USA > Illinois > Livingston County > The History of Livingston County, Illinois : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 42
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Mr. Johnson states that for several years after the settlements we have des- cribed, they were allowed to live alone, no new settlers appearing. This part of the State had as yet no outlet for its products nearer than Ottawa or Chicago. Bloomington was only a small trading place and post office, affording no market for grain or hogs. As the country nearer the river was yet thinly settled, emigrants located there, in the Western Reserve or in the Sangamon country. This retarded the upper central part of Illinois, and not until the completion of the canal and the railroads did that part of the State whose history these pages chronicle fill rapidly with settlers.
In the Spring of 1840, school was opened in a small log house, in what is now Amity Township. It stood near the line dividing Amity from Rook's Creek. neither of which were then contemplated, and was the school for all the children on the creek. Many came quite a distance and boarded with some of the nearest residents. The teacher received her pay directly from the patrons in the form of subscriptions. The school was maintained three months, and had an attend- anee of from fifteen to twenty scholars daily. The next school in the neighbor- hood was kept in Mr. Johnson's cabin the following Summer, and had about the same number of scholars; studied the same branches, prominent among
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
which were the three " R's." Not long after this, the community concluded a school house would be a good adjunct in their midst, and quite a number get- ting together on the farm of Mr. Breckenridge, erected a very substantial log structure, and the following Winter -- 1842-43-saw a very creditable school taught therein. Like its predecessors, it was a subscription school, and in fact for over ten years none other was sustained. In the erection of the log school house, the Edgingtons took a prominent part, and were always firm supporters of any and all educational enterprises.
In Amity Township, the principal sale of the school section was made in 1847, though five years before this twenty acres had been sold. The sale of the land created a fund for school purposes, and was the principal reason of the firm establishment of the school in the early days of that township. The peo- ple of Rook's Creek, though known there only by the Government survey. desired to profit by the success of Amity, and petitioned for the sale of their school section. November 24, 1854, this sale was effected, and, with the fund on hand derived from the State on the yearly enumeration, constituted a fund amounting to nearly two thousand dollars. With this amount secured to the township, a good beginning could be made. It is to be remembered, all this money was not paid as yet, but was secured. At a meeting of the residents in the township, it was decided to make two or three districts, and erect in the one most populous a suitable school house at once. This school was in operation during the Winter of 1854-5, as we find from a report made by William McMillan, Township Treasurer, for the latter year. From this report we learn that there was taught one school by a "male" teacher ; that he had 30 scholars -16 boys and 14 girls-attending his school; that he was paid $18 per month. and that there was only $21 in the treasury to pay him, compelling him to wait until the tax was collected. This report further states that the amount of the principal of the township fund was $1,853.12; that the amount of interest on township fund paid into the township treasury was $186.15 ; that the amount of State or common school fund received by the Township Treasurer was $216.50; that the amount of ad valorem tax was $572, which he is able to. record as all paid. The Treasurer states, also, that the "whole amount paid for building, repairing, purchasing, renting and furnishing school houses was $686, and that the amount paid for school apparatus was $15.61. Mr. McMil- lan reports three districts organized at that date, including the school mentioned, the other two building houses shortly after. From the erection of the school house and its school of thirty scholars dates the beginning of the public com- mon schools of Rook's Creek Township, and from that time, as new settlements were made, other houses were built, until the common number-nine-is now reached. Good schools are now the order, and are regularly sustained from five to seven months during the year.
Religion and education generally go hand in hand in the history of our country. The first settler desires a school house and then a church, and rests
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
not until he gets them. Earlier than the school, came the ministers of the Gos- pel and proclaimed its good news. But the people were poor, not able to sup- port a minister, and contented themselves with meeting in each other's cabins and holding a service of prayer and song. After the school houses were built, they occupied those until they were able to erect a house exclusively for relig- ious purposes. The first attempts for the formation of a religious society were made in the Autumn of 1858. In October of that year, Rev. D. Anderson, a Methodist minister, who had been several times along the creek holding services in school houses and dwellings, organized a class consisting of Samuel and Martha M. Malone, John and Mary Lilly and Jesse and Catharine Legg-six members. Mr. Malone was appointed Class Leader, and Mr. Lilly, Steward. Before the year closed, this little band was joined by Mrs. Lucinda Riggle. It met in the old school house near the church. in which building the congregation met until the completion of their present house of worship.
Rev. A. C. Frick was the next preacher here, and under his labors the con- gregation increased to forty members. In 1860, Rev. - Brandenburg was appointed ; in 1861, Rev. Robt. Pierce ; in 1862, Rev. P. A. Crist ; and in 1864, Rev. A. P. Hull ; and as the congregation had materially increased in wealth and numbers, it was determined to erect a church. As this required a legal existence, that year Trustees were elected. Rev. A. E. Day was appointed preacher for 1865 and 1866, and during the latter year a revival was held, resulting in the accession of quite a number of members. The church was completed the next year, while Rev. Thomas Cotton was Pastor, the dedicatory sermon being preached by Rev. E. P. Hall. At the Conference the next year, the Rook's Creek Church appeared for the first time on the church records, and has since been regularly represented. This same year, the Prospect society was formed. Two years after, a class of seven members was formed at Gray's school house, and O. P. Croswell appointed Leader. In 1871. the parsonage was erected at an expense of $622. The congregation is now entirely self-sus- taining, and is quite prosperous. The Pastor is Rev. J. L. Ferris.
The Germans have a church in the northwest part of the township, erected some two or three years ago. They are quite numerous in this vicinity ; are industrious, and rapidly cultivating and improving their lands.
Rook's Creek Township was one of the first formed in the county, and, as has been noticed, was named in honor of its first settler, Mr. Rook.
The first town meeting was held April 6, 1858, and the first election that Spring. William T. Garner was its first Supervisor. Among its prominent men is Mr. Geo. B. Gray, now a member of the State Legislature. He is one of the wealthiest farmers in the township ; has been President of the Agricul- tural Society at different times, and has always been one of the county's most influential and honored citizens.
Away back in the annals of its earliest years, the township possessed an unenviable name in the county, owing to the presence of a few who can, if they
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
choose, give an ominous name to any locality. Happily these are all gone now, and the township bears a name equally honored with all its cotemporaries. Of the time of which we are speaking, there lived on the edge of Pontiac Town- ship Mr. John Kelley, an eccentric individual, who had a habit of coming to town every day. So constant had this practice become, that he was known by every one ; and did he by chance omit his daily trip, everybody noticed it, and straightway wondered what had come over Uncle Johnny. He did not, it seems, entertain a very high opinion of Rook's Creek Township, and though a strong Universalist, would declare if there was a place of future punishment, it was in Rook's Creek or near there. A local poet thus records an absence of Uncle Johnny from town, the stir it creates, and where he was found :
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" Where Rook's Creek rolls its turbid tide To meet Vermilion's gentler flow, Three weary travelers were espied, Just as the setting sun was low. Their shouts filled all the evening air : 'Where is John Kelley ; where, oh where ?'
" ' Where is John Kelley ?" still they cried, And echo rolled the notes afar,
1 Until a distant voice replied, Like music from some distant star :.
' You'll find me here, below the ridge, Just north ward from the Rook's Creek bridge.'
" They found him digging in the ground, The victim of some mystic spell : He cast his fearful eyes around : He said : ' I fear there is a hell. I think that I can plainly trace Its indications in this place.' "
Uncle Johnny is now an inhabitant of Kansas, but is well known to every settler in all this country, and many will readily trace his peculiarities in the poetry quoted.
Rook's Creek Township is now fully settled. Several excellent farms are in its boundary ; and many wealthy farmers reside where once
" The Indian in all his glory stood, The lord of all he viewed."
The present township officers are as follows : Clerk, S. L. Cunningham ; Collector, H. Hutson ; Assessor, S. B. Tuttle ; Road Commissioner, M. Bon- ham ; Supervisor, James Marks ; and Wm. Askew and S. B. Tuttle, Justices of the Peace.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
ROUND GROVE TOWNSHIP.
The settlement of Round Grove is one of the earliest in the northeast part of the county. The grove from which the township derives its name in shape is nearly round, and hence the name. Here the first settlers in this part of the county located, desirous, like others in the pioneer life of the country, to have the benefit of timber as a protection from the cold, and to be provided with fuel. The reader cannot but notice the action of all early settlers in the West in this regard. They were sagacious enough to provide against all future wants in this respect, and, too, were wedded to carly home firesides, which all so well love to linger over, where the cheerful wood fire was one of the cheeriest and strongest attractions.
The first settlers here had a difficulty to overcome not often recognized at this day. There were no mills for sawing lumber here in those days, and hence they were compelled to locate where they could procure logs with which to erect a habitation. These were often primitive affairs, only intended for use until the pioneer could erect a more substantial and more comfortable house. Many of them were built without the aid of a single piece of iron. Some of our younger readers may inquire how this was done. "Necessity is the mother of invention," is a trite and true proverb. The pioneer had no nails or bolts and no money to buy them, hence what he did was the natural outgrowth of his circumstances. The logs could be cut the right lengths in the woods, hauled to the place for building the cabin, there notched, and on the raising day put in their place. When the square forming the house was completed, doors and windows would be cut out, door and window jams pinned, not nailed on, the door fastened on wooden hinges, had a wooden latch, with its provervial latch-string almost always out ; the "shakes" (shingles) fastened on by weight poles and stones, the floor of slabs, or puncheons, and a large fireplace, half the length of the end of the house, completed the pioneer home for many a man who now ranks among the wealthiest in the State. Pins were invariably used for nails, and were always made of the hardest and toughest wood the forest afforded.
This grove was an object standing boldly out in the prairie, affording to the early hunter or traveler a guide in his wanderings, and here very naturally the first settler pitched his tent and began preparations for the founding of a new home.
About the year 1850 or '51, John Currier brought his family from the old Keystone State, intending to find for them a home on the broad prairies of Illi- nois. He came at first to Morris, where, hearing of the rich, unsettled lands in Livingston County, below Dwight, on the line of the proposed Chicago, Alton & St. Louis Railroad, determined at once that there he could find the desired aim of his migration. Coming into the prairie, he saw at once the desirableness of the grove, and selected it as a permanent home. Here he built a cabin,
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
and opened a claim, here he lived, and here are yet part of his family who survive him. He had been here but a short time when he was joined by Alfred Clover and his family, from Indiana. After remaining here a number of years, he sold his farm and removed farther west. Clark Pratt was the next settler in the new neighborhood. He was also from the Hoosier State. His family are yet residents of the township. The next was James Gibson, who, like Mr. Clover, did not remain here, but also went farther west. Philip Clover was probably the last of the five families settling at that time. He is still a resident of the township, and has seen it in all its changes.
These five families were the pioneers of Round Grove Township, and, until Stephen Potter settled in 1854, were the only residents here. They came before the railroad was built, when there was no Dwight or Odell, and when Pontiac was a place of small note, whose nearest railroad communication was Springfield, where was the old Northern Cross Railroad, the oldest in the State, and where, in 1851, the first railroad crossing in the State was made, when what is now the Chicago, Alton & St. Louis Railroad reached that city and crossed the old Northern Cross-now Toledo, Wabash & Western. The people of this part of the State, however, rarely, if ever, went to Springfield, preferring Morris, Joliet, Ottawa or Chicago. At the time of which we are writing, the canal was completed and Morris the chief trading point.
They broke the prairie with the large breaking plows of that time, planted sod corn, raised a few garden products, and with the wild game, then so abun- dant, were enabled to live in plenty. The next Spring, they plowed their fields again, smoothed them with a brush drag or wooden-toothed harrow, and raised a good crop of corn. Their manner of life did not vary much from this. They improved their lands as they could, built better houses as soon as they were able, and when the railroad was completed through the county, made Dwight their post office, and as soon as a store was opened there, made it their trading point.
The railroad was completed through to Joliet during the Summer of 1854. That Spring, it would not, however, carry any freight, being yet in too unfin- ished a condition.
The settlers we have named were joined that Spring by Mr. Stephen Potter, who, with his family. of five persons, came here from Joliet. He had emigrated from New York to Ohio, in the vicinity of Cleveland, where he says he could have purchased many now valuable lots for a little or nothing. Like the poor individual, however, who one day demurely asked Mark Twain if he knew where he could obtain a " good square meal for a quarter," was shown by the irrepressible humorist a restaurant where such a meal could be had, and was about starting on, when the poor fellow very humbly asked him if he knew where he could get the quarter. This was too much for Mark, who immediately furnished him the desired amount. Mr. Potter states there were many places where a very small sum of money would have purchased what is now very valu-
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
able property, but, like the man in the story, he didn't know where he could get that small amount of money. He, however, wanted to come farther west, and in 1844, came to Joliet, then a very small town. He remained here ten years, when, desirous of becoming a farmer, he came to Round Grove, being the sixth settler there, his arrival dating April 7, 1854. At that date, the country for nearly thirty miles south of the grove was entirely uninhabited. There was no timber, save a little along the small creeks, in all this scope of territory, that could be utilized by the pioneer. The land had been in the market at govern- ment prices over twenty years, but, owing to its remoteness from market, had failed to find purchasers, and was used as a general hunting ground by all frontier Nimrods.
Mr. Potter came from Joliet in a wagon, the railroad at this time, as has been stated, refusing to carry passengers or freight. It was yet in an unfinished condition, the only trains running over this part of the line being the construc- tion trains.
Mr. Potter brought his family, some furniture, and a few farming utensils with him, and at first occupied one of the cabins near the grove. As soon as he had placed his family in this pioneer home, he went to Morris and brought back sufficient lumber to erect a small frame " shanty," what is now the kitchen part of his house. Into this he moved his family, and occupied it while he broke the prairie and cultivated the first crop. It was then enlarged and repaired and made suitable for passing the Winter. Mr. Potter was always exceedingly fond of hunting, and was noted for his skill in the use of the rifle. He has been known to kill from six to eight deer in two hours ; his boy follow- ing him with a horse and sled to haul them to the house, where the venison was prepared for future use.
This part of the country was a noted hunting ground for the Indians. Shabbona, a noted Indian chief, whose portrait and biography appear in this work, often came from his grove in DeKalb County, and hunted over these prairies. He nearly always brought several of his tribe with him. His two daughters accompanied him, to cook his meals and "jerk " the venison. One of these was very dark featured, and one just the reverse. They were clothed in calico obtained from the Indian agent, and were quite civilized in their habits. The encampment was always near the grove, where fuel and water could be easily obtained. Shabbona nearly always rode an Indian pony, and was an expert hunter. One day, while riding over the prairie in quest of game, he came upon Mr. Potter, who was then a new settler, and whom he had never seen before. Riding up to him, and as if to impress him who he (Shabbona) was, and also to let him know his name, he smote his brawny breast, saying, " Shabbona (pronouncing the last syllable like a in law, and giving it the accent), me ! Shabbona, me!" Mr. Potter nodded assent to what he said. when the chief continued, waving his hand toward the broad expanse of prairie before him, "One time white man's wo-haw plenty, plenty ; white man's
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
wo-haw plenty." "You mean buffalo plenty here once ? " inquired Mr. Potter. " Yes, buf-fe-lo, buf-fe-lo plenty," responded Shabbona. The chief could con- verse a little in the English language, and was always a steadfast friend of the white men, at one time saving many of them from the fury of his countrymen.
An important hunting expedition is worthy of record here, although it did not take place until 1860. We refer to the hunting party of the Prince of Wales. Their chief point was Dwight, although they hunted through several surrounding townships. Many stories are told how the Prince and his party slaughtered tame ducks, turkeys and chickens, and were com- pelled by the wrathful owners to pay round sums for their mistakes. They spent their time hunting steadily, carrying all their provisions with them, get- ting only tea and coffee from the inhabitants. Several of the attendant Lords were exceedingly ignorant of the American pioneers. and sagely inquired if they really did drink tea and coffee, and could read and write. Did they know where England was, and anything of her greatness ? They were often corrected by being informed of things in England even they did not know. They soon learned to respect the yeomanry here, and greatly admired the intelligence exhibited among them. One day, while hunting near Mr. Potter's, in Round Grove Township, they were informed of his skill in the use of the rifle, and at once sent for him to hunt with them. They generally shot feathered game while on the wing, and Mr. P., taking the same course, surprised them by inva- riably bringing down the game. They were amazed at his skill, and could not account for the fact of a man following his profession being such a sure shot. They could not forget him, and on their return to England wrote to a resident of Dwight asking him, in language more emphatic than elegant, if that old man still lived out on the prairie who shot so accurately when hunting with them.
Lady Franklin paid the Grove a visit when on her travels through the West. She sent for the women in the neighborhood to call and see her, many of whom accepted the invitation, and were received with that ease and elegance born of royalty.
Shortly after Mr. Potter arrived, the Broughtons passed by his place on their way to the eastern part of the township which now bears their name. They came from Morris in a large moving wagon, and were the earliest settlers in that township. Dwight was then only started, and could boast of but one house, and that a board shanty where the tools were kept and some of the railroad laborers slept. Odell was not then known, and to Morris the resi- dents were obliged to go after mail. Pontiac was a small village only, with more hope than anything else.
The next settler in Round Grove Township, then known only by its gov- ernment survey as Town 30 north, Range 8 east, was William Cook, who, with his family, came from Joliet and settled in the western part of the township. He was probably one of the last settlers that Summer.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
The next Winter, 1854-5, a school was taught in one of the log cabins by Charlotte Potter, now Mrs. Charlotte Eldred. Slab seats were made, holes bored in the log walls and desks made on the pins inserted in them, a box stove placed in it, and the room was considered ready. This was the school for this community until after the township organization, in 1858. That pro- duced a change for the better, and new and more comfortable houses came into use. In the Autumn of 1858, Mr. Potter went to Joliet and procured lumber for the erection of a school house, which was completed and occupied the next Summer. School was taught in this building by Margaret Turner, of Dwight, and such was the state of the township finances that Mr. Potter was obliged to wait alnost two years before he received pay for building this house. About the time the war came on, the township began to increase very rapidly in popu- lation, and other schools were added. This continued to be the case until the present number, nine, was reached. The schools are now in good condition, and are maintained fully six months in the year.
There are no established churches in the township. Several Catholics reside. here, but belong to the church just south, in Broughton Township. Those belonging to other denominations generally attend divine service in Dwight. Through the Summer, Sunday schools are held in many of the school houses, and are well sustained. In the early days of the people here, services were held in each other's cabins or houses, and, after the building of the school houses, were held there. When roads were made, the people began attending church in Dwight, and still keep up the practice.
In the old log school house the first elections were held, and here votes were cast for Fillmore and Buchanan, representing the two great political parties of the day. The politics of the township have always been nearly equally divided between the Republicans and Democrats ; and since the Greenback party came into prominence, it has found a good number of adherents here.
The township furnished its full quota of men for the late war. These gen- erally went to Dwight, Odell or Pontiac to enlist, and hence in the war record printed elsewhere in this book will be found credited to those places.
We have noted the coming of the first settlers in this town, and have narrated at some length their settlement here and their trials and difficulties experienced in the subjugation of the new prairie country. We could go on in this strain to an indefinite length, giving the name of each settler and what he did when coming here. This is so fully given in the biographical part of the work, under each name, that its mention here would simply be an unnecessary repetition, and to these pages the reader is referred for the further prosecution of this subject.
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