The History of McLean County, Illinois; portraits of early settlers and prominent men, Part 51

Author: Le Baron, Wm., Jr. & Co., Chicago, Pub
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : W. Le Baron, Jr.
Number of Pages: 1092

USA > Illinois > McLean County > The History of McLean County, Illinois; portraits of early settlers and prominent men > Part 51

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The history of the famous Normal, or Thirty-third Illinois, Regiment, should be touched upon in this article, as it is of interest to our narrative. In April, 1861, when the war commeneed, Joseph G. Howell, who was then Principal of the Model School at Normal, volunteered, with four or five of the students of the University.

Howell was killed at Fort Donelson. On his departure from Normal, with several of the students mentioned, there was a probability that nearly all of the remainder would enlist before the end of the spring term. Had this happened, they would have been scattered through different commands, of little assistance to each other, and would have made no record for the institution of which they were members.

Mr. Hovey, the President, in order to hold the school together awhile longer, pro- cured a drillmaster-Capt. White-and a military company was formed for daily prac- tice and drill.

By the end of the term, July 4, 1861, this company had become well disciplined, and had formed plans for enlisting in a body as soon as an opportunity should be found.

About the middle of July, Mr. Hovey went to Washington, and offered to raise a whole regiment of students, teachers and educational men. His offer received no attention for several days; but while he was waiting for an answer, Bull Run spoke in beseeching tones for volunteers, and the day after that disastrous battle, his regiment was gladly accepted by the Secretary of War.

Mr. Hovey returned to Normal, now Colonel, and proceeded to organize the regiment. He called on the educational men of the State with such suecess that by the first of September his regiment was at Springfield with nearly its full comple- ment of men. Company A, its first company, was made up originally from those Nor- mal students who had been drilling for nearly three months previously, and contained most of the students who volunteered at that time, although several others took positions in this or in other regiments. Ira Moore, one of the teachers, raised a company

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HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY.

for the regiment, mainly of men from MeLean County. Moses I. Morgan, Aaron Gove and C. J. Gill, students, together raised in Du Page, La Salle and Stark Counties a full company, of which they became the commissioned officers. The officers of the students' company (A) were : L. H. Potter-one of the teachers-Captain ; J. H. Burn- ham, who graduated July 4, 1861, First Lieutenant ; and G. Hyde Norton, of the next graduating class, Second Lieutenant ; about fifty enlisted from this institution in the year 1861.

Charles E. Hovey, the first President of the Normal University, went into the army as Colonel of the Thirty-third Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, known in the history of this State as the " Normal Regiment.". He was one of the bravest and best of the noble officers of the volunteer service ; he was commended for his skill and good behavior in the battle of Fredericktown, Mo., which took place October 21, 1861. In the battle of " Cache River," or " Cotton Plant," in Arkansas, July 7, 1862, Col. Hovey greatly distinguished himself by his courage in the face of defeat, when he rallied the retreating soldiers under a galling fire, though wounded in the breast himself, re-arranged the shattered lines and brought victory out of what came near being a disas- trous defeat. For this good conduet he was appointed Brigadier General by the Presi- dent, his commission dating from September 5, 1862. He was soon assigned to the command of Gen. Sherman, who placed him in charge of his advance brigade, a posi- tion he filled until April, 1863. Gen. Sherman gave him the highest praise for his efficiency. When Congress assembled in the winter of 1862 and 1863, it was not pre- pared to confirm the appointment of all of President Lincoln's Brigadier Generals, and limited the number of confirmations to one hundred. The President had sent in two names from McLean County-those of Gen. Ilovey and Gen. W. W. Orme, and when he was obliged to revise his list, bringing it from about one hundred and fifty to the proper number, he felt compelled, on account of the policy of equal territorial distribu- tion, to drop the name of Gen. Hovey, which he did very reluctantly. This threw that gentleman suddenly out of his position in April, 1863, and he left the army just as he was on the threshold of a remarkably brilliant career. In 1863, Congress granted him tardy justice by the compliment of a brevet Major Generalship.

Several of the residents of the village-students-enlisted and never returned, or came home to linger a few years and die. William A. Pearce and his cousin, Alvin T. Lewis, were both killed in battle, while Lieut. James B. Fyffe died in 1871. Edward J. Lewis, editor of the Bloomington Pantagraph in 1861, assisted in forming the Thirty-third Regiment, enlisted as a private soldier, and afterward became Captain in C Company. He is now Postmaster at Normal. Col. E. R. Roe, Gen. C. E. Lippin- cott and Col. I. S. Elliott were all members of this brave old regiment, which partici- pated in the battles before Vicksburg, Mobile, and other historical battles. Normal has always claimed an interest in the welfare of the Thirty-third Regiment which was known for years as the Normal Regiment ; and its Company A of students, though represent- ing thirty different counties in this State, contained so many Normal residents, and was so essentially a product of the institution, that its memory will ever be cherished here. In 1862, several of the Normal students enlisted in the Ninety-fourth Regiment, which was raised in McLean County. These were mostly in Capt. W. II. Mann's company. Mr. M. was a nurseryman, in company with the lamented Overman, and his command contained more Normal men than any other that enlisted.

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HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Freemasons were organized February 20, 1871. The present number of members is twenty-six. The officers for 1879 are: J. S. Lackey, Master ; A. T. Dick- erson. Senior Warden ; J. M. James, Junior Warden; A. C. Taylor, Treasurer ; S. K. Vickroy, Secretary; F. R. Baker, Senior Deacon; J. S. Garrett, Junior Deacon ; James Worden and George W. Davidson, Stewards; A. S. Hursey, Tiler. There are quite a number of gentlemen in Normal who are members of some one or more of the different societies in the neighboring city of Bloomington.

We find, that though Normal does not pretend to be a commercial or manufactur- ing point, it transacts considerable business. Its grain-dealers purchase considerable quantities of produce, and its retail stores include the several branches found in towns of its size, consisting of drug, hardware, dry goods and grocery stores; there are, besides, other retail dealers. For several years after the village was started, it was thought all the different branches of miscellaneous business would be patronized in Bloomington, leaving no opening for home talent ; but after a time, the greater conven- ience of Normal stores was so plainly demonstrated, that those dealers who first started business in the village found ready patronage, and their places of business were followed by the opening of others, all of which are now permanently established.

In the manufacturing line, Normal's experience has been rather a severe one, as there can scareely be said to be a successful manufactory in the village. There is a woolen-factory, capable of employing from ten to thirty operatives, but it has never been run to its full capacity. It is now operated on a small scale, making excellent goods and doing a fair business. but has not the trade that might be expected of a factory situated between two such towns as Normal and Bloomington. A large paper-mill was built about six years ago, which, for a time, turned out large quantities of a good qual- ity of printing paper. For some months the St. Louis Republican, the Bloomington Pantagraph, and other journals used its paper, but the owners failed after about two years' trial, and the mill is now idle.

The Normal stock yards are quite an institution. They are situated on the east side of the Chicago, Alton & St. Louis Railroad. They can comfortably feed and water over a thousand cattle at once, and are a great convenience to such shippers as wish to rest their stock here before taking them to the Chicago market.

We hope Normal will, in the future, retain its pre-eminence as an educational cen- ter, and that it will some day see the establishment of other colleges or seminaries. If it ean secure these, and can retain its present intelligent population, there is little doubt that it will become known as one of the best towns in the West; that its future may become all that its past has led us to look for, is the earnest wish of the citizens of MeLean County.

John Gregory NORMAL TP.

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HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY.

RANDOLPH TOWNSHIP.

Randolph Township, named from Randolph's Grove, which occupies the central part, is, like all of the southern tier of this county, six miles by eight, and contains all of Township 22, Range 2 east, and twelve sections, or one-third of Township 21, Range 2. It is generally rolling, having very little flat land, and is beautifully timbered, or was originally, and very little of what was timber has been cleared off. About ten sec- tions, or nearly 20 per cent of its territory, were covered with a more or less sturdy growth of native timber, which made it a desirable location for those who sought this county for homes at an early day. The Kickapoo Creek passes entirely across from the northeast to the southwest corner, and its branches flow through nearly every section in the township, so that it is not strange that no other country township in the county drew so many early settlers to its borders as this. When Gardner Randolph and his kinsfolk, the Stringfields, first looked on its virgin beauty in May, 1823, it is not to be wondered at that, after years of moving and looking for homes, they should have stopped here and thought-

'. Within this limit is relief enough-

Sweet bottom-grass and high, delightful plain, Round, rising hillocks, brakes obscure and rough,

To shelter them from tempest and from rain."

There could not well be found in this part of the State more of those points deemed necessary by the " Twenty-niners " than were found here. The timber, high, rolling land, running water, and absence of all those things which were popularly supposed to produce the prevalent sickness in new settlements. Randolph, however, visited all the other groves in the county before he decided to remain here, and did not find any that suited him like this. He was, withal, a particular man, and what would have satisfied others would not him, for, having lived here until he had brought up a baker's dozen of children, he went to Kansas, and from thence to California.

The story of the first settler is always an interesting one ; in this case, of more than ordinary interest.

Gardner Randolph, a second consin of John Randolph of Roanoke, was born in North Carolina about the year 1793. When a small boy, his father moved to Tennes- see and died. Gardner and his sister made their home with an uncle, who, soon after, made his home near Huntsville, Ala. About the year 1818, he married a sister of A. M. Stringfield. A year later, he came north and located in White County, Ill. The migrating party consisted of the elder Stringfield and his wife, two sons, Alfred and Severe, the two daughters and their husbands, Randolph and James Burleson, and a daughter, who afterward married Jesse Funk. After remaining in White County one year, they moved to Sangamon, where the father of the family died. Burleson returned to Alabama about 1835, where he entered military service (had served under Jackson before), after which he went to Texas and engaged in the Texan war for independence as Colonel . of a regiment of Texan Rangers.

In 1823, the remainder of the family, under the lead of Randolph, came to the present town of Randolph and made it their home. At that time, everything north of Vandalia, until you reached Fort Clarke ( Peoria), was Fayette County. Hendrix and

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HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY.

Dawson had small shanties at Blooming Grove, and, with this exception, the present county of McLean had not a resident. They made a camp near where the residence of Dr. Stuart now stands, and left A. M. Stringfield there with the women and children, while Randolph, Col. Burleson and Severe Stringfield prospected for a permanent home. They had left Sangamon County because it was too wet, and, in passing through Funk's Grove, where no person then resided, they were pleased with it; but Randolph's clear good sense taught him that he could find something better. They visited Blooming Grove, but say nothing about finding any persons, though it is now understood that Hendrix and Dawson were living there. They also visited the Mackinaw timber and Old Town timber, but returned to where their family were, saying that this was the best place in the country, and, from that time, it has been known as Randolph's Grove. The reasons for their choice were that the land was more rolling than they had found it in Sangamon County, and hence would not be so troubled with standing water, and the stream was a favorite one. The timber was excellent, and they concluded they had found the best locality in the State. Randolph took up a claim and built his cabin where the Houser buildings now stand, on Section 15, and continued to live there until he removed from the State in 1854. He reared a family of twelve children, and, in 1850, four of them, James B., William, Samuel and Alfred, went to California. Find- ing that he needed more land for his large family, he sold the Fry Farm to Mr. Bell, and entered considerable land in Kansas. In 1854, he sold his farm to Houser and went to Kansas to live. He soon sold out and followed his children to California, and died in Sacramento County. One daughter, the wife of Albert Welch, lives in Bloom- ington. Three sons were killed by horses in California, one resides in Oregon and four children still live in California with their mother. Randolph was an energetic business man. In company with his brothers-in-law, he frequently went on those trading excur- sions to Chicago, Terre Haute, Peoria, Ottawa and the mining region, and the Rock River country. They drove hogs principally. They were not of the " improved breeds," now the favorites, but were the sandy, streaked and speckled " wind-splitters," so well known to the early settlers, and which could travel as far in a day as a man could walk before the days of pedestrian contests. It required about seventeen days to drive to Galena, and the hogs would pick up a living as they went along. They would drive from one grove to another, and feed the hogs on the nuts as they became hungry. Like most of the men who settled in this grove early, he belonged to the Methodist Church, and was an exemplary and honored citizen and neighbor.

A. M. and Severe Stringfield, as appears above, came here at the same time with their mother and brothers-in-law, in May, 1823, and took up a claim for their widowed mother on the place which she afterward sold to Samuel Stewart. Alfred later took up a claim a little west of where he now lives, and, afterward, purchased some land east of this, not exactly adjoining it, but leaving a tract between his two parcels which he thought no one would want to buy, and, after he was able to, he bought himself. He was the first to break the land in this town, and, indeed, in this part of the county. After several years of vain attempt to make money enough here to pay for his land, he took his mother to Galena and went to work there teaming, chopping, or at any other labor he could find to do. There was no money in the settlement at Randolph's Grove, but at Galena there was always demand for work and reasonably good pay for the times. He remained at Galena two years, and his mother died there; he then returned. in

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HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY.

1830, to the Grove and bought the west half of the southwest quarter of Section 14, west of and near his present residence. This land he continues to own still. Subsequently, he bought the east half of the same quarter-section, and, later, other lands joining. Up to this time, the life of Capt. Stringfield had been a wandering one. For years working with and for his father to support the family, and, after that father's death, as the chief support of his widowed mother, his care and labor had been for her. The slow process of acquiring property on the frontier had been to the energetic and active young man slower than he had expected; the uncertain calling of teaming in the lead-mines had hardly encouraged him. The recent passage of the pre-emption law gave him an opportunity, and, in 1832, he married a daughter of George C. Hand, who had for some years lived a neighbor in the little settlement. From this date his success was marked. Hard work and plenty of it he has always had, but now, at the age of seventy, he is as lithe and spry as a young man of twenty-five ; swings an ax as if it were mere sport, and one would hardly suppose that he had lived through sixty years of hard and exacting labor. For several years and up to the railroad age, he continued to raise feed, and buy and drive stoek to market; the latter he abandoned when it became necessary to ship stock by rail. His papers bear the signature of Andrew Jackson, whom he knew when he lived in Alabama. His father and other members of the family had served under the old hero, and, on return from one of his Southern excursions, Jackson had taken dinner at his father's house. Whether these early incidents had their natural effect on the young man he himself probably hardly knows, but no secrecy is violated in saying that String- field has voted the Democratic ticket and very effectively supported the principles and views of that party pretty continuously since he arrived at voting age, a habit he is in no danger of abandoning while he remains here. He is a man of native eloquence and might have made in any calling which would have cultivated those powers a very fine record ; but he seems to have had no ambition in that way. Ten children have been born to him, eight of whom grew to maturity. He is a strong man, whose patriotism has never been questioned and whose love for his fellow-man has never ceased.

George C. Hand, Mr. Stringfield's father-in-law, left Ohio for the great West in 1819, and, after spending four years in the Wabash Valley, near Shawneetown, and two years in Sangamon, came here to Randolph Grove in 1825. He took up land in Sections 24 and 25, the farm now owned and occupied by Clement Passwaters. To him were born ten daughters and four sons ; all of whom grew up to manhood and womanhood but one daughter. This would have been deemed at the present day a very interesting family, but it did not seem to surprise the Grove much. He was a devoted member of and a local preacher in the Methodist Church, and his house was one of the earlier preaching-places in this neighborhood. He went from here to Iowa and died in 1845.

Mr. Severe Stringfield, who came here with his mother and brother, was a wheel- wright by trade, and commenced to build a mill on the Kickapoo, but sold it to Mr. Bishop. He afterward put up a mill farther up stream in Downs Township. In 1852, he went to Santa Barbara County, Cal., where he still resides.

These early settlers endured all the hardships customary to those in like situation. They went to Springfield to do their trading and not uncommonly (Squire Stringfield vouches for this, and it will be remembered that he married into a family where there were ten daughters) the single room of a pioneer cabin served the joint and several purposes of parlor, kitchen, dining-room and bedroom, where the family and visitors

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HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY.

did their cooking, eating, sleeping and courting. The County Clerk's office was so far away that to accommodate custom to circumstances, the Clerk agreed to a trifling irregu- larity in the way of marriage licenses, in permitting the officiating clergymen to fill up the license, when he came around in his circuit to make return of the license to the Clerk. Many a young couple were just as efficaciously united in this way, and felt satisfied with it.

Thomas Toverca, who had served in the war of 1812, and was somewhat familiar with this part of the country (it is said, though the writer has not been able to verify this, that he passed through or near this grove in an expedition which was intended to intimidate the Indians in this State), came to the State from King's salt works in East Tennessee, about 1820. He lived for a time at the salt works in Gallatin County, from whence all this new country got their salt in the early times. There he became acquainted with Gardner Randolph, and after living a short time in Morgan County, came to Mr. Randolph's and made his home on a portion of the latter's claim, where Mrs. Lightner now lives. After living here a few years, he sold to Governor Moore and removed to Downs Township where H. A. Myers now live.

In 1830, John Moore came here from Harrison, Ohio, where he had worked at his trade some years. He had married in Kentucky the widow of the man he had for- merly worked for, and then engaged in work at Harrison on his own behalf. A sketch of this remarkable man appears farther on. He sold this place to Mr. French, and bought farther east and built where Mr. Ryburn now lives. He was the first of the long line of names who have made McLean County famous for conspicuous official life, and his great success in that direction undoubtedly gave incitement to a desire for polit- ical preferment which so many of her citizens have indulged in.

The same year (1830), Mr. Samuel Stewart came here from Hamilton County, Ohio, a county which furnished many early settlers to Randolph. He had formerly lived in Virginia. He purchased the claim of A. M. Stringfield, before mentioned, and in 1834 put up what is believed to be the first brick house in McLean County. The house still stands, and is occupied by his son, Hon. A. E. Stewart, as his family resi- dence. The house is a real curiosity. The lumber was most of it home made, " whip" sawing being then a favorite way to manufacture lumber. The fire-place is large enough for four, and the bricks in the chimney are sufficient to make at least a half-dozen as now made. The house has never undergone any modernizing. and is comfortable within. Dr. Stewart is the only one of Mr. Samuel Stewart's children now living on the land which he entered here. He studied medicine, and after graduating, married, but soon left a growing practice to accept the position of surgeon in the Ninety-fourth Regiment Illinois Volunteers, serving three years and returned to his farm. In 1872, he was elected to the Legislature, and returned in 1874. He proved to be a careful, well- informed and industrious Representative. At present he is serving as Record Clerk in the office of the Circuit Clerk of McLean County, a position which his accurate meth- ods of business and prompt attention to whatever his duties are eminently fit him. He owns and works a fine farm of about three hundred acres, the residence occupying a beautiful spot adorned by nature for a home of elegance and delight. As before stated, it was the first spot selected in Randolph for a home, and with but one or two exceptions, the first in the county ; and well it justifies the judgment of that early selection. It is not strange that music finds its home in such a pleasant retreat. The children of this family have formed a band, and make music one of the pleasant accompaniments of home-life.

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HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY.

In 1825, Tobias Downer moved here from Sangamon Connty, and made a home on Section 24, near the township line. He remained about ten years, and after a few years spent in the lead mines, moved to Salt Creek.

The same year, John Mayberry took up a claim on Section 25, and lived there until his death, which occurred in 1869. One of his children lives Bloomington and one in Chicago. His two youngest live on the same land their father first entered. He was a quiet man and a good citizen.

Near him was the farm of Col. J. Burleson, before spoken of, after whom the branch was named: It is a fine farm and now owned by H. M. Miller. Col. B. sold it to Mr. Merrideth who lived on it several years.

Chambers Wright took up land in Section 36, and after going to the lead mines for awhile, some years after his return, sold to Morgan and Radcliff.

Early in 1824, Thomas O. Rutledge came to the farm he still lives on, about one mile east of Heyworth. Only the Stringfield family and those who came with them then lived in the present town of Randolph. Mr. Rutledge, then scarcely eighteen years old, had in a great measure the care of his mother, lately. widowed, and her family. They came from Kentucky, and spent a year or two in White County, and in Sangamon. He made a wagon without any iron, to move with, and their entire household goods were readily transported on it, drawn by a pair of steers, which he had raised. This team was all he had for farming the first two years of his residence here. He was not able to work on the new farm all the time, for he was obliged to work out part of the time. He went to Waynesville and split rails, and brought home his pay in the shape of chairs and other needful furniture, on horse-back. This was at that time part of Fayette County. He was married in 1829, when this was Tazewell County, with its county seat at Mack- inawtown.

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The History of McLean County, Illinois; portraits of early settlers and prominent men, Part 51

Author: Le Baron, Wm., Jr. & Co., Chicago, Pub Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : W. Le Baron, Jr. Number of Pages: 1092

Author: Le Baron, Wm., Jr. & Co., Chicago, Pub
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : W. Le Baron, Jr.
Number of Pages: 1092