The History of Menard and Mason Counties, Illinois, Part 67

Author:
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 848

USA > Illinois > Mason County > The History of Menard and Mason Counties, Illinois > Part 67
USA > Illinois > Menard County > The History of Menard and Mason Counties, Illinois > Part 67

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).

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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.

following are the present Board of officers : Thomas S. Knapp, J. Parmentier, T. Bennett, E. P. Crispell, N. Woll, Sr .. W. Steffan. L. J. Dillon holds the office of Police Magistrate, and R. W. Fleming that of Clerk. The village has a population of from three hundred and fifty to four hundred, and has three general merchandise stores, one hardware and tin store, one drug store, one saddle and harness shop, one meat market, two millinery establishments, one boot and shoe shop, one wagon-shop and one first-class smith-shop. In 1874, A. R. Chestnut and I. Thomas established an exchange bank in connection with their general merchandise trade. This has proved a source of great conven- ience to both grain-buyers and merchants. The firm does a general banking and exchange business. The prospects are flattering that, before the cycle of many moons, San Jose will have secured to herself an additional means of entrance and exit. Her full quota of stock toward the construction of the Havana, Rantoul & Eastern Narrow-Gauge Railroad has already been sub- scribed. Should the road be brought to completion, it will give her an eastern outlet and bring her in direct communication with Havana ; but whether the building of the road will materially enhance her best interests is yet a mooted ques- tion in the minds of some of her best citizens. The completion and successful operation of seventy-six miles of the route augurs the speedy construction of the line to San Jose, and from thence to some point on the Illinois River. The village was named by Alexander W. Morgan, from the city of the same orthog- raphy, but differently pronounced, in the Golden State. Situated, as it is, in the midst of a fine agricultural region, but for its proximity to Delavan on the north and Mason City on the south, San Jose might, at no distant future, exceed in size and importance the most sanguine expectations of its original founders.

NATRONA VILLAGE.

The village of Natrona was surveyed and platted by E. Z. Hunt, County Surveyor, for James C. Conkling, of Springfield, Ill., and George S. Thompson, of Wheeling, W. Va., in 1857. The original plat contained sixty blocks, 320 feet square, subdivided into 912 lots, 40x152 feet. The streets were 80 feet in width, alleys, 16 feet. Soon after the laying-out of the town, Daniel Crabb purchased the site, and is at present proprietor of a large portion of it. Nothing was done in the way of building up the village prior to the building of the railroad. In 1866 and 1867, Daniel Crabb built a few small houses east of the railroad. Samuel Ayers, Lear and McDonald, each erected a building about the same time. Crabb erected a warehouse also, in 1867. This was con- verted into a horse-power elevator in 1871, by Henry A. Baily, his son-in-law. Lear was the first merchant in the village of whom we have any account. He kept a grocery and saloon in a small building just east of the railroad track, still standing, and now used by John B. Abbott as a grain bin. In 1868, E. W. Nelson came from Wisconsin, and, in connection with Samuel Ayers, engaged in buying grain. They were the first to handle grain in the place.

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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.

During that and the year previous, a number of buildings were put up west of the track. George Heckel and John N. Cathcart each built a large store building on the west side, and E. W. Nelson a small business house on the east side. Heckel occupied his building with a full stock of furniture, James Hampson that of Cathcart with a stock of general merchandise. Nelson opened up a general stock in his building. The first school kept in the village was presided over by Miss Emma Bently. The school was kept in the second story of Crabb's warehouse. A neat frame building for school purposes was built in 1873, at a cost of $1,800. George W. Murphy, from Ohio, taught the first school in the new building. The post office was established in 1868, and J. E. Reynolds was first Postmaster. E. W. Nelson is present Postmaster and sta- tion agent, though the duties are discharged by R. Williams, at whose store the offices are kept. In 1871, E. W. Nelson built a steam elevator, and this, as well as the one built by Baily, is now operated by John B. Abbott-the only grain merchant in the village. The amount of grain shipped from this point ranges from three hundred thousand to three hundred and fifty thousand bushels per annum. R. Williams has the only store in town, and carries a general stock. The Protestant Methodist Church was built in 1877. It is a neat frame building and cost $1,600. Rev. Starling Turner was first Pastor. Rev. Hamill, of San Jose, at present supplies the pulpit. Among the early communicants we find the names of Jeremiah Corson, William Preston and wife, George Langley and wife, Richard Langley and wife, Robert Preston, Mrs. Larimore, Reuben Dowell and wife, and H. S. Jackson and wife. No one individual has contributed to the building-up of the village more than E. W. Nelson, who has built several of the more substantial buildings on the east side. Natrona was erst known as Altoona, and is so recorded. And since the greatest creative genius that ever lived has said, "There is nothing in a name," we doubt not that Natrona would have attained its present importance among the villages of the county had its name remained unchanged. The change was, doubtless, suggested by the fact that the village of Altona, of prior existence in Knox County, from the similarity of name, often led to annoyances in the transmission of mail and express matter intended for this point. We do not give this as positive knowledge, but simply as a reasonable explanation of why the change was made.

KILBOURNE TOWNSHIP.

When Mason County was first laid off into townships or election precincts, what is now Kilbourne was included in the present townships of Bath and Crane Creek, and was not created until 1873, about the time of the build- ing of the Springfield & North-Western Railroad. In its formation, three tiers of sections were taken from Crane Creek and a like number from Bath. It is described as Town 20 north, Range 8 west of the Third Princi- pal Meridian, and contains a few sections in the south west part over and above

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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.

a regular Congressional Township. The soil, like that of Bath and Havana, is somewhat sandy, particularly in the timbered part of it, but produces well, and, as an agricultural district, is equal to any portion of the county. About three-fourths of the township is prairie, and generally of a level nature. The level land has been well utilized by artificial drainage, and numerous ditches traverse it, carrying away the surface water, until much of this level prairie may be set down as among the most productive land in the county.

. Kilbourne is bounded on the north by Havana Township, on the west by Bath, on the south by the Sangamon River and on the east by Crane Creek Town- ship. The Sangamon River, on its southern boundary, and Crane Creek in the southeast part, with numerous artificial ditches, effectually drain its level lands. The Springfield & North-Western Railroad runs through in almost a northwest direction, crossing the Sangamon River near the center, and passes out through Section 6, in the northwest corner toward Havana, its terminus. This road has benefited the town to a considerable extent, and, together with the villages of Kilbourne and Long Branch, will again be alluded to in this chapter.

THE EARLY PIONEERS.

When the first white people came to this section, it was then a part of San- gamon County. A few years later, it became a part of Menard, and, later still, was embraced in Mason. Mrs. Blakely and Dr. Field, now among the oldest settlers left, say that they lived in three counties without moving from their original places of residence. The first settlement made by a white man, in Kilbourne Township, was by Absalom Mounts. He was from that portion of Sangamon County now embraced in Menard, where he had built a little mill on Clary's Creek. He came here about 1831-32, and settled in the southeast part of the present town of Kilbourne, and there built a mill on Crane Creek, which is graphically described elsewhere. The next settlement was made by Gibson Garrett. He settled here, it is supposed, in 1835-36; was from either Virginia or Tennessee, and had first settled in the Sugar Grove neighborhood. He has long ago paid nature's last great debt. Jesse Baker came in 1836, and was from Tennessee. He came to Illinois in 1816, and located in Morgan County, where he resided until he came to this neighborhood ; he is still liv- ing in the east part of the township. John Close and Charles Sidwell came in a year or two after Garrett. Close was from the South. probably from Ken- tucky, was an old man when he came to the country, and died many years ago. Some of his descendants are still living in Crane Creek Township. Sidwell was from New York ; he had but one child, a daughter, who married and went to Texas, accompanied by her father, where he died some fourteen years ago. The Fields and Blakelys were the next settlers and came in the fall of 1836. The former are mentioned in the history of Bath Township, as their settlement was made in the portion of Bath included in this township at its formation at a recent date. As stated there, Dr. Drury S. Field entered a large amount of

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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.

land here in an early day. His son, Dr. A. E. Field, lives at present in the village of Kilbourne. He pointed out to us the old house of his father, the third frame house built in Mason County, and the first in this township. It begins to show the " foot-prints of time." Another son of Dr. Field, Albert J., lives now in Cass County, Mo. James Blakely was a native of New Jersey, and first settled in Sangamon County, seven miles from Springfield, and, after remaining there a year or two, crossed the Rubicon, otherwise the Sangamon, where he stopped for nearly a year, and until he had built a cabin on land which he had entered in the present town of Kilbourne. In this cabin he lived for nine years, when he moved over the line into Havana Township, where he died in September, 1870. He married a daughter of Aaron Scott, also an early settler of Mason County, and who settled in what is now Sherman Township, where he is mentioned among the pioneers. Mrs. Blakely is still living on the place where her husband died, an active old lady of seventy years, possessing an excellent memory, and to her we are indebted for many facts embraced in this chapter.

Thomas Martin and Joel Garrett came in 1837; the latter is still living in the township. Martin was from Kentucky, and settled about three miles from the village of Kilbourne, where he died' many years ago. He had but one child, who lived at last accounts of her, in Sullivan County, Mo. Henry Nor- ris came from Kentucky and settled in the north part of the township. He is said to have erected the third cabin in that immediate vicinity. He has been dead many years. Jacob Cross may be noted among the early settlers, but belonged to the "floating population," and did not remain long. He borrowed a span of horses and wagon, which he neglected to return, and for which little -delinquency he was followed by Dr. Field and some others, several hundred miles. The horses were recovered, but Cross and the wagon eluded capture. John Young was from Kentucky, but a native of North Carolina, and came here about 1837-38. He had a large family. Anderson, John, William and Mitchell were his sons, of whom only Mitchell is living, and at present resides in Missouri. There is one daughter, also living. The old gentleman died in 1847. The Danielses came in 1837, and were from Tennessee. They consisted of G. W. Daniels and his sons, Isely, Calloway, George and Martin. The old gentleman is long since dead, but the sons named are all living, and are among the substantial citizens of Kilbourne Township. Another son lives in Lynch- burg Township. The Craggs were early settlers, but lived in that portion of the town taken from Bath, and, like the Fields, were mentioned in the history of Bath. Rev. Elisha Stevens, one of the early divines of this section, came from York State, as he always called it, in 1839. He was a Methodist preacher, and is referred to again. He died in the spring of 1855. John Pratt was also from New York, and located in the settlement in 1838. He died in 1878, having lived here for a period of just forty years. David Pratt, his father, came a few months after him. They had been living some time across the

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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.

river, in what is now Cass County. The old gentleman, after living here a number of years, returned to Cass County, where he died about eighteen years ago. Moses Ray and his son, Aaron, settled on the present site of Kilbourne Village, in the fall of 1838. They came from Indiana here, but whether that was their native place could not be learned. James and Hiram Ray, sons of Moses Ray, came about two years later. All of them are now dead. Moses Ray, the elder, "died on the 10th of December, 1845," says Dr. Field, " for I was married the same day and ought to remember the event." Burgess Ray, a grandson of "Old Moses," came a few years later, remained here a number of years and then moved to Missouri. "Old Becka," a negress, with a face like the mouth of a coal-pit, came with the Rays, and was the first of Ethiopia's- fated race to tread the sacred soil of Kilbourne.

John Cookson and John Lamb were from Indiana, Posey County, the land of hoop-poles and pumpkins. Cookson came in the fall of 1839, and several years later moved to Missouri, where he lived at last accounts of him. Lamb was a Pennsylvania Dutchman, born and reared in Indiana; or, to be more explicit, his parents were from Pennsylvania, and of the good old Dutch stock. Of eleven children born to John Lamb, all are now dead except Christine, the youngest daughter. They were a heavy family, ranging in avoirdupois from one hundred and sixty to three hundred pounds. It is said that the old gentleman weighed three hundred pounds, and his wife two hundred pounds, and, with the exception of one daughter who weighed one hundred and sixty, not one but tilted the beam at two hundred and upward. Dr. Mastick was. among the early settlers, but just what year he located could not be ascertained. He was originally from Ohio, and is elsewhere mentioned as the first medical practitioner of the township; he died a few years ago. William McDaniels- came to the neighborhood in 1838, and remained a citizen until his death in 1854. James Ross came in 1840, and was a Southron, though what State he came from is not now remembered. He moved to Peoria, and there, in that great city, all trace of him is lost. Abraham Williamson came from Kentucky in 1843. He first settled in Morgan County, where he remained a few years. before coming to this section. He died here some three or four years ago. William Turner also came from Morgan County to this settlement in 1843; he died here many years ago. Michael Ott, another Pennsylvania Dutchman, set- tled in 1841; was a very old man when he died-about five years ago. James and John Tolley, two brothers, came from Kentucky in 1842. John is still liv- ing, and at present a resident of Menard County ; but James died some years ago in Kansas.

This comprises the settlement of the township, so far as names can be ascer- tained, up to 1845, when emigrants began to pour in with such rapidity as to- render it impossible for the chronicler to keep track of them. Among the arrivals in 1845, we may notice those of J. M. Hardin, John Ranson, Edward Gore, Joseph Groves, John Micklam, Edmund McCormick, A. H. Neal, James.

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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.

Angelo, Samuel Cannon and a host of others, comprising much of the " bone and sinew " of the town. Dr. Oneal, now a resident of Kilbourne Township, was an early settler of Bath, where he is more particularly noticed. John B. Gum, one of the prominent citizens of Kilbourne, and one of the largest land- owners in the county, was a very early settler of Petersburg Precinct, Menard County, where he is further alluded to. If any of the early settlers of Bath, Crane Creek and this township should find themselves a little mixed as to their place of residence, it results from the fact already mentioned, viz. : that Kil- bourne was a part of the two former towns until a few years ago, and drew on them about equally for its territory. We have endeavored to keep " things straight," but may, in some cases, have lost our bearings and drifted "across the line " into one or the other of those towns. If so, we console ourselves with the reflection that it is " all in the family, anyway."

SCRAPS OF HISTORY.

The first " messenger of glad tidings " in the young settlement was Rev. Moses Ray, mentioned among the early settlers. He was of the " Hardshell " Baptist persuasion and used to sing out his sermons to the tune of Old Hun- dred. His peculiarities are still remembered by the old settlers, how, when well warmed up to his work, and making what he thought a good point, would slap his hands down on his " bow-legs," then fling them aloft in Talmagian style, and sing out, " And my dear bretheren and sisteren, what do you think of that. ah ?" Rev. Elisha Stevens and Rev. M. Shunk were Methodist preachers, and the next laborers in the Master's vineyard. Rev. Mr. Shunk used to preach at the people's cabins, long before there were any churches or schoolhouses. One of his regular preaching places was at Mr. Aaron Scott's, who is alluded to as one of the early settlers of Sherman Township. The first, and the only church edi- fice in Kilbourne Township is New Lebanon Church, on Section 13, in the east part of the township. It was erected by the Missionary Baptists, during the war, probably in 1863, and is a frame building. The present Pastor is Rev. Mr. Curry. Alexander Dick was the first pedagogue, and taught the first school, in the spring of 1840, in the first schoolhouse built in the township. The house was built by individual contributions of the neighbors, Dr. Field contributing the logs and boards. It will be seen from the material used, that it was the genuine pioneer schoolhouse. Mrs. Blakely mentions a school taught by an old gentleman named Lease, in a cabin built for a residence, but had been vacated, and thinks it the first in the neighborhood. I. A. Hurd was also an early teacher in this section. There are now seven comfortable and commodious frame school buildings in the township, in which schools are maintained during the usual period each year. Kilbourne is fully up to the times in its school facilities.

The first Justice of the Peace in the town was Albert J. Field, and Aaron Ray was the first Constable. The early courts of these gentlemen abounded

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with incidents sometimes very ludicrous. But as our space will not admit of their repetition here, our readers are referred to Dr. Field, who is a regular walking encyclopedia of early facts and fancies. The first marriage that can be called to mind in the neighborhood was that of Jacob Clotfelter, of Bath, to Mary Garrett, in 1839. They were married by Albert J. Field, Justice of the Peace. Death entered the community the same year, and his victim was " old Becka," the negress before referred to. She was buried not far from the present village of Kilbourne. An old gentleman named Lease, mentioned as an early school teacher, was another of the early deaths. The first birth is believed to have been in the family of John Pratt, though it is not asserted with any degree of certainty.

The first post office was established about the year 1859, near Mr. Gum's residence, and was called Prairie. Albert J. Field was the Postmaster, and the mail was brought by the stage-coach, running between Springfield and Havana. The first effort at merchandising was by William Gore, who kept about a wheelbarrow load of goods in a little cabin some three and a half miles from the present village, and several years before it was laid out as such. This comprised the mercantile trade until the birth of Kilbourne. Dr. Willard Mastick was the first regular physician in the township. In early times the settlers went to Jacksonville, Salem, and Robinson's to mill. Dr. Field says, when they wanted wheat ground they went to Jacksonville, when they wanted it only mashed, they went to Robinson's mill. Absalom Mounts built a little mill on Crane Creek, in the southeast part of this township, very early. It was so constructed that when the water failed in the creek during the dry season, it could be run by horse-power. This mill Mounts finally sold to Sid- well, who added considerable improvements, in fact almost wholly reconstructed it. Under his administration it is thus described : "The buhrs were but a foot in diameter, and the lower, instead of the upper, turned round. When they wanted dressing, Sidwell would take them up, and with them resting on his arm, as a mother would carry her babe, he would dress them off in going to and from the mill. When the mill was running at full speed, he would put a ' turn' in the hopper in the morning, go home and work on his farm until afternoon, and then go over to the mill to see how it was getting along. He knew its capacity, and just how long it would take it to grind out a 'turn.'" But some years later, when a mill was built at Petersburg, no further trouble on this score was experienced.

As stated in the commencement of this chapter, the township of Kilbourne was formed in 1873, from Bath and Crane Creek Townships. Bath comprised nearly three Congressional towns, while Crane Creek embraced about one and a half; and so for the accommodation of the inhabitants in the extreme parts of the towns, this new town was created. Dr. Harvey Oneal, who was active in get- ting the town laid off, was its first Supervisor. It is at present represented in the honorable Board of Supervisors by J. M. Hardin ; James Conklin is

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Town Clerk, and J. M. Hardin, School Treasurer. Kilbourne is very nearly divided on the political issues of the day. First one party carries the election, and then the other, with but a few votes difference. During the late war, it was very patriotic, and furnished its full complement of soldiers in advance of all calls for troops. Some of the officers credited to Bath Township rightfully belong to Kilbourne, as they were from that portion of Bath now embraced in this township. Capt. Houghton and Lieut. Raymond were cases in point, but as they are already mentioned in Bath, we will not make any change. Kil- bourne Township was named for Kilbourne Village, and Kilbourne Village for Kilbourne Township, and each for the other and both for Edward Kilbourne, of Keokuk, Iowa, one of the principal men engaged in building the Springfield and North-Western Railroad. This road was completed, and trains put on over this part of it, in 1872. As the town was not organized until the road was well under way, or, in fact, nearly completed, no stock could be taken by it. Individual citizens contributed liberally, taking stock ranging in sums from $100 to $4,000. The enterprise of building this road was opposed, and with good grounds, by the people of Bath Township, who saw in its completion a loss of trade to themselves. And while it has benefited a narrow belt of country, it has also been of more or less injury to other sections ; a proof that what is the gain of one, is the loss of another.

When the first settlers came to this section, it abounded in deer, prairie wolves, wild turkeys and all other kinds of game. Dr. Field says he has seen one hundred and fifty deer on the prairie at one time, and Mrs. Blakely says it was almost as uncommon then for the people to be without venison in their houses as to be without bread now. Prairie fires were of frequent occurrence, and often of a destructive nature, although no instance of loss of life is remem- bered to have occurred from them in this immediate vicinity, but narrow escapes were nearly as common as the fires themselves. Dr. Field relates a circum- stance of a couple of men who were out hunting deer and wild honey. They had two wagons with them and two horses to each wagon. On the prairie near the Sangamon bottom, the day being calm and but little breeze stirring, they thought to set the grass on fire, and, perhaps, scare up a deer. They had already a considerable quantity of venison and some five hundred pounds of honey in their wagons. They had scarcely fired the prairie when the wind sprang up, veered round, and they were forced to cut their horses loose, mount and flee for life. They succeeded in escaping with their horses, but their wagons, honey and venison were burned. The winter of the sudden freeze (1836-37), is remembered by many and much distress was the result of it, but no one in this neighborhood, so far as we could learn, froze to death. In other portions of Illinois, where this great Manitoba wave swept over, people were less fortunate, and, in our capacity as historian, we have more than once recorded death from its effect. Dr. Field remembers a hailstorm that occurred in 1845, that far exceeded anything of like character that has ever occurred in this latitude.

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The History of Menard and Mason Counties, Illinois, Part 67

Author: Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 848

Author:
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 848