The History of McLean County, Illinois; portraits of early settlers and prominent men, Part 82

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 82

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In 1868, under the pressure of the popular railroad arguments, Downs voted $10,000 stock in the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western Railroad. The road was built, and runs, for about five miles, across the northeast corner of the township, from northwest to southeast, cutting Sections 5, 4, 10, 11 and 13. The station on Section 4 is the only railroad station in town.

This road was recently sold out under foreclosure of mortgage, and the stock- holders get nothing for their stock. The Court, however, found a way to allow law- yers' fees, amounting to $32,000, for their labors in cleaning the stockholders out. The records of the township do not show that the lawyers have yet "declared a dividend " .

on the stock owned by Downs.

There were several mills put up on the stream ; none of them lasted a great while, though. The difficulty was to get a dam which would stand the pressure of spring freshets and the rainy season.

John Rice had a mill which, by constructing a long " racc," had about seven feet fall. It was built about 1840, and had the old-fashioned "flutter " wheel and gate. Hon. John Cusey run this mill for some time. He says that he has sawed as high as four thousand feet in twenty-four hours, though this was far above the average capacity of the mill. It was customary to saw logs for the half, or small lots for 50 cents per hundred feet. Much of the lumber went to build Bloomington, and some of the houses

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stand there yet. In the absence of pine, which now. forms every portion of the houses built, the buildings were made entirely of hard wood-home-sawed lumber. The clap- boards and casings were of black-walnut, the frame of oak, hewn out, and the joints, braces, etc., sawed. No " balloon " buildings were built in those days. The floors were ash, and the lath either basswood or oak, split with an ax by laying the pieces on a plank, so that the entire board would hang together when put on the wall, and separated to the required distances by driving wedges in until they were nailed. The shingles were of oak or black-walnut, shaved. Such shingles. if properly laid, would last forty years, or until they were, like the " Deacon's Masterpiece," worn out.

Severe Stringfield had a grist-mill further down stream, near the southwest corner of Section 5. It was built about 1831. It was about. 16x20, one story high, and had a water-head of about five and one-half feet. The stones were home-made, being cut ont of the bowlders found here on the prairie. They were little more than two feet in diameter, and did very good service. The lower one, since it has ceased to do service as a " nether mill-stone," is serving its generation as a door-step for H. C. Bishop's house. What service it will next see is not for the historian to undertake to say.

Elder Elijah Veatch put up a mill, about 1840, on the same stream ; and some genius, whose name even has departed from memory, started a pottery about the same time. It was not a success, however. It was on Section 17, on the Jacoby branch.

The township took its name from Lawson Downs, who came here from White County-though originally from Tennessee-in 1829, and took up a claim at " Diamond Grove," on Section 6, some years before the land here came into market. He afterward entered this land, and left it to his children. He was here during the deep snow, and endured the hardships of that terrible winter, when he had to dig his sheep out of the snow, hunting them as the boys do ground-squirrels, by their holes. He served, under Capt. Covell, of Bloomington, in the Black Hawk war for thirty days. He was mar- ried, in 1836, to Sarah Weleh, by whom nine sons were born, six of whom grew up to manhood. His life was devoted to farming, and received the reward which industry and frugality brought to those who turned the wild places into farms. He died in 1860, at the age of fifty-one, honored and respected by his neighbors.

Henry Jacoby took up a claim here about the same time, and was for years a neighbor of Downs. These early adventurers did not find all the conveniences here which would make life pleasant. The hunting was better than now, but all those things which are now thought to be necessaries were wanting. Money was so scarce that it was hardly talked of as a commodity. In place of the short-horns and Berkshires, which you see now in every pasture and feed-yard in this magnificent county, were the black, brindle, piebald, polled, streaked and speckled cattle which, for want of a name, we usually call natives. They were as uneven in quality as variegated in colors, and lacked all the finer beef-qualities for which their successors, the short-horns, are so famous. They answered the purposes for which they were wanted, however, perhaps full as well, perhaps better, than the present popular breed would have done. The working cattle were lively, and endured fatigue and heat well ; and even after they were fatted, they stood the long drives, which the then system of marketing demanded, much better than the eattle of the present day would. They could hardly have been called handsome, but they were in all ways the main help and chief profit of the farmer. As much can hardly be said of the wind-splitting prairie-rooters that were the only hogs

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then known in these parts. But then, they were hogs, and did not like to be trifled with. They lived on roots and nuts, and could outrun a horse. When the farmer went to feed them, he put the corn where he was sure the contrary fellows would find it ; and if he had tried to call them with that long, sonorous, half-shout and half-groan now in use to bring hogs to their feed, the chances are decidedly that he would have scared them out of the timber, and might never have seen them. But they were handy to drive, as men had to drive hogs in those days. The breeds of hogs which farmers now raise and feed never would have stood the trips to Chicago and Galena that those " timber hogs " did.

Thomas Toverca came here from Randolph, about 1830. A short notice is given of him in the accompanying history of that township. He was one of those charac- ters that the rapid march of civilization is fast abolishing. He had served under Gov. Edwards in the early Indian difficulties in this part of the State; and in the expedition to which he was attached, an engagement had taken place at the crossing of the Wabash River. Later, they were driven from Old Town Timber, at the place where the carly white settlers, a few years afterward, found such fine blue-grass pasture, and were followed until they crossed the Illinois River, near Ottawa. Mr. Toverca was a rongh, uncouth man, of no early culture, but was an ardent believer in the truths of religion, and was an exhorter of considerable power. After living a short time with his old friend Randolph, he took up a claim in Section 7, here in Downs, and resided here until 1861. He then moved to Iowa, and died at Oskaloosa.

R. F. Dickerson, of Empire, tells of getting up an exciting reaction at one of Toverca's meetings, by getting a dog and cat to fighting out doors while the meeting was in progress in the schoolhouse.

John Price came here from Kentucky, in 1830, but did not then locate here. In 1834, he entered the land on Section 4, which, in 1836, he made his home, and upon which he still lives. This first, he entered at Vandalia, and later, he entered land at Danville, making, in all, nearly seven hundred acres, which he purchased at the Govern- ment price. His neighborhood was called Priceville, and still popularly retains the name, although the station and post office are called Downs. In 1871, Mr. and Mrs. Price celebrated their golden wedding in a most pleasant and long-to-be-remembered entertainment. He has always been a publie-spirited man, and has taken an active part in township affairs. He was proprietor of the little village, and has taken a lively interest in its welfare. The aged couple, who have enjoyed almost sixty years of mar- ried life, look back on the trials and privations of those early years with few regrets. Of their eight children, four are still living. Gillum Station, in Old Town, was named after one of his daughters, Mrs. Mary Gillum Condon.

William Weaver came here from Washington County in the fall of 1832, and set- tled on the township line between Downs and Old Town. He was a preacher of the Anti-Mission Baptists, and used to hold religious meetings in the schoolhouses. He brought sixty head of cattle with him when he came here, and commenced at once to improve his farm. Of thirteen children, twelve grew up to maturity, though only two yet reside in town-his youngest son and the wife of A. P. Craig. Mr. Weaver died in 1838, of congestive chills.

His son, Joseph B. Weaver, who was born the year before his father came here to live, is a man of more than ordinary intelligence. He lives at Downs Station, and has

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shown a lively interest in the affairs of his township, both political and educational. He served three years in the Ninety-fourth Regiment, and is greatly respected in the community in which he lives.

E. H. Wall came here from Kentucky, in 1833, and settled in the Priceville neigh- borhood, in Section 5. He had for a number of years been a devoted member of the M. E. Church, and was for ten years a elass-leader there. When he came to the new home, he brought his religion with him, and exercised a decided influence for good. When he was quite young, Rev. Peter Cartwright had made a visit to his father's house, and had made a strong impression on the young man's mind. He often had occasion to exercise a good influence for the keeping of the Sabbath, and was one of the first to get a schoolhouse built where schools and meetings could be held. His life was an exam- ple of fervent piety, and the exercise of noble aspirations. About 1853, he moved to Section 24, and remained there until he died from the effects of a cancer that for fifteen years had slowly spread, withstanding all efforts to stay its progress.

William Bishop, who settled in the same neighborhood, and kept the "Six-mile House" across the line in Old Town Township, entered the land where his son Henry now lives, in Downs, in 1838. Henry C. has a fine farm, and is a prosperous farmer.

Rev. R. D. Taylor came to Old Town Timber in 1836. He had been educated at. Princeton College. Kentucky, a school of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and came here before his ordination, partially because he believed it to be an important field and one needing laborers, and partly because he did not believe in the institution of slavery, and wanted to get away from it. He commenced to preach here, and was ordained by the Mackinaw Presbytery in 1838. He went to work with a will, and preached and taught school. His circuit extended from the Mackinaw to Salt Creek. He lived on the east half of the southeast quarter of Section 3, and used to hold serv- iees in the house of Mr. Manning, and later, in the Union Church, built on the north- east quarter of Section 2, by the Methodists and Presbyterians jointly. While he was preaching, one Sabbath, his house took fire and burned up, with all its contents. He was just expatiating on the mercy of God, and had just remarked that, no matter what calamity comes to us, the goodness and merey of God are plainly diseernable, even in calamity, when the alarm of fire was sounded, which proved to be his home.

He was an excellent school-teacher, and many of the older citizens of Downs received cheir finishing at his hands. Hon. John Cusey, Wiatt Adams, P. B. Price, Mrs. Condon, J. B. Weaver, Asa Savidge, and many others, were among his graduates. He moved from here to De Witt County, and thence to Le Roy, where he still lives, still laboring in the Master's vineyard, though, for several years, he has not held regular pastoral relation. He is believed to be the first regularly-educated minister who labored here, and his record and labors here show how much good can be done by an earnest, devoted life, when seconded by the aid which education gives.

For more than forty years he has given his labors to the cause of religion, and, as he believes every Christian minister's duty is, has saved enough, and only enough, to make him and his wife comfortable, if he is spared here beyond the time his strength of body and mind will permit him to labor. He has no complaint to make, and few regrets. His later years seem peaceful and lit up with a spirit of unclouded joy.

Mr. Isaac Peasley came from Virginia to this county in 1834, and remained for two years a renter on Jesse Funk's land, and, in 1836, came out onto the prairie and

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put up a cabin on Section 19, two miles from the timber, a little west of where his son, Sylvester, now lives. When the neighbors came out from Randolph's Grove, to help him put up his house, they made light of his judgment in coming out so far from the Grove, and offered to give him all the land he could see. They were sure he never could live there-a statement he almost thought verified when the " sudden change" struck his prairie home, the December following. He moved across the road, a few years later, onto Section 30, and remained there till he died, in 1861.

His son, Sylvester, commenced to make a farm at his present residence, in Section 20, in 1847. In his younger days, he did not enjoy many educational advantages, as his time was given to helping his father care for the family, but a well-stored mind shows that he has not let slip any advantages that were in his reach. He is an ordained minister of the Baptist denomination, and continued to preach until a bronchial affec- tion compelled him to discontinue it.

He has given much attention to the raising and feeding of stock, and has, by hard work, good judgment and excellent business habits, acquired a fair portion of this world's goods .. Like all the early settlers, he was obliged to make Chicago his market when it seemed about all the load of grain was worth to get there. He early made cattle-raising his principal business. He has always taken an interest in the affairs of the town and of the schools. He was elected the first Supervisor, and, for the last eleven years, he has been continuously the Supervisor ; and, for the last two years, Chairman of the Board.

He owns 300 acres of land, which is being well worked. In 1876, he built a large and well-arranged residence on his farm, really the finest one in Downs. It is 34x48, two stories high, with large, airy rooms, and well arranged for the comfort of the family and the delight of his friends. The cellars are nicely plastered and frost-proof, and, indeed, all its appointments are excellent.

Mr. Peasley has a fine herd of short-horns, numbering about twenty-five, among which are several very fine animals, showing the same good care in selection and excel- lent judgment in breeding which are seen in all his affairs. He is justly esteemed one of Downs' best citizens, such a one as McLean County knows how to use in her public affairs.

W. W. Peasley has a fine farm of 375 acres on Section 29. The buildings are excellent, and the grounds beautifully adorned with evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubbery. The beautiful lawn and neatly-trimmed hedges indicate the home of refine- ment and comfort. The Sabbath-school Conventions are usually held on his grounds, and it would be difficult to find a more delightful place for these annual convocations.

Ebenezer Craig came to Downs and took up land near the northern line of the township, in 1834. He moved to Empire Township two years later, and returned to Downs in 1840, where he resided till his death in 1854.

His son, A. P. Craig, continued to reside on the homestead, making it into a good farm. He married a daughter of Mr. Weaver, and had ten children born to him, nearly all of whom made their homes near by. He was a man of intelligence and probity, dying, respected and esteemed by all who knew him, in 1874. He owned about 600 acres of land, most of which was in this township. His business was principally cattle- raising and feeding.

One of the most successful farmers in Downs, according to the testimony of all his neighbors, is Mr. Henry Welch, who came here from Indiana, in 1835, and took up land at Diamond Grove, where he still resides.

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He was a driving, energetic man, and permitted nothing to distract his attention from his farming, except that during the first few years he was obliged to team and work around wherever he could carn enough to give him a start. He has, for years, been a large stock-raiser and feeder of cattle, hogs, horses and shecp. His experience in the latter was more successful than the average, except that he was never able to get hold of a herd of sheep that worse than useless dogs would not destroy by the score on every occasion. His losses from dogs have been discouraging. He has a fine farm where he resides, and a large farm in West Township. In cattle-raising and feeding, he has no superior, though he never has driven so large a business as the Funk's and some others, he has, neverthless, been a decided success. Mr. Welch is the father of eight children, most of whom have grown up around him to enjoy the advantages of his excellent example, his thrift and good management.

Hon. John Cusey came to McLean County with his father and brother in 1836, and was for several years engaged in working at his trade, that of a cabinet-maker and carpenter. At different times he has run nearly all the saw-mills erected on this stream, and was engaged in building several of the earlier houses, which were built in this town and in Bloomington. He framed and built the first framed house built in Downs-that now owned by Joseph Kershaw, on Section 21. It was built on Section 11, November, 1842. In 1843, it was moved to Section 1, in Randolph, and, a few years after, moved back to Section 21, in Downs, where it now stands. To move houses in those days was not so great an undertaking. They put a pair of false sills under them, chamfered off like sleigh-runners, and made a bee, getting together a few prairie-breaking teams of cattle, and made short work of drawing it a few miles. After this working around for several years, he, in 1845, entered the northwest quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 6, Town 21, Range 3. He sold as good a team as he ever owned to get money to enter this, as he supposed, forty ; but, when he got to Danville, he found that it was what was known as a fractional corner, and contained fifty-six acres; he deposited his fortune there and came back home to raise enough to pay for the tract. He lived there twenty-three years, and then moved farther east, on Section 5, where he now lives.

For many years, he was in the employ of Jesse Funk as his clerk, going with him to buy and weigh his purchases. Funk could buy more hogs than any man in the country. He placed the most implicit confidence in Cusey, a confidence which it is almost unnec- cssary to say never was violated in the slightest. It was Funk who gave Cusey the title of " Deacon " against the latter's protest, for Cusey is a Methodist, and does not recognize the Congregational title ; but his employer excused it by explaining to Mr. Cusey that people around where he went to buy hogs would not be suspicions of him when they learned that he kept a deacon for his companion and clerk. The "Deacon " never thought of demanding increased salary to support the pomp and circumstance of this titular dignity.

Mr. Cuscy has always taken an interest in politics. Following his father's strong anti slavery bent, he became a Republican, and has held strongly to that party since its beginning. He has eight times been elected Assessor and twice Supervisor. In the latter position, he displayed the strong, clear, good sense which is the leading point in his character in so marked a degree, that, in 1872, he was selected by the Republicans as their candidate for the Senate, and he was elected thic first Senator from McLean County after it became a district alone.

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During the time of his service in the State Senate, the revision of the laws of the State was perfected, and, with untiring zeal, he exerted a large influence on the side of rugged justice, strict accountability of officials, and more prompt enforcement of law against all violators.

Whether the people of McLean County know it or not, the writer knows that no Senator from that county ever goes to Springfield that he does not awaken a kind of undefined suspicion on the part of the others that there is lurking about him sundry embryo raids on the treasury or illy-concealed demands for appropriations which must be opposed and defeated. Mr. Cusey was not free from the suspicion which the locality attaches o her representatives. He was, fortunately, able to do much to not only relieve him- Self, but those who follow him, from the unjust and disagreeable imputation. On the whole, his term of service in the Senate, while a laborious, was a very successful one. Being at a time when the " Farmers' movement" was at its height, he was, from his occupation, his uncommon good sense and loyalty both to the interests of the farmers and to his own convictions, enabled to do many things to satisfy them that all legisla- tion is not in the interest of monopolies and lawyers.

The peculiarity of his name-his own family and his brothers being, so far as he knows, the only persons bearing the name in America-was the subject of many a remark, and a mistake while he was in the Senate. There sat in the Senate during the three winters that Mr. Cusey was there, Col. Thomas S. Casey, who was, in all things except in his unbounded good nature, the very opposite of John Cusey. Tall, handsome, full- built, with a full share of the dash which a short year's service which had given him the title he so gracefully wore, a lawyer of excellent abilities, and the acknowledged leader of the Democracy of the Senate, which was in minority one session, and by union with the Independents and the Haines became a majority the following one, as proud of his name as of his person, it is not strange that the frequent confounding of the names of these two radical opponents should produce amusing mistakes and be the cause of almost endless explanation. It also afforded an easy way out of an unfortunate or unpopular vote. Nearly everything which the present generation learn of their Repre- sentatives they get from telegrams in the daily papers, and the frequent mistakes which telegraphie operators make in names is notorious. If Cusey introduced a bill to protect the financial interests of owners of valuable horses, Casey was published in his Egyptian home as " giving his valuable legal mind to fixing the legal status of colt and sire." When Cusey introduced a bill to protect the Downs sheep from the ravages of dogs, Casey's constituents were congratulated by the local press on the fact that their Senator was finally aroused to the most important farmers' interest of the day. Many laughable incidents arose from these matters, among which was the introduction of a bill by Col. Casey, as he jocosely said, to protect his fair name, for changing the name of Senator Cusey. One of the "Mistakes of the Telegraphers," which the writer is certain never has been in print, but which he is personally able to vouch for, was this : The person who held the not very pleasant position of night operator at the Springfield office that winter, and who had, probably, a thousand times clicked off the names of these two worthy Senators, had heard so much said about the confusion he was innocently making that he came to the Senate chamber, one afternoon, to look at them, in order, perhaps, to familiarize himself with their appearance. Calling to his aid an officer of the Senate, he asked to have Col. Casey pointed out to him. After taking a

D. C. Mahau LEXINGTON

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good look at the leader of the Democracy, and remarking that he was a splendid fellow, and suggesting a " pity he drinks," said, inquiringly, " Now, which is Cussy ?" The broad grin which followed was the first intimation he had that he had not simply been making the mistake of spelling.

Senator Cusey, since he retired from the Senate, has devoted his time to farming. He was married to Miss Bishop, a daughter of Jacob Bishop, of Randolph, in 1843, who has had nine children, seven of whom are now living.

S. T. Richardson came to Downs and took up a piece of land just south of Dia- mond Grove, along the Kickapoo, in 1839. He was a brother-in-law of Henry Welch, and came here to bring their mother, Mrs. Welch. He worked a small farm, but his time was much given to teaming. Pekin, in Tazewell County, was the nearest river point to all this country, and mnuch of their farm produce went there after the comple- tion of the Illinois Canal, though Mr. Richardson and others went frequently to Chi- cago. In going to Chicago, with cattle, they had the first station at Smith's Grove, next at Eppard's Point, then at Babcock's Grove, called Wolf Grove. There was then a long stretch before they reached the timber on the Mazon.

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The History of McLean County, Illinois; portraits of early settlers and prominent men, Part 82

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