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 56
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HUDSON.
YOUNG BILBREY.
Young Bilbrey was born May 21, 1801, in North Carolina. His father's name was Isam Bilbrey and his mother's maiden name was Ruth Sellers. When Young was about seven years of age, the family moved to Matthew's Creek and there he lived until he came to Illinois. He married, August 12, 1826, Amanda Patrick, and January 12, 1827, he started for Illinois 40
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with horses and oxen, with his wife, three brothers-in-law and one sister-in-law. They came first to Twin Grove, where they arrived February 12, and remained until April 16, when they moved to Panther Creek, in what is now Woodford County. At the latter place Mr. Bilbrey built a rail pen to live in. It was a ten-foot rail pen, with rails on three sides and the other side open. The roof was of clapboards. In this they lived three weeks and while there Mr. Bilbrey and his three brothers- in-law cleared ten acres of heavy timber and planted it in corn, and it yielded fifty bushels to the acre. After this clearing was made they moved to a log house near by, and the following year moved to another log house, which they had built in the mean- time on the north side of the east fork of Panther Creek. While building that house, Mr. Bilbrey's brother-in-law, Winslow Patrick, was killed by a fall, and this was the first sad event they experienced.
The fever and ague was a regular visitor in the West. Mrs. Bilbrey says that Stephen Webb, of Twin Grove, declared that no one but a lazy man could have the ague. But before long he took it himself, while splitting rails. He had a good shake, but insisted that it would be driven off the next time by splitting rails. Again the ague came, harder than before, and Stephen mauled rails with all his might ; he shook and mauled and shook and mauled, but the fever and chills were at last so severe, that he stopped work, and he was forced to acknowledge that the ague was no respecter of persons. Some time afterwards he was out haying, and while coming home on the load he had the ague, and while crossing a creek his load upset and he was in- voluntarily baptized, and, strange to say, never had the ague again. Mrs. Bilbrey thinks the wagon was upset for the purpose of throwing Mr. Webb into the creek.
During the winter of the deep snow the Bilbreys pounded their corn as everybody did. When the heavy snow-fall came, some men, who had come to mill from Pontiac, and were re- turning, were caught in the snow and stayed at Mr. Bilbrey's over night. They left their corn meal there and went home and afterwards returned with sleds and snow-shoes. One of them was near freezing to death, and gave up and wished to stop and die. His companion gave him encouraging words, but these
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seemed to be of little use and he was determined to die. At last his companion aroused him by saying : "I don't care if you die. You are of no account to your family anyhow, or to any one, and the best thing you can do is to freeze." The man thus addressed became very angry and aroused himself and walked through.
The house of Mr. Bilbrey was used as a preaching place for many years, for the Christians and United Brethren.
The clothing worn in the early days was jeans and linsey woolsey, and Mrs. Bilbrey thinks it would do no harm if this clothing was worn at the present day. She thinks the fashions of the present day are scandalous, and that it is an outrage for women to wear humps on their backs, and that they had better dress naturally, even if they wore linsey woolsey. She wishes this idea preserved with care in the hope that it may be a benefit to the rising generation.
In 1836 the Bilbrey family moved to the east side of Money Creek, where they lived twenty-five years and then moved to the west side, where they lived until the death of Mr. Bilbrey, which occurred June 13, 1873,
Mr. Bilbrey belonged to the Christian Church for about thirty-five years. He died without fear, and was conscious to the last. His business was all arranged and "his house set in order." Ten dollars would have paid every debt he owed.
Mr. and Mrs. Bilbrey have had nine children, of whom six are living. The children are :
Jane, born October 14, 1829, married to Jonathan Coon, died August 8, 1856.
Mary Ann, born January 8, 1832, married Rankin Armstrong and lives near Secor, Woodford County.
Melinda, born December 17, 1833, married Lewis Smith, died August 9, 1861.
William, born March 29, 1836, lives in Gibson, Ford County, Illinois.
Ellen, born October 25, 1837, married Jacob Hinthorn and lives on the west side of Money Creek timber.
Margaret was born March 16, 1839, and died May 3, 1864.
Almira was born September 28, 1840, married William Hin- thorn, March 24, 1861, lives in Shelbina, Missouri.
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Allen, born October 28, 1841, lives on the south end of his father's farm.
Eli, born October 5, 1845, lives on the southwest side of Money Creek timber.
Mr. Bilbrey was rather a large man, weighed about two hun- dred and thirty pounds, was very muscular, worked hard, had an iron constitution, was a good man and strictly honest. He was very cool and fearless, when difficulties appeared in his way, and worked steadily and carefully to overcome them. He was sick for three weeks previous to his death with inflammation of the bowels and bilious fever. His funeral was a large one, the peo- ple coming from long distances to see the old pioneer laid in his last resting place. The funeral sermon was preached by Thomas D. Lyons, at the house of the deceased.
JOSEPH MESSER.
Joseph Messer was the son of Isaac Messer, whose children are given at the elose of this sketch. It has not been possible to obtain information sufficient to write a sketch of the old gentle- man, who was one of the earliest and most noted pioneers of MeLean County.
Joseph Messer was born September 5, 1825, in Pickaway County, Ohio, and came with the family to Mackinaw timber, in what is now MeLean County, Illinois, where he arrived in March, 1829. He has led quite an active life, and has done some hunt- ing "off and on" for fifteen or sixteen years, and indeed this disposition to hunt is one of the leading characteristics of the fam- ily. He studied particularly into the nature of that most cunning and most interesting animal, the deer. He says that frequently they have their regular places to live and sometimes select them with great care and discretion. IIe remembers a large buck, which had a place to stay on the north of the Mackinaw, where it was protected in some measure by two ponds of water. It could there see a long distance and had timely notice of the approach of hunters or wild animals. Mr. Messer determined to kill this deer, and crawled to it from a long distance and was obliged to crawl through a pond of water, which came over his back. But he held up his gun and went through, and was rewarded for his trouble by killing the deer. As the country became well settled,
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the game grew scarce and was not easily killed. The old hunters then practiced shooting deer on the run. Mr. Messer, while on horseback, once chased a deer, and as it was about to run into a thicket he shot it through the heart without slacking the pace of his horse. In one fall he killed eighteen deer, and only one was shot while standing.
Mr. Messer married, March 17, 1853, Martha Locke. He has had eight children, all of whom are living. They are fine, healthy boys and girls, and he works hard to support them. He is five feet and ten inches in height, is not heavy set, has a nose with a good natured turn to it, and gray eyes with a very clear expression in them. He is a very pleasant man.
The following are the children of Isaac Messer, the father of Joseph :
John Messer, born August 4, 1807, lives north of the Macki- naw in Gridley township. His sketch appears in this work.
Mary Messer, born January 4, 1811, married Joseph D. Gild- ersleeve and lives in Hudson township in the edge of Money Creek timber.
Elizabeth Messer, born September 4, 1813, married Peter Spore and lives at Neosho Falls, Kansas.
Jane Messer, born September 9, 1815, married Isaac Turnip- seed and lives in Hudson township in the edge of Money Creek timber.
Sidney Ann Messer, born April 19, 1819, married Madison Young, lived in Mackinaw timber and died many years since.
Rebecca Messer, born October 30, 1821, married Calvin Doughty. She and her husband are both dead.
Isaac Messer died in infancy.
Joseph Messer, born September 5, 1825, lives in Hudson township in the edge of Money Creek timber.
James K. Messer, born April 19 1828, died when eight years of age.
Isaac Messer, born December 28, 1831, lives in Hudson town- ship in the edge of Money Creek timber.
JESSE HAVENS.
Jesse Havens was born June 23, 1781, near the mouth of Squawn River in New Jersey. His father came from Wales when
A
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quite young. He was a sea captain and was shipwrecked and lost his life on the ocean by shipwreck. Jesse Havens came to Virginia, when only a boy and lived with a brother-in-law, named Newman. There he went bear-hunting and killed a great number. Mr. Newman made bear-hunting a business and Jesse Havens often went out with a company of hunters under Newman and stayed for three months at a time without seeing any human be- ings, except members of the company. Jesse Havens was an excellent marksman, and as the bear were thick, had every chance to exercise his skill. He sometimes took the dogs and went out hunting himself and occasionally had some unexpected adventures. At one time, while alone watching a deer-liek, he heard an ani- mał approaching, which proved to be a panther. It ran up a tree and seemed also to be on the watch for deer. Jesse took careful aim at it, fired and ran for home. The hunters returned with him to the spot and found the panther dead. At one time he had a dangerous adventure with a bear. He shot a bear which had been treed and it fell wounded, and hugged the dog, which had treed it. When Jesse came up, the bear and dog went rolling down a hill, but Jesse succeeded in killing the bear with his knife and tomahawk. He considered this a narrow escape.
He went in 1801 to where Newark, Ohio, now is, and built several log cabins for a company which settled there. He mar- ried and moved eight miles north of that place and cleared out a small farm and ran a shop in which he made furniture, chairs, ete.
Jesse Havens enlisted in the war of 1812 and was at the des- perate defence made by Major Croghan and his band of one hun- dred and sixty men, of Fort Stephenson on the Lower Sandusky.
In the fall of 1829 Jesse Havens came to Illinois. He came first to Big Grove, near where Urbana now is, and from there went in search of a house and found one on the North Fork of the Sangamon, south of where Leroy now is. When he moved his family there, which was in December, 1829, the sleet troubled him very much, and he was obliged to walk many miles to obtain corn for food. He left the Sangamon and came to Buckles' Grove and from there he came to where Hudson now is, in January, 1830. There be bought some claims, made improvements and went to farming, as did all the settlers in that section.
In 1850 Jesse Havens sold out and went to Iowa, but after a few years returned to Havens' Grove. Here he lived two years
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with his son Hiram and then went back to Iowa, where he re- mained until the time of his death, which occurred December 2, 1862. Just previous to his death he requested his son William to bury him in Havens' Grove, and this request was carried out. He was, at the time of his death, eighty-one years, five months and nine days old.
He was married to Rebecca Hinthorn in Licking County, Ohio. He had eleven children, all of whom lived to become men and women. They are :
Mrs. Elizabeth Platt, wife of Hezekiah Platt, died in North- ern Iowa.
Mrs. Anna Smith, wife of John Smith, lives at Havens' Grove.
Mrs. Doreas Wheeler, wife of Benjamin Wheeler, lives at Havens' Grove.
Mrs. Margaret Trimmer, wife of David Trimmer, died at Havens' Grove.
John Havens lives at Ford County, Illinois, not far from Paxton.
Hiram Havens lives at Havens Grove.
Jesse D. Havens lives in Lincoln, Illinois, on the Chicago & Alton Railroad.
Rev. James Havens lives in Wisconsin. He is a Methodist minister and belongs to the Wisconsin Conference.
Rev. Enoch Stephen Havens also is a Methodist minister be- longing to the Wisconsin Conference.
Ired M. Havens died at Kappa, January 8, 1852, aged twenty- six years, seven months and twenty-one days. He was buried at Havens' Grove.
W. W. Havens lives in Northern Iowa.
Jesse Havens was six feet in height, had heavy hair and eye- brows, and was very muscular. He was a good man and quite successful in life. He gave the name to Havens' Grove. He was one of the first Commissioners elected in MeLean County after its organization.
HIRAM HAVENS.
Hiram Havens was born March 29, 1817, in Licking County, Ohio. He worked for his father, Jesse Havens, in his younger days and broke prairie with an ox-team. He and his brother
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John broke prairie together and together kept bachelor's hall. John usually brought up the oxen in the morning, while Hiram pounded the cornmeal for breakfast. They often killed deer, sometimes early enough in the morning to have venison for breakfast. In March, 1833, Hiram Havens went to More's mill on Panther Creek, in company with a man named Platt. But on his return he found it impossible to cross the Maekinew. His companion, Platt, managed to cross on the ice with a pole, in- tending to go home and return with something for Havens to eat, but on his return it was impossible to re-cross the Mackinaw, as it had risen to an enormous height. Havens was left to lay all night on an open sled, on the bank of the Mackinaw in a sleeting storm. But he fortunately had his feet protected by a big dog, which kept them warm. The wolves came unpleasantly near and seemed very anxious to make mutton of him. The next morning he rode eight miles in the storm on one of his horses, leading the other. He obtained some parched corn for breakfast, of a man named More, then rode two miles farther to a house where he was given some boiled corn and venison .. He lived there sixteen days before he could re-cross the Mackinaw. He found that the crows and mice had eaten much of his flour, and possibly the wolves might have assisted in the matter.
Hiram Havens was a good shot and pretty certain to bring down his game. His father once treed a lynx, which is an im- mensely long-bodied animal, with spots or short stripes, and with legs which are short, thick and powerful. Hiram was called to shoot the animal, and put a bullet into its brain. It fell to the ground and an incautious dog came rather close, when the lynx gave it a blow with its paw, which sent the dog rolling senseless. The lynx died in a few moments. It measured six feet from tip to tip, but its tail was short. Its nails were two inches in length.
The lynxes, as may be seen by the description, are ferocious animals, and have given rise to many stories. One of these was the story of the once celebrated Clem Oatman. It was said that Clem Oatman was once coming home from mill, when he saw one of these lynxes and killed it with a club and carried it on his horse, which was a very tall one. And it was said that this lynx dragged its head in the snow on one side and its hindquarters in the snow on the other, and in this manner the wonderful lynx
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was carried home. The news of Clem Oatman's lynx was car- ried over the country, and was told in every school house, church and grocery. So far as the truth of this story is concerned, the reader can believe as much or as little as he chooses. If he wishes to cultivate his faith, this story is a good one to practice on.
Mr. Havens takes delight in stories, and tells one on a certain man named Wood, an English sailor, who came to the neighbor- hood with Mr. Samuel Lewis. Wood went hunting, with a fine gun, which Lewis had brought from England. The gun was scoured up brightly, and was of beautiful workmanship. Wood wounded a deer, which turned for fight, and came with its hair all bristling forward, though it was much worried by the dogs. Wood turned to the deer and said : "Don't you come 'ookin' at me, Mr. Deer, or I'll knock 'ee in the 'ead with the gun." But the deer was not familiar with broad English dialect and did not heed the warning. The old sailor managed the gun as he would a handspike and broke the deer's horns and mashed its head and laid it out dead. But the pretty gun, which had been brought from England, with pretty mountings and fancy trappings, was broken and battered and useless for further service.
Hiram Havens commenced work for the Illinois Central Rail- road Company in 1851, when that great undertaking was put under contract. He worked two years and a half, furnishing ties, bridge lumber, etc., and could have remained in the service of the company, but was afraid of the uncertainty of a life on the road.
Mr. Havens has been pretty successful in life, and has made his money by the hardest of labor. When he married and com- meneed life for himself, he was on sixty aeres of land, which was given to him by his father. He lived in a cabin twelve feet square, made of split logs. It had only one window, and was a hard looking affair. He and his wife had two cows, one pony, two chairs, one bed and one blue chest, which they used as a table. During the first year he did his ploughing with a bor- rowed horse, but succeeded well and bought more land and in about three years was able to build a house. He continued farm- ing and raising stock and accumulating property, until he became pretty independent. In 1859 he bought the farm of Enoch S.
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Havens, and since that time built the house where he now lives. His property is not tied up with frust deeds or mortgages, but belongs to him in fee simple.
IIe married Sarah A. Trimmer, April 5, 1838. She is still living. He has had five children, of whom three are living. They are :
Mrs. Martha E. Johnson, wife of John S. Johnson, lives in White Oak Grove.
Alice Havens and Etta B. Havens, the pet, live at home.
Mr. Havens is nearly six feet in height, and has a fair amount of muscle. His hair was once what is politely called intensely auburn, that is, it had a reddish east, but now it is sprinkled with gray. He has been a hard and industrious worker, and has the respeet and confidence of the community where he resides, as is seen by the fact that he has been justice of the peace for sixteen years.
BENJAMIN WHEELER.
Benjamin Wheeler was born February 14, 1803, in Hardy County, Virginia, (now West Virginia,) about two and one-half miles from the town of Morfield. His father's name was Benja- min Wheeler, and his mother's maiden name was Rachel Har- ris. He is of English and German descent. Mr. Wheeler was, of course, very young during the war of 1812, but he remembers that about that time his mother died, leaving seven children for the father to look after. As strange luck would have it, Mr. Wheeler, sr., was drafted during that war in what was called the Whisky Company, while he had all these seven children to sup- port. But the case was one of such hardship that the town generously paid for a substitute, and Mr. Wheeler remained at home.
The war of 1812 had a great effect on the price of various articles, which were imported into the country. When it was nearly elosed, a merchant brought some salt from Baltimore to Morfield ou packhorses, and sold it for fifty cents per quart; but soon the war was ended, salt was brought in cheap, and the mer- chant was obliged to sell out at a loss.
When Benjamin Wheeler, jr., was about thirteen years of age, the family came to Licking County, Ohio. No incident of im-
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portance occurred during his youth. He married, April 10, 1828, Doreas Havens, and during the fall of 1829 started for the West with his father-in-law, Jesse Havens. He came to Big Grove, where Champaign City, Ills., now is, and in 1830 came to Mc- Lean County. He began farming with very little to work with and no money. His first plow was partly of his own manufac- ture. He had a land side and a shear, and he made a wooden mould-board himself. The appearance of this plow was not pre- possessing. It seemed more like an A harrow than a plow; but it was serviceable, and he was obliged to use it for two years be- fore he could make enough money to buy another.
In 1839-40 he experienced the celebrated hard times, and sold pork in Lacon for one dollar and a quarter per hundred, took one-fourth of his pay in store goods, and the remainder in Cairo money, which the merchants tried to shave twelve and a half cents on the dollar ; but he refused to submit to it. He hauled shelled corn to Peoria and sold it for twelve and a half cents per bushel. But in 1843 prices rose, and farmers could make money. The fluctuations in currency at home made many a man's for- tune. Many men, who owed the State Bank, bought up its notes at a large discount and paid their debts. But with all of these vexations, Mr. Wheeler thinks he enjoyed himself better then, than he has done during the last fifteen or eighteen years.
Mr. Wheeler was very little of a hunter. Ile killed two or three deer, but wa's more successful with turkeys, for when he shot one out of a flock, the rest fluttered around and huddled together, and would not run until they saw the hunter. He only killed three deer, and two of these were during the winter of the deep snow. Only six or seven deer lived during that winter in Havens' Grove ; whole droves of them perished in the snow.
, During the famous sudden change of December, 1836, Mr. Wheeler was out feeding his stock, and when he came into the house and pulled off his overcoat it was frozen so stiff that it stood upright on the floor. He speaks of a man and his daugh- ter, who were frozen to death in this sudden change, before they could go to their home, a few miles away. This incident has been related by several other settlers, but none seem to know the names of the unfortunate persons. Mr. Wheeler says that
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two hours after the sudden change took place, the Six Mile Creek could be crossed on the ice.
Mr. Wheeler speaks of other phenomena. In 1844, the year of the great rains, he was at one time entirely hemmed in. The Six Mile Creek overflowed the bottom lands, and Mr. Wheeler's house stood on an island. The creek was higher than ever be- fore, except the spring of 1831, when the deep snow went off.
Mr. Wheeler has suffered much by fire. During the fall of 1830 a fire came up from Twin Grove, and everyone turned out to fight it; but it burned up all his rails, his wheat and his hay, and during the succeeding winter he was forced to depend on his corn, which he dug out of the deep snow. In about the year 1838 or '40, a fire came rolling over the prairie, and Mr. Wheeler and his boys tore down the rail fences as fast as possible to save. them, but nine hundred of his rails went up in smoke. In 1840 or '41, the fire came so swiftly, that it jumped a piece of plowed and burnt ground two rods wide. At another time it jumped the big road, which is more than two rods wide. He saw a dry fence, belonging to Samuel Lewis, burnt down so quickly that the stakes and riders were still standing, while the fence was burnt out underneath. Mr. Lewis was away from home at the time, and Mrs. Lewis came out with her mopstick to do something, but she might as well have thrown it at the Chicago fire. Mr. Wheeler has seen fire going faster than a horse could run and taking fear- ful leaps. It would suck in the air behind it, and move like a flock of wild geese with the center ahead and the wings on each side hanging back.
The old settlers, of course, have a lively recollection of those animals, which destroyed their property. Mr. Wheeler remen- bers a particularly destructive lynx, for which a reward of thirty dollars was offered. An Indian succeeded in killing it and claimed the reward, which was refused ; but the settlers took the Indian's part and insisted that the reward should be paid, and the Indian at last received it.
The rattlesnakes, in early days, were numerous, and Mr. Wheeler says that the poison strikes into the system almost in- stantly. A Mrs. Rook was bitten by a rattlesnake on the hand. and her husband thought he would show great presence of mind by cutting out a piece of flesh, where she had been bitten; but
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she came near dying and was only saved by an Indian, who rub- bed her with China snakeroot. This was the great remedy.
Mr. Wheeler has seen all phases of pioneer life, and, notwith- standing all the hardships, he enjoyed himself very much in the " good old times." He has had fourteen children, ten of whom are living. They are :
Valentine Wheeler, who lives in Hudson.
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