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 54
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strong. Sometimes shirts were made of cotton and flax mixed. Cotton could never be raised with advantage. The jeans was made of wool for filling and cotton for warp. The pioneer chil- dren did not wear overcoats ; but when they became large enough to go to mill, from ten to fifty or perhaps even a hundred miles distant, they had overcoats sometimes. The first overcoat was made in Buckles' Grove, and was all of wool. The cloth for overcoats was first woven, then fulled, then pressed, then colored drab or London brown. These fulled overcoats would turn water almost as well as water proof.
Mr. Stubblefield says, women worked hard in the early days, and he thinks it almost unaccountable, that they are unable now to do as much as formerly. They do no spinning, nor milking, nor weaving now, but they have a great many little notions and trinkets, which occupy their minds.
Sugar Creek had more water in it forty years ago than now, and fish would run up. He has often seen suckers and redhorse three feet long in the creek. He used to fish for them with a hook and line and with a gig, which is a little spear with three tines to it. It was great fun to spear them, particularly on the shoals, where they could be plainly seen.
During the sudden change in December, 1836, much of the stock of the Stubblefields was out in the timber, and was frozen. The chickens froze on their perches, and many of the hogs, which were kept in the timber, died partly because of their piling up one on top of another, and partly because of the intense cold. Many of the hogs, which were not frozen to death, had their cars and tails frozen, and these useful and ornamental appendages afterwards dropped off.
Mr. Stubblefield went to Pekin to do his trading, hauled his corn there, and there bought his pine lumber. He occasionally went to Chicago with wheat, bringing back salt.
As Mr. George Stubblefield has told so many jokes in his sketch about others, Mr. John Stubblefield thinks it only fair that one or two of George's peculiarities should be published. John Stubblefield says that George was a cunning youngster, and in his youthful days liked fishing much better than study. His health was subject to the most remarkable changes. In the morning, when it was time for children to go to school, young
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George would become desperately siek with the headache, and would be obliged to stay at home, but in the evening he would be- come so well that he could take his pole and line and go fishing. In the morning at about nine o'clock the headache would return again with its usual intensity. Young George was a very inge- nious boy, and at one time taught a pet calf to act as a riding- horse. At one time, while displaying his horsemanship on the back of the calf, Absalom Stubblefield (the mischievous Ab.) twisted its tail. It jumped around, and George was thrown for- ward. He grasped the horns of the calf in terror, crying : "Oh, Lord, I'm killed ! I'm killed !" But no serious results followed.
John Stubblefield is six feet in height, is rather slim, and likes fun as well as the rest of the Stubblefield family. He enjoys a practical joke and loves to tell it. He is a hard working man, has been remarkably successful as a farmer, and is very well to do in the world. He is pretty cantions in the management of his property, but exercises good judgment.
Hle married, December 1, 1842, Ellisannah Houser. He has had nine children, of whom eight are living. They are :
Sarah Elizabeth, wife of William H. Rayburn, lives in Cass County, Illinois.
David Robert Stubblefield, lives three miles north of his father's in Dale township.
George Washington, Francis Marion, Mary Frances, Henry Bascom, Simon Peter and John Wesley Stubblefield, all live at home.
GRIDLEY.
WILLIAM MARTIN McCORD.
William Martin MeCord, usually called Martin McCord, was born July 3, 1815, in Overton County, Tennessee. His father's name was William McCord, and his mother's name before her marriage was Jane McMurtrie. William McCord was one-fourth Scotch and three-fourths Irish, and his wife Jane was one-fourth English and three-fourths Irish, and consequently Martin is one- eighth English, one-eighth Scotch and three-fourths Irish. This is going rather deeply into fractions, but there is nothing like precision !
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William McCord was born in Iredell County, North Carolina, and was a farmer and blacksmith. During the war of 1812 he enlisted to fight against the Creeks, but was sick with the measles and participated in no active engagement. In 1827 he came to McLean County with Stephen Webb and George and Jacob Hin- shaw. The weather was wet and they were often water-bound, and sometimes obliged to cross rivers on rafts. Near Eel River they traveled twelve miles in water, which varied from six inches to three feet in depth. At last Webb and McCord came to Twin Grove, where they bought claims ; the Hinshaws having become separated and remaining for a while at Cheney's Grove.
Martin McCord speaks particularly of the winter of the deep snow, as it was an era in the life of every settler, who experi- enced its severity. The season previous was a late one and frost was not severe enough to kill the tobacco sprouts until the second of December. On that day it rained and after the fall of a great deal of water the rain gave place to snow and at last it froze. The winter of the deep snow has been so often described, that it is not necessary to repeat the description here.
In 1831 the McCord family moved to Panther Grove, in what is now Woodford County, about three and one half miles north of Secor, and there lived until the death of William Mc- Cord, which occurred June 13, 1852. William McCord was a man widely known and greatly respected, and was called by many of the settlers "Uncle Billy McCord." All of them speak of him in very high terms of praise.
Martin McCord lived with his father until the age of twenty- two, when he worked, sometimes as a millwright and carpenter, but generally as a farmer.
He married, October 29, 1840, Elizabeth Hinthorn. He lived, after his marriage, in various places, indeed was quite a traveler. At last, in the fall of 1870, he moved with his family to Newton County, Missouri, and bought railroad land and raised a crop, a very good one for that country. But the country was not blessed with a soil as rich as that of old McLean County. It had plenty of gravel, stone and clay, but the vegetable mould was wanting. The soil was open and porons, and a hard rain washed through it and would scarcely raise the water in a river. A moderate drouth would have destroyed the crops. Some of the land was
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"spotted," that is, it had, scattered over it, alkali spots, varying in size from twenty feet square to ten acres. The spots were water-tight, and no moisture could go down or come up, and they caught the rain in puddles, and the cattle and pigs wallowed in them. For some reason these animals preferred the water on these alkali spots to the purest water in the river. Mr. McCord went down to Arkansas, but the prospect seemed as bad as in Missouri. The hills on both sides were white flint rock, and in the distance appeared like snow. He found the people of Ar- kansas very pleasant and cordial in their greeting; but they carried revolvers and held many old grudges, which came down from the war, and it was a word and a shot. They were hospita- ble, but ignorant. They never saw a corn-planter or a railroad, or a reaper. He saw one man, who was taking his boys up to see the "kyars" (cars). They speak of "kerrying" (carrying) the horse to water, and they "tote" water for themselves. When a stranger takes dinner with them they say very hospitably : "Retch out and hope yourself, stranger." Mr. Robinson McCord says he saw two men talking about a reaper, which they were viewing for the first time. One of them inquired what the reel was for. The other contemplated the machine for a while and then said, he "gnessed that must be to knock the rust from the wheat !"
The pigs of Arkansas were worse than the old Illinois "wind- splitters." Their noses seemed as long as their bodies, and Mr. Robinson MeCord says that a person was obliged to look at them sideways to see them ! They could spring through a rail fence between the rails !
In the fall of 1871 Mr. McCord came back to old MeLean County, and thinks he will now stay here. He has had nine children, of whom six are now living. They are :
Mrs. Hannah Jane Farmer, wife of David T. Farmer, lives in Newton County, Missouri.
William Isaac McCord lives in Jasper County, Missouri.
James T., Henry Gaius, Washington Robinson and Mary Ellen McCord live at home with their father.
Mr. McCord is five feet and eleven inches in height, has good health, is beginning to show the effect of age in the gray hairs, which make their appearance. He is a very straight and well-
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formed man, is intelligent in conversation, is humorous and good natured.
JOHN BOYD MESSER.
This is the sketch of a noted hunter, one whose life has been devoted to the business, and who has met with great success. John B. Messer was born August 4, 1807, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. His father's name was Isaac Messer, and his mother's maiden name was Sidney Ann Forbes. His father was of Pennsylvania Dutch deseent, and his mother was of Irish. In the year 1811 the Messer family moved to Franklin County, Ohio. In the war of 1812 Isaac Messer was a soldier in the cav- alry during three campaigns. In about the year 1816 the family moved to Pickaway County, where they lived twelve years. It was here that young John Messer began to show that disposition for hunting, for which he was afterwards noted. When he was only fourteen years old, he was allowed to take his father's gun and go hunting, as a reward for doing some work which had been assigned him. By good fortune he found a deer and fired at it. The deer sprang up, almost turned a somersault and fell with its head towards him. He came up to it cautiously and gave it another shot for safety, then crawled around in the rear of it and shook its leg and was at last convinced that its soul had really gone to the green pastures never more to be troubled by hunters. He obtained help and had the deer brought home, and during the evening was the hero of a corn-husking, and told his story over and over again.
In the year 1828 the Messer family came to Sugar Grove, Illinois. This was during the Jackson and Adams campaign. Jackson was very popular, indeed it seemed almost impossible to find an Adams man. He says that a crowd of men once divided by drawing a line. The Jackson men stepped on one side and the Adams men on the other. Only one man stood for Adams, and he said he took that course because his own name was Adams !
On the sixth of March, 1829, the Messer family came to near where Lexington now stands, and in what is now MeLean Coun- ty. While he lived there the ruling passion came on him strong- ly, and he went to hunting. The two creeks down the Mackinaw
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below Lexington were named by him. While out hunting he found some turkey tracks near the first creek and called it Turkey Creek, the name it bears to-day. He went two miles farther on and wounded a buck by another creek, to which he gave the name of Buck Creek, a name it still retains. He lived near the present village of Lexington about five years and then moved to the north of the Mackinaw, in the present township of Gridley, where he has resided ever since.
Mr. Messer has had some lively adventures while hunting. At one time he went with a man, named Smith, up to the Blue Mound. There they followed the track of a deer out from a spring, where it had been drinking, and when coming to the prairie they saw it sitting on its haunches some distance away and looking around. After a while it laid down, and Messer and Smith walked to within sixteen steps of it, before it sprang up. Messer shot it and Smith shot another, which sprang up imme- diately afterwards. Messer made haste to cut his deer's throat, as he said it did not kick to suit him. He put his foot on one horn and his hand on the other and cut the throat. The deer sprang up instantly, and caught its antlers in the knees of Mes- ser's breeches and made two or three jumps with Messer dang- ling head downwards ; but it stumbled and fell and bled to death, Smith was so astonished, that he could only stand and look. The two deer had ten and nine prongs, respectively, on the beams of their antlers, showing them to be ten and nine years of age.
At one time Mr. Messer discovered the antlers of a deer in a pond and saw the nose. He fired, and the ball went up the nose and out at the eye ; but he was obliged to chase it ten miles, when it stopped at a spring to cool. He shot it several times from behind; at last he came in front of it, but, instead of changing its course, it charged directly at him. A shot through the head ended its career.
Hunters seem to be subject to queer freaks of fortune, which they always express by the word "luck," and Mr. Messer's was oc- casionally hard luck. He was once walking in the snow towards a deer, near Wolf Creek, and he pulled off his boots and walked through the snow in his stocking feet, in order to move silently. Ile killed a deer and hung it on a bush, and that was his good luck ; but his boots became so frozen that he could not put them
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on, and that was his hard luck. He saw more deer and had a fine opporiunity to kill them, and this was his good luck : but the stopper had fallen out of his powder horn, spilling all of his powder, and that was his hard luck. He killed no more and was obliged to walk home through the snow in his stocking feet.
The deer seem to have a good understanding, and, when chased by dogs and hunters, they know very well that the dogs are sent by the men behind. While Mr. Messer was once hunt- ing on Wolf Creek his dog brought down a wounded deer, but both dog and deer were nearly tired out, and they laid down and watched each other. Mr. Messer was incautiously coming up with his unloaded rifle, when the deer left the dog and sprang towards him. He dodged behind a sapling, and his dog grabbed the deer and held it until Messer could load and fire.
Young hunters sometimes make very ludicrous blunders, and people are familiar with the story of a young man, who killed his neighbor's calf instead of a deer from the prairie. A youthful hunter once mistook Mr. Messer for a deer, as the latter was bending over a buck, which he had lately shot. The first intima- tion Messer received of this was the whizzing of a bullet. When the young hunter learned his mistake he was more frightened than Messer.
About fourteen years ago Mr. Messer met with a misfortune, which came near terminating his adventurous career. While chasing a deer between Rook's Creek and the Mackinaw, his horse stepped into a badger's hole and Messer was violently thrown over its head, and lay stunned and senseless for perhaps two or three hours. When sense returned his horse and dogs were around him. He put on his saddle and rode to the nearest house, but was so sick, that he frequently became blind, and it was with the greatest difficulty that he clung to his horse. He received every attention at the house, and was rubbed with cayenne pepper and brandy, but was given up to die, as his pulse scarcely beat for three-quarters of an hour. But in order to receive the greatest benefit from brandy, this most delicious article should be taken internally ! Mr. Messer did so and revived. He feels the effect of the fall to-day, though it happened fourteen years ago.
Mr. Messer made it a rule to kill his fifty deer in the fall of the year and during the fore part of the winter. After Christ-
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mas he only hunted occasionally, as the deer were not worth so much.
During the Black Hawk war the settlers were subject to con- tinual fright, on account of the Indians, and Mr. Messer was sent out through Mackinaw timber to investigate matters, but could find no sign of redskins. It is to be feared that he some- times gave a few nervous gentlemen unnecessary fright. Old Johnny Patton made a yoke for his horses to prevent them from jumping the fence, and Messer persuaded a few soft gentlemen that the shavings were made by the Indians, who had been whittling ramrods for their guns.
Mr. Messer married, July 5, 1832, Susannah Espy Patton. Their children are :
Maria Jane Messer, who was born April 4, 1833, is married to Jasper Loving and lives about eighteen miles southeast of Decatur.
Sidney Ann Messer was born September 27, 1834, is married to Aaron Misner and lives about a half mile southeast of her father's.
John P. Messer was born March 11, 1836, and lives about a quarter of a mile west of his father's.
Margaret Espy Messer was born December 3, 1837, is mar- ried to Lane Stewart and lives about eighteen miles southeast of Decatur.
Isaac Messer was born November 30, 1839, and lives about a quarter of a mile south of his father's.
Mary Messer was born October 8, 1841, is married to Thomas Bounds and lives a half mile west of her father's.
James T. Messer was born July 16, 1843, and died of the cholera a few years since.
Elizabeth Ellen Messer was born March 24, 1848, is married to William Stagner and lives four or five miles southeast of her father's in Money Creek township.
Rebecca Adeline Messer was born June 30, 1851, is married to John Drake and lives about a mile south of Kappa in McLean County.
John B. Messer is about five feet and nine inches high, has a clear, grayish blue eye, is good natured and pleasant, has seen a great deal of hunting and can tell about it, is plucky and
,
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quick-sighted, is free and unconstrained, and loves to talk of old times. Phrenologists would say that he has large perceptions, has a full head of grayish hair. He is rather heavy set and is pretty strong. He is generous and hospitable, and whoever talks to him is immediately made to feel at home.
JOHN SLOAN.
John Sloan was born March 7, 1810, near Somerset, Pulaski County, Kentucky. His father's name was William Sloan and his mother's name before her marriage was Margaret Kinkaid. William Sloan was of Scotch-Irish descent. He was brought with his parents from Antrim County, Ireland, to Bath County, Virginia, when he was six weeks old. His wife Margaret was born in Pennsylvania, but was of German descent. In 1804 or '5 William Sloan emigrated to Kentucky, where John Sloan was born. Young John there grew up and went to school to his father, and assisted every Christmas day in turning the old gen- tleman out of the school-house, as was the custom in those days. John Sloan also went to school to other teachers and always as- sisted in compelling the teacher to "stand treat " on Christmas day. But one of their teachers came near being too smart for them. They drew up a paper and signed it, insisting that the teacher should "stand treat" and the teacher signed it, "Attest: William Talford," and the meaning of the document then was that the scholars should pay for the treat, and the teacher was a witness to it! The scholars were very angry at the sell, and took possession of the school-room and compelled the teacher to " come to time,"
Mr. Sloan was raised a strict Presbyterian and was required to attend to all the religious exercises of the day. He often went to camp-meeting, and there saw those strange phenomena, the jerks. They were usually the result of religious excitement. He remembers particularly the excitement of one woman, whom he saw under the influence of the jerks. She threw her head back and forth until her hair cracked like a whip. She said she knew when the jerks were coming, and could prevent them only by leaving the congregation. Mr. Sloan has never known the jerks to be produced by anything but religious excitement at religious gatherings.
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In those days it was the custom to drink whisky, but Mr. Sloan never did so except on one occasion. When he was a child ten years of age he went to see a militia company elect their captain, and the men gave him whisky and made him drunk for the fun of the thing. He was carried home insensible, and his mother watched over him all night until he became conscious. He has been a teetotaler ever since.
At the age of eighteen Mr. Sloan joined the Methodist church, and has continued an active member ever since. He attended Sabbath-school regularly and was greatly interested in the cause. Sickness was the only cause for his absence from Sabbath-school, class-meeting or prayer-meeting.
In 1830 he went to Owen County, Indiana, on White River, and there went to farming. January 5, 1832, he married Polly Hart. In 1835 he came to Mackinaw timber, MeLean County, Illinois, where he arrived November 25. The journey was a hard one, as the roads were muddy and no bridges were built across the streams. He often mired down, and once got into a pond where he stuck fast for a while and was obliged to take all of his things out on horseback. When he and his family arrived at the head of Mackinaw timber, they were cold and wet and the snow fell and everything was frozen. Then old Squire Thomp- son took them in and built up fires and dried their clothes and gave them a good supper, a warm bed and a nice breakfast and refused to accept pay for his services. When Mr. Sloan arrived, he possessed very little of this world's goods. He put up a house of poles, and he worked at whatever his hands could find to do. He was acquainted with everybody in that section of country, as he had a social disposition. In 1843 he was chosen constable and served four years. He often had some unpleasant and dan- gerous duties to perform, but succeeded well in his office. When his term of service as constable expired, he was chosen justice of the peace, but served only one year, as he determined to move to Wisconsin, where he lived four years and then moved to the northwestern part of Iowa. There he had no very remarkable adventure. Game was plenty, particularly elk. During the win- ter of 1853-4 the elk came down into the cornfields at night and went out before morning. He once went out hunting elk with a party of six besides himself, taking dogs and horses. Three
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of the company had three guns and the rest were armed with clubs, corn cutters and hatchets. They had a horse and sleigh to bring home their game. They found a drove of about fifty elk and immediately one of their party went around on the op- posite side of the drove, while the hunting party scattered out. The elk were frightened and ran in all directions. The hunters rode after the elk, shooting them, knocking them on the head with clubs and striking them on the back with corn-cutters and hatchets. The corn-cutter was the most effective weapon, as two or three strokes over the back of an elk, cutting the tendons, seldom failed to bring it down. Seven elk were killed, six by the men and one by the dogs. One of the elk, which had been struck by a corn-cutter, turned at bay. Mr. Sloan shot it, but it only shook its head, another shot was fired, when it again shook its head in a threatening manner. The sleigh soon came up and the elk made a charge at it. Three men in the sleigh beat it over the head with seat-boards and one man on horseback rode up and struck it over the back with his corn-cutter. The elk turned on the horseman and gave him a rake with its antlers, which tore his pants from the knee to the thigh; but before it could do further damage it was shot and killed. An elk is not a fast running animal. It can trot fast and keep up the gait all day; but, when pressed into a run, it soon tires out. It never fights until wounded, but then it sometimes fights most fiercely.
Mr. Sloan remained in Iowa only one winter and then moved back to Wisconsin, where he lived one or two years. But at last he concluded that Mackinaw timber, McLean County, Illi- nois, was the best place for a human being to spend his days and he returned to his old abiding place. In 1858 the township of Gridley was organized and Mr. Sloan and Upton Cooms were chosen the first justices of the peace. The former has been jus- tice of the peace ever since. He has performed all the duties of his office with fidelity. He has during that time had only two cases appealed and two writs of certiorari. His decision was sus- tained in one of the cases appealed, and the other was dismissed for want of prosecution. The justice's decision was sustained relating to the two writs of certiorari. During all the time he has been justice of the peace no one ever called for money, due him from the 'Squire, without receiving it. He has married a
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good many of his neighbors. In 1848 or '49 he married James Wilson to Margaret Ogden and has since married two of their children.
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