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 34
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The United Presbyterian Church, one mile from the village of Low Point, was built in 1857. Rev. P. H. Drennan was Pastor at the time of its building. Rev. Mr. MeClenahan was the first Presbyterian preacher in the town, and the society organized during his ministerial labors in 1853. The church is an ele- gant brick edifice, 40x56 feet, and cost $3,000. The present Pastor is Rev. R. B. Nesbeth, and the records number eighty members.
357
HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
The Old School Presbyterians, as they are called, have a church 12 miles from Low Point, which was buit a few years after that of the United Presbyte- rians. It is a good frame building of modern style, well finished and furnished. The society was formed by Rev. I. A. Corneilson ; the present membership is about seventy, and Rev. Mr. Keeling is Pastor. Other churches of the town- ship will be noticed in the history of villages in which they are located.
The first school house was built near Mr. Owen's place, in 1838, was of unhewn logs, and had a wood chimney. It was afterward moved a mile or two east, into a settlement known as Bricktown, and which was more convenient to a large number of its patrons. The people seemed to have adopted a line of the Southern negro's camp-meeting song, to
" Keep de ark a moven,"
for a few years later we find the little old log school house moved again, this time " across the hollow." This last move offended Bricktown, and in a fit of pique, or independence perhaps, built a small frame school house in their neigh- borhood, and which was the first of the kind in the township. It is still stand- ing, a monument to their enterprise, and doing duty as a temple of learning. The first schools taught in the log school house after it was erected were by George W. Taylor and Joseph Perry, but it cannot be decided now who had the precedence as pedagogue. The first school, however, taught in Cazenovia Town- ship, and which was probably the first free school in the State of Illinois, was taught by Miss Love K. Morse, as noticed in another chapter of this history.
The present School Treasurer, Frank N. Ireland. has none of the early school records in his possession. From his last annual report to the County Superintendent, we extract the following :
No. of males under 21 years. 364
No. of females under 21 years
317
Total
681
No. males between 6 and 21 years.
205
No. females between 6 and 21 years
197
Total
402
No. males attending school.
159
No. females attending school. 154
Total. 313
No. School Districts in township.
8
No. schools in township
8
No. graded schools in township.
1
No. nngraded schools in township
No. brick school houses
No. frame school honses
7
No. male teachers employed.
4
No. female teachers employed.
10
Total
ยท 14
358
HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
Estimated value of school property. $ 13,600.00
Estimated value of school libraries 10.00
Estimated value of school apparatus. 18.00
Township fund for support of schools 2,242.60
Highest monthly wages paid teachers 80.00
Lowest monthly wages paid teachers. 30.00
Total amount paid tes chers.
3.063.16
The township is well supplied with good substantial school houses, thorough , teachers, and every facility for first-class common school education.
THIE RAILROAD.
The Western Division of the Chicago & Alton Railroad crosses the township diagonally. It was completed in 1870, and the township, as an organization, holds $50,000 stock in the road. The route was first surveyed under the title of the Tonica & Petersburg Railroad many years ago, but little except the sur- vey was done toward a completion of the enterprise at that time. The first intention seems to have been to build this road sonth to Lincoln and north to Peru, and after the survey was made it was changed to Petersburg south and Tonica north. But, under a later dispensation, it was changed to its present route and built principally by subscriptions received along the line. As a local road, it is doing a large business, and has been of material benefit to the section through which it passes. It belongs to the Chicago, Alton & St. Louis Railroad Company, and is known as the Western Division of that road.
THE MORMONS.
At an early day there was a Mormon Settlement in the northwest corner of Cazenovia Township, which was a source of considerable excitement, and at one time threatened trouble. Two brothers, Orson and Parley P. Pratt, were the chief prophets and elders of the saints of this settlement, and exercised all the functions, on a smaller scale, of Jo. Smith or Brigham Young. But the low, deep mutterings of the gathering tempest warned these "Latter-Day Saints " that a collision was rapidly approaching, and convinced them, too, of the truth in that faithful saying, " A prophet is not without honor, except in his own coun- try." In order to avoid "the wrath to come." they suddenly changed their base of operations, pulled up stakes and removed to Salt Lake, where they be- came big guns and elders of the first water under Brigham. There we will leave them. With their departure, fizzled out Mormonism in this section.
The settlement alluded to a little space ago, called Bricktown, was, at an early period of the settling up of the township, a rather interesting neighbor- hood. It was on the plain, northwest of " Uncle Jimmy " Owens', and received its name from the fact that there was a brick yard there many years ago, where considerable brick was manufactured. A little store and grocery was once kept in their midst, and was quite a place of resort on Saturday evenings, and, per- haps, Sundays. It was in this settlement that the first frame school house was built in Cazenovia Township; and in the grand march of civilization and
359
HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
refinement, its " old-time pleasantries " have passed away, and it has settled down into a most excellent neighborhood, noted for its energy and enterprise.
ORIGIN OF NAME.
Cazenovia Township received its name from Cazenovia Lake, in the State of New York. There were four brothers-in-law living near Low Point, viz .: Jeter Foster, Eli Rich, Thomas Clark and John Safford, who came from the neighbor- hood of the lake above alluded to, and talked so much about its beauties that they finally received the name of " Old Cazenovia " among their neighbors. The name was bestowed on them in good humor, and received in the same spirit, and clung to them until it became almost as common as their true names. When the county was laid off and organized into townships, in 1852, the matter of a name for this one evoked considerable discussion, until some one, as a joke on their good-natured neighbors. proposed Cazenovia, which was unanimously adopted without debate.
John W. Acres was the first Supervisor, under township organization, and James G. Bayne. first Clerk. At present, P. Coen is Supervisoror, and C. F. McCulloch, Town Clerk.
Politically. Cazenovia was Democratic in the days of Whigs and Democrats, but from 1860 until within the past few years it was Republican. At present, it is a difficult matter to designate the color of its political faith or to decide which of the four political parties extant has the ascendancy. Of the old line Democrats, the Republicans, National Greenbackers. and Independents, it is not easy to tell just which way the town would now go, in a national contest.
WAR RECORD.
During the late war, Cazenovia did her whole duty in furnishing troops, but, like other portions of Woodford County, failed to get the proper credits for all her men, and, as a consequence, was subjected to a draft before the final wind-up of the unpleasantness.
Among the officers whose names are inscribed on the roll of fame are Capt. McCulloch, who is reported from Metamora Township; Lieut. Philip Jenkins, Co. C, Seventy-seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteers : C. F. McCulloch, Second Lieutenant of the same company and regiment, and Lieut. Anderson Wright, who was promoted to the place of Jenkins, when his failing health forced him to resign his office. Of the brave boys who filled up the ranks and bore the brunt of the strife, their record is written on many a Southern battle field, and many lonely graves bear silent witness to their deeds.
" Not forever have they left us, Those for whom we shed onr tears ;
Not forever shall our mourning Darken long and weary years."
When Mr. Owen settled in the township, there were traces of an Indian camp plainly visible about one and a half miles from where he settled. But
360
HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
the Indians themselves had "gone West to grow up with the country," and their hunting grounds had been appropriated by the pale faces.
TOWNS AND VILLAGES.
The old town of Washburn, as it is still called, was laid ont in 1851, by Hiram Echols, who owned the land on which it was situated. The old town was mostly in Marshall County, but on the line between it and Woodford. The first lots, which were 50x150 feet, were sold at public auction, and brought the rousing figures of from $3.00 to $15.00 apiece. The place was first called Uniontown ; but upon ascertaining that there was another Uniontown in the State it was changed to Mantua, which was likewise a duplicate name, when Washburn was finally decided upon, which name it still retains, and which was that of the first post office established here.
William Maxwell, now of Lacon, was the first Postmaster, and the office was established several years before the town was laid out. The first store was kept by Americus Pogue, who is now a wealthy man and is living at Richmond, Ind.
Jesse Hammers built the first large stone building ; and Dr. Thomas, now living at Lacon, and who bought a whole block at the sale of lots, put up the first residence.
August Younker, who came from Germany, in 1854, stopping in New Orleans two years, came here in 1856, where he has since remained. In 1869, he built a large steam grist-mill, the only one in the township. It is a two-story frame structure, has two runs of burs, cost $9,000, and has a capacity of about 150 bushels of grain per day.
Peleg Sweet, another of the enterprising men of the old town of Washburn, was from New York. He settled first in Morgan- County, and came to Wash- burn in 1847, where he took an active part in building up the town.
The magnificent brick school house of Washburn is in the old town, and consequently in the county of Marshall.
The new village of Washburn was laid out in 1870, when the certainty of a railroad became apparent, and is wholly in Woodford County, but just across the line from the old town, and is on the Western Division of the C. & A. Rail- road, about nine miles north of Metamora. It was incorporated as a village in July, 1873, and the following Board of Trustees elected, viz .: Geo. C. Butler, F. Bennecke, S. W. Mccullough, Samuel Patrick, Henry Sangbush and J. G. Harris. The Board organized for business by electing S. W. Mccullough, Pres- ident, and M. S. Fulton, Clerk. F. N. Ireland was elected Treasurer, R. H. Richards, Constable, and William Cotton, Street Commissioner.
The Washburn News, a live, seven-column newspaper, was established in December, 1877, by S. C. Bruce, a practical printer, and who is editor and proprietor. It is Independent on all political issues, and is noted for being the only paper in the county that uses no patent side.
361
HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
The Washburn Bank was established in 1870, by Frank N. Ireland, who is sole owner of it, and who carries on the banking business in all its depart- . ments.
The village has two general stores, three grocery stores, two lumber yards, two furniture stores, two drug stores, three saloons, two shoe stores, two harness shops, four wagon and blacksmith shops, three hotels, one livery stable, and all branches of general business are well represented.
The legal fraternity is represented by Messrs. S. B. Jones and George P. Gill ; and the medical bureau is composed of Drs. N. V. Maloney, Jas. Tweed- dale and Garrett Newkirk.
The grain elevator was built by S. W. Mccullough, in 1870, and cost, in- cluding its steam power, about $7,000. It has a capacity of 12,000 bushels is still owned by its builder, Mr. Mccullough, who handles annually about 200,000 bushels of grain, mostly corn and oats, with a few car loads of rye, by way of variety.
THE CHURCHES.
The Baptist Society was formed in 1852, under the pastoral charge of Rev. Mr. Freeman. The church was built in 1855-6, and Rev. C. D. Merritt was the first Pastor. It is a frame building, 36x50 feet in size, cost $1,800, and has about fifty members. There is no Pastor in charge of it at present, Rev. J. B. Brown, late Pastor, having recently resigned his position.
The Methodist Episcopal Church was built about 1863, and dedicated by Revs. Mr. Munsell and Mr. Evans ; the former, at the time, was President of the University at Bloomington, and the latter is now President of Abingdon College. The society was organized in 1857. Rev. Mr. Suedaker was Pastor when the church, was built, and Rev. Mr. Applebee is present Pastor. The edifice is 30x48 feet, cost about $2,000, and has a membership of about forty.
The German Evangelical Church was built in 1877, and is an elegant little frame edifice, furnished in the highest style of modern architecture, and cost $1,500. They have no Pastor at present, Rev. II. Eller having lately left the charge.
In addition to these churches, there are, in the old town, the Christian, Pres- byterian and German Lutheran. Rev. W. Keeling is Pastor of the Presbyte- rian ; Rev. F. Ledebur, of the German Lutheran, while the Christian Church has no settled Pastor.
Washburn Lodge, No. 421, A., F. & A. M., was organized in 1861, with James Freeman as Master. It has about thirty members at present, but at one time had upward of eighty. Many of them have dimitted to form other Lodges, and some to remove to other sections of the country. G. Burson is the present Master, and Charles Cutler, Secretary.
The order of Odd Fellows is represented by Washburn Lodge, No. 546, I. O. O. F. N. V. Maloney is Noble Grand, and H. Gill, Secretary.
.
362
HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
There is a cemetery adjacent to the Baptist Church, and another on the Sweet place, where slumber many of the early citizens of the old town. About 1869-70, a cemetery was laid out one mile southeast of the new village, and which is quite a handsome little city of the dead.
LOW POINT.
The town of Low Point is on the railroad, about four miles south of Wash- burn, and is located on Section 22 of the township. It was surveyed and laid out by D. H. Davison, County Surveyor, in 1871, for James G. Bayne, who owned the land. The first house was built by Piper, Bayne & Co., just after the town was laid out, and was a store house. The school house was built in 1848, long before the village of Low Point was dreamed of, and the first school was taught in it by Orson Cheedle. The present teacher is Miss Ella Dodds, who has a large attendance of pupils, and is represented as an excellent teacher. An association was formed in 1874 for the purpose of opening an academy. The next year an elegant academy building was erected, and a school of higher grade than the public schools conducted in it by Prof. J. E. Lamb, until De- cember, 1876, when the edifice was burned to the ground. It had an average of about forty pupils, and was an institution in which the citizens felt consider- able pride. It is a fact to be regretted that the funds of the association do not permit them to rebuild at present.
The Methodist Episcopal Church, the only one in the village, was built in 1851, but the society organized several years anterior to that period. The build- ing is a frame structure, 30x40 feet, and cost about $1,500. It was dedicated by Rev. Mr. Cummins, who was Presiding Elder of the district. The present preacher in charge is Rev. Mr. Applebee, and the church is in a flourishing condition. A very pretty little cemetery is attached to the church, and hand- somely adorned with shrubbery and evergreens. The first burial in it was in the Summer of 1851, and were two brothers named Pogue, * who died of cholera on the same day, and were both buried in the same grave. They had gone down to the timber for a load of wood, and while absent ate some red plums, took cholera and died before they could get home.
Low Point boasts of having the best adapted grain elevator outside of Chi- cago. It was built during the Summer of 1873, by Piper, Bayne & Co., at a cost of $7,000. It is 24x40 feet in size, 70 feet in height, and has a capacity of 20,000 bushels. A good steam engine is attached. They handle, princi- pally, corn and oats, and about 200,000 bushels annually.
The tile factory of Oscar Pinkerton is quite an object of interest, and deserves a special notice in connection with the business of the place. Hitherto. farmers could not get tiling for drainage purposes nearer than Joliet. This establishment turns out about 4,000 feet daily, and makes six different sizes, viz. : 2}, 3, 33, 4, 5 and 6 inches. About $4,000 is invested in the business, and it is the first enterprise of the kind in this section of the country.
*They were brothers of Americus Pogue, mentioned in the history of Washburn.
363
HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
The first store in Low Point was kept by John E. Dodds, who is still in the mercantile business. There is one other store, kept by Hornish Brothers ; one blacksmith and wagon shop, by Ellsworth, which, with what has already been noticed, constitutes the business of the town. The name of Low Point was taken from the oldest settlement in the township, which was long known by the same title.
CAZENOVIA TOWN.
The town of Cazenovia is situated on the Western Division of the C. & A. Railroad, about four miles north of Metamora. and ocenpies twenty acres of the southeast corner of Section 28, and nineteen acres of the northeast corner of Section 33, together with about eight acres belonging to the railroad. It was surveyed by D. H. Davison, in September, 1870, for E. N. Farnsworth and W. O. Hammers, who owned the land and who laid out the town.
The first store was opened by Wikoff & Bowen, in March, 1871. The post office was established in 1870. with W. O. Hammers, Postmaster. He was suc- ceeded by William Forbes, and he by B. F. Bowen. In Angust, 1877, Panl J. Perry, the present incumbent, received the office.
The grain elevator was built in 1871, by W. O. Hammers & Co., and is 24x40 feet, thirty-two feet from the ground to the eaves, and cost $4,000. It has a capacity for 15,000 bushels, and has horse power attachment, good drive- way. etc.
The first house put up after the town was laid out was the stone house now occupied by Amsler.
The present business of the place is one general store, kept by Samuel Amsler ; wagon and blacksmith shop, by G. W. Clingman : harness shop, by Jesse Hammers ; and shoe shop, by G. W. Baden.
THE BAPTIST CHURCH
was built in 1873, during the pastoral service of Rev. W. E. James. It is an ele- gant frame, of modern style, 28x36 feet, cost $3,600, and has about 115 mem- bers, but is at present without a shepherd. The ground occupied by it was do- nated by Mrs. Mary Farnsworth, for church purposes, as long as thus used. Upon these conditions she gave five lots to the church society.
A school house was built here in 1858, long before the birth of the village. It is a good frame building. The average attendance is thirty pupils, and Miss Edith Bayne is teacher.
' The name of Cazenovia was bestowed on the village in honor of that borne by the township.
WORTH TOWNSHIP.
The Faderland, as Worth Township is sometimes called, has for its southern boundary the line of Tazewell County, with Spring Bay Township on the west, Partridge on the north, and Metamora on the east. About one-half of Worth
364
HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
is prairie and excellent timbered land for farming purposes, while the other ' half is broken and hilly, with high bluffs and brakes along the creeks of Black Partridge, Ten Mile and their numerous branches. The bluffs and creek bot- toms produce timber in abundance, and that of a good quality. The soil is well watered by the creeks noted above, and their tributaries, and at the same time well drained through these outlets. When we take a survey of this sec- tion, of its rugged bluffs and timbered slopes, with their poverty-stricken soil, and reflect upon its general inferior quality, we are ready to conclude that, with all the disadvantages resulting from these sources taken into considera- tion, Worth Township is one of the most flourishing in the county. No railroads cross its boundaries, nor any villages dot its surface; but it is a thoroughly farming community, and is devoted almost exclusively to farming interests. It is known as Township 27 north, Range 3 west of the Third Principal Meridian, and, in 1877, had an assessed valuation of taxable prop- erty, personal and real, of $231,473.
SETTLEMENT.
Notwithstanding a large majority of the present population of Worth Town- ship is from countries beyond the sea, yet the first settlements were made by our own people. As early as 1831, we find the hardy pioneer erecting his cabin in this section. The first cabin in the township is supposed to have been built by one of the Sowardses, of whom mention has several times been made in these pages.
Rev. Zadock Hall, the old pioneer Methodist preacher-the co-laborer in the wilds of Illinois with the famous Peter Cartwright, and who was born in the far-off State of Delaware-came to Worth Township in November, 1831, aud pre-empted a claim to land where he at present resides. He informs us that when he made his claim he remembers but two cabins standing upon the terri- tory now embraced in Worth, and that neither were then occupied. One of them was near the present site of Germantown, and the other in the western part, near the Metamora line. The latter had been built by Sowards, some years before, but was deserted. Both of these cabins were so small that, Mr. Hall said, to use a backwoods phrase of the times, "there was not room enough to sling a cat around in them." Mr. Hall came first to Ohio, and settled near Zanesville, in 1816, where he remained until he came to this county, as already recorded. His was, probably, the first permanent settlement in what is now Worth Township. He built his house of one room, which is embraced in the present elegant residence of his son, Lewis Hall, in the early part of the year 1832; and if it was not the first house, it was at least the first frame house in the town. He employed Albert J. Banta to assist him in building it, and they went on Congress land to get the timbers for it, without asking, of course, Uncle Sam's permission. The old gentleman still tells it, as a joke, that Mr. Banta remarked at the time that everybody in Illinois would steal, even to the preach-
1
Thederick looke, M.D.
EL PASO,
367
HISTORY OF WOODFORD COUNTY.
ers. The house he then built has never been out of possession of the family. Additions have been made to it, and modern improvements, until it is a hand- some and capacious residence ; but Mr. Hall still retains as his study the old original room. He first entered a quarter section of land, and, like all the early settlers, he sought the timber, avoiding the prairies as uninhabitable deserts. When his only son grew to manhood, and desired to settle in life, Mr. Hall gave him half of his land, and a few years ago sold him the remainder of it, while he makes his home with him, in comparative rest and quiet, after his long life of service as a minister of the Gospel. He stated to us that, a few years after he came to the neighborhood, a man settled a mile or two from him, just out on the prairie, and said that he did so because he would always have the range beyond him for the benefit of his own stock. A decade or two con- vinced him of his error on that point.
Benjamin Williams came from Shelbyville, Ind., and settled first in the vicinity of Metamora, in those early times known as Partridge Point. It was about the year 1829 that he settled where Peter Engle now lives, and sold the claim to the elder Engle, upon his arrival in the settlement. He then removed into Worth Township, and settled near the line between it and Spring Bay. He lived upon this place until his death, which occurred in September, 1846. His wife died in 1864. She was said to have been a noble Christian woman- kind to the poor, and a ministering angel among the sick and distressed. Mr. Williams was one of the first Justices of the Peace in the county, and held the office so long ago that none now living can tell the date of his appointment. There are some amusing incidents related as having occurred in his early courts, and connected with his official acts. It is said that he once united a couple in the bonds of matrimony, whose married life disclosed the thorns, without reveal- ing any of the roses which are supposed to bloom along life's pathway ; and their nnhappiness so troubled the good old man that he sought the advice of a brother Justice, to know if he could not unmarry them, arguing that, as he had married them, he certainly had the power to nndo his own work.
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