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 42
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During the second spring of their arrival Mr. Samuel Danley and young Levi and his brother-in-law went up to what is now Sangamon County, and made a small improvement. They made a pole camp, covered with elm bark like an Indian wigwam. His brother-in-law, Isaac Myers, moved up there in the fall, and the Danley family followed in the spring.
In 1827, a few years before the Black Hawk war, a great ex- citement was raised at Galena, and the settlers there feared an Indian war, and volunteers were called for. Mr. Danley volun- teered to go, and enlisted in a body of men commanded by
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Colonel Neal of Springfield. They went to White Oak Springs, some six or eight miles this side of Galena. There Mr. Danley was taken sick and did not enjoy the excursion at all. The scare of the settlers soon ceased, and the company returned. Mr. Danley thinks Galena was then almost as hard a place as Sodom and Gomorrah, for the principal occupation of the people was gambling and drinking.
Mr. Danley saw many Indians, and often traded and ran foot-races with them, and wrestled and engaged in other athletic sports, for which the Indians and early settlers were remark- able.
Mr. Danley lived in Sangamon County until February, 1829, when he came to Stout's Grove, in the east end, in what is now McLean, but then was Tazewell County, Illinois. The land in Illinois came into market during October, 1829, and then he bought the farm, where he settled and made his permanent home, and which he owns at the present time.
Mr. Danley married Margaret McClure of Stout's Grove, in November, 1827. He was then living in Sangamon County, and did not come to Stout's Grove until February, 1829, as stated.
The settlers usually complain of the hardships of the winter of the deep snow ; but Mr. Danley says he never spent such a happy winter before or since. He had luckily gathered his corn, and his house was set in order. He had no work to do, had plenty of corn, honey, milk and venison, and lived a jolly life. On the day before the deep snow fell, he and his two brothers- in-law killed seven deer, but the snow covered them, and the hunters only succeeded in bringing in two of them. The severe winter killed off the deer and stopped Mr. Danley's fun in hunt- ing, but a few years afterwards they again became numerous.
In 1832, when the Black Hawk war broke out, Mr. Danley enlisted in the company commanded by Robert MeClure as captain, and John H. S. Rhodes as first lieutenant. They went first to Pekin, from there to Peoria, and up to Dixon's Ferry, on the usual course. They arrived at Dixon's Ferry in the even- ing, and about midnight the soldiers began to come in from Stillman's Run. Mr. Danley was acquainted with many of them, and saw them just before they went from MeLean County. At that time they were in high feather, and were talking of what
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they were going to do. Some were going to have a feather from old Black Hawk, and some were going to do something else ; but at midnight, when they came back from Stillman's Run, Mr. Danley says he heard no more talk of capturing Black Hawk's feathers. But though the men were frightened, they nearly all claimed to have killed two or three Indians, and if their accounts had been correct, none of Black Hawk's men would have been living. The next morning the company to which Mr. Danley belonged was attached to the spy battalion, commanded (he thinks) by Major (afterwards General) Henry. The whole army moved forward up to the scene of the previous day's scrimmage. The spy battalion was drilled to dismount on meeting the enemy, and a few were to hold the horses, while the remainder went ahead into the fight. They found and buried the dead, both Indians and whites. The latter were fearfully mutilated and cut to pieces. Two of the Indians, who were killed, were found tied to a tree, and an Indian interpreter said that this was to indicate that the Indians would be as firm as that tree. They went back to Dixon's Ferry on the following day, and from there two or three companies went to Ottawa, as the people at the latter place wished for a guard. A man, named Walker, had been sent from Ottawa to Dixon's Ferry for assist- ance. Mr. Danley's company and one or two others, he thinks, went to Ottawa. Before they reached that place, they learned of the massacre of the families of Davis, Hall and Pettigrew on Indian Creek, and the next day, after getting some rations, went to the scene of the murder. There, Mr. Danley says, they found the families buried in a long hole, but the dirt over them was very shallow. They took up the bodies and re- buried them, separating the families as well as they could by the assistance of two young men, who succeeded in getting away, but who be- longed to one of the murdered families. From there the soldiers returned to Ottawa, where they were not long afterwards dis- charged and sent home.
When the sudden change in the weather occurred in Decem- ber, 1836, Mr. Danley was going into Pekin with a drove of hogs, and succeeded in taking them there ; but his yoke of oxen could not be taken back home for six weeks, on account of the slippery condition of the roads, for the whole country was a
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glace of ice. Mr. Danley has led the life of a hard working farmer, and has had no particular adventures since the Black Hawk war.
He has six children living. George W. Danley lives in Jas- per County, Missouri.
Benjamin Franklin Danley lives near the northwest corner of Dry Grove.
Samuel Danley lives in Jasper County, Missouri.
James H. Danley lives at Lincoln, Logan County, Illinois.
John T. Danley lives in the southeastern edge of Stout's Grove.
Hardin Danley lives on the old homestead at Stout's Grove.
Mr. Danley is a little more than five feet in height, is very quick and strong. He is very anxious to see things done right, and seems particularly anxious that the items, which he has fur- nished, shall be correctly stated, and that no mistake shall be made about them. He is very careful in all his affairs, and has been very successful in life. His life has been very regular. He has not, since coming to Illinois, taken a drink of liquor, has never drank a glass of beer or smoked a segar or taken a chew of tobacco. His rising hour, for nearly forty years, while work- ing a farm, was four o'clock; before that time he had no clock, and often arose and hunted his oxen, went two miles to the timber and returned with a load of rails by sunrise.
THE CONGER FAMILY.
The following incidents relating to the Conger family are written by Miss Emma Conger, the daughter of Robert Conger, deceased, one of the earliest settlers at Stout's Grove.
Isaac Conger, an only son, was born in England, emigrated to America when young, and settled near Mammoth Cave, Ken- tucky. He married Susan Barnett, and they had four sons, Jonathan, Robert, Benjamin and Nicholas. In 1829 the family emigrated to Illinois and settled at Stout's Grove, in what is now McLean County, Illinois. Isaac Conger and his wife died soon after coming here, at the age of eighty-three. Jonathan, Robert and Nicholas Conger made farms adjoining each other. Jonathan married Lydia Howell, and they lived at Stout's Grove until the year 1848. Then they went to Iowa, again to endure
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the hardships of a frontier life. Jonathan Conger died in 1856. His neighbors in McLean County tell a story of him, which shows the condition of things in the early days. He went on horseback to Bowling Green after a saek of salt. The wolves chased him, and he made as good time as some of the brave soldiers in the Black Hawk war. When he had nearly reached home, he said to one of his neighbors, "I tell you, they were coming, and oh! they looked so savage-I barely escaped with my life !" His fright was the subject of much merriment, for the old settlers did not fear the wolves, and were anxious only to catch them.
Benjamin Conger was a great hunter. One day while out in the grove he saw several deer coming towards him. As he had no gun with him he concealed himself behind a tree. When they passed him he threw his knife with all force and killed one of then instantly.
Nicholas Conger improved his farm and built what was considered a nice house in those days. He was to have been married shortly afterwards, but was taken sick and died. This was in the year 1840. He was an industrious and promising young man and a good citizen.
Robert Conger, my father, married Nancy Howell, my mother, in the year 1836. He lived for thirty years on the farm, which he first improved in Stout's Grove. He died in the year 1860, at the age of fifty-six, leaving a wife and nine children, three sons and six daughters.
My father was an old school-mate of Abraham Lincoln in Kentucky, and my mother also attended school with Lincoln near Springfield, Illinois. When I was quite a little girl I was with father in Bloomington when he met Mr. Lincoln. The latter said : " How d' you do, Bob ?" Father then told me that Lincoln was a lawyer in Springfield, and that he was a good man.
Father once told me of Ephraim Stout, the man from whom Stout's Grove took its name. Shortly after my father's arrival in the country he happened to be at Mr. Stout's cabin in the evening at supper time. Their table had no cloth on it, nothing but pewter plates and some mush and milk, which the family
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were eating. The old gentleman was on the hearth eating with a large iron spoon out of a kettle.
After the death of my father our family continued to live at the home place. Five years after his death my mother and one of my sisters died. The family remained together two years longer. Then our house caught fire and burned to the ground, and the family separated. The associations of our early home in McLean County, have made it very dear to us all. It was there we listened to our parents as they told us the hardships of their early lives. I have often heard my mother speak of her fear of the Indians ; but she would add, that notwithstanding all her trials, those early days were full of happiness. It was great sport for her to go to the sugar camp and help make maple sugar, and eat it, too, I suppose. She would tell how she spun her dozen cuts of yarn in one day and did her housework besides. Some young ladies would blush to tell this of their mothers, but I refer to it with pride, for labor was no disgrace in those days and ought not to be now.
Such is the entertaining and very pretty account of the Con- ger family, given by Miss Conger; and we are sure our readers would be glad to have many such. This family was among the earliest and most respected at Stout's Grove, and among the best known in this section of the country.
ISRAEL W. HALL.
Israel W. Hall was born February 5, 1799, in Salem, Rock- ingham County, New Hampshire. His father's name was Joseph Hall, and his mother's' maiden name was HIester Woodbury. They were both of English descent. Israel W. Hall became a shoemaker by trade. In 1834 he came to the west and settled where now the town of Danvers stands, in McLean County, Illinois. He started for the West from Nashna, New Hampshire, traveled by canal and steamboat to Detroit, Michigan, there bought a team, and came to McLean County, Illinois. In about the year 1835, Mr. HIall and Matthew Robb laid off the town of Concord, (now Danvers.) The village settled up slowly. Mr. Hall was a justice of the peace, and the first postmaster of the place. The office was called Stout's Grove Postoffice, but was changed to Danvers, which became the name of the village. The
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postoffice was not established until 1848 or '49, because of a postoffice at the neighboring town of Wilkesborough. Mr. Hall was a member of the Methodist Church, and for fifteen years his house was a preaching place for that denomination. Rev. Zadoc Hall was one of the early preachers, who held meet- ings there.
On the 27th of April, 1834, Israel W. Hall married Polly Stickney in Salem, N. H. He had three children, all of whom are living. They are :
Alice W., wife of Jacob McClure, lives at St. Louis, Mo.
Otis T. Hall lives on the homestead place in Danvers.
Cynthia H., wife of John Morrison, lives on a part of the homestead farm.
Mr. Hall was about five feet and eight inches in height. He was a good man, honest and fair-minded, and had the respect of his neighbors. He died January 3, 1865.
JEREMIAHI S. HALL.
Jeremiah S. Hall, brother of Israel W. Hall, was born April 21, 1809, in Salem, Rockingham County, New Hampshire. He lived in his native village until the age of seventeen, when he went to Boston, to learn the bricklayer's trade. He was in that city when the great celebration of 1826 occurred, making the fifteenth anniversary of American independence. The exercises were held on Boston common, and an immense crowd was in at- tendance. On that day John Adams said in the morning: "I have lived to see another fourth of July." But before the day was ended the bells of Boston were tolling for his death. On that day also, another Ex-President, Thomas Jefferson, died ; but, as the telegraph was then unknown, the news did not reach Boston until the middle of the week.
Mr. Hall remained in Boston for three summers, working at the brick-layer's trade, and also in a shoe-factory. He worked in various towns in New England. On the 16th of October, 1834, he started for Illinois. He came from Nashua, N. H., to Troy, N. Y., by stage, and thence to Buffalo by canal. From the latter place they started on board of a steamboat for Detroit, Michigan. They were delayed by a severe storm, and Mrs. Hall had an experience with sea sickness which she yet remembers.
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At Detroit they took stage for Chicago, traveling through mud and water, and after a fearful ride arrived at their destination November 7. After a short stay at Chicago he came to McLean County, arriving in December. He traveled here in his own wagon. His family boarded for a while with Mr. Francis Bar- nard at Dry Grove. Mr. Hall soon went to farming just west of where he now lives, in the edge of the village of Danvers. His was one of the first prairie farms, and he was much ridiculed for leaving the timber ; but he held to the land, and it is now worth sixty-five dollers per acre.
In September, 1844, Mr. Hall met with a strange accident, which has puzzled the physicians. While riding through tim- ber and under brush he had a thorn pressed into the joint of the middle finger of his right hand. The thorn was removed but a part of the point remained. The finger became so much inflamed that Mr. Hall was thrown into spasms of pain, and he narrowly escaped lock-jaw. The finger was amputated, but he has never entirely recovered. His nervous system received so severe a shock that at the present time he is liable to become stiff and rigid when any undue excitement occurs, or when he falls into any unusual attitude. His case is a puzzle to the doc- tors, who disagree concerning it.
On the 24th of April, 1832, Mr. Hall married Miss Jane Combs in Nashua, New Hampshire. They have had five chil- dren, of whom three are living. They are :
Hannah, Wilburn and George. The two latter are married and George lives in Nebraska. The eldest son, Edward W. Hall was killed in the army at Jackson, Mississippi. He was first lieutenant of Company B, 3d Iowa, but at the time of his death was in command of Company I. He was wounded and captured, and died a few hours after. The fight was known as Lauman's unsuccessful charge.
Jeremiah Hall is about five feet and ten inches in height, is stoutly built and has a sanguine complexion. He is healthy in his appearance, but his nerves are shattered by the severe pain of which an account is given above. He appears to be a man of correct judgment, and is faithful to his trust. His head is partially bald, and he seems to have a good development of brain. His eyes have a clear, pretty expression when he is
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amused, and he is usually pleased at any kind of burlesque. He wishes it understood that he has never been a fisherman, a hunter, or an office-seeker, but has succeeded well. He is a substantial American citizen.
JOHN HAY.
John Hay was born March 18, 1797, in Washington County, Virginia, near Abington. His father's name was Peter Hay and his mother's name was Elizabeth Finley. Peter Hay was born and raised in Boston and was of Scotch-Irish descent. Elizabeth Finley was of the same descent, but was born and raised in Virginia. Peter Hay was not old enough to take part in the Revolutionary war, but his eldest brother was a soldier in the Continental army. His father's orchard, near Charlestown, was destroyed by the British.
John Hay lived only four years in Virginia, where he was born. In about the year 1801 the family moved to Logan County Kentucky. They lived there and in Todd County until about the year 1819, when they moved to Christian County. Nothing of importance happened there except that at one time the people were universally alarmed lest the negroes should rise in insurrection. In the spring of 1834 he came to MeLean County and bought land, but did not move out his family until the spring of 1885. He settled on the farm where John Short- hoes now lives, near Wilkesborough, in the present township of Dry Grove.
Mr. Hay has experienced the hardships of the old settlers, and has enjoyed their sports. He remembers particularly of a grand hunt in which the settlers from all over the country par- ticipated. Some of the hunters ran down a deer about four miles north of Bloomington, tied it to the tail of a roan horse belonging to Dr. John F. Henry and brought it home in tri- umph.
On the 25th of October, 1821, Mr. Hay married Celia Kille- brew. By this marriage nine children were born and three are living. They are :
Samuel F. Hay, who lives just west of his father's in Dan- vers township.
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Peter G. Hay, who lives in Tazewell County, just across the line from McLean.
Susan G., wife of George Moe, lives with her father. She is a remarkably pleasant and entertaining lady, and everyone in her presence feels the effect of her good nature and her hap- py spirits.
Mrs. Hay died August 9, 1840. On the 19th of October, 1841, Mr. Hay married Sarah A. Daniel. By this marriage he had two children, of whom one is living. She is Aphia K. Hay, and lives at home with her father.
On the 21st of February, 1860, Mr. Hay married Mrs. Cyn- thia Rowell, of Danvers township, who died November 6, 1866. No children by this marriage.
Mr. Hay is about five feet and ten inches in height. He has a full face with a complexion somewhat sanguine. His hair is white and his eyes are gray. He is a man of the best of feel- ing and the kindest of manner. He is careful and straight- forward in all things, and is anxious to do only what is fair with his neighbors. He seems to have been successful in his financial matters.
GEORGE F. HAY.
George F. Hay, brother of John Hay, was born September 18, 1814, in Todd County, Kentucky. In about the year 1819, the family moved to Christian County, just west, and there lived until George Hay came farther west. Mr. Hay received his common education in Kentucky. For a while he attended a grammar school, which was conducted on the Lancasterian plan. By this plan the teacher parsed the words and the scholars re- peated his parsing. After teaching grammar for sixty days he warranted all his scholars perfect. He had a great examination at the close of the school, and the whole neighborhood was ex- cited and glad to learn that the children understood grammar. Mr. Hay took quite an interest in mathematics, studied survey- ing and obtained a very good common education. He tells of a queer adventure in which he was engaged while attending a school at Bluewater, Kentucky. The streams of water in that region of country often ran under ground, and were carried along on beds of rock below the surface. Sometimes they
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formed by this means extended caverns through the rocks. One of these streams ran under the ground near Bluewater Spring, where Mr. Hay attended school. But sometimes the under- ground stream became so full of water that it would gush up and flow over the ground for a long distance. At other seasons of the year the underground stream had very little water in it, and the opening then became an extended cave with a rivulet running through it. Mr. Hay and a companion once went a quarter of a mile through the cave formed by this under- ground stream. They took a lantern with them and traveled over rocks and through crevices with the water plashing by their sides. At last they saw daylight streaming down from the opening near the Bluewater Spring. As they came up they found the teacher of the school and many of the scholars wait- ing for them ; for the determination of these adventurous youths to explore the underground water course had become known. The teacher put a stop to any further expeditions.
In 1834 Mr. Hay came to Illinois and arrived at Walnut Grove, in what was then McLean County, on the 20th of Octo- ber. This grove is now included in Woodford County. On the 13th of April following Mr. Hay came to Dry Grove. In Feb- ruary, 1836, he was made Deputy Surveyor under Major Dicka- son. He surveyed a great many little towns, laid out Miller's addition to Bloomington, and also Foster's and White's addi- tions. The difficulties of surveying in the early days were great, for it was hard to move from point to point. The streams were often swollen and the crossings were usually fords. Mr. Hay was once with a party of surveyors on the north of the Mackinaw. A heavy rain suddenly fell, and that treacherous stream became high. The party returned in a canoe by making many trips, and their horses swam. When Mr. Hay was on his way to lay off Miller's addition to Bloomington he found the streams high, the bridges overflowed and some of the planks floated off. He walked over the bridges, pressing down the floating planks, stepping over the open spaces and holding the halter of his horse as the animal swam across below. It was Mr. Hay's duty to attend to all surveying between ranges one and two east of the third principal meridian.
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Mr. Hay tells a curious circumstance concerning the sudden change of December, 1836, which has never before been related. He prepared a place for his pigs to sleep, about forty or fifty rods from where they were fed. When the sudden change came they started for their bed, but some of them froze to death in the path on the way. Mr. Hay rode three miles, after the sud- den change took place, but he had the wind to his back and did not suffer so much in consequence. A traveler who was caught out in that sudden change walked a mile, and arrived at Peter Mc- Cullough's house in Dry Grove. The ice collected on him, as the freezing water and slush splashed up, and his parts were so stiffened that he moved with difficulty.
When the country in the West became so settled that plenty of wheat and corn was raised, the sandhill cranes became nu- merous. Mr. Hay was once crossing the prairie towards White Oak Grove, when he saw a young crane, and attempted to catch it. But the old birds defended it so vigorously that he gave it up as a bad job. Their appearance is fierce, and their sharp bills and long necks make them dangerous when wounded or while defending their young.
Mr. Hay has been on many hunting expeditions, as all settlers have, and has seen the dangers of the chase. William McCul- lough was once chasing a wolf, when his horse stepped into a gopher's hole, and the fall broke the animal's neck.
On the 17th of March, 1836, Mr. Hay married Elizabeth Ann Mccullough, daughter of Peter Mccullough, the first permanent settler in Dry Grove. She is a lady of fine feeling. They have had one child, Elizabeth Lavina, wife of John W. Owen. She lives a quarter of a mile east of her father's, on the old Surface farm adjoining Wilkesborough.
Mr. Hay is a man of the kindest disposition and the strictest integrity. He is about five feet and a half in height, has a heavy head of hair, is sparse in build, but healthy and active. He seems to have had fair success in the world. He takes pleasure in exercising that hospitality for which the old settlers are distinguished.
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JONATHAN BOND WARLOW.
Jonathan B. Warlow was born June 27, 1814, in Northamp- ton, Massachusetts. His father's name was Benjamin Warlow, and his mother's name, before her marriage, was Elizabeth Bond. They were partly of English descent. Benjamin Warlow was a bootmaker by trade. He served his apprenticeship, which was seven years and six months, in the city of New York, but as soon as it was ended he went off as a sailor on the ocean. He married Elizabeth Bond in Boston. During the war of 1812 he was drafted and sent to Montreal, but was never in any engage- ment. In March, 1817, he went to Oneida County, New York, where he engaged in the work of making fine boots. He was not "well-to-do" in the world, and wished to make some change to better his condition. Before he went to New York city, at one time, he had his fortune told, and it was predicted that he would emigrate to the West and do well. He went home and considered the matter seriously. His brother wished him to go to New York city. Benjamin Warlow packed up his goods to go to New York city or the West-he knew not which. He waited for two weeks for some word from his brother; at last he placed a stick upright on the ground, and resolved to go whichever way it fell. This was on the bank of the Erie canal. It struck the ground on the western side. Soon afterwards a canal boat came along and he loaded on his goods and started for the great West. He had sixty dollars when he started. When he arrived at Painesville, Ohio, he had only thirty-seven and a half cents. He commenced chopping wood, and hired out his boys for thirty-seven and a half cents per day. There they were joined by Joshua Bond, a brother of Mrs. Warlow. After remaining for three months they all went to Pickaway County, where Mr. Bond bought a farm and Mr. Warlow worked it. Joshua Bond was a bachelor. He taught music and danc- ing, was as polite as a Frenchman, made a great deal of money and spent it freely. He usually went south during the winter and came up to Ohio and stayed with the Warlows during the summer. In 1834 the Warlow family came to Illinois with two wagons. One was drawn by a span of horses, and the other was drawn by a yoke of muley cattle and a span of horses on the
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