USA > Illinois > McLean County > The good old times in McLean County, Illinois : containing two hundred and sixty-one sketches of old settlers, a complete historical sketch of the Black Hawk war and descriptions of all matters of interest relating to McLean County > Part 14
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The Indians in this locality were principally Kickapoos, but after a while some Delawares came, but they looked to the Kickapoos for protection. The Pottawotamies also passed through occasionally.
The Delawares were much like the Kickapoos. For the eu- riosity of the reader we give here a few words of the Delaware language, which were remembered by Mrs. Orendorff. They . used the decimal system in counting, and the following are their numerals up to ten : Cota, nitia, naha, nawai, palini, cotosh, nishhosh, hosh, pashcon, telon.
The Indians, it is well known, never loved work, but occa- sionally they indulged in it by way of variety. One Indian, called Moonshine, chopped logs for Mr. Orendorff' while the latter split rails. Mr. Orendorff paid him a twist of tobacco for each cut, which made fifteen or twenty rails. The Indian earned nine twists of tobacco and was rich. Mr. Moonshine also assisted Mr. Orendorff in putting up a cabin.
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Among the Kickapoos were two Delaware squaws, who were really curiosities. They were Aunt Peggy and Aunt Nancy. The former was said to have been the wife of one of the Girtys, who, it is well known, left civilization, joined the Indians and fought against the whites. These were well educated squaws, and Aunt Peggy was a Presbyterian, but it is unpleasant to relate that, notwithstanding Aunt Peggy's education and her member- ship in the Presbyterian Church, she had the failing so common among Indians-she drank more whisky than was good for an elderly matron.
Mr. Orendorff says the Indians have the same little jealousies and heartburnings which trouble the whites, and these little feelings are sometimes manifested in curious ways. At one time he saw a Kickapoo and a Delaware talking together in a pleasant way. They seemed to be on the most intimate terms of friend- ship. They had been to a dance together during the evening previous, and it seemed that they were Damon and Pythias come to earth again, and that in their warm affection they would be willing to give their lives for each other. But a moment after- wards their backs were turned and the Delaware said to Mr. Orendorff: "Ugh! don't like Kickapoo; Kickapoo is mean": and probably the Kickapoo had the same opinion of the Dela- ware.
Mr. Orendorff' settled on his claim in Blooming Grove in the fall of 1824, and in October of that year married Mary Malinda Walker. The service was performed by Rev. Ebenezer Rhodes.
Mr. Orendorff's experience with the winter of the deep snow was very much like the experience of others. His stock walked . over stake and rider fences, and he pounded corn as did the rest of his neighbors.
When Mr. Orendorff came to this country, the county was called Fayette, but shortly afterwards Tazewell County was or- ganized, and the excitement over it was very great. The first election in Tazewell County was held at the house of William Orendorff, where Mr. W. H. Hodge was elected sheriff and Thomas Orendorff coroner.
Mr. Orendorff thinks he was the first who gave the name of Blooming to the grove. The circumstances are related in the sketch of John Rhodes. The two men were writing letters and
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when Rhodes asked what name to give the grove, Mr. Orendorff' looked up to the maple trees which were just coming out with blossoms and said : "It looks blooming here, I think we had better call it Blooming Grove.
In the year 1830 the county of MeLean was organized. Various petitions were circulated for that purpose, and in order to show that no " snap judgment" was taken a small protest against it was presented from Waynesville. The petition was taken to Vandalia by Thomas Orendorff and Colonel James Latta. Mr. William Lee D. Ewing, a very fine man, who was the speaker of the house, interested himself in the matter. But Mr. Ewing was rather slow about it and the two men were obliged to wait for several days. At last Mr. Ewing called them into his room and asked what the name of the county should be. Colonel Latta wished it named Hendricks County after Mr. Hendricks of Indiana; but Mr. Ewing remarked that he was afraid to have it called after any living man, for no person's reputation was safe before he was in his grave, for if he was living he might possibly do some thing mean and the county would be ashamed of him. Mr. Ewing therefore proposed to call the name of the county MeLean after John McLean, who had been their representative in congress and was very much thought of. This was done and the great county of McLean received its name. The bill was passed without any opposition through the Lower House in the forenoon and through the Sen- ate in the afternoon. In the bill, creating the county, three com- missioners were named to locate the county seat. They were Mr. Freeman and Jonathan Pugh of Macon County and Lemuel Lee of Vandalia. The commissioners appointed Thomas Oren- dorff the first assessor. The first assessment was made roughly on what each person was worth without specifying his property, and was completed in thirteen days. The lowest valuation of property was eleven dollars.
After remaining at Blooming Grove for some time, Mr. Orendorff began to take a philosophical view of the country and of the general prospect, and came to the conclusion that the groves would be well settled around their edges in the course of time, and he expected some day to see Blooming Grove sur- rounded by a cordon of farms. Then he began to ask himself
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how in such a case the cattle could get out from the grove to the prairie to graze. After thinking the matter over for some time he moved to Little Grove about three-quarters of a mile east of the lower end of Blooming Grove, where he lives at the present time. But his expectations of always having range for his cattle have been blasted. The prairie has become thiekly settled and is covered with farms, and the almost boundless pasture is gone.
Mr. Orendorff has had thirteen children of whom eleven grew up to manhood and womanhood. They are :
John Berry Orendorff who lives near his father.
David Owen Orendorff who now lives in Kansas.
Mrs. Mary Sophronia Able, wife of Daniel Able of Cheney's Grove.
Mrs. Catherine Seott, wife of John Scott of Bloomington township.
Mrs. Caroline Baremore, wife of John Baremore of Bloom- ington township.
Mrs. Sarah Margaret Orendorff, wife of Thomas Orendorff of Hopedale.
Thomas Walker Orendorff.
Mrs. Martha Malinda Luce, wife of Albert Luce of Bloom- ington township.
Charles Orendorff' lives at home.
Ben Jay Orendorff, who lives in Chicago.
Mrs. Olive Jane Hollis, wife of Allen Hollis, lives at her father's house.
Mr. Orendorff is very tall, is six feet four and one-half inches high. It is pretty hard to give a clear idea of his appearance and expression. When he smiles, his laugh goes into his chin and he appears exceedingly amused. It is a pleasure to be in his presence and see him smile. He is kind to his family and his neighbors, and when he parts with them he says kindly " I wish you well." We are sure that everyone who knows him must wish him well, and even if old Machina, the Kickapoo chief, were living, he would be willing to forget their old ani- mosity and " shake hands across the bloody chasm."
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JOHN BERRY ORENDORFF.
John Berry Orendorff was born May 3, 1827, on the old Mason farm, in the south part of Blooming Grove, on the place now owned by Stephen Houghton. Although he was very young when the deep snow came in 1830 and '31, he clearly remembers it, and remembers the walls of snow which were thrown up to make a patlı from the house to the barn.
The sudden change in the weather which came in Decem- ber, 1836, came when the little Orendorff's were out at play in the yard and nearly blew them away and froze their little noses before they could get into the house.
Mr. Orendorff's experience has been that of nearly all the old settlers. He has fought fire on the prairies when it threat- ened to take everything before it; he has at a single time been obliged to fight it for two miles and a half, when it rolled on be- tween Blooming and Randolph's Grove.
Mr. Orendorff remembers very clearly, and gives a good de- scription of the queer contrivances used by the people of early days. It was the duty of every settler to exercise his ingenuity in fighting against the common enemy of the farmers, the wolves, which carried off the chickens and sheep and little pigs. Traps were made for them of the most ingenious kind. A trap was made of logs or heavy poles, and was ten feet square and two and a half or three feet high. The floor was of puncheons, so that the wolves could not scratch out underneath. One of the top logs was hinged, and was raised up and braced with a trig- ger after the fashion of a rabbit trap. The trigger was inside, and had attached to it a piece of meat. The wolves would smell the meat for a long distance and come up to the trap cau- tiously and jump in and grab the meat, when the log above would fall and capture them.
The first plows used by the settlers were made of wood, the next of iron and the last of steel. The first plow which Mr. Orendorff used was called the Barshear. This was a plow hav- ing a piece of iron for a shear, which ran flat on the ground and had a bar attached which extended from the point several feet back, and held the plow steady. The mould board was made of wood, and the plow worked very well. Many hundreds of thousands of acres have been ploughed with the Barshear.
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But after a while an improvement was made, and the Cary plow with an iron mould board was manufactured. But this would not scour, and a plow with a mould board of steel was substi- tuted.
Corn was formerly ploughed by going three times through the furrow, but with the modern cultivator it is only necessary to go once. The wheat was formerly cut with a sickle, pitched with wooden forks and tramped out with horses. The first har- rows were A shaped, and had wooden teeth, but now they are of various shapes and have teeth of steel. Wheat was cleaned by throwing it in the air, or slowly dropping it from some high place and fanning it as it fell, with a sheet which two persons raised and lowered. The people raised their own sheep, cut the wool, washedi it, picked it to pieces and carded it, and the women spun it. Every farmer raised flax. It was pulled by hand and laid in piles, until it was bleached and rotted, then it was tied up and hauled in. When dry it was broken with a hand break and the shives (or bark) were separated by striking the flax with a wooden knife, as the flax was held over a board. called a scutcheon board. The tow was afterwards separated by a fine hackle or comb, and was used for coarse goods, while the flax was used for fine goods. It was spun and woven by the women. Ropes were made of tow by twisting the single strands with crank -, then passing them through holes and twisting them all together. Cotton was often raised and taken to Springfield to be ginned, fter which it was spun and woven by the indus- trious women.
Mr. Orendortl'is a man rather above the ordinary stature and is quite heavily built. He is a thriving and industrious farmer. a hard worker, and a good father to his interesting family. Ile likes to see his friends and usually keeps some good cider for them. He married November 18, 1847, Nancy Jane MeCairn, and has had six children in all, five of whom are living.
JAMES K. ORENDORFF.
James K. Orendorff was born December 28, 1812, near Hop- kinsville, Kentucky. His parents were of German and Welch descent. His father, William Orendorff, was born in Georgia. He made a visit to Illinois in 1816, and in 1817 came with his
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family to live here. He settled in St. Clair County and lived there and in Clinton County until the fall of 1822. He lived during the winter of 1822 and '23 in Sangamon County, within six miles of Springfield. During the fall of 1822he made a visit to Blooming Grove, and moved there on the second of May, 1823. He first made a log cabin, then hewed puncheons and clapboards and made a house. These early houses were curios- ities in their way. The door of Mr. Orendorff's cabin was, he thinks, pinned on with wooden pins. The shelves were made of boards held up with pins. The hearth and fire place were of beaten earth, and the chimney was made of sticks and elay. The first school teacher to whom he went was William H. Hodge, who understood how to teach the little pioneers their a, b, e's successfully. When Mr. Orendorff came here the country was an almost unbroken wilderness. A few miners were at work near Galena, and a few whites at the salt works about six miles this side of Danville.
Mr. Orendorff remembers the changes in the weather. These are matters more particularly noted by the early settlers, as they were more exposed to wind and storm and sudden changes. In the spring of 1827, by the middle of March, the grass was ankle high in the marshes, and the prairies had a greenish tinge, but not enough grass for cattle, except near the sloughs.
The people did their trading at Springfield, and there they went to mill. Every settler who went did trading for himself and his neighbors. People then had very little money to buy with, and nearly all business was done by exchange.
The people then practised the most rigid economy. They spun their own clothing and colored it with walnut bark, indigo and hickory bark. They raised their own cotton and flax and made their own sugar. They boiled maple sap in large iron kettles, which they bought by weight, giving for them maple sugar and trading pound for pound. The settlers made their own boots and shoes and clothing of all kinds. Mrs. Orendorff has a quilt made of cotton by hand before the deep snow. It is finely made and a great curiosity, and Mrs. Orendorff is justly proud of it.
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The taxes paid by the people at first went to Vandalia, as that was then the county seat of the great county of Fayette. In 1831, on the Fourth of July, William Orendorff, the father of James, was the auctioneer to sell the town lots of Blooming- ton, as on that day the little town was born.
Mr. James K. Orendorff takes great interest in the peculiar customs of the first settlers and the devices used by them in their labor. Their wheat was first separated from the straw by tramping it out with horses. They cleaned the wheat by throw- ing it in the air and allowing the wind to blow out the chaff, or by letting it fall from some altitude and fanning it with a sheet which two persons waved in the air. The settlers would use a hollow log or one which they gouged out with an axe, for a sugar trough or as a convenient receptacle for pork. Old Ephraim Stout was most skillful in the work of making these troughs and used them for wash tubs. He put legs to them to hold them up and fitted pins in the bottoms to empty the water. An old Vermonter used a tin pan scoured up brightly, as a looking glass. One would think that a device of such a nature would have been discovered by a woman. The pitchforks used by early settlers were made of wood, and it was many years before the iron-toothed forks were seen in the West.
Mr. Orendorff was in the Black Hawk war and was a member of the company commanded by Merritt Covel. The company went first to Pekin, from there to Peoria and on to Dixon's Ferry. They had very few provisions. On their way to Dixon they joined the command of Major Stillman at Red Oak Grove. There Mr. Orendorff and six others lost their
horses, but he came along on foot. When the command came to a high ridge, overlooking the Winnebago Swamps, they saw far off to the left down Rock River a smoke suddenly rising, which was supposed to be a signal made by the Indians of the coming of the whites. Major Stillman's men left their baggage wagons at the Winnebago Swamps, and made a forced march to Dixon's Ferry, where they arrived at night. The next morning their baggage wagons came in, and one of the soldiers (Bob Harbert) said, "they arrived more by good luck than good con- duct." They remained for several days at Dixon, until the "Governor's troops" with Governor Reynolds came up. Major
M'LEAN COUNTY. 161
Stillman's men there drew five days' provisions and went up Rock River on the famous expedition which resulted in "Still- man's Run." When the five days' provisions were drawn, the baggage wagons were empty. As Mr. Orendorff had no horse he did not go up Rock River with his company, but took the empty baggage wagons back to Winnebago Swamps to meet Captain McClure's company, and carried orders for Captain Mc- Clure to turn up Rock River with his men and provisions, in order to supply the men under Stillman. There Mr. Orendorff got his horse, which had been found by John Rhodes, Owen Cheney, and others. It was a fine, dark, chestnut sorrel, and he has the same breed yet. Captain McClure's company had no provisions, and they came immediately on to Dixon's Ferry, where they arrived the evening before Stillman's defeat. The second morning afterwards from two o'clock until eleven Still- man's men came straggling in. On that day the greater part of the army went up to bury the dead of Stillman's Run, but Mr. Orendorff was sent with some others down to the rapids, ten or fifteen miles distant, to bring up provisions which were taken up that far in keel boats. Nothing further of any conse- quence occurred, in which Mr. Orendorff took part, previous to the discharge of the men, and the re-organization of the army. The soldiers in the Black Hawk war were remarkable for their ingenuity and good management under the difficulties and hard- ships to which they were subjected. They mixed up their flour in a hollow hickory bark, put a piece of the dough on a stick and roasted it. They made meal soup of water, meal and gravy, after frying their meat ; and they resorted to a thousand ingen- ious devices to prepare their food and make themselves con- fortable under difficulties.
When the country was new, all Inmber for building purposes was first hewed out with axes, but afterwards a great improve- ment was made when the whip saw was introduced. The log to be sawed was first made square, then raised high enough from the ground for a man to stand under it conveniently, and the whip saw was pulled up and down, one man standing above and another below. Two hundred feet of lumber could be sawed out in a day.
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The land in Illinois was surveyed in October, 1823, but the sale did not take place until 1829, and then the settlers had to be active in securing their titles.
Game was plenty in early days. On the Okaw River Mr. Orendorff saw deer in droves of from fifty to three hundred, in- deed the number of deer in the country was astonishing. When the settlers came in they cultivated corn, which stood ungathered during the winter, and the deer fed on it and came out in the spring in fine condition. In addition to this the settlers made constant war on the wolves, gave bounties for their scalps, and hunted them with dogs and horses, and as these pests of the earth became thinned out the deer multiplied more rapidly. The Indians went down to the Okaw in the fall to hunt deer and re- turned in the spring.
Mr. Orendorff remembers among the Indians two old squaws, Peggy and Nancy, who stayed in Blooming Grove during the winter while the tribe went down on the Okaw. Aunt Peggy was supposed to have been the wife of Simon Girty, the cele- brated white renegade. Both of these squaws were splendidly formed women. Aunt Nancy was fully six feet in height.
James K. Orendorff is of rather less than the medium sta- ture, has small, dark, expressive eyes, is a hard worker, gets on well in the world, has a fine farm well stocked, and appears prosperous. He is a man of positive ideas, and thinks he would rather rely upon the honesty of the old settlers than upon the obligations imposed by law. He thinks a great deal of his fam- ily, takes pride in them and makes great exertions for their welfare and comfort. He married, May 4, 1837, Miss Lovina Sales, daughter of Elias and Sarah Sales. They have had six children, of whom four are living. One died in infancy. The children are :
William Orendorff, born December 9, 1839, lives temporarily on his grandfather's place, about half a mile north of his father's house.
Perry Orendorff, born July 7, 1842, lives in West township, section thirty-six.
James Orendorff, born August 20, 1844, lives at home.
Mary Francis Orendorff, born, September 21, 1847, lives at home.
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Sarah Adeline Orendorff, born January 21, 1854, died Feb- ruary 7, 1857.
OLIVER HAZARD PERRY ORENDORFF.
Oliver H. P. Orendorff was born May 16, 1822, in Washington County, Illinois. When he was about one year old his father came to that part of Fayette County, which now forms the coun- ty of McLean, and settled at Blooming Grove. This was on the second of May, 1823. Mr. O. H. P. Orendorff' has lived here ever since. The first school he attended was kept by William H. Hodge. Books were then scarce in the West and the one Oliver studied was an old fashioned almanac. He was rather a precocious youth and his memory goes back to an early period. He remembers when David Cox came to the country, which was in September, 1826. Mr. Orendorff went to school to Mr. Hodge, when it was kept about a mile distant. He was then very small, and at one time, when the weather was cold, he would have been frozen to death, had he not been dragged to the school-house by his sister and Maria Dawson.
The great hurricane, which swept through Blooming Grove came on the nineteenth of June, 1827. Although the house, where the Orendorff's lived, was not in the immediate track of the hurricane, it blew there fearfully. While it was coming up even the beasts of the field understood the danger. The Oren- dorff boys, who were at home alone, had just driven up the cattle, and when the dumb creatures saw the coming storm they took refuge in a new and unoccupied log house. The hurricane unroofed the houses of William Evans and William Walker although they were not in its immediate track. It passed through the timber and piled up the trees in some places twenty feet high. Nothing in the forest could stand before it. The trees were broken and twisted and torn. About nineteen days after- wards as Mr. William Orendorff' and some others were looking at the wreck of the scattered timber, they found a hog pinned fast to the ground by the limb of a tree and much bruised and unable to move. The logs were cut and it was released from confinement and afterwards made a fine porker. The width of the hurricane was about half a mile and its length no one knows.
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Its direction was almost due cast. It passed through Blooming Grove at about twilight in the evening.
During the winter of the deep snow Mr. Orendorff went to school to Cheney Thomas through the timber. After the heavy snow fell a road was broken and the little Orendorff's by passing back and forth kept the road clear. But outside of the timber no road remained broken longer than a few hours, as the snow drifted over it. The Orendorff family suffered very little during this winter, but many families were so distressed with the cold and lack of corn that they allowed their cattle to take care of themselves. The corn erop during the season previous was very fine, but the season following was so cold and short by reason of the length of time required to melt away the deep snow, that very little corn came to maturity. The suffering caused by the difficulty of obtaining food was sometimes ex- treme. A man named Rook, who lived on Rook's Creek about twenty miles north of Lexington, became short of provisions, and it seemed that his family must starve. He made himself some snow shoes, took a hand sled and walked twenty miles to where Lexington now is, and there found corn which he took home to his starving family.
Mr. Orendorff has a lively recollection of the Indians, and particularly of two squaws, Aunt Peggy and Aunt Nancy. These squaws were pretty well educated, and it is said that, while listening to a backwoods preacher, they amused themselves by criticising his grammatical blunders. They often came to the house of Mrs. Orendorff (mother of Oliver) and helped her wash and do her work. They were particularly pleased with children, and greatly admired every likely looking white papoose. They took a great faney to Oliver, and wished to bring him up and make an Indian chief of him.
Mrs. Orendorff died on the 9th of November, 1831, and this sad event affected Oliver very deeply.
Oliver Orendorff had a somewhat adventurous disposition. When he was very young he went with his brother James with a six horse team to St. Louis for a load of goods for Greenberry Larison. They passed through Springfield, which was then a village of log huts. In 1834 he went with a party of drovers to White Oak Springs, near Galena, with a lot of hogs. They
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