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 24
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"Give them the meed they have won in the past, Give them the honors their merits forecast :
Give them the chaplets they won in the strife ;
Give them the laurels they lost with their life."
264
HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
THE INDIANS.
In the early settlement of Woodford County, Indians were quite numerous in the western part, along the Illinois River and in the heavy timbered sections. They were apparently harmless and good natured, rather lazy, and a little dis- posed sometimes to indulge in petty thieveries. The 'chief, Black Partridge, had his wigwam not far from the present village of Metamora at one time, - though no one now living remembers anything about him but what has been detailed from other parties. The Indians found here by the first settlers were mostly Pottawatomies, with a few Sacs, Ottawas and Foxes. During the Winter of the " deep snow," they were, as we were informed, of considerable benefit to the settlers in furnishing them provisions. They donned their snow- shoes. and with the aid of this convenience were enabled to get over the vast fields of snow with comparative ease. There are still old pioneers to be occa- sionally met with who participated in the Blackhawk war, and from them we received some of the particulars of those exciting times. But the tide of battle raged far north of this, and the frights of the war rarely extended to this sec- tion. As the advancing tide of immigration rolled in this direction, the red man was pressed on toward the setting sun. The glare of his council fire paled in the brighter light of civilization, and then went ont forever. There is much in the history of the Indian to loathe, and to inspire within us the bitterest feelings ; and there is much, too, of mournful grandeur and sublimity. A paragraph from Sprague's History of the American Indians seems not inap- propriate in this connection : " As a race, they have withered from the land. Their arrows are broken, their springs are dried up, their cabins are in the dust. Their council fire has long since gone out on the shore, and their war cry is fast dying away in the untrodden west. Slowly and sadly they climb the dis- tant mountains, and read their doom in the setting sun. They are shrinking before the mighty tide which is pressing them away ; they must soon hear the roar of the last wave which will settle over them forever." The theory con- cerning the Mound Builders, that strange race of people of whom so many con- jectures exist, that they occupied this country centuries and centuries ago, and were subdued by the Indians, is borne out by investigation of the mounds which abound in Woodford County. These mounds are confined mostly to Spring Bay and Partridge Townships, and the relics found in and about them go far to confirm this theory-that they were a different race of people, far superior and more advanced in civilization than their savage conquerors. Some men of the Peoria Scientific Association surveyed a number of these mounds a short time ago, but whether they have ever made a report of their investiga- tions, or advanced a theory other than those which have already been published, we have been unable to learn. One of the mounds surveyed by these gentlemen is situated a half mile southwest of the village of Spring Bay, and is one of the largest in the State. There is a prevailing tradition of a great battle hav-
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
ing been at some time fought at or near this mound by the Indians, and the large number of human bones found thronghont its neighborhood seems to cor- roborate the historian's statement. Further notice of these mounds is made in the history of Spring Bay and Partridge Townships.
GEOLOGICAL FEATURES.
Woodford County geologically lies in the northern limit of the great coal fields. In the vicinity of the Illinois River, the coal deposit runs very near to the surface, but further back and on the prairies, it extends deeper into the earth, varying from 300 to 600 feet. In sinking a shaft for coal near the vil- lage of Metamora, at about fifty feet below the surface, a vein of coal was struck of one foot in thickness. At 125 feet, a seam three feet in thickness was reached, in the middle of which was good coal. In the Minonk mines, a seam of coal, four feet thick. was found at a depth of 314 feet, and at about 550 feet. another seam of very superior coal was reached. The soil near Metamora-and this applies to all the prairies land of the county -- is from two and a half to four feet in thickness, deep black or dark brown in color, and very rich and product- ive. Beneatlı this soil is ten or twelve feet of yellow, loamy clay, which also produces well with proper cultivation. Usually underlying this clay, is a stratum of sand, gravel and small boulders, when the blue clay is reached. This diluvium or deposit of blue clay is deep, extending to more than a hun- dred feet below the surface, and in it are found many rich specimens of minerals, fossil remains, etc. In sinking a well on the County Farm, at a depth of sixty feet, large pieces of wood was found in a perfect state of preservation, specimens of which we have examined. At the coal shaft near Metamora, before alluded to, at almost 200 feet below the surface, was found a bed of lime rock, the top of which is worn in grooves, and much ground in places, as if by the constant exposure to drift passing over it. In this rock are found numbers of fossil shells, corals and numerous other rich and rare specimens. The drift along the brakes of Partridge Creek and its branches contains many of the richest specimens known to the student of geology and mineralogy. Many of these are recog- nized by scientific research as native to other sections of the State and to dis- tant regions of the country. This formation of diluvium, and the variety of substances contained in it, has puzzled the most erudite scholars. The more probable theory seems to be, that these vast prairies, now a succession of culti- vated and productive farms, were, ages ago, the bed of the great lakes of the north; that their ever restless waves and the rolling billows of their storm-lashed waters, casting up the sands and drifts, in time changed their beds to other localities. Another theory has been advanced, and is alluded to by Prof. Rad- ford in his History of Woodford County : "That this deposit was made by a great sea of ice, or glacier, which gradually crept down from the north, bringing with it these vast amounts of matter, and extending as far south as the Ohio
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
River." This theory, however, is pretty generally discarded in favor of the other, and with reason, according to our view of the matter. But leaving the subject to the scientific, we subjoin a list of some of the specimens collected in the county, and contained in the collection of Adino Page, Esq., one of the largest and richest private collections we have ever examined. Minerals: granite, basalt, amygdaloid, por- phyry, jasper, iron ore, syenite, copper ore, greenstone, tourmaline, actinotite, trap, feldspar, mica, bog iron ore, coloid marbles, pudding stones (various), gneiss, quartz- galena, chrystal, zinc, fossil corals, marine shells, etc., and nuggets of pure cop- per have been found weighing twelve pounds. It is also claimed that silver ore has been found along the creek drifts. The following conchological specimens have been found in the creeks, and in the Illinois River along the border of Woodford County : Unio Plicatus, Unio Multiplicatus, Unio Gibbosa, Unio Trigonus, Unio Teres, Unio Abruptus, Unio Lincolatus, Unio Implicatus, Unio Cornntus, Unio Pustulosa, Unio Complinatus, Unio Lutiolus, Unio Tuberculatus. Unio Radiatus, and the following of the land snail family : Helix Profunda, Helix Multilinnta, Helix Albolabris, Helix Clausa.
It is said that abont sixty different specimens of shells have been found in the Illinois River and the creeks that flow into it through this county ; a great many other specimens of geology and mineralogy have likewise been found here. in addition to those already enumerated.
THE DEEP SNOW
which occurred in the Winter of 1830-1 is an event of so much interest to the few old settlers who were here at that distant period, and are still living, that we cannot close our general history without some notice of it. It is an epoch from which all important events are dated. It began in December and fell to the depth of four feet, and lay on the ground until early Spring. Many wild animals of the forest and prairie perished, and others became so gentle and tame that they seemed not to fear their natural enemy, man, and the settlers then in this section suffered the most extreme hardships. We have no account of any loss of human life from its effects, but much of the privations and sufferings experienced during the Winter.
The Winter of 1836-7 is another chronological event in the county's his- tory, and is memorable for one of the coldest days ever experienced in the State of Illinois. A sad story is given in the history of Partridge Township, of a man and his daughter freezing to death under very distressing circumstances. In contradistinction to these seasons of such unusual severity, we would mention, as a matter of history, the Winter of 1877-8, as one remarkable on account of its exceptional meteorological character. and have no doubt but that it will pass down to future generations, as the Winter of the " deep mud," just as the other has come down to us as the Winter of the " deep snow."
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
METAMORA TOWNSHIP.
This township is pretty well diversified between woodland and prairie, and contains but few tracts of the latter which are not under a fine state of cultiva- tion, while the former furnishes the best of timber in abundance. In agricultural resources it is second to no township in the county, and the comple- tion of the Western Division of the Chicago & Alton Railroad, which crosses it diagonally, has added materially to its commercial importance and prosperity. It occupies a position just touching the northeast corner of Tazewell County. and east of Worth Township, sonth of Cazenovia, west of Roanoke and north of Cruger, and is known as Township 27 north, Range 2 west of the Third Principal Meridian, with an assessed valuation, of taxable property for 1877 of $731,226.00.
SETTLEMENT.
The facts pertaining to the early settlement of Metamora Township are of historical interest, and comprise as much of importance as any of the early set- tlements of Woodford County. As early, it is said, as 1823-4, white men had begun to wander this way, and to erect their cabins in the great forests bordering Walnut and Partridge Creeks, which have their sources in this township ; but whether so far back as the date above given, is a point subject to some doubt and conjecture. It is, however, pretty generally admitted, that a half a century or more has passed since settlements were first made in this section, and within less than a mile of the present village of Metamora. Daniel, William and Sol- omon Sowards are supposed to have been the first to settle in this neighborhood, and believed by some to have been here as early as the date mentioned. Daniel, who was the oldest of the three boys, perhaps was the first to come to this wil- derness. He built a block house but a short distance from the present residence of Mr. Yoereger, as a protection against the Indians, who were numerous at that time, but apparently harmless and peaceably disposed. The old block house stood for many years as a relic of the pioneer days.
As we have already said, the Sowardses are supposed to have been the first settlers here, and with none living to contest the point, and the oldest agreeing that they were, we, too, give them the honor, subject to any doubts that may exist in regard to it. They were Eastern people, and claimed descent from the genuine old Puritan stock ; also, to be a branch of the family of Sewards, and remotely connected with the late William H. Seward, Secretary of State under President Lincoln. Although the names differ slightly in orthography. such things often occur in families through a descent of several generations, and we will not withhold from their memory the honor bestowed on the name by the able statesman. The history of Metamora Township records no instance of any member of the Sowards family attaining to an office of " trust or profit," or dis- tinguishing himself other than as a common farmer.
-Their history is written
In their race, and, like the stars,
They quietly fulfill their destiny.
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
They were simple-minded, unpretending people, serving out their day and generation, and, with the other relics of other days, have passed away.
George Kingston, who first settled in Spring Bay Township, and in 1828 settled in Metamora, on the place now occupied by Jerry Ray. came from the County of Cork, Ireland, with his father in 1816. They stopped in Pittsburgh, where they remained until 1818, when they removed to Illinois. and settled in St. Clair County, near Shiloh Church. After attaining to manhood, George Kingston settled in Sangamon County, where he married Susan Miller, a niece, it is said, of General Whiteside, who was famed as a great Indian fighter. While Mr. Kingston does not seem to have been of a warlike disposition, nor any of his children strongly predisposed that way, yet he, as well as his wife, came of a somewhat warlike race. His grandfather, he states, was a soldier, and served for some time in the army of Oliver Cromwell. He settled, as already stated, in Metamora Township in 1828. on a claim which he purchased from one Connor. Who Connor was or whence he came. nothing definite can be ascertained. In coming to Woodford County, Kingston crossed the Illinois River above Peoria, probably at " the Narrows," and having with him, in addi- tion to other property, a small drove of hogs, they were immediately stolen from him after crossing the river by the Indians, or men disguised as such. Mr. Kingston has always maintained that the thieves were " white Indians." No doubt they were, as there seems to have been a regular organized band of thieves in this part of the State at that time, and many of their depredations were charged to the much persecuted red men. He was wont to mention with pride the faet that he voted for the admission of Illinois into the Union as a " free State." and also for her to pay her debt. An anecdote is told of his idea of politics and of voting in a republican country, in which his Irish eccentricity was amusingly displayed. He had always elaimed to be a strong Democrat, and had voted with that party. During the great excitement of the Presidential campaign of 1840, it was reported in the Democratie camp that George Kingston was going to vote for Harrison. Being remonstrated with and reproached for his apostacy, he innocently replied that he was "in favor of the majority ruling, and as he believed Harrison would be elected. he thought it his duty to vote for him." That "he believed in a republican government, and unless the majority ruled. a republican government was a failure and a fraud." His idea of true Demoe- racy seemed to be to vote with the majority, regardless of particular dogmas. and no argument from his Democratie friends eould shake his opinion of right, and vote for Harrison he did. Mr. Kingston is at present living in Livingston County, a feeble old man, both mentally and physically.
In a few years, the little settlement was augmented by several families from France-that land of beauty and refinement. Peter Engle, Sr., the Verklers, who were step-sons, and John Brickler came from the province of Lorraine in 1831. John Engle, a half brother to Peter, had come out a year or two pre- vious, Christian Smith in 1833, and about the same time Francis Bregeard,
1
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
- Pichereau and Rev. Christian Engle, the father of Peter and John Engle. Joseph Bachman and Michael Yoereger, from Alsace, France, in 1839. Some of these old settlers are still living upon their original homesteads, and within sound of the church bells of Metamora village. A son of Yoereger lives on the old place, and within a few rods of where Sowards built the blockhouse. John Engle still lives within a mile or two of the village. He was a teamster for the government during the Black Hawk war. John Brickler settled where Farver, his son-in-law, now lives, and died in 1852. He had been a soldier in Bona- parte's army in the department of artillery : was in the expedition of the Grand Army to Russia, and in its famous retreat from Moscow. When he came to America, he brought with him one of the short artillery swords used in the French army in that branch of the service, and which in this republican eoun- try was degraded from the glory of " noble war " by being used as a knife for " cutting up corn." There are those still living in this immediate vicinity who have used the old sword in that capacity. Marcelin Farver came from Switzer- land to Woodford County in 1837. He married Mary, a daughter of John Brickler, and now lives where Briekler originally settled. He was her second husband, her first having died soon after their marriage.
Peter Engle, Sr., and his father, Rev. Christian Engle, are both dead ; the latter was a minister of the Mennonite Church, and preached to his congregation the Sunday before his death. Peter Engle, Sr., was a man of the broadest benevolence ; and the poor in his own country, as well as the unfortunate in this settlement. had many a cause to shower blessings upon his head. Peter Engle, Jr .. his son, who was but 9 years old when his father came to this coun- try, lives still upon the old homestead. From him we learned many of the par- ticulars of the privations of these early days, and some of the incidents of their voyage to the land of liberty. They landed in Baltimore on the 21st of May, and proceeded to Lancaster County, Penn., crossing the mountains of the Old Quaker State with a cart. drawn by one horse, in which rode Mrs. Engle and an aunt, who had a young baby, while the rest of the party trudged along on foot.
After a tedious journey, they arrived in Pittsburgh, where they embarked on an Ohio River boat and came down to Louisville. Here they changed boats, and passed over the falls at low water, and could feel their vessel bump on the rocks, but got over in safety. They passed down the Ohio and up the Missis- sippi River to St. Louis, where they were transferred to another boat for the Illinois River. This was an old, rickety affair, and sunk on its next trip, after land- ing the Engles safely at their destination, Fort Clarke (now Peoria), from whence they came to the Metamora settlement, sometimes called at that day the settle- ment of Partridge Point. Mr. Engle bought a elaim from Benjamin Williams, who then removed into what is now Worth Township. Upon this claim there was a little log hut, 10x12 feet, withont loft or window, which stood near the present residence, and into this the family moved. Their bread, for some time
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
after their arrival, was made of frost-bitten corn, which had been dried in the sun, then pounded into a kind of meal in skillets, and baked on a board before the fire.
"Old Kaintuck " gave to this settlement the Bantas, Robert T. Cassell, Joseph Wilkerson, William H. Delph, Jesse Dale and perhaps other families. Of the Bantas, there were Jacob Banta, and three sons, David, Albert J. and Cornelius D. Banta, who came in 1832, except Albert, who came the next year. Jacob Banta was born in New Jersey, but in sight of the church spires of the Empire City. He emigrated to Kentucky with his father when a small boy, and settled in Mercer County near Harrodsburg, where they lived until they removed to Illinois in 1832. There seems to have been a singular coincidence in the birth and death of this old patriot-born in 1771, on the eve of the ter- rible struggle that finally, through a succession of miracles as it were, ended in his country's glory, he passed away just as another great revolution was ready to burst upon the country he so dearly loved. He died February 26, 1861, in the 90th year of his age, and was kindly spared the witnessing of the horrors of a civil war. Cornelius and David Banta* came to Illinois with their father, as stated, in 1832. " Niel " Banta, as he is familiarly called, entered land a mile north of Metamora village, in 1833, where he still lives. For several years after entering his land, he " bached " it, while opening up improvements, on the principle of having a " cage ready for the bird." When the Bantas came, they remember among those living in the settlement, Peter Engle, Sr., the Sowardses, John Brickler, George Kingston, but a number of empty cabins, which had been deserted by their occupants in anticipation of the horrors of the Black Hawk war, few of whom ever returned. The first meal they procured after arriving liere was from a little horse mill in the neighborhood, and was a highly esteemed luxury in the family, as they had been living principally on potatoes for several days. Mr. Banta sometimes worked at wagon making and repairing, and as that class of mechanics were scarce, his ingenuity was often brought to the test. He relates an amusing anecdote of his first lesson in Ger- man. Being called on to repair some damages to a neighbor's wagon one day, and not having all the tools needed, went to Mr. Engle's for the purpose of bor- rowing an iron square. Mr. Engle kindly told him he was welcome to the article, but that " old man so and so " had it, and that he would have to go there for it. This old neighbor was a German who could not speak a word of English. Mr. Banta inquired what iron square was in German, and was informed by Engle that it was weinkel-izer (our German friends will pardon us if the word is spelled wrong, we spell it as it sounds to our English cars), and lie started for the German's place, repeating the word to himself. He found the old man at home and inquired, " you got Engle's weinkel-izer?" "Yaw," he replied, and forthwith produced the said "weinkel-izer," and Banta went on his way rejoicing. Albert J. Banta came out to this county in 1833, and settled a mile or two west
* David Banta has always lived in Tazewell County.
,
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HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
of the village of Metamora, where his widow, Mrs. Rachel Banta. still lives. They drove through from Mercer County, Kentucky, their native place, with a team, and when in the vicinity of where Bloomington now is, Mr. Banta, in stepping out on the wagon tongue for the purpose of getting on one of the horses, fell, and in so doing, stuck the end of his whip-handle in his right eye, totally destroying the sight. Before leaving Kentucky, he had seriously injured the other in "burning tobacco beds," and was now almost blind. The next Summer, his wife took him to a noted physician, who, to a considerable extent. restored sight to the eye injured while yet in Kentucky. They remained with Mr. Banta's father, at Holland's Grove, where the old gentleman first settled, until Spring, when they came to the place already mentioned, and bought 160 aeres of land, with a couple of little log-cabins on it, into one of which they removed. It had a puncheon floor, a very poor stick fire-place and chimney, and a door made from puncheons split out of logs, four inches thick, so as to be bullet proof, an object looked to by the early settlers in building their cabins. They did not get settled in time to raise anything the first year, and Mr. Banta went over to the Walnut Grove settlement, where he succeeded in buying a few bushels of corn on credit, and brought it home. This they "hulled" by soaking it in lye, thus making what was called " lye-hominy," and ate it without the luxury of either milk or salt. At that time there was a horse mill about seven- teen miles from Washington, near the present town of Groveland, owned by one MeKingston. To this mill farmers came with their grain from Bloomington. and other places quite as far away. Mr. Banta's father used to go there to mill, and on one occasion left his horses three days in order to secure his turn. They had to go to Fort Clarke (now Peoria) to procure their meager housekeeping out- fit, which in those early days were very limited. Mr. Banta died in 1850, and his widow is still living on the place of their original settlement, surrounded with all the comforts of life. After passing through the hardships of the pioneer times, they succeeded in accumulating a good share of worldly goods. Mrs. Banta remembers many of those early hardships with all the vividness of yes- terday's occurrence; how they used three-legged stools of their own man- ufacture for chairs, a large "cut " from a tree split open and a puncheon hewed out, with holes bored in it, and legs put in, made their table; holes bored in the wall, pins driven in, and a pole laid across, filled in with straw, was their bed. Looking at her well furnished residence of to-day, it is hard to realize the changes of forty-five years. Mr. Niel Banta relates an amusing anecdote illus- trative of the backwoods in those early times : He was at Spring Bay one day, at some kind of a publie gathering-perhaps a political outpouring of the " sturdy yeomanry " of the land-and many of the multitude were exceedingly jubilant and merry (there was a still house near by, and it is supposed that the close proximity of it had some influence on them), when a man was taken sud- denly very ill. A young man, nicknamed " Cabe " Brown, who was pretty full of whisky, and just in the condition to be officious, appointed himself to take
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