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 2
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In 1826 a man named Smith came to Dry Grove, made a claim and lived for a while in a tent. In October of that year Peter Mccullough came from Tennessee, bought Smith's elaim and put up the first house in Dry Grove.
By this time the settlers in this section of the country thought they ought to have a new county. Everyone was anx- ious ; petitions were cireulated, and the legislature of 1826 and '27 formed the county of Tazewell from a part of Fayette. This action of the legislature was ratified at an election held in .April, 1827, at the house of William Orendorff of Blooming Grove. William Orendorff was elected justice of the peace : William HI. IIodge was elected sheriff and Thomas Orendorff was elected coroner. The first court of Tazewell County was held at the house of Ephraim Stout of Stout's Grove. But Mackinawtown was made the seat of justice, and here the pub- lic buildings were to be erected. The jail was built of logs by Matthew Robb and others, and in order to test its strength this gentleman was placed inside and the door locked. But he sue- ceeded in getting out of the little establishment.
The season of 1827 was remarkably early. By the middle of March the grass was ankle deep in the marshes, and the prai- rie had a greenish tinge. This season was remarkable, too, for the great storm, which passed through Blooming Grove and Old Town timber. It was the twenty-third of June when it came. Everything fell before it; the largest trees were uprooted and twisted and broken, and in some places the logs were piled np twenty feet in height. For many years afterwards the track of this terrible storm was plainly seen.
During the summer of 1827, which was very wet, Stephen Webb, William McCord and George and Jacob Hinshaw came to the county. Stephen Webb settled in Dry Grove and the Hinshaws settled in Blooming Grove, but afterwards moved to Dry Grove. In March of this year Matthew Robb and Robert McClure settled at Stout's Grove.
During the early days the West was thickly inhabited by snakes, and the settlers tell great stories of the number they' killed. Nevertheless the settlers often went to the field and did their ploughing barefooted. Mr. Peasley of Down says that while ploughing around a patch of ground. the snakes continu-
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ally crawled away from the furrow to the center of the un- plowed patch, and when it became very small the grass was fairly alive with the wriggling, squirming reptiles, and they would at last break in every direction. The rattlesnakes fre- quently bit the oxen, but the latter seldom died on account of snake bite. The poison of the rattlesnake is most virulent and dangerous in August.
One of the greatest difficulties with which the settlers were obliged to contend was the fire on the prairie. In the fall of the year they protected their farms by ploughing furrows around them, and sometimes by ploughing furrows wide apart and burning out the grass between them. But in spite of all pre- cautions the settlers often suffered. The fire sometimes came before preparation was made, and sometimes it leaped over the furrows and burned up fences, fields of corn, stacks of hay and stacks of wheat. It moved so rapidly that very little time was given to prepare for it. It drew currents of air in after it to feed the flames, and the wind drove it on faster and faster. A prairie fire moves with the central portion ahead, while the wings hang back on each side, in the shape of a flock of wild geese. Some- times the settlers protected not only their farms from fire but a considerable prairie. The prairie so protected soon became covered with a growth of timber.
In March, 1828, the family of Francis Barnard came to Dry Grove. During the same year the Henline family came to Mackinaw timber and settled on the north of the Mackinaw on IIenline Creek. In February, 1829, Levi Danley came to Stont's Grove, and in October of the same year entered the farm where he settled and which he still owns. The Conger family also settled at Stout's Grove during the same year. In March of this year the Messer family came to Mackinaw tim- ber. During this year Rev. Ebenezer Rhodes organized the first church in McLean County at his house in Blooming Grove.
It may be a matter of curiosity to readers to know how Blooming Grove received its name. It was called Key Grove and Hendrix Grove and sometimes Dawson's Grove. There is a story that the Indians found a keg of whiskey which had been cached, and that this gave the name which the grove bore for many years. But this story is not well authenticated. The
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name was afterwards changed to Blooming, on account of the flowers and foliage of the maple trees in spring - time. This name was suggested by two different parties at about the same time. Mrs. William Orendorff suggested to some ladies, who were visiting her, that the grove should be called Bloom- ing Grove. At nearly the same time John Rhodes and Thomas Orendorff' were out in the woods writing letters, and Rhodes asked what name they should write at the head of their letters. Thomas Orendorff looked up at the maple trees and said : “It looks blooming here, I think we had better call it Blooming Grove."
At the opening of the year 1830 the country was sparsely settled, indeed it could hardly be said to be settled at all. There were only three houses between Blooming Grove and Mackinawtown; and between the latter place and the present village of Pleasant Hill were no houses at all. At that time the most hopeful of the old settlers only dared to think that the country would be settled in the edges of the timber, that a cor- don of farms would be made around each grove.
In January, 1830, Jesse Havens and family settled in what has since been called Havens' Grove. In the fore part of the same year Benjamin Wheeler also settled there. In the spring of 1830 John Smith settled at Smith's Grove, and two years af- terwards moved to Havens' Grove. During the previous spring of 1829 James Allin came to Blooming Grove from Vandalia for the purpose of merchandising. This was a great accession, for the influence which this man exerted was of the greatest importance to McLean County.
In the year 1830 the people of Blooming Grove and many surrounding settlements determined to have a county cut off from Tazewell. The idea was not favored by the people of Mackinawtown, the county seat of Tazewell County. But James Allin and many others were active in circulating petitions. These petitions were taken to Vandalia during that same year by Thomas Orendorff and James Latta. The speaker of the house, William Lee D. Ewing, interested himself in the matter, but Orendorff and Latta were obliged to wait several days before their petitions could be attended to. At last Mr. Ewing called the two gentlemen to his room and asked what the
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name of the county should be. James Latta wished it called Hendricks County after Mr. IIendricks of Indiana. But Mr. Ewing remarked that it was dangerous to name it after any liv- ing man ; for no one's reputation was safe until he had gone to his grave. The man whom they chose to honor might do some- thing mean, and the people would wish the name of the county changed. Mr. Ewing then proposed to call it McLean County after John McLean, who had been speaker of the lower house of the Assembly, had been a representative in Congress and United States Senator. This proposition was agreed to, and the bill passed the lower house in the forenoon of that day and the Senate in the afternoon. Ford's History of Illinois says of John McLean : "He was very prominent in the politics of Illinois. He was several times elected to the legislature, once elected to the lower house of Congress, and twice to the United States Senate, and died a member of that body in 1830. He was natu- rally a great, magnanimous man and a leader of men. The county of McLean was named in honor of him." McLean County was at that time much larger than at present. It was bounded on the north by the Illinois River; on the east by Range six east of the Third Principal Meridian; on the south by the south line of Township Twenty-one north, and on the west by Range One west of the Third Principal Meridian.
The winter of 1830 and '31 was the celebrated winter of the deep snow. The weather during the fall had been very dry, and continued mild until late in the winter. But at last the snow came during the latter part of December; and such a snow has never since been known. The settlers were blockaded in their cabins and could do very little except pound their corn, cut their wood and keep their fires blazing. A great deal of stock was frozen to death during this terrible winter. The deer and wild turkeys, which had been very numerous, were almost exterminated. The wolves, on the other hand, had a pleasant time of it. They played around over the snow, caught all the deer they wished, and were bold and impudent. The stories of this deep snow would fill a large volume, and in the sketches of this work are found the experience of many pioneers, who lived during the cold winter in their snow-bound huts. It has been impossible to learn precisely the depth of the snow during
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this winter. As the snow fell it drifted, and other snows fell and other drifts were made. Many measurements were taken in the timber, but even here great errors were likely to occur, for the snow after falling soon settled. The settlers vary in their statements, some of them placing the depth at a little less than three feet, and some at more than four feet. In the spring of 1831, when the snow melted, the face of the country was cov- ered with water. The little creeks became great rivers, and all intercourse between the settlers was stopped; for people could have traveled better with steamboats than with ox teams. The spring was backward and the crops were sown late. Neverthe- less a fair erop of wheat was harvested; but the corn, upon which the settlers depended most, was bitten by the early frosts in the fall.
In 1831 the seat of justice of McLean County was located at the north end of Blooming Grove, on land given by James Allin for the purpose of fonnding the town of Bloomington. The location was made by commissioners appointed by the legis- lature. These commissioners also appointed Thomas Orendorff the first assessor. His assessment was made roughly on what each person was worth, without specifying the property particu- larly, and it was completed in thirteen days.
The business of McLean County was transacted by a board of three commissioners. The first meeting of the Commissioners' Court was held May 16, 1831. The members present were Jona- than Cheney, Timothy B. Hoblit and Jesse Havens. Isaac Baker was appointed first clerk of Court and held this office for many years. The first tax levied by this Court was one-half of one per cent. But though this tax was small, it was severely felt by the settlers, much more so than heavy taxes at the present day. Thomas Orendorff was appointed the first treasurer of McLean County. It may perhaps interest the curious to know of the first marriage solemnized in McLean County after its or- ganization. It was between Robert Rutledge and Charity Weed- man, and the ceremony was performed on the ninth of June, 1831, by Nathan Brittin, Justice of the Peace.
The year 1831 was particularly celebrated for the fever and ague. A great deal of rich soil was turned over for the first time, and the vapors and exhalations made the climate un-
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healthy. Mr. Esek Greenman says that out of twenty-four per- sons belonging to three families, twenty-three had the agne. It was as much to be expected as harvest or the changes of the seasons. It was a disease to be dreaded because of its effect upon the mind as well as upon the physical system. It induced a feeling of despondeney, and took away that spirit of enter- prise and that strong will, which bore up the settlers under mis- fortune. For many years the fever and ague was the scourge of the West, and was one of the severest hardships.
In September, 1831, the Methodists held their first camp- meeting at Randolph's Grove. Rev. Peter Cartwright, Rev. Mr. Latta and others preached there. Mr. Cartwright was very sensitive to the criticisms of Eastern men, and said : " They represent this country as a vast waste, and people as very ignor- ant; but if I was going to shoot a fool, I would not take aim at a Western man, but would go down by the sea-shore and cock my fusee at the imps who live on oysters." Mr. Latta preached directly at popular vices and was particularly severe on horse- racing. He said : "There is a class of people, who can not go to hell fast enough on foot, so they must get on their poor, mean pony and go to the horse-race. Even professors of religion are not guiltless in this respect, but go under the pretense that they want to see such a man or such a man, but they know in their own hearts that they want to see the horse-race."
The year 1832 was the one in which the Black Hawk War occurred, a full account of which is given in this volume.
Among the old settlers were to be found some soldiers of the Revolution. The following is taken from the records of the County Commissioners' Court for December, 1832 :
"John Scott came into open Court and on his oath made a declaration purporting to prove himself a revolutionary soldier, for the purpose of obtaining the benefit of the act of Congress, passed June the 7th, A. D. 1832. The Court is of opinion, after the investigation of the matter and putting the interroga- tories prescribed by the war department, that the said Scott's declaration is correct and that he is a revolutionary soldier." Eight other revolutionary soldiers were certified by the Court as being such. They were Ebenezer Barnes, William McGhee, Thomas Sloan, Edward F. Patrick, Charles Moore, William Vincent, Edward Day and John Toliday.
,
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The records of the Court also show another peculiar law, which has been done away with. The following is taken from the record of the June Term, 1835 :
"This day William T. Major presents a bond of one thou- sand dollars, payable to T. B. Hoblit, Seth Baker and Andrew McMillin, County Commissioners, and their successors in office, conditioned that a negro girl named Rosanna Johnson, late a slave in the state of Kentucky, shall not become a charge on any county in this state, &e. The Court accepts of the said bond and orders the same to be put on file for the benefit of the said counties and also for the said Rosanna."
James Miller also gave his bond for a mulatto boy, Henry Clay, whom Miller had brought from Kentucky.
In 1832 the accessions to MeLean County, and especially to Bloomington, were so great that a second addition was made to the latter place by James Allin. In 1833 the first race track was laid out. Four horses were ridden in the first race. They were the Bald Hornet, owned by Henry Jacoby and ridden by Esek Greenman; the Gun Fannon, owned by Jake Heald ; Tiger Whip, owned by Peter Hefner and ridden by James Paul, and Ethiopian, owned by a man near Waynesville. The race was won by Tiger Whip.
The prices of produce, of wheat, corn, &c., were in early days sometimes very high, and at other times correspondingly low. Corn was sometimes a dollar a bushel, and sometimes only ten cents. In 1833 priees were very low. Corn sold for ten cents a bushel, oats for eight cents, wheat for thirty-one cents, flour for $1.50 per hundred weight, pork for $1.25, and wood for one dollar per cord.
In 1834 the settlement of the country was such that people began to calculate where to lay out the villages, which, with the development of the country, would one day become towns and cities. The village of Clarksville was laid off in July, 1834, by Joseph and Marston C. Bartholomew. During this year the census of Bloomington was taken by Allen Withers, and the little town numbered one hundred and eighty inhabitants. In 1835 the influx of settlers continued. The state of Illinois had in 1818 a population of about 45,000; in 1830 it had a popula- tion of 157,447 ; but in 1835 the people of the state numbered
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about 250,000. In November, 1835, the town of LeRoy was laid out by Covel and Gridley. The year 1836 was marked by a grand rush of settlers to Illinois. Many pamphlets had been circulated among the people of the Eastern States, and the great resources of the West became everywhere known. The settlers came in every possible way. They crowded the steamboats on the rivers; they came on horseback, with ox teams, or on foot; everywhere they were coming. Scarcely any accommodations could be prepared for them, and they lived in their wagons or tents, or crowded into the little log cabins, which were hastily built. They made settlements singly or by companies. It was during this year that the Hudson and Mt. Hope Companies were formed. The Hudson Company was formed at Jacksonville, and the articles of agreement were drawn up in February, 1836. Horatio N. Pettit, John Gregory and George F. Purkitt were chosen a committee to enter and locate the land. Twenty-one sections were entered in the name of Horatio N. Pettit, and through him the colonists trace their title. The land was loca- ted at Haven's Grove, and was surveyed by Major Diekason, the county surveyor, assisted by John Magoun and S. P. Cox. The town of Hudson was laid out, and the choice of lots was made on the fourth of July, 1836. During this year little towns were laid out everywhere. In January the town of Lexington was laid out by A. Gridley and J. Brown, and in December fol- lowing an addition was made by Edgar Conkling. In February, 1836, Concord (now Danvers) was laid out by Isaac W. Hall and Matthew Robb. During the same month the town of Lytle- ville was laid out by John Baldwin, and an addition was made in the following March. Wilkesborough was laid out in June by James O. Barnard. The growth of Bloomington kept pace with the development of the country and its population increased to four hundred and fifty. During this year additions were laid out, known as White's, Miller and Foster's, Allin, Gridley and Prickett's and Evans'.
The Mt. Hope colony was formed by a company chartered by the state of Rhode Island, under the name of the Providence Farmers' & Mechanics' Emigrating Society. In December, 1836, the company entered eight thousand acres of land very nearly in the shape of a square, and as it had twenty-five shares, each
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share-holder was entitled to three hundred and twenty acres of land. The land entered by the Mt. Hope colony comprises near- ly all of the present township of Mt. Hope. In the summer of 1837 General William Peck, one of the originators of the scheme, came out and surveyed the land and laid out the village of Mt. Hope.
The month of December, 1836, was marked by a sudden change in the weather, more remarkable, perhaps, than the great winter of the deep snow. The weather had been mild for some time, and rain had been falling, changing the snow to slush, when suddenly a cold wind-storm came and lowered the temper- ature instantly from about forty degrees above zero to twenty degrees below. The face of the country was changed from water to ice immediately and, as Rev. Mr. Peasley said, appeared like a picture of the Polar regions. Squire Buck, of Empire township, took some notes of this wind-storm, and says that it came from the west to the Mississippi, which it reached at ten o'clock A. M., that it continued eastward and reached Leroy at three o'clock P. M., and Indianapolis at about eleven. It there- fore moved from the Mississippi River to Leroy at the rate of thirty miles an hour, and from Leroy to Indianapolis at the rate of twenty miles an hour.
After the year 1836 the great rush of settlers to the West was over. In 1837 the United States' bank suspended, and the spirit of enterprise was checked. The rage for laying out towns was stopped, for the little villages, which were brought into being, refused to grow. In February, 1839, Conkling and Wood laid out an addition to Leroy, and in April, 1840, Pleasant Hill was laid out by Isaac Smalley.
The great coon-skin and hard cider campaign, when General Harrison was elected President, was in 1840. The Democratic party was represented by the cock, and the Whigs by the coon. During that campaign the Whigs took an enormous canoe to a mass-meeting at Springfield. The excitement rose to the highest point.
The failure of the United States' bank and the closeness of money did not affect the West as soon as the East ; but the com- mercial distress slowly and surely worked westward. In 1842 the condition of things was frightful, worse than has ever since
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been known. During that year Judge MeClun took to the East some pork, which he had received in payment for goods, and he says : "If the West was prostrate, the East was in even a worse fix. Commercial distress was everywhere seen. Failures were an hourly occurrence, and the only reliable money, gold and sil- ver, was locked up. Factories had stopped and their goods were thrown on the market at ruinous prices. My pork could not be sold to realize even the cost of transportation." During this vear a number of the settlers concluded to collect their pigs in a "bunch" and drive them to Chicago themselves, for they could not believe that the price offered by drovers was really that of the Chicago market. But these misguided settlers received for their pork, after paying expenses, about twenty-five cents per hundred. They were much wiser after this experiment. The settlement of the country was for many years at a stand-still. A great deal of land, which had been entered for a dollar and a quarter per acre, was thrown upon the market and could be bought for seventy-five cents or a dollar per acre. It was not until about the year 1846 or '47 that the condition of things was very greatly improved. Nevertheless the country was still nn- settled to a great extent, except around the groves. Prairie land could be entered until the land office closed to allow the com- pany, which was to build the Illinois Central Railroad, to se- lect its land. This was in 1850, when the charter was granted. It was then seen that prairie land would rise in value, and as soon as the land office was re-opened, all the prairie within many miles of the railroad was entered immediately. After the build- ing of the Illinois Central and the Chicago & Alton Railroads the country became rapidly settled. Cars were running on both of these roads in 1852, and soon little towns sprang up and grew rapidly. The town of Towanda was laid off by Peter H. Badeau of St. Louis, and Jesse W. Fell, in December, 1854. The town of Heyworth was laid off in 1855. In June of the same year the town of McLean was laid off by Franklin Price. In March, 1856, the town of Saybrook was laid off by Isaac M. Polk. Some indication of the rapid development of the coun- try is seen in the censuses of Bloomington. In 1850 the city contained sixteen hundred and eleven persons; but in 1855 it
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contained five thousand. The growth of the county in numbers and wealth has been continuous and steady.
On the third of November, 1857, McLean County voted to adopt township organization by a large majority. The hard times of 1857 gave a temporary check to the growth of the country, but it was only temporary.
The presidential campaign of 1860 and the war which fol- lowed are so recent and fresh in the mind of the reader, that it is not necessary to dwell upon them here.
The building of the Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western and the Lafayette, Bloomington and Mississippi Railroads as- sisted very greatly in developing the country by bringing the markets nearer to the people along their routes.
Since the organization of McLean County in 1830, it has been much reduced in size as other counties have been formed. It now contains about eleven hundred and forty-seven square miles of land. It is bounded on the north by Woodford and Livingston Counties, on the east by Livingston, Ford and Cham- paign Counties, on the south by De Witt County and a small part of Logan, and on the west by Tazewell County and a little of Woodford. The Toledo, Peoria and Wabash Railroad cuts through the northern edge of the county, forming the enter- prising villages of Gridley, Chenoa and Weston. The first mentioned was named in honor of General Gridley of Bloom- ington. The Gilman, Clinton and Springfield Railroad cuts through the south-eastern corner of McLean County, and the station of Belleflower has sprung up on the line. The county is now well supplied with railroads, and if it could keep down the pace of transportation the people would indeed be blessed. The " railroad question " is the one upon which the people must exercise their wits for many years to come. The future pros- perity of the people of MeLean County is not doubted for a mo- ment. All the opportunities for acquiring wealth are here, and the people are disposed to take advantage of them.
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