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 60
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Dr. Braxton Benton Spawr lives in Franklin County, where he practices medicine and dentistry.
M'LEAN COUNTY. 671
Dr. Elijah Valentine Spawr lives in Mackinawtown, in Taze- well County. He was a soldier in the Eighteenth Illinois Vol- unteers.
William Walker Spawr lives in Farmer City. He was in the three months' service during the rebellion, and in 1865 he re-en- listed.
Margaret Malinda was married to Charley Kemp and lives in Bloomington.
Mr. Spawr is about five feet and ten inches in height, and weighs one hundred and eighty-four pounds. He has a round, healthy face, and his eyes have an honest, open expression, but one can see the love of practical jokes in them. His hair stands up decidedly on his head. He has been a mechanic for thirty years, and still works at his trade. He gets up early in the morning and goes to work on time. He is very jovial and loves to talk over the adventures of other days. It does him good to laugh at the funny scenes which happened when the people in Mackinaw timber took their periodical frights.
JOSEPH BRUMHEAD.
Joseph Brumhead came to the West with the Haner family, in 1828. Before coming to the West he married Catherine Haner in Ohio. He settled, on his arrival from Ohio, in Mackinaw timber, near old John Haner's place, a little west of where John Haner, jr., now lives. Mr. Brumhead was a very religious man, and was, for many years, a member of the Methodist Church. He belonged to this denomination when he came to Mackinaw timber, and was one of the eight members who organized the first Methodist Church in MeLean County north of Bloomington. This was in 1830. He was a class-leader for nearly a year after its organization. He was then made a licensed exhorter, and went to the different groves and held meetings. He was not an edu- cated man, but was possessed of great natural ability.
The Indians were quite numerous before the winter of the deep snow. At one time Mr. Brumhead had a horse, which was bitten by an Indian pony, and was much annoyed. Mr. Brum- head tied the pony to a tree with a log chain. After a while its Indian owner came for it, and when he found it fastened with the
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log chain he walked around it carefully, and at last came to the conclusion that " he no get loose." Mr. Brumhead at last gave the Indian the pony.
Mr. Brumhead was a very courageous man. During the Black Hawk war, while the settlers were collected at the house of John Henline, for fear of trouble with the Indians, Mr. Brum- head was one of the coolest and most collected among them. His religious feeling bore him up always, and during the Indian troubles he seemed to feel no fear, for he trusted his life to the keeping of Divine Providence. He died in the year 1838, and his wife died a week after him. Their death resulted from eating unhealthy meat. Two of their children are living. The eldest son, John Wesley Brumhead, was the first white child born on the Mackinaw. His birth was in 1829. He now lives on the north of the Mackinaw, and is an incorrigible bachelor. The second son, Anderson S. Brumhead, lives in Blue Mound town- ship. He does not believe in a bachelor's life, and has married a very amiable and attractive lady.
HENSON B. DOWNEY.
Henson B. Downey was born August 26, 1817, in Frederick County, Maryland. His father was Alexander Downey, and his mother's name before her marriage was Mary Tucker. He was partly of Scotch and Welch descent. In about the year 1828 he came with the family to Illinois. He grew up in the West, and Patrick Hopkins says of him during his youth and early man- hood : "He was about as high a chicken as you could scare up."
On the 7th of April, 1839, he married Phebe Brumhead, youngest daughter of Joseph Brumhead. She died March 16, 1852. The children by this marriage were James N. Downey, who lives in the northern part of Blue Mound township; Emily, wife of Henry Walden, lives in the northern part of Blue Mound ; J. Henson Downey also lives in Blue Mound, and his brother, Allen T. Downey, lives with him.
On the 24th of July, 1852, Mr. Downey married Lowisa Ellen Hand. The children by this marriage are Merritt R., William A., Mary, Ann Elizabeth, John W., Frank E., Lu Elle, Henry Benjamin and Harvey E. Downey. Of these, William A., Mary
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and John W. Downey, are dead. The living children are with their mother on the homestead place, in Lexington township, on the south of the Mackinaw.
Henson B. Downey died June 29, 1871. He was a member of the Methodist Church for fifteen or twenty years previous to his death, and held the positions of steward, class-leader, exhorter and all the stations on the official board. He was a very high- spirited man, and had a quick temper, which frequently was the cause of difficulty with his friends. But he would always apolo- gize for his anger and try to make amends.
JOHN HANER.
John Haner was born July 3, 1819, in Fayette County, Ohio. His father's name was William Haner, and his mother's name was Jane Steel. His father was of Dutch descent and his mother of Irish. John Haner lived in Fayette County, Ohio, until he was eight years of age, when the family came to Sangamon County, Illinois. After living here one year they came to Macki- naw timber, in the present township of Lexington, in the present county of McLean. This was in the fall of 1828. They went to farming immediately, and had the usual hard times, which the old settlers experienced. In December, 1830, the day before the deep snow, they obtained a large quantity of corn-meal and flour from Cunningham's mill, and it was supposed to be sufficient to last all winter ; but it was only enough for a short time, as they supplied the neighbors, who could not go to mill. After it was gone they pounded corn, and sometimes took it over to old John Patton's hand-mill and ground it there. Many of the families in the neighborhood suffered severely during the deep snow. Not long before the deep snow, Mr. Harrison Foster sold his claim, went to a new piece of ground and built a cabin. The clapboard roof was put on, but the cabin was only partly chinked, and the chimney was built no higher than the mantle-piece. When the deep snow came it nearly covered the cabin on the outside, and nearly filled it on the inside. The bed in which Foster slept had upon it a foot of snow. He arose in the morning and could not put on his moccasins, but drew on his socks and walked nearly a mile and a half down the Mackinaw, on the ice, to his brother's house. The two brothers then went back to bring away the
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family. Sarah Foster was carried on the back of her Uncle William. She clutched hold of his coat, and when they arrived at the latter's house she could not loosen her hold, as her fingers were frozen stiff, and had to be pulled open. The skin on the ends of her fingers and the nails afterwards came off.
During the fall before the deep snow, Charles and John Cox came to Mackinaw timber and put up a log cabin, but as they had no out-buildings, they kept their pigs in one part of the cabin during the winter, while the family lived in the other, a slab par- tition separating them. William Haner, quite as careful, kept his chickens and sheep in the cellar. During that severe winter the Haners had a six-acre patch of shocked corn, and the wind whistled around the shocks, sometimes leaving bare places. When the snow came, a calf was caught in it near one of these shocks, and lived there all winter, the Haners bringing it water; but its ears were frozen off. During that winter the deer came up among the stock and ate with them. The wolves became saucy, impudent and troublesome, and often came to the house and snatched and ran off with what they could find. One of these animals made its home in a shock of corn, but Haner's dog brought it out of those quarters and killed it. At one time a rather awkward mistake occurred. A wolf came up to Joseph Brumhead's house, and he chased it with a shoe-hammer along a path leading to William Haner's, and called to the latter to come out. Haner did so, and hissed on his dog; but the dog mistook the object of the excitement and grabbed an ox by the nose, and the astonished animal whirled around and sent the dog against Haner, and the two went rolling into the snow. But Haner re- covered himself in a moment and pointed out the wolf, which was soon brought down. In the fall of 1831, William Haner built a horse-mill on the Mackinaw. A few years later, John Haner, sr., the father of the former, built a water-mill, and for many years Haner's mills ground the wheat and corn for a large section of country around.
John Haner, jr., of whom we are writing, tells some interest- ing matters concerning the Black Hawk war. During that ex- citing time the settlers collected at the house of John Henline. While there a great scare occurred, and it was thought that the Indians had come. The people in the house were ordered away
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from the walls to let the soldiers have a chance to shoot, and the children were pitched into the middle of the floor. John Haner, then a child, was one of the youngsters who were so roughly hand- led. But at last the men with their guns took the outside of the house. The excitement lasted until nearly morning. The Haner family remained at the Henllne house for nearly a week, then came home, remained two weeks, then took another alarm and went to Bloomington, and stayed at the house of Mr. Goodheart.
Many practical jokes were played by the settlers during the Black Hawk troubles. George Spawr played a wicked trick upon his father, Valentine Spawr. Whhile the old gentleman was ab- sent, George tied strings around his feet and walked around the house, leaving tracks resembling those made by Indian mocca- sins ; then he shot a few bullet-holes through the door and left. The old gentleman came home, saw the bullet-holes and tracks, and the more he looked at them the more his hair began to rise. At last he started on the run for the Henline fort, and as he was rather fleshy his movements were by no means graceful. While he was erossing a creek near by on a high log, the wicked George fired a gun. This caused the old gentleman to make a misstep, and he fell into the water. But he scrambled out and went to the fort. Notwithstanding his scare, the cheery old gentleman did not lose heart, but congratulated himself that, though in his fall he had " got his lower body wet, he had kept his upper body dry."
The youthful sons and daughters of the early settlers of course had their affairs of the heart; but as they worked very hard they had little time to think of such matters, and did not attend to them in the way their sons and daughters have learned to do since. It is said that Moses Patton once traveled twelve miles to visit the daughter of Mr. Allen, in Old Town timber. He sat up with her until midnight, but could scarcely master courage to say a word. At last he turned to her and said in a scarey way ; " I s'pose you think I'm a long time a com-men-ein !" She made some evasive answer, and after a while he retired for the night. The next morning he asked if he might call again, and she re- plied, that " if he had no more to say the next time, she hardly thought it would be worth while for him to come twelve miles to tell it !"
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John Haner married, May 28, 1839, Miss Caroline Bull, who was born in Indiana, and came to Illinois in the fall of 1837. They have had eight children, of whom seven are living, and three are married. They are :
Esther Jane, wife of Herbert Cool, lives in Keelsville, Chero- kee County, Kansas.
Mary Ellen, wife of Thomas Davis, lives in Blue Mound township.
William Haner lives in Cherokee County, Kansas.
Merritt Steel, Jessie Edwin, Charles Luther and Maggie May (the pet), all live at home.
John Haner is six feet in height, has rather a broad face and bluish-gray eyes. He seems a very modest man, has a peaceable disposition, and is, no doubt, on the best terms with his neigh- bors. The humorous stories which he has related show that the love of fun is strong within him, and his amiable and accom- plished lady is not far behind him in this respect. He is a man of good development of muscle, and has never been afraid to work. He has been very successful in life and manages his prop- erty well.
BENJAMIN WILEY PATTON.
Benjamin Patton was born June 18, 1817, in Kentucky, in Garret County (he thinks). His father's name was Jolin Patton, and his mother's maiden name was Margaret Wiley. John Pat- ton was of Irish descent, and his wife was probably of English and Welch. He was quite a genius, and master of a number of trades and professions. He was a farmer, mechanic, gunsmith and blacksmith. He made ploughs, both the iron work and the wood work, and made household furniture, all that was necessary for the family. He was a professor of religion and a member of the Methodist Church, and his house at Mackinaw timber was a preaching place for many years.
When Benjamin Patton was less than a year old, his parents left Kentucky, where he was born, and came to Switzerland County, Indiana, and there remained until they came to Illinois, which was in the fall of 1828. They came with two teams (two yoke of oxen and four horses). Benjamin was obliged to walk and drive the cattle, and as he wore light shoes, the exercise
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chafed his feet so severely that his two great toe-nails came off. The family arrived at Old Town timber in November, and went into an old round log house, without chinking or chimney, and there remained during the winter. Mr. Patton, sr., cut logs to build a house at Buckles' Grove, but changed his mind as to his location, and went to Mackinaw timber. There the Patton family lived for a while in a deserted wigwam of the old Indian town. It was a queer structure, built up on all sides, with a hole in the top for the smoke of a fire inside to pass out.
Benjamin Patton has experienced the hardships common to the old settlers. He married, October 13, 1839, Mary Ann Con- over. He has had no children. He is full six feet in height, is rather spare in build. He appears to have succeeded very well in life.
PATRICK HOPKINS.
Patrick Hopkins was born June 11, 1799, in Sussex County, Delaware. His father's name was Robert Hopkins, and his mother's maiden name was Nancy Spence. His father was of Welch descent and his mother of Scotch. His father was a farmer, plain and unassuming in his manner, though rather im- posing in appearance, as he weighed about two hundred and twenty pounds. Mrs. Hopkins, the mother of Patrick, was a smart, energetic, little woman. So far as her person was con- cerned, she would hardly bear down the scales against her hus- band, as she only weighed ninety-four pounds. But what she lacked in size she made up in spirit and energy. She was a good deal of a theologian and would discuss religious matters with any one who chose to test her argumentative powers. She and her husband were both members of the Methodist Church. There were nine children of the Hopkins family, five boys and four girls ; they all lived to be grown and, like their parents, have led an unassuming and retired life.
In 1806, the Hopkins family went to Woodford County, Ken- tucky. There Robert Hopkins bought a farm and lived on it until 1814.
Patrick Hopkins had few opportunities of obtaining an educa- tion, and he has been obliged to make his way in the world with the benefit of only forty days schooling.
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In the fall of 1814, the Hopkins family moved to Clark County, Indiana, among the deer, bear and Indians. In 1817, Patrick went to Georgetown, Kentucky, to learn the bricklaving trade. In 1820, he came back to Clark county and married Mary Bartholomew. During the following year, he moved to Owen County, where he laid brick and worked a small farm. In 1830, he came with his wife and four children to the head waters of the Mackinaw, in what was then Tazewell County, Illinois. He raised a cabin and in the following year broke prairie for a farm. He lived very quietly until 1832. when the Black Hawk war broke out. In those days, the settlers were liable to take a scare at any moment, as it was very hard to obtain correct news from the seat of war. One of the neighbors, named Bartholomew, an old Indian fighter and formerly a soldier in Wayne's army, ad- vised the settlers to build a fort, which they did on the place where John B. Dawson now lives. On the day before the settlers collected in the fort, Mr. Hopkins was alarmed by the barking of dogs and thought the Indians had certainly come, but concluded to fight not only for his family but also for his horses, and took his gun and went to the barn ; but the alarm was false. On the following day, the families of the settlers went to the fort, and Mr. Hopkins went with a company collected by Mr. Bartholomew to Indian Grove, where the Kickapoos were encamped, to see whether the latter were disposed to be hostile. The Indians had just returned from their winter quarters and were very friendly. They were, when the whites arrived, collecting food, and in the evening came to camp with all kinds of game, from a snipe to a raccoon. They treated the whites with great courtesy, took charge of their horses, put strong halters on them, and set two men to guard them through the night. The party that evening witnessed some religious ceremonies, which were carried on by Indians who were converted to Christianity. All were seated on the ground, except the leader, and they sang and exhorted for a long time. At last the leader took his seat, and then occurred a singular ceremony. An Indian stepped forward and asked to be whipped for the sins he had committed during the week, and drew his garment over his head, exposing his bare back. Four- teen stripes were given him by three Indians near by, with smooth hickory rods about three feet long. The stripes were received
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without a movement to indicate pain. This example was fol- lowed by fifty others, who received fourteen or twenty-eight stripes laid on with such force that any one of them left a mark. The stripes were administered by three Indians. When fourteen stripes were called for, the first Indian gave seven, the second four and the last three. When twenty-eight stripes were called for, the first Indian gave fourteen, the second seven and the last seven. When each applicant for stripes had been whipped, he turned around and shook hands with the men who bore the rods. The interpreter told the whites, who were looking on, that these stripes were given because of disobedience to the commands of the Great Spirit during the week.
In the spring of 1833 he put up a log cabin in Lexington township, on the farm now known as the Lemuel Biggs place. When he first moved into it, his chickens roosted on the partly built wooden chimney. One evening, while he was holding fam- ily worship, an owl took a chicken from the chimney; but as the fowl was heavy, both birds came down in the yard. Mr. Hopkins says : "I won't say how long I continued the prayer, but it was short. I reached for my gun, glanced along the sights, shot the owl by good luck and released the chicken."
The settlers went sometimes long distances to get their mill- ing done, and were frequently gone eight or ten days. Mr. Hop- kins went to Cheney's Grove, and afterwards to Fox River above ยท Ottawa. At one time he went to mill at Ottawa with William Pope- joy. The latter was a very fair-minded man, but it stirred up his anger if he was imposed on in any way. Mr. Hopkins, on the contrary, would "rather suffer evil than do evil." They were obliged to stay over night at the mill, while waiting for their grist. During the night Mr. Popejoy waked up Mr. Hopkins, saying : "Hopkins, Hopkins, get up, get up, that other man has given the miller fifty cents to grind his grist before ours, and we will miss our connections to-morrow if that is done." Mr. Hopkins aroused himself reluctantly, and Popejoy brought up their corn to put into the hopper as soon as it became empty. "You can't put in that corn," said the miller. "Yes I will." "No you won't, unless you are a better man than I am." When Popejoy heard this, his coat dropped from his shoulders as he stepped up, say- ing: "I never yet failed to whip a mean man." The miller
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stepped around on the other side of the hopper! The corn was ground on time, and Popejoy and Hopkins made their connec- tions.
Mr. Hopkins' wife died August 29, 1839. She was a very kind lady and their marriage was a happy one. They had five children, one of whom was born in Illinois. They are two sons and three daughters, and are all married. Mr. Hopkins married, November 15, 1847, near Pleasant Hill, Matilda Smith, daughter of William and Obedience Smith. They have had no children. They have lived together very happily. In 1867 Mr. Hopkins moved to Lexington, where he has resided ever since.
Patrick Hopkins is five feet and eleven and a half inches in height. He has a full head of hair, which is now nearly white. He wears glasses while reading, though the sight of his right eye is very good. He lost the use of his left eye in 1842, when it was struck by a branch of a tree while he was going through the timber. His health is now pretty good, though he has suffered a great deal from the bilious fevers common to the western coun- try in early days. He has not had extraordinary success finan- cially, as the goodness of his heart has too often induced him to become security for men whose obligations he has been obliged to pay. Nevertheless he has plenty to make him comfortable, and is in the happy condition of the man who has neither poverty nor riches.
Mr. Hopkins died February 21st, 1874.
PETER HEFNER.
Peter Hefner, known as "Uncle Peter," was born April 20, 1813, in what was called Pendleton County, Virginia, but is now called Highland County. His father's name was Michael Hefner and his mother's name before her marriage was Barbara Flesher. The Hefner family moved to Fayette County, Ohio, when Peter . was between two and three years of age. As soon as the latter became five or six years of age he showed a disposition for rais- ing stock, and attended to the feeding of the animals, and took notice of all the transactions in stock. This little five-year old infant knew of every cow, pig or sheep bought or sold in the neighborhood and the prices paid. In 1830 the Hefner family moved to Mackinaw timber, Illinois.
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When the family came to this country Mr. Hefner received a fine colt as a present from his father. It was carefully raised and trained, and became the celebrated Tiger Whip, one of the fastest horses in the country. This horse once ran a race, in which were a number of fine racers, and among them was Bald Hornet, rid- den by E. E. Greenman, now of Leroy. Tiger Whip won the race triumphantly. Greenman thought that if fair play could have been had, the Bald Hornet would have come out first best ; but the trouble was that Tiger Whip ran faster. Mr. Hefner once rode Tiger Whip on a queer race. While coming home from Bloomington he chased a prairie chicken, and notwith- standing its long flights he tired it out and caught it. After Mr. Hefner had won some money by the speed of his horse, his uncle Flesher said he considered it a misfortune, for the money obtained in that way would never do any good, and Providence would be sure to bring some misfortune upon Peter, and the lat- ter would learn to drink whisky and to gamble, and would fall into evil ways generally. But nothing of the kind occurred ; the latter never drank the intoxicating fluid nor gambled nor fell into evil ways.
Mr. Hefner went to mill occasionally. He once went to Che- ney's Grove with a load of twenty-five bushels of wheat. There he suceceded in getting two or three bushels ground, but no more for want of water. Then he went to a new steam mill, which was then just in operation in Bloomington, and there two or three bushels more were ground. Then he went to a mill on the Mackinaw, but could get nothing ground at all. Then he went to Ottawa with a full load, and after waiting a week or more, his wheat was ground.
The author is sorry to relate that Mr. Hefner has been occa- sionally "up to his capers." John Messer was once going to mill and was asleep in his wagon, as his slowly moving oxen were plodding along. Peter Hefner and a few other sports made mo- tions at the oxen and gradually turned them around and started them in the opposite direction. They went a mile or more on the back track before Messer discovered the error. He never forgave Peter for this prank.
The settlers were many times in want of the necessaries of life. The Hefner family once thought themselves in luck when
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they obtained the half of a wild hog by active hunting, but they had no salt for cooking it, and Peter started for some. He went to Dry Grove, failed there, went to John Benson's at White Oak Grove, and there found salt and came home, and the Hefner fam- ily had a few "square meals."
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