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 40
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83
In the spring of 1829, quite a number of settlers came. " Goose-Nest Prai- rie " was settled this spring by Rev. Daniel Barham (" Daddy " Barham, already referred to) and his sons John and Nathan, and Thomas Barker, who erected the first cabins there. If these were the first cabins built by the good minister, then the statement that he erected a cabin near the Gordon grave-yard in 1827, or before, is evidently an error by a year or two. As there is now no one left who lived through this time and is cognizant of it all, in all its details, it is extremely difficult to settle the point of the first settler. Rev. Barham was an efficient Baptist minister, and labored earnestly in his Master's calling, and may have been here as early as Mrs. Chowning thinks; but, from the best testimony we are able to gather, it is two years later, i. e., in 1829. " The same spring that ' Daddy' Barham, his sons and Mr. Barker came," says Capt. Adams, " Michael Taylor and son, Elijah, John and Patrick Gordon and Dow Goodman located in the 'Goose Nest.'" This is further proof that Mrs. Chown- ing's father came in 1829. instead of 1827.
The first settlement on Indian Creek was made this same year. At the head of this creek, was an old Indian camping-ground, evidencing use in many generations past. It was a convenient spot for pasturage and water, and, as such, was regarded favorably by the pioneers. It is in the north and northeast part of the township, and may be considered the third settlement in the town- ship. Its pioneers were Zeno Campbell, Gershom, William and Thomas Balch, who, as stated, located in 1829.
This same year, the Muddy Point settlement was augmented by the arrival of Joseph Glenn, Daniel Edson, Daniel Beals and his two sons, Oliver and Jesse, and William Dryden and Alfred Balch, who came to view the country. The next year, William Gammill and his sons Andrew and Samuel, and sons-in-law, A. Balch and Isaac Odell, also Abner Johnston, whose son is now President of the First National Bank at Charleston, came to Indian Creek and Muddy Point settlements. The year before, Jesse Fuller and his family came from Virginia and bought the farm now known as the " Sell " place. Mr. Fuller remained here until his death. Mr. Theron E. Balch located with his family this season. also. Mr. Balch became a very prominent man in his time. He was the first school-teacher in the township, was a firm friend of religion and was one of the best men in the pioneer days of the community. He arrived with his family in October, and settled in the timber, near the " Goose- Nest Prairie." Here he built him a small pole cabin, and during this winter, it is thought, taught the pioneer school in the township, in a small pole cabin, in Muddy Point settlement, near where the Cumberland Presbyterian Church is now situated. He and his
414
HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
wife were strong Abolitionists, liberating their slaves in the South before they came, bringing some with them. Mr. Balch was one of the earliest adherents to that party, and is said to have been one of the first seven men to vote that ticket. Mrs. Balch is yet living in Wisconsin, eighty-six years of age, blind and deaf. She has been a most remarkable woman in her time. She lives with one of her daughters, and has with her one of her liberated woman slaves, who is almost as old as her mistress.
The reader will observe that quite a number of persons located in the first two years of the settlements here. As many of them belonged to the Cumber- land and Regular Presbyterian Churches, they united in August, 1830, and formed a Presbyterian Church under the care of the Old-School body-as it would be better known by that name-and began to hold services. As immigra- tion was rapid during the next three or four years, however, a Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized, and those professing that creed drew off from the other Church as soon as this opportunity afforded them a chance to join a church of their own choice.
On the 19th of November following the organization of the Church at Indian Creek, the settlement in Pleasant Grove was joined by a colony of sixteen grown persons and eleven children from Bedford County, Tenn., about fifty miles south of the city of Nashville. They came, like their predecessors, in the old Virginia wagons, drawn by two and four horse teams, making the journey of 400 miles in a few months. Now it is made in a day and a night. They camped out on the way, and while in Indiana, about fifteen miles south of Vin- cennes, they were obliged to stop and bury one of their number, a child, a son of Isaac and Mary Odell. A number of years ago, George D. Prentice, the veteran Louisville editor and poet, stood, he records, at the grave of a little child in Arkansas, buried from an emigrant wagon. He embalmed the incident in verse, which is so touching, and which applies to the burial of Mr. and Mrs. Odell's little child so well, that we reproduce a versc here :
"Not in the church-yard's hallowed ground, Where marble columns rise around, By willow or by cypress shade, Are thy poor little relicts laid. Thou sleepest here, all, all alone, No other grave is near thine own. 'Tis well, 'tis well: but oh, such fate Seems very, very desolate. * :k
But yet it matters not, poor child,
That thou must sleep in this lone wild : Each springtime, as it wanders past, Its buds and blooms will round thee cast ; The thick-leaved boughs and moonbeams pale, Will o er thee spread a solemn veil, And softest dews and showers will lave The blossoms on the infant's grave."
415
HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
The colony mentioned, coming in the fall of 1830, were headed by William Gammill (already noticed), who knew something of the country, and, with Alfred M. Balch, was one of the projectors of the move. In addition to these two, there were Mr. Balch's children-Ann Jane, who afterward became the wife of H. J. Reynolds, of Neoga; Nanny Caroline, who died in March, 1853 ; Rhoda E., who died at thirteen years of age, and whose memory her brother George B. has touchingly preserved in verse. George B. was then very young, and has lived all his life in the township, noting all its changes, and has recorded many of them in poetry. Another family (and we shall name each family of this colony) was J. J. and Martha Adams, and their one child, W. E. Adams, then eleven days old. On his arrival, Mr. Adams, like the others, hastily erected a pole cabin, into which he moved. Before he could properly inclose it, the winter set in exceedingly cold, and with great difficulty could they preserve themselves and their child from freezing. The covers of the wagon were taken off, hung inside the cabin walls, and with one device and another, aided by the huge fire kept constantly burning in the great chimney, they man- aged to live through the winter. Many of their neighbors were no better off. The next year, he and all the colonists raised a very good erop, putting it in with the old-fashioned barshare plows, remodeled and repaired their cabins, and by winter were prepared to stand the rigors of a Western winter. It will be recol- leeted that the one before was made memorable by the " deep snow," and the great freshet in the spring consequent upon the melting of the snow. It is fully noticed elsewhere, and need not be repeated here. It was the same over all the country, only of a greater depth in the northern part of the State. As a portrait and full sketch of Col. Adams' life appear elsewhere in this volume, we will omit any further mention of his deeds here. They are all worthy a place in the annals of Coles County, and when the Colonel died a few months since, he left behind him a record worthy of imitation by all.
Isaac and Mary Odell, son-in-law and daughter of Mr. Gammill, were also of this company. It was their child that died in Indiana and was left sleep- ing on the roadside. Their next son, George W. Odell, was the first child born in Charleston, which town was laid out the next summer after the colony's arrival. Col. Adams and A. M. Balch cut logs and built some of the first houses in that aspiring town. One of these may yet be seen on a hill in the western part of town, just east of where the Ashmore mill was burned. Of all the members of that colony who were men and women when they came, Mrs. Odell-" Aunt Polly "-is the only survivor.
The next family was Andrew and Jane Gammill and their three children, all of whom are living yet. One is Mrs. Caroline Shoemaker, of La Fayette Township, another Mrs. Adaline Hendricks, now in Missouri, and the third Mrs. Lucinda Whetstone, of Pomona, Kan. Mark and Matilda Baker with their two children, Joseph and Matilda, are the next family mentioned. Both the children are now dead. The father died in about two years after coming,
416
HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
from malarial diseases. His wife afterward married M. Tyra Hays, and gave fame to Pleasant Grove by giving existence to three boys at one birth, all of whom are yet living.
Andrew Clark and wife were also in this colony. They had no children when they came. Mr. Clark was afterward well known in Charleston in the hotels there, being one of the early landlords of the town. In this colony were two young men, Philip Odell and S. K. Gammill, who should be noticed here. The first named, Odell, died in Charleston, about 1835. In the early issues of newspapers there, his obituary was published, wherein some friend embalmed his memory in verse which we now recall, and which many of the old people will doubtless remember:
"Could I the sacred nine command, Or inspiration guide my hand In numbers sweet but sad, I'd tell The virtues of our friend Odell."
The other young man, S. K. Gammill, afterward became prominently known in the south part of the county. He married Elizabeth Dryden, who yet lives. Mr. Gammill died about twelve years ago, of cholera.
The majority of the persons coming in this little colony, were members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in their native State. They found no church of their own here, and the majority went into the Presbyterian Church at Indian Creek. They remained here, however, but a few years, when, being joined by more of their own profession, they formed a church at Muddy Point, and began services there.
The winter following -- 1830-31-was, as has been observed, one of great severity. The intense cold, the deep snow, the scanty provisions and poor accommodations made the pioneer's life one of privation, and to those who had enjoyed the milder serenity of a more southern clime, it called for the stron- gest powers of fortitude and courage. The following spring, owing to the great snow, was very wet, and it was late before crops could be planted. The cabins were repaired, or new and better ones built, fields were cleared, and prepara- tions to found that home they all desired went steadily on. They went to the Wabash Point timber for mail, where George M. Hanson had the year before obtained a post office, and where quite a number of families, chiefly Meth- odists in religion, were settled. Those of Pleasant Grove also came here to mill, for Slover's Mill was about the only one in this part of the country. lt was during this summer, it is thought, that C. Campbell opened a blacksmith shop in the township. His shop was near the residence of Zeno Campbell. Ife was a good workman. making excellent axes, Cary plows and various other implements, which could not have been obtained nearer than Paris, in Edgar County, or equally as distant places. It might be well to mention of Zeno Campbell that he was run for the Legislature on the Whig ticket, from this part of the county. He was an excellent man. but quiet and a little
417
HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
eccentric in his manner, refusing to go out and "stump" the field. This was very likely the cause of his defeat, as he was well respected wherever known. He gave the ground on which the Presbyterian Church was erected in 1832, and with his wife lived to the good old age of more than fourscore years. It will be remembered they came to Pleasant Grove in 1829.
The summer of 1831, brought with it a new influx of immigration. Those who stayed in this township were chiefly Presbyterian in religious views, while those who went to the Wabash Point settlement were largely Methodist. It was a kind of common understanding between the two settlements that persons coming to the new communities were to be mildly drawn to whichever settle- ment their religious sentiments favored. This they were always ready to do, as all desired to keep up the home practices and felt easier and more content among their own church people. Among the emigrants of this season may be mentioned John and Michael Whetstone. John settled the farm where the mineral springs were found, supposed to have been known to the aboriginal inhabitants for ages. We have already described these springs and forbear any further mention of them. Other settlers were Hezekiah and Mary Balch and a son Walter W., who is yet living in the neighborhood. They were from Alabama, from the same community that had before sent out Theron E. Balch and his wife. With Hezekiah and his family came Dr. Emmett Balch, who is now at Buckley, Ill. John W. and Louisa Rodgers came with Dr. Balch from Alabama and settled with him here. Thomas and William Jeffries, two prominent men, with their families, came this same season from Kentucky.
The old storehouse, in the possession of Mr. Azariah Jeffries, has a history in itself which is well worth narrating. It is thus told by Mr. Jeffries : " The old storehouse is situated on Section 10, on land entered by Thomas Jeffries, the first Justice in this township. His children are Sallie Dieahl, James, John and Azariah. His house was built in September, 1852, for a store by T. A. Mar- shall and Milton True. Afterward, Mr. Marshall was elected to the State Senate, and afterward a colonel in the army. Mr. True was elected to the Legislature, and was a general in the army. Gideon Edwards, their clerk, was elected County Judge. When the two proprietors left the store, they sold to I. H. Johnston and Abram Highland, and the singular luck for office-holding seemed to fall upon them. Mr. Johnston was elected Sheriff and Mr. Highland County Treasurer. They sold the building to Clay Worthen and Jefferson Doren. Mr. Worthen was twice elected Circuit Clerk. The mantle failed to fall on the shoulders of Mr. Doren, it seems, as it is not recorded he succeeded in being elected, though twice he ran for County Treasurer. While they owned the building, Dr. C. H. Brunk, a prominent physician in Shelby County, had his office with them. They sold to W. L. Funckhouser and John Hackley. Mr. F. is the largest land-owner in the township, and Mr. H. was Postmaster some time. These men sold to John W. Crawford, who was Postmaster, and who, with Dr. T. A. Kemper, a prominent physician, who had his office in the store-
418
HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
house, kept the building till he sold to the present owner, Azariah Jeffries. He has, as a consequence it seems, been elected School Trustee three years ; Director, nine years ; Commissioner, two years ; member of Legislature, two years ; a delegate to the Democratic Convention in Baltimore that nominated Horace Greeley ; been Chairman of the County Democratic Convention, Foreman of grand jury, on the petit jury, and a variety of other minor offices."
Verily, the house has a history and a fatality unequaled in the West.
Thomas and Hezekiah Balch were the first two Justices of the Peace elected in this part of the county. William Jeffries was the second County Sheriff. serving from 1834 to 1838. The first incumbent of this office was Ambrose Yocum, elected at the first election of the county in February, 1831. He died before the expiration of his term of office, and Mr. Jeffries was elected to the vacancy and to another term. The voting-place in February, 1831, was at the house of James Ashmore, situated where Parker Clark now lives, in La Fayette Township. Every one in the county entitled to a vote came here, and, as the county then included Douglas and Cumberland Counties, many of the voters came a considerable distance to discharge the duties of citizenship. When Pleasant Grove was made a precinct, the voting-place was fixed at Beni White's house, in the south part of the precinct. It afterward was made at Tully's still, now in Cumberland County. It then went to Thomas Jeffries, where it remained a few years, and was then taken to a log schoolhouse on Indian Point, near where the Presbyterian Church now is. The next move was not till after the organization of the township, when it was moved to the Balch Schoolhouse, where it stayed thirteen years. About two years ago, it was taken to the Nicholson Schoolhouse, where it will probably abide some time. The still house, mentioned as one of its abiding-places, might be more fully noticed. It was built by Dillard Tulley as a horse-mill in 1832, and was the first enterprise of the kind in this part of the county. It was afterward converted into a still. and as such was a pioneer. In those days every one drank whisky: no wedding, no house-raising. no harvesting, no election, was carried on without plenty of that animating beverage being used. It was considered essential, and looked upon as one of the necessities of life. May be, to save carrying whisky to elections, was one reason why they were held here. Anyway, it was a place of popular resort, and was certain to call out all the voters : that was one consideration. When Cumberland County was set off from Coles, there was left a strip of land a mile or two wide, on the north, which has since been attached. In this strip the still was located. A very common way to get the whisky was to take a bushel of corn and a coffee-pot, and go to the still. exchange the corn for a gallon of whisky and bring it home in the coffee-pot. That was before the era of jugs. Capt. Adams says he was often sent to Tul- ley's still in that way when a boy. He tells a story on himself, which is worth preserving here. as illustrative of the customs in the " good old days." He says he was once sent with the bushel of corn and a new jug-they having just
419
HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
been introduced-for the customary gallon of whisky. He used a fresh cob for a cork in the jug, and, on his return, kept pulling out the cob and sucking the whisky it absorbed. By the time he reached home, he was, to use his own expression, " as full as a goose !" His mother quickly noticed his condition, and, turning to her husband, remarked, emphatically : "There, Jefferson, that's the last time that boy goes to the still !" And it was the last time. Good men, one after another, saw the evil tendency of the habit, and, one after another, banished it from their tables, firesides and harvest-fields.
The same summer of 1831, Theron Balch established a Sunday school in his own cabin. He was aided by the first minister in this part of the county- Rev. Isaac Bennett, who came here under the care of the Philadelphia Presby- tery, to look after this field. He preached the first sermons heard in this part of Illinois, coming all the way from Philadelphia on horse-back. Further mention will be made of him in the chapter devoted to churches in this town- ship. The summer this pioneer Sunday school was established, Julia Balch, a daughter of Theron, taught a day school in the little pole cabin where her father had wielded the birch the winter before.
We have mentioned the fact of the settlers going to Slover's Mill and to George M. Hanson's post office, at the Wabash Point timber. This summer, however, they came to the county seat, just then established, for mail, and as Thomas Travis, one of the pioneers of this year, erected a horse-mill, they could get grinding nearer home. In addition to the one at the Wabash Point. they had gone, in some instances, to a mill where Greenup, in Cumberland County, is, on the Embarrass. The mill of Mr. Travis, and the blacksmith- shop of Mr. Campbell, brought commodities nearer their doors, and made many of the inconveniences heretofore experienced things of the past. Already a brighter day was coming.
The season of 1832 brought still more persons seeking homes in the West. Now they began to come in so rapidly that it is impossible to name all. We will, however, give the names of some, as far as we could gather them. It is not necessary to get all, nor to attempt to follow their fortunes. The story of one is the story of all. The biographical portion of this work shows more fully than we can hope to show the lives of many of the pioneers and their deeds in the land of their choice. Among those who came in 1832, we will mention James and Lyda Glenn, with two or three children. They came from Lawrence County, and both are long since dead. Another member of this family was William, an older brother than either the others. He was a great hunter in his time, a veritable Daniel Boone, as it were. There were, also, Dan- iel and Rachel Edson, with one or two children. They settled the farm where the widow Landers now lives. Then there were Wells Needham and his wife. and others of that company. All the old settlers will doubtless remember John Harvey. an old teacher of the old school. He was a great fiddler, and. in that capacity, was in constant demand for the old-time dances. He was, withal,
M
420
HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
a little superstitious, and believed in witches. Possibly he read the story of the witches so often he became imbued with their reality. His greatest delight was to hunt squirrels, and in this he became a veritable Nimrod. One of his oddities was a habit of pulling his nose when eating. It in some way seemed to assist him in swallowing his food.
The readers of these narratives will doubtless observe the absence of roads at this period in the history of the county or that of the townships. Until this year, there were no organized efforts in this direction. For several reasons, no roads, save bridle-paths, were to be seen in any place. The settlers were too much occupied in preparing their homes so they could live in comfort ; in get- ting crops sown and gathered, so they might have something aside from wild meat and "johnny-cake " to eat, and in various enterprises, all necessary to their life here. The roads were part of the economy of pioneer life that could be allowed to wait other developments.
The season of 1832 is made memorable by the breaking-out of the Black Hawk war. The causes of this war, and its history in a general way, are fully given in the history of the Northwest, in this volume, and for this purpose we omit any mention save locally. Col. Adams, who seems to have always pos- sessed a combative spirit, and was always foremost in defending the frontiers, raised a portion of a company, with which he repaired to Shelbyville, where the full number was obtained, and where they were properly enlisted. Col. Adams' companions from Pleasant Grove were Obadiah Vincent and Harry Wilson, both of whom are yet living. They furnished their own horses, pro- visions and ammunition. From Shelbyville they went to Fort Dixon, on Rock River, thence to the Four Lakes, where Madison, Wis., now stauds, and fol- lowed the retreating Indians till the capture of Black Hawk and the termina- tion of the war. After their return home, they resumed their former avocations. and were never afterward called upon to assist in subduing the red men.
The fall of that year is made memorable by the brilliant meteoric shower. As that event is, however, fully described in the history of Mattoon Township, and as it, like the " deep snow " and " sudden freeze," occurred over all the country, one description applies to all.
Following on down through the coming years we can note no events out of the usual order of frontier life. Improvements were constantly going on ; new homes were being built; more emigrants came yearly, until the country in 1827, when the first settlers came, was changed from a wilderness to one occu- pied by many busy, happy homes, full of enterprise, and all realizing the hopes entertained when they came.
The financial crisis of 1840, incident on the failure of the grand system of internal improvements, effected all the residents of the State. True, no lines of roads had been projected through Pleasant Grove, but the proposed construc- tion of two railroads in the county, the hopes excited by their building and their failure in common with all the rest, made times hard in every township in
421
HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
the county. The country was, however, full of resources, and in ten years' time had provided for the payment of its enormous indebtedness, and was again on the road to prosperity. The citizens of Pleasant Grove had partaken of this general improvement in various ways. These were exemplified in better habita- tions, now built of brick and frame. Schoolhouses were getting plenty, school terms were longer, and were more efficient. Other denominations, such as the Methodists and Cumberland Presbyterians, were preparing to build houses of worship, and more of the luxuries of life were apparent. The era of log cabins, and their accompanying discomforts, was passing away.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.