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 48
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HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
Central offers equally good outlets to Southern and Northern markets. Of late years, many farmers have borrowed money at 10 per cent interest, which several could not pay, and hence much land has fallen into the hands of non-resident owners. The effect of this policy, in the end, will be to cut large farms into smaller ones, and give the township more freeholders. The policy of borrowing money and mortgaging a farm has proved evil here as elsewhere, and is teaching the farmers that no legitimate business will pay such a per cent and at the same time maintain itself. It will ruin any man ; and while it will effect the deprivation of many of their homes, it will, in the end, as sug- gested, cut these farms into smaller portions, held at first by renters who event- ually will own them.
THE PIONEERS.
" Before them, then, were bending skies ; Behind them, now, proud cities rise ; And where the father's cabin fell, The sons in stately mansions dwell.
" Before them leapcd the prairie-fires, Behind them gleam a hundred spires ; And where the panther made his lair, The godly meet for praise and prayer.
" Before then all was waste and wild, Behind them blooming gardens smile ; And where the thorn and thistle grew, The dahlias drink the morning dew.
" Before them stretched a trackless plain, Behind them waving fields of grain ; And where the wild beast roamed and fed, The toiler eats his daily bread.
" Before them lay an unknown land, A myriad homes behind them stand ; And where the hissing serpent crept, The little child in peace hath slept."-George B. Balch.
The picture drawn by Mr. Balch is not in the least overdrawn. Before the pioneer lay a trackless wilderness ; behind him is a garden. The first settlers in this township found it a waste; those that survive them see it filled with the homes of plenty, largely the work of those pioneers whose memory we now preserve.
During the summer of 1825, several persons were in this part of Illinois, prospecting, hunting and seeking homes. Among them were Samuel Henry and John Robinson, of Crawford County. They spent some time on the Kick- apoo, hunting and examining the different sections of country adjacent. Finding an excellent soil, plenty of timber and water enough for all practical pur- poses, they determined to make this their home. Robinson soon brought his wife to this place, and set about building a camp. Henry, on his return to Crawford County, hired John Veach to bring him, his family and their effects to
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HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
the new home. Then there were but very few settlers in the present limits of · Coles County, and, what few there were, were pioneers in the truest sense of the word. Mr. Veach, not caring for the journey, sent his son Jesse, then eighteen years of age, and an expert hunter and frontiersman. On the 18th of December, he loaded the Henry family into the old Virginia wagon, hitched his ox and horse teams to it, and prepared for the journey. That night they went to the cabin of S. H. Bates, father of John Bates, now well known in Coles County, and remained with them till morning. Mr. Bates was also ready to come with them, having heard of the richness of the soil here, and the promise of a competence in after-life. That night, the two families got to where Isaac Lewis lived, not far from where the present town of Robinson is situated, where they remained overnight. They found, on their arrival here, that Ben Parker, an early settler in Coles, which, it must be recollected, did not then exist in name, was here to take Mr. Lewis back with him. It will be observed that neither Mr. Henry nor Mr. Lewis had teams of their own. They were too poor to own any, and were, therefore, dependent on their neigh- bors for such accommodations as they could get. The three families made the journey in four days. The first day out, they got as far as Eaton's mill, on the north fork of the Embarrass. The second day, to Long Point, where they camped, there being no habitation near. The third day, they got to a camp, where George Parker now lives, where they got some corn for their teams. The evening of the fourth day, they arrived at the unfinished cabin of Mr. Bates, which they completed, so they could find shelter therein, and remained there for the night. The cabin was inclosed and covered, but no doors made nor any chimney built. The next day, Mr. Veach started for the Kickapoo timber with Mr. Henry's family. He got to the camp made by Robinson about the middle of the afternoon, unloaded his wagon, and returned to the Bates cabin to remain overnight. The next day he started home, reaching it in a few days time.
Mr. Henry and his family reached their new home on the afternoon of December 25, 1825. They were alone in this part of the country-no one west of them for many miles. A few settlers were in the eastern part of the county, but none nearer than the cabin of Mr. Bates, whom they left that morning. On their way up from Crawford County, they met Robinson and his wife with their ox-team going back to the settlement, where they expected to remain during the winter. They informed them an unfinished camp was awaiting them, and told them how they had left, expecting to return in the spring. Mr. Henry and his wife set about, immediately on their arrival, making themselves as comfortable as they could, and, as the winter was rather mild, experienced but little hardship. They found wild honey and game abundant, and suf- fered none for provisions. They had brought corn enough to supply themselves with cornbread, and with that and the abundant wild food fared well while alone in the woods. Early in the spring, Robinson and his wife returned with
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HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
their ox-team, bringing with them the news of the day and the cheering infor- mation that others were preparing to follow. During their return visit, Mrs. Robinson had become a mother, and brought back the first baby to the settle- ment. Both families used the cabin, built the autumn before, until Henry could complete his own, into which he at once moved, and the second home in the township was established. When the season opened, these two men prepared ground, sowed wheat, planted corn, started a small garden for each, and prepared to erect permanent cabins as soon as the crops could be " laid away." Before this was done, however, they were joined by John Wilkinson, from Edgar County, who, hearing of the rich soil and natural advantages to be found here, left that county and located in the northeast part of what is now La Fayette Township, forming the beginning of a settlement there. He remained only one year, however, when he sold to Isaac Parker and went to Texas, where he afterward became a noted man. This same spring of which we are speaking (1826), Samuel Woods came up from Crawford County, selected his claim, planted a crop, with the assistance of a few neighbors raised a cabin, and, in the fall, went back and brought up his family. He settled near the east side of the township, not far from the present Methodist Church. He remained here until his death. Thomas Robnet came the same spring, and located near where H. Nabb now lives. Not liking the location, he moved, soon after, to the farm now owned by Levi Doty, where he lived till 1833, when he sold that claim and went to the Lone-Star State. Whether any other families than these mentioned came this summer, is now very difficult to determine. Mr. Jesse Veach says he knows there were none when he brought Henry's family, in the fall of 1825, and he has not been informed of any more than those named. He went back to Crawford County, the next year went to New Orleans on a flatboat, and, on his return, married and settled in the neighbor- hood where he had lived. He did not become a citizen of Coles County till 1831. He was up here, however, he says, several times in the interim, and knew pretty well what was being done. As it impossible, at this date, to accu- rately note the date of each one's settlement before the Black Hawk war, we will give each one as far as we have been able to gather them. Some will, undoubtedly, be omitted, as no record was kept and no one lives now who can tell to a certainty who came. Among those coming next after those mentioned was James James, who came from Edgar County in 1826 or 1827-probably the latter year. He married, for his second wife, a daughter of Mr. Bates, whose coming has already been mentioned. Levi and James Doty, both young men, came about the same time. They are yet living. James Burns settled near where William R. Jones now lives, but remained only a few years. James Ashmore, from Tennessee, came in this period. It will be remembered that at his house the first election in the county was held. It was rather a central point, and also one well known. He and the entire family of Ashmores became prominently known all over Coles County. On the day of the election,
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HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
plenty of whisky was furnished by the opposing candidates, as was the custom then, and, as this beverage excited men to unlawful and wicked deeds then, as now, about a dozen fights occurred. It was a " big thing " then to be the " boss fighter," or able to whip any man in the country. It seemed to be a measure of prowess then, as on the frontier now. Mr. John Phipps states that he was at that election, and remembers (he was twelve years old at the time) there were about a dozen fights before the day was over. One champion and his friends would challenge another of equally renowned prowess, and the point must be settled.
Another settler of this period was William Parker, who settled where William Jones now lives. Another was John Veach, who hearing the stories of the fertile land in this part of the country, came here in 1828, and remained. John Phipps came that same year, from Wabash County. He had four or five children, one of whom, John, Jr., narrates the coming of the fam- ily, their settlement here, and their own and neighbors' struggles for a start. He says they moved into an old, unfinished cabin they found in the woods not far from where he is now living, and which they occupied some time. It had no floor, was very imperfectly daubed, and was, withal, a poor lodging-place. It was, though, the best they could do, and like many another pioneer family, they did what they could, not what they wanted to. They were consoled in a meas- ure by the fact that some of their neighbors had no better lodging-place, some, even, had none. They, and all others similarly situated, did the best they could in these primitive dwellings till they could get their crops gathered, when they erected closer and better cabins, which they used until circumstan- ces allowed them to build frame dwellings. Mr. Phipps shows now with no little pride, an old wind-mill, sixty-seven years old, his father brought with him when he came to this part of the State. He remembers, in addition to the families named, those of Elijah Gibbs, who came here from Crawford County, and who remained until his death occurred; William Ewing, from Kentucky; William Williams, who came in 1829, from Kentucky, and who lived here all his life. "Capt." R. E. Y. Williams, a boy then, is now living on the old place. Samuel Williams came with the others, but did not remain long, returning to Kentucky. Others, he remembers, were old Mr. Scott, William R. Jones, Rev. Daniel Barham, a noted Baptist minister, and one of the early settlers in Pleasant Grove, John Gordon, another pioneer, who moved there in 1829, Rev. Threlkeld, and a few others.
To go over the ground covered in the general county history, and repeated more particularly in some of the township histories, in describing the mode of life, erection of cabins, hunting, etc., would be a needless repetition here. That part of the life of a pioneer was the same everywhere. The cabins were all of the same pattern ; the hunts for honey, bears, wolves, deer, etc., were the same in all places, and need no further description here. During the period we mention, until the Black Hawk war, about twenty-five families set-
483
HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
tled in La Fayette Township. As all but one or two settled about the Kicka- poo timber, quite a community was formed by that time. The county being created in 1830, a voting-place was made at Mr. Ashmore's, until near 1859, when the Vass Schoolhouse, a pioneer among educational institutions here, was used when the electors met to exercise the rights of American citizens, until its removal a little farther east, and change of name to Monroe Schoolhouse, where they now meet for the same privilege.
Until the formation of the townships in 1859, the entire county was made one voting precinct, with several voting-places, Charleston being the chief. A person could vote wherever he happened to be. It is to be recorded to the credit of the people, too, that they repeated votes very seldom. We are told there was but very little of that done, although we have often been informed by men that they voted where they were not well known before they were of legal age. Party politics did not run so high then as now, probably.
The "deep snow" in 1830-31, the "shooting stars " in 1833, and the "sudden freeze" in 1836, are all well remembered by those who witnessed them. Their experiences of these phenomena are the same as others already given, and we will not burden our pages with their recital.
During these years the settlers must have meal and flour, and also wanted letters and papers. John Robinson early saw the necessity for a mill of some kind, and one of the first things he did on his return in the spring of 1826, was to erect a mill on a branch of the Kickapoo. It was a weak affair, but as it saved the settlers going back to Crawford County, or going to Parker's mill when built, or to Slover's, when it appeared, they came to use it whenever necessary. As Slover's and Parker's mills were improvements on it, however, they came to get the " balance of trade," and it gradually went down. John True, another early settler, built a horse-mill soon after his arrival, and such of his neighbors as did not desire to go several miles over a roadless country patronized his primitive affair. Mr. Threlkeld, in addition to the duties of a frontier minister, found time to build or help a Mr. Michael build one on his place, and to help him run it. Mr. Threlkeld supported himself in all his ministry, believing like many of his co-workers that it was his duty to do so. Indeed, his only hope of a livelihood lay in this direction ; the people were too poor to support a minister, even had they desired to do so. These mills men- tioned are about the only ones ever built in this township. Water-power suffi- cient to run one all the year was not to be had, and the erection of better ones in other parts of the county where better natural advantages existed precluded the necessity of their erection here. No saw-mills were built till about 1840. Then Thomas Marshall erected one in the north part of the township on a branch in the grove ; but a freshet carrying it off a few years after, the effort was abandoned. The loss to Mr. Marshall was about $600.
A son of Vulcan set up his forge and bellows here soon after the settlement began. Jacob Zinn, about this time concluded there existed a good opening
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HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
for such an occupation in this community and opened a blacksmith-shop. He sharpened hoes, axes, barshare plows or any implement brought to him. When the county seat was established in 1831, and shops began to appear there, his customers gradually went there for work, and he, not long after, removed his shop elsewhere. He was succeeded by Edw. Cartmell, who remained here a short time and went to Paradise. From there he removed to Mattoon, when that place was started in 1855, and was among its earliest residents.
Among the settlers, about 1836, was Joseph Vanderen, who came from Kentucky. He was quite an extensive land-owner and trader, and brought with him a stock of miscellaneous goods from a store he owned in the Blue- Grass State. This stock he opened in a small log house and gave it out in payment for labor until it was exhausted. Capt. Jones, now living in Stockton, was a clerk here, and made his first adventure in mercantile life in this little log store. About the time it was closed out, Joseph Eckles opened a store in a frame house standing near where Benjamin Turney now lives. This store came quite prominent as a local trading-point, and, until the railroads were begin- ging to appear, did an excellent business. A large part of the trade was ex- change. The farmers brought eggs, butter, poultry, etc., and received sugar, coffee and other necessary groceries in exchange. The products of the farm Mr. Eckles took to Charleston and Terre Haute and exchanged them again for groceries or whatever articles he desired, and returned with them to his inland store to repeat the experiment. He continued the store eight or ten years, when the continued growth of Charleston, and the expectation of a new town wher- ever the crossing of the railroads would occur, induced him to close the business. When Mattoon was located, the frame store was removed there and used for various purposes. It was the first house on the plat of that town, but not the first house built there.
The influx of immigration continued steadily for several years after the first settlers came. All confined themselves closely to the timber, and only one here and there was venturesome enough to branch out into the prairie and erect a home there. The financial crisis of 1840 affected people here as well as else- where, and for a time retarded the growth of the country. The first seasons were invariably good and produced large crops. This stimulated further emi- gration from the South and East, and until the exceeding wet season in 1831, consequent upon the great fall of snow the winter before, the crops were abun- dant. As the country filled with people, schools and churches were started- which we will notice further on in a particular manner -- the shops spoken of were started, mills and the two stores mentioned were erected, and life here assumed the phases of an old country. Log cabins, one by one, gave way before the march of improvement, and were replaced by frame houses or more com- fortable hewn-log houses. Farms gradually began to be fenced. Cattle and hogs were stopped from running at large, for corn and wheat fields became com- mon now, and, moreover, fed-stock came gradually into market. The pig, that
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HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
in pioneer days fattened on mast, was penned and deprived of his migratory mode of life, and fed and fattened on corn. Wolves and deer, once so plenty, gradually died out till now they are a rarity. Wolf-hunts are a thing of the past our grandsires love to tell us of ; while our grand-dames' old spinning- wheels, whereon they made the cloth for the family from the tall nettles or from cotton, once grown here, are relics of the past, standing idle now to remind us what it takes to make a country. Deer do not roam the prairies now in herds of dozens, and come before the cabin so the lord and master can have fresh deer meat for breakfast, and not leave his cabin door to secure it. Chickens and young pigs are not housed to protect them from the prowling wolf. Wild tur- keys are a thing of the past. Cultivated farms are everywhere now, and what was once nature's domain is now the home of the husbandman. The agitation of the railroads and their construction from 1850 to 1856 gave a fresh impetus to settlers. Until the opening of the Indianapolis & St. Louis Railroad, there were but very few settlers in the part of the township traversed by the road, or more properly its prairie portion. Mr. William Miller says that when he came to his present homestead in 1854, there were only seven families in that part of the township. These families were James, William and Samuel Shoemaker, John and T. C. Mills, Jacob Vanmeter, and Fred G. True who was living on a farm belonging to Col. Marshall, of Charleston. The southern part of the township, both above and below the Kickapoo, was well settled then; but the farms extended outward from the timber, the houses almost always being within its protection. When the prairie land came before the people at the time the rail- roads made migration easy, they were settled as if in a day. In less than a decade of years there was not an acre of unoccupied land. The election of 1860 showed over two hundred voters in this township, as large a vote as has been polled since. When the reader remembers that six years before, no one lived on the prairie in the township, he can readily see how rapidly it settled. The opening of the railroad brought the city of Mattoon just over the western border of this township, and the village of Stockton in its midst. It also brought easy transportation to the products of the farmers, and allowed a closer and more general cultivation of the soil. The majority of the timber of sufficient size to be of practical use in building was by this time about all gone, leaving a growth now used chiefly for fire-wood. When the re-action from the last war-to which the township sent several soldiers-came, it brought an era of " flush " times, which many farmers erroneously supposed would always continue. Hence now we see much of the land owned by non-residents, persons who loaned the farm- ers money at a heavy rate of interest and at a value which no one could pay. As the return to specie payments came, the decline in money occurred, and when the time to pay the principal came, the land had shrunken in value till it about equaled the face of the loan. The farm was sold to satisfy the claim, and now many who once were wealthy find themselves starting anew in life. The effect in the end will be, the non-resident does not want the land, and will sell
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HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
it in smaller tracts, and thus more freeholders will exist. The township is now passing through this period and in time will recover.
The reader will have, no doubt, noticed an absence of allusion to churches and schools in the foregoing pages. They have been purposely omitted, in order to present them under separate heads. We will, therefore, turn our attention to them, forming, as they always do, no inconsiderable part in the narrative.
SCHOOLS.
Mr. John Phipps states that he does not recollect any schools in this town- · ship the first winter they came. He thinks, however, there may have been one in some cabin, as there were several children here at that date-1828. They were probably taught by their parents, unless some adventurous schoolmaster was here and supplied the educational wants of the community. Mr. Phipps says there was a school taught soon after they came, for he remembers attend- ing the school. Whether this was the next winter-1829-30-or the one a . year later, he does not now recollect. A log schoolhouse was built near a place known as the Sulphur Springs, where an old gentleman named Watson, taught the country youths and maidens the rudiments of education, then rather meager. These ancient pedagogues ruled their scholars by the force of the rod, more than any other way. Moral " suasion " was not much talked of then. The "suasion " generally was a good, limber hickory switch well applied. Rev. Daniel Barham and Theron E. Balch were also among these early teachers. The old schoolhouse built by the spring, was followed by others in different parts of the community as the wants of each locality became apparent. One of the early schoolhouses was known as the " Ewing " School, in the southern part of the township. In this house, the Methodists organized a class in early days, one of the oldest societies in that denomination, in the county. It was the founder of the present Kickapoo M. E. Church, a history of which appears elsewhere in these pages. This school supplied the wants of this part of the township many years. It is yet con-
tinued, though in a modern house and under modern methods. Schools began to appear numerously by 1860, mainly the outgrowth of the free-school system established about 1845. It took several years to educate the people up to the idea of paying for education by taxation. Especially was this spirit manifested in the southern part of the State, where the people were chiefly of Southern origin. They knew only of the old system of subscription-schools, where only those paid who sent children, losing sight of the great fact that to properly educate the masses, insures safety to the populace. The results of the last twenty years have fully verified the predictions of the founders of the free schools, and now are fully exemplified all over the State.
From statistics furnished by Mr. Lee, County Superintendent of Schools, we glean the following items regarding the schools in La Fayette Township:
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