USA > Illinois > Washington County > This is Washington County; its first 150 years, 1818-1968 > Part 8
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The first resident pastor at Okawville was Ferdinand Mumborn, who moved here from Mt. Vernon on May 30. 1901. He was succeeded by Henry Althoff on October 26. 1905. The first Catholic Church. a brick structure that seat- ed 125. was erected in 1868 at a cost of $800. It was re- modeled later at a cost of $700. A new bell was a gift of C. Eschmann. In 1907 the church was reroofed and frescoed.
St. Barbara's new Catholic Church ( the current build- ing ) was dedicated on October 18, 1921. when the Rt. Rev. Henry Althoff. Bishop of the Belleville Diocese. and a form- er pastor of this parish. conducted the services. It was quite an undertaking for a congregation of only 18 families to erect a church costing $20,000, all of which is paid or pledged.
established. In short. the treasurer didn't, and the attorney general did. and the April 1878 term of circuit court of Washington County vested the title to the land and build- ings to the state. Accordingly the state sold the farm. After claims against the school were liquified, the net proceeds were $9,000, which was put in the endowment fund to the new university at Carbondale.
The Rev. Mr. Clark, a Presbyterian minister. occupied the buildings for a short time as an academy. but it too failed. The Baptist Church later purchased it. to become the Huddleston Orphan's Home. until that institution was moved to Centralia. Later the building- were razed.
Possibly the most noted person connected with the old school was Dr. George Hazen French who began his career there and went on to long tenure at SIU. where he pioneered in several scientific fields, achieving international fame. While at Irvington he began to systematically botanize this county. some of his original specimens still being in existence at Carbondale.
59
GEORGETOWN VERSUS NASHVILLE
When Clinton County was separated from Washington in 1827, it was decided to move the county seat nearer the center of the newly-mapped county. The commissioners chose a spot about four miles west of Nashville, to be called Georgetown. But all the new "town" ever had was a flag- pole, two wells and some platted lots. The county seat continued at Covington.
By this time the county was fast being settled and this inauspicious effort to create a new town created a lot of dissatisfaction. It seems that the landowners at Georgetown expected to make a killing. but only produced a fizzle. There also arose a heated rivalry between the two largest settle- ments. Beaucoup and Elkhorn, and politicians had to tread warily on the county seat issue. Here the enterprising settlers of the central section proposed they lay out a town and make it the county seat. The first to settle were Tennes- seeans and they proposed the name. New Nashville. Their problem was: how to raise enough money to buy the govern- ment owned land. The stupendous sum needed was $100., almost as much as was collected in taxes in the county's first year of existence.
This is downtown Nashville, after the disastrous fire of 1912. (Taken from an old postcard).
When a money-raising delegation journeyed south three miles to the cabin of David Pulliam, who was reported as a man with cash on hand. perhaps the men got too insistent in their entreaty for financial help. For at last Pulliam threw his old hat on the ground. exclaiming: "I wouldn't give my old hat for all Nashville will ever be!"
Pulliam didn't help, but Robert Middleton and Wm. G. Brown of St. Clair county did. They journeyed to Kaskaskia. purchased the ground from the government, and had a sur- veyor, A. W. Casad lay out the town. The date was June 8. 1830. Twenty aeres was donated for county use. and a free lot was offered to the first man who would buikdl a home. Sam Anderson hauled in an old log cabin from the woods, but the judges ruled him out and gave the prize to the Rev. Orcenich Fisher who in the meantime threw up a two-story dwelling. Sometime later he opened the first store. on the site of the present William Motor Sales building.
The county commissioners then moved the county seat from Covington to Nashville, and contracted with Thomas Moore to build a courthouse, which lasted ten years. A little later. N. Mitchell began another store which he soon sold to John Wood. Later. Wood with fifty other men from the eounty. were mustered in to help fight the Black Hawk War. He returned as Major Woods.
The Methodist- started their church in 1832. The year before, the town's first physician arrived, Dr. Maxwell Pep- per. who also served in the Black Hawk War as company surgeon. Joseph Dennis started the first hotel on two lots for which he paid $15. In 1833 Zenas Vernor opened the first blacksmith shop. and David Ramsey the first tannery. The next year. Wood and Mitchell also opened a wool card- ing mill, and Stephen Gaston began operating his cotton gin. A little later. Murphy and Watts opened their grist mill on what is now the corner of Kaskaskia and Chester streets.
The first child. a son. was born to Mr. and Mrs. David Underwood in 1932. The first school teacher was Rev. Horatio Burns, who also had the distinction of being the first bridegroom in the precinct. his bride being Mrs. Martha Morgan. But the first marriage in Nashville was that of John Woods' daughter. Susan, and Mr. Champness Ball. The first attorney was Ephriam Kilpatrick.
In 1840. Malachi Jenkins hegan a larger hotel. The same year, Jacob Runk invented the sulky plow and began his plow factory. But he wasn't apparently alone in the invention. and he lost a lot of money in patent fights. His plow was awarded first premium at the state fair in Decatur in 1863. He also made the first steel mouldboard prairie breaker plow. presumably for a customer. Mr. Forman.
In 1818. a large contingent of men from the county served in the Mexican War. taking part in some of the longest campaigns.
In 1851. with Amos Watts as financial backer. the first newspaper appeared. with a succession of editors. It had a meteoric eareer. first as the Monitor, the Democrat, the Washington County Herald. the Jacksonian, finally expiring in 1866 as the Constitution. One reason was that the victor- ious Republicans in 1862 began the Nashville Journal, with Sheriff James Garvin as owner. Later the first German paper appeared. the Nashville Zeitung. followed shortly by the Volksblatt, which survived until 1929. There was also for some years a German public school. John Hnegely started his mill in 1853.
The second courthouse was built in 1810. the third in 1855. This being in the days of open range law, one of the duties of the sheriff was to impound stray livestock and ad- vertise them for sale. The pound was between the courthouse and East Court street. This came to an end in 1870. In 1882 the courthouse burned to the ground and was replaced in 1883 by the present building. On a minor note. the first
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city dump was along the creek, east of the 700 block of South Kaskaskia.
A. D. Hay and sons opened the first bank in 1869. The first Masonie Lodge was organized in 1817. By 1871 Nash- ville had a large German population which supported a thriving Turner Society and had their own hall. In 1883 they celebrated the bicentennial of the arrival of the ship. S. S. Concord at Philadelphia, which in 1683 brought the first German emmigrants to America.
J. Henry Dueker opened his implement and wagon shop in 1867. followed by the establishment of the Hassinger Carriage Works in 1870. In 1877. Peter Peters opened the Nashville Foundry and Machine Shop, and several main street buildings still have iron posts marked "Nashville Foundry." This enterprise stood at the northeast corner of W. Maple and Grand.
The Wagenhals Furniture Factory, steam powered. be- gan in 1870. located south of Chester street. between Mill and Kaskaskia. Brick was made locally in at least five brick- yards, the last and largest of which survived until in the 1920s, located south of the L & N tracks, east of the elevator. It was called the Nashville Pressed Brick Co. Oscar Brand- horst and 1I. E. Brink are the only persons still living who worked there.
Near the turn of the centry, Nashville had two hig flour mills. the Huegely and the Camp Spring, which made soft wheat flour and exported it on a large scale to the southern states and even Central America. This trade ended during the depression years of the 1930s. The old Huegely mill burned in 1935, and was succeeded by the Huegely elevator and the other by the Nashville Willing Co.
Also at the turn of the century a group of Nashvillians organized and operated an electric power plant just west of the Greenwood cemetery, also operated an ice plant. Ice making continued until the middle 1930s, but power ceased to flow some years before that. and it only served as a sub- station for the Southern Ilinois Power Co. It is said the first automobile run in Nashville was owned by a Mr. Peeples, who was manager of the plant. The same promoters used the power house lake and a nearby mineral spring as a summer resort. and erected a large two story building. with an encircling porch. for a resort hotel. They seenred contracts with several St. Louis fraternal organizations to provide vacations for their members, but the Carlsbad, as it was called, lost its popularity and the building was destroyed by fire one winter night in the early 19004. The bottled mineral water somehow never made a large market.
Mr. W'm. Sieveking, who was over 90 when he retired in 1938, for many years operated a feed mill and eider press on West Goodner street. Being of an experimental nature.
he once ran a batch of carrots through the mill and pressed them, discovering that carrot juice was quite good, and that it also made an excellent jelly, so perhaps Nashville was the scene of the first vegetable juice extraction in the nation.
To backtrack a bit, in 1876 Nashville staged a monster Fourth of July celebration to celebrate the centennial year, with a great variety of attractions, including athletic events and a reception at the Buckeye Hotel for Abner Jackson, a Negro resident of the city, born in 1776, who was also cele- brating his centennial, the only man in the county to do so at that time: however since then. there have been several of both seves who have made it.
Out on East St. Louis street was one of the first brick- vards, also the Nashville creamery, the Lungstraus Brewery and later the steam laundry. An old dwelling located at the site of the present Bracy store was the location of a laundry operated before World War I by the only Chinese residents of Nashville. Later the old house was torn down and the present building was erected to house a branch of the Chester Knitting Mills in the early 1920s. Their chief pro- duet, cotton hosiery, soon suffered a fatal blow when feminine tastes changed to silk.
Also gone today are the cigar makers, the harness makers: Grover Hassler's father, who learned the trade as a boy in Germany, once made some wares for Queen Vic- toria of England when she visited some of her German cousins. Nashville also had a shoemaker at one time who had nearly a dozen people working for him.
During the presidential campaign between Blaine and Cleveland in the 1890s, polities became really hot here, one of the events being a huge all-day rally by the Republicans, with a torchlight parade. Hearing of the event. an enter- prising young man named Harry Sternberg, noting that Nashville had no restaurant. rented an empty store building on Main street, set it up as a restaurant, hired no less than fifty women to bake pies for him, stocked up on coffee. and at a price of a nickel for a hunk of pie and coffee. made a handsome profit.
It is said a wolf den was located just northwest of the courthouse. in Nashville's infancy. There were still a few wild turkeys here in 1898. In 1906, what was supposedly the last deer shot in the county was shipped from DuBois to Chicago.
Perhaps the greatest military forces ever to pass through the county was the day-long pas-age of the First Armored Division in the summer of 1939, on maneuver from Fort Knox. Kentucky to Fort Riley. Kansas, with the first scouts coming through early in the morning and the last rear guard late in the evening. quite a contrast to the passage of that intrepid band of men. the Kentucky Long Knives. under General George Rogers Clark, so many years before.
61
The Icarians: Five French Families in Washington County
In 1851, five French families banded together and came to Washington County, settling in Section 36, Lively Grove township, in the area that was later called West Grandcote. There is nothing too unusual about this immi- gration except they were lcarians. The county had a sprink- ling of several nationalities at this time, but these people, members of a society founded in the U. S. by the French social reformer, Etienne Cabet. were definitely the first sect to settle within the county's borders.
This copy of an old woodcut shows Nauvoo when it was at its peak, rated the largest city in Illinois The Temple was the most imposing structure in the Midwest. The Icarians who came to Lively Grove first lived ot Nauvoo.
At Nauvoo, Illinois, far upstate, the Mormons had been driven out, the Prophets killed by an angry mob, the Mor- mon Temple destroyed. The Mormon exodus was already underway. and the town they built on the Mississippi river was dead and vacant. The Icarians simply seized the oppor- tunity to move in before the weeds started growing in the streets.
But their system of government, under Cabet, didn't work. The sect broke up. Some moved to St. Louis. One young couple. deeply distressed because their children all died in infancy, sought this county as their future home, far away from the river lowlands and the fever-infested swamps. Four more young couples joined this family, and they divided a tract of land so each received 80 acres, and built their homes here so they would be neighbors. They pros- pered, enjoyed their new democratic freedom. Three of these couples had ten children each. Musically inclined, they loved to dance, some of them still in possession of the violins they brought from France.
Today, there is still evidence of these family strains within the county. Mrs. Frances Karg and her family are direct descendants of these French immigrants. In the ceme- tery near Coulterville there are Icarian graves, and recently at St. Louis, the grave of Etienne Cabet, the early French leader, was honored by the St. Louis French Society, Mrs. Karg being an invited guest at the ceremonies.
The original lcarians settling near Lively Grove were Mr. and Mrs. Benoit Favre, Mr. and Mrs. Victor Pertuisot, Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Bouas, Mr. and Mrs. Jean Bonnat, Mr. and Mrs. Baptiste Etienne and Mrs. Etienne's father, Mr. George Gobel.
The Historical Society of Washington County, Illinois
Winston Churchill once said: "Nothing is final; change is unceasing." This must be fact, for each generation records, by written work or photo what happens today, realizing full well that never again will the subject be quite the same. This desire to record for posterity the happenings of today began thousands of years ago, and will continue so long as man exists.
In Washington County on November 2, 1965, a gather- ing of 28 interested citizens concluded it was time to estab- lish an organization which would encourage the study of local history and attempt to obtain and preserve items of interest of this and past generations for the education and interest of generations to come.
Mr. Ernst Michael, chairman of the Washington County Board of Supervisors, appointed Mr. Venice Brink, David Watts and Lawrence E. House of Nashville: Grover Brink- man of Okawville; Miss Claudine Coulter of Oakdale; Mrs.
Edgar Thendahl of Pilot Knob township, and Mrs. Willis Coulter of Lively Grove to serve as the first Historical Society Committee with a request that the organization he properly incorporated in this State. This was accomplished on March 18, 1966, and "The Historical Society of Wash- ington County, Illinois" became active.
The Board of Supervisors on July 12, 1966 appointed Mr. Lawrence E. House, Society President, and Mrs. Edgar Ibendahl, Society Secretary to act as a Steering Committee to establish the Washington County Sesquicentennial Com- mission, which is the organization responsible for the publication of this book.
This Commission was chosen at a public meeting on January 10. 1967. with Mr. Arthur L. Koetting, Jr. of Okawville as chairman; Norman Karg of Lively Grove as vice-chairman; Mrs. Don Thompson, secretary; and Wilbert H. Sachtleben, treasurer.
62
History of the First Baptist Church, Nashville
On August 23. 1873. a group of Baptists led by Rev. W. Il. Carner met in the M. E. Church at Nashville to organize a Baptist Church. Bev. W. H. Hutchings was elected moderator and J. M. Mason, clerk. The charter members were: K. C. Mason. Ellen Mason, James Irvin, Luey Irvin. Nancy Wright, Lucy Walker, Laura J. Mason, J. M. Mason. Elizabeth Gozney and Jane B. Rountree.
On November 3. 1873, Rev. Il. HI. Carner was called as the first pastor. Other ministers who have served this church are the Rev. J. C. Wilson. J. V. Schofield, A. J. De- lano, J. C. Harris. T. S. Reynolds. W. E. Wise. Alexander Rhine. W. W. Williams, Charles E. Hitt, R. H. Claxon, E. B. Ilibbitts, T. M. Rice, John C. Kanarr. H. E. Pettus, Julian E. Atwood. E. E. Rice. E. L. Wendell. J. C. Meier. M. E. Powley, H. P. Spiller, W. A. Ward, O. S. Taylor, Rex Brown. Abraham Wright. O. R. Steiner, W. A. Gray, R. W. Pruett. Geo. B. Leathers, Walter Miller, Carl F. Newland, Paul Hall, Bertie Smith, C. E. Melntyre, Leroy Marvel, Raymond McAfee.
The first church building was erected in 1874 at a cost of $2.911.68. In September of the same year the church was admitted into the Nine Mile Baptist Association. The first reference to a Sunday School is election of officers on June 23. 1833. J. M. Thomson was elected superintendent. Others who served in this capacity to date are: J. C. Eade, J. M. Mason, Jos. Morris, Wm. Reidelberger, Harry Stern- berg. W. H. Ilughes. Eva J. Luke. W. L. Hendricks, Alonzo Small. W. C. Cholson. Royal Bryan, Floyd Gholson, James Gillespie. Howard M. Fox, E. A. Small, Calvin Eade, Chester Moss, Edward C. Kemper, Jr .. Chester Moss.
In the summer of 1925. a basement and other im- provements were made at a cost of $3.200. The church had long felt the need of more room, and in 1948 an educational annex, consisting of 13 classrooms, pastor's study and church office was made possible by a legacy from Mr. W. L. Troutt, the entire building program costing about $26,000. The church today has 224 resident members.
VINTAGE OF 1904 (OKAWVILLE)
This old photo. taken about 1901, has nostalgia that will be shared by many senior citizens. The man behind the bar is the late llenry Klauke. one of the pioneers of Okawville.
Mr. Klauke was born at Blutzen. Hanover, Germany. came to America as a young man. For a time he worked on farms in the vicinity of Okawville, and at one time also made his livelihood as a commercial fisherman at Reel Foot Lake. Tennessee.
lle remembered the time a siege of cholera broke out in the area. took a heavy toll of life. In one day, Okaw- ville had eight funerals.
When a young man. he purchased a store at Okawville from Henry Temme. who was the father of the late Julius Temme, long an assessor of Washington County. For years the huge brick two-story building near the depot was a landmark in Okawville. The front section housed the tavern, the remainder of the floor given over to a general store. The family resided on the top floor. The building was built by Maseoutah brick masons, who also laid the bricks at the Okawville grade school that originally stood on the block now occupied by the city municipal building.
Mr. Klauke started in business in Okawville about the same time the I.&\ railroad was built through the county. At that time it was called the Southeastern. Between the Klauke store at the depot and "downtown" Okaw- ville, a mile to the north was virgin forest connected only with a dirt road.
If you'll examine thi- photo with a magnifying glass, you'll see that one side of the beer cooler has various bits of writing on it. in chalk. This was the amount of money
The late Henry Klauke behind the bar in 1904.
certain customers owed Mr. Klauke, rather a novel method of bookkeeping.
The Klauke store, built in 1873. was a landmark at Okawville until it was razed in 1965.
63
TOO SHORT TO CLASSIFY
Hugh P. Green, grandfather of Atty. P. E. Green of Nashville, was at least one county man who went to Cali- fornia in the gold rush of 1819, accompanied by a Mr. Lane. Upon his return via boat, he turned in his gold dust at a U. S. Mint and purchased 160 acres of land in the county, which is still in the family name.
Anson A. Hinkley, of DuBois township, one of the first growers and packers of fine fruit in the county, was also a Conchologist of note. In spite of his agricultural interests. Mr. Hinkley never forgot his work in this scientific field. and was known as one of the leading Conchologists of the world, making many extended trips to Mexico and Central America. Ironically, his death occurred of a heart attack while he tried to extricate his car from a mnd hole on a rural road west of DuBois. He was also one of the organizers of the DuBois State Bank.
The First Presbyterian Church of Nashville was organ- ized by pioneer Presbyterians of Scotch descent, in 1832. It was called Elkhorn Presbyterian, located at Sawyer's Point, four miles west of Nashville. After Nashville had been established as the county seat, the meeting place was re- moved to the nearby town and the name changed. Here a frame building was erected on the site of the present city hall in 1851, at a cost of $1,100. The present building was dedicated June 19, 1885.
An item concerning the Nashville Creamery, dated May 20, 1887. shows the firm received 5,000 pounds of milk that day. Farmers received 80¢ per hundred pounds. The butter churned from the milk was on the market at 22¢ per pound.
A Dr. Lucas in 1853 had a small drug store in Ashley before the community was legally laid out as a town. Tru- man Gilbert opened a store in 1854. P. M. and E. McNail built the first sawmill there: later a small grist mill was at- tached, and a woolen card-mill. In 1866, Coffey, Brown and Harrison erected a large mill. and in 1873 J. L. Post started a second flouring mill, as well as a fruit-drying facility. First bank was opened by Pace Bros. in 1877. First news- paper was the Ashley Gazette, started in 1857; Robert Flem- ing next started a paper called "The Experiment," and David Benton edited the Ashley Herald. A. W. O'Bryant took over the Ashley Gazette in 1876. First regular school was taught in a log building that had been the James Wood- rome residence. in 1829; first teacher was Jarvis Jackson.
The original members of the Pilot Knob Methodist Church, which closed in 1961, were German immigrants. A tornado destroyed the first church building before it was completed, a second church was erected in 1890. Truman Brandt was the last minister to serve the church. In August. 1965, a cemetery association was formed, to maintain the cemetery on the grounds where the church once stood. The original church bell has been enclosed in a shelter here. A
marble slab bears this inscription: Bell mounted by trustees of Pilot Knob Cemetery Association in memorial of early Methodist founders.
Mr. Jack D. Iluggins, Belleville, Illinois public account- ant. claims as his great-great-great grandfather. Robert Hug- gins, and his great-great-great grandmother, Kate Lively. The Lively-Huggins family were the principals in the Lively Indian Massacre near Covington.
Paul L. Poirot, of Irvington-on-the Hudson, New York, where he edits the national magazine, The Freeman, a form- er Beaucoup boy. writes the editors as follows: "Remember that the true history of Washington County is in the records of those who lived their lives there," then cites the fact that his parental grandparents fled oppression in Europe to settle and raise their family in Washington County, where his 84- year-old father. E. W. Poirot last year was visited by the teacher who taught him in the first grade at Pleasant Grove, between Hoyleton and Beaucoup.
A draw running through the southwestern part of Nash- ville was once called the Tennessee River because many of the city's first settlers came from that state.
Long years ago, Peter Bieser was known as "the blind city clerk" at Nashville.
Although only incorporated since 1929, Radom has been in existence since 1856, when the hamlet was laid out by two New Yorkers. on land purchased from the I. C. rail- road. One of these men was no other than General G. B. Turchin. The other was Nicholas Nichalski. The town grew to a peak population above 300, but gradually de- clined. Joseph Gloskowski was the first railway agent and postmaster. St. Michael's Catholic Church there is an out- standing edifice.
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