USA > Illinois > Coles County > The History of Coles County, Illinois map of Coles County; history of Illinois history of Northwest Constitution of the United States, miscellaneous matters, &c., &c > Part 23
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HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
went to the Clerk's office to investigate, and found it true-the papers in the case returned and recorded in due form. He then went to the girl and told her what had occurred, when quite a little excitement arose. She cried and Stoddert-swore (perhaps), not that they objected to each other, but to the way they had been inveigled into it. At last, Stoddert told her that they had better make the best of a "horrid joke " and call it genuine. She responded that perhaps she would never be able to do any better in the selection of a husband, and so the sham wedding was turned into a genuine affair. Before leaving the subject we will add that, if all reports be true, Charleston never knew a hap- pier couple than the one united in this romantic manner. Long years of wedded life were passed in the greatest harmony, and when, a few years ago, the good woman passed from earth, she was most sincerely mourned by the partner of her sorrows and joys. He is still living, an honored citizen of Charleston. 'Squire Dunbar is living in Texas, or was at the last known of him, enjoying the reflection, doubtless, that he paid Stoddert for his joke, with interest.
The first practicing physician in Coles County was Dr. John Apperson. His practice extended over a large scope of country, and his office was usually on horse-back. Often when he slept, his saddle was his pillow, the soft side of a punchcon or the green earth his bed, and the blue sky his covering. Dr. Carrico was another of the early practitioners in the healing art, and was fol- lowed soon after by Dr. Ferguson, who doctored the people of Coles County for more than forty years. Col. Dunbar was the first licensed lawyer of the county, and for some time had an open field for the exercise of his legal talent. A more minute history of the professions is given in the township histories.
/ OLD SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION.
In 1878, the idea was conceived of forming an association of the old settlers of Coles County still surviving, for the purpose of keeping up the old associa- tions of the pioneer days, and preserving the reminiscences of the wilderness, in which they long ago planted their homes. With this object in view, a meet- ing assembled in the city of Charleston, on the 19th of October last, and was ealled to order by Hon. O. B. Ficklin. Col. A. P. Dunbar was chosen Chair- man of the meeting, and Capt. W. E. Adams was appointed Secretary. Col. Dunbar briefly stated the object of the meeting to be "the renewal of old acquaintances, and giving brief sketches of the early history and settlement of Coles County, and the organization of a society to be known as the Coles County Old Settlers' Society." I. J. Montfort, Isaac N. Craig and Thomas G. Chambers were appointed a committee to report a plan for the organization of such a society. The following is their report : "This association shall be known as the Coles County Old Settlers' Society. The object of this Society shall be to keep in lively remembrance the hardships and privations incident to the carly settlers of new countries, and especially of this county, and thereby promote the same economy among the rising generation as was practiced by
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HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
them. The officers shall be a President, and a Vice President for each town- ship, a Secretary and five Directors. The duties of the officers provided for as above shall be the same as performed by such officers in all deliberative bodies and societies. It shall be the duty of the Board of Directors to call annual meetings of this society on the last Thursday in August of each year, and make necessary arrangements for such meetings. The officers shall hold their positions for one year." A committee, consisting of O. B. Ficklin, Richard Stoddert and Dr. S. Van Meter, was appointed, to define what an old settler is, and who shall be members of this society. Following is their definition : " Whosoever shall have lived in the State of Illinois thirty years is considered an old settler by this association, and shall be eligible to become a member of this Society.". At this meeting, Thomas G. Chambers was chosen President of the association for the ensuing year, and W. E. Adams, Secretary. The fol- lowing gentlemen were chosen Vice Presidents : Albert Compton, Charleston ; Thomas E. Woods, Mattoon ; Adam W. Hart, Paradise ; J. K. Ellis, Okaw ; James Shoemaker, Humbolt ; James McCrory, La Fayette ; I. J. Montfort, Pleasant Grove; Ely R. Adams, Hutton ; Peter K. Honn, Ashmore ; J. J. Pemberton, Oakland : Yancey E. Winkler, Morgan ; and Isaac Perisho, Hickory. J. W. Frazier, Abram Highland, Dr. S. Van Meter, Col. A. P. Dunbar and George Birch were chosen Executive Committee.
The Charleston Plaindealer closes its account of the proceedings of this meeting of the old settlers as follows: "Brief speeches were made by Col. J. J. Adams,* who has lived in the county for forty-eight years, and has heard the scream of the panther and the war-whoop of the Indian, and by Isaac Perisho, who had been a resident of Illinois since 1825; and by William Rigsby, who had seen the Court House built and sowed the blue-grass seed in the Court House yard ; and by Uncle John Bates, who came here in 1824, and has seen the wilderness blossom as the rose ; and by Dr. Van Meter, who has been in the country for fifty years, and carried his corn to mill on his back and hired the miller to take his oxen and grind his grist for him; and by Aunt Polly Kellogg, who came here in 1824, saw the first mill built, and heard the first sermon preached, and attended the first funeral in the county. Job W. Brown, P. K. Honn, George Birch, Y. E. Winkler, Jeptha Parker, Michael Hall, Isaac Craig, and many other old settlers were in attendance. The Vice Presi- dents are requested to enroll all old settlers in their respective townships. The last Thursday in August, 1879, was fixed as the time for the next annual meeting." We would add that it is the intention to keep up the meetings, and to maintain the association permanently.
EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES.
Some modern sage, imbued with a poetical view in his composition, has very wisely declared :
" 'Tis education forms the common mind,
Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined."
* A soldier of the Mexican war, and recently deceased.
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HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
And when our forefathers declared in their ordinance of 1787, that knowl. 1 rc, in connection with religion and morality, was " necessary to the goal gwern- ment and happiness of mankind," and enjoined that "schools, and the means of education, should forever be encouraged," they suggested in that ordinance the very bulwark of American liberty and freedom. The first free-school system of the State was adopted thirty years before the present one. Schools flourished in almost every neighborhood, says Gov. Ford in his history of Illinois, and " the law worked reasonably well." Gov. Coles, in his Message to the Legis- lature of 1824-25, directed attention to the liberal donation of Congress in lands for educational purposes, asking that they be husbanded as a rich treasure for future generations, and, in the mean time, to make provision for the support of local schools. During this session, Hon. Joseph Duncan, subsequently Governor (then Senator), introduced a bill, afterward passed, to which the following is the preamble : "To enjoy our rights and liberties, we must understand them ; their security and protection ought to be the first object of a free people ; and it is a well-established fact that no nation has ever continued long in the enjoyment of civil and political freedom which was not both virtuous and enlightened. And believing that the advancement of literature always has been, and ever will be, the means of more fully developing the rights of men- that the mind of every citizen in a republic is the common property of society, and constitutes the basis of its strength and happiness-it is, therefore, con- sidered the peculiar duty of a free government, like ours, to encourage and extend the improvement and cultivation of the intellectual energies of the whole." Stuve, in his history of Illinois, speaking of this act, says: "It was provided that common schools should be established, free and open to every class of white citizens between the ages of five and twenty-one ; and persons over twenty-one might be admitted on such terms as the Trustees should prescribe. Districts, of not less than fifteen families, were to be formed by the County Courts, upon petition of a majority of the voters thereof; officers were to be elected, sworn in, and their duties were prescribed in detail. The system was full and complete in all particulars. The legal voters were empowered at the annual meeting to levy a tax, in money or merchantable produce at its cash value, not exceeding one-half of one per cent, subject to a maximum limitation of $10 to any one person. But, aside from this tax, the best and most effective feature of the law, in principle, the great stimulant of our present system, was an annual appropriation by the State of $2 out of every $100 received into the Treasury, and the distribution of five-sixths of the interest arising from the school funds, apportioned among the several counties, according to the number of white children under the age of twenty-one years, which sums were then re- distributed by the counties among their respective districts, none participating therein where not at least three months' school had been taught during the twelve months preceding. In this law were foreshadowed some of the most valuable features of our present free-school system. But it is asserted that the
( DECEASED) MATTOON
1
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HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
law of 1825 was in advance of the times; that the people preferred to pay their tuition fees, or do without education for the children, rather than submit to the bare idea of taxation, however it might fall in the main upon the wealthier property-holders, for the benefit of all; and the law was so amended, in 1827, as to virtually nullify it, by providing that no person should be taxed for the maintenance of any school, unless the consent was first obtained in writing, and the continuance of the State appropriation of $2 out of every $100 received into the Treasury, being its very life, was denied." In the foregoing extract is portrayed something of the first school laws of Illinois, and their virtual abolish- ment developed the rude system of schools of the pioneer days in Coles County. The school fund was not sufficient to support the schools, and the people obviated the difficulty by some one, specially interested, taking a paper, going to the parents and having them sign as many scholars, at $1.50 apiece (that was the standard price), as they could send to school. If a sufficient number were sub- scribed they had a school, if not, the children ran wild and unrestrained as the prairie winds, at least, so far as pertained to schools. Nor were schoolhouses built then by general taxation, as they are now, but by gratuitous contribution. This contribution usually consisted in a man taking his ax and cutting logs, or taking his team and hauling them from the timber to the building-site, or carrying the hod while the chimney was in process of erection, or of " riving " boards to cover it, etc., etc. These schoolhouses were built of logs, often with- out hewing, raised one story high, and, as an old settler informed us, " white- washed inside and outside with original Illinois mud, floored with rude puncheons, and cracks between them through which the small children some- times fell." With a fire place extending across one end of the room, benches made of trees split, open, and wooden pins put in for legs, the half of two logs cut out, and white domestic tacked over it (the pioneer glass window), completes the picture of the original schoolhouse. In these rude temples of learning the pioneer's child acquired his education. There were no grades then, and but few classes, for in a school of twenty or thirty pupils, there would be found as many arithmetics, geographies and readers as there were extant in the English language. But the adoption of the free-school system, entered upon in 1855, marks the turning-point in the history of common-school education of the State, and abolished forever the rude and imperfect system hitherto in force. The donation by Congress of the Sixteenth Section of every Congressional Township, or, if sold, lands equivalent thereto, as contiguous as might be, for the use of the inhabitants of such township for school purposes, amounted to over 998,000 acres, and which, had it been properly managed and husbanded, would have given the people such an ample school fund as would have saved them from any local taxation. At the session of the Legislature of 1854, that august body took the first step in the right direction, by the enactment of a law separating the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction from that of Secretary of State, and creating it a distinct department of the State govern-
C
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HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
ment, the incumbent to receive a salary of $1,500, and Gov. Matteson appointed the Hon. N. W. Edwards State Superintendent of Common Schools. This most important office, at that juncture, was bestowed upon Mr. Edwards on account of his long experience in public life, and from the conviction that he would carry into effect the hopes of the people and the designs of the Legis- lature in creating it. In January following, he submitted to the General Assembly a full report upon the condition of the public schools throughout the State, ably urged the education of the children of the State at the public expense, and presented a well-drawn bill for a complete system of free schools, which, with some alterations, became a law. The act bore date February 15, 1855, and embraced all the essential principles now in force."* But, however interesting our school history may be to the friends of education, we cannot follow it through all of its mutations, but have already trespassed upon time and space, and will only add, that there is not a State west of the Alleghanies whose educational interest and common-school system is so well developed, so well protected and so well adapted to the wants of the people and the spirit of the age, as the State of Illinois. With a few statistical facts from the last report of Prof. T. J. Lee, County Superintendent of Schools, to the Superin- tendent of Public Instruction, which are of special interest to the people of the county, we will pass on to other branches of our work :
Number of schools taught in the county.
" pupils enrolled.
Male teachers employed (1st grade).
66
(2d grade)
Female "
(Ist grade). 41
59
Total number of teachers employed
233
Average merit of their certificates.
8.3
Months taught by males.
" females 582
Average number of months taught previous
38
Average age of these teachers (years).
27
Average monthly wages (males) 66 (females) $30.60
$48.88
Amount paid teachers. $44,607.99
Number of persons between 6 and 21 years. 9,099
66 between 12 and 21 unable to write. 20
Referring to the qualifications of teachers, Prof. Lee says: "Shortly after coming into office, I deemed it best to reduce, gradually, the number of certifi- cates by raising the grade of qualifications, and adopted the following rules con- cerning certificates : "1. Scale : 5, very poor ; 6, poor ; 7, tolerable ; 8, good ; 9, very good ; 10, perfect. 2. For First Grade-Average of 8, with no branch below 7. 3. For Second grade-Average of 7, with no branch below 5. After twelve months teaching, same mark as for First Grade. 4. Only bona-fide ap- plicants to teach in this county will be examined. 5. Reference of good moral
*stuve's History of Illinois.
121
7,937
66
66 66 (2d grade) 67
526
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HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
character required of applicants unknown to Superintendent. 6. In addition to above, aptitude for the business of teaching will be required. 7. No re-ex- amination under three months after rejection. 8. No certificate now held will be renewed or another issued instead, except on personal application for re- examination. 9. All examinations must be begun and completed on the same day ; therefore applicants should come to the office early in the day. 10. No certificates will be issued except at published time and place." Prof. Lee closes his report as follows : "Our common school system is yet an experiment. Give it time to grow, and it may yet unfold into that perennial blessing, and those benef- icent propositions dreamed by its founders. Its growth cannot be hastened- but retarded rather-by certain utopian ideas that now, unhappily for it, seem to be gaining ground. Let us call a ' halt' and wait. Let all who are 'called' to help administer the system strive in every good way to bring it up equal to the provisions already made for it, before attempting new excesses."
EARLY RELIGIOUS HISTORY.
The sound of the Gospel in Coles County is coeval with the first settle- ment made in its limits. Jolin Parker, the old patriarch of the Parker family was a Baptist preacher of the " hard-shell " or " ironside" persuasion, and used to proclaim the word of God to the pioneers on the Sabbath-when it was not a good day to hunt bees. Daniel Parker was also a preacher of the same denom- ination, and, as the Parkers were the first settlers in the county, so were they the first preachers. "High " Johnny Parker, as the old man was familiarly called, preached the first sermon in Coles County in 1824, the year the first settlement was made. He was a plain, old-fashioned man, hewn out of rough timber, and "preached salvation by election, without money and without price." This sermon (the first in the county) was preached in a small log cabin in the Parker settlement, and it is said that every inhabitant of the county was there, and had abundant room, for eleven souls constituted the entire adult population. Father Parker closed this original religious service of the county in these words : "Brethren, we have wandered far into the wilder- ness, but even here death will find us." The Rev. Mr. Newport was another of the "hard-shell " divines who figured prominently in the early religious history of the county. The early settlers were a conscientiously religious people. Even prior to the era of schoolhouses and churches, they had meetings under the shade-trees on the river-banks, and in private houses, dedicated by common usage to religious services. Says Capt. Adams in his Centennial Address: "We have seen one of these private houses, not exceeding twenty feet square, containing three or four beds and all the house- hold and kitchen furniture of a large family, hold a big congregation of zealous worshipers. In the early days, the old, young and even small children went to church. During the services it sometimes occurred that a half-dozen of these little ones, all with one accord, would raise their plaintive cries ; nevertheless,
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HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
the services proceeded without any apparent disturbance. The occasional man- ifestations of some of these people were strikingly singular. Some would shout and some would pray and others scream at the top of the voice. Some would clap their hands until blistered, and others faint away, but all seemed happy, recog- nizing it as the Lord's doings."
An early minister of the Presbyterian Church was Rev. Isaac Bennett. " He dropped down among us," says one, "as softly as the morning light, and could not brook any religious excitement, or even the music of a child during his discourse." Rev. Mr. Martin was another of the early preachers of
Coles County. But we have not space to particularize each. of these pioneer soldiers of the cross. Without the hope of earthly reward, they preached the glad tidings to perishing sinners, and sought to gather them into the fold of Christ. Reverently asking the blessing of God upon all they did, their lives were simple; their wants few and easily satisfied; their teachings plain and unvarnished, touched with no eloquence save that of their daily living, which was seen and known of all men.
In what year the first church-building was erected in the county is not known, but subsequently to 1830, as at that date, we are informed, there was not an edifice which had been erected purposely for a temple of worship. Before the building of schoolhouses, the cabin of the settler was used in winter, and in summer, " the groves, God's first temples," served their humble wishes. But now, some sixty-five church-buildings may be enumerated in the county. Not only in the towns and cities, but in every village and hamlet, their lofty spires " pierce the clouds." Even in many neighborhoods in the country are neat and commodious church-houses.
In connection with the church history, it may not be out of place to say a few words of the benevolent institutions existing in the county. Freemasonry and Odd Fellowship follow close in the wake of the Christian church, and, in their way, exert almost as great an influence for good as the church itself. They teach a belief in God, the immortality of the soul and the resurrec- tion of the body. Gathered around their altars, their votaries can sub- scribe to their simple articles of faith, and join in one united prayer and praise to the great Architect of the universe. These institutions have organ- ized bodies in Charleston, Mattoon, Etna, Ashmore, Muddy Point, Oakland, Paradise, Hutton and Milton. In the city of Charleston are Charleston Lodge, No. 35. A., F. & A. M .; Keystone Chapter, No. 54, Royal Arch Masons ; Charleston Lodge, No. 609, I. O. O. F .; Kickapoo Lodge, No. 90, I. O. O. F .; and Coles Encampment, No. 94, I. O. O. F. ; in Mattoon-Mattoon Lodge, No. 260, A., F. & A. M .: Circle Lodge, No. 707, A., F. & A. M .; Mattoon Chapter, No. 85, Royal Arch Masons; Godfrey de Bouillon Commandery, No. 44, Knights Templar ; Harmony Lodge, No. 551, I. O. O. F .; Coles County Lodge, No. 260, I. O. O: F .; Mattoon Encampment, No .--- , I. O. O. F .; also, Mattoon German Lodge, No. 414, I. O. O. F., and Eureka Lodge, No.
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HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
13, Colored Masons ; in the village of Etna, Wabash Lodge, No. 179, A., F. & A. M., and Etna Lodge, No. 519, I. O. O. F .; in Oakland-Oak- land Lodge, No. 219, A., F & A. M., and Oakland Lodge, No. 545, I. O. O. F .; in Milton-Milton Lodge, No. 275, A., F. & A. M., and Humboldt Lodge, No. 636, I. O. O. F .; in Ashmore-Ashmore Lodge, No. 390, A., F. & A. M .; in Muddy Point-Etna Lodge, No. 396, A., F. & A. M .; in Milton Station -Elwood Lodge, No. 589, A., F. & A. M .; in Paradise-Miles Hart Lodge, No. 595, A., F. & A. M., and in Hutton-Hutton Lodge, No. 698, A., F. & A. M.
AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION.
An association entitled the Coles County Agricultural Society was formed at Charleston on the 24th day of May, 1841, and held three successive fairs, the first, October 1, 1841, the second, October 1, 1842, and the third, Sep- tember 27, 1843. The permanent officers of the Society for 1841 were as follows : James Hite, President ; B. F. Jones, H. J. Ashmore and M. Ruff- ner, Vice Presidents ; T. A. Marshall, Treasurer, and J. F. Whitney, Secre- tary. The officers for 1842 were: Thomas Monson, President ; Michael Ruffner, Isaac Gruwell, Vice Presidents ; L. R. Hutchason, Treasurer ; D. J. Van Deren, Secretary ; and for 1843, James T. Cunningham, President ; George H. Nabb and Fountain Turner, Vice Presidents ; L. R. Hutchason, Treasurer ; D. J. Van Deren, Secretary ; Laban Burr, John A. Olmstead, John Hite, Joel Connelly, John Apperson, B. F. Jones, Thomas Monson, Thomas Farris, R. A. Miller and William Frost, a Board of Directors .*
The following extract is from the records : "From 1843 to 1855, the Society appears to have been entranced in a sort of Rip Van Winkle sleep, a "masterly inactivity " of eleven years' duration, until the passage of the two acts of the Legislature of Illinois, February 14, 1855, and February 15, 1855, the first to encourage the formation of county agricultural societies, and the last, a general act of incorporation of agricultural and horticultural societies and associations for improving.the breeds of domestic animals, whereupon the Society appears to have awakened from its lengthy slumber, and recommenced its labors with more of vigor, comeliness of proportion and hope to its friends than prior to that wise legislative aid by the State, and accordingly, in the spring of 1855, a re-organization was effected, and a constitution and by-laws adopted, as was then supposed, in conformity with the acts above referred to. The records under the new organization are said to be lost, so that the present Secretary is unable to give a history of its proceedings for 1855. Certain it is, however, the Society held a fair in the fall of that year, but what was contained in its list of premiums, who were judges, who competitors, to whom and for what premiums were awarded, is enshrouded in darkness. Nor is the present Secretary able to give a full list of the officers elected for that year, but as far as informed, the following is believed to be correct : James T. Cunningham,
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