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 75
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After waiting twenty-one days at the springs, a thaw came and the pigs were enabled to travel. They were taken to Chi- cago and sold, and when the expenses were paid, the money was divided among those who had contributed to make up the lot. Mr. Taylor had eleven fine hogs, averaging in weight two hun- dred and twenty-five pounds each, and he received for them in all six dollars and fifteen cents, which is about twenty-five cents per hundred ! The remainder received pay for their hogs in the same proportion.
The early settlers went often to Pekin, to do their trading and sell their pork. Mr. Taylor tells of an incident that hap- pened while he was once on the road to Pekin with a drove of swine. He stopped at the house of a man named Prowty. The latter had a wife, who was indeed humorous to look upon. She had a long nose with a bunch on the end of it as large as a sweet potato, and her eyes might be mistaken for buckshot. She was addicted to alcoholic drinks, and while under the influence of a. gentle stimulant her Yankee pride swelled in her bosom. Said she : " Do you know what Yankee means ? Yankee means enterprise. Mr. Prowty and I arc Yankees." Mr. Taylor was charged twenty-five cents for the privilege of sleeping on the puncheon floor, with nothing to eat. He wanted to buy the puncheon, to be used on some other occasion. Mr. Taylor took his hogs to Pekin, and sold them for little or nothing. Louis Stephens also took some there, and, when asked what he sold them for, replied : " Six bits a cord."
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Mr. Taylor remembers a great many pleasant incidents of early days. He says that when he first came to the country, he saw Hon. John Moore, who was out electioneering. The latter asked for Taylor's vote ; but when Taylor learned Moore's poli- tics, and that he supported Mr. VanBuren, the vote asked for was refused. Seven years afterwards, when Taylor was hunting a stray horse, he met Moore. That gentleman recognized Taylor instantly, stopped him, called him into the house and treated him politely in every respect, and, speaking of the electioneering in- cidents, said : "You're the man that wouldn't vote for me." Mr. Taylor says that if he had known Moore at first as well as he did afterwards, he would have voted for him, regardless of party.
Mr. Taylor has done some hunting, but never had any very dangerous adventures. He once killed an enormous lynx, after shooting it four times ; nothing was effectual except a shot through the head. Very many hunters have had contests with wounded deer, and Mr. Taylor once shot a deer which turned on . him, with its hair all bristling up and pointing forward ; but the animal was so badly wounded that it made very little of a fight. In 1851 Stephen Taylor killed thirty-one wild turkeys, some of which he shot while standing in his door. Mrs. Taylor also shot at wild turkeys, but never killed any.
Mr. Taylor tells a circumstance, showing the honest simplicity of John Magoun. In about the year 1835, while Mr. Taylor was riding on a steamboat from Cincinnati to Pittsburg, a man came on board, who was eloping with a young lady. . For the purpose of amusement a mock court was organized to try the man. The witnesses were examined, and they gave contradictory testimony. as some of them thought the girl was running away with the man. But at last the man was convicted and sentenced to be hung, and his anxious lady set up a succession of shrieks. But the convicted man took the matter coolly, and was hung, the rope passing around the body. . Stephen Taylor and Palmer Storey saw this performance. Thirty years afterwards, when they met in Bloomington, in company with John Magoun, Mr. Storey alluded to the hanging, but Taylor spoke in a mysterious way, and said they had better keep quiet about that. Then honest Magoun wished to know whether Taylor and Storey had really committed murder.
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Mr. Taylor has had ten children, of whom seven are living. They are :
Otis L. Taylor was a soldier in the Thirty-third Illinois Vol- unteers. He was at Cache, Black River Bridge, Champion Hills, Vicksburg, Jackson, Spanish Fort, Fredericktown, Port Gibson and Fort Esperanza. He now lives in Hardin County, Iowa, near Steamboat Rock.
Mrs. Anna Leys, wife of John Leys, lives two miles and a half north of her father's, in Woodford County.
Zach W. Taylor is teaching school about three and a half miles from his father's, in Woodford County.
Mrs. Elsina Morgan, wife of Dr. Morgan, lives in Lawndale.
Laura L. Taylor, I. D. Taylor (a girl) and John Taylor live at home.
The eldest son, Isaac Taylor, is now dead. He was born Jan- uary 27, 1839, and served in the Ninety-fourth Illinois Volun- teers, and died September, 1863. His regiment was stationed at New Orleans ; but as he became sick he was allowed a furlough, and on the way home died in a hospital at Memphis. His father went down to him and brought his body home and buried it at White Oak Grove.
Stephen Taylor is six feet and one and a half inches in height. He is slenderly built, has a sharp eye and a Roman nose. He loves humor, as the stories in this sketch indicate. He is a plucky man, and is not likely to be frightened by nonsense. He is perfectly straightford in all of his dealings, and wishes to meet all of his neighbors upon the level and part upon the square. IIe thinks he has the best of neighbors, and that no other place is so peculiarly blessed in this respect as White Oak Grove. He has been a justice of the peace, but has had little or nothing to do, as scarcely anybody there meddles with the law.
PERSONS HOLDING POSITIONS OF HONOR OR TRUST.
THOMAS PIERCE ROGERS, M. D.
Dr. Thomas Pierce Rogers was born December 4, 1812, in Columbiana County, Ohio. His ancestors came from the north of Ireland. His grandfather, George Augustus Rogers, was born about the year 1735, in the north of Ireland, was educated at Oxford for the ministry, but after muchi thought he decided not to contend against sin in general, but to fight against the enemies of England in particular, and accepted a commission in the British army. He came to this country as a Colonel in the army under General Braddock, and was at the battle of Bloody Run, (or Braddock's defeat,) where the army was drawn into an am- buscade by the Indians, and the greater part of the soldiers were killed. General Braddock himself being mortally wounded. This was the battle in which Colonel George Washington first tried his mettle, and where he showed the skill and daring which were so conspicuous in his management of armies in later life. The career of Colonel Rogers was quite full of adventures. He was with General Wolfe when his army climbed the Heights of Abra- ham and stormed Quebec, and was in various fights and skirmishes of the French war. After peace was declared he returned to England, resigned his commission, and came to the United States in about the year 1774. His son, Alexander Rogers, the father of Dr. Rogers, whose sketch we are writing, was born in 1773, the year previous to the emigration of his father to America. The family first settled in Frederick County, Maryland, where it stayed until the year 1786, when it moved to Fayette County, Pennsylvania, on the extreme frontier. In order to reach their new home, they were obliged to travel across the Allegheny Mountains on pack horses. Such a journey would now be con- sidered more picturesque than agreeable. There Mr. Alexander
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Rogers married Catherine Wallahan, who was born in the town of Carlisle, Pa. Her parents came from the north of Ireland, and thus it is that Dr. Rogers has sprung from the genuine old North Irish stock. In the year 1798, his grandfather, his father, and all of their connection, moved on the extreme frontier, which was then the wilderness of Ohio, called the Northwestern Terri- tory. There his father settled on a farm, where he remained thirty-six years, and raised a family of eleven children, eight sons and three daughters. All of these children, except four, are now living. The farm consisted of four hundred acres, and lay in a heavily timbered country. The four youngest of the children, including the subject of this sketch, chose the practice of medi- cine for their profession in life. Nothing of importance occurred during the childhood of Dr. Rogers worthy of being celebrated in poetry or song, except that when about four years old he fell from a split plank bridge into a creek. This was infant baptism. The doctor received such an education as could be obtained in a new country. He was obliged to go two or three miles to school, which was kept in a little round-log school-house during the win- ter. At the age of seventeen he went to a select school at New Lisbon, and finished his education at a Quaker institution at Salem. He then returned home where he worked one or two years, continuing his course of study. He chose the profession . of medicine, and began his study in Tuscarora County, Ohio. He taught school winters and studied summers. He finished his course of study in Philadelphia, and returned to Tuscarora Coun- ty, where he practiced medicine in company with Dr. Lewis. After practicing one year he earned enough to pay the expenses of his previous course of study, and to bring him West, and leave one hundred dollars in his pocket for working capital. In the spring of 1838, he started for Illinois on horseback, and came to Marshall County. He examined the country from La Salle to the Sangamon River, passing through Bloomington on his way south ; the latter place contained about four hundred inhabitants, living principally south and west of the court-house. At that time he made the acquaintance of James Allin, General Gridley, Jesse W. Fell, Dr. Charles and Dr. Anderson. In the month of March he located at Decatur, Macon County. Dr. Rogers has a very large bump of what the phrenologists call locality. He likes
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to look over the country and see what it amounts to and what it contains. He traveled over the greater part of Central Illinois, and made the acquaintance of the distinguished men who then were political lights in the State, such as Stephen A. Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Judge Jesse B. Thomas, Judge Treat of the United States District Court for the southern district of Illinois, Edward Baker, afterwards Senator Baker, who, while Colonel of a regiment, was killed at Ball's Bluff during the early part of the rebellion, John J. Hardin, who fell at Buena Vista, Hon. David Campbell, Lyman Trumbull and Hon. John Moore, afterwards lieutenant governor of the State. The friendships he then formed were life long, and indeed these gentlemen were all men of warm feeling and ever ready to greet their friends.
Soon after coming to Decatur, Dr. Rogers formed a partner- ship with Dr. Thomas H. Reed, from Nashville, Tennessee, a very estimable gentleman, who is yet living. The practice of these young men became very lucrative indeed. Dr. Rogers soon made the acquaintance of many young men in Decatur, and among them was Richard J. Oglesby, a genial young man, with a manner as hearty and kind as at present. Dr. Rogers moved from Decatur to Washington, Tazewell County, and formed a co- parnership with Dr. G. P. Wood. They never had any written agreement or special understanding for seven years. Dr. Wood was a Christian gentleman, and one of the purest men living. He had the confidence of the entire community and was a very successful practitioner. He died about one year since.
In June, 1840, Dr. Rogers married Harriet Wilcox, of North Bergen, Genesee County, New York. This lady had been principal of a seminary, and her graces of person were equal to her intellectual acquirements. Her death occurred four years after her marriage. One child, Harriet Julia, born of this happy marriage-died at the age of nine months. Dr. Rogers continued his practice with his usual success. In May, 1846, he made the acquaintance of the amiable and accomplished woman, who became his wife. She was Mrs. Minerva Burhance, a widow lady with one daughter. Her fine sense and cultivated mind have had much to do with Dr. Rogers' subsequent success.
In 1848, Dr. Rogers learned from Stephen A. Douglas, in Peoria, that the Illinois Central Railroad would surely be built,
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and this decided him to move to Bloomington for a permanent location. As the building of the Illinois Central Railroad was a matter of national importance, and was the object of much scheming, a little bit of history may not be out of place in this connection. It was in 1848 that the conversation between Dr. Rogers and Senator Douglas occurred in the parlor of a hotel in Peoria. For twelve years various parties had been working to get a bill through congress donating lands to build the Illinois Central Railroad, but were unable to accomplish their purpose, as it was contended that the matter was one of only local import- ance. In the conversation alluded to, Judge Douglas spoke of this, and told his plan to effect his object. He said : " I am going to introduce a bill giving the alternate sections of land to the State of Illinois to build a railroad, and allowing the general government to charge $2.50 per acre for the remaining sec- tions, instead of $1.25, and by this means it will not only lose no money, but, on account of the railroad, will sell its land faster and help to build up the State and develop its resources. I am going to make it a national question, and introduce an amendment extending the road from Cairo to Mobile ; also an amendment extending it from opposite Cairo by Little Rock to Texas by way of the Red River Raft; also an amendment extending it from Galena to a point opposite Du- buque, Iowa, (Dunleith), a branch will also be proposed to Chicago and a branch to Mineral Point, Wisconsin. By so doing I secure the support of the senators from Kentucky, Henry Clay and Sen- ator Underwood, the two senators, Bell and Jones, from Ten- nessee, Clay and Clements, of Alabama, the two senators, Soule and Slidell, from Louisiana, Senators Johnson and Sevier from Arkansas, and also the senators from Texas. By an appropria- tion to the Hannibal & St. Joe Railroad, I secure the support of senators Atkinson and Benton, of Missouri; by extending the road to a point opposite Dubuque, Iowa, I secure the friendship of senators Jones and Dodge of that State; by means of the branch to Mineral Point, Wisconsin, I secure the co-operation of the senators from that State; by an understanding that something shall be done for a road in Michigan, extending from Detroit up to the lumber regions, I obtain the support of senators Cass and Stewart from that State." Mr. Douglas was sure that his plan
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would be successful. At that time he was serving his first term in the Senate, and Mr. Lincoln was serving his first term in the House of Representatives, and by their united exertions the bill was carried triumphantly through. The United States gave the required land to Illinois, and Illinois gave it to the Illinois Central Railroad, on condition that the latter should always pay into the State treasury seven per cent. of its gross earnings. Ground was first broke in 1852, and cars were running from LaSalle to Bloomington in 1853.
In Dr. Rogers' travels over the State he had found no land equal to McLean County, and had always wished to make it his home. He moved to Bloomington in March, 1849, and continued the practice of medicine up to 1867, when he retired from his profession, having been a successful practitioner for thirty years. He then engaged in agricultural pursuits. While in the practice of his profession, Dr. Rogers was three times chosen a delegate to National Medical Conventions, which were held at St. Louis, Philadelphia and San Francisco, and was in attendance at the two former. He was twice chosen a delegate to State Medical Conventions.
Dr. Rogers has been more or less connected with politics since coming to the West. While at Decatur he held the office of postmaster for two years, one year under Van Buren and one year under Harrison and Tyler. He resigned his office, partly because his medical duties gave him very little time to look after it, and partly because, being a Democrat, he did not wish to continue to hold office under a Whig administration. The situation was not very lucrative, and the business was done in the office of the cir- cuit clerk. In 1848 the doctor was selected by his party friends at the convention at the village of Waynesville, to be their can- didate for State Senator, and Edward O. Smith, of Macon Coun- ty, was selected in the same village as his opponent. The district then embraced Tazewell, MeLean, Logan, De Witt and Macon Counties. The Whig majority for General Taylor was about eleven hundred, but the doctor was only beaten by one hundred and sixty-three votes. In 1862 he again received the nomination of his party for State Senator, the district embracing McLean, De Witt, Macon, Piatt and Moultrie Counties. His opponent was the Hon. Isaac Funk. The majority for Mr. Lincoln in 1860 was
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about seventeen hundred in this district, but the majority against Dr. Rogers was only two hundred and sixty. The doctor has been honored by his party by being made a member of every Democratie State Convention, except one, since 1844; he has been chairman of the Democratic Central Committee of MeLean County for eighteen years out of twenty-four ; was appointed a delegate from Illinois to the convention at Baltimore which nom- inated Franklin Pierce; he was an alternate delegate to the Charleston convention ; he was a delegate to the Baltimore con- vention, when Douglas was nominated, saw the division in the party, saw Caleb Cushing leave the chair, saw Ben Butler secede from the convention with the Massachusetts delegation, and saw that break in the Democratic party, which resulted in the elec- tion of Abraham Lincoln, and precipitated the great rebellion. The seceders organized their convention in the city of Baltimore, and nominated Mr. Breckenridge. The doctor had free inter- course with the Southern delegates, and saw that a civil war was inevitable, unless a compromise was agreed upon. When the war came the doctor took strong ground for the Union, of course, and did much work in getting volunteers; and in the early days of the rebellion, when many were hesitating and doubting, he took the stump and advocated crushing the rebellion out by the power of arms. In 1864 the doctor was a delegate to the con- vention which nominated McClellan for president; he was on the committee of organization, and during the campaign took an ac- tive part in the canvass. This wound up his political career until the Liberal movement was inaugurated. Dr. Rogers then moved actively and efficiently in the matter, and by his influence pre- served harmony and strength in the movement. So efficient was he, and so alive to the issues of the hour, that the Liberal party placed him in nomination as its candidate for the legislature un- der the minority representation system. He was elected a member of the lower house of the Assembly, and is at present serving in that capacity. He has been made a member of the committee on finance, the committee on education, and the committee on coun- ty and town organization, which shows the high regard in which he is held by the members of the house. He is recognized in the legislature "as one of the most active and far-sighted of the members ; in the heat of debate he never loses his self-command.
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He understands parliamentary law and practice, and in the hurry of business his mind is ever clear. It is well known that in the hurry and confusion many members cannot keep track of what is going on, and sometimes become very much confused, and it thus becomes necessary to have some persons who shall be rec- ognized as leaders, who are able to guide and direct the forces of the party efficiently. In this capacity Dr. Rogers does excel- lent service, and indeed his presence and influence have on many ocasions turned the tide of victory in favor of the Liberals in the Assembly.
Dr. Rogers is a man of commanding presence, and every line of his countenance, every motion, shows him to be a cultivated gentleman ; his hair is whitened by many years of labor. In political matters he is certainly possessed of those qualities which bring success ; he has great energy and resolution, and is a fine speaker. He possesses great tact and skill in the manage- ment of men, and has a happy faculty of uniting all forces effect- ively and carrying his point. He has many friends among all political parties, and it is to be hoped that he may live yet many years to enjoy their friendship and regard.
JUDGE THOMAS F. TIPTON.
Thomas F. Tipton was born August 29, 1833, in Franklin County, Ohio. His father's name was Hiram Tipton, and his mother was Deborah Ogden. Both of English descent. Hiram Tipton was a farmer. In 1844 the Tipton family moved to Money Creek township, McLean County, Illinois, and settled down near where Towanda now stands. Hiram Tipton died within a year after his arrival in Illinois, leaving three children, John Tipton, who is a farmer, living in Money Creek township; Jane, wife of William S. Tuttle, living in Saybrook, and Thomas F. Tipton, the subject of this sketch. At the age of sixteen, Thomas at- tended school at Lexington, taught at that time by Colonel Coler. The latter, who was a fine teacher, is the same gentleman who afterwards made a donation of five thousand dollars to the Wes- leyan University, on condition that the chapel of that institution should be called " Amie," after his mother. After studying for a year at Lexington, Thomas F. Tipton commenced reading law in the mornings and evenings. At the age of eighteen he read
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law for a short time in the office of a Mr. Keightley, at Knox- ville, Illinois. Shortly after this he returned to Bloomington, where he was admitted to the bar.
On the 23rd of October, 1856, he married, in Bloomington, Miss Mary J. Strayer, daughter of Nicholas and Esther Strayer.
IIe commenced the practice of the law at Lexington, in the spring of 1854; in January of 1862, he moved to Bloomington ; and in April, 1863, formed a law partnership with R. M. Benja- min, the present judge of the county court. This partnership lasted until 1870, when Mr. Tipton was elected judge of the Me- Lean circuit court, to fill a vacancy caused by the election of Judge Scott to the supreme court. In June, 1873, Judge Tipton was re-elected judge of the McLean circuit court, for the full term of six years. Since his accession to the bench, even more than before that time, he has been a close student and a laborious worker. Having the administration of the most important judi- cial circuit in the State, he is called upon at every term of court to decide a numberless variety of intricate legal questions, re- quiring diligent study and accurate reasoning. He meets all such questions with a ripe mind, and a breadth of thought, that have made him the most prominent circuit judge in the State, and a man who is personally admired and beloved.
In personal appearance, Judge Tipton is five feet ten inches in height, strongly built, with broad shoulders, and weighs some- what over two hundred pounds. He has light hair, fair com- plexion, and a face strongly indicative of intelligence, virtue and justice.
AMASA J. MERRIMAN.
Amasa J. Merriman was born December 1, 1818, in Stanstead, Canada East, about seventy-five miles from Montreal. His an- cestors were English. His father, Isaac H. Merriman, was a farmer. Amasa J. Merriman was one of a family of nine chil- dren, of whom six lived to be grown. He received his education at a common, subscription school, which he attended during the . winter months until he was seventeen years of age.
Mr. Merriman taught school at the age of eighteen, and con- tinued for two years, with a compensation of twelve dollars a month and board. He " boarded around," according to the cus.
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tom in those days. During the summer months he worked on a farm. While he taught school he was also a clerk in a store before and after school hours, showing that he was an industrious young man. In 1839, when he was twenty years of age, he started for the West. From Chicago he went to Peoria by steam- boat to St. Louis. At the latter place he heard of Bloomington, and on coming here, (in November, 1839,) found a place as clerk in the store of B. C. Haines. In 1842, Mr. Merriman bought out Owen Cheney, and commenced business on his own account. He continued until 1856, when he sold out to a man named Augustus. During that year Mr. Merriman was chosen county judge, and this office he still holds. He was chosen first to fill a vacancy by the resignation of B. H. Coffey. When the office became elective, he was elected first without opposition, and was afterwards elected four times by the Republican party. Shortly after Judge Merriman was appointed to office, the question came up as to the location of the Normal school, which the State pro- posed to build. It was to be located where the greatest induce- ments were held out. Mr. Jesse W. Fell was anxious to have it located in or near Bloomington, and worked for this object un- ceasingly. The county judges or commissioners then did all the business of the county, and had the authority now possessed by the board of supervisors. They appropriated seventy thousand dollars to be raised from the proceeds of the sale of the swamp lands, as an inducement to locate the Normal here. In addition to this, many private contributions were made, and the effort to obtain the institution was successful. Since the year 1857, Judge Merriman has been special commissioner for the sale of swamp lands. During his term of office, he paid $70,000 to the Normal school, and $53,000 to the school fund for the different town- ships.
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