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 36
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Mr. Means has done some hunting and enjoyed the excite- ment of the chase, though it has sometimes been attended with danger. He once killed a horse while chasing a wolf. The horse stepped into a badger's hole and fell and broke its neck. The last wolf chase in which Mr. Means took part was very ex- citing. The wolf was a half-breed between the gray and the prairie varieties. Mr. Means broke down two horses in chasing it, but came up to it on the third horse and ran it into a den. But the den was drifted partly full of snow, and the wolf was pulled out by the tail and killed.
Mr. Means is a man of steady nerve and sees clearly when matters appear exciting. The following incident shows his steady nerve, and also the remarkable coolness of one of his daughters. Once, while coming home from church, Mr. Means and two of his children were riding one horse, and one of his daughters was riding another. The latter horse became fright- ened and ran for home, and Mr. Means feared that when it would come to the bars it would stop suddenly and throw his daughter off and perhaps kill her. He dropped the two children who were with him, and rode up near his daughter's frightened horse, but could not catch it or reach the child. The girl, un- der his directions, slipped down on the side of the saddle, hold- ing to the pommel, and when her father gave the word, loosened her hold and dropped to the ground with very little injury.
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Mr. Means married, May 7, 1844, Nancy M. G. Stansberry. He has had six children, of whom four are living and two are dead :
Mary A. Means was married to John Pitts, and lives in Saybrook.
Sarah M. Means was married to J. S. Barwick.
Owen Amos Means died in 1865 with small-pox.
Lee and John Henry Means live at home.
James Edward Means died in infancy.
Mr. Means is five feet and ten inches in height, weighs over two hundred pounds, is strong and heavy set, and has done a great deal of hard work. He has brown hair, sandy whiskers and brown eyes. He is a strictly honest man, has the best of judgment, seems to be prosperous, and is a first-class business man. He thinks a great deal of children, and remembers clearly the incidents of his own childhood. During the Black Hawk war his father once went up to the Mackinaw to learn the condi- tion of affairs, and Mrs. Means took her children to Robert Cunningham's mill for protection. There the little Means chil- dren began building a small fort, but soon gave up their child- ish arrangement, and Mrs. Means went back to her home.
EPHRAIM SCUDDER MYERS.
Ephraim S. Myers was born December 9, 1801, in Louis County, Kentucky. His father's name was Jacob Myers, and his mother's maiden name was Nancy Means. Jacob Myers was of German descent and Nancy Means was of Dutch and Irish stock. He lived in Kentucky, where he was born, for twenty-five years and then came to Illinois. In the fall of 1826 he came to the Little Vermilion River, to that part of Edgar County which now forms the county of Vermilion. He and his cousin, James Dixon, came out to- gether with a horse, which they took turns in riding. Mr. Myers first chopped wood for ten dollars per month for the Salt Works at Danville, and afterwards went to breaking prairie and farming on the Little Vermilion River. He married, Decem- ber 21, 1828, Eliza Childers, and in April, 1830, he came to Cheney's Grove.
Mr. Myers talks very eloquently sometimes about the deep snow. He says that he left his wagon standing in his yard and
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when the deep snow fell no wagon was to be seen ; it was com- pletely covered. A day or two before the heavy fall of snow Mr. Myers came from mill with enough corn meal to last his family through the winter, but he divided with his neighbors, and before long was obliged to pound corn as the rest did. He killed deer when the snow first fell, but they soon became poor and not worth killing. A day or two after the heavy fall of snow he went out hunting and followed a deer for some distance, when it went to a place where a dozen or more deer had tramped a space around them about twenty feet across with the snow drifted on all sides in high walls. For once in his life he became excited and fired three or four times while they were charging around and jumping about, but missed them. At last they broke from their pen and he shot two of them when they had run a short distance away. During that terrible winter the deer came up, after night-fall, and ate hay with his cattle.
Mr. Myers commenced hunting on the Vermilion River, when he first came to Illinois, and was very successful. He has had many adventures after game, and knows the country around for many miles. He has killed a deer or a wolf in every hollow and by every creek or spring. The largest deer he killed was up on the Mackinaw, and it was indeed a most enormous buck. It weighed two hundred and forty pounds dressed, and the skin weighed twenty-one pounds without the ears or lower part of the legs, and twelve pounds after it was dried. After Mr. My- ers had killed his game, it sometimes required ingenuity to bring it home. At one time, when he killed two deer, he put one on his horse's back and tied the other to its tail and made it bring them both in. Mr. Myers and Thomas Cheney were once down to a grove near Gibson, about nine miles east of Che- ney's Grove. They had with them a dog called Drummer. They started a deer and Drummer drove it away, and Cheney said that when the dog came back he would kill it. It soon re- turned and Cheney shot it. Mr. Myers said immediately that the grove should be called Drummer's Grove, and it has borne that name ever since.
Mr. Myers has often hunted wolves. He used to set pens for them, and once caught two wolves at one time. He has often chased wolves with horses and dogs. He says that the wolves
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run a great deal faster than they formerly did, and that in early days any little cur could catch one. When the settlers chased them on horseback, it was very seldom that the wolves escaped ; but now it is next to impossible to catch a wolf with dogs or horses. Mr. Myers formerly kept seven hounds to hunt wolves and gave them plenty of business. But, notwithstanding all of the precautions of the settlers and all of their hunting with dogs and horses, the wolves continued thick and every day some farmer's pigs or sheep would suffer. But in the year 1850 the people all turned out for a grand hunt, and went after the wolves in their dens, before the little wolf puppies were large enough to come out, and killed thirty in two days, and after that they were never so troublesome.
Mr. Myers thinks that in all of his experience with wild ani- mals the badger is the worst to kill and hardest to fight. A badger is a bluish colored animal with whitish stripes. It is shaped much like a woodchuck, and is about the size of a rac- coon. Its teeth and nails are very long and sharp, the latter measuring nearly an inch. The animal is exceedingly strong, and really loves to fight. Mr. Myers says that while his dogs were once barking at a badger's hole it came out for fight, and it required five dogs to whip it. A badger will usually run when a strong force of dogs is after it, and when an attempt is made to dig it out of its hole it will sometimes dig down nearly as fast as it is dug after, and the dirt flies in all directions. Mr. Myers once dug out a hole in which he found two young badgers and a bull snake. This was in the spring of the year. He thinks they must have passed the winter together.
During the Black Hawk war Mr. Myers took his wife down to the Little Vermilion River for safety and came back and lived for nearly two months alone. The people were badly frightened, but not badly enough to keep Abraham Stansberry and Mary Cheney from getting married. The farther away the people lived, the more they became frightened at the danger, which they could not understand, or about which they could not obtain reliable information. Some soldiers who came up from Paris, in Edgar County, about seventy-five miles south of Cheney's Grove, said that the people there were too much frightened to raise a wed- ding.
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The old settlers tell very few snake stories, but Mr. Myers tells one which may be relied upon. In 1871, in harvest time, his sons killed thirty-two rattlesnakes in a meadow within one hour.
Mr. Myers' first wife died, and he married Mrs. Louisa Ann Stansberry, a widow, August 14, 1848. The following are the children and members of Mr. Myers' family :
Nancy Myers was born September 16, 1829, and died August, 2, 1840.
Jacob Myers was born January 12, 1832. He enlisted during the rebellion in the 116th Illinois Volunteers, and died of sick- ness on his way home from Vieksburg in May, 1863.
Thomas Myers was born January 11, 1834. He was a soldier in the army under Colonel Mccullough. He was at the battle of Shiloh. He afterwards became sick and was sent back to Quin- cy, Illinois. He lives about five miles east of his father's.
John Myers was born April 1, 1836. He was a soldier in the 116th Illinois Volunteers. IIe was at Vicksburg and Ar- kansas Post, but was sick during a part of his term of service. HIe lives at his father's home.
Robert Myers was born April 27, 1838. IIe was in the 116th Illinois Volunteers, and died of sickness at Vicksburg.
Fielden Myers was born April 25, 1840. Ile volunteered to go into the army, but was taken sick and never mustered in. He lives at home with his father.
Elizabeth Myers was born September 17, 1842. She was married to Henry Lowry, and lives at Gibson, Ford County, Illinois.
One child, Henry Myers, died in infancy.
Andrew H. Stansberry, a son of Mrs. Louisa Ann Myers by her first marriage, was born February 15, 1842, was a soldier in the 70th Illinois Volunteers, under Colonel Reeves. He lives in Howard County Kansas.
Daniel ITam, a boy who lived with Mr. Myers, and was for a while a member of his family, enlisted in the 4th Illinois Cav- alry. Mr. Myers wishes the boy's name put in this record to show how many went from his house into the army.
Margaret Myers was born March 15, 1850, was married to Oliver Roe, and lives a mile and a half south of her father's.
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The following live at home : Sarah, born November 28, 1851. Clay, born August 30, 1855. James, born December 26, 1858.
Mr. Myers has sixteen grandchildren and thirteen are boys. Ephraim S. Myers is about five feet and eleven inches in height and appears rugged and tough. He has a sanguine com- plexion, blue eyes and perfectly white hair and whiskers. IIe is a man of very independent character and great courage. He takes his own course, and, if people do not like it, they can go their own way. His favorite expression is that he can " hoe his own row," and he has done so very successfully, although it seemed a rough one sometimes. He does not ask unnecessary favors. He has a great deal of humor about him sometimes, and loves a good joke as well as any old settler.
WILLIAM RIGGS.
William Riggs was born September 7, 1803, in Washington County, Maryland. His father's name was Samuel Riggs, and his mother's maiden name was Priscilla Marshall. Both were of English descent. Samuel Riggs was a plain farmer and a worthy man. When William was only one year old the Riggs family came to Bourbon County, Kentucky, where they remained about three years and then went to Bluebank Creek, Fleming County, same State. There he bought land and was obliged to sacrifice his stock to do so, but after five years he had the misfortune to lose his land, as he was obliged to pay a security debt.
In 1824 William Riggs made a trip to South Carolina with a drove of hogs, which he sold there. He was delayed there for some time, as the weather continued warm in December, and he could not sell his pork until the season grew cooler. While he was delayed he saw something of slavery, and it was far from pleasant. The cotton planters there had usually from one to three hundred negroes on a farm. The planter with whom they stayed, Mr. Hyder Davy, had on his plantation a square of ten acres, in the center of which was his house, a little higher than the remainder. Around this square and facing inwards were the negro quarters. One evening Mr. Davy told Mr. Riggs and the drovers, that he would show them a sight, and he blew a
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little bone whistle, giving various signals, and immediately about one hundred little colored children, between the ages of three and six years, as naked as the day they were born, came out of their quarters into the square and began dancing and capering about. After they had danced and capered for half an hour, Mr. Davy gave another signal, and they ran for their quarters as fast as squirrels. The field-hands were treated by the over- seers in the most brutal manner. The former were allowed one peck of meal to eat per week and absolutely nothing else. Every Saturday night the field-hands were obliged to deliver up their shoes, which were locked up carefully until Monday morning. At that time the negroes came and received their shoes and their weekly ration of meal and were set at work. The shoes were taken from them on Saturday to prevent them from run- ning about, for, as the country was flinty, they would cut their feet if they walked without shoes. The field-hands were re- quired to pick a certain quantity of cotton per day, and in the evening their pickings were separately weighed, and whoever failed to produce the required amount was whipped. A woman was whipped by being thrown on her face and having the lashes applied to her bare back. When a man was whipped he was made to grasp a post and put his wrists through an iron ring, which was made to spring down on them and hold them fast. His shirt was then drawn over his head and the lashes were ap- plied to his bare baek. While the hands were in the field, the overseer was always on horseback with his cat-o'-nine-tails, and some one was whipped every day. The cotton-field was picked over three times. At the first two piekings the pods would split open and the cotton hang out and be easily picked, but the third time the pods would split only partially open and the cotton was then difficult to gather. The negroes would often come in from the field with their thumbs and fingers bleeding and torn by the cotton-pods. The nursing infants belonging to the women, who worked in the field, were placed in charge of a negress too old to work. At nine o'clock every day she placed these infants in a mule cart in which was a bed of straw and blankets, and took them to their mothers in the field to be nursed. This was re- peated at twelve o'clock and again at three o'clock in the after- noon. The hands never left the field until they stopped work at night. Such was slavery.
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When Mr. Riggs sold his pork he came back to Kentucky on. foot. He walked in fair weather one hundred miles in three days, but he was somewhat delayed by high water and required fifteen days for his journey.
Mr. Riggs married, December 28, 1826, Nancy Pitts, and rented a small place for four years. In the fall of 1830 he moved to Illinois with his brother-in-law, Henry Pitts. In De- cember of that year the heavy snow began falling. On the day that the heavy snow fell, Henry Pitts was driving a lot of pigs to Eugene, Indiana, on the Wabash, and was caught in the storm. Mr. Riggs went with a horse to assist him, and they took their pigs through. On their return they walked with their horse through the snow, which was up to their thighs. First one would lead the horse and break the way, while the other would whip the animal from behind. A crust was beginning to form on the snow and traveling was exceedingly hard. On the last day of their journey, they came from Newcom's Ford to Cheney's Grove, a distance of fifteen miles, and took turns in leading the horse. They shaped their course by the wind, which blew over the prairie very cold. When they came near Cheney's Grove they found that they had missed the course by two miles, and they changed their direction and tried again. After going about two miles Pitts stopped and wanted to rest and said he would feel better if he could sleep. Mr. Riggs then whipped him with the hickory gad until he was ready to fight, and at last they started ahead with the horse and arrived safe. Mr. Riggs thinks that if Pitts had been left to sleep he would have frozen to death in twenty minutes. Mr. Riggs' feet were badly frozen and the toe-nails and thick skin on the heels came off. The toes and heels were frozen so stiff that they thumped on the floor like potatoes. Mr. Pitts was frozen in the same way. One of Mr. Riggs' ears was also frozen. He was unable to do much work for some time, but could pound meal, as all were obliged to do during that desperate winter. He made for himself a pair of moccasins of deer hides, and turned the hair inward and by bundling up his feet he could get out and feed his stock. On the tenth of the following March he went to Blooming Grove on horseback, and on his return carried a spinning-wheel and led his horse, which carried two and a half bushels of meal ; but
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the animal was obliged to carry Mr. Riggs and the meal, spin- ning-wheel and all across the Kickapoo. The slush from the melting of the deep snow was then from ankle deep to three feet.
During the winter of the deep snow some of the settlers gathered the deer together in parks and fed them. Mr. Jona- than Cheney collected about fifteen deer in a park and kept them six or seven years, when a high wind blew down a part of the fence and they escaped.
During the spring of 1832, while the Black Hawk war was carried on, the women collected at the house of the widow Ball while the men stood guard.
In the fall of 1837 the Riggs family made a visit to Ken- tucky, traveling on horseback. They traveled four hundred miles there and four hundred miles to return. Mrs. Riggs car- ried her one-year old child in her arms during the whole jour- ney. She was a fine horse-woman, having been raised on the Kentucky hills where it required ingenuity to manage an animal and stick to it. They traveled on an average thirty-five miles per day.
Mr. and Mrs. Riggs have raised six children, four sons and two daughters, and have seen them all grow up and become set- tled in life. They have all been converted and made members of the Methodist Church. They are :
George W. Riggs, who was born December 11, 1827. He now lives one mile north of his father's homestead.
Henry M. Riggs was born September 6, 1829. He was a soldier in the Thirty-seventh Illinois Volunteers, and on becom- ing a veteran was made a captain in the United States Colored Infantry. He was at Pea Ridge, the siege of Vicksburg, and in many other battles. He lives in Bloomington.
Priscilla M. Riggs was born August 10, 1831, was married to J. D. Lewis, and lives about three-quarters of a mile from her father's.
William H. Riggs was born February 13, 1834. He has had a wide-awake life, has been to California and seen something of the world. He is now president of the Saybrook Bank, owned by Riggs and Brother.
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Mary Jane Riggs was born September 28, 1835, was mar- ried to Moses T. Hall and lives in Saybrook.
Samuel R. Riggs was born February 13, 1838, was a soldier in the One Hundred and Sixteenth Illinois Infantry, was at Vicksburg and Atlanta, and in many other engagements. He was severely wounded at the siege of Atlanta while relieving a picket guard. He was then commanding a company. He is now cashier of the Saybrook Bank owned by Riggs and Brother.
Mr. William Riggs is five feet and eleven inches in height, has gray hair and beard, has a Roman nose and bright, expres- sive, humorous eyes. He is a man of large mind and sound judgment, and is very conscientious. He is a man of clear ideas and talks clearly and to the point with very little effort. He is as modest as he is worthy. He seems to be in good health and circumstances, and enjoys a happy old age. Mrs. Riggs still lives, happy and contented, and it will not be long before she and her husband can celebrate their golden wedding.
SNOWDEN BALL.
Snowden Ball was born August 4, 1814, in Louis County, Kentucky. His father's name was Richard C. Ball, and his mother's maiden name was Catherine Cleary. Snowden Ball lived in Louis County, Kentucky, where he was raised, for sev- enteen years. There he went to school and received his limited education. When he was seventeen years of age he came to Cheney's Grove and went to farming, as all the early settlers did. He was married October 29, 1835, to Miss America Pente- grass Means, daughter of Robert and Sarah Means, of Cheney's Grove. Their domestic life was remarkably happy. His con- stitution was never very rugged, but he usually enjoyed good health, with the exception of a sickness occasioned by an aeci- dent, which happened to his knee. He died of consumption March 1, 1873. He left a family of eight children, all of whom are living. They are :
Sarah S. Coile, wife of John Coile, born August 13, 1836, lives in Howard County, Kansas.
Catherine H. Riggs, born August 23, 1838, wife of William H. Riggs, lives at Saybrook.
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Keturah E. McKenney, born March 27, 1842, wife of William H. McKenney, lives a quarter of a mile north of her mother's.
Richard C. Ball, born April 9, 1844, lives in Howard Coun- ty, Kansas.
Mary Elizabeth Palmer, born April 2, 1846, wife of Charles Palmer, lives one-half a mile south of her mother's.
John H. Ball, born August 7, 1851, Rhoda Ann Ball, born June 8, 1853, and Frank Baker Ball, born November 19, 1860, live at home.
Snowden Ball was about five feet and eleven inches in height and slenderly built. His hair and whiskers at the time of his death were nearly gray. His eyes were dark brown. He was a very resolute man, but cautions in his dealings and temperate in his habits. He thought much of his family, and worked hard for them.
HILLEARY BALL.
Hilleary Ball was born March 8, 1817, in Louis County, Ken- tucky. His father's name was Richard C. Ball, and his mother's maiden name was Catherine Cleary. He does not know the de- scent of his parents, but the name would indicate an English ancestry. The father of Hilleary Ball died when the latter was only eight months old. Hilleary Ball lived in Louis County, Kentucky, where he was born, for thirteen or fourteen years. There he went to school and received some little education to prepare him for the work of life. In the fall of 1831, he came with his uncle Joseph Cleary Ball to Cheney's Grove, where he arrived November 10. The journey was very pleasant, requir- ing one month, which, however, included some delay in visiting friends on the way. Previous to their arrival Henry Ball had made arrangements for building a cabin, but when they came they found the work scarcely commenced. But all parties im- mediately began work, and the log cabin went up speedily. The puncheon floor was made of green wood, which froze every night, and the old carpet or quilt which was laid on it, was frozen fast. The family went to farming on their arrival, and experienced the usual vicissitudes of a pioneer life. Hilleary Ball went to school for a while at Cheney's Grove, and remem- bers one curious incident of his school days. The settlers at
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Cheney's Grove turned out to hunt two wolves, one a black wolf and the other a gray. After being chased all over the timber, the black wolf was caught and killed near the school house. Hilleary Ball saw it coming with the hunters in full chase, and spoke out quickly, and came near getting punished for his excitement. But the school was in such an uproar that the master let out the scholars, and they saw the wolf killed and the hide raffled off among the hunters.
Mr. Ball never became much of a sportsman, though he often chased wolves and killed them with a stirrup. He some- times poisoned them with strichnine, and sometimes, when one of his domestic animals happened to die he would set it out as a bait for wolves and shoot them when they came near. Mr. Ball has had the usual contests with the fires which came sweep- ing over the prairie, and at one time had his farm burned up, with the exception of the house and barn.
Mr. Ball married in November, 1838, Calista Hildreth, who was born in New York and came to McLean County at an early day. He has had six children, three boys and three girls, five of whom are living. They are :
William Henry Ball, who lives in Cheney's Grove township, about three miles northeast of his father's, in Section No. 10.
Elizabeth Theodosia Ball was married to William Evans, and lives near her brother William Henry.
Julia Ann Ball was married to Samuel Gallagher, jr., and lives in Saybrook.
Amos Ball lives in the northwest part of Champaign County.
Alfred Ball died when very young.
Harriet Ball, usually called Hattie, is the baby, or pet, and lives at home.
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