The History of Peoria County, Illinois. Containing a history of the Northwest-history of Illinois-history of the county, its early settlement, growth, development, resources, etc., etc., Part 71

Author: Johnson & co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : Johnson & Company
Number of Pages: 932

USA > Illinois > Peoria County > The History of Peoria County, Illinois. Containing a history of the Northwest-history of Illinois-history of the county, its early settlement, growth, development, resources, etc., etc. > Part 71

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Our ladies here, God bless them - How beautiful to see, With dresses rich, and jewels bright, No fairer sight can be ; But when in linsey-woolsey, Our wives would go, We thought them quite as handsome Some thirty years ago.

'Twas then our doors were open - Our hearts were open, loo ; The stranger then was welcome, And no one hunger knew; We made his bed upon the floor, And spread upon the straw, We slept before the blazing fire Some thirty years ago ..

The highest pride our settlers felt Just then in Illinois,

Was in our wives and children - Our happy girls and boys.

And cherishing within our hearts, Our greatest jov below ;

We blessed the God who sent them here. Some thirty years ago.

But here and there a little mound That tells of by-gone days : How clouds would sometimes eross our path- The sun withhold its rays.

But tender lears of sympathy Would soften all our woe ;

For friends were worthy of the name Some thirty years ago.

The Autumn of our lives is here - The leaves begin lo fall, And one by one disappear (" The common lot of all.")

But whilst on earth we linger - Till from these scenes we go, While memory lasts we'll bless the days Of thirty years ago.

A tear for those we loved then, Whose longues are silent now. Who grasped our hand in friendship then. Or cooled our fevered brow. And though we do not meet them here. Their virtues still we know, And love in memory as we did. Some thirty years ago.

SEVENTHI ANNUAL REUNION.

The meeting of the Old Settlers was highly interesting. It was held at Central Park, on the 10th of September, 1874, Alvah Dunlap presiding. Among the visitors present was the venerable John Dixon, then nearing his ninetieth birthday. Although one of the earliest settlers at Fort Clark, and intimately associated with the people and the public affairs of Peoria county in early times, he was an entire stranger to many of those present. HIt was introduced to the assemblage by the president, and was greeted with three hearty cheers. "Speech! Speech !" was voiced from many mouths as soon as the cheers subsided. He declined to make a speech, but being urged to tell how he happened to come to this country, essayed to answer in a few words, but as he referred to old times, slumbering memories were awakened, and catching the enthusiasm of the masses by which he was surrounded, he made quite an interesting talk. His remarks were full of humor, and happily received. He related how he was chosen clerk of the County Commissioners' Court, how he was elected clerk of the Cirenit Conrt, and how he became a great office-holder, having more offices thrust upon him than he knew what to do with. He was clerk of the County Commissioner's Court, Circuit Court, Justice of the Peace, hotel keeper (in his log cabin ), and farmer at the same time.

Letters were read from Hon. W. J. Phelps, Col. T. J. Henderson and Hon. R. J. Oglesby, expressing regret at their inability to be present at this gathering of the old men and women, whose courage, enterprise and industry, made Peoria county a garden of beauty and productiveness.

After these letters were read, n recess of two hours was taken for dinner. When

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HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.

the meeting was called to order at two o'clock P. M., John Todhunter, an old settler, was introduced as orator of the day. His speech was replete with reminiscenses, and em- bodied a complete review of life-experiences in a new country. Mr. Todhunter is a gen- tleman of versatile intellect, ready tongue, retentive memory and varied experience, so that a better selection for orator could not have been made.

A short address was also made by Hon. John Hamlin, who was followed by John M. Roberts, of Moreton, who came from New York to Illinois, in the early part of 1832. Bloomington was the first place in the State where he found a settlement, and that set- tlement consisted of only a few log huts. Traveling on towards Peoria, he came to the log hut of Isaac Funk, who was the nearest settler to Peoria. Mr. Funk was sick in bed at the time with the prevailing disease of the country, bilious fever. At the beginning of the Black Hawk war, the speaker was the only fifer in his neighborhood, and he was enlisted to form a company for that conflict, which was organized at Pekin. He still lives upon the same land on which he settled when he came to the country.

EIGHTH ANNUAL REUNION AT CENTRAL PARK, SEPTEMBER 10, 1875.

There is no written record of this reunion on the journal of the Union, and this sketch is made from newspaper reports, which, with the exception of the address of Dr. J. T. Stewart, is necessarily brief.

ADDRESS OF DR. STEWART.

In the morning of life the sun shines brightest. In the morning of life the green earth puts on a deeper green. The rosy hues of the sky are more rosy. The sparkling dew drops are real gems. The twinkling stars are real diamonds. The flowery fields are more gorgeous, their fragrance more delicate. The rainbow comes and vanishes away, but the bow of hope never fades. In the morning of life we drink in all the surrounding sweetness, beauty and fragrance, and they are stamped on our minds forever. In later years we look back upon this period as an Eden from which we have been banished.

Those who in early life have lived and mingled together, with the same surroundings and under similar circum- stances, can look back upon essentially the same picture.

It is for this purpose we have come together to-day. The same panorama is passing before us all.

We who are here assembled have had essentially the same surroundings, the same experiences, the same hardships to endure, the same bright hopes to buoy us up - the same joys, the same sorrows.

We have seen and lived in one of the fairest and richest spots of the earth, when it was in its pristine beauty ; . we have with our own hands broken the virgin soil and laid the foundation of civilization in the wilderness. As nature is rough, wild, romantic, grand and free, so were we.

We found this country, as I said, in a state of nature, without a house, without a fence, without a road, with- out a bridge, without a town, without a city, without a school, without a church.

What did we have? for nature has her compensations. She will not suffer any of her children to be deprived of all her blessings. What did we have? We had freedom. Many of the conventionalities that now trammel us were unnecessary and unknown. We had strong arms and willing hearts to battle with the elements, build our houses and provide the necessities of life ; we had unbounded confidence in each other, and that confidence was rarely misplaced ; we had a society that was democratic in the true sense of the word ; we had a warmth of feeling toward each other and a free-hearted, open hospitality that is to-day unknown.

We had unlimited pasturage for our cattle, and our meadows were bounded only by the forests; we had the land before us and could choose our own abode with none to dispute our right. I must here make one exception. The Indians had a prior claim on all this country and sometimes made us serious trouble.

In 1832 the Black Hawk war broke out. In Bureau county some families were butchered and others had to fly for their lives. In this county there was much fear but no serious danger. In Putnam county the settlers had to build forts and remain in them for safety during the war. I lived in one of them three months. I think that was the happiest three months of my life. But alas for human happiness ! It is never unalloyed ; while we boys were at the very height of our enjoyments our worthy fathers employed a stray schoolmaster who happened to be in the fort and left us to his tender mercies, while they went in squads with their guns, their plows and hoes to work their corn fields, first to one farm and then to another ; we also had a stray pracher in the fort by the name of McDonald. He served as chaplain and made himself generally useful as well as ornamental. A mile and a half from this fort was a log meeting house; we being piously inclined went to this house on Sundays and held religious service. A guard was left at the fort, and the rest of the men with their guns and what women and children could go went regularly to church. I well remember going repeatedly to this place and hearing McDonald preach with a guard placed outside and the guns of the male members of the congregation stacked in the corners of the church.

Near one side of this building, within a stone's throw, was a thicket ; hundreds of acres of ground covered with hazel and other underbrush, where ten regiments of Indians might have concealed themselves and at any time dashed upon and slaughtered us. The road leading to and from the church went through a portion of this thicket. Why these men should not have held their meetings at the fort, why they should go off to this out-of-the-way log house and

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thus needlessly expose the:ne ves, their wives and children to the dangers they did, has always been a mystery to me. The only theory that to my mind gives any rational solution, is this . They had such implicit faith in Providence they could not believe any harm would befall them while they went up to the house of God to worship. And not only that, I believe they thought it gave them additional security during the week. They evidently thought it was their duty.

A soldier in the line of duty may brave any danger and not falter ; but when he thinks he is not doing his duty. the moment he is exposed to danger he is a coward.

For the Indians I wish to say a word. In time of peace they were, as a rule, friends of the settlers and did them many aets of kindness. They treated the settlers better than the settlers treated them. Their word was unimpeach- able. l'ut them on their honor and you could trust them with any thing you had. If they found one in distress they never failed to u e al means in their power to relieve that distress. They would give the last morsel of food to a hungry man. They would go any distance, night or day, to guide one home, wh > was lost. If it were necessary to stay with them over night, they would give him the best they had, and his life and personal effects were safer than they are to-day in any house in Peoria. If a man was siek they would give him their simple medicines, some- times hunt all day in the woods for something they thought would relieve him and travel for miles to bring it to him.

Notwithstanding their degradation and their many bad traits, it is sad, very sad for us who have known their kindness and their many good qualities to think of them as a dying race. But the laws of nature are inexorable. Men have their period of existence and must die. Races have their period of existence and must die. The Indian race has fulfilled its mission in the world and is now going out of it. Their "days are in the sear and yellow leaf." yea, even the autumn of their life is passed, the pitiless Winter is upon them, whose drifting snows will bury them out of sight forever.

My personal history is of little moment, but taken in connection with the early settling of the State may be of some interest. My father moved from Southern Ohio to Bond county, Illinois, in 1820, two years after the territory was admitted into the Union as a State. Then all north of a line drawn from a few miles north of St. Louis, east. with the exception of a few settlers in the vie nity of Beardstown, and a very few in the vicinity of this place and l'ekin was an unbroken wilderness. South of that line were a few thousand immigrants chietly from Ohio, Kentucky. Tennessee, North and South Carolina.

My father took a piece of land six miles north of Greenville, the county seat, and twenty miles from Vandalia. then the capital of the State. This was not a fortunate move for him. The land was that and poor, and in those days in that locality the horse-flies were so bad that it was almost impossible to work corn or drive a team across one of those prairies during that time of the year.

In a wet season the corn was drowned out, and withal we had a bountiful supply of chills and fevers.

lle improved lus farm as best he could, lived upon it twelve years, and then sold it with all the improvements. including a bearing orchard, for just twenty dollars more than he paid for the land in the land office. I have heard him say that this was the best trade he ever made in his life, for he moved to Putnam county, where he obtained more land of the best quality and in a dry, healthy locality.

It was during his sojourn in Bond county, in 1824, 1 was born. I have no very distinct recollection of that event, but the fact of its occurrence is well authenticated.

Among my earliest recollections is, of my father shooting a wolf from his very door yard ; of him bringing in deer and wild turkeys he had killed, and the savory dishes they made ; of visiting a camp of Indians near his house, of his feeding a half a dozen of them at his table ; of his telling us " if it were not for you, children, I would go to the lead mines and get rich." The Galena lead mine excitement was then at fever heat. Of old Black Fanny and her broad- "word. Fanny was a runaway slave from Kentucky, who carried a very large sword to protect herself against any one who might attempt to capture and take her back into slavery.

This was actually attempted by a man by the name of MeGoon, with a posse of men from Kentucky, but was defeated by her bravery and the assistance of the neighbors. She lived there many years afterwards, was regarded as a heroine, and was, withal, a very good woman. These are a few of the little incidents that reach back into the carly twilight of my life.

In all the speeches I have heard at old settlers' gatherings I have never heard yet one word about the children of old settlers. From this uniform silence one mnight infer that they had no cluldren ; but ladies and gentlemen, I can assure you that would be an erroneous inference, and being one of them myself I have a word to say in their behalf.

They shared the privations of frontier life, equally with their fathers and mothers. They sometimes suffered with cold and hunger. Many of them ched from disease in consequence of insufficient or unsuitable food, clothing and housing. Many of the means of amusement that are now common with us were to them unknown. The old settlers very generally held to the belief that a reasonable and sometimes an unreasonable amount of rough usage was conducive in their happiness, as it was a sort of toughening, hardening process that every child should go through to make it develop into a strong man or woman. This was a very serious error and sometimes with the feebler ones proved to be a fatal mistake. They pointed to the Indians who lived, as they said, in a state of nature, as examples of health and strength, forgetting that they raised but few children, not enough to keep up their numbers, the feebler ones dying for want of proper care and exposure, Toys were ut regarded as important, but as rather trithing things and not to be encouraged. This was also a mistake. The means of education were necessarily limited. 1 do not make these remarks to reflect upon the carly settlers, or to insinuate that they were wanting in affection for their children. That would be doing them a great injustice. They had as warm hearts as any per ple that ever lived and would, and sometimes did, sacrifice themselves to defend and protect their children. It arose from two causes First, the circumstances in which they were placed, rendering it necessary to devote most of their time and energies to obtain the necessities of life ; and, second, to erroneous theories in relation to the mental, moral and physical development of children.

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HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.

Notwithstanding all these drawbacks and disadvantages, our lives had a bright side ; for, as I before said, nature has her compensations ; we knew nothing else ; we were unconscious of the existence of the things we were de- prived of ; we were like the beggar girl in New York who, with her mother, one cold night took shelter under a cellar door. She remarked to her mother, " Ma, ain't yon sorry for the poor folks that have no cellar door to get under?" Knowledge is obtained by comparison. The Greenlander will not believe there are any fairer fields or greener hills than his own.

We had the green open fields for our playgrounds ; we basked in the sunshine and in the shade. No one who has not seen the primitive prairies can realize their beauty. In the Spring time they were spread with a carpet of flowers. I have time and again spent whole days on them. When I look back forty years I see them now as I saw them then in all their freshness and beauty, but never again except in imagination expect to see such a wilderness of bloom. In the Summer there was not such a profusion of flowers, yet they were many and varied ; and in the Fall, above the tall grass shone the asters, golden rods, phloxes, wild sunflowers, and a host of others - white, light and deep blue, purple, red. flesh color, pink, crimson, scarlet, yellow and orange- all blending harmoniously together and with the deep rich green of the grasses.

We gathered the wild strawberry, blackberry. raspberry, gooseberry, cherry and plum. Some of these were very abundant. I have seen hundreds of acres literally covered with wild blackberry bushes loaded with fruit. I have seen the finest of wild plums, so abundant they could be gathered by the bushel.

In the Fall we laid up a supply of hazel nuts, hickory nuts and walnuts for Winter. When old enough we often amused ourselves hunting and fishing. Children growing up under such circumstances, with such surroundings, naturally acquire more love for nature than art.

We grew impatient of restraint and despised conventionalities.

I believe children of strong physique and large brain, brought up on the frontier, are likely to develop into large r proportions and make greater men than those brought up and educated in the older States, but they are not apt to accumulate wealth - they have not had financial training. Those who come in later have the advantage in this regard, and usually surpass them in that line.

If I were to choose a place for a child to be born in, I would choose a wild and romantic one, that is yet in a state of nature. I would give him the prairies and the forests for his playgrounds. I would have them in all their freshness, beauty and grandeur, impressed upon his mind, while it is young and plastic. 1 would give him all the freedom that is compatible with civilization. A strong physical development is the foundation of mental power. When this was well developed and a love of nature made a part of his existence, I would throw him in contact with men. He has now a foundation on which to build. The rough corners will wear off while his strength remains. He will then have a freedom, a breadth of thought, and boldness of action that can be acquired no other way. It is a notorious fact that most of the great merchants, machinists, physicians, lawyers, ministers and scientists of our great cities were brought up in the country, and many of them on the frontier. In our great anxiety to refine and educate our children, we are weakening them. We are making them nice and precocious at the expense of their vitality. We must go back two thousand years, to the Spartans, and learn how to make men and women.

Fifty years ago the few scattered settlers of this State had no conception of the greatness and grandeur of its future. They had no means of knowing. Perhaps they knew as well as we know what the condition of things will · be fifty years hence. There is no period of time in which we can with certainty judge the future by the past. Had it not been for the introduction of railroads, their calculations would not have been so far wrong. That element of which they had no means of knowing produced a revolution. What new element may be invented and intro- duced in the next quarter or half a century that will still more revolutionize trade and the distribution of popu- lation, no one can tell.

From 1825 to 1850 there was no great or marked change. The population increased, settlements were extended, immigrants penetrated all sections of the State. Thrifty villages sprung up in the interior, supported by the sur- rounding settlements ; but the chief towns were on the rivers and on Lake Michigan. All the settlements were on or near the borders of the timber, and the interior villages never dreamed of being anything more than villages. The great prairies lay undisturbed, except on their borders. No one any more thought of them being settled than we think of the Desert of Sahara being settled. In looking back over those early settlements, one curious fact is worthy of notice. The different sects of religion were represented in the different settlements. Two or three Presbyterian families would strike out and form the nucleus of a new settlement. They would write to and visit their friends of the same faith and induce some of them to join with them. Their combined influence would draw in others, until, in a few years, they would have a large Presbyterian community. Ten miles distant there would be a Methodist community gotten up in the same way, with perhaps not a Presbyterian in it. A little way in another direction would Be a Baptist settlement. In a few sections there was a mixture of all, and some even without any church members at all. These sects were not harmonious, no one of them had any love for the others, each wanted to estab- lish its peculiar faith in the new country, and felt it a special duty to accomplish that object. Their zeal was often greater than their knowledge. This sometimes led to disputes and quarrels in which a whole neighborhood became involved. As the settlements increased in numbers they became more mixed, and as they learned more of each other these asperities softened. Men began to suspect there might be some good Christians that did not belong to their sect, and that possibly there might be some good men who were not Christians at all. Christians are now more liberal, but less zealous, and I am sorry to say less honest. A man's word was then better than his note is now. Liti- gation was rare, arbitration common. In 1845 to 1850 the whole scene began to change, and the change came so rapidly we old settlers could not well adapt ourselves to it; we could not realize it; many were drifted ashore and left high and dry while the great stream of life flowed on ; others, with quicker perception and broader comprehen- sion, kept in the current, keeping pace with the march of events.

The Illinois Central Railroad from Cairo to Galena and from Centralia to Chicago, making 691 miles of road, was built in a very short space of time. Almost simultaneously with this the Chicago and Kock Island sprang into existence, followed by a net-work of roads too numerous to mention. They penetrated all the great prairies, render-

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HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.

ing them available for settlement and brought with them a tidal wave of population and business. It changed the currents of travel and commerce. It diverted the travel from our river and most of its freight. It built up towns and cities in the interior where before there was nothing but open prairie or small villages. It made a great city of Chicago. She made the great Northwest tributary to her, and in an incredibly short time developed into one of the chief cities of the world.

One local effect of the introduction of railroads should here receive notice. l'eoria was not fortunate enough to secure any important lines of road until she was belted round with them, her travel taken away, and her trade cut off in every direction. For fifteen years she virtually stood still. While Springfield, Bloomington, Galesburg, and other inland towns were building up, accumulating wealth and rising in importance, she was hedged in, and but little more than holding her own. We knew from the natural advantages of our location we must in time make an impor- tant city, but " hope deferred maketh the heart sick," and many became despondent and some left.

We finally got the T. P. & W. road through to the State line, but our connection there was with a road run in the interest of Chicago. We got another line east but its connection was controlled by the same interest. In go- ing east we were compelled to submit to annoying delays, or go round by Chicago. Travel and traffic coming west was forced round the same channel. Chicago held us in her hand and had no mercy on us. Finally Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Baltimore and Philadelphia saw that Chicago was not all the West and determined that all other interests should not be subservient to hers. They having the means and the will broke down these barriers and gave us free exit. Then our prosperity began - then a new era dawned upon us. Now our railroad facilities are not surpassed, and our future is as hright as any other city in the West.

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The History of Peoria County, Illinois. Containing a history of the Northwest-history of Illinois-history of the county, its early settlement, growth, development, resources, etc., etc., Part 71

Author: Johnson & co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago : Johnson & Company Number of Pages: 932

Author: Johnson & co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : Johnson & Company
Number of Pages: 932