The History of McLean County, Illinois; portraits of early settlers and prominent men, Part 86

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 86

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The persons and firms now engaged in business here are: Dry goods, etc., John Pool, H. C. Purdy & Co., R. R. Grady, J. O. Exley, J. W. Finley ; grain, Rakestraw, Haynes & Co., Blaisdell & Leeret ; blacksmiths, W. H. Loper, Warren Chamberlain ; wagon-maker, G. W. Allison ; restaurant, J. W. Finley ; physician, - -; sta- tion agent, H. E. Lamb ; baggage and trackmaster, James McNally.

The Postmasters have been H. E. Johnson, A. W. Howard, H. C. Purdy and Edgar Blaisdell.

BELLEFLOWER TOWNSHIP.

Belleflower is the extreme southeastern township of the county, and was one of the latest to come into general settlement. It is like the others in the southern tier, six miles by eight, being described Town 22, Range 6 east, and the northern twelve sections of Town 21, Range 6 east of Third Principal Meridian. In topographical appearance, it is gently undulating, the highest ridge of land being that which forms the " divide " between the Sangamon and Salt Creek, running through from north to south about two miles east of the western boundary line of the town. Salt Creek runs along near the western boundary from Sections 18 to 31, when it crosses into West. The Sangamon River barely touches the northeastern corner, and makes off toward the east, thence southwest again. The land from northeast corner to southeast corner is pretty level. There is very little wet land in Belleflower; nearly all is capable of cultivation, and all of good drainage. In the northern portion of the township, the land is diversified by numerous round hillocks, which give an interesting appearance to the surface. It was originally entirely destitute of timber, except one poor lone tree which stood on Section 19, near the ford of Salt Creek, and for years seemed to stand as sentinel to that important cross- ing. Several non-residents got hold of considerable of the land, but most of it has now been brought into cultivation.

The Springfield Division of the Illinois Central Railroad runs directly through Town 22, Range 6, touching at the northeast corner of Section 1, running thence almost a due southwest course, hardly bending, and leaving the township a little south of the corner of Section 31. The Chicago & Paducalı Railroad runs across the southeastern corner of the township, and the Havanna, Rantoul & Eastern Narrow Guage runs very nearly east and west across it.

Considerable drainage has been done by open ditches, and tile draining is now being practiced. J. W. Snyder is making tile in the southeastern part of the town, and the township owns one of the Pontiac Graders, which stands out night and day, like the Lone Tree, as a kind of sentinel or watch dog. It has done pretty good service for the town, however.

The town was named by Jesse Richards, the first Justice of the Peace. It was first called Prairie, but Esquire Richards had a great admiration for the Belleflower apple, and proposed the name, which was readily accepted.

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HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY.

All the earlier settlements were made along the northern tier of sections, and along the County Road, so called. This road, for reasons that do not seem to be fully under- stood by the present generation, was run on the half-section line half a mile west of the section line, which is in the middle of the townships, entirely across the county, except that it makes a set-off at Rankin's Grove, in the northern part of Cheney's Grove Township, and has on it the post office at Potosi, the two post offices, Garda and Dart, in Anchor, the iron bridge over the Mackinaw in that township, Saybrook, and Belle- flower station in this town. The first schoolhouse was built in 1857, and the first school was taught by Miss Green. There are now ten districts and eleven schoolhouses in the town, the Belleflower District having two schoolhouses, which are both occupied in the fall and winter terms, the schools being consolidated during the summer term.

The M. E. Church, a fine structure, 36x50, with belfry, was built in 1873, under the pastorate of Rev. Job Ingram. The Church numbers about one hundred and fifty members.

R. E. Moreland came here to live on Seetion 6 in 1858. At that time, there were only about a dozen voters in the township, and most of them are now gone. He com- menced farming in Section 6, but, some years after, located on Section 9, where he now resides. He has a farm of 160 acres, with comfortable buildings. He commenced to buy grain at Belleflower Station as soon as it was established, and has continued in the same business ever since.

At that time, Jesse Richards had a farm. Thomas Green, just deceased, had eighty acres on Section 9. He was a worthy old man, but for some time had been in declining health. His son Thaddeus, who lived near him, was then here.

T. O. Bailey had a farm on Section 6. He was a brother of Washington Bailey, of Downs, and remained here only two or three years.

Moses T. Hall was on Section 5. He was one of the first elected Justices of the Peace. He is now gone.

William Riley came from Ohio to Section 21, in 1855. The only neighbors he had in that part of the town were rattlesnakes, who made themselves so familiar on closer acquaintance, that Mr. Riley, who had never seen the like of that in the old country, got fairly disgusted with their frequent visits into his castle, traded off his farm, and left.

George Wheeler was also away out by himself alone for several years, on Section 23, but did not let the snakes or the shakes drive him from his legal rights. He remained there until his death, in 1877.

Daniel Abel was among the first. He settled on a farm in Section 8, and still lives there.

George Youle purchased the R. J. Cheney farm about 1869. He has 1,000 acres in Sections 3, 4, 9 and 10, which are given to raising, grazing and feeding of stock. He buys and ships. He generally has a herd of about three hundred horned cattle, and stall-feeds about one hundred and thirty in a winter. He is a man of large business capacity, and a good manager. His farm is probably one of the best in the township, being diversified and well adapted to every line of husbandry carried on in these parts.

W. A. Latham came here from Ohio about 1866, and has a large farm near the center of the town. He is engaged largely in keeping sheep and bees. He is a prac- tical and enterprising man, and has an excellent farm.

737

HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY.

Gov. John McNulta has a good section of land in the northern part of the town- ship, which is mostly in pasture.

No resident of the township has more largely filled the requirements which are due from the citizen to his day and generation than Robert E. Guthrie, who now, though still by no means beyond his usefulness, cultivates his quiet farm on Sections 10 and 11. Though not strictly belonging to the history of Belleflower, a short and imper- fect sketch of his life and labors must find place here, as a tribute to the pioneer, the faithful son, the Christian preacher, the father, and the citizen, and not more a tribute to a well-spent life, than an example to those who shall read these pages.

Mr. Guthrie came to McLean County with his father in 1826, to move Mrs. Cox to Blooming Grove, whose husband had died after purchasing the Dawson claim, being then seven years old. His father was so straitened in circumstances, that during nearly all his boyhood, he required his work on the farms that he severally worked in different parts of the county. He received only about ten months school in his life- in the schoolhouse-though his life has been largely devoted to study, and he is a man of large information.

He worked for and with his father at the north side of Funk's Grove, where the C. & A. R. R. enters it, then at the Henry Moots' place, one mile west of Towanda, then to the Benjamin Ogden place, afterward near Bloomington, where he opened a farm for James Allin, near the present engine house, between Maine and Mason streets, which they farmed for two years, after which, with his father, he engaged in the car- penter and mason trades in Bloomington.

At the age of twenty-two, he believed he should give his life to the preaching of the Gospel. And those who talk nowadays about taking up the Cross, and leaving everything for the service of God, might possibly change their notions in regard to the sacrifices they make, by comparison with the early itinerants. His duties were such that no man, raised under the system of the present day, could stand it. Going from house to house, and from timber point to timber point, preaching daily and nightly, through storm and darkness, through rain and snow, with no time to study except when on horseback, supported by the strong love for souls, by a constant intercourse with God through prayer and meditation, with so little worldly support that, at the end of six years, he was actually obliged to discontinue preaching and go to work on a farm to raise money to pay his debts, resuming service again as soon as he could see his way out. At the beginning, his "salary " was about $80. Beecher has been severely crit- icised for saying that a laboring-man ought to get along well and live on $1 per day-if he could not get more. The same men who growled at Beecher, would probably acqui- esce if he had said that a clergyman ought to dress well, wax fat until his eyes fairly stick out, and preach eloquently on "two bits" per day. When he was admitted to travel for two years on trial, in 1841, he was examined by the quarterly conference, and recommended to the annual conference, which admitted without the present examina- tion, for in those days conference did not question the spiritual grace of those who sought service in the vineyard at $80 per year and pay their own expenses. Bishop Morris assigned him the first year to the Wauponsett Mission, a three weeks circuit, embracing Indian Grove, Weeds (four miles up the Vermilion River from Pontiac, near the present station of McDowell), Rutterfords (Pontiac), Welman's (Cornell), Long Point, John Argolright, Barrackman's (Reading), Phillips (Newtown), Dice's

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HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY.

(below Streator), Vermilionville, Wheatland's farm, Widon Armstrong's, South Ottawa, Lewis (twelve miles above Ottawa), Wauponsett (at John Kellogg's), and on the Mazon, three miles above Sulphur Springs, and other places in Livingston and La Salle Counties as Providence seemed to direct.

After this first year, his field of labor was in the southern part of the State. He served such churches as those at Jacksonville, Springfield, as Presiding Elder of the Quincy District, the church at Decatur, and, in 1858, got back to his old home, among the people with whom he had grown up. He was Presiding Elder of the Bloomington Dis- triet. In 1862, in response to an almost unanimous call from the men of the Ninety- fourth Regiment, many of whom were members of the churches over which he presided, he accepted the commission and consequent responsibility of Chaplain of that regiment. He carried with him into the service the same earnest and intense desire for the salva- tion of the impenitent, with a firm faith in the " Sword of the Lord and of Gideon."

In 1867, he found himself so broken down in health that he was obliged to ask Conference for relief from ministerial labors, and with his children went to work on his farm in Belleflower. A year later, he was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court, a position which was given him by the citizens of McLean as a slight tribute to a life spent in the service of religion without other reward than an approving conscience, and with a rugged constitution, undimmed by the exacting demands of the cause and the care and anxiety of the responsibility of a large family growing up with no other inheritance than that of love and peace.

Since the spring of 1873, he has lived on his farm, surrounded by and with the aid of his children, making home pleasant with the blessings which flow from well-requited toil and the happiness which springs from religious attention to every duty.

C. W. Atkinson, the present County Clerk, is a son-in-law of Elder Guthrie, and was living in Cheney's Grove when elected to that office.

BELLEFLOWER.

When the Gilman, Clinton & Springfield Railroad was built, in 1871, the town- ship of Belleflower voted $30,000 in twenty-year ten per cent bonds, and the road established the station of Belleflower near the center of the township, where the rail- road crosses the county road which runs through the county on the half section-line before spoken of, on Section 21, forty miles from Gilman, and seventy-one from Springfield. George N. Black bought the south 100 acres of the southeast quarter of that section, and laid out forty acres in blocks and lots, and the remainder into out-lots of from one to five acres each. He then transferred it to the Railroad Company, and title comes from the Trustees of that corporation. When the road was mortgaged, this (and other) town plats do not seem to have been mortgaged, for, in the transfer to the Illinois Cen- tral, the town was not included, and title still comes from the said Trustees.

R. E. Moreland was the first to engage in any business here. He commenced to buy grain in August, 1871, and has continued to this day. A. & A. J. Henry, of Chicago, commenced the winter following. That fall, John Nichols began the grocery trade, and put up the first dwelling-house. He also kept a boarding-house near where the post office is, and A. Libairn commenced the trade in general merchandise, which he still continues. In the spring of 1872, T. B. Groves, from Logan County,

739

HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY.

built and occupied a hardware store, which has since been continually occupied by him in his large hardware and implement trade.

J. W. Eyestone built a grocery store and occupied it awhile, and sold it to R. Rome, who still continues in the same line of trade. Then E. L. Rush built the build- ing near the post office for a drug store, which he stocked and continued to run for two years. Hiram Rush built a store next to Rome's, and ran it for a year, and then went to Kansas.

Soon after these, G. W. Stokes built and occupied a drug store. He afterward added groceries to his stock, and has since carried on a very successful trade, with full stock of goods in these lines.

About the same time, the building now used by the post office, was built and oceu- pied by the Cline Brothers, dealers in groceries, for a time. The first Postmaster was A. H. Marquis, then J. W. Eyestone; E. L. Rush and L. B. Grant followed.

The present business men are: Dry goods, A. Libairn; groceries and provisions, R. Rome; groceries and drugs, G. W. Stokes; hardware and implements, T. B. Groves ; grain, R. E. Moreland, H. F. Plummer, J. H. Pumpelly, the latter also dealing in lum- ber, lime, etc .; wagon-maker, E. H. Fuller; blacksmiths, A. C. Brandon, George H. Mittan; boarding, W. T. Ward. The population is about two hundred and fifty.

Belleflower has always done a large grain trade, averaging 350,000 bushels one year with another. The grain from this station has usually been shipped East to Prov- idence and Boston, especially the oats; but now, dealers find it to their interest to sell on track. A large amount of it has been sold to the Halliday Brothers, who have shipped to Cairo or to Chicago. Osman Station, on Section 1 (21-6), is on the Chicago & Paducah Railroad, which runs across the southeastern part of the township. It was laid out and named by Moses Osman, long an officer of that road, and one of its builders. Mr. Sherrard is engaged in the grain trade, and Mr. Dillon is selling goods there.

The Havana, Rantoul & Eastern Narrow Guage Railroad, built in 1878, runs from west to east, angling across three sections of the west half, and on the half section line of the remaining three sections, leaving the town line at the center of Section 36. Lorette is the name of a station recently established on that road, east of its crossing of the Illinois Central. Business has not begun to tower up at Lorette yet, but the narrow- gaugers propose to buy some corn there in the future.

CROPSEY TOWNSHIP.

Cropsey Township embraces the south half of Town 25, Range 6 east of the Third Principal Meridian, is three miles by six, and is territorially the smallest in the county, being only one-third the size of Gridley, which is the largest. During most of its polit- ical history, it has been attached to the present town of Anchor (24, 6), and in school affairs is attached to, and forms a school township with Belle Prairie, in Livingston County.

The township is entirely prairie, and, as a consequence, had no early settlements. Probably the first to settle here was Col. A. J. Cropsey, from whom and by whom the town was named, in 1858. Col. Cropsey came here from Will County, III., where his parents had long resided in Plainfield, and commenced farming operations in 1854.

740

HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY.

He had entered two sections of land, and built a house in or near the center of Section 22. He was a man of enlarged views, having enjoyed the excellent advantages which the son of an intelligent and prosperous farmer in Will County would even at that day receive. He was at once looked up to as a leader among men. He was ardently attached to the M. E. Church, of which he was a member, and a local preacher of con- siderable note. He did not remain here long, however. He became interested in the building of the new village of Fairbury, the nearest railroad point to his farm, ten miles north, and, in 1860, was elected the first Representative in the Legislature from Living. ston County, i. e., the first resident of that county who was ever elected to the Assembly. He was chosen Major of the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth (a Livingston County regiment), and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, serving till the close of the war. He became interested in a large tract of land where Lincoln, Neb., now stands, and went there soon after the close of the war, and was largely instrumental in securing the removal of the capital to that place; was elected State Senator, and was a prominent candidate for the nomination for Governor. He recently went to Texas to make his home. Such is a short and imperfect sketch of one who will ever be held in kind remembrance by all who knew him when he commenced his active, useful life here.

The general topographieal description of the township is, that the high ridge of land which runs through Lawndale at the west, runs across Cropsey from northwest to south- east, but is wider, spreading into an undulating highland, shedding off toward Indian Creek at the north, and at the southern side of the town toward the Mackinaw, which is only one mile from its southern boundary. The land is excellent and is easily drained. The farmers present a gratifying appearance of thrift, and distance to market seems to be about the only drawback to the comfort and convenience of the inhabitants. Fairbury, which is ten miles away from the township, is the nearest railroad point.

G. W. Freshcorn, who is now one of the oldest residents of Cropsey, came here from Chester County, Penn., in 1856. There were then living in what is now Cropsey. so far as his recollection serves (which he admits is at this age somewhat treacherous), A. J. Cropsey on Section 22; Alonzo and Levi Straight and father on Section 13; Stephen and Nathaniel Stoddard, and Edward Ward, still living here; James Darr, James Harkness on Section 23, and Henderson Crabb on Section 20. Mr. Freshcorn bought land on Section 20, and still lives on the same farm. The largest farm, and, in some respeets one of the very best, is the one owned by Moses Meeker, of Tazewell County, and worked by his sons, E. B. and D. B. Meeker. The farm consists of 840 acres in Sections 22 and 27. The buildings are large and good, suitable for so large a stock-farm, well stocked and well managed. The Meekers feed about two car-loads of cattle at a time, and keep a large stock of cattle and hogs. John Straisser has a good farm of 480 acres in Sections 24 and 25. He raises grain and feeds some cattle. J. Hinshaw works a fine farm of 240 acres lying in Sections 28 and 33. Esbon Merrill has a large farm in Section 29, keeping about half in pasture, and the remainder in meadow and under plow. He also feeds some fat cattle, though none of these farmers carry this branch to the extent they did a few years ago. Edward Ward, one of the first settlers, has a fine farm and excel- lent buildings. He is recognized as one of the best and most successful farmers. J. C. Arnold has 120 acres in Section 344, which is well and nicely managed. The farmers here seem to have paid better attention to their hedges than in many other places, and

741

HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY.

one sees here some of the finest hedges in the county, unfortunately in too many locali- ties entirely neglected. . In the division of the township which took place in 1877, all that portion of the old town lying in Town 24, Range 6, was set off into a separate political organization with the name of Anchor. The official record before 1877 covers the two towns until that time, but for the years 1877, 1878, it is only for the present town. The township was organized in April, 1858, at a meeting held at the house of Levi Straight. A. A. Straight was chosen Moderator, and A. J. Cropsey, Clerk. The town was divided into two road districts on the half-section line running through the town north and south, which now has the iron bridge on it. Below is given, in table, the officers who have been elected to the principal offices during the official life of the town.

Date.

Votes Cast.

Supervisor.

Clerk.

Assessor.

Collector.

1858

A. A. Straight

B. A. Wiggins.

J. Harkness.

J. Darr.

1859

J. H. Van Eman.

E. W. Mahoney.

E. Merrill

N. M. Stoddard.

1860

J. II. Van Eman ..

E. W. Mahoney.

E. Merrill

1I. Crabb.

1861

N. M. Stoddard

E. W. Mahoney

G. W. Freshcorn

S. P. Alford.

1862

D. E. Straight.

Charles Crabb.

G. W. Freshcorn

H. Crabb.

1863

Henderson Crabb.

Charles Crabb

A. B. Carr.

N. M. Stoddard.

1864

N. M. Stoddard ..

Charles Crabb

B. M. Stoddard.

Robert Rand.

1865

14 J. Ward

Charles Crabb

H. Crabb.

J. W. Mccullough.

1866

Henderson Crabb.

Charles Crabb

J. P. W. Eson

J. W. Mccullough.

1867

Il. L. Terpenning .... Charles Crabb.

J. P. W. Eson.

J. W. Mccullough.

1868

.36

M. H. Knight.

Charles Crabb

J. I. Robinson

J. W. Mccullough.

1869

H. L. Terpenning.

J. C. Swatsle

J. Mccullough

Anson Dart.

1870

105

H. L. Terpenning .... J. C. Swatsley.

H. Crabb ..

A. W. Green.

1871

H. L. Terpenning ..

J. C. Swatsley

Z. C. Worley

J. C. Swatsley.

1872

I. L. Terpenning ..

J. C. Swatsley,

Z. C. Worley.

J. C. Swatsley.

1873

101

HI. L. Terpenning.

.. J. C. Swatsley.

Z. C. Worley.

E. H. Worley.

1874

136

H. L. Terpenning.

J. C. Swatsley.

C. B. Ward ..

O. D. Rutter.

1875

78 G. R. Buck

J. C. Swatsley.

J. C. Swatsley

C. D. Morris.

1876

G. R. Buck

J. C. Swatsley

D. B. Spencer

J. T. Tanner.

1877

56 11. L. Terpenning.

.. H. A. Thomas

J. W. Mccullough.

A. W. Green.

1878

II. L. Terpenning. .. H. A. Thomas.

J. W. Mccullough ...

A. W. Green.

Those who have served as Justices of the Peace are, L. F. Straight, G. W. Fresh- corn, J. H. Van Eman, Ellis Elmer, H. L. Terpenning, J. T. Tanner, A. Beale, A. R. Jones, I. C. Lefler, J. P. Worley, J. E. Whiting and J. Hinshaw.

The Commissioners of Highways have been, A. A. Straight, G. W. Freshcorn, N. M. Stoddard, S. A. Stoddard, D. Thompson, N. Brigham, Joseph Elmer, E. H. Ward, J. W. Mccullough, G. Haller, M. H. Knight, John Sharpless, J. B. T. Mann, Z. C. Worley, A. S. Dart, J. C. Arnold, P. J. Decker and E. B. Meeker.

The township, in 1868, adopted at its town meeting a long cattle "ordinance." It contained eleven sections, and was carefully drawn, providing that cattle should not run at large, and providing for empounding and fixing penalties; providing how they should be released, and giving the proper officers power to act in all cases. This was a new way of dealing with a very troublesome subject, and it proved a very effective way. The Legis- lature had passed a law allowing townships to vote for or against permitting cattle to run at large. One of the provisions of this law was that in case a majority of the legal voters of any township should vote against letting cattle run at large, the law should then be in effect in that township, whether the voters in an adjoining township adopted or not. This complicated matters very much, and there were constant depredations upon the part of those who did not choose to live up to the law. Custom had grown into a

742

HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY.

kind of law, and citizens were unwilling to take the law into their own hands and make a pound of their own inclosures. This ordinance was the subject of a legal decision, and soon became very effective.

RAILROADING.

The center of the old town of Cropsey was, and is yet, about fourteen miles from the nearest railroad station, being about equidistant from Saybrook, on the south, and Fairbury, on the north. This of itself was enough, during the era of railroad-building and bond-voting, to make it of interest to railroad-builders and popular with voters to go into the bonding business. Several propositions were made and votes taken in this direction. None of these propositions were received favorably until the Decatur & State-Line Railroad took form. This road was to run from Decatur, where it would connect with the Decatur & East St. Louis road, of which it was to be an extension, direct to Chicago, passing through Chatsworth. The road would have been, had it been built, an almost air-line route from St. Louis to Chicago-several miles shorter than the shortest line between those two cities. The Boodys, of the Toledo, Wabash & Western Railroad, which controlled the Decatur & East St. Louis line, were very anx- ious to build it, for it would give them a Chicago connection which they had been, and still have been, unable to get. The proposition really seemed the most feasible of the many railroad propositions then in existence. They were in business relations with the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, and were really dependent on that com- pany for the money to build it. When the citizens of Cropsey were shown the magni- ficent future which such railroad facilities would give them, it is not to be wondered at that they were ready to get all the wealth which this would bring them, and all for just a single vote. It looked like a "big thing," and there could be no doubt that the road would be built.

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The History of McLean County, Illinois; portraits of early settlers and prominent men, Part 86

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