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 23
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Mr. Bunn came to Bloomington with his brother-in-law, Dr. Haines. The town was then two years old. At first he did not like the country, it seemed so wild and naked, and in nearly every log cabin some one was shaking with the ague. The popu- lation was very sparse and the conveniences of life were want- ing. If a farmer lost a screw from his plough he was obliged to travel sixty miles (from Bloomington to Springfield) to get the little matter fixed. Lewis Bunn did all the blacksmithing for forty miles around, with three fires. He was quite skillful in mending the little breaks and doing the job work, and could make any thing from a horse shoe nail to a mill spindle.
Although Mr. Bunn was not a man of much speculation, he saw many ups and downs. Fortunes in the West were some- times easily made and much more easily lost, but Mr. Bunn preserved his independence and usually stuck to his trade; al- though it was rather black business it brought shining dollars.
, In 1833 Bloomington had about one hundred and fifty in- habitants. The best business lots were then selling for fifty dollars. He bought one where the hardware store of Harwood Bros. stands for fifty dollars and sold it for one hundred. It is now worth three hundred dollars per foot without any improve- ments. But the changes in value in Bloomington are scarcely to be noticed compared with Chicago. On the west side of the river in Chicago some lots were traded for a horse worth fifty dollars. The same lots are now worth one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In 1833 corn sold for ten cents per bushel, oats for eight cents and wheat for thirty-one cents. Flour was $1.50 per hundred and pork $1.25. Wood was one dollar
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per cord and coal 12} to 16 cents per bushel. In early days everything was unsettled. Prices were sometimes very high and sometimes very low ; people became suddenly rich and sud- denly poor. Everything was changing. The spirit of enter- prise was great and people would be willing to do a great deal to accomplish a very little.
Sometimes the early settlers went to law. People will do so occasionally, though they do not as a usual thing, get rich by it. I have heard of a couple of worthy citizens who spent two or three hundred dollars a piece in a suit for the possession of a calf not worth five dollars. Lawyers are not generally very modest in charging their fees. But Mr. Bunn tells some queer things of the fees charged by Lincoln and Douglas. Abraham Lineoln received the highest fee known to have been paid to a
lawyer in Illinois. The Illinois Central Railroad Company thought their lands should be exempt from taxation. Lincoln was employed for the company and won the battle and received five thousand dollars as his fee. This was pretty large, but on the other hand lawyers' fees were sometimes correspondingly small. Mr. Bunn onee employed Stephen A. Douglas in a case against Col. Gridley. Douglas came all the way from Spring- field, made a first-class speech, won the case and charged for his services five dollars !
As to personal appearance Lewis Bunn is five feet ten inches in height. He is well formed and of good muscular develop- ment. The latter is due to his occupation. He has a very peaceable disposition, a very even temperament and does not easily get excited. He is fond of fun and practical jokes. He has a genial, healthy countenance, though his eyes are rather weak, probably made so by working at the forge. He is natur- ally a peacemaker and is glad to say that he never struek a man in his life and never ran away from one.
WILLIAM C. WARLOW.
William C. Warlow, son of Benjamin Warlow, was born June 8, 1817, in Oneida County, New York. The family came to Bloomington on the 10th of October, 1833. During the first night of their arrival they went to see a prairie fire, where the postoffice now stands. From Bloomington they went to Dry
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Grove, where his uncle, Jonathan Bond, entered land. Mr. War- low lived with his father on the farm working faithfully. Mr. Warlow, sr., entered land at Brown's Grove and moved there.
On the 31st of October, 1844, W. C. Warlow married Nancy Garr, daughter of Joseph and Margaret Garr, of Old Town. After his marriage Mr. Warlow bought out John Stout at Brown's Grove, paying five hundred dollars for one hundred and twenty acres of land. On this he lived for thirteen years adding to it continually until he acquired about six hundred acres. In the fall of 1857 he moved to Bloomington and went into the dry goods business with his brother, B. W. Warlow. They had two sleeping partners by the name of Fleming, who were the cause of much trouble and at last of great financial difficulties.
Mr. Warlow did some hunting and often killed deer and wolves. Once while living on his farm he stood on his door step and killed a deer, which was standing near by. He several times killed two deer before breakfast.
At the outbreak of the war, Mr. Warlow went to Camp But- ler, and was for some time a clerk for a sutler there, and for a while did quite well.
On the 1st of February, 1867, he became a hotel keeper at Peoria. On the 10th of May of the same year he was burnt out and lost everything. He had been insured for five thousand dollars in two bogus insurance companies, which could not pay one cent of his losses. He has lived in Bloomington ever since.
Mr. Warlow has a family of three children. They are :
Benjamin W., Belle and Maggie. The last named is mar- ried to Nelson Sweeney, of Bloomington. Miss Belle Warlow lives at home. Benjamin W. Warlow lives in Hiawatha, Brown County, Kansas. Mr. Warlow's domestic life has been very pleasant. His wife has been a remarkably good woman, and a supporter of her husband during their eventful life.
Mr. Warlow is six feet six inches in height, is well propor- tioned, has black hair, hazel eyes and a beard, which is turning gray. He is a man of great strength. He used the first reaper which worked with success in this section of country.
JOHN LINDLEY.
John Lindley was born February 9, 1806, in Christian Coun- ty, Kentucky. His father's name was John Lindley, and his
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mother's name was Elizabeth Gray. In 1827 he moved his brother William to Illinois and stayed a few months. In March, 1831, he came again, moving his father's family. The deep snow was then melting away, and the country was a sea of water from one to three feet in depth. This was the case more partic- ularly in Macoupin and Sangamon Counties. Nevertheless he came through, driving his six-horse team with a single line. His father's family settled on the south side of Blooming Grove.
John Lindley entered some land about a mile from the southern edge of Blooming Grove. One tier of farms had al- ready been entered around the grove, and he was obliged to take to the prairie or go to some other timber. After entering his land John Lindley returned to Kentucky.
On the twentieth of November, 1831, he married Melinda Jones, in Kentucky. In 1833 he came to the West and settled on the land which he entered in 1831. His wife, Melinda, died in 1837. Two children were born of this marriage. They are : Mary Jane, wife of Isaac Pemberton, and William Lindley. Mr. Pemberton lives on the edge of Blooming Grove, and Mr. Wil- liam Lindley lives at Long Point, in De Witt County.
On the first of March, 1840, Mr. Lindley married Jane Wil- liams. Nine children were born of this marriage, and seven are living. They are :
Gabriel Lindley lives in Christian County, Kentucky.
John W. Lindley lives about a quarter of a mile from his father's.
Sarah, wife of Frederick Barnes, lives near her father's.
Elizabeth, Daniel, Emma and Ella live at home.
Mr. Lindley is five feet and eleven inches in height, and weighs about two hundred pounds. He is a man of some reso- lution, is very pleasant in his manner, is a strong opponent of the railroads, and thinks these monopolies eat up a great deal of his substance with their high freights. He cast his first vote for Andrew Jackson, and has since voted the Democratic ticket. He gave an acre of ground to build a school house in district number eight, where he now lives. He is a director, and takes great interest in the cause of education. He thinks a great deal of McLean County, as he has traveled all over the State and found nothing equal to it for a farming country. He lives about
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five miles south and a little west of Bloomington. Mr. Lindley is very decided in his views, and is bitterly opposed to salary grabbers, and does not like President Grant for signing the bill which doubled his own salary.
ALLEN WITHERS.
Allen Withers was born January 21, 1807, on a farm in Jessamine County, Kentucky, about seven miles from Nicholas- ville. His ancestors were of Welch and Irish stock. The father of Allen Withers was twice married. Allen was one of a fam- ily of twenty-one children ; seventeen of these, including Allen, reached manhood and womanhood. His opportunities for ac- quiring knowledge were not very good, but such as they were he improved them, and obtained a pretty good English education. At an early age he showed much taste for commercial pursuits, and a great love of travel. At the age of eighteen he began traveling through the states of Missouri and Indiana. He trans- acted some little business on his journey, but not much. His object was to obtain amusement and information, as well as to visit his friends and relatives in these states. In his travels he learned the, ways of the world and particularly the commercial world, he could buy and sell. He then began business. He bought horses and mules in Missouri and took them to Mexico, though he was yet very young. He spent two years in Mexico in trading with the Mexicans and Indians. He understood Span- ish as well as the Indian dialect, and could converse very fluent- ly in either. He was a great favorite among the Indians, and understood their character and mode of life thoroughly. His experience among the Indians was no doubt riehly worth pre- serving. He was obliged frequently to live for some weeks upon sugar. But, after all his hardships, he made but little money, as many of his horses and mules would go astray in the wild Mexican territory.
Allen Withers came to Illinois in August, 1834, his father having removed to this State two years previous. He came at once to McLean County. In the spring of 1835 he entered the dry goods establishment of M. L. Covel as a clerk. Not long afterwards his father bought out this establishment and carried it on with the assistance of his son. The business was con- ducted in Royce Block, which became the Withers property.
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On the second of May, 1835, he married Miss Sarah B. Rice, of Kentucky. He had known her in early youth, and in his later years she became his devoted, affectionate wife, his com- panion and supporter in the vicissitudes of a very eventful life. His wedding trip to Bloomington lasted two weeks; indeed, it required one week to go from St. Louis to Pekin.
In the spring of 1834 Allen Withers took the census of Bloomington, and the population amounted to one hundred and eighty persons.
In the fall of 1837, Mr. Withers' brother-in-law came to make him a visit, from Kentucky, and Allen wished to make everything as pleasant as possible. So he tried to furnish some of the luxuries of civilization, and hunted over the country for two days to find some butter. He succeeded in getting one pound.
In 1837 and '38 Mr. Withers was unfortunate in business, and moved to Waterloo, Clark County, Missouri, in the spring of 1839. Shortly afterwards he moved to Alexandria, on the Mississippi River. This place was laid out by Dr. Mitchell, the brother-in-law of Mr. Withers, and by Dr. Mitchell's brother. Here Mr. Withers acted as a clerk in his brother-in-law's gro- cery. He built a two-story log house on some land given him by his brother-in-law, and his wife kept boarders, sometimes ten boarders at once. There was but one hotel at the mouth of the Des Moines River, and when it was too full the landlord sent some of his guests to Mrs. Withers. Mrs. Withers frequently was obliged to do her cooking outside of the house, but she persevered and fairly earned the prosperity which she and her husband afterwards enjoyed. After eighteen months of working and saving in Alexandria Mr. Withers succeeded in making a little money and bought eighty acres of land in Waterloo at twenty cents per acre. After building a home on it he sold house and land for six hundred dollars.
In 1847, at his father's earnest desire, Allen Withers re- turned to Bloomington, and commenced business with William H. Temple, in the dry goods line. But he soon sold out and went into the hardware business, and shortly afterwards sold out the hardware business and came back to Mr. Temple. But after a while he left the dry goods business and began trading in
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stock and working a farm which he owned about three miles south of Bloomington. This farm, which contained three hun- dred and twenty acres, is now owned by Mrs. Withers.
Allen Withers died very suddenly of congestive chills on the third of March, 1864. He was at the time possessed of a vig- orous constitution, and bid fair to live for many years.
Mr. Withers was a man of fine personal appearance. He was six feet and two inches in height, and was possessed of more than ordinary intellect. He was the soul of honor and his candor was seen in his clear, honest, blue eyes, and in every line of his countenance. He was very muscular and could endure a great deal. He was a kind, warm-hearted man and one who would naturally have a great many friends. In his political sympathies he was a warm partizan, but his dignity and kind- ness and good feeling preserved for him the friendship of mem- bers of all parties. His popularity was shown very clearly when he was nominated against his will as a candidate for the legisla- ture. He came within nine votes of being elected in a county which gave six hundred majority for the Republican ticket. He was a good business man for, though he had many misfortunes, he became wiser from experience, and at the time of his death he had accumulated a great deal of property and all of it by his own exertions. Mr. Withers left no children. His only child had died many years before. But he and his generous wife adopted several children who needed friends. One of their adopted children, Mrs. Winter, has grown to womanhood and is now married ; and she is indeed worthy of the kindness and affection bestowed upon her.
Mr. Withers many years ago made free a colored boy and brought him up as a servant in his family. The colored man still remains with the family and would not be induced to leave it for any consideration.
The generosity and kindness of heart shown by Mr. Withers will make him long remembered.
" The pitcher at the fountain is broken ; The silver chord is in twain ;
But he leaves behind him a token
That he'll greet his dear loved ones again."
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DR. J. F. HENRY.
John Flournoy Henry was born at Henry's Mills, in Scott County, Kentucky, on the 17th of January, 1793. He was of Huguenot ancestry. He was the fourth son of William Henry, who was the son of Reverend Robert Henry, pastor of Cub Creek church, of Charlotte County, Virginia. The father of Dr. Henry fought under General Greene at the battle of Guil- ford Court House in March, 1781, where the victorious career of Lord Cornwallis was arrested and a retrograde movement of the British troops compelled, which resulted in the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
In the autumn of 1781 William Henry moved to Lincoln County, Kentucky, and on the 12th of October of that year was married to Elizabeth Julia, second daughter of Matthias Flour- noy, who had been killed by the Indians at Cumberland Gap. Matthias Flournoy was of Huguenot ancestry on both sides.
After completing his early education, Dr. Henry entered upon the study of medicine, and for a time, during the war of 1812, he served as surgeon's mate. In October, 1813, he was at the battle of Thames, where his father, as a major general under General Harrison, commanded a wing of the United States forces. It may be mentioned here that Dr. Henry, in common with many of the old soldiers of 1812, availed himself of the act of congress giving a pension to the surviving soldiers of that war, and at the time of his death his name was on the pension rolls of the country, where he had it placed as a matter of pride rather than for the small pecuniary consideration connected with it.
Dr. Henry graduated at the College of Physicians and Sur- geons in New York City, in 1818, and soon after went to Mis- souri, where he spent some time, but afterwards returned to Ken- tucky. Some time after this he was engaged as a professor in the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, with the late Dr. Daniel Drake, between whom and himself there existed a warm per- sonal friendship. Previous to this, in 1826, Dr. Henry was chosen to fill a vacancy in Congress, made by the death of his brother.
In 1833 Dr. Henry settled in Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, where he pursued the practice of medicine for twelve
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years. He came to this State in an Illinois River steamboat, landing at Pekin. In 1843 he purchased property in Burlington, Iowa, and two years later moved to that city with his family. He had by that time secured a competence, and soon after mov- ing to Burlington he retired from the active practice of his pro- fession. He died in Burlington on the 13th of November, 1873.
He was twice married. His first wife was a daughter of Dr. Basil Duke of Mason County, Kentucky, who, with an infant child, died a year or two after their marriage. His second wife, who survived him, was a daughter of Dr. Ridgely of Lexington, Kentucky. The surviving children of the second marriage are Dr. G. R. Henry of Burlington, Iowa; John Flournoy Henry of Louisville, Kentucky, and Mrs. Mary Belle Robertson of Bur- lington, Iowa. His youngest daughter, Flora, died in Burling- ton in 1862.
Dr. Henry was for the greater part of his life an honored member of the Presbyterian church. One, who knew him well, says of him : " He was one of nature's noblemen. Tall, straight as an arrow, with a splendid presence and a physical vigor, which is rare in these latter days of fast habits and rapid living; he enjoyed a robust health, which gave way at last from sheer old age. Upright, honorable, temperate, sagacious, and a thorough man and a gentleman, his course can be emulated with profit. He was a fine specimen of the Kentucky gentleman of the old school, of elegant and dignified manners, kindly sentiments and genial disposition."
GENERAL ASAHEL GRIDLEY.
A very important part of the history of McLean County con- sists of the acts and doings of General Gridley. While collect- ing information and statistics for this work the author has been questioned more concerning the sketch of General Gridley than of any other old settler in McLean County. He is a man of positive character, and even his enemies are interested in him and anxious to read his sketch.
General Gridley was born April 21, 1810, in Cazenovia, New York, and received his education at Pompey Academy, same State. At the age of twenty-one he determined to "go West," and on the 8th of October, 1831, he located in Bloomington.
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He immediately commenced selling goods of all kinds and es- tablished a large trade. The business of a merchant in those days is described by General Gridley, who says : " At that time a vender of goods was required to keep for sale every kind of merchandise wanted by the settlers, to-wit : dry goods, groceries, hardware, queensware, drugs, medicines, liquors, saddles, har- nesses, leather, salt, iron nails, hollowware, in fact anything which the wants of the settlers required."
General Gridley's place of business was on the lot where the McLean County Bank now stands. This lot he purchased for fifty-one dollars. When he settled here the only inhabitants were James Allin and family, Robert E. Guthrie and family, John Kimler and wife, Rev. James Latta and wife, David Trim- mer and wife, Dr. Isaac Baker and family, Dr. David Wheeler and daughters, William Evans and family, William Dimmitt, Samuel Durley, William Durley, General Merritt L. Covel and Amasa C. Washburn. Of these there now remain James Allin, jr. and Dr. Lee Allin, sons of James Allin, deceased, Adam Guthrie, son of Robert Guthrie, deceased, William Dimmitt and Amasa C. Washburn. The condition of the country in those early days is shown by the following from General Gridley :
" In the fall of 1831, Col. James Latta commenced enclosing with a rail fence the one hundred acres now known as the Dur- ley addition to Bloomington, the land then being open prairie and in a state of nature. In 1832 he broke the ground and planted sod corn, and the settlers expressed surprise that Col. Latta should attempt to make a farm so far from timber. No one then supposed that the prairie would ever be cultivated more than a mile distant from the timber, and the only farms were those skirting the groves."
General Gridley carried on the business of merchandising with Ortogrul Covel, his brother-in-law, now deceased, from 1831 until 1838. Their business was milling, merchandising and manufacturing.
The life and services of General Gridley are told by Jesse W. Fell, Esq., so clearly and so perfectly that it is impossible to add anything to it.
" DR. DUIS :
" My long delay in responding to your request to write some-
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thing about my old friend and comrade, General Gridley, pro- ceeds not from a want of interest in the subject, but from the press of business engagements. With no man, outside of our immediate family circle, have I been so long and so intimately acquainted, and it affords me great pleasure to say, with no man have my relations personally been more agreeable, notwithstand- ing we have differed widely in our views and feelings on many topics. Though, in common with every one who has cut any figure in our local or general affairs, I am fully aware that I have been the subject of sharp, and at times undeserved, criti- cisms at his hands, yet knowing the constitutional temper of the man I have scarcely ever seen the day when I could not take him cordially by the hand, and I have abundant reason to know the same is true on his part. As our intimacy and friendship, therefore, reaches over a period of more than two score years, it is a work of pleasure to say a few words as to his general char- acter and the services he has rendered this city and neighbor- hood.
" The salient or leading facts connected with his life, I find presented in the paper you have just placed in my hands, and I need not repeat them. You ask for some general additional in- formation relating to him as derived from my long personal ac- quaintance. In giving this I beg you to bear in mind that I do it in precisely the same way I did in the case of another old and cherished personal friend, Judge Davis. Without any attempt at system, order, or chronological arrangement, and with no at- tention whatever to style of composition, I wrote what came uppermost, on very slight reflection, aiming to give facts only.
" I came to Illinois in the fall of 1832, and in November of that year arrived at Bloomington, then a village of perhaps one hundred inhabitants. The persons then composing the town are nearly all embraced in the paper alluded to, and among them certainly no one occupied so prominent a place as General Grid- ley. That prominence he has maintained from that day to this. Whilst other of our citizens have reached higher official posi- tions, and are consequently more widely known, no man has occupied so large a place in the public mind since the day he arrived here, in the general business operations of the neighbor- hood, whether as a merchant, lawyer, legislator or banker.
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" No history, however brief, can ever be written of McLean County, without frequent reference to his name, as identified with almost everything connected with our development and prosperity. To omit it would be impossible. As well might you attempt to write the history of our country and omit that name that stands at the head of all American history.
" In what little I have to say I will consider him-as above indicated-as a merchant, lawyer, legislator and banker.
"Previous to my arrival in Bloomington I heard of him in connection with the Black Hawk war. General M. L. Covel and he raised a cavalry company in this county, and of this General Gridley was made first lieutenant. That he creditably acquitted himself in that war was practically attested by the result of a military election which soon after took place, at which he was elected a brigadier general. This conferred upon him a title which he has since borne.
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