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 31
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78
342
OLD SETTLERS OF
whom anyone might have been proud to number among his friends.
Judge McClun first saw Bloomington in the fall of 1836, but did not locate here until the spring of 1837, when he went into business on his own account as a merchant. He describes the place at that time as follows :
"It was even then, young and new as it was, a beautiful little city set upon a hill. It contained about three hundred inhabi- tants. The houses were small, plain and cheaply built, yet they were painted white, which gave to the place an air of neatness and beauty. The improvements were then on Front street and south of that. There was nothing on the public square but the old brick court house then being built. The slough north of the bridge where Bridge Fork now is was a wide marsh. Pone Hollow was also a marsh, even wider than the other. The grove extended in a scattering manner up to Grove street. The prai- rie came up to the town in a state of nature, except a few farms. The deer roamed at large on the prairie, and the wolves howled a chorus in what is now the heart of the town. Quails and prairie chickens were plenty. Rattlesnakes crawled through the town, and now and then the bull snake, that monster of the prairie, would crawl into the very heart of the city. One single buggy, and only one, was in the county of McLean. We had no gold watches nor gold chains. We had no sidewalks, and when the roads became muddy we put our pants in the tops of our boots and launched fearlessly forth into the great deep. When I came to Bloomington David Davis had just succeeded J. W. Fell in the practice of the law. General Covel and Col- onel Gridley were prominent and leading citizens. James Allin was the most prominent man of the place, and the wealthiest citizen. Dr. Henry was here, and Doctors Anderson and Haines were practicing physicians. Dr. Baker was clerk of the Cirenit Court, and Welcome P. Brown was Probate Judge and city Postmaster. Ort. Covel was selling goods and William H. Tem- ple was a young man in a store. Rev. Mr. Foster preached and taught in the old Academy, and John Rockhold made shingles for the newly made houses. Allen Withers merchandized, and William Dimmitt lived upon the site he now occupies, which was then a great ways from town. A. Brokaw was working as
343
M'LEAN COUNTY.
a journeyman and Gaylord kept the old tavern. The old Meth- odist church was then being built, and the Rev. Zadoc Hall was the circuit rider. John Magoun had just come. IIe laid the brick for the city and country, and did the plastering with old Mr. Guthrie, of the same profession. William G. Thompson and Benjamin Haines were here, and Wilson Allin had already built a mill."
On the last day of January, 1839, Mr. McClun married Han- nah Harkness.
His mercantile adventure in Bloomington had prospered well, so far, but the hard times came, the most severe ever known in the West. Judge McClan says that the summer of 1842 was "the bottom of the distress." It was customary for the merchants to receive pork in payment of goods, but with the fall prices the pork they had accepted became almost worthless. Mr. McClun went to Baltimore, where he had shipped his pork, and found the times there even worse. He says: "If the West was prostrate, the East was in even a worse fix. Commercial distress was everywhere felt and everywhere seen. Failures were an hourly occurrence, and there was no reliable money but gold and silver, and it was locked up. Manufactories had stopped and their goods were thrown upon the market at ruin- ous prices. Everything was completely prostrate. I have never seen the like before nor since. My pork could not be sold even to realize the cost of transportation." This condition of things troubled the young merchant very much, but he bore the storm and was successful in the end. He understood his business and managed it well. IIe had credit even in the darkest times. At one time, when he was so closely pushed that he did not himself dare to ask for credit, and when almost his only assets were depreciated Illinois money, he saw his creditors in Philadelphia and told them his circumstances. When he had done so a good old Quaker merchant said to him : "I believe thou art an honest man, and we will do the best we can for thee." They let him have a new stock of goods, and he showed by his good manage- ment that their confidence was well placed.
On the first of June, 1843, the mother of Judge McClun, who had followed her son to Bloomington, passed from earth to a happier world than this. She had taken a cold during the
$
344
OLD SETTLERS OF
preceding fall, which resulted in a quick consumption, and she saw her change approaching and was reconciled to death. Judge MeClun says : "During the month of May when the flowers were out and the birds singing, she asked me to take her to the door that she might look once more on this beautiful world, and it was her last look, unless she has since looked down from the hills of immortality."
In 1843-44 the merchants began to recover from the shock given by the hard times. Confidence was restored and people were again prosperous. During this year political excitement was very high, though not so high as during the campaign of 1840. The cock was the emblem of the Democrats and the coon that of the Whigs, and when a Democratie victory was an- nounced the cock was crowing over the coon, and when the Whigs were victorious the coon was eating the cock. Henry Clay was the candidate of the Whigs, but he was doomed to defeat. for James K. Polk was carried through by the feeling in favor of the Mexican war.
Judge MeClun has had some experience with the law and his advice to all persons is to keep out of its entanglements. The intention is to make the law a rule of right, but there is a "glo- rious uncertainty" in the practice.
Mr. MeClun obtained the mail contracts from 1842 to 1846, of all routes coming into Bloomington or passing through it, and by careful management he was enabled to do quite well with them. All these mails were carried on horseback, except the one from Peoria to Danville, which was taken in two-horse coaches. They were carried three times a week, with considerable regu- larity. Carrying the mail was sometimes attended with great difficulty. The sloughs were unbridged and the carriages were sometimes swamped in them and had to be pulled out by oxen. Sometimes when the roads were very bad the drivers would put the mail in a queensware crate on the fore-wheels of a wagon ; to this they would attach three horses, and go through. The lead-horse was usually able to reach solid ground and pull the remainder of the concern after him. The drivers were some- times lost on dark nights and during snow storms. They were occasionally stopped by swollen streams, and in cold weather they often frosted their ears, noses and feet.
345
M'LEAN COUNTY.
But Judge McClun did pretty well with his contracts. Oats cost only eight or ten cents per bushel and hay three or four dollars per ton, while good horses could be obtained for forty or fifty dollars a piece. All other expenses were in this proportion, so that the very things which were disastrous to the country made his mail contracts profitable.
In 1849 Mr. MeClun was elected County Judge. The vote polled at that election was 1,365 for the whole county and there was a full turn out. He held the office until the spring of 1852 when he found himself unable to endure the confinement, aud resigned. He attended faithfully to the duties of his office while he held it, although it subjected him to a great deal of trouble and annoyance.
In 1852 the Illinois Central Railroad passed through Bloom- ington, and cars commenced running. A great change took place ; land became valuable, and real estate of all kinds rose in the market.
In 1852 Judge McClun was elected to the Legislature and was re-elected at the end of his term. He served until the end of the session of 1857. During this term he served four years on the State Board of Agriculture. At this time, too, he was superintendent of a Sunday.School, an active steward in the church and a live member of the McLean County Agricultural Society. He took a great interest in the organization of the Sons of Temperance, and in many other matters of public impor- tance. It will thus be seen that he had enough to think of during his leisure hours! He was also a trustee of the Wes- leyan University, and this institution being still in its infancy greatly taxed his time and energy. His experience as an office- holder has taught him not to seek for promotion in official life, for there is very little in it but vanity and vexation of spirit. It is well known that Judge McClun has accepted the various pub- lic positions, which have been offered him, simply as duties to be performed, and that when his term of service expired, he asked only to be relieved of the responsibilities of public life. He was chairman of the first Board of Supervisors in 1858, after the county adopted township organization, and has always favored this system of managing county business.
346
OLD SETTLERS OF
In politics he was an Old Line Whig, and afterwards a Republican, but during the last campaign he acted with the Democrats and Liberals. In early days he took a particular interest in the emancipation of the slaves, and when, during the war, the proclamation was made that freed the slaves no one was more gratified than he.
Judge McClun takes the greatest interest in Bloomington and McLean County, and, indeed, in the whole State. Their progress and their prospects are very dear to him. He has seen the city grow up from an insignificant village; he has seen the county changed from a wilderness to one of the leading counties in the State, and he has seen the State increase from two hundred and fifty thousand people to two and a half millions. He says : "I have been in Illinois for almost thirty-eight years. The wil- derness and solitary places have been made glad, and the desert has blossomed as the rose, and yet the next thirty-eight years will be just as full of changes and improvements. Bloomington now has twenty thousand inhabitants, and then it will have fifty thousand souls. Her manufactories will be sending up their smoke from her workshops in all parts of the city. The spires of her new churches will be pointing towards heaven, and sur- rounding lands, now cultivated as farms, will be covered with houses."
It will be seen in the foregoing sketch that Judge McClun is a man of the strictest integrity in his business, and he is no less careful as a father of a family. We re-produce here some of the advice given by him to his children, although it was not written for publication :
"Hear, my children, a few words of advice from your father. Be honest in all the transactions of your life to the smallest fraction. Do unto others as you would have them do to you. Be known as gentlemen and ladies wherever you are known. It is a very easy matter to point out a well-bred gentleman or lady anywhere, and I hope you will always be so distinguished. Say all the good you can of every person, and as little harm as pos- sible; and, especially of women-kind, never even listen to an evil report. This rule, so far as I have kept it, has wonderfully smoothed the pathway of my life. Never be idle, pitch into any kind of honorable employment rather than be seen idle. Idle- ness has been the first cause of the downfall of most of the men
347
M'LEAN COUNTY.
and women I have known ruined. Avoid bad habits of every kind, and especially the use of intoxicating drinks and tobacco. Endeavor to make everybody happy. Courtesy and kind words cost nothing, and yet are of great value. Make the world a little better as you pass through it. Cultivate self-government and self-control. Govern yourselves and then you may influ- ence people around you. Let your thoughts be pure thoughts, and then indeed will your lives be pure lives. Be modest. How I love to see modesty. Do not talk too much ; the silent people get through the world best. Even a fool, Solomon says, will be counted wise if he but holds his tongue. Don't seek office. If positions be thrust upon you, fill them like men, but do not be office-seekers. Say no, emphatically, and without hesitation, when you ought to say it. Never read obscene books or listen to obscene stories. Be saving in your expenses and study econ- omy in your families. A little saved in the beginning of your life will make you rich in the end. Love your homes. Make them your delight, yea, your heaven upon earth and let them be models of neatness and happiness. Be kind to the poor, and considerate to the unfortunate, for you know not how soon you may be in their condition. Above all make a publie profession of Christ, and serve God with a perfect heart and a willing mind. The Christian's faith will make you strong to withstand the troubles and disappointments of life. It will be your conso- lation in sorrows, bereavements and death, and constantly point you to that bright and beautiful land, where your parents are gone, and where, if virtuous and good, we will again be united as a family. How sweet the thought to meet again as parents and children in Heaven's Eternal Home."
As to personal appearance, Judge McClun is about the medium height ; has broad shoulders; his forehead is broad; his nose is aquiline and very prominent; he wears spectacles when he reads or writes ; his hair and beard were once dark but now are turning gray. Good nature is stamped on his face : he has a hearty, polite manner of speaking, and it is very evident that his politeness is that of the heart. His voice is melodions and pleasant, and gives confidence to the bashful; he loves mankind and especially children, and wishes earnestly to see people happy and made better. He is straightforward in every trans-
348
OLD SETTLERS OF
action, and no one stands higher throughout the country than he. For twenty years he was superintendent of the Methodist Sunday-School in Bloomington.
Judge MeClun has had eleven children, of whom five are living. They are :
Elisha H., married and lives in Bloomington.
Isaac B., married and lives in Bloomington.
Robert, lives at home.
Esther E., wife of Foreman Martin, lives in Chicago.
Edward, lives at home.
ABRAHAM BROKAW.
Abraham Brokaw was born November 6, 1815, on a farm in Somerset County, New Jersey. His father was of French and Dutch descent. His great grandfather was a Huguenot who emigrated from France to Holland at an early day on account of religious persecution. It is now pretty well understood among civilized people that each man is to be held accountable for his opinion of the great Hereafter, only to the Supreme Being, who rules the Universe. But in early days the French held the paternal theory that the State should kindly relieve its citizens of the trouble of thinking for themselves in religious matters. They thought they would glorify God and lay up treasure in heaven by burning or banishing hereties on earth. The Huguenots, who insisted on being the guardians of their own consciences, were the best of French citizens; they were the artizans whose skill made France the " grand nation," the most eminent among the kingdoms of the earth. They man- aged the looms and spindles and were engaged in various useful trades, and in return they asked only the privilege of worship- ping God as they thought proper. But this was not to be; they were expelled from their country and settled principally in Hol- land and in the various German States. Mr. Brokaw's great grandfather settled in Holland and the family became identified in all its interests with the thrifty and enterprising Dutch. But America was at last the resting-place of the persecuted Hugue- not. He came here, and here the family has displayed that same industry and real love of work which characterized the artizans
349
M'LEAN COUNTY.
of France. William Brokaw, the father of Abraham, was of French and Dutch descent, and his wife, the mother of Abra- ham, was descended from the Dutch. She was a quiet and un- assuming lady, but very industrious. She was a very religious woman and belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church. All of the letters which she wrote to her son gave evidence of her deep religious convictions, although she never asked him to join any church, being willing to rely on his own judgment in that matter. She died of palsy in New Jersey in 1843, when she was about forty-five years of age. Mr. Brokaw does not belong to any religious denomination, but is a supporter of the Second Pres- byterian Church.
Mr. Brokaw's early education was not extended and was finished when he was twelve years of age. He was obliged to depend upon his industry and his good sense to make his way in the world. He worked on his father's farm until the age of eighteen, when he was apprenticed as a wheelwright to Darius Gilmore of Mechanicsville. In 1836 Mr. Gilmore came to the West bringing Abraham with him. As the wagons were heavily loaded the latter was obliged to walk. At that time the Mor- mon excitement was very high and proselytes to the faith of Joe Smith were coming from all directions. Mr. Gilmore and Abraham were often mistaken for Mormons. Mr. Gilmore went to Springfield and there Mr. Brokaw finished his apprenticeship under another master. But the wages he earned belonged to Mr. Gilmore. Mr. Brokaw had then become a workman of great skill ; he earned the very highest wages, but they were drawn by his old master.
In October, 1836, Mr. Brokaw's apprenticeship came to an end, and he began to calculate for himself. During the Novem- ber following he formed a partnership with one Jacob Leader, and they came to Bloomington on foot to try their fortunes. Mr. Brokaw carried with him a letter of introduction to Lewis Bunn and found the latter out in the woods making charcoal. The exercise of walking had flushed Abraham's cheeks, and when he presented the letter, was directed to read it. When it was finished Mr. Bunn looked at the flushed cheeks of young Abra- ham and said : " I do not thank my friend for sending me a drinking man!" but was satisfied when he learned that the
350
OLD SETTLERS OF
flush was not produced by wine or rye whisky, but by youth and health and exercise. The young wheelwrights, Brokaw and Leader, employed Lewis Bunn to build them a shop, and de- posited fifty dollars with him to buy lumber for them to com- menee their business. But shortly afterwards they returned to Springfield and while there Mr. Leader became afraid of their contract with Bunn, and as the hard times were coming on and banks were breaking he backed out. Mr. Brokaw also wished to withdraw from the contract and offered Mr. Bunn the fifty dollars which had been deposited with him, but the latter refused to accept it. Mr. Bunn built the shop on his own land and leased it to Mr. Brokaw who had returned to Bloomington. Mr. Brokaw opened business. He made the first wagon manufae- tured in MeLean County, for Elijah Hedrick of Randolph Grove, but it was sold to Dr. Thomas Karr. During the next six years Mr. Brokaw worked very hard, but it seemed almost impossible to accumulate anything or even pay running expenses, on ae- count of the hard times. In 1843 Mr. Brokaw bought two lots, where the People's Bank now stands, of James Miller, for seventy dollars in cash and fifty-five dollars in work. They were each sixty-six feet by one hundred and fifteen. Here Mr. Bro- kaw kept his shops for twenty-five years. In 1869 he sold eighty- two by ninety-three feet of these lots to the People's Bank Com- pany for twenty-five thousand dollars. In 1839 or '40 he bought ten acres of fine timber land near Bloomington for ten dollars an aere, and after hauling from it a large quantity of lumber sold it for fifteen hundred dollars. He bought a one-third interest in the shops, where he is now located, of Lewis Bunn, for six thous- and dollars.
On the twentieth of October, 1847, Mr. Brokaw was married in Janesville, Wisconsin, to Miss Eunice Ellsworth, the sister of his partner, Ellsworth, who died rather more than a year ago. She has been his pleasant and loving companion ever since.
Mr. Brokaw has had very little to do with polities and has held only one office of any note. He was trustee of Blooming- ton in 1845 and '46 under the old organization of the town. In politics he is a Democrat of the strictest kind. He voted for Horace Greeley during the last campaign, because Greeley was nominated at Baltimore.
351
M'LEAN COUNTY.
Mr. Brokaw leads a very even life and one day is very much like another. He is a man of medium height, well set and muscular. IIe is very quiet in his manners, is strictly honest in his dealings, is rather bald, wears glasses in the evening, works as hard as ever, and indeed he could never be content without work. He is the oldest mechanie in the county, and by his skill, industry and patience he has acquired a fortune and has fairly earned the wealth he enjoys.
ANDREW W. SCOGIN.
One of the earliest and best known settlers of McLean County was Andrew W. Seogin. He was born in 1823 in Crosby Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, about thirteen miles from Cincinnati. Like many of the early settlers he was a farmer's boy. His grandfather and his father, Joel Seogin, had been farmers, and young Andrew was early taught to follow the plow. His paternal grandfather was a Welehman, while his mother's father was Irish. The family of which Andrew was a member was large, there being fifteen children, eight sons and seven daughters ; he was therefore not obliged in his youth to pine in solitude like the good little boy of a Sunday school book. He received a common school education up to his fourteenth year. We are not told whether or not Andrew was attentive to his books ; probably he had the alphabet, the primer and the spell- ing book cuffed into his head in the usual style, for Mark Twain, who is good authority on this subject, intimates that the useful, enterprising men are those who have been well threshed in early youth. When he was fourteen years of age he came with his uncle, Joseph Wakefield, to MeLean County, Illinois. Mr. Wakefield bought one hundred and eighty acres of land at Ran- dolph's Grove, built a log house on it and allowed young Andrew to work to his heart's content. Young Andrew, being very independent, soon became a farmer on his own account. Part of his land he obtained by purchase, and part he obtained by his wife, and has in all about six hundred acres. Farming in those days was not very profitable business, as the price of wheat varied from forty to seventy-five cents per bushel. The only markets were Chicago, Peoria and Pekin. Chicago was the usual market, and the settlers, while going, clubbed together and
352
OLD SETTLERS OF
made a caravan of ten or twenty teams. They did this for com- mon protection and in order to help each other through the sloughs. The round trip to Chicago and return was usually made in about two weeks. During their journey they did not enjoy the luxury of a public house on the road, for none was kept, and if any had existed it would not have been patronized, for the settlers had no money to pay hotel bills. They took their pots and frying pans and camped out. At night they made fires to keep off the wolves, that sometimes came smelling around their camp, and in the day-time the settlers followed the trail, careless, happy and free. There were then plenty of deer, and the camp was usually supplied with venison steak. There were plenty of prairie rattlesnakes too, which were killed by dozens. The early settlers were free from a great many things which dis- turb more settled and civilized life. The State of Illinois was in early days undisturbed by discussion upon temperance laws and Sunday liquor laws. People had no beer to drink and whisky was a rare article. Mr. Scogin became possessed of the title of Captain, which of course confers great honor upon the lucky possessor. Shortly after the Mexican war the military fever ran high, and it was thought best by some to revive the militia. A company was organized in McLean County, and Mr. Scogin was chosen captain ; but the experiment was a failure. People do not like to "play soldier." The Captain has an in- teresting family of six children, and lives at the west end of Blooming Grove, where he has resided since 1847.
As the old settlers are all pleasant and social in their dispo- sition, we should think they might have a reunion, an old settlers' meeting. We are sure Captain Scogin would shine in such an assembly, and perhaps he might give the company a speech and tell the condition of things forty years ago. We can imagine his genial countenance as he would rise and say :
" Gentleman-For nearly forty years have I sojourned in this magnificent prairie State. Forty years ago the deer roamed over these western wilds seldom disturbed by the crack of the huntsman's rifle, and the mink and the otter reveled at their own sweet will amid the primeval frog-ponds. Forty years ago was heard the music of the goose and the sandhill crane. Forty years ago the coon and the opossum curled their tails in peace
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.