When Illinois was admitted to the Union it was composed of thirty-three counties, but Sangamon county and Springfield were unknown. The county was created, by a law of the State, entitled:
"An act establishing the County of Sangamon"--Approved January 30, 1821.
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That all that tract of country within the following boundaries, to-wit:--Beginning at the northeast corner of township twelve north, on the third principal meridian, thence north with said meridian to the Illinois river, thence down the middle of said river to the mouth of Balance or Negro creek, thence up said creek to its head, thence through the middle of the prairie which divides the waters of the Sangamon and Mauves Terre, to the northwest corner of township twelve north, range seven west, of the third principal meridian, thence east along the north boundary of township twelve to the place of beginning, shall constitute a separate county to be called Sangamon.
SECTION 2. Be it further enacted, That so soon as the county commissioners of said county shall be elected and duly qualified into office, they shall meet at some convenient place in said county, and determine on some place as near the centre of the population of said county as circumstances will admit, and such place, when selected by said county commissioners, shall be the temporary seat of justice for said county, until otherwise provided by law: Provided, however, that if any settler or settlers, owner or owners, of the place so selected as aforesaid, shall refuse to have the temporary seat of justice fixed on his, or her or their improvements, then the said commissioners may determine on such other place contiguous thereto as they may deem proper.
SECTION 3. Be it further enacted, That said county commissioners shall be allowed the same compensation for the time necessarily employed in fixing the temporary seat of justice as in other cases.
SECTION 4. Be it further enacted, That the citizens of Sangamon county are hereby declared in all respects entitled to the same rights and privileges as are allowed in general to other counties in this State; Provided, always, that in all cases where free holders only are capable of performing any duty, or are entitled to any privilege; housekeepers shall, for all such purposes, be considered as free holders in the said Sangamon county, and shall and may do and perform all duties appertaining to the different offices in the county.
SECTION 5. Be it further enacted, That the county of Sangamon shall compose a part of the first judicial circuit of the State.
That all may understand the difference between the houndaries of the county when organized, and the present boundaries, it is only necessary to spread before you any late township map of the State and trace the following boundaries: Commencing at the northeast corner of Locust township, in Christian county, thence north to a point on the Illinois river, about two miles west of the city of Peru, thence down the middle of said river to what is now the boundary line between Cass and Morgan counties, thence east to the northeast corner of Morgan county, thence south on the line between Morgan and Sangamon counties, to the northwest corner of Otter township, in Macoupin county, thence east to the place of beginning. It will be seen that the boundaries between this county and Morgan, Macoupin and Montgomery, are unchanged. The original metes and bounds of Sangamon county, as given, embraced the following counties and parts of counties, as at present constituted: Part of Christian, a small part of Macon, all of Logan, part of McLean, all of Tazewell, part of Woodford, part of Marshall, part of Putnam, all of Mason, all of Menard, and all of Cass.
The territory constituting the county was thus set apart by law, but it was without officers. For the purpose of supplying them an election was held Monday, April 2, 1821, at the house of John Kelly. At this election William Drennan, Zachariah Peter, and Rivers Cormack were elected county commissioners. They met the next day, each took the oath of office, and at once entered upon the discharge of their duties. The following is a transcript from the original records of their first term of court:
APRIL 3, 1821: At a Special Term of the County Commissioners' Court for the County of Sangamon, begun and held at the house of John Kelly, on Spring creek, on the third day of April, 1821: Present, Zachariah Peter, Rivers Cormack, and William Drennan, commissioners. Ordered by the Court that Charles R. Matheney be appointed Clerk of the County Commissioners Court for the county of Sangamon; who thereupon took the oath prescribed by law, also the oath of office, and entered into bond, as the law directs, with James Latham his security. Ordered that court adjourn.
ZACHARIAH PETER,
WM. DRENNAN,
RIVERS CORMACK.
The Commissioners met again in Special Session, April 10, 1821, at the same place. Present: Z. Peter and Wm. Drennan. John Spillers was allowed ten dollars for conveying election returns to Vandalia. James Sims was appointed County Treasurer. John Lindsay, Stephen Stillman, and John Robinson, were appointed to the office of Justice of the Peace. The following report was made with reference to the location of the county seat:
WHEREAS, the Act of the General Assembly, entitled An Act, establishing the county of Sangamo, required of the County Commissioners when elected and qualified into office, to fix a temporary seat of justice for said county: Therefore, we, the undersigned, County Commissioners for said county, do certify that we, after full examination of the situation of the population of said county, have fixed and designated a certain point in the prairie near John Kelley's field, on the waters of Spring creek, at a stake marked Z. & D., as the temporary seat of justice for said county; and do further agree that the said county seat be called and known by the name of Springfield.
Given under our hands this 10th day of April, 1821.
ZACHARIAH PETER.
WM. DRENNAN.
There is no explanation of letters used in marking the stake, but it is probable that the only two commissioners present agreed to use one initial from each of their names.
The point chosen was near what is now the northwest corner of Second and Jefferson streets. The first court house in the county was built on the same spot.
We find the county of Sangamo organized, and the county seat temporarily located and named. It may be interesting to note some of the incidents that influenced the selection of that particular spot. Towns and cities are born, live, and die, subject to the contingencies of birth, life, and death, analagous to that of human beings. About the year 1818, an old bachelor by the name of Elisha Kelly emigrated from North Carolina to this State, stopping first in Macoupin county. Mr. Kelly was exceedingly fond of the chase, and in prospecting for good hunting grounds, wandered in between two ravines, a couple of miles apart, running in a northwesterly direction, and emptying into Spring creek, a tributary of the Sangamon river. The deer with which this country abounded before the advent of civilization, made their homes in the timber along the larger water courses. In the morning they would leave the heavy timber, follow up the ravines, along which the trees became smaller, and finally ran out on the open prairie, They would pass the day amid the tall and luxuriant grass, roaming about and grazing at pleasure, and as nightfall approached, return down the ravines, to the places they had left in the morning, each to seek its lair for repose. The deer in passing down these ravines, gave Mr. Kelly an opportunity for the full gratification of his ambition for game. It seemed to him so much like a hunter's paradise, that he returned to his old home and induced his father, Henry Kelly, and his four brothers, John, older than himself, and Elijah, William and George, younger, to emigrate with him, those who had families bringing them. He induced other families among his acquaintances to emigrate also. More families continued to move into the country, and generally settled at long distances from each other, but the principal settlement clustered around the Kellys. When the commissioners came to locate the county seat, it was discovered that the Kelley settlement was the only place in all the county, large as it was, where enough families could be found in the vicinity of each other to board and lodge the members of the court and those who would be likely to attend its sessions.
The records do not show that anything more than locating the county seat was done that day, but in another part of the book we find a copy of a contract that was evidently entered into after adjournment, and before they separated. There is no evidence of any advertising for proposals to build a court house, but here is the contract:
Article of agreement entered into the 10th day of April, 1821, between John Kelly, of the county of Sangamo, and the undersigned, county commissioners of said county. The said Kelly agrees with said commissioners to build, for the use of the said county, a court house of the following description, to-wit: The logs to be twenty feet long, the house one story high, plank floor, a good cabin roof, a door and window cut out, the work to be completed by the first day of May, next, for which the said commissioners promise, on the part of the county, to pay the said Kelly forty-two dollars and fifty cents. Witness our hands the day and date above.
JOHN KELLY,
ZACHARIAH PETER,
WM. DRENNAN.
As the temple of justice approached completion the commissioners found that it would be a very nice summer building, but they evidently had some doubts about it for winter. So we find another contract, of which the following is a copy:
Jesse Brevard agrees with the county commissioners to finish the court house in the following manner, to-wit: To be chinked outside and daubed inside. Boards sawed and nailed on the inside cracks, a good, sufficient door shutter, to be made with good plank and hung with good iron hinges, with a latch. A window to be cut out, faced and cased, to contain nine lights, with a good, sufficient shutter hung on the outside. A fire place to be cut out seven feet wide, and a good, sufficient wooden chimney, built with a good, sufficient back and hearth. To be finished by the first of September, next.
JESSE BREVARD.
June 1, 1821. June 4, 1821, the court assembled in the court house for which they had signed the contract twenty-four days previous. A contract was entered into that day to build a jail, first drawing up the specifications and then writing the contract on the back, of which the following is a copy:
Robert Hamilton agrees to build the within named jail for the county of Sangamo, and to have the same completed by the first Monday in September, next, for the sum of eighty four dollars and seventy-five cents, for which the commissioners agree, on the part of the county, that the said Hamilton shall be entitled to a warrant on the county treasury for the sum of eighty-four dollars and seventy-five cents, as aforesaid.
ROBERT HAMILTON.
June 4, 1821. The following is a "description of a jail for Sangamo county," to-wit: The timber to be cut twelve feet long, hewed twelve inches square, raised seven feet between the floors, the upper and also the under floor to be of the same kinds of timber, hewed and fit on the sill with a shoulder of at least three inches. The under sill to be let in the ground so as to let the floor rest on the surface of the earth. The logs to be matched with a half dove-tail, and made to close. The building to be covered with a good cabin roof, a window cut eight inches square, half cut out of the timber above and half below. A bar of iron let into the log above and one below, one-half inch thick and two inches wide; three bars of iron standing upright one inch square, let in through the top and bottom bar and into the timber. One door cut three feet in width and five feet high, to be faced, or cheeked, with good timber, three inches thick, put on with good spikes; a strong door shutter, made of good oak plank, put together crossing and angling, with rivets, at least four in each cross of the plank, and fourpenny nails, drove from each side of the door, not more than one-half inch apart. To be hung with three good, strong, iron hinges, so turned as not to admit of the door coming off, and a good, strong bolt lock. The building to be completed by the first Monday in September, next.
June 4, 1821: At the meeting of June 4th John Hamblin and David Black were appointed constables. To this time the records show that the name of the county had been written Sangamo, but without any apparent reason, we find a letter added, making it Sangamon.
June 5, 1821: At a meeting of the commissioners under this date, we find that John Kelly was allowed $42.50 due him on contract for building the court house, and he was allowed $5.00 for extra work. At a meeting September 1, 1821, Jacob Ellis was allowed $4.50 for Judge's seat and bar in the court house. The meeting of December 4, 1821, shows that Jesse Brevard was allowed $20.50 for finishing the court house, making a total of $72.50 as the total cost of the first court house of Sangamon county, but even here we see that the cost nearly doubled the original contract of $42.50.
Continuing the business done on June 5th, we find that the county was divided into four election districts, or townships, called, respectively, Sangamon, Springfield, Richland and Union. Overseers of the poor were appointed, two for each township, and a board of three trustees to look after the overseers of the poor. It does not appear that any one was appointed to look after the trustees. At that meeting James C. Stephenson was appointed county surveyor, and George Hayworth county treasurer, in place of James Sims, who refused to qualify. Provision was made for levying a tax on houses, neat cattle, wheel carriages, stock in trade and distilleries.
July 16, 1821. Ordered, that one-half of one per cent. be levied on all property for the purpose of paying for the public buildings, and for other purposes.
December 4, 1821. John Taylor came into court and entered his protest against the sufficiency of the jail. At the same term it was ordered that Robert Pulliam be allowed to keep a tavern, or public house of entertainment, upon his executing a bond and paying to the county the sum of three dollars, and that he be allowed to charge the following rates, to-wit: Meal of victuals, 25 cents; bed for night, 12 1/2 cents; feed for horse, 12 1/2 cents; keeping horse all night, 37 1/2 cents; whisky, for half pint, 12 1/2.
March term, 1822. Erastus Wright was authorized to keep a ferry across the Illinois river, opposite Fort Clark, now Peoria. Rates of charges were fixed in the license. We learn that he never kept the ferry.
Elijah Slater, on filing his bond, with Dr. Gershom Jayne as security, was granted license to keep a tavern, or public house of entertainment, in the town of Springfield, and a schedule of charges fixed similar to that annexed to Mr. Pulliam's license.
George Hayworth, the county treasurer, made what was probably intended as his annual report, although the county had been organized only about eleven months. The amount of taxes collected for 1821 was $407.44; fines collected, $40.00, making the total receipts $447.44. The amount paid out was $420.18 3/4. This included the payment of all the officers, and of all bills connected with the building of the court house and jail, leaving $27.26 1/4 cents in the treasury, and no public debt. From the official papers it appears that the entire salary of the county treasurer for that year was $22.26 1/4.
July 29, 1823, the amount of taxable property returned to the court was $129,112.50. After reducing the territory of the county to about one-seventh of the original area, we find that the taxable property now--1876--amounts to about thirty-five millions of dollars.
Adam Hamilton, county treasurer, reported at the May term, 1824, total amount of collections was $875.87 1/2, and the disbursements $753.90, leaving a balance of $121.97 in the treasury.
After the temporary location of the county seat, a contest sprang up, looking to the permanent location of the same. At an election of members of the legislature, two opposing candidates went before the people on the merits of two localities. I. S. Pugh was the candidate for Springfield, and William S. Hamilton, a son of the distinguished statesman, Alexander Hamilton, represented Sangamo, a beautiful site for a town on the banks of the Sangamon river, about seven miles west, bearing a little north from Springfield. Hamilton was elected, but Pugh went to Vandalia, the capital, as a lobby member, and succeeded in having commissioners--named in the next paragraph--appointed, who proved to be favorable to Springfield.
An act of the General Assembly, approved December 23, 1824, provided for reducing the boundaries of the county, and named James Mason, Rowland P. Allen, Charles Gear and John R. Sloo, as a board of commissioners who should permanently locate the county seat. A proviso in the law forbade its being located unless thirty-five acres of land was donated on the spot. The commissioners assembled March 18, 1825, and confirmed the former location. More than the requisite donation was made, forty-two acres being conveyed for that purpose by Elijah Iles and Pascal Enos. The land conveyed was parts of sections thirty-four and twenty-seven, in town sixteen north, range _____ west, of the third principal meridian. The work of the special commission was consummated when the county commissioners accepted the deeds. They soon after ordered all the land to be laid out into town lots, and, after reserving one square for county buildings, had the remainder sold. Wm. S. Hamilton was appointed to lay off and map the town lots. At the same meeting it was ordered that the sale of lots should begin on the first Monday in May, 1825, and that it should be so advertised in the Edwardsville Spectator, and in the Intelligencer, at Vandalia. Mr. Hamilton failed to lay out the lots, and Tom M. Neale did the work. At a meeting of the commissioners, May 2, 1825, Mr. Neale was appointed crier to sell the lots, and Erastus Wright to clerk at the sale. The following report of two days' sales will show the contrast between the value of Springfield real estate then and now:
FIRST DAY. Lots. Block. Amount. Garret Elkin bought 1 22 $25.75 James C. McNabb " 3 22 12.00 James Adams " 5 22 13.75 Robert Hamilton " 7 22 16.50 SECOND DAY. Garrett Elkin bought 2 22 31.00 Elijah ___es " 4 22 20.00 " " 4 23 40.00 " " 5 23 14.00 James Adams " 6 22 17.25 Garrett Elkin " 8 22 17.56 1/4 T. M. Neale " 3 23 21.00 " " 2 23 17.25 Thomas Cox " 1 23 14.00 C. R. Matheny " 8 23 10.25
At the June term, 1825, of the county commissioners' court, John Taylor, sheriff, made the following return or report:
Taxes collected for 1824 $600.00 Fines collected same year 23.00 Total $623.00 Amount paid out 549.97 Balance in favor of the county $73.03
July term, 1825. The county commissioners began to think the time had arrived for building a larger and better court house. They passed an order that the county proceed to build a court house, not to exceed three thousand dollars, provided one-half the expense be made up by subscription. It was to be of brick, two stories high. The failure to raise the money by subscription defeated the whole project.
It will be remembered that the court house built in 1821 cost, on the original contract, $41.50; for extra work, $5.00; for a seat for the Judge, $4.50; and for finishing the building, so as to make it habitable for winter, $20.50, making a total of $72.50.
Coming down from their project to build a $3,000 court house, we next find a contract in the office of the county clerk, made September, 1825. Log buildings could no longer be tolerated, and this was to be a frame. The contract price was $449.00, which did not include the flues. That was let to another party for $70.00, making a total of $519.00. The old log court house was sold at auction to John Taylor for $32.00, nearly half the original cost. The new frame court house was built at the north-east corner of Adams and Sixth streets. It must have been a magnificent structure, judging from the fact that at the term of the court in June, 1826, Robert Thompson was allowed two dollars and twenty-five cents for the plan of the court house.
It may be a matter of some interest to say a few words here about the method of raising revenue to keep the machinery of government moving. At a term of commissioners' court, March 23, 1827, a schedule was made of the kinds of property to be taxed, beginning: "On slaves and indentured or registered negro or mulatto servants, on pleasure carriages, on distilleries," etc., etc.
Only a few years elapsed until the frame court house was thought to be inadequate to the growing wants of the people. It is recorded in the county archives that in February, 1830, the county court appointed three agents or commissioners to superintend the erection of a brick court house. On the third of March the commissioners reported to the court that they had entered into contracts with two parties. One for the brick work, at $4,641, the other for the wood work, at $2,200, making a total of $6,841. This edifice was completed early in 1831, and stood in the centre of the public square, bounded by Washington and Adams, Fifth and Sixth streets. It was a square building, two stories high, hip roof, with a cupola rising in the centre. From the time that court house was erected, all the business of the town collected around the square.
In 1837, when Springfield was selected as the future capital of the state, with a pledge to raise fifty thousand dollars to assist in building the state house; also to furnish the site upon which it should stand, it was not an easy matter to agree upon a location. If land was selected far enough from the existing business to be cheap, the fifty thousand dollars could not be raised. Those already in business around the square refused to contribute, because the state house, being so much larger and more attractive, would draw the business after it, thus depreciating the value of their property. After discussing the question in all its bearings, it was found that the only practicable way to settle the matter was to demolish the court house and use the site for the state house. Under that arrangement the business men around the square pledged themselves to contribute to the fifty thousand dollar fund to the extent of their ability. The court house was accordingly removed, early in 1837, and work on the state house commenced. This square, with the court house and other buildings on it, were valued at sixteen thousand dollars, about one-third of which was lost in the destruction of the buildings.
Having thus summarily disposed of their court house, and having engaged to do so much towards building the state house, the people of Sangamon county were unable to undertake the building of another. In order to supply the deficiency, the county authorities rented a building that had been erected for a store house by the Hon. Ninian W. Edwards. It is at the west side of Fifth street, five doors north of Washington, and was used as a court house for about ten years. Mr. Edwards still owns it, and it is yet used as a business house. After the state house was built, the fifty thousand dollars paid, and the county emerged from the general wreck caused by the financial crash of 1837-8, Sangamon county began to take measures for erecting another court house. In the month of February, 1845, a lot of ground was purchased at the southeast corner of Washington and Sixth streets, as the site for the building. On the twenty-second of April a contract was made by the county commissioners for the building, according to plans and specifications previously adopted. The edifice was to cost $9,680, to be paid in county orders. It was completed according to contract, and was used as the court house of Sangamon county nearly thirty-one years, until January, 1876.
When the movement for building a new state house was made, early in 1867, it was deemed politic on the part of the friends of Springfield that Sangamon county should purchase the old state house, erected from 1837 to 1840, and make it the court house of the county. The law providing for the building of a new state house, which was approved by Gov. R. J. Oglesby, February 25, 1867, with a supplementary act two days later, contained a clause for the transfer of the state house to Sangamon county and the city of Springfield, which was afterwards changed, making the county alone the purchaser. It was stipulated that the Governor should convey the public square, containing two and a half acres of land, with the state house upon it, to Sangamon county, in consideration of two hundred thousand dollars, to be paid to the state of Illinois, and for the further consideration that the city of Springfield and the county cause to be conveyed to the State a certain piece of land, described by metes and bounds in the bill, and containing between eight and nine acres, upon which to erect the new state house. The law also provided that the state should have the use of the old state house until the new one was completed. The land was secured at a cost to the city of seventy thousand dollars, and conveyed to the state; the two hundred thousand dollars was paid by the county, and the property conveyed by the state to the county. That was done in 1867, but the county did not come into possession of the property for seven years. During that time the simple interest, at ten per cent., on the two hundred thousand dollars purchase money, would have amounted to one hundred and forty thousand dollars, making the cost of the old state house to Sangamon county three hundred and forty thousand dollars. The state vacated the house in January, 1876, and the county authorities at once took possession. It will thus be seen that in fifty-five years the county has had five court houses, and been ten years without any. The first one cost forty-two dollars and fifty cents, and the last three hundred and forty thousand dollars.
Sangamon Circuit, May Term, 1821:
At a Circuit Court for the county of Sangamon, and State of Illinois, begun and held at the house of John Kelly, on the first Monday of May, (7th day), in the year of our Lord, one thousand, eight hundred and twenty-one.
Present: JOHN REYNOLDS, Judge.
CHARLES R. MATHENY, Clerk.
JOHN TAYLOR, Sheriff.
HENRY STARR, Prosecuting Attorney, pro tem.
The following list of Grand Jurors were empanneled and sworn:
Daniel Parkinson, foreman.
Claybourn James,
Henry Brown,
John Darneille,
Archibald Turner,
William Davis,
Abraham Richey,
Abraham Carlock,
Levi Harbour,
George Hayworth,
William Eads,
Thomas Knotts,
James McCoy,
James Tweddell,
Aaron Hawley,
Field James,
Mason Fowler,
Isaac Keys,
Elias Williams.
Charles R. Matheny presented his bond and security as clerk, which was approved by the court.
John Taylor presented his bond as sheriff, with security, which was approved by the court.
Suit was commenced by Samuel L. Irwin against Roland Shepherd, for trespass, and dismissed at plaintiff's cost.
The Grand Jury came into court and returned two indictments for assault and battery and one for riot. Trial deferred until next term, and court adjourned.
The next term was October 8, 1821; held but one day, and proceedings covered two pages of the record.
Next term commenced May 6, 1822; lasted three days, and proceedings covered nine pages of the record. Now, in 1876, with the county reduced to about one-seventh of the territory it then occupied, the Circuit Court continues about eighteen weeks, annually, or three terms of about six weeks each, and the proceedings of each term cover from three to five hundred pages of the record.
In those days, when the electric telegraph was unknown, and it required from twenty days to one month for a letter or newspaper to be brought from the Atlantic coast, the early settlers were under the necessity of giving an amusing turn to passing events when it was at all practicable. An incident illustrating this is related by men who witnessed the facts. When the court was held in the first log court house, an attorney by the name of Mendel violated the rules of decorum as understood by his Honor, Judge John York Sawyer, who ordered Mendel to be arrested and sent to jail for a few hours. On repairing to the court house next morning, the Judge, lawyers and others were surprised to find the court in session before the hour to which it had adjourned. A large calf was on the platform usually occupied by the Judge, and a flock of geese cooped up in the jury box. Mendel, having been released from jail, was inside the bar; bowing first to the calf and then to the geese, he commenced his pleading: "May it please the Court, and you gentlemen of the jury."
The first three or four years of the records of the Circuit Court reveals nothing more than the ordinary routine in such tribunals. The most startling event in the community occurred August 27, 1826. A murder was committed that day near the Sangamon river, in what is now Menard county, about five miles above where Petersburg now stands. A blacksmith named Nathaniel VanNoy had, in a fit of drunken frenzy, killed his wife. He was arrested and lodged in jail the same day. The sheriff, Col. John Taylor, notified Judge Sawyer, who at once called a special session of the Circuit Court. A grand jury was empanneled and sworn, consisting of the following citizens:
Gershom Jayne, foreman,
Stephen Stillman,
John Morris,
John Stephenson, Jr.,
James White,
Thomas Morgan,
James Stewart,
Jacob Boyer,
Robert White,
John N. Moore,
Wm. Carpenter,
Jesse M. Harrison,
Robert Cownover,
James Turley,
Aaron Houton,
John Young,
John Lindsay,
Charles Boyd,
Wm. O. Chilton,
Job Burdan,
Hugh Sportsman,
Abram Lanterman.
Upon hearing the evidence a true bill was found against the accused, and a petit jury called, consisting of the following persons:
Boling Green, foreman,
Samuel Lee,
Jesse Armstrong,
Levi W. Gordon,
Thomas I. Parish,
Erastus Wright,
Wm. Vincent,
Philip I. Fowler,
John L. Stephenson,
Levi Parish,
James Collins,
Geo. Davenport,
A foreman was appointed, the jury sworn, and the trial commenced on the 28th. Attorney-General James Turney acted for the people; James Adams and I. H. Pugh, for the defendant. A verdict of guilty was rendered on the 29th, and sentence was pronounced the same day, that the condemned man be hung November 26, 1826. Thus, in less than three days was the murder committed, the murderer tried and condemned to be hung. The sentence was carried out at the time appointed, in the presence of almost the entire community. Many are yet living who witnessed the execution. Having already sold his body, it was delivered to the surgeons, who immediately commenced dissecting it in an old open house. The spectacle was so revolting that they were compelled to desist and remove it to a more private place. In a country so new, the settlers so widely separated, and so little that was interesting or exciting to furnish topics for conversation, the excitement caused by that event cannot be imagined by the people at the present time. The writer has, time and again, had the dates of events, such as the advent of families in the community, marriages, births, deaths, and incidents too numerous to mention, all settled beyond a doubt by its having occurred "the fall VanNoy was hung!"
SPRINGFIELD, SANGAMON COUNTY,
STATE OF ILLINOIS, June 21, 1821.
Agreeable to an act of Assembly establishing Courts of Probate approved February 10, 1821, the court was opened at Springfield, Sangamon county, on the 4th day of June, 1821. Present, James Latham, Judge.
The court proceeded to issue letters of administration to Randolph Wills on the estate of Daniel Martin, deceased. After which the court adjourned until court in course.
JAS. LATHAM, Judge.
After which court met and adjourned three times without transacting any business, until August 26, 1821, when the filing and recording the will of Peter Lanterman occupied the attention of the court one entire term.
October, 1821, we find the following will recorded:
Before the witnesses now present, Louis Bennett, in perfect memory, does give to the daughters of Kakanoqui, Josett Kakanoqui and Lizett Kakanoqui, two thousand livres each, and six hundred livres for praies for his father; also, six hundred livres for him, if for prayes, and thirty dollars for prayes promised, and one hundred dollars for Kakanoqui, the rest of his money to be given to his brothers and sisters of Louis Bennett. After duly hearing read over before the witnesses now present, and signing the same will, he does voluntarily appoint Joseph D. Portecheron and Louis Penconneau, Senr., as exacquators of his will.
His
LOUIS + BENNETT.
mark.
JOSEPH D. PORTECHERON, |
JOSEPH DUTTLE, |
His | Witnesses.
FRANCOIS + BARBONAIS, |
mark. |
The Sangamo Journal was established by Simeon and Josiah Francis. See their names. The first number of the paper was issued November 10, 1831, and has continued to the present time, and is now known as the Illinois State Journal, and has been published weekly and daily since June 13, 1838. Its present proprietors are the "Illinois Journal Company," composed of D. L. Phillips, Prest.; E. L. Baker, Sec.; J. D. Roper, Treasurer; and Charles Edwards and A. J. Phillips.
The Illinois State Register, first established at Vandalia, was removed to Springfield in 1836, by Walters & Weber. It has been published as a weekly and daily since January 2, 1849. Its present proprietors are E. L. & J. D. Merritt.
The transportation question will always be a leading one in civilized communities, and especially so in their early settlement. To the first settlers of Illinois it was of unusual importance, on account of the vast extent of undrained soil, so rich and soft as to be almost impassible, in its natural state, for half of every year. For the transportation of heavy articles long distances, no other mode was thought of except by water. They could be conveyed three or four times the distance in that way, much cheaper than on a straight line by any known method. Consequently, efforts were made to navigate every stream to the highest point possible. In the Sangamo Journal of January 26, 1832, there appears a letter from Vincent A. Bogue, written in Cincinnati and addressed to Edward Mitchell, Esq., of Springfield. Mr. Bogue says he will attempt the navigation of the Sangamon river if he can find a suitable boat, and expresses the opinion that if he succeeds it will revolutionize the freight business. This is an editorial paragraph from the Springfield Journal of February 16, 1832:
"NAVIGATION OF THE SANGAMO.--We find the following advertisement in the Cincinnati Gazette of the 19th ult. We hope such notices will soon cease to be novelties. We seriously believe that the Sangamon river, with some little improvement, can be made navigable for steamboats for several months in the year." Here is the advertisement:
"FOR SANGAMO RIVER, ILLINOIS.--The splendid upper cabin steamer, Talisman, J. M. Pollock, Master, will leave for Portland, Springfield, on the Sangamon river, and all the intermediate ports and landings, say Beardstown, Naples, St. Louis, Louisville, on Thursday, February 2. For freight or passage, apply to Capt. Vincent A. Bogue, at the Broadway Hotel, or to Allison Owen." The same boat was advertised in the St. Louis papers.
After the above notices appeared in the Journal, the citizens of Springfield and surrounding country held a public meeting, February 14, 1832, and appointed a committee to meet Mr. Bogue with a suitable number of hands to assist in clearing the river of obstructions. Another committee was appointed to collect subscriptions to defray the expense. The Journal of March 8 announces the arrival of the steamer at Meredosia, where its further progress was obstructed by ice. The Sangamo Journal of March 29, 1832, says: "On Saturday last the citizens of this place (Springfield) were gratified by the arrival of the steamboat Talisman, J. W. Pollock, Master, of 150 tons burthen, at the Portland landing, opposite this town. (Portland was at the south side of the Sangamon river, between where the bridges of the Chicago & Alton and the Gilman, Clinton & Springfield railroads now stand.) The safe arrival of a boat of the size of the Talisman, on a river never before navigated by steam, had created much solicitude, and the shores for miles were crowded by our citizens. Her arrival at her destined port was hailed with loud acclamations and full demonstrations of pleasure. When Capt. Bogue located his steam mill on Sangamon river, twelve months ago, and asserted his determination to land a steam boat there within a year, the idea was considered chimerical by some, and utterly impracticable by others. The experiment has been made, and the result has been as successful as the most enthusiastic could expect; and this county owes a deep debt of gratitude to Captain Bogue for getting up the expedition, and his never tiring and unceasing efforts until the end was accomplished. Capt. Pollock, who is naturally warm and enthusiastic, entered fully into the feeling of our citizens, who visited the mouth of the river to render any and every assistance in their power; and much credit is due him for his perseverance and success. The boat experienced some difficulty from drifts, and leaning timber on shore, which made her trip somewhat tedious. The result has clearly demonstrated the practicability of navigating the river by steamboats of a proper size; and by the expenditure of $2,000 in removing logs and drifts and standing timber, a steamboat of 80 tons burthen will make the trip in two days from Beardstown to this place. The citizens of Beardstown manifested great interest for the success of the enterprise, and some of them accompanied the boat until the result was no longer doubtful. They proposed the cutting of a communication or canal from the bluffs to their landing--about five miles--whereby seventy-five miles of navigation may be saved, and offered one thousand dollars to assist in completing it. It is to be hoped that the next Legislature will afford some aid in making the river safe and pleasant in its navigation. Springfield can no longer be considered an inland town. We have no doubt but within a few months a boat will be constructed for the special purpose of navigating the Sangamo river. The result which must follow the successful termination of this enterprise to our county, and to those counties lying in its neighborhood, it would be impossible to calculate. Here is now open a most promising field for the exercise of every branch of honest industry. We congratulate our farmers, our mechanics, our merchants and professional men for the rich harvest in prospect, and we cordially invite emigrating citizens from other states, whether rich or poor, if so be they are industrious and honest, to come hither and partake of the good things of Sangamo."
A ball was gotten up in honor of the arrival, and several yards of machine poetry appeared in the next number of the Journal, detailing the various incidents connected with the wondrous event. The boat was unloaded, and immediately started on its return, but the river had so fallen and brought the water within so narrow a channel, that it was impossible to turn it around, and they were compelled to back it out the entire distance. The only mention ever made of her afterwards was a newspaper report that the Talisman was burned at the wharf in St. Louis in the latter part of the next April. No attempt was ever made after that to bring a boat up the river. Thus ended the dream of navigating the Sangamo, across which a man may walk almost dry shod for nearly half of every year.
The first legislation on the part of the state, with reference to Springfield, was approved February 9, 1827. By this act the court of county commissioners was required to appoint street commissioners for the town, and levy a tax for improving the same. A general law for the incorporation of towns was enacted and approved February 12, 1831. April 2, 1832, Springfield was incorporated under that law. October 18, 1832, the county court ordered a re-survey of the town, in order to adjust the discrepancies between the plats of Calhoun and Springfield. The survey was made and acknowledged June 18, 1833, and recorded November 9, 1836.
The first board of trustees after the town was incorporated, April 2, 1832:
C. R. Matheny, President,
Cyrus Anderson,
John Taylor,
Elisha Tabor,
Mordecai Mobley,
Wm. Carpenter.
1833: John R. Gray, President.
1834-5-6-7-8: C. R. Matheny, President.
1839: Peleg C. Canedy, President, and Abraham Lincoln a member of the town board.
By an act of the General Assembly, approved February 3, 1840, a city charter was granted to Springfield. This law provided for an election to be held the first Monday in April, being the sixth day, to adopt or reject the proposed charter. It was adopted, and the first election for city officers was held April 20, 1840.
Benjamin S. Clements was elected Mayor, and James R. Gray, Washington Iles, Joseph Klein and William Prentiss, Aldermen. The following were the successive Mayors from that to the present time: For 1841, Wm. L. May; 1842, David B. Campbell; 1843, Daniel B. Hill, who resigned and Andrew McCormick was elected to fill the vacancy; 1844, Andrew McCormick; 1845, James C. Conkling; 1846-47 and '48, Eli Cook; 1849-50 and '51, John Calhoun; 1852, William Lavely; 1853, Josiah Francis. In 1854 the number of Aldermen was increased from four to twelve, and William H. Herndon was elected Mayor; 1855, John Cook; 1856-57 and '58, John W. Priest; 1859, William Jayne; 1860, Goyn Sutton; 1861-62, Geo. L. Huntington; 1863, John W. Smith; 1864, John S. Vredenburgh; 1865, Thomas J. Dennis; 1866, John S. Bradford; 1867, Norman M. Broadwell; 1868, William E. Shutt; 1869, N. M. Broadwell; 1870, John W. Priest; 1871 and '72, John W. Smith; 1873, Charles E. Hay; 1874, the wards were increased from four to six, and Obed Lewis elected Mayor; 1875, Charles E. Hay; 1876, this is printed in February, and the election takes place in April.
Judge Caton, in his oration at the laying of the corner stone of the new state house, October 5, 1868, described the building which was used as the capitol when the territorial government was organized, in the following language: "It was a rough building in the centre of a square in the village of Kaskaskia, the ancient seat of the western empire for more than one hundred and fifty years. The body of this building was of uncut limestone, the gables and roof of the gambrel style of unpainted boards and shingles, with dormer windows. The lower floor, a long, cheerless room, was fitted up for the House, whilst the council sat in the small chamber above. This venerable building was, during the French occupancy of the country, prior to 1763, the headquarters of the military commandant. Thirty years ago the house was a mass of ruins, and to-day, probably, there is not a stone left to designate the spot where it stood." That building was the capitol during the territorial existence of Illinois, and the state government was organized in it also.
The state constitution of 1818 required the General Assembly to petition Congress for a grant of land upon which to locate the seat of government for the state. In the event of the prayer of the petitioners being granted, a town was to be laid out on said land, which town should be the seat of government of the state for twenty years. The land was granted. "At the session of 1819, in Kaskaskia, five commissioners were appointed to select the land appropriated by Congress for the state capital." The commissioners made their selections further up the Kaskaskia river. Having selected the site, the commissioners were sorely puzzled in their efforts to select a name that should be so euphonious as to attract the attention of the whole world. Governor Ford, in his history of Illinois, gives the following humorous account of the way it was done: "Tradition says that a wag, who was present, suggested to the commissioners that the 'Vandals' were a powerful nation of Indians, who once inhabited the banks of the Kaskaskia river, and that 'Vandalia,' derived from the name, would perpetuate the memory of that extinct but renowned people. The suggestion pleased the commissioners, the name was adopted, and they thus proved that the cognomen of their new city--if they were fit representatives of their constituents--would better illustrate the character of the modern, than the ancient inhabitants of the country."
Having located and named their town, it was at once laid out, and the dense growth of timber cut away and a two story frame building erected on the square set apart for the State capitol. The building was placed on a rough stone foundation in the centre of the square, and was of very rude workmanship. The lower floor was for the House of Representatives, and the upper divided into two rooms, the largest one for the Senate and the smaller one for the office of Secretary of State. The State Auditor and Treasurer occupied detached buildings. The archives of the State were removed from Kaskaskia to Vandalia in December, 1820. That wooden State house was burned a few years later, and a much larger one built of brick on the same ground. The rapidity with which emigration filled up the northern portion of the State made it apparent, long before the twenty years it was to remain at Vandalia expired, that it would be necessary to remove the capital further north, and as early as 1833 the question began to be agitated in the General Assembly.
In the Legislature of 1836-7 Sangamon county had two Senators and seven Representatives. They were the most remarkable delegation from any one county to the General Assembly, being much taller than the average of human stature. Some of them were less and some more than six feet, but their combined height was exactly fifty-four feet. They were then and are yet spoken of as the "Long Nine." The names of those in the Senate were Archer G. Herndon and Job Fletcher; in the House, Abraham Lincoln, Ninian W. Edwards, John Dawson, Andrew McCormick, Dan Stone, Wm. F. Elkin and Robert L. Wilson. One or two were as tall, but none taller, than Abraham Lincoln, who, quoting his own language, was "six feet, four inches, nearly." It was known that a movement would be made to re-locate the State capital. The "Long Nine" were united for securing it, and nothing could turn one of them from their purpose. They were ready to yield anything else, but when any other point was yielded, it secured votes for Springfield as the capital. Their opportunities were great. The people of Illinois were, at that time, almost insane on the subject of internal improvements. Not one in ten thousand of them had ever seen a railroad, but they had heard of them, and thought the prairies of Illinois the best place in the world to build them. The first movements began in the General Assembly in 1833, but the first charter was: "An act to incorporate the Chicago and Vincennes railroad company with an authorized capital of $3,000,000," and was approved January 17, 1835. Within one year and four days from that time, charters were granted for building railroads in the State, of which the combined capital authorized was $18,200,000. In this legislation the State did not propose to furnish any capital, only authorized capitalists to invest their money. Not a mile of railroad was ever built under any of those charters. Before the next session, the Legislature realized that there were no capitalists to build railroads, and a new system was inaugurated. The most remarkable act ever passed by a legislative body in the State was approved February 27, 1837, and was entitled "An act to establish and maintain a general system of internal improvements." Two supplementary acts were approved March 4, 1837. The three acts fill thirty-two octavo pages. The object was to construct public works at the expense of the State, in all parts of the same. Under this law appropriations were made for canals, and the improvement of rivers, to the amount of $650,000; also, for the building of railroads, $9,550,000, making a total of $10,200,000. During the month of February and March, 1837, bills were passed chartering twenty-two railroad companies with authorized capital stock to the amount of nearly $8,000,000, making an aggregate of about $30,000,000 involved in the vain endeavor to legislate railroads into existence in the State of Illinois before their time.
While the internal improvement bill was pending, the "Long Nine" were busy. They said little or nothing in locating proposed railroads, but would assist other localities, where votes could be secured for locating the capital at Springfield. The result was the passage of "An act permanently to locate the seat of government for the State of Illinois," which was approved at Vandalia, February 25, 1837. This law provided for a joint session of the two houses, on the twenty-eighth of the same month, to select a situation. An appropriation of fifty thousand dollars was made, to commence building the State house. The law also declared that no place should be chosen unless its citizens contributed at least $50,000 to aid in the work, and not less than two acres of land, as a site for the capitol. When the two houses assembled on the twenty-eighth, the question was decided by the following--
BALLOTINGS. 1st. 2nd. 3rd. 4th. Springfield 35 43 53 73 Jacksonville 14 15 9 1 Vandalia 16 15 16 15 Peoria 16 12 11 6 Alton 15 16 14 6 Scattering 25 7 15 7 Illiopolis 10 3
That settled the question, and Springfield was declared to be the future capital of the State.
A supplemental act was passed on the third of March, authorizing the commissioners of Sangamon county to convey the land, as a site for the new edifice, to the State. It also named Dr. A. G. Henry, of Sangamon; Archibald Job, of Cass, Wm. Herndon, of Sangamon, as commissioners, who were authorized and instructed to superintend the work of erection. It was expected that the new capital would be completed in time for the first meeting of the Legislature in Springfield, which was fixed for the special session of 1839-40. Finding that the building could not be sufficiently advanced, the Second Presbyterian church, on Fourth street, was secured as Representatives' Hall. The building was then quite new, and was, by far, the largest church edifice in the central and whole northern part of the State. It was built of brick, stood a few feet north of the site of the present magnificent Second Presbyterian church, until the latter was erected. The old building was torn down in the summer of 1875. The Methodist church was used for the Senate chamber, and the Episcopal church for the Supreme Court, both wooden buildings. The Legislature first convened in special session December 9, 1839.
It was thought by many to be unreasonable to require a little town of eleven hundred inhabitants, struggling with the disadvantages of a new country, to pay the $50,000 pledged. During that special session, Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, then a member from Morgan county, proposed to bring in a bill, releasing Springfield from the payment of the same. The sterling honesty of Abraham Lincoln manifested itself on this, as on all other proper occasions. He interposed his objections, although he fully appreciated the kindly feelings that prompted the proposal, but he insisted that the money should be paid. Arrangements were entered into for paying it in three instalments. The two first payments were made without any great difficulty; but the third pressed more heavily, as the financial crash that swept over the whole United States, while the new State house was in course of construction, impoverished many. Under these circumstances, it became necessary to borrow the money to make the last payment, from the State Bank of Illinois. A note for the amount was signed by one hundred and one citizens, and deposited with the bank, the money drawn, with which internal improvement scrip or stock was purchased and paid into the State treasury, thus paying the last instalment in the State's own evidence of indebtedness. From that time it was a matter between the State Bank and the citizens who signed the note. Soon after the note was given, the State Bank failed, and some of the payments were made in the depreciated paper of the bank, for which it had received par value when it was paid out. The original note is preserved in the Ridgely National Bank, but the following is a copy of the same:
$16,666.67. SPRINGFIELD, March 22, 1838.
One year after date, we, the undersigned, or either of us, promise to pay to the President, Directors and Company of the State Bank of Illinois, sixteen thousand, six hundred and sixty-six dollars and sixty-seven cents, for value received, negotiable and payable at the bank, in Springfield, with interest until paid, at the rate of six per centum per annum, payable semi-annually.
John Hay, Thomas Mather, C. R. Matheny,
L. Higby, Tho. Houghan, William Butler,
Joseph Thayer, D. Prickett, P. C. Canedy,
William Thornton, J. Calhoun, Jos. Klein.
M. O. Reeves, Josiah Francis, P. C. Latham,
W. P. Grimsley, Washington Iles, A. G. Henry,
William Wallace, Joel Johnson, Ninian W. Edwards,
John B. Watson, C. B. Francis, John T. Stuart,
C. H. Ormsby, Wm. S. Burch, Jonas Whitney,
Moses Coffman, J. M. Shackleford, Erastus Wright,
Geo. Pasfield, B. Ferguson, John Todd,
B. C. Webster, Benjamin Talbott, E. D. Baker,
S. M. Tinsley, Jesse Cormack, A. Lincoln,
Ephriam Darling, B. C. Johnson, Garrett Elkin,
Jona. Merriam, Thomas Moffatt, John Capps,
Ira Sanford, John F. Rague, Alexr. Garrett,
Charles Arnold, Simcon Francis, Gershom Jayne,
John L. Turner, Nathaniel Hay, T. M. Neale,
Joshua F. Amos, Robert Irwin, William G. Abrams,
Sullivan Conant, Virgil Hickox, Dewey Whitney,
And. McClellan, George Trotter, M. Mobley,
Alexander Shields, Stephen T. Logan, Foley Vaughn,
A. Trailor, Robert Allen, Abner Y. Ellis,
C. C. Phelps, James R. Gray, N. A. Rankin,
R. B. Zimmerman, J. Adams, S. H. Treat,
William Hall, J. S. Britton, Elijah Iles,
James L. Lamb, W. B. Powell, Henry F. Luckett,
M. L. Knapp, F. C. Thompson, James P. Langford,
E. M. Henkle, Henry Cassequin,
James W. Keyes, J. M. Cabaniss,
Wm. Porter, James Maxcy,
Wm. H. Marsh, Z. P. Cabaniss,
W. Ransdell, E. G. Johns,
Joshua S. Hobbs, Amos Camp,
John G. Bergen, Thos. J. Goforth,
B. S. Clement, Benj. F. Jewett,
W. M. Cowgill.
From a footing up of the principal and interest on one side of the note, the final settlement appears to have been made February 19, 1846. The principal and interest to that time was $17,918.
Soon after the Legislature adjourned at Vandalia, in March, 1837, and the members returned to their homes, a public festival was given in Springfield in honor of the new legislation for the removal of the capital. Among the toasts and speeches that followed the dinner, were the two following:
By Abraham Lincoln, Esq: "All our friends--they are too numerous to mention now, individually, while there is no one of them who is not too dear to be forgotten or neglected."
By S. A. Douglas, Esq.: "The last winter's legislation--May its results prove no less beneficial to the whole State than they have to our town."
A tradition still lingers here that something stronger than water was used in drinking the toasts on that occasion, as there was not a man to be found after the festival that could tell who made the last speech, and that important fact is lost to history.
The commissioners appointed to superintend the building at once entered upon the discharge of their duties, and on the fourth of July, 1837, the corner stone of the State house was laid with grand civic and military demonstrations. After it had been lowered to its place in the wall, it was mounted by E. D. Baker, afterwards United States Senator from Oregon, and the lamented Colonel of Balls Bluff memory, who delivered one of those thrilling and eloquent speeches, for which he was so famous. It was estimated that the building would cost $130,000, but $240,000 was expended before it was completed according to the original design. When the State house was completed it was looked upon with wonder and admiration by the people. It was thought to be so enormous in size that it would answer all the purposes of the State for all time to come; but from the time it was built until the breaking out of the great rebellion the growth of Illinois was beyond anything that could have been imagined by the early settlers.
When the rebellion came to an end, and what was left of the two hundred and fifty-six thousand men from Illinois, who assisted in carrying the stars and stripes until there was no armed foe to conquer, returned to their homes, furled their banners, and assumed their accustomed places in the peaceful avocations of life, it soon became apparent to all who had occasion to visit Springfield, that the building of another State house could not be delayed for any great length of time. The State had so far outgrown the edifice, which had been regarded as a wonder of magnificence and architectural beauty only a brief quarter of a century before, that its records were unsafe, and many branches of its official business had to be transacted in rented buildings, where much of its valuable property was exposed at all times to the danger of being destroyed by fire. The question had been very generally discussed in a quiet way, and soon after the Legislature assembled in January, 1867, Hon. James C. Conkling presented a bill providing for the erection of a new State Capitol at Springfield, and laid it before the House of Representatives. It passed both houses, and was approved by Governor Oglesby February 25, 1867, with a supplementary act two days later. That law provided for the conveyance by the Governor of the square containing two and a half acres of land, with the State house upon it, to Sangamon county, for a court house, in consideration of $200,000, to be paid to the State of Illinois, and for the further consideration that the city of Springfield, and Sangamon county, cause to be conveyed to the State a certain piece of land, described by metes and bounds in the bill, and containing between eight and nine acres, upon which to erect the new State house. The law also provided that the State should have the use of the old State house until the new one should be ready for occupancy. The land was secured at a cost to the city of $70,000, and conveyed to the state; the $200,000 was paid by the county, and that amount, with $250,000, to be drawn from the State treasury, making $450,000, was appropriated to commence the work. The total cost of the building was limited to $3,000,000. The design by J. C. Cochrane was adopted July 15, 1867, and Jan. 14, 1868, he was appointed architect and superintendent. Excavation commenced early in the spring, and the first stone was laid June 11. On the fifth of October the corner stone was laid by the Grand Master of Free Masons of the State of Illinois, with the imposing ceremonies of the order, and surrounded by members of the craft from all parts of the State.
The ground plan is in the form of a great cross. The grand outlines are, total length from north to south, 359 feet, exclusive of porticos; and from east to west, 266 feet, with twenty feet additional in the grand portico at the east end, which is the principal front. The body of the edifice above ground consists of the FIRST STORY, PRINCIPAL. STORY, SECOND PRINCIPAL STORY and GALLERY STORY.
July 2, 1870, the people of Illinois voted on the question of adopting or rejecting a new constitution, that had been prepared by a convention legally called for that purpose. It was adopted by a large majority. A clause in the new constitution prohibited the legislature making appropriations for the State house, then in course of construction, beyond a total amount of three and a half millions of dollars, unless the question of additional appropriations was first submitted to a vote of the people. The money within the constitutional limit has all been appropriated. The dates of approval by the Governor, and amounts, are given below. The fourth appropriation was to be expended equally in the years 1873-4:
February 25, 27, 1867 $450,000 March 11, 27, 1869 650,000 June 14, 1871 600,000 March 19, 1873 1,000,000 March 24, 1875 800,000 Total $3,500,000
There is much work yet to be done, but whether an additional appropriation, requiring a vote of the people, will be necessary to complete the grand edifice, is a question for a future legislature to determine. The building was so far advanced that the State archives were removed thereto, and the State officers took possession of it in January 1876, and in that way the State of Illinois inaugurated the great American Centennial.
Ninian Edwards from 1809 to 1818
Shadrach Bond 1818--1822 Edward Coles 1822--1826 Ninian Edwards 1826--1830 John Reynolds 1830--1834
Lieutenant-Governor Casey, clected with Gov. Reynolds in 1830, was elected to Congress in 1832. Wm. L. D. Ewing, a member of the Senate, was chosen President of the Senate. Gov. Reynolds was elected to Congress in August, 1834, and left the State for the national capital about the middle of November. Wm. L. D. Ewing, as President of the Senate, was Governor fifteen days, until the assembling of the Legislature in December, and the inauguration of the governor elect.
Joseph Duncan from 1834 to 1838 Thomas Carlin from 1838 to 1842 Thomas Ford from 1842 to 1846
The constitution of 1848 changed the time of the assembling of the Legislature from December to January, and ordered a new election in November, 1848, for four years. Consequently--
Augustus C. French was Governor from 1846 to 1853
Joel A. Matteson from 1853 to 1857
Wm. H. Bissell from 1857 to 1860
He died March 18, 1860, and--
Lieutenant-Governor John Wood from 1860 to 1861
Richard Yates from 1861 to 1865
Richard J. Oglesby from 1865 to 1869
John M. Palmer from 1869 to 1873
Richard J. Oglesby, inaugurated in 1873,
but immediately elected to the
U. S. Senate, when the Lieutenant-Governor--
John L. Beveridge from 1873 to 1877
Another law was enacted and approved February 17, 1851, providing for township organization, and differing from the law of 1849 in some of its provisions. Under that law a petition was laid before the commissioners' court, June 5, 1860, praying the court to cause to be submitted to the voters of the county the question of township organization. The court, having heard the petition, ordered that the prayer of the petitioners be granted, and the subject be submitted at the next general election, which was held Tuesday, November 6, 1860. The vote was canvassed by the court on the tenth of December following, when it was ascertained that there was a majority of 859 votes in favor of township organization, on a total vote of 7,241. The following action was then taken: "Ordered by the Court, that John S. Bradford, John Gardner, Sen., and Joseph Campbell be appointed commissioners to divide Sangamon county into towns or townships, in accordance with the fifth and sixth sections of the General Law of the State of Illinois, in relation to township organization." March 1, 1861, the commissioners submitted their report, and the following are the names of the townships:
Auburn,
Ball,
Buffalo Heart,
Campbell, now Chatham,
Cartwright,
Clear Lake,
Cooper,
Cotton Hill,
Curran,
Gardner,
Illiopolis,
Island Grove,
Loami,
Mechanicsburg,
Power, now Fancy Creek,
Pawnee,
Rochester,
Sackett, now Salisbury,
Springfield,
Talkington,
Williams,
Woodside.
New Berlin has since been formed from part of Island Grove, and Wheatfield from part of Illiopolis, making a total of 24 townships.
An election was held for choosing supervisors, Tuesday, April 2, 1861. The first meeting of the Board of Supervisors was held April 29, 1861, on a call of eight members, which was the method pointed out in the law. From that to the present time the business of Sangamon county has been transacted by a Board of Supervisors, elected annually.
Auburn,
Barclay,
Bates,
Berlin,
Berry,
(*)Bradfordton,
(+)Breckenridge,
Buffalo,
Buffalo Heart,
Cantrall,
Chatham,
Cotton Hill,
Cross Plains,
Curran,
Dawson,
Farmingdale,
Iles Junction,
Illiopolis,
Loami,
Lowder,
Mechanicsburg,
New Berlin,
(+)New Harmony,
Pawnee,
Pleasant Plains,
Richland,
Riverton,
Rochester,
Salisbury,
Sherman,
Springfield,
Wheatfield,
Williamsville,
Woodside.
(*) This is a new office authorized by the post office department, but not yet organized. Feb., 1876.
(+) The original name of this office was New Harmony, but is about being changed to Breckenridge.
THE WINNEBAGO WAR: When the war of 1812-14, with England, drew to a close, there were many Indians in the territory of Illinois. They generally gave way as civilization advanced, yielding the ground, sometimes reluctantly, but peaceably, until the summer of 1827. It was known to the white settlers that the different tribes of Indians along the northern and western frontier were at war among themselves. After the discovery of lead around what is now Galena, the white people flocked to that region in great numbers. In their search for minerals they encroached upon the lands of the Winnebago tribe. Being thus irritated, a small party of their tribe surprised a party of twenty-four Chippeways and killed eight of them. The United States Commander, at Fort Snelling, on the upper Mississippi, caused four of the offending Winnebagoes to be arrested and delivered to the Chippeways, by whom they were shot for murder. Red Bird, the chief of the Sioux, though acting with the Winnebagoes in an attempt to obtain revenge for the killing of the four members of their tribe, was defeated by the Chippeways. He then determined to wreak his vengeance on the white people who had assisted his enemies and invaded his country. June 27th two white men were killed near Prairie DuChien, and on the thirtieth of July two keel boats, carrying supplies to Fort Snelling, were attacked and two of the crew killed. The news soon spread among the settlers, and upon a call from Gov. Edwards, four companies of infantry and one of cavalry were made up in Sangamon county. The cavalry company was commanded by Edward Mitchell, and the four infantry companies by Captains Thomas Constant, Reuben Brown, Achilles Morris and Bowlin Green. The whole under command of Col. Tom. M. Neale, with James D. Henry as adjutant, (the latter was at that time sheriff of Sangamon county,) marched to Peoria, where the regiment was more fully organized, and continued to Galena. Before their arrival in the Indian country, Red Bird with six of his warriors, voluntarily gave themselves up to the U. S. forces under Gen. Atkinson, to save their tribe from the miscries of war. Thus ended the campaign, and the Sangamon county soldiers returned to their homes.
Of the six Indians held as prisoners, some were acquitted and others convicted and hung, more than a year after they were captured. Red Bird, whose proud spirit could not endure the humiliation and confinement, sickened and died in prison. His fate was much deplored by the whites, for he had been a true friend to them until the United States Governmont compelled his Winnebago friends to give up the four men to the Chippeways to be shot.
THE BLACK HAWK WAR: The Sac and Fox Indians were first recognized by the United States Government in 1787, in a treaty at Fort Harmer, negotiated by Gov. St. Clair, in which the Indians were guaranteed protection. In 1804, in a treaty conducted by Wm. H. Harrison--afterwards President of the United States--their title to a large scope of country on Rock river was extinguished, but they were permitted to occupy the country as a hunting ground, their principal village being at the north of Rock river, near where the city of Rock Island now stands. A third treaty was entered into in 1830, by the terms of which they were to remove from the lands they had sold, east of the Mississippi, and peaceably retire to the west side of the river.
The two principal chiefs of the nation were Keokuk and Black Hawk, the latter of whom was born in 1767, at the largest village of their tribe, at the mouth of Rock river. He had fought on the side of the British in the war of 1812, at the head of 200 savages, for which he annually received payment to the time of their removal west of the Mississippi. Consequently, their band was always called the British Band. Black Hawk moved reluctantly, claiming that his tribe had been injured by the people of the United States. Keokuk determined to abide by the treaty, and drew the larger part of the tribe after him, but Black Hawk declared all the treaties void, and in the spring of 1831, at the head of 300 warriors, crossed to the east side of the river and engaged in a series of acts exceedingly annoying to the few settlers who had purchased the sites of the former homes of the Indians, from the government. The Indians would throw down fences, destroy grain, throw the roofs from their houses, and declared that if the settlers did not leave they would kill them. Governor John Reynolds, on being informed of the state of affairs on Rock river, determined to expel the Indians. He issued a proclamation, May 27, 1831, calling for volunteers, and named June 10th as the time, and Beardstown as the place of rendezvous. More than twice the 700 men called for volunteered. Finding so many willing to go, it was decided to accept the services of the whole 1,600 men. They were organized into two regiments, one spy and one odd battalion. James D. Henry, of Springfield, who had been the adjutant in the Winnebago war, was appointed to command the first regiment. I will now confine myself to the part Sangamon county took in the campaign. James Campbell, Adam Smith, and Jonathan R. Saunders each commanded a company. When the Indian town was reached at the mouth of Rock river, it was found to be deserted. The Indians had taken advantage of the darkness and fled to the west side of the Mississippi river, near where the cities of Davenport and Rock Island now stand. The savages having escaped, the soldiers took vengeance by burning the village. Gen. Gaines, who commanded the United States soldiers, sent an order to Black Hawk, requiring him and his band to return and enter into a treaty of peace. He failed to come, when a more peremptory order, with the threat of following them with all the troops at his command, brought in about thirty chiefs, including Black Hawk, and a treaty was signed on the 30th of June, 1831. By that treaty the Indians agreed to remain west of the river, and never to cross it without permission from the President of the United States. After distributing the food intended for sustaining the soldiers, among the Indians, the volunteer army disbanded and returned to their homes, without the loss of a single person by disease, accident, or otherwise.
Before the Indians were forced to leave their village and return to the west side of the river, Naopope, a chief of the British band, and next to Black Hawk in authority, had started on a visit to Malden, Canada, to consult his English father --some commander there, probably--concerning the right of the Indians to retake possession of their lands on Rock river. On his return he also visited White Cloud, the prophet of the Winnebagoes, at Prophetstown, 35 miles from the mouth of Rock river. White Cloud assured his visitor that not only the British but the Ottawas, Chippewas, Potawattomies and Winnebagoes would assist his tribe in regaining their village and the lands around it. When Naopope returned, in the summer, he found his tribe west of the river, and bound, by a new treaty, not to interfere with the whites in possession of their former homes. Notwithstanding this, he communicated to Black Hawk the encouragement he had received. Black Hawk immediately commenced recruiting to increase the number of his braves, and sent a messenger to Keokuk, requesting his cooperation. The latter refused, and counseled Black Hawk to abstain from any hostile movement, assuring him that the promises of support could not be relied on. Black Hawk rejected such good advice, and resolved to bid defiance to the whites. He spent the winter of 1831-2 in recruiting, and raised about 500 warriors. His headquarters were at what is now the city of Fort Madison, Iowa. In the spring he started, with his warriors, on horseback, while the squaws, papooses and baggage were loaded in canoes, and all moved up the river. April 6, 1832, the whole party crossed the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of Rock river, and commenced ascending that stream, ostensibly for the purpose of entering the territory of the Winnebagoes and raising a crop with them, but the real object was to secure them as allies.
Gen. Atkinson, in command of Fort Armstrong, on Rock Island, sent messengers ordering them to return west of the Mississippi river. Black Hawk positively refused to go. When this became known in the settlement the greatest consternation prevailed, and the settlers fled from their homes in search of safety. Messengers were dispatched to Vandalia, and Gov. Reynolds issued a call, on the 16th, for volunteers to assemble at Beardstown on the 22d of the month. Gen. Atkinson at the same time called for volunteers to aid the regular soldiers at Rock Island. Gov. Reynolds, at the time of issuing the call for volunteer soldiers, addressed an open letter to the citizens in the northwestern counties, and sent influential messengers among the people, and in every way endeavored to encourage enlistments. Eighteen hundred men rallied under this call at Beardstown, on the 22d of April. Among them were three regularly organized companies from Sangamon county. One was commanded by Thomas Moffitt, one by Jesse Claywell, of which Rezin H. Constant afterwards became Captain, and one by Abraham Lincoln. They were divided into four regiments and a spy battalion. The First regiment was commanded by Col. DeWitt, the Second by Col. Fry, the Third by Col. Thomas, the Fourth by Col. Samuel M. Thompson. In the latter Abraham Lincoln commanded a company. Col. James D. Henry commanded the spy battalion. The whole brigade was put under the command of Brigadier-Gen. Samuel Whitesides, of the State militia, who had commanded the spy battalion in the first campaign.
On the 27th of April Gen. Whitesides began his forward movement, accompanied by Gov. Reynolds. The army proceeded by way of Oquawka to the mouth of Rock river, where it was agreed between Generals Whiteside and Atkinson, in command of the regulars, that the volunteers should march up Rock river to Prophetstown, and there feed and rest their horses. On arriving there the volunteers burned the town, and Gen. Whiteside continued the march in the direction of Dixon, arriving at the latter place, the General ordered a halt, and sent out parties to reconnoitre. Here he found two battalions, consisting of 275 mounted men, from the counties of McLean, Tazewell, Peoria and Fulton, under the command of Majors Stillman and Bailey. Major Stillman was from Sangamon county. (See his name.) The officers of this force had previously been ordered in advance of the main body to protect the settlers, and now they asked to be put forward on some dangerous service, in which they could have an opportunity to distinguish themselves. They were accordingly ordered further up Rock river, to spy out the Indians. The forward movement began on the 12th of May, Major Stillman being chief in command. He moved up Rock river, on the southeast side until they came to a small stream that rises in Ogle county and empties into Rock river. This stream was then called Old Man's creek, but from that date has borne the name of Stillman's run. There he encamped for the night, and in a short time a party of Indians were seen on horseback about a mile from the camp. A party of Major Stillman's men mounted their horses, without orders or commander, and were soon followed by others, and in this helter skelter manner pursued the Indians, who, after displaying a red flag, endeavored to make their escape, but were overtaken and three of them slain. This brought on an attack from the main body of Black Hawk's army, numbering about 700 warriors. Those who, by their insubordination, brought on the fight, retreated, and, with their horses on a full run, dashed through the camp of Major Stillman, who did all that was possible by ordering his men to retreat in order and form on higher ground, but they never found a rallying point until they reached Dixon, thirty miles distant. Both Ford, and Davidson & Stuve, in their histories of Illinois, exonerate Major Stillman and his men from all blame, and rightly attribute the disaster to want of discipline and that experience which is necessary to give soldiers confidence in their officers and in each other.
That opened the war, and there could be no cessation of hostilities until one side or the other yielded the ground. It is not my purpose to attempt following out all the details of the war, but will hasten to a close. For a time the Indians scattered themselves over the country. They would lay in ambush and shoot down detached bodies of armed men, or murder and scalp unprotected women and children. Men were generally enlisted for short terms, and sometimes, when the main body of the Indians were almost in their grasp, the term of enlistment would expire, and they would insist on being discharged. To fill their places with new recruits required time. At the time of the repulse of Major Stillman and his men, there were about twenty-four hundred men under arms, including the volunteers from Illinois and the regular soldiers from Fort Armstrong, under Gen. Atkinson. They could have killed, or driven every Indian across the Mississippi river in one month, but the term for which they had enlisted had nearly expired, and they were anxious to be discharged. The Governor had previously issued orders for raising two thousand men. He then called for a volunteer regiment from among those whose time had expired, to hold the Indians in check until the new recruits could be brought to the scene of conflict. It was soon raised and put under command of Col. Fry and Lieutenant-Col. James D. Henry. Gen. Whiteside volunteered as a private. This body of men had a number of encounters with the savages before the new recruits were brought into the field. The new levy assembled at Beardstown, and were at once ordered to Fort Wilburn, on the south bank of the Illinois river, about one mile above the town of Peru. There the volunteer forces were organized into three brigades. The first and second were organized June 16, 1832, with 1,000 men each. Alexander Posey was elected General of the first and Milton K. Alexander, General of the second brigade. The third brigade was organized June 18th, with 1,200 men, and Col. James D. Henry was elected General. This made the volunteer force consist of 3,200 men, exclusive of the regular soldiers under Gen. Atkinson. Many weeks were spent in trying to find the main body of Black Hawk's warriors. They were all the time working their way further north, hoping to elude their pursuers. The army was continually undergoing changes. July 15, 1832, found Gen. Henry, Gen. Alexander and Major Dodge far up in Wisconsin, at a place called Fort Winnebago. Some Winnebago chiefs came in and reported that Black Hawk was encamped on Rock river. The three officers above named held a council and, although it was in violation of orders, they decided to march directly for the Indian camp, hoping to take them by surprise. General Alexander soon announced that his men refused to go, and Major Dodge that his horses were too much disabled to go, but a body of men soon after arrived from Galena to join Major Dodge's battalion, which made his effective force 120 men. Gen. Henry's brigade was by this time reduced to between five and six hundred men, but only about four hundred and fifty had horses. While making arrangements to start, Gen. Henry discovered that his own men, influenced by association with those of Gen. Alexander, were on the point of open mutiny. Lieutenant-Col. Jeremiah Smith, of one of his regiments, presented to the General a written protest, signed by all the officers of his regiment except Col. Fry, against the expedition. Gen. Henry quietly but firmly ordered the men under arrest for mutiny, assigning a body of soldiers to escort them back to Gen. Atkinson. Col. Smith begged permission to consult a few moments with the officers before anything further was done. In less than ten minutes they were all at the General's quarters, pleading for pardon and pledging themselves to return to duty. Gen. Henry replied in a few dignified and kindly remarks, and all returned to their duty. Gen. Alexander's men marched back, and the others started in pursuit of the enemy, under the direction of competent guides. Three days' hard marching brought them to Rock river. Here three Winnebagoes gave intelligence that Black Hawk was further up the river. Preparations were made for a forced march the next morning, and Dr. Elias Merriman, of Springfield, in company with W. W. Woodbridge, of Wisconsin, and a chief called Little Thunder, for a guide, were started about dark that evening to convey dispatches down the river to Gen. Atkinson. They had gone but a few miles to the southwest when they fell into a fresh broad trail of the enemy endeavoring to escape. Little Thunder hastened back in terror to the camp to warn the Indians that their efforts to deceive the commanding General were detected. They were all arrested by Major Murrey McConnell, of Jacksonville, and taken to the tent of Gen. Henry, and confessed that they had come into camp and given false information to aid the Indians in their retreat. On the next morning, July 19, a forced march commenced in pursuit of the Indians. On the third day, about four o'clock in the afternoon, the advance guard was fired upon by the savages secreted in the grass. The fight continued until dark, and the men lay on their arms until morning, when it was discovered that the Indians had all crossed the Wisconsin river during the night. Sixty-eight Indians were left dead on the field, and twenty-five more were found dead along the line of march. Only one white man was killed and eight wounded. This has always been known as the battle of the Wisconsin.
The next day Gen. Henry found his men too much worn down by fatigue and want of food to pursue the retreating Indians. After two days march he joined Gen. Atkinson at Blue Mounds, with the regulars, and Alexander's and Posey's brigades. It was soon apparent to General Henry and his officers that General Atkinson and all the regular officers were deeply mortified at the success of the militia, who they did not intend should have any credit in the war. After two days' preparation, the whole force, under direction of General Atkinson, took up their line of march, July 25th, in pursuit of the Indians. Crossing the Wisconsin river, and striking the trail of the Indians, the regulars were put in front, Dodge's battalion and Posey's and Alexander's brigades came next, and Gen. Henry, with his command, was placed in the rear, in charge of the baggage. All parties clearly understood this to be an insult to Gen. Henry and his brave volunteers for having found, pursued and defeated Black Hawk and his warriors, while the regulars, and Alexander's brigade, who had refused to accompany Henry, were taking their ease at a long distance from the scene of danger. Gen. Henry's brigade keenly felt the insult, and claimed the right to be placed in front, but the General never uttered a word of complaint, and his men, following his noble example, quietly trudged on in the rear. After a full week of weary marching, at ten o'clock on the morning of August 2d, the army reached the bluffs of the Mississippi river, which, at that point, was some distance from the margin of the stream. Black Hawk had arrived at the stream a day or two before, and the Indians were crossing as fast as they could. On the first day of August the steamboat Warrior, which had been employed to convey supplies up the river for the army, was coming down, and notwithstanding the Indians displayed a white flag, the captain affected to believe it was only a decoy, gave them fifteen minutes to remove their women and children, when he fired a six-pound cannon, loaded with cannister, into their midst, followed by a severe fire of musketry. In less than an hour twenty-three Indians were murdered, it might almost be said, in cold blood. Black Hawk now turned all his energies to reach the opposite bank of the river. With that object in view he sent twenty warriors to the high bluff. When Gen. Atkinson reached the bluffs on the morning of August 2d, his men were greeted by firing from behind trees. The tall grass made it impossible to learn anything of the force they had to contend with. According to instructions from Black Hawk, when all became engaged they were to retreat to a point three miles up the river. Dodge's battalion led in the chase after the twenty Indians, followed by the regulars and Alexander's and Posey's brigades, all under the immediate direction of Gen. Atkinson. In the hurried pursuit Gen. Henry was called on for a single regiment to cover the rear of the pursuing forces. Otherwise his whole brigade was left without orders.
Despite the intention to disgrace Gen. Henry and his men, fortune now seemed to favor them. The men under Major Ewing, of the latter brigade, discovered that the trail by which the main body of Black Hawk's forces had reached the river was lower down, and that they were much nearer than the point to which the twenty decoy Indians were leading the main forces. He who had been placed in the rear as a mark of special disfavor, by the strategy of a few savages, who had thus far triumphed over the veteran General, was now thrown again to the front, and well did he make use of this favorable circumstance. Gen. Henry, being notified of the discovery of the main trail, descending to the foot of the bluff, and there leaving his horses, prepared for an attack. The trail from there to the river was through drift wood, brush and weeds. Eight men were ordered forward to the perilous duty of drawing the fire of the Indians, to ascertain where they were. Fully aware of their dangerous mission, they moved boldly forward until they were in sight of the river, when they were fired upon by about fifty Indians. Five of the eight fell, either killed or wounded. Gen. Henry immediately ordered the bugle sounded for a charge. The fifty Indians fell back to the main body, amounting in all to about three hundred warriors. This made the force about equal on both sides. The fight became general along the whole line; the inspiring strains of the bugle cheering on the volunteers; the Indians were driven from tree to tree until they reached the bank of the river, fighting with the most sublime courage, and contesting every inch of ground. At the brink the struggle was desperate, but of short duration. The bloody bayonet in the hands of the excited soldiers drove them into the surging waters, where some tried to swim to the opposite shore, others only aimed to reach a small willow island.
All this was done before the commanding General was aware that the volunteer General and men, whom he intended to punish for having found and defeated the Indians at the battle of the Wisconsin river, had again found and almost exterminated the main body of the enemy, while he was leading the largest portion of his army after twenty straggling Indians, whom he had not been shrewd enough to detect in their false movements. After the Indians had been driven into the river, Gen. Henry despatched Major McConnell to give intelligence to Gen. Atkinson of his movements; but while pursuing the twenty Indians he had heard the firing of Gen. Henry's brigade, and hastening to share in the engagement, met the messenger near the scene of action. Some of the newly arrived forces charged through the water to the island and kept up the fight until all were killed, drowned, captured, or made their escape to the opposite shore of the river. It was estimated that the Indian loss amounted to one hundred and fifty killed, and as many more drowned, including women and children. But fifty prisoners were taken, mostly squaws and papooses. The largest portion of the Indians escaped across the river before the battle commenced. The American loss was seventeen killed and twelve wounded. This was called the battle of the Bad Axe, because it was fought in Wisconsin, a short distance below the mouth of the river Bad Axe. It was above Prairie DuChien.
That Black Hawk brought that great calamity on his people there can be no question, but that he was devoted to their interests his last move testifies beyond a doubt. Finding himself and followers almost in a starving condition, pursued by a foe well fed, and otherwise stronger than his own forces, he approached the brink of the river, hoping to reach the opposite bank before his pursuers could overtake him, His means of transportation being inadequate, he finds it impossible to escape. Knowing that his fate is sealed, he doubtless gives hasty orders that the canoes be plied as fast as possible, and looking for the last time upon many who had trusted their all to his guidance, he places himself at the head of a handful of faithful followers, and boldly sallies out to meet the foe one hundred and fifty times stronger than himself, his only hope being to turn them aside until his own people should escape. How his heart must have sunk when he heard the firing and knew there was but one way for it to terminate. When Gen. Atkinson, discovering the ruse, ceased the pursuit of the few and marched to where the battle was raging, Black Hawk, with his twenty followers, made their escape up the Mississippi and passed over to the Wisconsin river. They were finally captured, far up that stream, by a party of Sioux and Winnebago Indians, who professed to sympathize with Black Hawk and his followers, but were ready, like blood hounds, to hunt them down when they most needed friendship, and when there was a seeming opportunity to gain favor with the strong and victorious party. Black Hawk and his friends were delivered to Gen. Street, the United States Indian agent at Prairie DuChien, and sent by Col. Zachary Taylor down to Rock Island. Upon arriving there the cholera was raging, and they were sent down to Jefferson Barracks, Mo., where a treaty was made. Black Hawk and his party were held as hostages for the good behavior of their tribe. They were taken to Washington City, and from there to Fortress Monroe, where they remained until July 4, 1833. They were then released, by order of President Jackson, and escorted to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and other cities, and returned by way of the New York canal and northern lakes, thence to their own people, west of the Mississippi river. Black Hawk died, October 3, 1840, on the Des Moines river, in Iowa.
Many of the men engaged in that campaign acquired state and some of them national reputation. Among them may be mentioned Joseph Duncan and Thomas Ford, who became Governors of Illinois, Henry Dodge, who became Governor of Wisconsin, and Zachary Taylor and Abraham Lincoln, who became Presidents of the United States.
The most remarkable man of all engaged in that campaign was Gen. James D. Henry, and if that had been an age of newspapers and reporters, he would have acquired a national reputation at once. That he was the hero of the two principal battles fought in expelling the Indians in that campaign, was known beyond a doubt, and so well understood by the Illinois soldiers from all parts of the State, that the opinion was freely expressed that if he had lived he would have been elected Governor by an overwhelming majority, against any other man. Strange as it may seem, he was scarcely heard of outside of the State. This was all owing to the fact that there was but one paper in the State north of Springfield, and that was edited and published by the kind of man that brings odium on the press whenever he touches it.
Dr. Addison Philleo was one of the men who almost publicly commenced dissecting the body of VayNoy, who was hung in Springfield in November, 1826. He was compelled by the citizens to desist from the disgusting spectacle until the body was removed to a more private place. Dr. Philleo had removed to Galena, and at the time of the Black Hawk war was publishing a paper there, called the Galenian. He attached himself to the battalion of Major Henry Dodge, of Wisconsin. Major Dodge's battalion was a part of Gen. Henry's brigade when Black Hawk and his forces were discovered by Gen. Henry. Gov. Ford, in his history, describing the chase of Gen. Henry after Black Hawk, says: "On the third day, about noon, also, the scouts ahead came suddenly upon two Indians, and as they were attempting to escape, one of them was killed and left dead on the field. Dr. Addison Philleo, coming along shortly after, scalped this Indian, and for a long time afterwards exhibited the scalp as an evidence of his valor."
That was the kind of man the world was dependent upon for a history of the Black Hawk campaign. He was the only newspaper man with the army. After the battle of the Wisconsin, Dr. Philleo wrote an account of it for his paper, and that being the first paper it was published in, was copied all over the United States. He chronicled the doings of Major Dodge only, and always spoke of him as General Dodge. Gen. Henry, the real commander, was never mentioned except as a subordinate. By this deception many histories now assert that Dodge was the commander in that war. General Henry never made a report of any part of the campaign, and those errors were never officially contradicted. In that campaign he contracted disease of the lungs, and afterwards went south, hoping that the climate and medical treatment would restore his health, but he gradually sank until March 4, 1834, when he died in New Orleans. See his name in the biographical department.
I have been thus minute in this sketch of the Indian wars, because almost every family among the early settlers of Sangamon county were represented in the army; and, although they were at a comparatively safe distance from the scene of conflict, yet their sympathies were naturally drawn out towards those who were in danger. Another reason why I have given the subject such prominence is that there is no recent history of those wars accessible to the public.
The mention I shall make of the part taken by the descendents of the early settlers of Sangamon county in suppressing the great rebellion will partake of a much wider range, but the comparatively recent date of that event, and the publications in almost every house concerning it, precludes the necessity of my attempting any extended account of it here.
THE DEEP SNOW:--What is here spoken of as the "deep snow" must be taken relatively. Snows fall almost every winter much deeper in New York, the New England States, Canada and in the northern latitudes generally. This, however, is distinguished from all others as the "deep snow," because, in this latitude, the like of it was not known before, and has not been known since. A description of it by Rev. J. M. Sturtevant, President of Illinois College, in an address before the Old Settler's Society of Morgan county, at Jacksonville, a few years ago, is the best authority I can find. Having been brought up where such snows were nothing unusual, he would be less likely to be deceived in his judgment than one who had never witnessed the like before. President Sturtevant says:
"In the interval between Christmas, 1830, and January, 1831, Snow fell all over central Illinois to a depth of fully three feet on a level. Then came a rain, with weather so cold that it froze as it fell, forming a crust of ice over this three feet of snow, nearly, if not quite, strong enough to bear a man, and finally, over this crust of ice, there was a few inches of very light snow. The clouds passed away, and the wind came down upon us from the northwest with extraordinary ferocity. For weeks, certainly not less than two weeks, the mercury in the thermometer tube was not, on any one morning, higher than twelve degrees below zero. This snow fall produced constant sleighing for nine weeks."
The recollection of some of the early settlers is that rain fell for some days, until the earth was saturated with water, and the day before Christmas the rain turned to snow, and the flakes were so large that in a few hours it attained a depth of six inches. I have, time and again, heard this snow described as much more than three feet deep, and no doubt the experience of those making the statements justified them in it. The situation was rather alarming, even to a New England man. There, a few hours of wind blows all the snow from exposed places, and deposits it in valleys and behind hills, where the wind cannot reach it. It is only where the roads cross these receptacles that it is necessary to break a track. It is made the occasion for a frolic with New England people to turn out with ox teams and sleds to break a road, and then there is no more trouble until the next snow storm. Such work here would have been useless. In this level country the drifting never ceases as long as the snow lasts. Any number of teams might break a track, but it would fill behind them in a few moments. The only way they finally made roads here was by wallowing through it, and going as near the same place as they could, until the snow was trodden hard and rounded up like a turnpike road. Many instances have been related where teams, attempting to pass each other on these raised roads, found it too narrow, and the result was that one if not both the vehicles would be upset, leaving the occupants and teams floundering in the snow. To regain the proper position on the road was not always an easy task. Long after the great body of the snow melted off, these roads remained. One man, describing them, said they looked like silver threads, stretching over the prairies as far as the eye could reach. Railroads were not then dreamed of, but they would have been, for several weeks, as utterly useless as though they were sunk out of sight in the earth. Snow plows would be of no avail in such a storm as that, for the track would fill, in less than an hour, behind any train that might force its way though. Quoting again from President Sturtevant, he says: "It is a consolation that such a winter has never occurred but once in the memory of man. But what has happened once may happen again. If it does we shall get a very definite idea how important our railroads are to us, and we shall be very glad that the snow is not over the telegraph wires." In the latter clause he no doubt had reference to the fact that in those days, when everything was right, they did not have or expect a mail more than once a week, but even that was interrupted for several weeks during the "deep snow."
That snow come so early in the season that it caught nearly all their corn in the fields, and it was very difficult to obtain enough of it to keep stock from perishing. Few had any milling done, and the devices were numerous to reduce the grain to a condition fine enough to be baked into something resembling bread. Some of them will be described. I will here give a few incidents illustrating some of the straits the people were put to in order to preserve life and property.
Among the earliest settlers on Sugar creek was a man by the name of Stout--no relation to any of that name now in the county. He had raised a family, but his wife had died, and his children had married and left him alone. He built a small cabin in the woods, and in that he did his own cooking, slept, and worked at making bread trays, wooden bowls, rolling pins, wooden ladles, and such other implements as every household was in need of. He traded the products of his labor for something to eat or wear, seldom receiving or expecting any money. He lived very comfortably until the "deep snow" come. Then his open cabin and scant supply of bedding was not sufficient to keep him warm. He went around among his neighbors and tried to obtain some addition to his bedding, but found them all deficient in that respect themselves. He finally solved the difficulty by felling a large tree near his cabin, took a cut from it of suitable length, and made a trough inside, the full length of his body, and hewed it off on the outside until it was light and thin enough for him to handle easily. He would then make his bed on some chips or shavings, as he had done before, first bringing his trough along side, and when snugly covered up, he would take the trough and turn it over himself for covering. As soon as the warmth of his body filled the space he would be comfortable, and could lay snug and warm until morning. There was neither floor nor chimney to his cabin, so he made the fire on the ground. When the weather was extremely cold he would move his fire just before retiring, scraping the coals and ashes carefully away, and then make his bed where the fire had been during the day. This is a new proof of the oft repeated adage, that "Necessity is the mother of invention."
DEATHS IN THE SNOW:--Very many cases occurred of persons being lost in the snow, ending in death. I will mention a few here, but others will be referred to in the succeeding parts of the work.
A man named William Saxton lived on Lick creek, above Loami. He went hunting, and failing to return, his friends and neighbors went in search of him, and found his body about one mile from his home, where he had sunk down, and appeared as if asleep.
Samuel Legg started from Sugar creek, not far above where the C. and A. railroad now crosses, intending to go to Richland timber, near where Pleasant Plains now stands. He was not heard of until the next April, when the remains of himself and horse were found, nearly consumed by wolves. He had gone but a few miles, as the body was found on what is now the farm of John B. Fowler, a few miles west of Chatham. A bottle with a small quantity of whiskey was found near his remains.
A man started from the timber on Horse creek to chase a wolf while the snow was falling. He was not seen nor heard of until the next spring, when his body was found at a place called Willow grove, in Shelby county. His horse and dog were found with him, and all had perished together. The distance was about forty miles from where he started. It was thought that he became bewildered by the falling snow, and continued his efforts until his horse, dog and himself sank down to die.
William Workman went hunting in the Lick creek timber, south of Loami. He walked on the crust of the snow, and was approaching a deer for the purpose of shooting it. Without being aware of it, he was over a ravine of considerable depth. The crust broke and he went down. Raising his rifle gun he could barely reach the crust with it. By tramping the snow under his feet until it became solid, he found himself gradually rising with the slope of the ground, and by reaching up with his gun and breaking the crust, he finally escaped, but he says it was a long and laborious operation. Simeon Vancil relates an experience very similar.
So completely did the snow cover everything that wild game was accustomed to feed upon, that the deer, turkey, and some other kinds of game, were almost exterminated. There was another reason why it was destructive to the deer. That animal runs by a succession of leaps, and, as a natural consequence, the faster they ran the greater would be the force with which they struck the snow. When pursued by dogs, a few vigorous leaps would stop them short, their small, sharp hoofs breaking through the crust, would leave them helpless, with their bodies resting on the snow. At the same time a dog or wolf of equal weight would pass safely over, because, by their manner of running, they did not strike the snow with such force, and even if they had, their soft, pad-like feet would be less likely to break the crust.
It required but a short time, thus shut off from food, for the deer to become too lean for venison. All thoughtful people then abstained from killing them, but there were others who thought only of the sport, and destroyed them where and when they could. Dogs and wolves, learning that they could be made to break through the crust and become disabled, chased down and destroyed great numbers of them. From all these causes the deer were almost exterminated, and they never become plentiful afterwards.
Mr. Simeon Vancil, who came to the county in the fall of 1818, says that it was very common to see large quantities of buffalo bones on the highest points of land. In explanation of that there was a tradition among the Indians who remained in the country to hunt, after the white settlers come in, that there had been a "deep snow" about thirty years before, say about 1800, and that the buffalo, herding together on the highest ground, because the snow was thinnest, remained there and perished with cold and hunger. Of course this was only given as a tradition, coming from the Indians. There could be no corroborative testimony from civilized men, for the simple reason that there were none in the country.
THE SUDDEN CHANGE:--Soon after commencing the collection of materials for this work, I was frequently asked the question, "Has any person told you about the sudden change?" My answers at first would, for obvious reasons, be in the negative. The interrogator would then undertake to give me an account of it, but I was never able to learn that any person in the county had kept a record of the indications of a thermometer at that time, or that there was a thermometer in the county; and for a long time I could not ascertain the year in which it took place.
In an interview with Mr. Washington Crowder, the date was settled in his own peculiar method. Mr. Crowder remembers that on the morning of December 20, 1836, he started from a point on Sugar creek about eight miles south of Springfield, to the latter place, for the purpose of obtaining a license for the marriage of himself and Miss Isabel Laughlin. He had finished his courting on the nineteenth, with the understanding that the marriage was to take place on the twenty-first, leaving the twentieth for obtaining the license. There were several inches of snow on the ground, but rain was then falling slowly, and had been, long enough to turn the snow to slush. Every time the horse put his foot down it went through the slush, splashing it out on all sides. Mr. Crowder was carrying an umbrella to protect himself from the rain, and wore an overcoat reaching nearly to his feet. When he had traveled something like half the distance, and had reached a point about four miles south of Springfield, he had a fair view of the landscape, ten or twelve miles west and north. He saw a very dark cloud, a little north of west, and it appeared to be approaching him very rapidly, accompanied by a terrific, deep, bellowing sound. He thought it prudent to close his umbrella, lest the wind should snatch it from his hands, and dropped the bridle reins on the neck of his horse for that purpose. Having closed the umbrella and put it under his arm, he was in the act of taking hold of the bridle rein, when the cold wave struck him. At that instant water was dripping from every thing about him, but when he drew the reins taut, ice rattled from them. The water and slush was almost instantly turned to ice, and running water on sloping ground was congealed as suddenly as molten lead would harden and form in ridges if poured on the ground. Mr. Crowder expressed himself quite sure that within fifteen minutes from the time the cold blast reached him his horse walked on top of the snow and water, so suddenly did it freeze.
When he arrived in Springfield he rode up to a store at the west side of Fifth street, between Adams and Monroe, a few doors south of where Bunn's bank now stands. He there attempted to dismount, but was unable to move, his overcoat holding him as firmly as though it had been made of sheet iron. He then called for help, and two men come out, who tried to lift him off, but his clothes were frozen to the saddle, which they ungirthed, and then carried man and saddle to the fire and thawed them asunder. After becoming sufficiently warm to do so, Mr. Crowder went to the county clerk's office, obtained his license, and by driving his horse before him, returned to where he had started in the morning. The next day he started on horseback, but found the traveling so difficult on the ice that he dismounted, tied up the bridle, left his horse to find the way back home, and went on foot to the house of his affianced, where he was married at the time appointed. Mr. Crowder admits that it was a very thorough test of his devotion, but it must be conceded that he proved himself equal to the emergency.
Other evidences of the suddenness and intensity of the cold are numerous. Rev. Josiah Porter, of Chatham remembers that the cold wave reached Chatham about half past twelve o'clock, noon; that he consulted his watch at the time, and knows he is correct. His recollection of the suddenness and intensity of the cold corroborates the account given by Mr. Crowder. Although Mr. Porter was in Chatham at the time of the sudden change, and resides there now, he was then doing the work of an evangelist, which led to his traveling over a large portion of Illinois and Indiana. In the discharge of his duties he became acquainted with a remarkable circumstance that occurred in what is now the west part of Douglas county, near the corner of Piatt and Moultrie counties. Two brothers by the name of Deeds had gone out to cut a bee tree, and were overtaken by the cold and frozen to death. Their bodies were found ten days later, about three miles from home.
The extent of that cold wave may not be generally known. That it first touched the earth west or north-west of here is highly probable, from the fact that it reached here at half past twelve, noon, according to the time noted by Mr. Porter. He also learned that it was nearly sundown when the cold reached the point in Douglas county where the two brothers perished. I also learned from a gentlemen in this county that at the time, his father kept a hotel at Labanon, Ohio, and although his account would indicate that the cold wave had spent some of its force, yet when it arrived there it froze some wagons fast in the mud in an incredibly short time, while some travelers were discussing the terms for staying all night. It reached there at nine o'clock. Putting the statements as to time and place together, it would appear that the cold wave traveled something near three hundred miles in eight and a half hours, or about thirty-five miles an hour. These statements have been given to me altogether from memory, more than thirty-five years after the event, and no doubt vary greatly from what a scientific report at the time would have presented.
A great many instances have been related to me, in all parts of the county, of the suffering by men and animals. It has been told me time and again that chickens and geese, also hogs and cows, were frozen in the slush as they stood, and unless they were extricated by cutting the ice from about their feet, remained there to perish.
Andrew Heredith was a merchant miller and pork packer in Cincinnati, Ohio. Through misfortunes incident to business he failed. Among other misfortunes, he had a pork house burn there. Preston Breckenridge, of this county, happened to be in Cincinnati, and remembers being an eye witness to the burning. After his failure, Mr. Heredith was aided by friends to commence business in Sangamon county. He built a flouring mill about three miles west of Loami, near what is called Lick creek, and called the place Millville. He bought wheat and made flour; also bought and drove fat hogs to St. Louis. In the fall of 1836 he bought and drove two lots to St. Louis, and made some money each time. He used all the capital at his command, and all the credit his successes gave him, and collected a third drove of between 1,000 and 1,500 hogs, and was driving them to St. Louis. The country was so sparsely settled that he found it expedient to start with three or four wagons, loaded with corn to feed the hogs. When a load was fed out there were generally a sufficient number of hogs exhausted by traveling to load the wagon. Mr. Heredith had reached a point on the open prairie eight miles south of Scottville, Macoupin county, when the cold wave overtook him. Finding that men and animals were likely to perish, he called the men together, upset all except one of the wagons, in order to leave the corn and hogs together, righted up the wagons, and with all the men in them, drove to the nearest house, and before they could reach there all became more or less frozen, but none lost their lives.
The hogs, thus abandoned, piled on each other. Those on the inside smothered, and those on the outside froze. A pyramid of about 500 dead hogs was thus built. The others wandered about and were reduced to skeletons by their sufferings from the cold, the whole proving a total loss. Mr. Heredith was a man of good business qualifications, and of great energy. He was making superhuman efforts to retrieve his fortunes, but that blow crushed him; he never rose again, but sank down and in a short time died.
JAMES HARVEY HILDRETH:--At the time Rev. Mr. Porter gave me his recollections connected with the "sudden change," he told me that some years later he met a man in DeWitt county, by the name of Hildreth, who was crippled in his hands and feet. He said Mr. Hildreth informed him that it had been caused by his being caught away from shelter at the time of the "sudden change." Mr. Hildreth then gave him a detailed account of his sufferings and experience, which Mr. Porter gave to me from memory. This made such an impression on my mind that I was anxious to know more of the incident. In the course of my travels over the county, I was at the house of Mrs. Thomas J. Turley. See the Turley and Trotter names. How the subject came up I do not remember, but I learned from Mrs. Turley that Mr. Hildreth was her cousin. She gave me additional information, and referred me to another cousin--of herself and Mr. Hildreth--Mr. Moses Kenny, of Kenny, Logan county. I deferred writing to that gentleman until I was drawing my work to a close, and when I did so, was answered by Mr. John Kenny, of the same place, who informed me that his brother Moses was dead. Mr. John Kenny answered all my inquiries, and referred me to Mr. A. L. Barnett, of Clinton, DeWitt county. He, also, kindly responded. All the parties consulted bear the very highest character for truthfulness. It is from this mass of information that I give the following account of the case. Although the particular event I am about to relate did not occur in this county, it illustrates an atmospheric phenomena that affected this entire region of country, and was so remakable that the like of it is not on record, nor known by any person now living, and it is to be hoped that it may never be known again. It is to be regretted that there is no scientific knowledge on record of the event. The country was so new, and the settlers of a class generally of limited education, so much so that I have been unable to learn of a family in the county who owned a thermometer at the time. But now to the subject.
James H. Hildreth was born about 1812, in Bourbon county, Ky. He came to Illinois about 1833 or '4, and settled on Vermilion river, near Georgetown, Vermilion county, and engaged in cattle trading. Mr. Hildreth, then twenty-four or twenty-five years of age, was a very stout and rugged young man. He left home on the nineteenth of December, 1836, in company with another young man by the name of Frame, intending to go to Chicago, both on horseback. On the second day out, December 20th, they entered the border of a large prairie, and the next timber was many miles distant, on Hickory creek, a tributary of Iroquois river, and now in Iroquois county. It rained all the forenoon, and the earth was covered with water. They encountered a slough containing so much water they did not like to attempt passing through it. In order to head the slough they rode some miles in a northeast direction, and having crossed it, turned northwest to regain their course. That was about the middle of the afternoon. It suddenly ceased raining and the cold wave came in all its fury from the northwest, striking them square in the face. They were then out of sight of any human habitation, and their horses became absolutely unmanageable, and drifted with the wind, or across it, until dark closed in upon them. How long they were discussing what to do is not stated, but they finally agreed to kill each the others horse. They dismounted and Hildreth killed Frame's horse. They took out the entrails, and both crawled into the carcass as far as they could, and lay there, as near as Hildreth could judge, until about midnight. The animal heat from the carcass having become exhausted, they crawled out, intending that Frame should kill Hildreth's horse, and both crawl into it. Just then the one having the knife dropped it, and it being dark, they were unable to find it. Being thus foiled in their purpose, they both huddled about the living horse as best they could, until about four o'clock in the morning. Frame by that time was so benumbed with the cold that he became sleepy, and notwithstanding Hildreth used every exertion to keep him up, he sank down in a sleep from which he never awakened.
The feelings of Hildreth at this juncture can only be left to the imagination. He managed, by jumping about, to keep from freezing until daylight, when he got on his horse and started in search of shelter. In mounting he dropped his hat, and was afraid to get off, fearing he would never be able to mount again. Thus, bare headed, he wandered about for some time, until he reached the bank of a stream, supposed to be Vermilion river. Seeing a house on the opposite shore, he hallooed as best he could until he attracted the attention of the man, who, after learning what he wanted, said he could not assist him. A canoe was lying at the opposite shore, but he affected to be afraid of the running ice. Hildreth then offered him a large price if he would cut a tree and let it fall over the stream so that he could cross. The man still refused, and directed Hildreth to a grove which he said was a mile distant, where he would find a house. He went, but it was five miles, and the house proved to be a deserted cabin. He returned to the river opposite the house, called again for help, and was refused. He then dismounted, crawled to the bank, and found that the ice had closed and was sufficiently strong to bear him, and he crawled over. Arriving at the fence, the brutal owner of the place refused to help him, and he tumbled over it, and crawling in the house, laid down near the fire. Hildreth lay and begged for assistance, and when the man would have relented and done something, his wife restrained him. The frozen man lay there until four o'clock that afternoon, when some hog drovers came along and moved him to another house, where he was properly cared for. The name of the inhuman wretch was Benjamin Russ. After learning of his inhumanity, a movement was made to punish him, but he fled. Mr. Hildreth always expressed the belief that his offering to pay liberally for cutting a tree across the river, led them to think that he had a large amount of money, and that if, by their neglect, he perished, they could obtain it. Such a being was very rare among the early settlers of central Illinois, who were remarkable for their readiness to divide their comforts with all new comers, and especially those who were in affliction.
Mr. Hildreth met with a heavy loss, financially, by his failure to go to Chicago. He was conveyed back to the house of his brother in Vermilion county, where all the toes were taken from both feet, and the bones of all his fingers, except one joint of the thumb on his right hand, which enabled him to hold a pen or a drover's whip. Soon after recovering sufficiently to enable him to travel, he removed to DeWitt county, where he continued trading in cattle. He was married, April 7, 1847, in DeWitt county, to Adaline Hall. His left foot never healed entirely, and nearly twenty-two years after his misfortune, it became alarming, and he had the leg amputated below the knee. It soon healed, but his lungs, already diseased, caused his death about the middle of June, 1858, near Mt. Pulaski, Illinois.
He has three children now living. Henry resides near Chesnut, Logan county. John lives in Logan county, near Kenny, DeWitt county. His daughter Sarah married William Weedman, and resides near Farmer City. Mrs. Adaline Hildreth married Harrison Meacham, and resides near Clinton, DeWitt county, Illinois.
Notwithstanding his great calamity, James H. Hildreth was a useful man in the community where he lived. Most men would have given up in despair, and become a charge upon their friends; but he was active and energetic, and continued in the buslness of a farmer and stock dealer until he was physically unable to do more.
Mr. Preston Breckenridge expresses the opinion that the velocity of the cold wave, given in another part of this sketch, is too slow. He thinks it must have moved at least seventy miles an hour, judging from his present knowledge on the subject. He had just taken his dinner, and was sitting near a window, between one and two o'clock in the afternoon, in view of a pool of water, ten or twelve inches deep. He heard a terrific roaring sound. Suddenly the rain ceased, and it became quite dark. The first touch of the blast scooped all the water out of the pool. Some of it returned, but in a moment it was blown out again, and scattered in frost and ice, leaving the pool empty, and the bottom frozen dry. He says it had been raining slowly all the fore part of the day, and so warm that he thinks a thermometer would have stood as high as forty degrees above zero, possibly higher, and that the first touch of the tempest would have brought it down to zero in a second of time. Mr. Breckenridge is well acquainted with many incidents illustrating the unparalleled suddenness and severity of the cold. He relates a case of two young men who lost their lives near Paris, Edgar county, Illinois, after efforts to save themselves similar to those made by Hildreth and his friend. I might cite any number of incidents illustrating the intense suffering caused by the cold in Sangamon county, but the number of those who perished was comparatively small, for the reason that it was more thickly settled than the county north and east. There must have been about ten thousand inhabitants in the county at the time.
A REMARKABLE INCIDENT:--The following incident was related to me by Benj. F. Irwin, who received the statement from Rev. John M. Berry, a Cumberland Presbyterian Minister, who resided a short distance northeast of Pleasant Plains. Families coming into the new settlements were many times put to great inconvenience to procure food, and especially breadstuff. Stealing was seldom resorted to, as there was a general desire to divide with new comers. A man who owned a mill, occasionally missed meal and flour, and concluded to lay in wait and see what would be the result. Soon after dark one evening, he placed himself under the bolting chest, and had not long to wait. A man entered the mill, and the first thing he did was to kneel down and pray fervently for pardon for what he was about to do. He laid his whole case before the Lord; told him of his willingness to work, his inability to obtain employment by which he could carn bread, and asked the Lord to open the way for him, and as though he fully expected his prayer to be answered, he took only a sufficient quantity of flour to supply his immediate necessities, and was about to depart. The owner of the mill recognized the man as one for whom he had formed a feeling of great respect, and would have been willing to help if he had known that he was destitute. He called out from his place of concealment for the man to stop. A real thief would have run, but the man with the flour halted without hesitation, when he was told to fill his sack, and when that was gone to come and get more. They were friends before, but were much warmer friends after, to the end of their lives. The facts were kept quiet, and the names of the parties were never known except to a small number of persons; but the miller ever after asserted that he had more confidence in that man than any other he ever saw. The sequel proved that the miller must have been a man of sterling principle, for if he had been like ordinary mortals, the other would have been ruined.
PANTHERS:--John Harlan was among the earliest settlers. He heard a coon making a piteous noise, went out with his gun and found a panther trying to catch it. He shot that and two other panthers in succession, and that gave the name to Panther creek, or Painter creek, as it was generally spoken.
A boy by the name of Jordan, at the age of 14 years, shot a panther in the Lick creek timber, in what is now Loami township. When dead it was found to measure eleven feet from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail.
A Mrs. Brown, wife of Henry Brown, who was an early settler on Lick creek, in what is now Chatham township, had been to one of her neighbors, and was returning, late in the afternoon, on foot, accompanied by two large dogs. The dogs ran to her, one on each side, which caused her to look, when she saw a huge panther on each side of the road. She walked quietly forward, the dogs keeping close to her side, and so passed the danger. She regarded her escape as almost miraculous, and never could speak of it without a shudder.
MILLS AND MILLING:--Before mills were built here the settlers had to go to Edwardsville for grinding; but sixty or seventy miles was too far to take a grist every day, and it was necessary that something should be more readily obtained. A piece of tin that can now be had anywhere for a few cents, was then an object of great interest. Every old tin vessel was saved, torn in pieces, cut to a suitable size, punched full of holes, and nailed to a board for a grater. While the corn was soft, meal could be grated in a very short time, sufficient to make bread for a whole family, by rubbing an ear of corn back and forth on the grater. That implement is always pronounced by the old settlers "gritter."
Mr. William Drennan remembers that the first mill in Sangamon county was built by Daniel Liles on the farm where Daniel G. Jones now resides, near Horse creek, and on the line between Ball and Cotton Hill townships. It was erected in the fall of 1819, and was made on the plan known as a band mill. That was a horizontal wheel, with arms fifteen feet or more in length, and of sufficient height for the horses to pass under the arms. Several holes would be bored near the outer end of these arms. One wooden pin was placed in each one of the arms. A band of rawhide stretched around those pins and the trunnel head would communicate the power to the burrs, which were usually made of any loose stone picked up on the prairies. A mill of that kind would grind eight or ten bushels a day. Liles' mill never had any roof, and when it rained the track became very muddy. If his customers complained, he would assume an air of injured innocence and ask if they expected him to work in the rain. If they said no, but that he should do it when the weather was fair, his invariable reply was, that they did not need it then. The people came to this mill thirty or forty miles, and although it was kept running day and night, sometimes they would have to wait several days for a turn at the mill. One man told me that when he was a boy his parents started him to mill, supplied with an extra quantity of feed for his horses and some meat for himself, with the understanding that he was to parch corn as a substitute for bread. He had to wait so long for his turn that when it came he had nothing to grind, himself and horses having consumed all the corn, and he would have been compelled to lose his turn, but the miller kindly loaned him a grist, which he repaid the next time he went to mill.
The earliest mills were only intended for grinding corn, and at first no effort was made for bolting flour, but those who raised the first wheat would cut it with the old fashioned reap hooks, called sickles, thresh it on the ground with a flail, separate the chaff and wheat by a man taking a measure of wheat, standing on an elevated place, and pouring it out slowly, with a shaking motion, while two others stood below with a common bed sheet, folded double, and taking hold of each end and giving it a quick motion toward the failing wheat, would thus blow the chaff away, while the wheat, being heavier, would fall perpendicular. The wheat thus cleaned would be taken to the corn mill and ground, of course very imperfectly. The next point was to separate the bran from the flour. At first this was done by making a light frame, three or four feet long, and one and a half by two feet wide, and stretching a piece of the thinnest cloth that could be obtained, over it. Some of the wheat meal would be put on this cloth and the frame shaken from right to left, after the manner of a seive or meal sifter, and the finest part of the wheat meal would go through. That was made into bread, usually biscuit. That implement was called a search, usually pronounced sarch. Some of the earliest settlers will tell you that the sweetest morsel they ever tasted in their whole lives was the first piece of wheat bread thus made, after having been a whole year, and sometimes longer, living on the coarsest of corn bread.
HONESTY OF THE EARLY SETTLERS:--John Sims remembers that a few years after they came to the settlement their corn was all frost bitten, and he went to Madison county to obtain corn for seed and bread. He had to pay $1.00 per bushel for it, and wishing to haul all he could, he filled some sacks and laid them across the corn in the wagon bed. He stalled in the mud, in Macoupin county, and left his wagon there, several miles from any house, and where people traveling hundreds of miles had to pass it. When he went home for more teams, some unexpected obstacles presented themselves, and it was two weeks or more before he returned. When he did so, some of his corn was gone, but closer examination revealed the fact that money was tied in the sacks from which the corn was taken. Some was tied with horse hairs and some with strings, in small bunches, in all between eight and ten dollars; sufficient to fully compensate for the corn taken. He has hauled dry goods and groceries, in large and small packages, has stalled and left his wagon for days and weeks, and never knew anything to be stolen.
When the land office was opened, in 1823, in Springfield, the receiver was ordered to send the coin to Louisville, Ky. The route was so difficult to travel and so long, that he was permitted, after one effort, to send it to St. Louis for safe keeping. Mr. Sims had a good team, and was called on to do the hauling. On more than one occasion he has loaded his wagon with boxes of gold and silver, amounting to from thirty to fifty thousand dollars. He has gone without any guard, been two or three nights on the road, would feed his horses tied to the wagon, sleep on some straw thrown over the boxes, and was never molested, and never thought there was danger.
A SNAKE STORY:--Gen. James Adams was bitten by a rattlesnake in 1821, and wishing to obtain some rattlesnake oil, he advertised that he would pay fifty cents for the first one brought to him, and in order to make sure of getting one, he offered twenty-five cents for each additional one. A man by the name of Barnes found a den near the mouth of Spring creek, killed all he could, loaded them in a wagon, drove to Springfield, and left his wagon in an out-of-the-way place. He first took one snake and received fifty cents, then two, and received twenty-five cents each. He then took Gen. Adams to the wagon and showed him the whole load. Adams refused to pay for them. Barnes then called his attention to the advertisement, but he still refused. Barnes then called on two men, Reuben Burden and John White, who counted the load, and there were 122 snakes. He then demanded his money, $30.75. This brought the General to a compromise, and the matter was settled by his paying $5.00 extra. Joseph E. McCoy is my authority.
Albion Knotts says that when they come to the country, in 1819, his father soon learned that the next supply of shoes for his family would have to be manufactured by himself, although he had never made a shoe. This discovery was barely made when he found that he must produce the leather also, as there were no tanners in the country. He first cut down a large oak tree, peeled off the bark and laid it up to dry. He dug a trough in the log, as large as it would make, for a tan vat. He then gathered up all the hides he could obtain. The next question was how to remove the hair. It was known that it could not be done by regular tanners' process, both for want of the proper materials, and the knowledge in using them. Some person suggested that it might be done with water and ashes, but great caution would be necessary, lest the solution be made too strong. In that event it would ruin the hides. In his extreme caution he did not make it strong enough, and so removed but a little more than half the hair. In place of grinding the bark he beat it up on a stump with the poll of an axe. He then put the hides in the trough, covered them with the pulverized bark, put on weights to keep the mass down, and filled the trough with water, changing the bark several times during the summer. As winter approached he took the hides out, though not more than half tanned, and made them into shoes. He made them on what was called the stich down plan. That is, in place of turning the upper leather under the last, it was turned outward and sewed with a straight awl through the upper and sole. This would make a walk all around the shoe that a mouse might travel on. It was frequently the case that awls could not be obtained. Then they would take a common table fork, break off one of the tines, and sharpen the other for the awl. Shoes made as I have described, with the upper leather hair side out, not more than half of it removed, and without any blacking, would certainly look very odd. There can be little doubt that the above is a fair description of the first tanning and shoe making ever done in Sangamon county.
When the first settlers came there were no stores filled with dry goods, as there are now, and if the goods had been in the country there was no money to buy them. The only way families could supply themselves with clothing was to produce the materials and manufacture their own goods. Those who first came from the Southern States--as most of them did--brought their cotton, flax and hemp seed, raised the fibre and did all the work. They at first picked the seed by hand, carded it on hand cards, spun it on wheels designed for spinning wool or flax, wove it into cloth, and made it into garments for men and women's wear. That which was designed for underclothing was prepared without coloring, as a matter of course, but for outer garments, and particularly ladies' dresses, something better was required. Some among the earliest brought a little indigo, madder, and same other drugs, but for greater variety and cconomy, a large number of barks were used, such as black walnut, butternut, several varieties of oak, hickory, etc. When peach trees grew the leaves were used for making one of the brightest colors. Some of the cotton yarn, dyed with each of those colors, skilfully arranged in weaving, and made into dresses, looked remarkably well. Some of the old boys now living say that the young ladies of their time, thus attired, looked equally as charming in their eyes as those of the present era, with their flounces made of goods from the looms of Lyons and the shops of Paris, do to our young men. Flax and tow was never colored, and was mostly used for men and boys' wear in the summer. A tow shirt, with a draw string around the neck, and reaching below the knees, was a full dress in summer for boys up to ten or twelve years of age. Some of our most substantial farmers were thus attired in their boyhood days.
Elisha Primm says that his father built a cotton gin in 1822. He says that from the time the first settlers came into the county until the winter of the "deep snow," 1830 and '31, this was as good a cotton country as Georgia. He says that this was attested by men familiar with cotton growing in the Southern States. Elisha attended the gin built by his father, which was run by horse power. The people brought cotton to be ginned, from all distances up to twenty miles. Sometimes it would accumulate on his hands until he would have as much as 3,000 pounds. The price for ginning was a toll of one pound in every eight, after the cotton was ginned. It sold from 12 to 16 2/3 cents per pound, and occasionally higher. After the "deep snow" the seasons appeared to shorten, and cotton was generally bitten by the frost before it had time to mature, and cotton raising was finally abandoned. It seemed as though the seasons were overruled so as to be adapted to the wants of the pioneer settlers, when there was no other way for them to be supplied with clothing, but when roads were opened and capital came in, bringing merchandise, the seasons gravitated back to their normal condition.
FIRST PRODUCE MARKETED:--Mr. William Drennen believes that the first produce marketed in the county was on Sugar creek, in the Summer of 1818. George Cox sold half a dozen small green pumpkins to an Indian for twelve and a half cents. This note was written while I was standing on the spot, a few yards north of the Sulphur Springs, south of Loami, where once stood a sycamore tree in which A. E. Meacham took a ten foot rail, held it in a horizontal position against his waist, and turned entirely around inside the tree. It was about eighteen feet in diameter outside, and was long used as a wigwam by the Indians. The entrance was at the east side. It was safe when there were only Indians in the country, but some vandal, claiming to be civilized, set fire to it and burned it down.
The Sulphur Spring spoken of above, bubbles up at the foot of a hill near Lick creek, and in its natural state, when animals approached it to drink the water, was a quagmire, but the early scttlers made an excavation, eight or nine feet deep, and walled it up, so that the water flows out over the top of the wall, clear and pure. Soon after it was thus improved two old topers, on a very hot day, visited the spring, taking with them a jug of whisky, intending to have a good time laying in the shade near by, drinking their whisky, and for variety, taking an occasional sip at the sulphur water. One of them undertook to cool the whisky by holding the jug in the water, and while doing so let it slip from his grasp. To cut a forked limb from a tree and make a hook of it would be too much work. In order to rescue the jug, the one who let it slip consented that the other should taken him by the heels and left him down head foremost. The whisky was secured in that way, at the imminent risk of drowning one or both of the men. It must have been liberally watered or it would not have sunk.
There are at least one hundred and fifty grave yards and burial places in Sangamon county, and nine-tenths of them are so much neglected that, so far as marking any particular locality or grave, the following lines, taken from a Scottish grave yard, are peculiarly applicable:
"In this church yard lies Eppie Coutts,
Either here or hereabouts;
But whaur it is none can tell,
Till Eppie rise and tell hersel."
The first death of a white man in Sangamon county was that of an Indian ranger. The Sulphur Spring near Loami was known to the Indians, and was very early a camping ground for the whites. When the settlements had not extended farther north than the vicinity of Alton, Indians, according to their custom, killed some of the frontier settlers, and were pursued by some Rangers. While camped at the sulphur spring one of them died, and was buried by his comrades on a beautiful knoll near the spring. It was known to the very earliest settlers as the grave of the Indian Ranger, and was the nucleus of the present Sulphur Springs Cemetery. The land was entered by Jonathan Jarrett, who intended a small part of it for a cemetery and church purposes, but died without making a deed. A regular company has been organized, according to law, and it is now handsomely fitted up and well cared for. There ought to be a monument over the grave of the Indian Ranger, to show that it was the first burial of a white man in the county.
This page is "Sangamon County History" on the Sangamon County, Illinois, ILGenWeb site. The address of this page is m/sanghist.htm.