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 73
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George Martin has had six children in his family, one of whom is dead.
They are:
Zebulon Alonzo, a stepson, Joseph T., James N., Margaret M. J. and Andrew C. W. Martin.
TOWANDA.
JESSE WALDEN.
Jesse Walden was born February 12, 1808, in Woodford County, Kentucky. His father, Elijah Walden, was American born, but of English descent, and his mother, whose maiden name was Sally Walker, was born in Hanover County, Virginia, but was of Welch descent.
When Jesse Walden was five or six years of age, the family moved to Clark County, Indiana, near Charlestown, and there remained until they came to Illinois. Mr. Walden, sr., was a very religious man and a member of the Methodist Church, and his brother was a Methodist preacher. Jesse was therefore very carefully and very religiously reared. This, however, did not prevent the growth of boyish vanity. When he became old enough to own a Handkerchief and some store clothes he thought himself of great consequence in the universe of God. HIe and a friend, while looking very pretty in their new garments, crossed a creek near by in a perogue (large canoe,) and on their return jumped into the water to prevent themselves from going over the dam. The store clothes had to suffer.
On the 28th of July, 1828, Jesse Walden married Elizabeth Pike, in Casey County, on the Green Brier Ridges, and in the fall of 1828, he started to Illinois. When he arrived in San- gamon County, about eight miles east of Springfield, he had but seven dollars in his pocket. He spent half of this for cooking utensils, and half to put his gun in order for the purpose of killing prairie chickens, turkeys and wild hogs. It is interest-
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ing to know how a man under such circumstances could manage. HIe first helped a neighbor build a house, for which service he received a wagon; then he built a log house for himself, except the roof; then he traded his wagon and a bureau, which he had brought with him, for a claim on which was a cabin and twelve acres of improved land. This he rented to a new comer for twelve bushels of corn per acre. He sold the logs for the house on his own improvement, and rented a place and a team to work it, paying one-half of the crop as rent, and thus became fairly started. Such was the ingenuity of a man who began with almost nothing. IIe raised a crop and sold his half in the field for three head of cattle, sold his improved claim for a horse and a mileh cow, and moved to Blooming Grove. This was in 1829.
Here he lived, near his uncle William Walker's, until after the deep snow.
In the spring of 1831, Mr. Walden moved to the southern edge of Money Creek timber to a farm rented of Jacob Spawr, and there remained for three years. Mr. Walden speaks par- ticularly of the frights occasioned during the Black Hawk war, and especially the scare at the close, when the rangers returned and fired off their guns in the timber.
Mr. Walden moved from Jacob Spawr's place to the north- east side of Money Creek, where Jesse Trimmer lives. In 1834, while hunting with a party in the Mackinaw barrens, and while in camp there at night, they saw the falling of the meteors and almost concluded that the day of judgment had come.
He lived on his claim, near the present Trimmer place, for three years, then three years in Mackinaw timber, then three years at Randolph's Grove, and then moved to Smith's Grove, about three miles from the present village of Towanda, and there he has lived ever since. The great sudden change in the weather took place in December, 1836, while Mr. Walden lived at Mackinaw timber. He was about a mile and a-half from home, but jumped on his horse and started on the full run, the intense cold freezing the slush as he traveled. As he passed a slough near his house he saw a lot of pigs belonging to his neighbor Bartholomew, frozen fast in it. When he arrived home, he could scarcely pull off his overcoat as it was frozen fast. Mr. Bartholomew was obliged to chop his pigs loose from
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the ice to get them out. During this sudden change, William Walden, the brother of Jesse, came across the prairie on foot, and the water plashed on his trousers and froze on them so rapidly that he was obliged to cut off his pantaloons below the knee in order to travel. He was driving an ox-team and had a friend with him who wished to resign himself to fate and die, but William pitched the man into the wagon and brought him home.
Jesse Walden succeeded well and accumulated some prop- erty ; but about four years ago he lost his health, and his finan- cial matters also suffered, but he still in good circumstances.
Mrs. Walden died August 10, 1867. She was a good woman, and to her Mr. Walden no doubt owes in a great measure the success he has met with in life. Ten children were born of this marriage. They are :
John Walden, born Angust 9, 1828, in Indiana, and brought to Illinois when only seven weeks old. He is a mechanic, and lives one mile south of Bloomington.
William Louis Walden, born March 24, 1830, was a soldier in the army during the rebellion. He died in March, 1869, at Pleasant Hill.
James Walden died in early youth.
George Wesley Walden, born September 16, 1834, lives at Chenoa.
Jesse Wallace Walden, born September 10, 1836, is a farmer, and lives five or six miles northeast of Lexington.
Martha Elizabeth died in infancy.
Archy Walden was a soldier in the army. He enlisted at the outbreak of the war in the First Illinois Cavalry, in the company commanded by Captain (afterwards General) McNulta. He lives near his father's on the homestead place.
Henry Walden, born June 5, 1842, lives in Blue Mound township.
Sarah Jane, wife of John Kerr, lives near her father's on the homestead place.
Albert Walden, born July 13, 1851, is a farmer and lives on the Mackinaw in Gridley township.
Jesse Walden married January 14, 1869, Mrs. Sarah Mc- Corkle. She is a woman of tact and fine sense and enjoys her-
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self in polite society. Mr. Walden is about five feet and a-half in height, but appears somewhat taller. He has been somewhat heavy, weighing one hundred and ninety pounds. He is rather slow of speech, his eyes are small but expressive, and his nose is somewhat prominent. He is very humorous and likes to plague people, particularly young ladies, in a good natured way. He is a very companionable man, and one of the best known among the early settlers.
WHITE OAK.
JOHN BENSON, SR.
John Benson was born in York County, Pennsylvania, March 1, 1778. He was the eldest of ten children, two only of whom are now living. His father was born in Derry County, Ireland, and his mother, whose maiden name was Mollie Taylor, was born in York County, Pennsylvania. Her parents had emigrated from Ireland at an early day. His father, James Benson, was a private soldier in the Continental army, and fought gallantly for Ameri- can independence. He was taken prisoner at Fort Washington, Col. Magraw commanding, and was confined for a long time on board of a prison-ship, at Philadelphia. James Benson was a farmer, but being anxious to better his condition, he removed to Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, when young John was only three years of age. In 1785, he moved to MeClellan's Station, Bourbon County, Kentucky. At this place John received all of his schooling, which was none too much. He was taught to spell by an old bachelor Englishman, out of Dillworth's spelling-book. At the age of twelve his education was finished, and although it was not very much, it was not by any means to be despised in those days. Those were pioneer days in Kentucky. James Benson hauled the logs to build the first house in Paris, Bour- bon County. In 1795, James Benson removed his family to John Mills Station, (now Millersburg,) Nicholas County, Ken- tucky, where he died. On the sixth of October, 1803, John Benson married Sallie Music, at the residence of Colonel Robert Berry. He at once removed to near Stirling, Montgomery Coun- ty, where he was engaged in the tanning business. Three years after this he removed to Gibson County, Indiana.
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John Benson was a soldier in the war of 1812, and fought at Tippecanoe under General Harrison. He says that the Indians had been committing some depredations when Harrison was sent to Tippecanoe with orders not to fight unless it was necessary. The Indians were found drawn up in line of battle, but they sig- nified their willingness to make peace. The whites asked for a place to camp, and the Indians showed them a position which seemed very poor for defence in case of an attack, and a better locality was chosen. Some of the Indians followed the whites, and asked if they had any cannon, and when told "yes," said they knew better. The whites confined a man whom they thought to be a spy, until the battle was over. They lay on their arms that night, and were furiously attacked by Indians in the morn- ing at about two hours before daybreak. The Indians made four separate attacks, and drove the whites back to their horses, but could drive them no farther. The Indians retreated just at day- break, but the whites considered themselves about half whipped. The battle lasted two hours and five minutes by the watch.
Mr. Benson remained in Gibson County, Indiana, until 1820, when he removed to that part of the county of Sangamon, which now forms Logan County, Illinois. He arrived November 6th, with his brother-in-law, Asa Music. Here he rented a cabin and went to work. He cultivated a garden with ox'es shoes ! We have heard of a great many kinds of agricultural implements, but this is the first time we ever heard of ox'es shoes being put to such novel service. The crops were fine, and everything would have been satisfactory had it not been for the fever and ague. The little settlement there consisted of three families only, and the loss of Mr. Benson's daughter Polly, a young lady between seventeen and eighteen years of age, cast a shadow over them all. But the settlers seemed contented with their lot; the game fur- nished meat, and the groves furnished honey. Mr. Benson had some experience as a peddler. He peddled all over Illinois, flax- wheels, which he took on a debt from his brother William.
Mr. Benson states a curious circumstance about the domesti- cation of the hog. The year before he removed to Illinois, he came out to the State with his brother-in-law and brought a load of hogs. They lost some on the way, and those that were taken through to Illinois became in one year so wild that they had to
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be shot to be saved. If he had not shot them, probably he would have had no more claim on them than on the wild deer. In 1823 he removed to Blooming Grove and entered the farm now owned by Andrew Scoggin. He was preceded a year or more by John Dawson and John Hendrix. Thomas Orendorff came during the spring of that year. They assisted Mr. Benson in raising his cabin.
Mr. Benson has a lively recollection of the Indians. Old Machina, the chief of the Kickapoos, often sang lullabys to his children. With the Indians the culinary art is still in its infancy. On one occasion old Machina came to Mr. Benson's house with a deer which he had killed, and borrowed a kettle to cook a part of it. He cut off the head and boiled it for a short time, and then made a broth by mixing in some meal. It was a mixture which no one but an Indian could eat, and Mr. Benson, jr., says he could not eat broth for twenty years afterwards, because of the recollection of that Indian mixture.
Mr. Benson was a live farmer. Agricultural implements were not easy to obtain in those primitive days, and he had some diffi- culty in getting a plow. But he finally had one made by Mr. MeKnight, of Elkhart Grove; the iron work was done by Mr. White. The mouldboard and shear of the plow were all in one piece. It would be quite a curiosity now. The team which drew the plow would also be a curiosity. It consisted of two small horses and two small steers. The horses took the lead, while the steers were attached directly to the plow. With this queer ar- rangement he broke thirteen acres of prairie during the first year.
John Benson, sr., taught school two winters in Blooming Grove. He taught one session of three months and one of six months, on the south side of the grove, about a mile east of Cap- tain Scoggin's place. He thinks he was the first teacher at the grove. Another man, Dr. Trabue, taught at the same time on the east side of the grove.
In September, 1828, was held the first protracted meeting at the house of Ebenezer Rhodes. The services were conducted by Mr. Pankas, from Loudon County, Virginia, assisted by Mr. John Green, of Morgan County, Illinois ; both were New Light preachers. The meeting was attended by the settlers from far
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and near. Mrs. Benson, young James Benson, and four others, joined the church, and an organization was formed which met alternately at Mr. Benson's and at Mr. Josiah Brown's, of Dry Grove. Ebenezer Rhodes was their pastor for many years, as- sisted by Mr. James Scott, of Kickapoo.
The carly settlers paid very little attention to literature. All of their exertions were required in getting a start in the world. Mr. Benson's library consisted of a bible, a testament, a life of Washington, and McCarty's history of the late war.
In the spring of 1825 there occurred an event in McLean County in which ladies will be particularly interested. It was a wedding, the first which had ever been celebrated in the county where white people were the parties. We have no doubt that often before this the Indian lover had won his dusky maiden and celebrated the happy event in his own peculiar manner; but never before had there been here a genuine white man's wedding. The parties were Thomas Orendorff and Melinda Walker. We have no particulars with regard to the affair. Jenkins was not there to describe the dresses worn and comment on the appear- ance of the bride. We have no doubt she appeared charming enough. Ladies always do; they seem to understand such matters.
In the early days the incidents which now would impress us so little seemed to the pioneers to be great events. Mr. Benson remembers what an import element of commerce beeswax was, as it was gathered from the bee-trees in the groves.
Mr. Benson and his son assisted James Allin in raising his double log cabin, the first house built on the original site of Bloomington. Mr. Allin first intended to use Mr. Benson's house as a store, but was dissuaded from this because some of the neighbors did not like it, as Mr. Benson was a Whig. Mr. Benson has a lively recollection of the winter of the deep snow, in 1830-1, and thinks that on account of the deep snow the farmers of McLean County have never been able to make fall wheat yield a fair return.
On the fourteenth of November, 1841, the wife of Mr. Ben- son died at Blooming Grove, and as his sons had moved to White Oak, he also removed thither. On the twenty-third of May, 1842, he married Elizabeth Waldron, of Bowling Green, Illinois, who died in August, 1871.
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Mr. Benson was treasurer of Tazewell County in 1827. He was very quick with his pen, and a correct speller, and these were considered great accomplishments in early days. He was treasurer for only one year, and assessor as well.
Mr. Benson now lives with his son John at White Oak, sur- rounded by his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, numbering one hundred and fifteen persons. His three sons now living, John, James and William, are old, gray-headed men, surrounded by their children and grandchildren. They might form a community by themselves, as they live on adjoining farms. The old gentleman was ninety-six years of age in March, 1874, the oldest man in the county. In manner he is pleasing and affable, though somewhat dignified. He is about five feet and four inches in height, and his form is somewhat bowed with age. In other days he was five feet and six and one-half inches in height. His form is not heavy, on the contrary, a little thin. His hair is now very white, as might be expected ; his features are clearly defined and regular. In dress Mr. Benson was al- ways plain ; he never wore boots until he was sixty years of age. He formerly wore the garb so common with the pioneers, a wolf skin'cap, a hunting shirt and buckskin breeches. In fall and winter he wore moccasins, but in summer he went barefooted, and frequently used his bare feet to stamp out the prairie fire. He lost his eyesight when forty-one years of age, and regained it when sixty-five. He was always remarkable for his intrepidity and his adventurous spirit. IIe is still in good health, and often walks two or three miles in a day.
JOHN BENSON, JR.
John Benson, jr., was born October 12, 1807, in Gibson County, Indiana. He lived there until he was twelve years old, and then went with the Benson family to Illinois, to that part of Sangamon County which now forms the county of Logan. In 1823 the family moved to Blooming Grove, to the place now oc- cupied by Andrew W. Scoggin. Old Mr. Benson and his sons James, Jesse and John, had made an improvement at Bloom- ing Grove, and John Benson, jr., returned with his father and brought up the family. They had a hard time at first, as they were obliged to pay a dollar a bushel for corn, and earn the money by splitting rails for fifty cents per hundred.
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John Benson, jr., was a great bee hunter. The first bee tree he found was on Salt Creek, and out of it he obtained three gal- lons of honey. On the day following he found a tree, out of which he took six gallons of honey and eight pounds of bees- wax, and after that he found many trees and much honey. In a single limb of a tree he at one time found two swarms of bees. He frequently went to the Vermilion River towards Pontiac and brought home a barrel of honey for his pains.
Mr. Benson often had wolf chases, which furnished great amusement. At one time when he and Thomas Orendorff were near Major's Grove, a wolf appeared near by, sitting on the ground and looking at them impudently. Mr. Benson ran after it and struck it down with an ear of corn, and Orendorff fol- lowed and killed it.
When Mr. Benson was twenty-one years of age, he started with the Funks to drive pigs to Galena. He stopped in Peoria about two weeks, and while there witnessed a little misunder- standing, which sprang up between a Dutchman and a negro, and was settled in the way in which too many such matters were attended to in those days. They fought it out. The Dutchman threw the negro down, but unfortunately allowed his thumb to be inserted in the negro's mouth. Some of the bystanders called out, "Let's part them." "No," said another, "let them fight it out ; one's a Dutchman and the other's a nigger !" But the par- ties to the misunderstanding thought they had done enough for the amusement of the crowd, and stopped.
The Funks had a hard time in moving their pigs, which broke through the ice in the Illinois River. Jacob and Jesse Funk went after them waist deep in water ; but notwithstanding all their exertions, two of the pigs were drowned. A heavy fall of snow made it difficult to travel, and a wagon going before made a track for the pigs to walk. When the party came to the head of Crow Creek the weather was intensely cold, and all but one of the party was frost-bitten. Here old John Dixon lived. He was the pioneer who afterwards moved to Rock River. By this time Mr. Benson found that he had enough of it, and re- turned to Blooming Grove, while the remainder of the party went on to Galena.
Mr. Benson sent eleven hogs with the "bunch," that was taken to Chicago, when all of the farmers clubbed together.
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They stopped at Big Sulphur Springs for several weeks, on ac- count of a sleet storm, which made it impossible to travel. The cold was intense, and the men in charge of the swine were ob- liged to stand guard to prevent the pigs from piling one on top of another, and crushing those beneath them. to death.
Mr. Benson remembers some queer incidents of old days. One strange genius, called Jake, liked to exaggerate very much, in order to make his entertaining stories better appreciated. Once, while a number of hands were working in a field, Jake was sent for water, and during his absence one of them killed a prairie rattlesnake, and they resolved to tell some big snake stories when Jake came back, in order to draw him out. On his return, one of the party told of the mountain rattlesnakes of Tennessee. Jake roused up and said that when he lived in Ohio, the people were troubled by an enormous snake which they could not kill or catch. At last they drove an ox to the hole of the serpent, which immediately swallowed up the "critter" alive. This made the snake so sluggish that people came up with their rifles and shot it again and again until they killed it. This story was not disputed. Jake once told of a large turkey which came into his field, while he was harvesting, and troubled him by eating his grain. He killed it, and it was so large that when its neck was stragihtened over his shoulders its feet dragged in the snow. This story also remained undisputed, though the idea of snow in harvest seemed rather queer.
Mr. Benson was in the Black Hawk war, in 1832, having en- listed in Captain McClure's company. They elected their officers at Pekin, and proceeded from there to Peoria and thence on to Dixon's Ferry. On the morning after Stillman's Run, Mr. Benson went up with the army to the scene of the disaster, and helped to bury the dead. The evening of that day in spring time he stood picket without fire or blanket, and was wakeful enough, as may be supposed. Among the funny stories told of Stillman's Run, is one relating to a man named Vesey. A short time before the fight occurred, a lot of whisky was distributed among the soldiers, and they seemed to think as much of this enticing beverage as of their lives. Mr. Vesey carried his whisky in a coffee-pot, which he handled most tenderly. At one time when he found a chance to give the Indians a shot he dismounted,
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put down his coffee-pot carefully, fired at the Indians, picked up his coffee-pot tenderly, remounted his horse and rode away. The army returned to Dixon's Ferry, and three companies went from there to Ottawa. The day after their arrival at the latter place Captain McClure's company and a few other volunteers went up to Indian Creek and buried the murdered families of Davis, Hall and Pettigrew, which had been previously buried in a shallow grave by the house. After building a fort at Otta- wa, the soldiers were mustered out of service.
Mr. Benson has since lived happily at White Oak Grove, where he still resides, without any other remarkable adventure. His domestic life has been very pleasant. In 1830 he married Penina Hinshaw, with whom he has lived most happily ever since. He has had twelve children, of whom nine are living. They are :
Mrs. Mary M. Arnold, wife of J. W. Arnold, lives at Eureka in Woodford County.
Robert Music Benson was a soldier in the Thirty-third Illi- nois Volunteers. He was wounded in the face at Vicksburg. He now lives in Bloomington.
Phillip Young Benson was also in the Thirty-third Illinois. He lives now about four miles east of his father's.
Mrs. Penina Ann Conger, wife of John D. Conger, lives at Eldora, Hardin County, Iowa.
Mrs. Sarah Brown, wife of Wiley Brown, lives in Bloom- ington.
Mrs. Lydia Ellen Smith, wife of Frank Smith, lived at El- dora, Hardin County, Iowa. She died July 9, 1873.
Miss Addie Benson lives at her father's house.
Mrs. Lucy F. Smales, wife of Charles H. Smales, lives in Hancock County, Illinois.
Emmett Lee Benson lives at home.
Mr. Benson is five feet and five inches in height, is quite bald, is very healthy, has small, humorous eyes, is strong, active and industrious, loves fun, and indeed no one appreciates a joke bet- ter than he. He remembere clearly and distinctly the events of the past, and his intellect is not impaired by age. He sings to his grandchildren the song he learned of the Indian chief of the Kickapoos, Machina. It was not much of a song, and was
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hummed in a monotonous way by Machina to the little white pappooses, who sat on his knee. It ran ; "He-o, he-o, me-yok-o- nee, me-yok-o-nee," continually repeated. Mr. Benson has a peculiarly pleasing and cheerful expression of countenance, and has hardly an enemy in the world.
JAMES BENSON.
James Benson was born October 26, 1805, in Montgomery County, Kentucky. When he was only fifteen months old, the Benson family moved to Indiana, to that part of Knox County, which is now Gibson County, where they remained until 1820. In that year they moved to Illinois, to that part of Sangamon County which now forms the County of Logan, and there went to farming.
In January, 1821, James Benson went on a bee hunt to Salt Creek, and found what would be considered by bee hunters a great curiosity. It was a tree absolutely deserted by bees, but containing more than three gallons of candied honey. During the following March, he went to Kickapoo Creek on a bee hunt with a man named Campbell and another. Campbell found the first three trees and seemed to be in luck, but Benson followed up the matter well, and found a linn tree with a hollow contain- ing a gallon of honey, and then a white oak containing ten gal- lons. Large flakes of honey, two feet broad, were taken out. He found next a black walnut tree which had been stripped of its bark by Indians who wished to make wigwams. When the tree died, it shrank, and various weather checks appeared, and through them the bees went to the hollow within and filled it with honey. The hunters took out of it seven or eight gallons of honey. The next tree was a burr oak with a hollow about thirty feet from the ground, and out of this they took eight or nine gallons.
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