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 67
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On the 28th of October, 1830, Josiah Horr married Temper- ance Cheney, who was born in Virginia, but left that State while she was very young. They have had eight children, four of whom were born in Illinois. Six lived to be grown. They are :
William Horr, mail agent on the L., B. & M. Railroad.
Elizabeth, wife of David M. Bunn, lives at Williamsburg, Franklin County, Kansas.
Martin Horr, lives about half a mile west of his father.
Abner Horr, lives near Galesburg, Neosho County, Kansas. Sarah Horr, lives at home.
Martha, wife of James E. Wood, lives in Upper Mackinaw, McLean County.
Mr. Horr is six feet in height in his stocking feet. His hair is thick on his head and perfectly white. He has a Roman nose and blue eyes. He is very straight and is still very active. His appearance is impressive, and he possesses great energy and power of endurance. He had a postoffice for some years in his house, but it was discontinued a year ago last April.
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RANDOLPH'S GROVE.
ALFRED MOORE STRINGFIELD.
Mr. Stringfield says that his life has three separate sides to it-the adventurous side, the religious side, and the political side, and he wishes the distinction preserved in writing this sketch. The adventurous part of his life he calls his "rough and ready," and this part is given first. This sketch then begins with
The Rough and Ready of A. M. Stringfield.
Alfred Moore Stringfield was born October 14, 1809, on a farm near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This is the village which gave the name of the celebrated battle fought there during the rebellion. He is of English descent, his ancestors having come to America from England at an early day, When he was very young his parents moved to Huntsville, Alabama, and from there to the Tennessee River, after the war of 1812. There his father kept a farm and a ferryboat, and Alfred, being an active lad, helped to manage it. His father kept two boats, one was large for the purpose of carrying wagons, and one was small for carry- ing men and horses. The small ferryboat was once crowded with horses and passengers, and some of the latter were careless and would not pay attention to Alfred, and the boat upset in ten feet of water. All were fortunately saved after their involun- tary baptism ; and it is to be hoped that they were made wiser for the future.
In 1819 Mr. Stringfield, sr., moved his family to White County, Illinois. In the spring of 1820 he made a visit to San- gamon County, and moved his family there in the fall to a farm within a few miles of Springfield. There he died shortly after his settlement.
In the spring of 1823 Alfred Stringfield came with his brother, Severe Stringfield, and his brother-in-law, Gardner Randolph, to what is now called Blooming Grove. But they located at Ran- dolph's Grove, and there the brothers Stringfield claimed land for their mother. They were the first to break sod at Randolph's Grove. They put up what is called a half-faced camp, that is, a camp made of poles slanting upwards and covered with clap- boards, which had been split or rived out. They were often
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visited by the Indians and wolves, but never suffered much dam- age from either. During the next year their mother, Mrs. Stringfield, came to the grove. From that time until 1827 they worked during summers and rested winters.
In the spring of 1827 Mr. Stringfield went to Galena with teams to draw mineral. In some places the roads were very bad. In crossing the Inlet Swamps, which extended for some miles, they were obliged to carry their goods and draw their wagons over with ropes. By the time they arrived at Rock River the company had increased to seventeen teams and fifty or sixty persons. There they saw many Indians, and Mr. Stringfield be- ing very fleet of foot was induced to try some of the fleetest redskins in a race, He beat them without difficulty, and was the hero of an hour with the squaws. They clustered around him and talked in their strange dialect and pointed their fingers at him, called him captain, and considered him the most wonderful of the Long Knives (white men). He was so popular with them that he made the bargain for the transportation of the wagons across the river for seventy-five cents apiece. When it is con- sidered that the wagons were taken across by placing the wheels in canoes, this will be seen to have been a very advantageous bargain.
They followed the Indian trail to Galena, and there Mr. Stringfield was engaged in teaming, wood-chopping, and what- ever his hands could find to do. In April, 1828, he returned on horseback, and in May he moved five families to Galena, and worked there as before. During the following fall his mother died, and he came back to Randolph's Grove.
In 1829 Mr. Stringfield made two trips to Chicago with droves of hogs. During their second trip the weather was mild and the rivers were cleared of ice. They forded the Illinois River at the rapids, three miles above Ottawa, but on their re- turn from Chicago with a load of salt, they found it frozen over by a cold snap, and crossed it on the ice just above the mouth of Fox River. They took across the unloaded wagon and un- yoked oxen separately, and then rolled over the barrels of salt. The ice was so thin that it cracked under their weight, and in some places the water spurted up. Mr. Stringfield carried the next to the last barrel of salt across on his back, as he declared
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he could do, but was very tired, and would have been very glad to have laid down his load ; but the ice cracked under him, and he saw clearly that if he dropped the barrel the ice would break and Mr. Stringfield and his salt would both go under. So he plucked up his resolution and carried over the salt. He made another trip to Chicago in January, 1830, to move a family there. During his trip he camped out, even in the severest weather, and slept on his shoes to prevent them from freezing® too stiff to wear in the morning.
During the fall before the deep snow, Mr. Stringfield went on a trip to Chicago, and lost two yoke of oxen in a prairie fire. He hunted for them on horseback, but did not find them during that fall. The only result of his exertions was the loss of his palmetto hat, which his horse tore to pieces during one night when Mr. Stringfield was asleep. He did not find his oxen until the March following the deep snow, when he came across them near the head of the Iroquois River, where they had been driven by the fire. They had lived during the winter on brushwood and the stems of trees where some woodmen had been cutting. During the winter of the deep snow, Mr. Stringfield did very little except attend to his stock. He hunted occasionally and caught a few wolves and a great many deer. He caught four deer in one day out of a single pack, within a circuit of five miles, and killed them without shooting. During this winter, Mr. Stringfield, Dr. Wheeler and Jesse Funk, started a deer about one and a-half miles southwest of Dr. Stewart's. It ran into a deep hollow, where Mr. Stringfield followed it and cut its throat with a pocket knife. But it was seen to be a difficult matter to get the deer out of the hollow on to the bank. Mr. Stringfield settled the matter by taking hold of the deer with one hand and twisting the other hand in the horse's tail. The horse then went up the side of the hollow, dragging out with its tail both the hunter and the game. He caught a few wolves, but the crust of snow soon became so hard that they could run around on it and, as Mr. Stringfield says, "make fun of you to your face."
The season following the deep snow was a short one, and the frost came so early in the fall that the corn crop was ruined. During that fall he went with Jesse Funk to Galena with a drove
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of beef cattle, and returned during the latter part of October, when it was bitterly cold. The road had then been marked out by stakes or poles placed in the ground upright, and as far apart as they could be easily seen from one to the other. During the same fall he collected a drove of hogs, and went to Galena with Absalom and Robert Funk, and Robert Stubblefield and a hired hand. The cold was intense and the snow deep. It fell on them at Hennepin and increased until they arrived at Apple River. All of the party returned home except Mr. Stringfield, who re- mained until February. He was at that time a very muscular man, and could shoulder a sack of wheat holding five bushels and five pounds.
Mr. Stringfield does not claim to have been a great hunter, but he was sometimes pretty lively in chasing wolves. He caught four wolves by jumping from his horse and running after then on foot, for he could beat both the Indians and the wolves in foot races. The first wolf was caught in the year 1826. He chased the wolf a mile and a-half on horseback, then jumped off quickly, let his horse go and took after the wolf on foot. After chasing it a hundred yards he made a grab for it, but it turned short around and they ran the same hundred yards back, and just as the animal was going out of a snow drift Mr. Stringfield grabbed it. But it settled its teeth in his arm and he carries the scars to-day. He choked the wolf loose, and the brute grabbed his thumb. He loosened his thumb, tied the wolf, brought it home, and a week afterwards it was killed by dogs at his mother's quilting bee. He afterwards caught wolves with his hands, but always grabbed them by their hindquarters and quickly threshed them on the ground and avoided their teeth. The settlers usually killed them by striking them with a stirrup, or a pole. The wolves were pretty sauey and came prowling around the house at all hours of the night. Mr. Stringfield threw his shoe han- mer through the window at one particularly impudent wolf that followed a sheep to the house during a moonlight evening. He never hunted deer much although they were very plenty. IIe has seen gangs of seventy or eighty deer going out from the timber to the prairie.
Mr. Stringfield was appointed Captain in the Thirty-ninth regiment of State militia by Governor Reynolds in 1832, and of
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course bore his military honors as well as he has ever since borne the military title.
In December, 1834, Mr. Stringfield, Jesse and Absalom and Isaac Funk, collected a drove of pigs, and Mr. Stringfield and James Funk drove them to Chicago. The snow was six or eight inches deep, and in order to make a track in which the pigs could travel, they dragged a forked tree ahead of the drove for fifty or sixty miles, from Money Creek to the Mazon river beyond Pon- tiac, and there they came to a beaten track.
Mr. Stringfield was always on friendly terms with the Indians. They often came to his house, and if they wanted lodging he took them in and treated them well. He never considered them any more dangerous than white men, and thinks that so far as honesty is concerned there is very little choice between them. He frequently trusted them and always got his pay. He once lent an Indian a meal sack, which was returned after being kept two months. He had a high opinion of the honesty of the Kick- apoos and Delawares, but thought the Pottawotomies not so trusty.
The early settlers went first to Sangamon County to do their milling and blacksmithing, and to Springfield for their trading. But after 1830, the course of trade turned to Pekin, Peoria and Chicago. Wheat was drawn to Chicago by oxen until the Illi- nois Central Railroad was built. The loads of wheat taken there were sometimes enormous. Mr. Stringfield has known one hun- dred and sixty bushels to be carried there in two loads, and one enormous load of a hundred bushels was taken through to Chi- cago by oxen.
RELIGIOUS LIFE.
Mr. Stringfield's father was an Episcopalian, and his mother was a Baptist; but the old gentleman once listened to a Metho- dist preacher, and was so pleased with the doctrine and spirit of the Methodist Church that he joined it. He became a strong and earnest member and brought up his family strictly. Mr. A. M. Stringfield followed the example of his father and in his eleventh year became associated with the church, and has re- mained an active, working member ever since. He has taken a great interest in the events connected with the church and re-
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members them very correctly; so much is this the case that he has the reputation of never forgetting anything. The West seemed to be the ground most congenial to Methodism. It came with an irresistible force and gained a foothold which it has never since relinquished. The largest camp-meeting which Mr. Stringfield ever attended was held at Huntsville, Alabama. Bishop Paine, Elder Porter and many other great lights of the church were there. Thomas Stringfield, the brother of A. M. Stringfield, was there and preached to the negroes. The excite- meut among the people rose to a wonderful pitch, and the entire multitude became so moved by the spirit that it was thrown pros- trate as if a hurricane had passed over it. The people jumped about and jerked as if they would throw themselves to pieces, and Mr. Stringfield thinks that this can only be explained by the fact that they were moved by the spirit of the Most High. When he came to White County, Illinois, he attended camp-meetings which were conducted by the Methodists and Cumberland Pres- byterians, and there also he saw great manifestations of feeling, but in a less degree than in Alabama. He also saw some indi- cations of this feeling in camp-meetings in this part of the coun- try, but they were not to be compared to the tremendous mani- festations which he witnessed in Alabama and in White County, Illinois.
POLITICAL LIFE.
Mr. Stringfield, sr., the father of Alfred, was a Revolutionary soldier, who participated in some contests which have become historic. He was at the battle of King's Mountain, and assisted in the capture of Ferguson. In politics the old gentleman called himself a Washingtonian Whig and a Jeffersonian Democrat, and Mr. Stringfield, jr., learned his politics from the school of Jefferson. He formed his opinions after careful thought and patient study, and tried to hold himself independent of all special influences. He believes in a tariff for revenue and not a tariff for protection. In the great contest between Adams and Jeffer- son, Mr. Stringfield believed in the doctrine of an ad valorem tariff, and that a duty should be paid on everything upon which a duty was laid according to the market value of the article. So far as the doctrine of protection is concerned, he thinks that the
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great purchasing interest of the country demands its abolition. He has remained a Democrat ever since he could vote, but in forming his opinions, he has not been bound very closely by the ties of party. So far as any distinction between men is concerned, he is in favor of considering men according to their ability, in- telligence and virtue, regardless of race or color. This is his doctrine, and always has been.
Mr. Stringfield, when he grew to manhood, became married, of course, as a good American citizen should. In 1832 he mar- ried Miss Emily Hand, and his later years has been blessed with a fine family of eight children. He has had ten children, but only eight are living. These are :
Rev. Thomas Clark Stringfield, who lives in Jackson, Pulaski County, Arkansas, twelve miles from Little Rock.
Jesse Funk Stringfield lives with his father.
Mrs. Sarah Lucinda Crose, wife of Alfred F. Crose, lives at Moberly, Missouri.
George Hand Stringfield lives in Hicksville, California.
John Heber Stringfield lives near his father.
Miss Barbara U. Stringfield lives at her father's house.
Mrs. Elizabeth Virginia Crews, wife of A. L. Crews, lives about a mile and a quarter from her father's house.
Miss Mary Ellen Stringfield lives at home.
Alfred M. Stringfield is a man of fine presence. Although advanced in years, he is the picture of health and strength, and seems still possessed of youthful activity and courage. His, voice is clear and distinet, and impresses one with his deeision and firmness. He usually takes the name of Squire, as he has several times been elected justice of the peace. His powers of conversa- tion are remarkable, and command the attention and respect of the listener. He is of medium stature, and has fine, regular features. He has in him the spirit of the genuine old settlers, and thinks that none of the pleasures of cultivated society can be compared to the manly sports of the pioneers. He thinks that human ingenuity cannot devise a sport equal to that of the early settlers, when they put up a pole in some central locality, and hunted towards it from all sides, and cornered the wolves and deer. He thinks that people who live in a town or city know nothing about real life and enjoyment. "The way to obtain
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healthy exercise is to get up in the morning and catch a deer or a wolf-not shoot it, but catch it. That is real natural life, and gives a healthy appetite for breakfast."
THOMAS OFFICER RUTLEDGE.
Thomas O. Rutledge was born September 17, 1806, near Charleston, a little town not far from Augusta, Georgia. His father was Robert Rutledge, and his mother's name before her marriage was Margaret Officer. In about the year 1811, the Rut- ledge family came to Henderson County, Kentucky, where they remained until the year 1820. His father and his uncle, William Rutledge, were both soldiers in the war of 1812. Robert Rut- ledge died in 1819, and during the following year his brother William moved the family to White County, Illinois. Mrs. Rut- ledge had then a great responsibility, for she was obliged to care for a family of eight children. In the fall of 1823, Thomas O. Rutledge made a wagon of wood, without a nail or any piece of iron in it, and obtained a yoke of two-year old steers. With this team he moved the household goods of the family to Sangamon County. There they planted and gathered one crop, and with the little steers and wooden wagon came to Randolph's Grove, in what is now McLean County. Here he cultivated two crops of corn with the steers, using them singly for ploughing it. Mr. Rutledge celebrated the first day of January, 1829, by his mar- riage to Cynthia Rutledge. He obtained his license from Macki- nawtown. Everybody in the grove attended the wedding ; even a lot of Indians came to see how the white men managed these interesting matters. Mrs. Rutledge has been his good wife ever since. She can make the best bread of any woman in MeLean County.
Thomas O. Rutledge was a hard worker, and this was the reason of his success. In 1830 he went to Waynesville, and made rails for Timothy Hoblitt, and his wages for one week's work were three chairs, which he carried home on horseback. The next week he made rails for the same man, and his wages for that and a part of the week following were a spinning-wheel, which he also farried home on his horse. He worked occasion- ally for Jesse unk for fifty cents per day, from 1827 to 1832, and
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earned about five hundred dollars. The wooden wagon, which he made in White County, did him good service in his work, and lasted for fifteen years.
During the winter of the deep snow, Mr. Rutledge had great difficulty in getting wood, and trees were cut by persons who stood on a crust of snow four feet from the ground. When the snow melted away, the stumps appeared six feet high. During that winter the starving deer came up to the stacks of the settlers and were mixed with the cattle. They frequently came up to the house, driven almost crazy with hunger. At one time Mrs. Rutledge picked up a maul and knocked a deer in the head, and killed it right before her door, and she could easily have killed others, but she said they appeared so pitiful that she had not the heart to do it. The deer could be caught anywhere, and they were often found frozen to death while standing. The wild tur- keys, too, suffered severely, and some of them came into Mr. Rutledge's yard, and ate with his chickens.
In 1832 the Black Hawk war broke out, and Mr. Rutledge enlisted in the company commanded first by Merritt Covel. They went first to Pekin, where they were organized, and then marched to Fort Clark, (Peoria,) where they drew two days rations, and marched to Dixon. There they were mustered into the regular service, and spent five or six days in training. Then they drew five days rations, and were sent out as a scouting party under the command of Major Stillman, (afterwards General,) who com- manded a battalion of about two hundred and fifty men. They started up Rock River to find the Indians, and probably not one in the party thought of the possibility of a fight. They wished to find the Indians, and in this they certainly succeeded. During the second day in the afternoon they came to a halt, and knocked in the head of the barrel of whisky which they had brought with them, and all filled their canteens with the precious fluid. Then they moved forward, from three to five miles, and crossed Old Man's Creek. Since the fight which occurred that day, the creek has usually been called Stillman's Run. It was about thirty-five miles from Dixon, and at the point where the volunteers crossed it, was a bend, concave towards the north. 'In that bend they stacked their baggage and expected to go into camp. The guards had been posted, and the men had, most of them, unsaddled their
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horses, when orders came to fall into line. The guards in front had caught sight of some Indians who were on the look out, and gave them chase. They killed one, captured two or three, and chased the remainder into Black Hawk's camp on the Kishwaukee River, (called by some Sycamore Creek,) about five miles from Stillman's Run. When the guards returned, the men fell into line, but even then they hardly expected a fight. They moved forward to the top of a hill on the prairie, where they halted and raised a white flag. Immediately an Indian appeared about three-quarters of a distant bearing an enormous red flag. Then the whites advanced a short distance and faced to the right, which made them four men deep, and dismounted to see that their guns were in good condition. Here a parley occurred between the Indians and whites, each party sending out a man to hold a consultation, and in the meanwhile the Indians took down their red flag. But the parley soon ceased and Mr. Rutledge never knew what took place or what was said between the two parties who talked the matter over. But when it ended the volunteers were told to be ready for fight. They then awaited the attack and before long the Indians began to fire and yell at them directly in front. It seems that while the whites had been halting and holding a parley and losing time the Indians had been preparing for an attack, and this was the cause of the willingness of the savages to talk and display their red flag and attract their attention. When the Indians began firing and whooping in front, the first line of volunteers fired and wheeled to reload. Then the Indians appeared on each side almost in the rear on their ponies and came down on the volunteers, whooping and firing their guns. Major Stillman ordered the vol- unteers to mount and retreat, and as soon as they were mounted he ordered them to break the line of the Indians on the left. " Then," said Mr. Rutledge, "right there was a confusion." The two Indian prisoners began to whoop in answer to those making the attack, and the guards shot them down. The volunteers paid no attention to the order to break the line of the Indians on the left, but went, as Mr. Rutledge says, "right square for home." Joe Draper, a private, was shot, and Mr. Rutledge saw him fall. It was there, too, Mr. Rutledge says, that William McCullough caught the gun of an Indian who was pointing it at him and dropped his own. The whites rushed on to Stillman's Run with
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the Indians after them, but as the former were better mounted they distanced their pursners. The creek was crossed in confu- sion ; some jumped their horses while some were obliged to dis- mount and climb the bank. Mr. Rutledge was not obliged to dismount as his horse jumped the creek in fine style. A few of the Indians followed the volunteers across the creek, but the most of them stopped to plunder the baggage which had been piled up convenient for them. The whites ran every man for himself to Dixon's Ferry. They lost but few men in the affair. Joe Draper was shot in the retreat, but in the dusk of the evening he crawled away and lived some days afterward, and when his body was found he had marked his adventures and wanderings on his can- teen. Andrew Dickey was shot at the creek through the thigh, but crawled under the bank and escaped. Mr. Hackelton, who was also wounded, crawled under the bank. Captain Adams had his horse shot from under him before the retreat commenced, but he ran back, crossed the creek, and went three-quarters of a mile from it towards Dixon's Ferry when he was overtaken by Indians and killed ; but he sold his life for something, and killed one or two of the Indians who followed him. Major Perkins was over- taken and killed about a mile and a half from the creek ; he was probably delayed in crossing it. Seven or eight of the Indians were killed and buried; this Mr. Rutledge knows positively. It was in the twilight of the evening when the fight at Stillman's Run took place. That night the volunteers made quick time for Dixon's Ferry, thirty-five miles distant, but became badly scat- tered. When Mr. Rutledge was within eight or ten miles of Dixon he found himself with a little squad of five men. They halted until daylight ; then calculated their course and came into Dixon's Ferry at about ten o'clock. There they found something to eat and by eleven o'clock (Mr. Rutledge thinks,) started back to the battle-field with the remainder of the army and the rein- forcements, which had been coming in while they were gone. They buried the dead. While on the field of Stillman's Run they received the news of the massacre of three families on Indian Creek; those of Davis, Hall and Pettigrew, he thinks, and the capture of the two young ladies, Sylvia and Rachel Hall. They went to Indian Creek and buried those who were massacred, and tried to follow the trail of the Indians in order to recapture the
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