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 45
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Mr. Craig married, July 30, 1835, Lora Weaver. He has had ten children, eight of whom are now living, four sons and four daughters. They are :
Lucinda Maria, who died in infancy.
Silva Dorinda, born July 29, 1837, widow of Henry Mannan, a soldier in the .94th Illinois, who died in the army.
William Davis Craig, born February 15, 1839, died in in- fancy.
Mary Jane, born April 6, 1840, was married first to Captain C. Williams, of the 39th Illinois, who was killed at the battle of Deep Run. She is now the wife of D. C. Kazar, of Downs town- ship.
Martha Rebecca, born December 21, 1841, wife of John Gard- ner, lives in Downs township.
Nancie Caroline, born May 28, 1844, wife of John Cowden, lives near Gillem Station.
John James Craig, born October 21, 1846, lives in Downs township.
Alexander Berry Craig, born July 18, 1849, lives in Old Town township.
Joseph Johnson, born December 13, 1851, and Jesse Wash- ington Craig, born October 2, 1854, live at home.
Mr. A. P. Craig died February 7, 1874.
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HENRY WELCH.
Henry Welch was born November 14, 1816, in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. His father and mother were Americans; his grandfather came from Wales, and his maternal grandmother came from Germany. His parents moved to Piekaway County, Ohio, when Henry was six months old. When he was about seven years old, they moved to Vigo County, Indiana, where they remained until he was eighteen years old. His early years were not remarkable for any particular incident or anything worthy of note. He came to MeLean County, Illinois, March 30, 1835, and entered his land near Diamond Grove, in the present township of Downs. Here he paid close attention to his business of farming, and had very little disposition to hunt, though game was plenty. He once went on a general hunt, when the pole was placed at Long Point, but the party was not successful in killing much game. He has seen many prairie fires, when the grass became dry in the fall, but never lost much by them, as he was always careful to guard against them. He always ploughed around his stacks and fences, and by this precaution saved his property.
The sudden change in the weather which occurred in Decem- ber, 1836, is remembered by all settlers of that period, and Mr. Welch, of course, had an experience. The day had been mild and the ground was covered with a slush of snow and water, when suddenly a roar was heard in the west and a wind-storm eame on so quickly that everything was frozen up almost instantly. Mr. Welch says that when the wind-storm came, his pigs hud- dled together in the pen to keep warm, but some half dozen of them carelessly allowed their tails to droop into the slush and were frozen fast. The next morning he heard discordant sounds coming from the sty, and on going there found it "exciting and distressing" to see the pigs wriggling to loosen their tails, and squealing most fearfully. He loosened them by cutting their tails with his knife, and they afterwards looked so pretty that he has ever since kept the tails of his pigs clipped short.
Mr. Welch is a great stockraiser, and thinks he has fed and raised more stock than any other man in Downs township. He seems to be a natural stockraiser, has a disposition for managing horses, cattle, sheep and pigs, and during all the years he has been in the business, he has received no injury from any domestic ani-
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mal. He thinks that of all stock raised sheep pay the best for the trouble expended upon them. He has sold wool at prices ranging from thirty-five to seventy cents, and thinks it would pay to raise sheep with wool at thirty cents per pound. Like nearly all persons who raise sheep, he would like to have a pretty good tariff upon imported wool. He says the dealers in wool are "up to their capers," as well as dealers in wheat or any other produce. He says that in February and March they throw as much wool on the market as possible, for the purpose of putting down the price when the new elip comes in. In 1859 and '60, Mr. Welch began to go pretty deeply into the business of raising sheep, but abandoned it because of the danger of having them killed by dogs. He had one hundred and eleven sheep killed by dogs in one night, and one hundred and sixty during the week. This made the raising of sheep uncertain and a source of constant anxiety, and he put his time and trouble into other kinds of stock, which, perhaps, might not pay so well, but be more safe and certain.
Mr. Welch's experience in raising pork has been varied. The price has ranged from one dollar per hundred to ten dollars and fifty cents ; but when it reached the latter figure the price of gold was $2.50.
He made it pay very well to raise horses, but more capital was required for this business.
Mr. Welch has been very successful as a farmer and stock- raiser. When he came to the West he was a poor boy, but he exercised discretion in his business, looked ahead and guarded against danger, took no unnecessary risks, and now finds himself in very independent circumstances. He was at first a farmer and teamster. In 1836 he hauled a load of goods from Pekin to Bloomington, and from there to Dixon. He had two wagons, each hauled by four yoke of cattle. One wagon carried a ton and the other a ton and a half. He went through very success- fully, but when he came to the Inlet Swamp he found it impos- sible to pull through even by putting all the oxen on a single wagon : so he put his coffee sacks and other articles on the backs of the oxen and made them go through in that way. The goods belonged to William Covel, and were the first ever brought to Dixon. He went to Rockford in 1837, and on his way from
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Dixon to that place passed over the famous battle-ground of Stillman's Run. The graves of the dead were then plain to be seen.
Mr. Welch has done as many farmers in the early days were obliged to do, driven his hogs to Chicago on foot, camping out and herding them at night. He says this was sometimes lively work, and was like standing picket. He has hauled wheat to Chicago and received forty-eight cents per bushel.
For some time after his arrival in the West, Mr. Welch fol- lowed the prairie plow, which was pulled by five yoke of oxen, and cut a sod of twenty or twenty-two inches. He did this in Illinois and Wisconsin; at one time he broke three hundred acres of land near Beloit, Wisconsin, for a company settled there.
Henry Welch is five feet and ten inches in height, measured that since he was nineteen years of age. He weighs over two hundred pounds and is muscular and healthy. So far as his countenance is concerned, some people say he looks like Horace Greeley. He does not like to be told this, but would greatly prefer to resemble Abraham Lincoln, whom he so much admires.
Mr. Welch is highly esteemed by his neighbors by whom he is known as a man strictly honest. correct in his judgment and kind in his manner. He has that hospitality which the old settlers were accustomed to show, and his friends are always welcome under his roof.
Henry Welch married, November 24, 1842, Miss Minerva Colwell, daughter of James Colwell of Gibbon County, Indiana. Neither of her parents are now living. Mr. and Mrs. Welch have had eight children. They are :
Sarah Jane, born April 12, 1845, died September 10, 1847.
William Lee Welch, born February 11, 1847, died January 9,1871.
James Adams, born January 6, 1849, lives in Randolph town- ship.
Susan Ann, born September 24, 1850, wife of George Bishop, lives in Downs township.
Eliza Matilda, born October 8, 1852: Alfred J. Welch, born July 5, 1855; George Henry Welch, born June 13, 1858; Mi- nerva Elizabeth, born June 6, 1866, live at home.
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HON. JOHN CUSEY.
John Cusey was born April 9, 1822, in what is now Ashland County, Ohio. His father's name was John Cusey, and his mother's maiden name was Sarah Ford. John Cusey, the grand- father of the John Cusey of whom we are writing, was the young- er son of an aristocratie family in England. Being the younger son he was not allowed to inherit any portion of his father's es- tate, and this completely disgusted him with English laws and customs. He was put into the English army against his will, and when the American colonies rebelled against the mother country he was among the number sent to whip them into sub- mission. But his sharp experience with English customs and his enlistment in the army contrary to his will had made him a strong Republican. As soon as he found an opportunity, he, with sixty-two others, deserted from the British army and joined the American forces. He fought gallantly for the American cause for six years and seven months, was in many battles, and in one of them was wounded in the right lung. He lived many years afterwards, but never entirely recovered from his wound. He died from its effect in 1796. . He left one son son, Job Cusey. The latter was born in 1794, near Ellicott's Mills in Maryland. As his father died two years after his birth, Job Cusey was placed in charge of Ezekiel Weeks, a Revolutionary soldier, and a former messmate of John Cusey. During the war of 1812 the Weeks' boys enlisted in the army, and Job Cusey went with them, but not as a soldier, for he was small for his age. But he was a lively boy and acted as teamster or hostler or did anything and every- thing to make himself useful. At the close of the war he emi- grated to the Western Reserve in Ohio, and there raised a family. In 1836 he prepared to come to Illinois, and told his boys that they could have a few weeks' time to visit their relations. But Nathan Brooks, a soldier of the Revolution and of 1812, told the boys that it would be more profitable for them to spend their time in clearing three acres of timber land for him, and if they would do so, he would give them one of Smith's best rifles, with which to shoot game in Illinois. The boys cleared the land and earned the rifle. The family came to MeLean County, Illinois, in the fall of 1836, and John and Thomas Cusey used the gun to kill ie chickens. At one time, while after prairie chickens, they
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found a herd of deer, and Thomas Cusey shot a large buck through the nose. It was stunned at first and fell, and Thomas grabbed it by the jaw and ear. But it soon arose and threshed Thomas around, though he hung to it closely. John Cusey came to the help of his brother and grasped the deer by the legs, but was kicked off' instantly. The deer had shed its horns and could not fight advantageously, but it was very plucky and would not let the boys get away. It knocked down first one and then another, and as each fell the other came to the resene. Thomas attempted to load the gun, but before he could do so the deer came on him, and with its fore-feet jumped on the gun and broke off the stock. The boys fought desperately, and at last killed the deer with a knife; but they were cut in many places by the deer's sharp hoofs : their clothes were torn off, and they were covered with blood from head to foot. This was the first deer they killed.
Reference has been made in the sketch of John Price to a wolf, which was a terror to the settlers from Mackinaw to Salt Creek. Mr. Cusey once heard this wolf howling and knew that it was in pursuit of game, and supposed that it would soon get a good meal of venison and be unable to run. He mounted his horse and went after it, and sure enough it was eating a deer. He came up with it after a short chase of a mile, but it snapped its large jaws together as quick as a steel-trap, and its appearance was so ferocious that Mr. Cusey could not urge his horse near to it and returned home disappointed. John Price shot the wolf some time afterwards.
Mr. Cusey was for twenty-five years a clerk for Jesse Funk, while the latter bought cattle and traded in stock. They carried around large steel-yards to weigh the hogs, which were suspended in the air. After they were weighed, one-fifth was deducted in order to arrive at their weight after being dressed. Mr. Cusey multiplied the gross weight by eight and struck off one figure. and the quotient was the neat weight. This process was discov- ered by Jesse Funk, who could not write a cypher. Of course it is easy for any one at all familiar with the arithmetie to under- stand the process, but is quite remarkable for one who never wrote a figure. Mr. Funk remembered everything without the aid of memoranda. At one time he said : "Cusey, I have lost twenty dollars and ean not tell where it has gone." Then he reviewed
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the purchase of one thousand and eighty-four hogs, which he had bought singly and in small lots, and every purchase was correct ; but still the twenty dollars was unaccounted for. At last he remembered that he had lent twenty dollars to a friend. Jesse Funk had a habit of giving people various nick-names. At one time when Funk was going with Cusey down in Piatt County to purchase stock, Mr. Funk said : "Now, Cusey, we are going down among the Baptist brethren in Piatt County, and I must call you deacon, and then I shall have no trouble in dealing with them." Cusey objected to no purpose, and whenever Funk had a misun- derstanding it was settled by Deacon Cusey to the satisfaction of all. Mr. Cusey was an administrator for Jesse Funk's estate, and saw the first tax-receipt the latter ever paid. It was given by Martin Scott, Sheriff and Collector, and was for the sum of thirty-five cents. But the last tax paid by Mr. Funk amounted to two thousand three hundred dollars.
Mr. Cusey was a cabinet maker, which was an easy trade for him to learn, as his father had been a carpenter.
Job Cusey, the father of John Cusey, was an old-time aboli- tionist. He was made so by a scene which he witnessed in Mary- land, before he came to the West. There was a negro preacher, a most execllent man, who held meetings among the negroes of the neighborhood. But after a while his master became involved in debt and was obliged to sell his slaves, and the negro preacher was sold with the rest. He was chained to a slave-gang, which started on its journey to the farther south. As it was moving off, he looked up and saw his master and the crowd, which lined the road, and said :
"'My suffering time will soon be o'er, When I shall sigh and weep no more."
Just then a person passed along the crowd with a hat in which he received contributions. Enough money was raised on the spot to buy the negro preacher from the slave driver. The slave owners of the neighborhood contributed, because the preacher kept their slaves quiet. This incident so impressed Mr. Cusey that he became an Abolitionist forthwith, and remained so during his life. When Mr. Lovejoy came to speak at Bloomington, a great many years ago, many citizens thought that he should not be allowed to use the court house. It was then that Job Cusey
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and George Dietrich stood by him and insisted that the court house should be open to him. They walked with him through the streets, while the excited crowd threw eggs at them, but the two men continued at their post.
John Cusey was elected to the State Senate during the cam- paign of 1872. His attendance at the Legislature was marked by some happy hits. During the session of 1873 one Senator pro- posed a great reform in the choosing of School Superintendents in the various counties of the State, and insisted upon civil ser- vice reform, and that School Superintendents should pass an examination to find whether they were qualified to perform the duties of their office. Mr. Cusey observed that in the election of County Superintendents the people passed on their qualifications, and he asked if the persons chosen by the people were to be ex- amined as to their qualifications for their positions, what would become of the Senator who introduced the bill! The proposition was defeated.
In the Daily Leader of April 1, 1874, we find the following :
"In the Illinois State Senate there are two men whose names are so nearly alike-Casey and Cusey-that the telegraph and newspapers, during the recent session, got them badly confused occasionally. Casey is a Democratic Senator from 'away down in Egypt,' and Cusey is a Republican Senator from MeLean County. Just before the final adjournment on Saturday, Mr. Casey intro- duced the following bill :
' A BILL for an act to change the name of John Cusey to George Washington McLean.
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the name of John Cusey, of McLean County, Illinois, is hereby changed to George Wash- ington McLean, and by said last mentioned name he shall be hereafter known, designated and respected; and that all the rights, privileges and hereditaments, whether corporeal or incorpo- real, that appertained to the said Cusey, be and are hereby rested in the said George Washington MeLean ; and in the said latter cognomen he may sue and be sued, the same as if was single and unmaaried.
'SEC. 2. Whereas, the interests of another respectable gentle- man have been jeopardized by the name of Cusey, therefore an
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emergency exists, and this act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.
A roar of laughter greeted this effort. Its point will be un- derstood when the fact is stated that the types have almost daily intermixed Cusey and Casay to such an extent that was exasper- ating to both.
Mr. Cusey is a very entertaining man in conversation, and nearly everything he says has point to it or humor in it. He says that at one time, while Jesse Funk was taking a drove of swine along the road to market, he pointed to a pig in the rear of the drove, and said : "See there, Deacon Cusey, that pig is going to break." Mr. Cusey watched it closely and noticed that it was restless, and was gradually passing the other pigs in the drove. When it came pretty well towards the head of the drove, sure enough, it broke. "Now," said Mr. Cusey, "when professional politicians see a man, whom they are unable to manage, going ahead, they say, 'Watch him, watch him,' and they try to hold him back, long before the people see what is going on."
Mr. Cusey is about five feet and ten inches in height. His hair is dark and thick, and sprinkled with gray. His face is broad and humorous. His conversation is very entertaining, and every- thing he says displays his shrewdness and his correct ideas. His pleasantry is of the best kind. He is not a man who loves his enemies, though he would not do them injustice if he knew it. He is a pretty quick judge of men, and it requires only a short time for him to understand them pretty well. He has not had the advantages of a good education, but his vigorous intel- lect and his shrewdness bring success without the training of the schools.
On the 23d of November, 1843, Mr. Cusey married Miss Hannah Bishop. They have had nine children, seven of whom are living. One child died in infancy, and one, Sarah Elizabeth, died in her sixteenth year. Those living are Charity E., Thomas H., John A., James C., Joseph M., Mary J., and Hannah E. Cusey. The first two are married.
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SAMUEL TROOP RICHARDSON.
Troop Richardson was born July 14, 1809, in Cayuga County, New York, near Auburn. His father, Samuel L. Richardson, and his mother, whose maiden name was Ann Wright, were both of English descent. The ancestors of his mother came from England with William Penn.
In October, 1818, the Richardson family started to Fort Har- rison, three miles from Terre Haute, Indiana. They had an all winter's journey of it, and came to their destination in March, 1819. The journey was made by water on a flat-boat and was full of adventure. At Rising Sun, about thirty miles above Jef- fersonville, on the Ohio River, they were crushed into the ice which was running. The ice above came down and crushed them into the ice below. Their boat was raked fore and aft, and raised up out of the water, but by good management they released themselves from their dangerous situation. They crossed the Ohio Falls while the water was low, and had great difficulty in avoiding rocks and going through. In Indiana they followed farming, and when Troop Richardson became about eighteen years of age he went to flatboating. Ile left Fort Harrison, Indiana, December 27, 1827, on a flatboat with Solomon Welch, the father of . Henry Welch of Downs township. They started for New Orleans. They floated out into the Wabash, ran through cut-offs, storms and cold winds down into the Ohio. The first day on the Ohio was calm, and they decided to run at night. But during the night they had a stern storm, that is, one that blew down stream. The night was perfectly black, and they learned their position in the stream by hallooing and listening to the echo from the bank. They went at tremendous speed, at steamboat rates, and any little accident would have thrown them all into the water. They came down the Ohio into the Mississippi. When they left New Madrid they went through a second storm. Mr. Richardson was cableman, that is, it was his duty to throw the cable around a stump or post to stop the boat. This storm blew them down so swiftly that they were unable to stop before reach- ing Vicksburg, and when Mr. Richardson threw the seagrass cable around a stump, it was drawn so tight, that when struck, it would hum like a fiddle-string. The seagrass cables were very strong and elastic, and if broken by the strain of the flatboat the
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cableman was in a dangerous situation, for the elastic cable might recoil and strike him. They also landed at Natchez, which was then noted as the hardest place on the Mississippi River. Many murders were committed there every day and human life was held very cheap. In the South Mississippi River they heard every night the voices of panthers and alligators. The latter makes a noise which sounds much like that of a yearling calf. Their voices were sometimes as numerous as the croakings of frogs in a pond. But no alligators were seen during that time of the year as they were baek in the swamps and bayous, and would not come out until warm weather. The flatboat went down to New Or- leans, and when the cargo was disposed of the party returned home. Mr. Richardson on his return went by steamboat up to Port Gibson, then rowed in a skiff down to Natchez, and there went on a steamboat which took him up to Evansville, within one hundred and twenty miles of home. He was obliged to row back to Natchez, because he could not land there while coming up the river. Steamboats in those days landed at very few points, as they were in constant danger of being captured on shore by bands of thieves. Mr. Richardson carried several hundred dollars in money with him, which he could not have done, had it been known. He walked from Evansville, one hundred and twenty miles, home. The boatmen on the river were a hard set of customers, but would fight for each other until death. Mr. Richardson tells of a very unpleasant predicament in which he was caught in 1836, while at New Orleans. He had two flatboats lashed together by seagrass inch chords, and was so unfortunate as to get into the wake of a steamboat. The swell struck his flatboats sideways, and the seagrass chords snapped in two. The bottom of one boat could be seen as it rolled up in the swell.
In 1835, Mr. Richardson moved the widow of Solomon Welch and her family to Illinois. There the former entered land, hauled out logs for a cabin and returned to Indiana. In the summer of 1838, he again came out to Illinois. The season was not very dry and he mired down nearly half a dozen times between Mt. Pleas- ant (Farmer City) and the present town of Leroy. He went on his farm and commenced February 1, 1839, with three yoke of cattle, to improve it. He hauled all his lumber and timber three miles to make a five board fence on three sides of a thirty acre
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lot : the fence on the fourth side he built with rails. He broke his land, put it into corn, wheat and oats, broke ten aeres for Mr. Kimler, completed all this by the first of May, and his only help was a teamster hired for one month. Then he went to Ottawa and broke prairie for Mr. Welch. He did a great deal of team- ing, slept in his wagon, cooked his own victuals, always took his own half of the road, and always gave the other half when he passed a team.
In 1841 Mr. Richardson made two trips to Chicago and one to Rockford with a load of apples. The country there was in great excitement over the lynching of two men, named Driscoll, father and son, who lived in Ogle County. They had been shot over their own graves and it was known that the entire country was infested with thieves. Mr. Richardson was therefore very cau- tious, and on his return during the Rockford trip he remained up all night to watch his money and horses.
Mr. Richardson has never done much hunting. He has killed prairie chickens and wild geese occasionally, and has chased prairie wolves. He says the wolves in Illinois were numerous enough, but never so thick as in Indiana. While he was in the Wabash country in Indiana the wolves came to the house and peeped in at the window. It was impossible to get the pig-pen close enough to the house to protect the pigs from the wolves. The great amount of timber in Indiana afforded cover to the wolves and they were therefore more numerous and saucy than in Illinois.
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