes and John W. Wig- genton and also occupied a room in Ross' Hotel, but was rather a small affair, even for those primitive days. Rockwell was one of the early merchants, and was, perhaps, the next in the field after those we have mentioned. Orrin Foster kept the next hotel after Ross, as already mentioned. There are now three hotels in the city, besides several restaurants. The hotels are the Taylor House, Mason House and the American House. The Taylor House, kept by that prince of landlords. Billy Morgan, is the leading " caravansary " of the town, the great resort of commercial salesmen and of the traveling public gen- erally. The other two are less pretentious, but have a good run of custom.
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
George Christian was 'the first regular blacksmith. Ross, who owned a large farm, kept a shop, but principally for his own work. Christian was here very early and entered land in the vicinity of Havana. In 1829, a post office was established at " Ross' Ferry," known at first, we believe, by the name of The Ferry, with Ossian M. Ross as Postmaster. This was before the city of Chicago had a post office, and at a period when mails were usually carried on horseback, and letters cost twenty-five cents apiece at the office of delivery. Although this office outranks the Chicago office in age, it has suffered the latter to out- grow it so far, that serious apprehensions are entertained that Havana will never overtake it. The genial O. C. Easton is the present Postmaster General of the Havana office.
At the time of the formation of Mason County, Havana was one of the three original voting precincts, and included all of that part of the county taken from Tazewell, extending from the north line of Mason as far south as the north line of Town 20. The first election in which the Havana Precinct cast a vote was held on the 7th of August, 1837 .* A copy of the original poll-book, in possession of C. W. Andrus, is before us, and from it we learn that it was " an election held at the town of Havana, in the Havana Precinct, in the county of Tazewell, and State of Illinois," etc., and that it was for "County Clerk, Probate Justice of the Peace, County Treasurer and Notary Public." This old poll-book shows that there were twelve votes cast, as follows : Daniel Adams, Henry Shepherd. O. E. Foster, N. J. Rockwell, Anson C. Gregory, A. W. Kemp, B. F. Wig- genton, V. B. Holmes, C. W. Andrus, William Hyde, J. H. Neteler. (The last named we are unable to decipher, it presenting an appearance of having been struck by a tornado.) B. F. Wiggenton and A. W. Kemp were Clerks. At this election, the candidates voted for were John HI. Morrison, for County Clerk; Joshua C. Morgan, for Probate Justice of the Peace; Lewis Pretty- man, for County Treasurer, and William H. Sandusky, for Notary Public. The validity of the election is attested by a certificate, duly sworn to by N. J. Rockwell, Henry Shepherd and Daniel Adams, "Judges of the Election." The vote of the city and township of Havana has increased somewhat since the holding of the election above described. The aggregate vote now, when interesting questions call out the "sturdy yeomanry," is not far from eight hundred.
The first Justices of the Peace of whom we have any account were Eli Fisk and A. W. Kemp. They were commissioned as such before the organization of the county. Daniel Adams and Isaac Parkhurst were also early Justices of the Peace in Havana Precinct. Such a formidable array of legal luminaries is probably due to the fact that Havana, in an early day, was surrounded by some rather hard characters. Fulton County. we are told, used to come over in force, and, in lieu of the handy revolver of the present day, would bring billets of cord-wood with which to pelt their foes. To such an extent was this pastime
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