USA > Illinois > Woodford County > The Past and present of Woodford County, Illinois : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c.; a directory of its tax-payers; war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; general and local statistics etc > Part 20
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" Broadening sweep and surge sublime,"
the thick forests on the adjacent hills, and the hundreds of springs of pure * Dale lived here but a short time, when he removed into the Metamora settlement.
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
water bursting from the ground in " crystal floods," were some of the attrac- tions that brought the early settlers to this spot. Plenty of timber for building and fuel, and water in unlimited quantities, were objects not to be passed by in the search for future homes. These unfailing springs they soon utilized by building mills to which they supplied the power. Crocker's mill, one of the first of its kind in the county ; Hoshor's, built a few years later, and to which was added a distillery, in Spring Bay Township, and Guibert's mill, in Part- ridge, were operated principally by them. If it was not
" A land of corn and wine, or milk and honey,"
it was at least highly productive of the first, and we have the evidence of an old settlers, that they " used to raise 100 bushels of corn to the acre," in the bottom lands. Of course so much corn must be disposed of in some way, and this sug- gested the distillery, which became an institution of the settlement at an early day, and supplied the "invigorating cordial " for many a back woods frolic.
Another of the early settlements was made at Walnut Grove-the very paradise of Woodford County. The gentle slopes and sweeping valleys, through which winds Walnut Creek, like a "tangled ribbon," crowned with groves of giant trees that had stood the storms and tempests for hundreds of years, ap- peared to the new comers a haven of rest. On the confines of this mighty forest or within its borders, " whose deep, dark shades " they almost feared to enter, soon developed a prosperous settlement, and the petition-" woodman, spare that tree "-was forgotten or disregarded, as the huge " monarchs of the wood " began to fall.
.. The century living crow.
Whose birth was in their tops, grew old and died Among their branches,"
and still they had flourished in all their transcendental glory for ages, until the coming tide of immigration rolled in that direction, and its waves were checked against " these fair ranks of trees."
As early as 1824, it is said that a few bold and daring spirits, more venture- some than their kind, wandered this way and erected their cabins in Walnut Grove. But the precise date of their settlement is involved in some uncertainty, and there are now none left who can give their history with correctness.
Joseph Dillon, whose coming dates back to the year mentioned above, 1824, or thereabouts, was probably the first to make a clearing. He opened a little place and built a cabin where " Uncle " Jo Meek now lives.
About 1826, Chas. Moore and Daniel Meek located in Walnut Grove, and in a few years more were joined by James and Robert Bird, Matthew Bracken, the Davidsons, William P. Attebery and Nathan Owen. This was the beginning of the settlement of Walnut Grove, which was for years, if not still, one of the most prosperous communities in the county. In less than ten years from the time the germ of a settlement was planted here, in addition to those already noticed, it numbered among its inhabitants Joseph and Henry B. Meek ; Fran-
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
cis and William R. Willis, James Harlan, Thomas and M. R. Bullock, Ben. Major, Benj. J. Radford, Rev. Wm. Davenport, Joseph Martin, Rev. John Lindsey, David and Thomas Deweese and several others, who came from Old Kentucky, "the dark and bloody ground." and have furnished us with men of genius and ability, and many of the leading citizens of the county.
John Darst, Matthew Bracken and A. S. Fisher are Ohioians, and have been enterprising men of their neighborhood. Bracken is noted as having been one of the first Justices of the Peace, and Fisher, for having tanght the first High School in the county.
Charles Campbell and John A. Moore were from Tennessee, and the last two named have the credit of putting up the first mill, with a water power, in Woodford County, which was built some two or three years before Crocker's.
John Dowdy, John and William Bird, brothers of those already mentioned, Rev. Joshua Woosley, Jonathan Baker, James Mitchell, Daniel Travis, Solomon Tucker, Ret. John Oatman, Thomas Kincade, Isaac Black, Daniel Allison, John Butcher, Matthew Blair, Cooley Curtis and Elijah Dickinson were all our own countrymen, but from what States they came we are not able to say.
The names above given constituted the settlement up to about 1835. These " worthy scions of a noble stock " have given to the country soldiers who fought on many a fierce-contested field, and never turned their back upon an enemy : and lawyers, doctors and ministers of the Gospel of no mean repute may claim the same origin.
The settlers of Walnut Grove were mostly in what is now Olio and Cruger Townships, though the Grove extended from the south edge of Metamora down into Montgomery Township, and those living at " the head of the Grove," if not in Metamora Township, were very near the limits, while others perhaps lived in Montgomery.
A settlement was made in Metamora Township at a period almost, if not quite, as far back as that of Walnut Grove. It is held by many that some of the Sowards family settled here as early as 1823. That they were here at an early date there can be no doubt, but whether as early as 1823, is a point that cannot now be determined. The old ones are all gone, and the younger mem- bers of the family, which was a large one scattered to the four corners of the earth, so that to fix the exact date of their settlement is attended with some dif- ficulty. They were of New England origin and claimed to have descended from the genuine old Puritan stock, and to be a branch of the same family of the late Wm. H. Seward, notwithstanding the difference in the manner of spelling the names. We have no record of any member of this branch of the family holding so important a position as that of Secretary of State, or otherwise distin- guishing himself by rising above the station of farmer. It is pretty generally conceded, however, that they were the first to erect their wigwams in this immediate vicinity. The next after the Sowards, perhaps, was old 'Squire Ben Williams, as he was called, who settled about half a mile from the present vil-
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
lage of Metamora, where he remained but a short time, when he removed into what is now Worth Township. Next we have an importation from La Belle France, in the families of Peter Engle, Sr., John Brickler, Joseph and John Verkler, Francis Bregeard. Pichereau, Rev. Christian Engle and Michael Ioerger. In the " land of the free and the home of the brave," they became good and worthy citizens, distinguished alike for their integrity and business energy. Some of them still live on their original settlements, and those who have gone to rest have left behind them representatives to fill their places. Robert T. Cassell, Jacob Banta and his sons, David, Albert J. and Cornelius D. Banta, and Wm. H. Delph, came from Kentucky, the land of blue grass, pretty women and good whisky, and were of a good old stock. C. D. Banta informed us that he went to school, in Kentucky, more than fifty years ago, in a little log cabin 10x12 feet, with ex-Governor Beriah Magoffin, who was Gov- ernor of Kentucky when the war commenced in 1861, and, it was said, resigned the office because Kentucky would not secede with the other Southern States. Other members of this delegation will receive further notice in another page. The first account we have of anything like a regular New England colony were John Page, Sr., and his brother, Ebenezer Page, Nathaniel Wilson, Stephen Dudley, John Mason, and their families, who settled in Woodford County in 1835. Most of the settlers at that day were from Kentucky and other Southern States, and cherished the strongest prejudices against all Yankees. They would have welcomed as freely a colony of Hottentots or cannibals, and to have these " Yankees " settle in their midst, they say, seemed at the time like a judgment sent against them for some mighty transgression. They had never before seen the genuine Yankee. They had seen a skinning, trafficking and tricky race of peddlers, from New England, who much infested the West and South in those early times, with tinware, " wooden nutmegs," clocks and other small assortments of goods, and supposed all New England people to be like these specimens. They formed the opinion that the genuine Yankee was a close, miserly, dishonest, selfish getter of money, void of generosity, hospitality or any of the kinder feelings of human nature. But with that sympathetic feeling born of the privations endured in a wilderness home, where few of the comforts and none of the luxuries of more civilized life are attainable, and the polite dignity, and broad and liberal views of these old New England Quakers, their antipathy melted away like " frost in the morning sun," and with all the chivalrous courtesy, so strongly characteristic of the Southern people, they buried their former prejudices, and cultivated a friendship with this hitherto detested race, which grew brighter and stronger with advancing years, and which
" Wanes only within the grave."
Jacob Reeder was from Virginia, the home of statesmen and the birthplace of Presidents, and receives further notice in the history of Metamora Township. Joseph Morley came from Maryland, and Thomas Warren from Tennessee. Ohio furnished to the settlement Dr. J. S. Whitmire, one of the oldest physi-
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
cians now in it, and George Ray, who has raised a family of stalwart sons, who have become worthy men of the county. The old Keystone State contributed the first Circuit Court Clerk of Woodford County, in the person of Samuel J. Cross, who has held several other important offices, among them that of the first Master in Chancery, after the organization of that branch of the courts, and James Boys, one of the first Postmasters. From Indiana we have Benjamin Williams, and from Connecticut, Amos A. Brown, two of the early Justices of the Peace in this section of the county, and whose courts furnished many an amusing ineident of the backwoods. The great State of New York gave us that old Jackson Democrat, Judge W. P. Brown, the first Judge of the Wood- ford County Court. "Learned in the law " and the compeer of Douglas and Lincoln, and David Davis in the dawning period of Illinois' greatness, the Judge's mind is well stored with anecdotes of these great men, some of which will be given to embellish the pages of this history. Of Wilson Tucker, Hum- phrey Leighton, C. P. Mason and Jesse Dale, not much is known. The latter, however, was once known to be Treasurer of Woodford County, and it is said tried to bury the funds in the ground for safe-keeping, and that upon one par- tieular time he buried them so securely that he had a long search before he could find them.
The Panther Creek settlement was commenced at an early day. As early as 1828, there was a cabin or two scattered through the timber that skirted its banks. Amasa Stout and a man named Bilbery were among the first to settle in this section, but concerning them we could obtain but little information. In 1829, the Patricks, and in 1830, the Watkinses and the MeCords, who were followed the next year by the Richardsons and Joseph Wilkerson. Noel and Basil Meek settled here in 1832, and Rev. James Robeson and James Rayburn, in 1835. Like the other settlements already mentioned, many of these pioneers came from Kentucky and Tennessee, and have done their part in building up the good old county. Thomas A. McCord is one of the old veterans of this little flock, and is verging on to his three score and ten years, but is still vigor- ous and hearty for his time of life. This settlement extended into Panola, El Paso, Roanoke and Greene Townships, and has furnished some of the live busi- ness men of those towns.
The first settlement at White Oak Grove was made about the time of that on Panther Creek, by Robert and Samuel Philips, in 1828. John Harbert settled here in 1829, and Lewis Stephens the year following. In 1831, the Bensons and Samuel Kirkpatrick arrived, and Jonah Brown, James Vance, Rev. Abner Peeler and the Carloeks in 1833. These and their descendants have spread over "the Lowlands," otherwise Montgomery and Kansas Town- ships, and on the Mackinaw. in the southern part of the county. Another small settlement was made at Low Point, in Cazenovia Township, in 1834-5. The Buckinghams, Thomas Jones, James Owen, Isaac Moulton, James G. Bayne and Parker Morse and his sons were the first to settle in this place. Some of
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
these were men of more or less celebrity in their day. Morgan Buckingham was one of the first Justices of the Peace in this section ; James G. Bayne as an orator and politician of the day, and a delegate to the Convention that framed the Constitution of the State. The Morses, who first settled here, but soon removed into what is now Metamora Township, were New England Abolition- ists, and if they did not plant the germ of that party in Woodford County, they at least were among the first to nurture the tender plant. Being on the direet line of the " Underground Railway " from St. Louis to Detroit, via Chicago, they became conductors on this " line," so much patronized by the " darkies " when making a break for freedom. They were, no doubt, sincere in the part they enacted, and believed they were discharging a solemn duty in relieving the citizen of his legitimate property, recognized by the laws of the land, when they thus aided the negro to escape from slavery. Many are the exciting stories they tell, as they " fight their battles o'er again," of their long and lonely trips by night, and through cold and storms of rain and snow, in assisting the fleeing fugitives on their way to freedom. But, like Othello, "their occupation is gone ; " and one of the results of the war was the accomplishment of the end which was the principal dogma of their political creed.
In 1830, a small settlement was made near what is now Germantown, in Worth . Township, and in 1835 numbered several families, of which we find John Sharpe, Samuel Beck, Thomas Sunderland, Peter Muler, Rev. Zadoek Hall, Charles Molitor, John F. Smith, Andrew Cress and Joseph Shertz. Many of these are from France and Germany, and rank in thrift and prosperity with any citizens in the county. Old "Father " Hall, as everybody calls him, is one of the first Methodist preachers in this section of the country. Thus we have endeavored to notice hriefly the first permanent settlements made in Wood- ford County, and with a short retrospective view of some events connected with this early settlement, we will resume our work.
NOTED CHARACTERS.
Like every other portion of this great and glorious country of ours, Wood- ford County can boast of some rather distinguished people, past and present. Of these we will mention William H. Delph, an old settler, who came to Illinois from Lexington, Kentucky, in 1830, and first located at Jacksonville. He had learned the trade of engineer in Kentucky, which vocation he followed after coming west, and was the first engineer to run a train of cars on an Illinois railroad-a road that extended from Jacksonville to Meredosia on the Illinois River, and was known as the " Great Western Railroad." It is quite interest- ing to hear Mr. Delph describe this primitive engine, as well as the running of the trains on the road. Our descriptive powers are not sufficient to transfer the picture to these pages. He relates how, on a certain occasion, the train over- took a man walking on the tack, whom he recognized as a deaf mute living near by, and without stopping or checking up his train, he walked round on the
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
" deck " to the front of the engine, and, putting out his hand, pushed the man out of the way. Mr. Delph, while living at Lexington, Kentucky, remembers very distinctly the visit of General La Fayette to that place, during his tour of United States in 1825. He states that he had an introduction to the General, and in the evening sat in a Masonic Lodge with him. He claims to be one of the oldest Masons living in the State of Illinois, having belonged to the Frater- nity nearly sixty years. He was made Postmaster at Metamora by Abraham Lincoln, an office he held until the inauguration of President Hayes, when he resigned.
John Brickler, a native of Lorraine, France, and one of the early settlers near the present town of Metamora, and who died a few years ago, on the place where his daughter, Mrs. Farver, now lives, was a soldier in the Grand Army of France in its ill-fated expedition into Russia, under the First Napoleon, and shared in the privations and miseries of the disastrous retreat from Moscow-an event in which there is probably embodied more of " glory and of gloom " than anything of its kind in the annals of man. Many of his old acquaintances are yet familiar with the stories he used to tell, of that awful retreat and its accom- paniment of horrors, when his starving, freezing comrades, after struggling through the storm all the long dreary day, sunk down at night, many to rise no more, while the blinding storm rapidly wove its winding sheet, and the tall pines, swaying and roaring in the wind, howled their mournful requiem.
Louis Guibert, an old pioneer of the Spring Bay settlement, was born in France, and was a soldier of the Republic and of the First Empire, sharing in many of the great battles of Napoleon. At the battle of Austerlitz, he beheld one-half of his company shot down by a single discharge of an enemy's battery ; and in another engagement, was one of eight out of a company of seventy-one men who survived the battle. He received the grade of Captain from Napoleon himself, on the field of Austerlitz, in acknowledgment of his bravery. He came to America in 1833, and settled near Spring Bay. in that portion of the settlement now in Partridge Township, where he peacefully spent the re- mainder of his life, in striking contrast to the stormy scenes of his earlier years.
Jacob Banta, the old patriarch of the Banta family, many of whom are still living in Woodford County, was born in the State of New Jersey, almost in sight of the Empire City, and emigrated to Kentucky, with his father, when but fifteen years old. In 1832, he came to Illinois, and stopped in Tazewell County, but in 1835, settled within a mile of the village of Metamora, where he died February 26, 1861, in his 90th year. Born on the eve of the mighty struggle that resulted finally in the independence of his country, and with a vivid remembrance of the roar of its battles, he died on the eve of another and mightier revolution, that for a time bade fair to crumble it into ruins, and it seems an act of mercy, that he was taken hence before the storm of civil war burst upon the land he loved so well.
r
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
John Page, Sr., already mentioned in this history, came from New Hamp- shire. He was a man of sterling honesty and noble aspirations, who would have sacrificed his right arm rather than to stoop to a mean act. Often favored with public trusts-having once been sent to the Legislature from this district, and three times from his old district, in New Hampshire-he took no delight in these honors, but always preferred the proud title of an honest farmer. In 1834, he made a trip through this Western country, with a view of seeking a new home. He traveled on horseback over this vast and wonderful country- wonderful in many respects to the quiet citizens of the " Old Granite Hill "- and in the latter part of the Summer returned home, well pleased with his trip to the West. As he was the first from the mountains of Gilmanton (his na- tive town) to visit the " Prairie Land," his neighbors gathered at his house, on his return, and listened, with deep interest, to his description of the country he had seen.
In May, 1835, with the little colony we alluded to in connection with the Metamora settlement, he started again for the Great West. They came, by wagons, to Troy. N. Y., thence, by canal, to Buffalo. Here they took a steamer to Cleveland, O., thence, by canal, to Portsmouth, on the Ohio River, and by steamboat down the Ohio, and up the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers to Pekin, Ill., and finally to the settlement near the present town of Meta- mora.
In proof of the estimation in which Mr. Page was held among those who knew him, we give the following, copied from the original :
MARSHAL'S OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES, FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, AT GILMANTON, April 16, 1835.
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN :
This is to Certify, That I am well acquainted with the bearer, John Page, Esq., of said Gil- manton ; that we were both born, bred and brought up in said town together, and have there resided up to this time. And as he is about to leave his native land, to settle in a sister State, I do most cheerfully and respectfully recommend him to the good people of the United States, wherever he may be, as a gentleman of the highest sense of honor, honesty and integrity, and whose character is unimpeachable ; and who is as much beloved and respected by his friends and acquaintances (which are numerous) as any other gentleman of his age in the " Granite State." And may God, in His infinite mercy, prosper and protect him and his beloved family, in the great enterprise they have undertaken.
PEARSON COGSWELL,
Marshal of the United States for the District of New Hampshire.
NEW HAMPSHIRE DISTRICT.
-
By request, I hereby certify that I am well acquainted with Hon. Pearson Cogswell, Mar- shal of New Hampshire District, and know that the foregoing certificate is in his proper hand- writing.
[L. s.]
In verification whereof, I have hereto subscribed my name and affixed the seal of the District Court of the United States, for New Hampshire District.
CHARLES W. CUTTER, Clerk.
.
11
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
That Mr. Page was all that was represented in the foregoing, can be attested by hundreds still living in Woodford County. He was of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, of the broadest benevolence, and a man of peace.
" Peace folds her snowy pinions o'er his grave, And soft winds sigh the requiem of his soul, As he sleeps 'neath flowers fair."
He died October 1, 1855. and the affection of his surviving sons, on whose shoulders the father's mantle worthily rests, have placed a noble monument in the village cemetery to his memory.
Further mention of the Pages is made in the history of Metamora Town- ship.
Thomas Bullock, familiarly known as " Uncle Tom " Bullock, and the very father of Woodford County, is a scion of the old Bullock stock of Kentucky, than whom none better exists in that proud old Commonwealth, so prolific of great men. To him, it may be said, the county owes its existence : he it was that took the initiative steps toward its formation, and he, after the preliminary steps were taken, engineered the project safely through all the forms of "red tape " in the General Assembly, until it came forth from the " Governmental furnace " a full-fledged county. He has always been an active and enterprising man-foremost in every enterprise intended to promote the welfare of the county in which he takes such a lively interest.
Count Clopiska, a native of Poland, who. for some state or political offense. was expatriated from his native land, came to the United States, and to Illinois. and for several years lived in the city of El Paso. He was a fine type of the polished gentleman, and his misfortunes were a key to the warm hearts of the American people. The citizens of El Paso took a strong interest in his welfare, and when he died, "a stranger in a strange land," with no loved one nigh to smooth his dying pillow or wipe the cold, damp dews from his paling brow, Mr. W. M. Jenkins, an old and honored citizen of El Paso, had him neatly interred in his own lot in the city cemetery, where the distinguished old for- eigner sleeps as peacefully, perhaps, as if he slumbered in the marble vaults of his ancestors.
There are many others of more or less prominence in the county, who will be particularized in the history of their respective townships. and the sections where their talents have been employed.
ORGANIZATION OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
We have already given the names of settlers, so far as can be obtained up to the year 1835, with the date of their settlements, and showing their increase in numbers every year from the time Blanchard built the first cabin on this side of the Illinois River, in 1822. By the year 1840, the population had become so numerous that the organization of the new county seemed an actual necessity. The counties in which these settlements were embraced were large, and many
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