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 15
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crossed Rock River at Dixon's Ferry, and there Mr. Orendorff saw old Father Dixon, then the only white inhabitant at that point. At Kellogg's Grove, where during the Black Hawk war Colonel Dement had fought the Indians with his Spy Battalion, he saw the bones of horses and a human skull. Although Oli- ver was only twelve years of age, he was taken along with these drovers for something besides amusement ; it was his business to take care of a team. He was then a "sassy" little driver, but hardy and tough. He had no remarkable adventure on the way. Hle often went to Chicago, was once seventeen days on his jour- ney, and received only fifty cents a bushel for his wheat. Of course he always camped out on these expeditions.
During the sudden change in the weather in December, 1836, Oliver Orendorff was at school. The ground was covered with slush and water, and young Benjamin Cox made a wish that the weather would turn cold, and freeze over the creek. It did turn cold, so cold that many of the scholars could not go home ; the little Orendorff's were "weather-bound," and staid over night at William Michael's. The following morning Oliver went home on horseback, and while crossing a creek his horse broke through the ice at a riffle and at the same time went under a low hanging limb of a tree which brushed Oliver from the horse's back. Unfortunately he got his boot full of water, but he mount- ed his horse and rode home, a half a mile distant, on the keen run. When he arrived there his boot was frozen fast to his foot, and he had great difficulty in pulling it off.
During the famous wet season of 1844, Mr. Orendorff moved the goods and stock of an aunt of his to Iowa. He started on the 9th of May, walked the whole distance and with his cousin drove twenty head of cattle. They waded and swam the sloughs and creeks, and crossed the Illinois River by wading, ferrying and swimming. The horses attached to their wagon went through with much kicking, and scratching, but came out safe at last. He returned home by the fourth of June, and says that during all the time he was gone his clothes were never once en- tirely dry. He helped his uncle plant corn before he started, and on his return helped his father plant corn, as the ground had been difficult to plow on account of the wet.
The first camp-meeting Mr. Orendorff ever attended was held
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on the place where he now lives. The Rev. Peter Cartwright was present, and preached in his most interesting and humorous style.
Mr. Orendorff married, April 1, 1847, Sarah Levina Hendrix, the daughter of John and Jane Hendrix, the first settlers within the limits of the present McLean County. The marriage was celebrated at the home of Mrs. Jane Hendrix, near where Mr. Orendorff now lives. They have had two children, one daugh- ter and one son, both of whom are now living. They are :
Mrs. Mary Jane Cox, wife of William M. Cox, lives near the line between Bloomington and Randolph townships.
George Perry Orendorff lives at the homestead with his father.
Mr. Orendorff is five feet and ten and one-half inches high, is not heavily built, seems to enjoy a fair degree of health, and appears pretty muscular and well developed. He is very posi- tive in his opinions, is a man of good sense, is very kind and sociable and ready to do a favor, thinks a great deal of old times and the old settlers, and is himself one of the best of them. He works hard, is careful and thrifty, and is blessed with a fair portion of the world's goods.
It will be seen from the sketches in this book that the Oren- dorff family has certain characteristics which are common to all of its members. They are all of them blessed with social and pleasant dispositions, and they all of them have that kindness of heart and genuine good feeling for which the early settlers were so distinguished.
REV. EBENEZER RHODES.
The information necessary to write the following sketch of Rev. Ebenezer Rhodes was furnished by Mrs. Jeremiah Rhodes, his daughter-in-law. Reverend Ebenezer Rhodes was born in 1780 in Holland. He has often said that when he was very voung the people were obliged to go in boats to milk their cows. Mr. Rhodes was, even when a boy, very tender-hearted. At one time a widow lady came to his father's house and asked for a little corn. But provisions were scarce then, and the old gentle- man was afraid of a famine, and refused. But when young
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Ebenezer and his brother learned of the circumstance they took a bushel and a half of the old gentleman's corn to her, a dis- tance of about four miles. The Rhodes family came to America when Ebenezer was very young, so that he was enabled to learn a few of the pranks to which the American youths were addicted. His father was very particular about the watermelon patch, but Ebenezer sometimes " lifted" it.
When he was about nineteen years of age he married Mrs. Mary Starr, a widow, who lived in Maryland. In about the year 1803 he moved to Champaign County, Ohio, near the pres- ent town of Urbana, on Derby Creek. While near there in 1806 the neighborhood was alarmed by threats of an Indian massacre, and the Rhodes family rode forty miles in one day to escape. But it proved a false alarm, caused by an Indian dance. In 1807 Mr. Rhodes moved to Buck Creek, six or seven miles distant. In about the year 1819 or '20 he was ordained as a preacher. In October, 1823, he came to Sangamon County, Illi- nois, and in April following he came to McLean County. As soon as three or four families could be collected together, Mr. Rhodes began preaching. He preached without receiving any salary or any hope or thought of reward .. He belonged first to the Separate Baptists, but afterwards united with the Christian church. He and the Rev. Mr. Latta, a Methodist minister, often traveled together and frequently preached at the same place. Mr. Rhodes preached at Hittle's Grove, Cheney's Grove, Sugar Grove, Long Point, Big Grove, Twin Grove, Dry Grove, the head of the Mackinaw and other places. He was the first preacher in McLean County and for a long time the only one. He organized the first church within the bounds of the present McLean County at his house at Blooming Grove, and everybody in the county met there to celebrate the occasion. This was in 1829. No building for public worship had then been put up, but people met everywhere in private houses. While not en- gaged in preaching Mr. Rhodes made chairs and reels and wheels for spinning flax, cotton and wool.
In February, 1840, Mr. Rhodes met with an accident which made him an invalid the remainder of his days. While cutting a tree in the timber it fell on him breaking one of his thighs and mashing the knee of the other leg. He was obliged always
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afterwards to go on crutches and lived only two years more. He died of consumption which was probably brought on by the accident in the timber.
In 1832 Mr. Rhodes and his son Samuel built a saw mill on Sugar Creek which they ran by water for two years. They made the mill, dug the race and ran it together. But young Aaron Rhodes was drowned there while swimming in the pond, and this sad event so disheartened the old gentleman that he tore down his mill shortly afterwards and sold his saw and the iron- work with it.
There were in the Rhodes family six boys and three girls, and of these four boys and one girl are now living. They are :
John H. S. Rhodes lives about two miles southeast of Bloom- ington on the Leroy road.
Samuel Rhodes lives in Iowa, near Winterset.
Mrs. Naomi Nigest, wife of Samuel Nigest, lives in Jones County, Iowa.
Jeremiah Rhodes lives three miles southeast of Bloomington on the Leroy road.
Rev. James Rhodes lives at Des Moines, Iowa.
Rev. Ebenezer Rhodes was about six feet in height, had a Roman nose, weighed one hundred and seventy-five pounds, had a long, narrow face and was very stoop-shouldered. He was an earnest preacher and an active wide-awake man. He read the Scriptures carefully and was well versed in biblical lore.
JOHN H. S. RHODES.
John H. S. Rhodes was born October 16, 1796, on George's Creek in Maryland. His father, Ebenezer Rhodes, and his mother, Mary Starr, were of English and German descent. When he was three years of age he moved to Pennsylvania with his father's family, and at the age of nine years he came to Ohio. Here he grew up to manhood, and in course of time was mar- ried, as would naturally be expected. In 1823 all of the Rhodes family came to Illinois. During the first winter of their arrival they stayed in Sangamon County, and in April, 1824, came to Blooming Grove, then called Keg Grove. There are two ex- planations of the change of name to Blooming Grove; one is that its latter name was suggested by Mrs. William Orendorff,
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and the other is that it was agreed to by Thomas Orendorff and John Rhodes. It is very probable that both of these ex- planations are correct, and indeed the evidence"in favor of either cannot be disputed. Mr. Rhodes says that while he and Thomas Orendorff were writing letters they asked each other what they should call the place, and Mr. Orendorff, glancing at the maple trees, which were in full bloom, said : "It looks blooming here, I think we will call it Blooming Grove." It has kept the name ever since. Mr. Rhodes was very poor when he came to Bloom- ing Grove, indeed his worldly possessions consisted at that time of almost nothing at all. The winter after he came to the Grove he went to Sangamon County and husked corn for Hardy Coun- cil and his brother-in-law, MeClellan. IIe received his wages in corn, and was allowed two and a half bushels per day for himself and team. He husked corn until his wages amounted to a load and then started home. When he arrived at Elkhart Grove he ground his corn at the little horse mill belonging to Judge Latham, the Indian agent. He crossed Salt Creek and the Kickapoo during the following day. As the Kickapoo was high he took his load across in a canoe, took his wagon across in pieces, and swam his horses over. It was very cold and they were covered with a coating of ice. After going three miles he stopped over night at the house of a man named Lantrus, and the following morning started at day-break for home. After going about five miles he was obliged to walk on account of the cold ; but after a few miles walking he found that the bottoms of his moccasins were worn off and his bare feet were pressing the snow, for in the meantime a severe snow storm had set in from the northwest. When he had gone half way home it seemed that he must freeze to death. Then he thought of his wife and children, who would starve for the want of the corn in his wagon ; and the strong man began to cry. But the thought of his family nerved him, and he hung on to the wagon, and his horses walked home. It was after night when he arrived, and found his feet frozen to his ankles. He immediately put them in a tub of water, while his wife took care of the horses. For weeks afterwards his feet were all drawn up and he felt in them a burning sensation as if a hot iron had passed over them.
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While he had been gone every one at home had been indus- trious; even the dogs had done their duty and killed fourteen wolves.
Mr. Rhodes has had many adventures while hunting. A few years after he came to Blooming Grove, he went on a hunt to Old Town timber. There he slept one night in a hollow log, and the next morning started a buck, and shot it a little too far back to kill it. After following the buck some distance, he saw it standing and tossing his head up and down as if in dis- tress. Mr. Rhodes shot at the head, as the buck was not standing sideways to him, and down it came. The hunter incautiously ran up and struck the deer in the forehead with a tomahawk ; but the deer sprang up and pitched Mr. Rhodes on the ground, and attempted to gore him with its horns. Mr. Rhodes grasped the antlers, and they struck in his stomach. The buck tried to draw back to come with force on the prostrate hunter, but Mr. Rhodes held it fast. Then it lifted Mr. Rhodes up on its antlers and tried to pitch him over its head, but the hunter's shoulder struck on the neck of the deer. Then the buck thrashed him around for nearly three-quarters of an hour and made a noise like the bellowing of a bull. But at last it tired of the contest and stopped to blow, with its tongue hanging out of its mouth. The second time he stopped to blow, Mr. Rhodes grasped his butcher knife and quickly cut the cords behind the deer's fore leg, and the next time the buck made a lunge it came down on one knee. Then Mr. Rhodes, with another stroke cut the cords of the remaining fore leg, and the buck fell, and the hunter rolled off of the horns. He was so badly bruised that he ex- pected to die immediately, and was for a while in great pain ; but he recovered himself soon after and killed his deer. After this contest he never approached his game without a loaded gun. The buck was one of great size, and when dressed his meat weighed nearly two hundred pounds.
Mr. Rhodes' experience with the Indians has usually been pleasant. He found them to be like their white brethren in many things; some were honest and some were dishonest. There were large numbers of Kickapoos when he first came, and after- wards a few hundred Delawares made their appearance, and stayed until the commencement of the Black Hawk troubles.
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The Indians were usually very playful and loved fun and prae- tical jokes. The old chief Machina was a very eunning Indian and had some strange peculiarities. IIe always denied selling the country to the whites. John Rhodes told him that he did sell the country to the whites, and that Boss Stony (the Presi- dent) had it on paper. Machina replied: "D-n quick putting black upon white."
When what was called the Winnebago war was threatened, John Rhodes called out the company of men of which he was captain and responded to the call made by the Governor for troops; but the matter was soon settled and the troops never took the field.
During the Black Hawk war, which occurred a few years afterwards in 1832, Major McClure and Captain Rhodes called out a company, of which MeClure was chosen captain and Rhodes first lieutenant. They marched to Dixon where they arrived the evening before the fight at Stillman's Run. After the fight they moved with the rest of the army up to the battle- ground and helped to bury the dead. From there his company went to Indian Creek where the families of Davis, Hall and Pettigrew were massaered. These they buried and John Rhodes himself carried out their bodies. It seems that these people had been told of the coming of the Indians; but Davis, who was a blacksmith and a man of great strength and courage, refused to heed the warning. When the Indians came they found him at a building at work and the families in the house. The families were massacred almost without resistance, but Davis had his gun with him and fought with desperation. He was found covered with a hundred wounds and his gun was bent and twist- ed in every direction. Shortly after the burial of these families the troops were discharged, and the army was re-organized, and John Rhodes and the most of his company came home.
In early days great attention was paid to military drill. At first a company was organized under the militia law of the State, and Mr. Rhodes was chosen captain ; but afterwards the country became so well settled that the company grew to a regiment, of which Merritt Covel was chosen colonel, Robert McClure was made major and A. Gridley, adjutant. The regiment was obliged to drill five times a year, and whoever failed to come to training
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was court-martialed. On these occasions the colonel presided and in his absence the eldest captain, which was John Rhodes.
Mr. Rhodes takes great pleasure in calling to mind the scenes of the early settlement. He helped to build the first mill on his father's place in 1825, with the grinding stones of nigger- heads. He has been a great hunter and often killed deer and wolves where the court house stands. While bringing up a lot of hogs from Sangamon County, he was followed by a wild boar. He shot the animal twice without killing it, when it attacked him and he was obliged to climb a cherry tree to escape. The wild hogs had once been tame, but had lost all the qualities of domestic animals, and were as wild as if their swinish ancestors had never known a pig-pen.
Mr. Rhodes was a natural hunter, and a sharp marksman and never felt the cold tremors or " buck ague " come over him when about to shoot. He was a man of steady nerve, and when his finger pressed the trigger the gun was covering the game. In his early youth he was a hunter. At one time while living in Ohio, and only seventeen or eighteen years of age, he was called to help kill a bear, which had been found not far away. The dogs drove the bear into a swamp and brought him to bay, and when Mr. Rhodes came up, the animal climbed a tree, the dogs hanging to him until he was ten feet high. The bear's jaw was broken by a shot and he came down when the dogs pitched into him. Mr. Rhodes joined in the melee, and struck the bear in the forehead with a tomahawk. The weapon stuck fast and the bear raked Rhodes' arm from the shoulder down. He succeeded in loosening it and struck again, when it again stuck fast, and he received another rake from the shoulder down. Then a hunter, who was looking on, called out : "Jolm, a little lower," and Mr. Rhodes struck the bear just above the eyes, which killed it.
Unlike most hunters, Mr. Rhodes has acquired a great deal of property. He has purchased in all about two thousand acres of land and has five hundred acres under his own management.
John Rhodes is fully six feet in height and was formerly very straight and musenlar. Although he is now far advanced in . years, his eyes have a bright, expressive look when he is inter- ested in anything. He is a good business man, and has as much
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confidence in his ability to manage his financial affairs as in his ability to kill a deer or run a wolf. He appears younger than he is, and seems to be in the full possession of all his faculties. It would appear that he has many years yet to live, and his great vitality would even now bear him up under many hard- ships.
John Rhodes has been married three times, and has had thir- teen children, seven of whom are living. IIe first married Mary Johnson, who died December 15, 1845. Five children of this marriage are living. They are :
Cynthia Ann, wife of Benjamin Turnipseed, born July 28, 1819, lives at the head of the Mackinaw.
Caroline Bellew, wife of William Bellew, was born February 6, 1823, and lives at the head of the Mackinaw.
William J. Rhodes, born February 16, 1825, lives a mile east of his father's.
Emily Brewster, wife of John Brewster, was born June 21, 1827, and lives one mile south of her father's.
Aaron Pain Rhodes was born April 28, 1833, and lives one and a half miles southeast of his father's, on the Leroy road.
John Rhodes married the second time to Mrs. Mary Ann Yazel, a widow, and by this marriage has two living children. They are :
Samuel M. Rhodes, born September 16, 1850, and Cinderella Rhodes, born August 15, 1852, live at home.
John Rhodes married, the last time, Mrs. Maria Ensminger, a widow, on the 13th of March, 1863. They appear to take the world comfortably. Mrs. Rhodes is a wide awake lady. She takes a great deal of interest in the history of other days, and is one of the most agreeable of women.
JEREMIAH RHODES.
Jeremiah Rhodes, son of Rev. Ebenezer Rhodes, was born February 11, 1806, in Champaign County, Ohio. There he re- ceived his common school education until he was eighteen years of age. School began there at eight o'clock in the morn- ing and was kept eight hours during the day. He remembers the war of 1812 very clearly, though he was then very young. Ilis father was a corporal in the army during that exciting con-
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test. In the fall of 1823 the Rhodes family came to Illinois, to Sangamon County. They had no very exciting adventures on their journey, but when they arrived at their destination at Blooming Grove matters became interesting enough. The In- dians came for them and ordered them away from the country. Mr. Rhodes, sen., was out in the woods making rails, when a party of Indians came to his house and sent one of their number to bring him in. Old Machina, the chief, then told Mr. Rhodes not to make corn there, but to go back to the other side of the Sangamon River. The chief declared he had never signed any treaty ceding the land to the whites, and that white men should not settle there. The facts relating to the treaty were, that Old Machina was sick at the time, but sent his son to treat with the whites, and the son signed the articles. When the Indian agent told Machina of this he acknowledged its truth, but said : "My heart did not go with it." Old Machina threatened to burn the houses of the settlers, but at last allowed Mr. Rhodes' family to remain until fall to gather their crops. Mr. Rhodes' recollection of the Indians is pretty clear. He remembers one time when the whole tribe of the Kickapoos went on a spree or drunken dance. They used up twenty gallons of whisky, and invited in their Pottawotamie friends. On this grand occasion one of the Indians showed that he had learned a beautiful lesson from civ- ilization, for while drunk he beat his wife over the head with a whisky bottle. At the great dance, about six or eight Indians formed in twos and jumped around flat-footed, with tinkling bells attached to their ankles. Old Machina had a gourd with stones in it, and these he shook up and down to keep time. An- other musical instrument was formed from a ten gallon keg with a deer skin drawn tightly over one end. This was carried on the back of a half-grown papoose, and was beaten with a stick. The dancers had their bodies painted black, but over their breasts was painted in white a pair of hands and arms crossed. Outside of the circle of dancers an Indian held up a stick cut in the shape of a gun. The stick was pointed upwards, and was sup- posed to be an emblem of peace. Another Indian held up a tomahawk, with his hand close to the blade, but what this meant is not easy to be seen. The Indians received a little assistance in their performance by old John Dawson, who danced and sang
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with them. They were willing to allow his dancing, but stopped his singing, as it spoiled the exquisite music of the gourd full of rocks and the keg. The Indians kept time by repeating monot- onously the words : "Hu way," "hu way," &c., and the squaws, who were gathered in a circle around the dancers, looked on admiringly.
The Indians were very superstitious, and their ideas some- times took queer shapes. At one time a squaw died from some sickness, which brought on the lockjaw, and as she was drawing her last breath an Indian went out and fired his gun in the air to send her spirit up to heaven. The Indians believed in witch- craft. An old squaw was once accused of bewitching a child, which was sick, and it was said that she held communication with an Indian at Fort George, four hundred miles distant, and that they flew to each other as fast as a chicken, and held con- sultation as to how many people they were able to kill.
The Indians were very revengeful, and their quarrels nearly always resulted fatally. They sometimes practiced the duello to settle their difficulties. Mr. Rhodes remembers two Indians who fought a duel on the banks of the Illinois River. One of them was a Kickapoo and the other a Pottawotamie. One fought with a tomahawk and the other with a butcher knife ; the one with the butcher knife was successful.
The Indians wished very much to prevent the settlement of the country by frightening off' the whites, and succeeded in scar- ing away three families, who had settled on the Mackinaw, by firing guns and brandishing butcher knives. They threatened to kill Mrs. Benson's cattle and pigs if she went to her husband who lived at Blooming Grove, thirty miles away. But the brave woman replied to the threat by holding up one of her children and saying : "And my papooses too ?" "No," replied the chief, Machina, "I would go to damnation if I should do that."
The Indians traded with the settlers giving them beeswax and moccasins in return for corn. In the fall of the year when they made preparations to move into winter quarters, they fre- quently buried their corn to keep it during the winter.
The Indians had occasionally some curiosity to hear the preaching of the gospel, and to learn something of the God of the white man. At one time the Kickapoos went so far as to
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hold a meeting, and have an interpreter to tell them what the preacher said.
Among the various devices for grinding wheat and corn was the mill with grinding stones ent from nigger heads on the prai- rie. After the wheat was ground, the flour was separated from the bran by sifting in a box with a bottom of two cloths, through which the flour passed. Mr. Rhodes' father built one of these mills, which served the neighborhood for three years. The nearest mill besides this one was forty-five miles distant. It is not easy for us to appreciate the difficulties, which sprang from the absence of the common conveniences of life. The settlers were obliged to go to the Sangamon River to get their plough irons sharpened, a distance of fifty miles.
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