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 38
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Sophia Jane Stansberry, who was born August 6, 1826. She married James R. Lewis, and lives less than half a mile from her father's house.
Thomas A. Stansberry was born July 27, 1828, and lives in Saybrook.
Ezekiel F. Stansberry was born May 22, 1830. He lives about three-quarters of a mile from the south side of Cheney's Grove with his aunt McMackin.
John F. Stansberry was born January 28, 1832, and lives in Hancock County, Illinois.
Jesse W. Stansberry was born January 24, 1834, and lives just east of his father's.
Julia E. Stansberry was born February 13, 1836, was mar- ried to Simon Cavanaugh, and lives two miles east of her father's.
Abram M. Stansberry, born June 15, 1838, died in infancy.
Isaac N. Stansberry was born December 2, 1839, enlisted in the One Hundred and Sixteenth Illinois Volunteers during the late war, and died of sickness at Milliken's Bend near Vicks- burg.
Melissa C. Stansberry was born March 27, 1843, was married to I. J. Hardsock, and lives in Saybrook.
Henry M. Stansberry was born June 7, 1846, and lives at the homestead with his father.
Isaac Stansberry is about five feet and ten inches in height, has gray hair and dark eyes, is a kind-hearted, pleasant man and a gentleman. He seems to have succeeded pretty well in life, and lives about a mile and a half southwest of Cheney's Grove.
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DALE TOWNSHIP.
ROBERT HARRINGTON JOHNSON.
Robert H. Johnson was born November 11, 1796, in Virginia. His father was Francis Johnson, and his mother's name before her marriage was Nancy Harrington. Francis Johnson was born in Ireland, and brought to America when he was four years of age. Nancy Harrington was partly of Pennsylvania Dutch de- scent. When Robert Johnson was only four years of age he was taken to Jackson County, Tennessee, where he lived until he was twenty-six or seven years of age. There he followed farming and tanning leather. He married in August, 1814, Bathsheba Potter. In about the year 1822 or '23 he went to Overton County, Tennessee, where he lived until the year 1828, when he came to Illinois. He came on his journey by team and arrived at Blooming Grove on the first of December. He had no particular adventure except that his daughter Mathurza fell from a horse which she was riding, and broke her thighbone, and the party was delayed fifteen days in consequence. The party arrived at Blooming Grove in the evening of December 1, when everyone for miles around was at church. As the party passed the church, a bell on one of the colts was heard by the congregation, aud it was known that another family had arrived. The addition of a single family to the neighborhood was then a great event, and at the close of the meeting the entire congre- gation, which was not large, though it included everyone in the country for a great many miles around, came to see the Johnson family and give them a welcome. No one waited for an intro- duction, but each shook hands cordially and said : "How are you, Brother Johnson ?" and, " How are you, Sister Johnson ?"
The family first moved to Three Mile Grove, now called Harley's Grove, into a log house fourteen feet square, with a few logs extending for a porch. This cabin was put up for the Johnson family by George Hinshaw some months before their arrival. It happened in the meantime that the Funks (Isaac and Absalom) had driven a lot of pigs to this grove to eat the mast, and the latter had taken possession of the unoccupied cabin. Pigs which have been running in the . timber, become
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wild, and when excited or aroused are more dangerous than any other wild animal. During the night after the Johnson family moved into their cabin, they heard their dog barking and fight- ing with the hogs. The cabin had no door to it. A hole had been cut out for entrance, and also another for a fire-place. In the latter a large fire was burning, and some green sticks were near by. Mr. Johnson jumped up and grasped a long, green stick and met the hogs, about seventy-five in number, in the door-way as they were attempting to come in. He fought them there for life, while Mrs. Johnson prevented them from coming in at the fire-place by throwing fire at them. Mr. Johnson fought until he was exhausted completely. IIe battered their heads ; he struck powerful blows, and at last knocked off the snout of one of the hogs, which ran squealing away to Funk's Grove, followed by the whole drove. But Mr. Johnson, fearing the return of the brutes, put his family into the wagon to pro- tect them. The next day Isaac, Absalom and Robert Funk came up to Harley's Grove to whip the band of villains, who, they thought, had been knocking out the eyes and breaking the snouts of their hogs; but when they learned what a fight Mr. Johnson had made to protect his family from being eaten up by the brutes, they left in a different humor.
As the Johnson family was the first to settle in Harley's Grove, the wild animals were taken by surprise. A day or two after the hogs were driven off a black wolf came up close to the door. During that winter Mr. Johnson killed a great many deer within half a mile of the house. At one time he severely wounded a deer, which turned on him and knocked him down several times; but it was so badly hurt that he broke away and left it in a thicket within a few hundred feet of the house. He went in for ammunition, and told the children to stay inside and hold the door shut. But when he started for the thicket, the children disobeyed orders and ran out and climbed the fence, and jumped on the stumps to see the fun. The deer sprang up and ran towards the children, but the dog grabbed it by the ear and Mr. Johnson shot it through the neck and it fell within a few feet of the door. During the spring following, Mr. Johnson fenced forty-five acres of land and planted nearly all of it in corn. But he was unable to enter it immediately and soon after-
.
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wards a man named Jack Hougham entered it away from him and gave him forty-five dollars for his improvement. It was a custom among the old settlers never to enter a man's claim away from him; but Mr. Hougham had no such delicacy. He gave Mr. Johnson notice of his intention and went to the land office and took up the land. Mr. Johnson then settled on the south side of Twin Grove, improved a claim and entered the land, and lived there until 1837, when he was killed by an ox which he was attempting to yoke up to a wagon. This was on the twenty- first of February, 1837. He was a very industrious man, and made shoes and looms in the winter, and worked his land during the summer. He tanned leather for the whole country around.
Mr. Johnson had ten children, two of whom were born in the West. They are :
Nancy Johnson, who married Moses Wooden Brown, and lives at White Oak Grove in Woodford County.
John S. W. Johnson lived at the head of the Mackinaw and died in 1865.
Mathurza Johnson, now the wife of Jeremiah Rhodes, lives three miles from Bloomington, on the Leroy road. She furnished the items for this sketch, and seemed to have very clear ideas and a good recollection.
Jacob H. Johnson lives between Brown's Grove and Twin Grove.
Thomas P. Johnson lives near Osceola, Clark County, Iowa.
Benjamin M. Johnson lives about a mile and a half west of Bloomington.
Francis, Lewis S., and James B. Johnson, are dead.
Mary Jane Elizabeth Johnson married John Fowler, and lives in Osage Mission, Kansas.
Mr. Johnson was about six feet in height, was possessed of immense strength, but was very good-natured, kind-hearted and religious. He never wished to quarrel with anyone, was always on good terms with his neighbors, and was very honorable in all of his transactions.
WILLIAM BEELER, SR.
William Beeler was born September 26, 1796, in Fayette County, Kentucky. His father's name was Samuel Beeler and
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his mother's name before her marriage was Mary Graves. His father was descended from the Dutch of Virginia, but his mother probably came from English stock. The father of Sam- uel Beeler, who was the grandfather of William Beeler, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and saw some very hard ser- vice and severe campaigning. He sometimes laid on brush heaps at night to keep out of the water. Samuel Beeler moved to Kentucky at an early day, where he was often engaged in con- tests with the Indians. He was a great hunter, and very skillful in the use of the rifle. At one time, while the settlers were troubled by the Indians, Mr. Beeler went with three other men out hunting for buffalo and deer, which were both very plenty. Mr. Beeler killed a buffalo and afterwards a deer. Two other deer ran off, but came back unaccountably in fright, and were both killed by the hunter. But as Mr. Beeler was skinning one of the deer he learned what had frightened them back, for he heard a cracking in the brush and looking up saw a man com- ing; and a second glance showed him to be an Indian. Mr. Beeler sprang instantly for his gun and ran, and was pursued by six Indians who fired at him. He stubbed his toe and fell, and they set up a whoop, but he sprang to his feet and ran for- ward, and as he was remarkably fleet he distanced them all ex- cept one, which he turned upon and shot. He then had some difficulty in finding his camp, but arrived there at last, and found only one of his companions. The camp was moved into a sink-hole. The next morning the remainder of the party came in, and all returned home. The Indians killed several families, stole several horses and tried to get away with the plunder, but were pursued and killed, and the horses recap- tured.
When William Beeler was ten years of age he went with his father's family to Butler County, Ohio, and there they lived while the war of 1812 was fought. Samuel Beeler was in this war, and was a colonel at the battle of Tippecanoe.
William Beeler says that while he lived in Ohio the Indians were to the whites as a hundred to one. They were a kind of people who were much influenced by the pleasures of sense. They were always drunk, whenever they could find liquor. Mr. Beeler has seen a hundred drunken Indians with only two or
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three sober ones to keep them quiet. He remembers one time particularly, when some friends came to see his father from Kentucky, they all made a visit to a camp of about a hundred Indians. The latter had with them a negro whom they had raised, and he was the only sober man among them. They were nearly all dead drunk, and the ground was covered with their stupid, insensible bodies. One Indian was sober enough to fight with his squaw, but the latter whipped the savage fine- ly. The Indian's feelings were much injured at this, so he poured a bucket of water on his head to make him a little sober, and again went to fighting the squaw, and succeeded in whip- ping her.
When William Beeler became of age he went to Kentucky, . and there married Mary Hall. He lived there a few years until the death of his wife, and then moved back to Ohio, where he lived until he came to Illinois. He married, October 14, 1824, Elizabeth Sheeley. He came to Illinois, to what is now Mc- Lean County, in the fall of 1830, and settled in the southern edge of Twin Grove, where he has remained ever since.
Mr. Beeler suffered a great deal during the winter of the deep snow. When the first heavy fall of snow came, he found his pigs all huddled together in a pile to keep warm, but the snow had melted down around them, and Mr. Beeler found them wet and shivering. He made a lot of shavings from a Linn rail, and cut hazel brush, and in this his pigs made a bed and kept warm.
During the Black Hawk war the settlers were all liable to take panics occasionally, and often collected together in houses for fear, but no disturbance was ever made by the Indians in this locality.
Mr. Beeler has had six children, three of whom are living. They are:
William Beeler, who lives about a mile and a half south of his father's, in Dale township.
Mrs. Mary Stiger, wife of William Stiger, lives in Covel.
Mrs. Harriet Rockwell, wife of Lorenzo Rockwell, lives on the south side of Twin Grove, within a few rods of her father's house.
Mrs. Cynthiana Elizabeth Hinshaw, wife of J. U. Hinshaw, is now dead.
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Morgan Washington Beeler grew up to manhood, but is now dead.
Mr. Beeler is rather less than the medium height, and though too old to work, is tough and hardy. He is a pleasant talking old gentleman, and is considered a patriarch at Twin Grove; for, while obtaining items for this work, everybody seemed anxious that a fine sketch should be written of " Uncle Billy Beeler." He has been very successful and leads an easy, comfortable life.
WILLIAM BEELER, JR.
William Beeler, jr. was born February 8, 1822, in Fayette County, Kentucky (probably). When he was only a year or two old his mother (whose maiden name was Mary Hall) died, and his father moved to Ohio, as stated in the foregoing sketch. His father married Elizabeth Sheeley, and in the fall of 1830 the family came to Twin Grove, where they arrived October 14.
During the winter of the deep snow Mr. Beeler, sr., fed three yoke of cattle, which he brought with him from Ohio, on the boughs of trees. The cattle became so accustomed to their fare that they would run after the sound of an ax in the timber while Mr. Beeler was cutting a tree for them, as eagerly as they ever hastened to a feed of corn.
The Indians were not plenty when Mr. Beeler came to the country. He remembers some who came to his father's house, and were great traders. They were ready to swap at any time, and quick to see when they obtained the best end of the bargain. The settlers exercised their ingenuity in making clothing. The best clothing was made of buckskin, and a good pair of pants of this material lasted three years. The buckskin was tanned by soaking it in weak ley or lime-water and scraping it with a knife or sharp-cornered instrument. This took off the hair and the grain. The grain is a kind of coating next to the hair, and must be worked off or the skin can never be made soft. After being scraped, the skin is soaked in the brain of a deer and washed in soapsuds, and may be colored by smoke.
The early settlers were very humorous, and loved practical jokes. One favorite joke was what was called "sniping." It was played by persuading some one that snipes could be driven
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into a sack, and the victim was induced to hold the sack by the end of a log during a dark night, and would be left there to find out the sell at his leisure. It would hardly seem possible that any- one could be hoaxed by such a simple and absurd performance, but some of the smartest and sharpest of men have been "taken in" by that very thing. Mr. Beeler tells of the manner in which a party of young men at a corn husking at Mr. Beeler, sr's, "sniped" a young stranger who had been working for Osborn Barnard. While the boys were husking corn they talked of catching snipe, and had great disputes as to the number that had been caught on various occasions. The stranger was in the mean time growing eager. At supper time they discussed the matter again and proposed to go sniping. They counted those who were willing to go, leaving out the stranger, and said they had not enough men. But one said : "Why, here's the stranger ; he can go." "No," said another, "he doesn't under- stand it." "Well," said the first speaker, "if he can't do any- thing else, he can hold the sack !" "Boys," said old Mr. Beeler, "I wish you would catch a few snipe, for I feel sick, and I would like some first rate." The stranger was not only willing, but eager, and said very modestly, that he would do whatever they thought best, as he did not understand "sniping." After dark they placed the stranger by a log with the caution that the snipes made a low whistle, and when he heard it he must an- swer promptly. They left him standing for an hour or more, when William Beeler and a young man named Dudley Dore went out near the log and gave a low whistle, which the stranger promptly answered. Beeler and Dore laughed so heartily that they could not pucker up their lips for another whistle. They went back to the house and a young man named William Stiger was sent out to bring the stranger in ; but the stranger declared that he heard the snipes whistle, and he wanted to stay and catch them. It required all of Stiger's ingenuity to bring him to the house. When they arrived the party was gone. After waiting some time, the boys came in one after another, telling what a lot of snipes they had, and wanted to know why the stranger had not remained at his post. The poor fellow laid the blame on William Stiger as best he could. He told the Barnards
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a few days afterwards of what a lot of snipe he might have caught if William Stiger had not interfered.
The settlers hunted and trapped a great deal. A trap set for turkeys was the most absurd thing imaginable. It was sim- ply a little pen with a hole at the bottom large enough for a turkey to walk in. Corn was sprinkled in a line leading through the hole, and a turkey picking up the corn walked through the hole. They would starve to death before finding their way out.
One of the most cunning of animals is the wild cat. The settlers around Twin Grove once hunted a wild cat, which had stolen a piece of tallow. They had four inches of snow in which to track it, and they followed it all day long. The cunning animal would go back on its track and cross it in every way in order to lead the hunters astray, and sometimes it would walk a log and spring off a long distance. Towards nightfall the hunters came upon two tracks. Old William Beeler and his dog followed one and the remainder followed the other. Beeler and his dog soon treed the cat, and the remainder of the party came to the scene of action and commenced a general firing. The cat jumped around in a tree top, snapping and breaking off limbs. At last it was wounded and jumped down and the dogs killed it, after a long and savage fight. The cat threw itself on its back and fought fearfully, and Mr. Beeler thinks the dogs would never have killed it had it not been wounded.
William Beeler, jr., married, July 5, 1844, Catherine Layton. He says he cradled oats in the forenoon and was married in the afternoon. Some years before this, when young Beeler and a friend wished to go out on a squirrel hunt, old Mr. Layton wished William to help bind oats, and, when William refused, the old gentleman told William that the latter could never have one of Mr. Layton's daughters unless he gave up the squir- rel hunt. But two or three years afterwards William Beeler succeeded in capturing one of the daughters. His wife died April 8, 1862.
On the 11th of January, 1868, he married Miss Mary A. H. O'Neal, a daughter of Cary O'Neal, of Benjaminville, a member of the Society of Friends. Mr. Beeler has had fourteen chil- dren, five of whom are married. The names of those who are married are :
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Mrs. Harriet Ann Westmoreland, wife of James Westmore- land, lives a quarter of a mile from her father's house.
Mrs. Sarah Jane Fry, wife of Jepsy Fry, lives three miles west of her father's, at Round's Grove.
Mrs. Mary Ellen Banner, wife of Joshua Banner, lives about one mile north of Dry Grove.
John David Beeler lives in Arrowsmith township.
Mrs. Alferetta Fry, wife of Evander Fry, lives about a quar- ter of a mile west of her father's.
Mr. Beeler is five feet and eleven and one-half inches in height, and seems strongly made. He is full of fun and humor. While telling a joke he appears very dry until the funny part comes in, and then his eyes have an amusing and wicked ex- pression. He enjoys a practical joke perhaps as well as any one in McLean County. He is a kind father to his family, and has succeeded well in life.
JESSE HILL.
Jesse Hill was born March 24, 1809, on Cherry Run, about five miles from Lexington, Kentucky. His father's name was James Hill, and his mother's maiden name was Polly Cope. His father was of Irish descent and his mother of English. James Hill, the father of Jesse, lived during his young days in Penn- sylvania, where he was born. At the age of eighteen he ran away from home and went to Kentucky, where Jesse was born. James Hill often had trouble with the Indians. At one time they captured a young woman and were taking her away, when James Hill, Daniel Boone and others went after the savages and re-captured the girl before the redskins could cross the Ohio River near the mouth of the Kentucky River. James Hill was a noted man for fighting Indians and building mills. He was a great mechanical genius. He made a great many long-waisted clock-cases, and carried on a cabinet shop. He built a mill on Cherry Run and another on Eagle Creek; he built a saw-mill, a grist-mill, a still-house, and many other things. His ingenuity never failed him. At one time he built what he called a chain- mill. He found a little spring which poured its water over a rock and down a fall of sixty feet, and he utilized this by mak- ing a chain one hundred and twenty feet in length and attaching
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buckets to it, one to every other link. This chain ran over a cylinder, and as the little stream from the spring flowed out it filled the buckets with water and pulled down one side of the chain which turned the cylinder, and the power was utilized in driving the mill. It was a great curiosity, and people came from all over the country to see it. By means of the little spring he obtained power enough to cut three thousand feet of hard oak lumber in a day.
Jesse Hill was a young child at the close of the war of 1812, but he remembers the burning of tar barrels in the streets to celebrate the victory at New Orleans. When he was nine years of age the Hill family came to Madison, Indiana, and then moved to the celebrated little spring, where his father put up the chain- mill. When Jesse Hill was twenty-one years of age he moved to Twin Grove, Illinois, where he arrived October 9, 1830. He lived with Colonel Beeler for a year and a half after his arrival. Colonel Beeler had known the father of Jesse in Kentucky, and the two gentlemen had once traded horses. Mr. Hill, sr., gave the Colonel three hundred dollars " boot " in exchanging horses, and the horse which Hill received died a day or two afterwards. When Jesse Hill came to Illinois he heard the Colonel bragging about this horse trade, and the circumstance made them ac- quainted, and Hill afterwards made matters still more agreeable by marrying the old gentleman's daughter.
Mr. Hill's experience with the deep snow was in gathering corn, when he was obliged to reach down into the snow for the ears. He was obliged to go every other day for corn. During that winter old Billy McCord had some pigs in the brush and they came out every day for their feed, making a deep path which had walls of snow on each side. The path was only wide enough for one pig to travel at a time, and they would be frequently frozen while standing in it. During this year, in the month of March, Peter McCullough and Abram Hays went to Blooming- ton, and on their return became lost. They were blinded, as the melting snow made a thick fog, and they could see only a short distance in any direction. Mccullough and Hays were utterly bewildered and shouted for help. Their cries were heard and the neighbors started out to rescue them, but horns had to be blown to prevent the rescuers themselves from becoming lost.
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During the spring after the deep snow the ground was so flooded with water that immense logs were floated off from the edge of Twin Grove to the prairie. These were the trunks of trees which had been blown down by a. hurricane a few years before.
When the Black Hawk war broke out, Jesse Hill enlisted for the purpose of going; but the horse which he intended to ride persisted in lying down in every creek he came to, and the rider was wet so often that he took the fever and ague and gave up his hopes of martial glory and missed the chance of immor- tality at Stillman's Run.
Mr. Hill speaks particularly of the sudden change in the weather, which took place in December, 1836, and says that many chickens were frozen fast in the ice.
Mr. Hill has never been much of a hunter, but has occasion- ally chased wolves. He was once with a party of hunters after a wild-cat, when they unexpectedly started a wolf and all took after it. Mr. Hill was mounted on a race-horse and frequently ran around the wolf, but had-nothing to strike it or hold it until the dogs could come up. At last it ran into a slough with Mr. Hill close behind. When the horse struck the slough it went down, and Mr. Hill was thrown over its head on the wolf. He grabbed the brute with both hands and pressed down its hind quarters, but the mittens on his hands prevented him from get- ting a good hold, and the wolf tore away. Mat Harbert hal- looed, " hold him, Jess," but it was impossible to do it.
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